Around Baseball 2024

[Laika]

The New York If Healthies, everybody

[John_Havok]

The next version of "The Rookie". ?

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/42-year-old-youth-coach-throwing-101-mph

 

Guy who was drafted in 2004 is now hitting 101 mph and trying to catch on with an MLB club at 42.

[deanmike]

The New York If Healthies, everybody

 

Versus... The Toronto If Positive Regressions

[max silver]

Versus... The Toronto If Positive Regressions

 

Sounds like an epic movie title. If it were made I'd love to see a trailer with narration provided by the epic movie trailer voice guy.

[Laika]

Versus... The Toronto If Positive Regressions

 

If we are being honest, every non-Orioles team in the division smells kind of desperate right now. Clinging to relevancy.

[max silver]

If we are being honest, every non-Orioles team in the division smells kind of desperate right now. Clinging to relevancy.

 

The Orioles very well may be due for their own regression. Their rotation stands to start the season without two expected members of their rotation with top of the rotation stud suffering a partial UCL tear. The offense was more like the Blue Jays except with better clutch numbers, and they punched far above their expected win total.

[Laika]

The Orioles very well may be due for their own regression. Their rotation stands to start the season with two members of their rotation with top of the rotation stud suffering a partial UCL tear. The offense was more like the Blue Jays except with better clutch numbers, and they punched far above their expected win total.

 

They should trade for Dylan Cease

 

The Bradish news sucks for them but not sure the Means blow is that big.

[burlingtonbandit]

Agreed. MLB made like $11b last season. A system like the NBA where there is an even revenue split and a salary floor/cap would actually help the vast majority of players in MLB and only hurt the top 1%. Not sure why that’s such a non starter for the MLBPA. A free market is great for the elite but hurts practically everyone else depending on how owners are feeling in a particular off season. I get they want the Ohtani’s of the world to maximize their value without restrictions but owners are using the current CBT as a cap anyway so it’s not helping the majority of the players they represent.

 

I'm not really sure it would hurt the 1% that much unless there was a max contract per player. The stars would still get paid a lot because of the value they provide, perhaps maybe a little bit less just because the risk tolerance would be lower with injury risks. But the guys it would really hurt would be the older veterans like the Whit Merrifields and the Justin Turners of the world. No one would be giving these guys 1 year 8-13M contracts when they can likely get similar production from a younger, cheaper player.

 

NBA stars are actually underpaid quite a bit because of the max contracts.

[BTS]

Kind of surprised Amed Rosario only got 1.5M

[connorp]

Kind of surprised Amed Rosario only got 1.5M

 

Amed Rosario if he’d play 3b >> what we have

[BTS]

Amed Rosario if he’d play 3b >> what we have

 

Yeah, I don't know what his arm strength is like these days, but I'd probably rather have him than IKF.

[Stangstag]

Amed Rosario if he’d play 3b >> what we have

 

Rosario even if we had to overpay to like 2.5m is way better than IKF for 7.5m.

 

Stuck with IKF for 2 years too. I really don’t understand that move.

[connorp]

Yeah, I don't know what his arm strength is like these days, but I'd probably rather have him than IKF.

 

He always had an arm and still played CF recently, so I imagine it’d play there. He’s not an old man just yet. Probably would’ve been a good opp for him for FT playing time here too. Oh well

[Carlos Danger]

Kind of surprised Amed Rosario only got 1.5M

 

Great pick-up by the Rays. I was hoping he would come to TO as our UT guy.

[Carlos Danger]

The Orioles very well may be due for their own regression. Their rotation stands to start the season without two expected members of their rotation with top of the rotation stud suffering a partial UCL tear. The offense was more like the Blue Jays except with better clutch numbers, and they punched far above their expected win total.

 

They still have a lot more in the pipe coming their way. Even if 2/3rd of their specs s*** the bed, they still have an infusion of talent coming. They still have a 1, 2 punch of Burnes and Rodriguez.. Their 4 and 5 guys were palatable last year and they always find a way to have a good pen, even in their dog days... I wouldn't discount them.

[glory]

Yeah, I don't know what his arm strength is like these days, but I'd probably rather have him than IKF.

 

I'm not an IKF fan by any means, but for the Jays, it probably makes more sense to sign IKF as his best defensive position is the one they directly needed a replacement for (3B) and both project to be below average offensively so I don't know if Rosario's slightly better bat would have been worth the likely downgrade defensively at 3B.

 

With that said, 1) I would have preferred signing neither, and 2) the Rays cheat code will probably have Rosario with a 3+ WAR season + well above average bat in 2024.

[G-Snarls]

Great pick-up by the Rays. I was hoping he would come to TO as our UT guy.

 

Same

 

And we already had utility guys...

[G-Snarls]

Who is starting at 2B April 1

 

Schenider or

Biggio or

Espinal

[max silver]

Yeah, I don't know what his arm strength is like these days, but I'd probably rather have him than IKF.

 

Steamer projects them as a tossup offensively as each has a 95 wRC+ projection. Rosario had a butcher level defensive season at short stop (-16 DRS/-14 OAA). That's on par with how poorly Bo performed at short stop in 2022 for comparisons sake. It's far from a given his skills would successfully transfer to third base given how steep a defensive decline he's shown the last few seasons.

[Carlos Danger]

Who is starting at 2B April 1

 

Schenider or

Biggio or

Espinal

 

Merry Go Round... Which is not what I would like... But pretty sure that is the direction they are going... Barring trade etc....

[max silver]

Who is starting at 2B April 1

 

Schenider or

Biggio or

Espinal

 

Remains to be seen. I'd guess it comes down to whomever has the best spring. I suspect a bit of a platoon between Biggio and Schneider but that is up in the air at this point.

[Spanky__99]

The next version of "The Rookie". ?

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/42-year-old-youth-coach-throwing-101-mph

 

Guy who was drafted in 2004 is now hitting 101 mph and trying to catch on with an MLB club at 42.

 

Neat.

[Laika]

Kind of surprised Amed Rosario only got 1.5M

 

something really weird about that one

 

does he have issues that aren't public knowledge?

 

did he take way less $$$ because only the Rays would let him be a starting shortstop?

[Terminator]

Kind of surprised Amed Rosario only got 1.5M

 

Damn that is cheap. We could have given him way more than that on a one year deal (even after signing IKF) and tell him he's playing 2B, 3B, OF and some SS.

 

The Rays must have told him they will give him SS and that they've got some plans for him to have a monster year or something.

[Spanky__99]

They should trade for Dylan Cease

 

The Bradish news sucks for them but not sure the Means blow is that big.

 

Or sign Montgomery or Snell, but I've read the new ownership might impact that decision, IDK, seems like a no brainer to me.

[Terminator]

Kind of surprised Amed Rosario only got 1.5M

 

This also tells me that Espinal is worth about jack squat in a trade right now.

[Laika]

This also tells me that Espinal is worth about jack squat in a trade right now.

 

Yeah woof

 

Okay but I didn't realize how much of a butcher Amed was recently. He looks like a 2B/LF

[Spanky__99]

Yeah woof

 

Okay but I didn't realize how much of a butcher Amed was recently. He looks like a 2B/LF

 

His defense at 3rd base has been good enough, albeit in a small sample, that's cheap. It's a strange thing.

 

Rosario, 28, has been an everyday big league shortstop for many years but is coming off a challenging season. He started the year with the Guardians but was hitting just .265/.306/.369 when the deadline was approaching, with that production translating to a wRC+ of 87. His shortstop defense had always been questionable but it became downright problematic in 2023. He was tagged with grades of -16 Defensive Runs Saved and -15 Outs Above Average with Cleveland.

 

The Guards flipped him to the Dodgers for Noah Syndergaard, and Rosario’s new club moved him to the other side of the bag most of the time. He seemed to take well to the position switch, at least in a small sample of 190 innings, producing 3 DRS and OAA at an even zero. His bat was roughly the same, as he hit .256/.301/.408 as a Dodger for a wRC+ of 93.

Edited February 21, 2024 by Spanky99

[Spanky__99]

Rendon is being dragged through the mud for his comments yesterday, I don't think he said anything wrong. Fans are so fickle...

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39558347/anthony-rendon-baseball-never-top-priority-me

[Spanky__99]

Devers at camp today, poor Bosux bastard...

 

Rafael Devers is looking for help -- from the front office of the Boston Red Sox.

 

With the Red Sox ramping up at the start of spring training, Devers made it clear Tuesday that he felt the franchise should have done more to improve the roster over the winter.

 

"They need to make an adjustment to help us players to be in a better position to win," he said through an interpreter. "Everybody in this organization wants to win. We, as [players], want to win. I think they need to make an adjustment to help us win.

 

"I'm not saying that the team is not OK right now, but they need to be conscious of what are the [weaknesses] and what we need."