Transmogrified Tiger

Russell's Minor League OPS against LHP is .893 if my math is right, against a total OPS of .897. .928 if you don't include his first season that was mostly in rookie ball anyway. Gonna need a lot more than 120 PA to be convinced that Russell is remotely needing of platooning, against opposite handed pitchers no less.

It looks like they basically landed on 'what's the most games we can suspend him without giving the Yankees another year of Chapman as a reward'.

Their situation was a bit like the White Sox, in that they had gaping holes so even non-ideal acquisitions are a big improvement. I think they'll be a bit like the Cardinals in that they'll be solid all over the diamond and throughout the rotation, but the lack of starpower keep them from being easy division winners or top of the NL. Of course, if their infield puts up 18 fWAR again I'll look stupid, but I imagine there will be some plexiglass effect for anywhere from 2 to all 4 of those guys.

lol at 96.5 wins from ZiPS, that is delightfully absurd

There are good reasons not to have Schwarber catch, but that article did not do a good job of articulating them. 'Catching is hazardous' followed by Mauer(who had some knocks but also played a ton of catcher for many years before truly breaking down) and Posey(hurt on a freak play that was legislated out of the game) is not very compelling. Even if Schwarber is not good enough defensively to catch more than a backup's share of games in a year, that flexibility is extremely valuable. Plus if he's only catching 20-40 games a year then the wear and tear argument is hard to take as an imminent threat either. Let him keep trying to catch, let his performance(and those around him like Montero and Contreras) dictate how much he catches. If he proves able to handle it full time then cross the bridge of avoiding wear and tear at that point.

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Soler Baez Ross Do you want another two infielders instead? LaStella and ?? Think we'd do better for a PH bat from an OFer. Also, one of our outfielders is going to catch sometimes. e I g h t r e l i e v e r s

I had my doubts that there was a 5th OF job at all before yesterday, now I'm pretty positive it'll be an 8 man pen. With that in mind, I imagine that Victorino is a hedge against ST injury and Szczur not clearing waivers come April.

Lol we got Fowler? Nevermind then

My concern is more for pinch hitting/matchup purposes than worrying the starting lineup doesn't have enough LH hitters on a given day.

i'm not sure that weakness is a weakness this team realistically has to worry about I don't think it's an Achilles heel, but I didn't feel that way about CF defense either. La Stella as the only LH bat on the bench isn't ideal, and I'm probably TLS's biggest fan.

Even taking into account that relievers are so hard to predict (see Strop, Pedro), that's an underwhelming return. If they bring back Jackson this is fine, although it's shuffling from one weakness (backup CF/CF defense) to another (LH bench bat/power).

Gonna be a whole lot of bewildered people when cespedes goes back to bring a 2.x WAR guy this year.

While the lists in the tiers aren't in order, Vogelbach and Edwards were the last additions to their respective tiers. I can definitely see more pessimism for them than I have. I'm a long standing Underwood skeptic, which while maybe unfair given my placement of Cease, is why I have him that low. I need him to strike out more guys than the Williamses and Markeys of the world before I consider him a candidate to capitalize on his stuff.

I'm not really good for these types of evaluations, but peak Howard was probably close to that point, right? Bit of a different situation as keeper though.

I guess tiering is the easiest way to go about it for me. Cease, EJM, Jimenez, De La Cruz, Edwards McKinney, Williams, Candelario, Steele, Vogelbach Underwood, Caratini, Sands, Markey Jeez this is not easy. I guess Eloy gets my vote here.

lol how did Hannemann sneak on there already, I thought I was his biggest fan I legitimately have no idea who to pick here.

A few other assorted thoughts - This needs to be included in the thread itself. [vine] [/vine] - Morris looked pretty good, real good considering quality of opponent. He wasn't much in the air and has zero left foot, but he'll be dangerous in MLS. Even more so come summer when he's doing more reacting and less thinking. - Sounders are going to have problems chasing the game. Without Martins they're in a weird spot where their Top 4 attackers are probably all starters, but none of them should regularly be playing 90 and their reserves are all completely unproven. Maybe when they get Torres back and Evans moves to midfield they'll be able to give guys a rest without needing to turn to Aaron Kovar. - *dons homer hat* What a shameful bit of hackery that was by Club America. As a Liga MX team I was prepared for all the delaying and time wasting silliness, but for large chunks of the game their only means to stop possession was just to chop people that were stepping by. Just a garbage brand of soccer given what they're obviously capable of otherwise. Of course, given that the ref refused to give a yellow for anything less than an assassination on the field, that was probably a savvy strategy. 2 minutes stoppage at the end(2 goals+1 card+1 injury+much time wasting = 2?), carding Alonso for standing in the way of a free kick that CA did a dozen times, carding Ivanschitz instead of giving a rightful card when Alonso got horsecollared in stoppage. I didn't realize getting CONCACAF'd extended to MLS home matches. *removes homer hat*

I'm at Century Link. Clint Dempsey is a bad man. Giving up that away goal suuucks.

There aren't a whole lot of teams at the intersection of 'can afford to pay Votto's contract' and 'need a 1B (especially one w/ Votto's contract)'. Look at the 1B depth chart: http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=1B All those teams below 2 WAR are a combination of rebuilding teams, teams with no money to afford Votto, and teams where you can squint to see a fit but they have other 1B considerations that make trading for a 1B unlikely. Maybe as the season progresses if somebody goes down it'd be a better fit.

Bob Huggins and his coaching tree pioneered Murderball, please show it respect and call it by its proper name

This trade amuses me if only for the optics that the Angels, a team with a truly historically empty farm system, are only being included to supply the necessary prospects.

Argentina/Panama and a US match is pretty good, even if Jamaica/Venezuela is a bust. Up here we have Haiti/Peru and Argentina/Bolivia

Using ZiPS, the Cubs have the top 3 hitters and 7 of the top 9. That's fun.

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