drewski6

I dont consider lefty closers as lefty specialists because you are saving chapman for the ninth , not picking his matchup. But what if like 2 great hitting lefties are coming up in the seventh and the starter is out of the game.....I would think we would go to Erik Miller there, so he does add. Also, he also has team control left. Also, great point someone made (Breslow), in the postseason - the games are more spaced out, so a lefty like Miller can get into game after game after game. IF a rival team has 2 great lefty hitters near each other in the lineup, to be able to counter their at-bats third or fourth time through the lineup with a lefty specialist....That can help you and you can do that multiple times in a playoff series. We've seen this. Sometimes in a playoff series you see the top 4-5 guys over and over and only the depth guys in blowouts....Because the games off allows you to use your best guys more often....Same thing with starters....You only need a 4 man rotation. So I like the addition of Erik Miller. But I do agree that it does feel weird to give up on Mayer when he's still 6'3, smooth glove, decent bat-ball skills in minors.....But this ERik Miller guy will likely help more in 2026 (and maybe even 2027) than Mayer would have. Also, theyve been down (relatively) on Mayer for a while, and thats why they grabbed an expensive backup in IKF.

On Adley, I lean upside play.

Trading a top prospect for a guy who has star name recognition and you dont think he will be elite again but you did it anyways so you can market /PR ....look y'all we got a big name = Sham Trading a top prospect for a guy who has star name recognition and you think he will be elite again and you did it for the future = upside play

Paying for pedigree vs overpaying for pedigree, I feel is the crux of the confusion. IF there are three guys in a basketball draft who everyone knows are going to go 1,2,3 and one of them is Michael Jordan's son, it may make sense to take him first , even if he might have gone 2 or 3 had he not been MJs son. Similarly, a guy goes 1 overall and struggles his first year in the minors, he'll prob retain more trade value than someone who went in the 19th round and struggled.... Understood these examples dont have very much to do with Adley, but they show that pedigree can often be included in the price. In Adleys case, of course it was. But the debate between JB and MVP from my third party eyes, appears to be whether you are paying that premium because of the brand name/name recognition/PR or because the fact that he was a 1 overall pick + a top prospect + one of the best catchers in the game, and is still under 30, he has the upside of getting back there and becoming/maintaining a top 3 overall catcher like he once was. I think the debate is: did we pay for the pedigree for marketing reasons (PR) or for the baseball reasons (upside)....and the answer is probably a little bit of both....But I dont think you include Eyoreson (son of a cute pessimistic famous donkey - so some pedigree of his own) in a deal for a player you are getting in large part for name-recognition reasons. So I think the bulk of the pedigree premium was for valid reasons (upside) vs whats moons word for this....oh right......sham reasons.

36 years young

I wanna see Justin Gonzales.

Gleybar is an upcoming FA on a selling team , who is like a 2.5 WAR guy, mostly offensive, and I think hed be quite cheap....Im not paying an amount in prospects where i cant cast him aside comfortably.

Springer is the new Nelson Cruz

Yeah, hope that Monasterio stays hot or IKF gets healthy, dont think they will call up arias, but maybe. I dont hate it.

I dont believe plans are as concrete as you do, and this is one example. Having a "plan A" implies a complicated "if-then" logic. They obviously went into FA with a read + react strategy, and thats really the norm these days...You dont see a lot (any?) aggressive day 1 offers/signings....The market takes shape and I think they remain flexible so they can zig with it. Like the Cs said when they traded Jaylen Brown, "optionality" I would argue nobody was "plan A", as they wanted to feel out the twists/turns of free-agency. If anyone, it was Bregman as (at least when FA began) - there was pretty strong expectation of a reunion and both sides clearly had enough interest to get pretty close (which we did with him). But I dont think they were ever super concrete on Bregman being plan A. The argument for Bregman being plan A, dont think they would have made a move that would get in the way of Bregman, until the communication broke down. So thats why you saw the lower amount to Alonso (but I think they would have been happy had it been accepted) and thats why he didnt aggressively go after ranger until bregman was off-board. I guess Bregman was plan A but I dont love phrasing it like that, and I think its very fluid and the plans arent usually super concrete.

Ive been behind them for 2 weeks

While I agree with your hunch that its unlikely, I wouldnt say 0, and would add that historical comparisons are a bit murky here because college baseball is better than its ever been with NIL and it use to be that the best 19-20 yr olds were already in some teams minor league org but more dudes are choosing college these days.....

I dont hate Springer, but I wouldnt mind like a gleybar torres for his ability to play 2b , as I see a decent chance that someone internal plays DH (Duran, Yoshida, Story)

I dont think there is a player available who I would include Arias for, even though there are a few in the league (15ish), Eyanson - the number of players I would trade him for is higher than 15, maybe 40 feels right, and ill be pumped.... Relly if they trade Arias for any of the 15 players on that list or Eyansons for the 40ish on that list Id be pumped becuase these lists are made up of mostly unobtainable players (e.g. Elly)

thats fair. They made an offer at their price, but I dont think they would have been annoyed had it been accepted, even though trying to raise the bid and accidentally buying is a real thing at auctions and FA is somewhat like an auction in ways.

I dont think they ever made an offer hoping it would be declined or designed to be declined. I think they knew they had a ceiling on what they could offer Alonso because they wanted to do other things alongside, and they only wanted to offer an amount that would not stand in the way of other roster changes, and probably knew that it had a good chance of being declined. But sometimes Im surprised by the DH/1B contracts, I remember being surprised when JD Martinez for example couldnt get signed when he still had an .825 OPS bat.

one of the days, she'll say yes

But that aside, my main thing is the mentality. Ive noticed many fans approach the deadline with apprehension. I have friends that are just so scared of giving up someting....and im in fantasy leagues with them and they never trade.....and they are always 100% optimistic struggling guys (on their teams) will turn it around and injured guys will come back. They hate the deadline, its my favorite day of the baseball year. Just two different mentalities. I like headlines and excitement

My thing is I dont like being all-in....all-out....or exactly in the middle. If its a sliding scale and one goal-post (on the left) is present and the right goalpost is future.....I never want to be all the way to one-side (either side) or in the middle either. I think there are times when we should be 75% focused on future / 25% focused on present and times when that should be flipped. I guess what I mean is, we should never equally prioritize present and future (because then we are prioritizing neither) but we should never be all-in on the present...and im not a big believer in complete tear downs eitehr because it can be a longer road back then people think....You can lose culture, identity.....all that stuff

and he has a pool

but hes driving my ass to fenway today soooo......

he also destroyed my peloton high score and it was so bad i stopped using my peloton for months but have recently gotten back on.

the mid 80s slider was when he closed for umass. the beer league softball team came later. he never pitched softball , he played 1b and moved to ss when my other buddy retired from the team with a shoulder injury....but i still wouldnt advise pissing him off when he was drunk even though he wasnt pitching anymore. He did whoop me in tennis last weekend. But hes got like 3 inches on me (6'3 vs 6'0) and is about 6 years younger (36 vs 42)

Worked for Yoshida.

Are you sure that "Breslow likes to keep top prospects" isnt a projection?