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Bertz

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Everything posted by Bertz

  1. Brusdar Graterol cannot possibly be a real name.
  2. I’ll say Mariners because Dipoto got bored. Probably took Kelly’s horsefeathers contract from the Dodgers. I wonder if Price might be on his way to the Angels? Mookie to LAD Price to LAA Verdugo and LAA prospects to Boston
  3. Here's Speier, who's a Boston source and less thirsty for rumor cred
  4. I don't like Kipnis for the role because he doesn't do anything particularly well. Even if we're resigning ourselves to scraping the bottom of the barrel for a LH caddy for Nico, I'd aim for Scooter Gennett or Brad Miller. Gennett's splits make me think he's likely to at least be a useful platoon partner. And Brad Miller's only nominally a 2B, but maybe we can shift our way into him not being a defensive disaster in order to get a capable bat into the lineup. Kipnis is just blah and without a skill that can be leveraged to make him useful.
  5. That's a much rosier projection compared to Steamer, which is what's currently powering Fangraphs' projections. It looks like Steamer likes Kyle Schwarber a good bit more, while ZiPS likes Contreras, Baez, and Hendricks by about a full win each. Steamer is much less likely to believe guys are FIP beaters and is all in on catcher framing, so Kyle and Willson make sense. I'm curious why they're so different on Javy though.
  6. I am expecting over, even if we assume a KB trade. The chances of the bottom falling out of this team are much higher than they have been in a while, but my median expectation is still high 80's without KB and low 90's with.
  7. Ben Lindbergh is great and I enjoy reading his stuff, but if you're stealing someone from The Ringer it's gotta be Rany Jazayerli. He's one of my favorite writers period. Problem is The Ringer allows Ben and Rany to write about other stuff like videogames, KC Chiefs and politics and pop culture stuff that isn't possible over at ESPN. Yeah that's a great point, I can't imagine Ben would give up writing about video games and Star Wars. But I think that's the style of writer ESPN is still missing, a baseball counterpart to Bill Barnwell essentially.
  8. I guess I'll renew that insider subscription that was going to lapse in April. I wonder if ESPN is going to poach anyone else. With Kiley, Passan, and Sam Miller, they have the best or very nearly the best writers of their type. They basically just need to steal Ben Lindbergh from the Ringer to get someone in that lane and complete the set.
  9. Very good rundown of the new front office folks. One piece of info buried in there is that Brendan Sagara left for the Rangers, which I had not heard yet. He'd been credited with much of the good stuff that happened pitching-wise on the farm the last year or two, specifically unlocking Brailyn Marquez last summer. That one stings.
  10. It's really gotta depend on how much you weigh age relative to league and draft/IFA pedigree. Because most guys who haven't hit since short season ball and without a standout tool wouldn't even get the modest benefit of the doubt he's still getting. Will be interesting to see what Fangraphs says on him when their rankings on us comes out. They’ve consistently have been the highest on him. Eric Longenhagen mentioned in a recent chat that he was going to get revised down, but didn't really say how far. I think it's fitting that he and Little are in the same pod, because they're both guys who are down but if they are killing it come June the bandwagon will be nearly back to full.
  11. Tom will not be happy with AA's placement. It's really gotta depend on how much you weigh age relative to league and draft/IFA pedigree. Because most guys who haven't hit since short season ball and without a standout tool wouldn't even get the modest benefit of the doubt he's still getting.
  12. Yeah, but weren't they trying to bring back Donaldson? It's possible they were trying to get him cheaper than what the Twins gave him, but he still would've, at the very least, cost what Bryant is costing this year and next. They presumably used most of that money on Ozuna. They still have plenty of room to the CBT, and like most teams they should be able to bump payroll even more, I'd just be very surprised if Liberty Media okayed a ~$40M year over year payroll increase. The Braves also have very little payroll tied up in future seasons, so maybe it's the case that they are able to shift funds around to make it work.
  13. We could always take back Inciarte or Shane Greene in a KB trade for money reasons (both are making $6 million or so this year). I wonder if that's enough. But yeah Inciarte would be a solid fit on the roster, and the net $ savings would still be comparable to a Quintana deal, which should be enough. It would mean a lot more infield for Happ, I wonder a lot about how that will go.
  14. I can't see the Braves doing it. They're already ~$15M over last year's end of season payroll, and their ownership group is as faceless and corporate as any other team in the league. I'm curious about the Padres. They'd be a great fit, but I don't know if they'd be as willing to stretch for KB as they are for Mookie. I guess it might depend on if they still view Pham as a CF.
  15. The Fangraphs readership thinks KB has more trade value. That certainly doesn't mean he actually does, but it's not just Cub fan bias to think he would: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ranking-the-trade-value-of-nolan-arenado-mookie-betts-kris-bryant-and-francisco-lindor/
  16. That's a pretty strong package. I wonder if that's straight up for Mookie or with an additional contract heading to LAD.
  17. The Phillies and Nationals are both still realistic options as well. That said I think at this point it's ultimately going to come down to the Dodgers. I think they're going to do something big, and the question is whether that's Betts or Bryant. If they go Betts I'd imagine the Cubs send Quintana somewhere like Anaheim to get under the cap and reevaluate the KB situation in July.
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