fromthestretch

If you could get Bellinger for cheaper than Bell though, wouldn't that make more sense? I know there's more uncertainty around Bellinger's bat, but defensively, he gives you more versatility than Bell, especially with his ability to play CF well. That should free up some money for the bullpen at least.

If you're just looking for the right/left breakdown, he's currently 0-for-7 with 4 Ks against lefties this season, according to baseball-reference.

As I stated in my post, I'm not saying the Cubs are better. There are definitely reasons for concern with this roster. But I just don't see the Cardinals being a team that really scares you. They have some power, but I don't see anything else great about their offense. TT's breakdown is a good one.

I understand being worried about the Brewers. That pitching staff is damn good. Not saying the Cubs are necessarily better, but what is so special about the Cardinals? Offensively, I see home runs but their ability to get on base is garbage. On the mound, they have Flaherty, who when healthy is very good. Following him they have a 40-year old Wainwright, the inconsistent Matz, a mediocre Mikolas, and what else? Hudson could be good if he can stay healthy, but he's pitched a grand total of 10 games the past two seasons combined. I'm not seeing anything particularly great about them. Edit to add: Just realized this will be Hudson's first full season back from Tommy John surgery, so it's tough to know what to expect.

Scratch Chafin. He just signed with Detroit. Kim also went back to the KBO for the largest contract in league history IIRC Ah I didn't know that. Hopefully Conforto is still a viable option at least.

If they aren't going to go big with a Correa or Freeman, would it make sense to get Conforto, Chafin, and someone like Kwang Hyun Kim for the rotation? Scratch Chafin. He just signed with Detroit.

If they aren't going to go big with a Correa or Freeman, would it make sense to get Conforto, Chafin, and someone like Kwang Hyun Kim for the rotation?

The Rockies thing for KB seems like a clear cut case of an agent leaking a rumor to try to get another team to up their offer just a bit more. I still think he ends up with the Mariners. The Mariners thing seems like a longer-shot to me after getting Winker and Suarez from the Reds, unless they have plans to flip one of them.

Is the fact that he capitalized "Guardian" some sort of not so subtle indication that Cleveland is involved? Or was it just random capitalization? Maybe I just need to day drink more. Edit: I see TT thinks he's pointing out Cleveland, too. Now I don't feel so bad.

Isn't the free agent catching market projected to be weak this offseason? Most of the better catchers (Posey, Zunino, etc.) have club options for next year. I could see the Cubs feeling things out and seeing if a team desperate for catching is willing to overpay. I think the mistake a lot of people make is equating making a player available in a trade to being willing to take a crappy return for him just to get rid of him.

Wasn't there talk of some of Milwaukee's own 'home-cookin' hijinks' during the 2018 & 2019 seasons? I'm seem to recall Yelich's number being absurd at home, especially his power number those two seasons (22/14 & 27/17). Then the Astros got busted at the end of 2019 and remarkably, Yelich becomes worse, like horrible. Honestly I think it's as simple as his gruesome knee injury. I don't know how you give a guy 9 figures without seeing him play post injury, especially when you have him under control for so long already (IIRC it was 3 tears remaining at the time). Hasn't he had a lot of back problems the past couple years, too? That might explain the massive drop in power.

I think I like the overton window being moved away from service time as a metric, and my guess is this gets more money to younger players which would be good. As an ownership proposal I'm sure it doesn't add up to the right amounts, but age-guaranteed FA with more money paid to pre-FA players is a loose idea I could see leading to a better result than the current system. The argument against making that age based (specifically if the age they set it at is as high as 29.5) is that your superstars that tend to hit free agency before that age will now have it delayed a bit. Obviously, if they are getting more money during those years leading up to that, that will soften the blow a bit, but I'm not sure it completely makes up for it. Not that I have a better solution.

Not only that, but that tweet above is incorrect in saying this is the most innings he's thrown since high school. He threw a combined 50 innings in 2018 between college and summer ball and 41.1 innings in 2019 (also combined between college and summer ball). Granted, he only logged 7.1 innings last year due to the pandemic, but is it really necessary to slow him down right now?

I'm not saying whether he belongs or not, but I looked up some career rankings on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference, and here's what I've found: Case for him: He's 10th all-time in fWAR among catchers. As Derwood pointed out, that is LARGELY due to his defense. According to Fangraphs, he's tops in Defensive Runs above Average (380.4) all-time among catchers...with a fairly significant advantage over I-Rod, who is second at 320. So it's not just that he's really good defensively, he's arguably the best ever at that position. Baseball-Reference paints a slightly different picture, giving I-Rod 29.6 DWAR and Molina 26.3. However you slice it, he's still one of the best defensively ever at that position. Case against him: If you look at the top 60 catchers by fWAR (possibly more, since I didn't go to page 3 of that list), Molina has the second worst Offensive Runs above Average (-106.3) of the entire group. The only one in that group that is worse is Bob Boone (-186.8), and he clocks in at 38th all-time in fWAR among catchers. For context, Russell Martin is 11th all-time in fWAR among catchers at 55.2, and he's at 13.6 Offensive Runs above Average, while Brian McCann is 12th in fWAR at 54.2 with 24.3 Offensive Runs above Average. For even more context, a lot of people say that Ozzie Smith did not have the offensive profile of a Hall of Famer. Like Molina, Smith is tops all-time at his position in Defensive Runs above Average (and he's tops among ALL players in DWAR at 44.2 according to Baseball Reference). However, Smith was at -69.4 Offensive Runs above Average, markedly better than Molina.

Athletics = A's Cardinals = Cards Diamondbacks = D'backs Mariners = M's Nationals = Nats Orioles = O's Guardians = Guards? Does anyone say "M's" or "O's"? I've heard "Os" used regularly.

Yeah, that wasn't exactly a routine play for an infielder.

Yep, from a scoring perspective, it has the same effect as a routine inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. I thought the key was getting the guy out at 1st though. A 6-4-3 means getting the batter out at first. The batter reached first, I thought that was the determining factor. Nope. If the final out is a force out, it doesn't matter what base it's at. That run won't count.

There were force outs at 2nd and 3rd for the last two outs of the inning. We got unlucky that the ball was hidden behind Pham rather than rolling away where the runners could see it. Yep, from a scoring perspective, it has the same effect as a routine inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

The Rays literally just got two MLB ready guys in the Snell trade. Yeah, but the Rays don't have PTR as an owner and Hoyer a president. We get it. You miss Hendry. Move on.

Frazier would be a defensive upgrade over Bote, is more versatile defensively too, has been a productive starter at 2B, makes a ton of contact...He's a solid fit for this roster, but the Pirates wouldn't have any interest in either Bote or Mills More versatile, yes...since he can play outfield well. I don't see how he's that much of an upgrade defensively at second and especially at third. I'll give you the contact hitting, but Bote walks more and outside of batting average and the afore-mentioned contact hitting doesn't appear to be any worse than Frazier in any other offensive category. I'm not trying to advocate for keeping Bote if the right trade comes along, but I don't see this as the right trade. Frazier is going to be more expensive most likely as soon as 2021 and is under control for fewer seasons.

I don't see how Frazier is an upgrade over Bote, especially when Bote is locked in at $3 mil per season for awhile and Frazier could exceed that in arbitration in 2021. Yeah, Musgrove could be an improvement over Mills, especially if his strikeout rate wasn't some 2020 short-season fluke. But I'm not sure that's the deal the Cubs should be making if they're pinching pennies.

Not this weekend, but I got lawn seats for March 6 in Mesa and tickets for March 7 in Vegas. Anyone going to be at either of those?

It's baseball, so of course I'm excited the season is nearing. I try to limit my afternoon meetings at work, so I can listen to the play-by-play when they have a day game. If it's a night game, I can relax with a drink or four and enjoy watching the game. I even have my ticket for the March 7 Spring Training game in Vegas. Not that I enjoy watching them fall short of the playoffs, but the past few years were certainly a hell of a lot better than the previous few decades. Bring on the season.

But we're not talking about having them replace a league-average hitter. They're replacing guys who are lucky to hit .150. For like 2 AB. By the 7th inning or so, they're often just replacing the pinch hitter, who is probably the same person that is now DHing. I don't care enough about that one AB the pitcher takes in the 3rd inning enough to justify giving up the strategic decision of whether to let them bat in the 5th or 6th. Yes, and I'd rather have a guy with an ~.800 OPS for those two plate appearances than watch Jon Lester hit. In addition, if a pitcher is getting shelled early on, I would prefer not to have to burn a pinch hitter early in the game. Having the DH allows you to keep your bench in tact for later in the ballgame.