drewski6

I dont mind and never mind hoping for homerish expectations, like Romy is going to hit against righties like he does against lefties or Anthony is going to be a superstar this year or Abreu is going to be an .850+OPS bat even playing everyday or Mayer is going to take 2 giant leaps forward at the plate. Hope away. I hope so too. But I get shy when we start assuming/counting on these things.

Even if the swing trajectory never adjusts enough to include consistent loft to become a 30+ HR guy, it would still be huge if he could learn to consistently rip it over the corner infielder's down the line a la Tony Gwynn. Will have a higher batting average doing this than smashing the ball into the ground because even if you hit it into the ground at 105+ MPH (and he will) a non small portion of those are still getting fielded and he (Anthony) isnt Ichiro like outrunning fielded ground balls.

Im not sure Hamilton is pushed off (yet), if IKF is the backup. But maybe if Romy grabs the everyday job

those jokes dont bother me.

Rooker is a player I like who I can make sense with logic why he could be available but I havent heard like rumors of oak shopping him, and ill stop bringing him up because paredes is (or at least has been) part of actual conversations so theres actual smoke there and not forum speculation. I dont like when people were like did you hear the new rumor and its some fan talking about why he would try to get player x and im like thats not like "a rumor" we need to differentiate between fan saying "how about this guy?" (in this case, me with Rooker) vs like something on mlbtraderumors from a real insider "Sox and houston have discussed Paredes". I dont mind fan trades at all or bringing it up (exactly like Im doing with Rooker) just saying its worth pointing out that some fan saying "I like this trade" is much different than like Peter G reporting the GMs and player X is at the center of conversations. So ill stop going back to Rooker. Its just a guy I like who I can make a case for being moved (31 yr DH in Oakland making 12m + incentives)

Yes Im aware and Notin has mentioned this before....They have to want to trade Rooker and its very very very likely they do not. I just assume that because hes a 31 yr old DH , making 12-18m/yr (based on incentives) that Oak would flip him. But I honestly think it would be hard to pry him loose because he's a legit very very very good hitter and people like him.

Ima check out Moons sick place, but I need to be outta the southwest by summer, not a heat guy.

To me, Brent Rooker is that DH

I make this trade, and if I woke up and saw it, Id be happy about it...But its not one I would go to first. Regardless of position, who is the best hitter in the MLB who you think may be reasonably available. I dont even care if they are a DH. Position 100% aside. Because if you get that elite hitting DH, they drastically help your defense. You can now play IKF at SS, and move Story to 2b (dont worry, he wont hissy fit like Devers)

Me. Bello and Cedanne for Brent Rooker , who says no?

This joke lands

This is true, and its especially true in Bello's case. He sometimes tries to mix in an upstairs cutter/4-seam (I have trouble telling Bello's pitches apart, I also cant tell if his primary is a 2-seamer or a sinker - but 2seamer vs sinker is more of a spectrum thing than a black / white thing but his straddles the middle).....But anyways, Bello could get better , I think, if he would abandon trying to go upstairs with his 4 seam/cutter (it may be 2 separate pitches, I have trouble with identifying his pitches) and live down in the zone (think DLowe when he is at his best) .... I think hed be better for it If I were to nitpick your post (sorry), you imply that experience matters more than nasty stuff (sometimes). Experience and "stuff nastiness" are very very correlated. A lot of people incorrectly think that experience as a pitcher is about learning how to mix up your pitches, but that stuff is kind of easy. Change eye level. Inside - outside. Stay unpredictable. All 4 quadrants. Hard inside; soft away. The real experience , where it really helps, is learning and tweaking the grips. And that directly effects the nastiness. A good pitcher who does not have nasty stuff is a myth. Its usually a pitcher, who figured out a grip late in his career and everyone is assuming the stuff isnt nasty because he was always mediocre and now he isnt. Another thing is you can get it fast, and you can lose it fast. Trust me. I never pitched except for one year, where I was awesome. Then I lost it, and could never do it again.

Bello has a proven sinkerball that gives him a high floor, but he also kind of has a capped ceiling because at this point we know what we are getting and its like on the line between #3/#4 (my opinion)

I feel like as a sinkerballer, Bello, I wanted to trade him more yesterday than I do right now after IKF and clear prioritization of infield defense over offense. Still not against moving him, I guess, hes just no longer the one I immediately circle. I personally have a hard time putting Tolle, Early, and Witherspoon in the same category. Tolle to me is worth way more and much harder to part with. The arm/extension and reach, to me make his potential top. I dont know much about Witherspoon, but regarding Early, I think that anybody who is moving Early above Tolle is buying too much into small sample sizes last year, just my opinion. Im hopeful we'll see more trading/fixing. But if we dont, I dont hate the IKF move in a vacuum but in the context of our current roster....We still have DHAM at 2nd. So you like IKF to backup Mayer. Thats 2 really bad bats, so the positional coverage insurance is fine, the hitting depth isnt. And like I always go back to, when you have good hitters at the top of your lineup, you can survive defense first players on the bottom half. But we dont. Weve always been able to get like a Yu Chang if we need one.

i also didnt read it, i heard it on tv in the background and misremembered it

bad job remembering but agreed

First of all, wanting him to win and saying hes gonna are indeed 2 different things, thats not a matter of opinion, IMO Secondly, I might not have said it, but I was confident.

I would say hes more crudite than erudite because hes stiffer than a raw carrot in a veggie tray

captain crunch berries, oops all berries pitchers

Thats great. I think I could pitch to this team and get through a couple innings.

we were third place last year, where did alonso go again and where did they finish last year?

No f'ing way did I say that. I knew SKubal was going to win.

5th place now

"Yeah, he's a great player, but at the end of the day, it's how many guys, 26? That’s just one guy, so we’ve got 25 other guys that were pulling the same line to win those series, not just one." - Jarren Duran I dont think Duran said anything off-base here, but theres an opening here that Devers could have used to throw his team under the bus, such as: "I was a lot more important to that team than just 1 of 26" My only point that I was making before (and I was agreeing wiht you) that I woudlnt consider what Devers said/did to be throwing his teammates under the bus. I think he was kind of done talking and over it once he went to SFG. I think it was kind of old news when the trade happened. We were starting to win and winning cures. But grudge holding Breslows ego was bruised and theres no coming back from that. Like when Bregman had the gall to tell Breslow that his offer wasnt the only one in town and Breslow said "youre a liar, that offer is fake, I double dog dare you to take it. Im that confident your offer is fake" (narrator voice: but the offer was not fake, and now we're stuck with Ian Kinslers Falafel)

You know how you are always like we need 10 pitchers because half will get hurt? I think similar rate of injury to position players. So when I see 4 plus hitters, I assume 2 will get hurt, and I dont think a team this lacking in firepower wins 50%. Im also seeing the orioles get better. Im also exaggerating when I say 78 wins, but right now, unless there are more moves or a big bat breakout, I think we'll be desperate for offense and Bres doesnt have a great track record of trading for it mid-season. You point to things that were unlucky last year, and sure, there were areas where we had bad luck. But there was some good luck too. Toro/Lowe were huge for us even if they ran out of usefulness, they covered a lot of games unexpectedly. Crochet and Chapman stayed healthy. I would rather lose Gray, Ranger, Oviedo, Bello to injury (all 4) than just Crochet. I believe in sophmore slumps , so im not sure anthony wont have some growing pains. Mayer too. We dont have Bregman, we dont have devers. I can see us stepping back this year. Im not sure about it, and I can see it going the other way too (positive season due to positive developments).