mul21

I mean, there's not. Most managers aren't going to have enough time and brainpower to process everything they're being given and will have to have some things spelled out for them. Who to start against what pitchers, what guys make sense to PH for in what situations, etc. I think the game has clearly passed him by and he needs to go be a broadcaster or coach in the minors where that stuff isn't as important.

I’m not understanding the all catcher or no catcher mentality. He’s got a 131 wRC+ this year doing less catching but not doing zero catching. From the sounds of it, JD’s comments at least, that’s what an extension would look like Also the career 115 wRC+ is like 30 points above what the position’s done. It’s not a straight 115 for the purposes of forecasting or even projecting Contreras in a less straightforward role I might have picked the wrong post to quote, but my overall point stands. 'The market not coming together' essentially means no team thinks he's worth a six figure contract. There are a few obvious reasons for that. Say what you will about defensive catching metrics, but Willson has never rated positively there, and he certainly would be worse at another position or spending more time as the DH. The career 115 wRC+ compares favorably to the current 107 wRC+ coming out of the DH spot this year, but I don't know if it's an advantage you want to pay $20m or so a year for, and it's also something you probably need to regress as he continues to slide down the age curve. Absolutely, if he's 90% or more of what he's doing this year, go for it. But I think if this wasn't Willson Contreras, Cub Legend, we were talking about, this would be a different conversation. I think there is some value in having that influence around, whether it's measurable or not. Maybe I've been brainwashed by living in STL for too long but there's a marked difference in how the Cards perform when Molina is around vs. when he's not and I really think there's something mental to it, whether it's accountability or confidence or whatever myriad of other things it could be and I think we saw some of that last night with the conversation he had with Morel before he hit the HR. Is it worth an extra year or an extra couple million per? I don't know, but Jed and Co. get paid a lot of money to determine whether it is or not.

I could look very dumb about this, but I think we could see Willson's market fail to materialize. It only takes one team to fall in love or have money burn a hole in their pocket, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he doesn't beat Grandal(4/73) in years or dollars. I'm kind of expecting something like 4/80 honestly. Enough years and money to make it worth his while but not something that will cripple the team who does the deal if he ends up broken or ages poorly.

Hughes isn't doing radio either Boog would surprise me, Hughes wouldn't. I just assumed Boog was out after doing the Sunday night TV game and not feeling like making a belated trip to Canada since there was already someone there to do the games.

Castro is just gasoline on a fire. Can we cut him loose already?

Steele, Rucker, and McKinstry are at the top of my list.

Oooh, I love the nickname. I hadn't heard Mash Mervis yet.

he gets lazy 70 grades on his hit tool simply for never striking out, his ZiPS babip is still .307 doing unexpectedly well "for an extended stretch" and unexpectedly poorly for an extended stretch adds up to an overall liability, why are we talking ourselves so hard into Aaron Miles 2.0 Not swinging and missing and still hitting .300 at every level is really hard to do and representative of a skill and not some pitcher-induced tradeoff like we've seen from the likes of Theriot or Almora. Since he debuted the only other player with Madrigal's playing time, a sub-10% K rate and a .290 average is Arraez(5 fWAR in 1000 PA). If anything I think people made up their minds that since Madrigal isn't going to hit for pop that he's obviously gonna be bad or hate him on aesthetic grounds for not having huge ceiling or having a crummy first month as a Cub. He's a perfectly useful player on the whole and when he's hot/makes improvements he's quite good. No one is trying to etch his name into the lineup 150 times or insist he's the leadoff hitter of the future, I'm enjoying his run of good form and think he can be useful on a good team(especially at pre-FA salaries). In addition to all of this, I feel like that particular skillset is probably more valuable late in games when you're seeing more hard throwing pitchers with swing and miss stuff. I don't believe in clutch, but high contact rates against that type of pitcher is certainly going to give you a higher probability of success than a lot of other hitter profiles.

WTF

Man, he can fly. I assumed he was probably fast just based on the CF capabilities but it was really apparent especially on the bloop down the LF line.

Nick Madrigal: not terrible?

Nice recovery by KT in the 2nd. 7 pitches.

He just had Covid in the last couple weeks.

Are we convinced Manny is actually healthy? That report of his velocity being almost 5 mph down is concerning.

Not excusing Hoyer in the least, but I think looking at raw numbers and not taking into account the larger load shouldered by the bullpen because of all the really short outings by the fill ins is probably leaving out a significant piece of the puzzle. I don't know how much of an overall difference it makes but an extra 4-8 IP every week adds up pretty quickly.

I'm not sure if the obsession with this dude or Gallo is weirder. Make it stop.

Wick seems to have fixed whatever was broken for a few weeks there. That's encouraging.

Yeah, he's not looked good either from the PAs I've seen. Was he down at AAA until he came over?

Agree with TT. Between both of them showing they can go deeper into games than they were initially ready for/trusted to, I think you mitigate some of the risk of hose 2 not consistently getting to 6IP with a more stable front end of the rotation next season, so that FA/Stroman/Hendricks combo giving you consistent deep starts is almost as big a factor for me as the young guys being able to hold their own deeper into games.

That Brown ranking sure doesn't seem like it includes this year's performance. And that's a really weird way to make that list. I get why they'd do it like that but it doesn't really seem like it's a useful tool for someone to spend time on.

Do you think there's some huge demand for Wisdom/Ortega? Even if there were teams interested, what do you think you're getting for fringy/4A guys like that? And if they determined that they can get a guy at 70 in the draft next year that will be better than any package that they were offered for Willy, I'm going to defer to them knowing what they're doing over the paltry level of knowledge on this board in comparison. I also don't think you sign guys like Suzuki and Stroman to the deals they got if you're planning on a 5 year window before you're competitive again. As was laid out, you add one of the big SS FAs this offseason, someone like Rodon and a 1B who isn't a black hole, suddenly you're looking at a team that projects to win 85+ games and that's not a far fetched reality.

Already had TJS.

Harper/Schwarber combo IMO.

Yeah you could maybe see one of them getting done with some of the interesting pitching prospects, but both would be a stretch. That said, while I'm not quite as conspiratorial as Brett, I do agree with him that a lot of this is public posturing on the Mets side, and between the time pressure of the deadline and the possibility that other NL teams make upgrades(Soto, Montas, maybe Rodon, etc), I wouldn't be convinced that their prospect-clutching is a locked in certainty. At this point, I have my money on a the trio of Contreras, Robertson and Happ going to SD after they miss out on Soto. No way on Robertson after the Hader deal and I doubt they have enough luxury tax room to add much else anyway.

From MLB.com for what it's worth, but at least a little more details on the arsenal.