Around Baseball 2024

[Terminator]

Hard pass

 

Coward

[max silver]

Chapman and Yimi are probably my favourite one year RP targets

 

Yimi didn't have the TJS right, just shut down with elbow inflammation and a setback?

 

Also, Paul Sewald...

 

hmmm there are actually A LOT of mid 30s or late 30s relievers so it's a good offseason to rebuild a pen, stop-gap pen. lots of guys should end up signing reasonable 1 year deals.

 

Yimi kind of feels like an elbow operation waiting to happen as I believe he had several elbow related injury list stints during the season. If he's cheap enough I'd still bring him back though as he was downright filthy this season when healthy.

[max silver]

The Fangraphs 2025 Free Agent Tracker is finally up

 

Can't believe Jurickson Profar is going to be such a high profile FA lmao I wonder how much he actually gets

 

His great season kind of came out of nowhere. I recall he was a top ranked prospect at one point, but when checking his minor league numbers they were rather pedestrian once he hit AAA in particular.

[Terminator]

The Fangraphs 2025 Free Agent Tracker is finally up

 

Can't believe Jurickson Profar is going to be such a high profile FA lmao I wonder how much he actually gets

 

He's such a weird player. Former top prospect who has had a middling career where he alternates between decent years and bad ones before breaking out at age 31.

 

His breakout seems hard to believe but it also seems pretty real as he added more Max EV and now hits the ball hard. I would want to know if he had some sort of true talent change and what lead to it.

 

He's also on the wrong side of 30 so can he sustain it? If so you are getting a damn good hitter on a reasonable contract.

[Terminator]

Chapman and Yimi are probably my favourite one year RP targets

 

Yimi didn't have the TJS right, just shut down with elbow inflammation and a setback?

 

Also, Paul Sewald...

 

hmmm there are actually A LOT of mid 30s or late 30s relievers so it's a good offseason to rebuild a pen, stop-gap pen. lots of guys should end up signing reasonable 1 year deals.

 

Yeah there are a shitload of interesting relievers this year. Thank god because we need about 5 new ones.

[Terminator]

Where, you have a link?

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/free-agent-tracker

[Spanky__99]

https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/free-agent-tracker

 

Thanks.

[Brownie19]

What is Max Fried going to get as a FA?

[Spanky__99]

What is Max Fried going to get as a FA?

 

A lot of money...

[connorp]

I know playoffs don’t count, but going to say it again bc there was a lot of yapping and building up of Atkins pre-season…

Honestly who is more deserving of GM of the year than Preller? Faced a lot of challenges, his deals came up all spades this year. From adding front line SP, to Profar, Arraez, keeping ROY, system players playing roles.

 

Finished 5 games behind LAD for best record. Don’t see anyone else more deserving. He literally made the season with his moves

[Laika]

Brewers did just as much and with less resources. More impressive.

 

Being said, Preller had a good year. Gutsy calls with the Soto deal, giving Merrill CF from day one.

[John_Havok]

Brewers did just as much and with less resources. More impressive.

 

Being said, Preller had a good year. Gutsy calls with the Soto deal, giving Merrill CF from day one.

 

It's actually nice to see. It's like he learned a bit from being a twat for the past decade.

 

Either that or all that s*** he threw at the wall just hasn't slid off yet.

[connorp]

It's actually nice to see. It's like he learned a bit from being a twat for the past decade.

 

Either that or all that s*** he threw at the wall just hasn't slid off yet.

 

I mean it’ll slide off in Cease or King go down from TJS but that’s the risk you take. All good now

[jaysblue]

What is Max Fried going to get as a FA?

 

Eduardo Rodriguez got 4 years/$80M last offseason. Sonny Gray got 3 years/$75M. Fried is better than E-Rod and is also younger than Gray.

 

When Fried is healthy, he looks capable of providing anywhere from a 3 to 5 WAR season. Probably can expect more of 3ish WAR seasons. In 2023, he only made 14 starts, so that's the only blip on the radar in terms of injury concerns, though he did come back strong in 2024 which was encouraging.

 

I think max years he gets is around 5 or 6. He likely gets higher AAV than E-Rod and something similar to Gray. Could see him signing a 5 year deal between $125-150M. We'll see how the market plays out. Like who would have thought Snell would only get a 2 year deal with an opt out last offseason haha.

[max silver]

Eduardo Rodriguez got 4 years/$80M last offseason. Sonny Gray got 3 years/$75M. Fried is better than E-Rod and is also younger than Gray.

 

When Fried is healthy, he looks capable of providing anywhere from a 3 to 5 WAR season. Probably can expect more of 3ish WAR seasons. In 2023, he only made 14 starts, so that's the only blip on the radar in terms of injury concerns, though he did come back strong in 2024 which was encouraging.

 

I think max years he gets is around 5 or 6. He likely gets higher AAV than E-Rod and something similar to Gray. Could see him signing a 5 year deal between $125-150M. We'll see how the market plays out. Like who would have thought Snell would only get a 2 year deal with an opt out last offseason haha.

 

Snell was pretty much screwed over by Boras who refused to budge off of his ridiculous contract asking prices until spring training was approaching or even underway in some instances. Who knows what his actual offers looked like but I'm sure a helluva lot better than 2 years was on the table.

[Brownie19]

I know playoffs don’t count, but going to say it again bc there was a lot of yapping and building up of Atkins pre-season…

Honestly who is more deserving of GM of the year than Preller? Faced a lot of challenges, his deals came up all spades this year. From adding front line SP, to Profar, Arraez, keeping ROY, system players playing roles.

 

Finished 5 games behind LAD for best record. Don’t see anyone else more deserving. He literally made the season with his moves

 

Preller deserves a lot of credit. I'm not sure how, but it's working great for them this year. I don't know how sustainable it is, but I can look past that right now. That said, he doesn't deserve a lot of credit (or any?) for Profar. Profar is pure luck. It's almost crazy he gave him a guaranteed $1M contract after a -1.6 WAR season in 2023! -1.6 WAR to 4.3 WAR is an insane turnaround (even for a guy who's bounced between negative WAR and solid seasons a few times before).

[glory]

Brewers did just as much and with less resources. More impressive.

 

Being said, Preller had a good year. Gutsy calls with the Soto deal, giving Merrill CF from day one.

 

Yeah I don’t know how sustainable the Padres success is, and there are some bad contracts on their payroll for many more years but the team they have now is a legitimate World Series contender and fun to watch. The fanbase is amazing too. Pulling for them to come out of the NL.

[Orgfiller]

Preller deserves a lot of credit. I'm not sure how, but it's working great for them this year. I don't know how sustainable it is, but I can look past that right now. That said, he doesn't deserve a lot of credit (or any?) for Profar. Profar is pure luck. It's almost crazy he gave him a guaranteed $1M contract after a -1.6 WAR season in 2023! -1.6 WAR to 4.3 WAR is an insane turnaround (even for a guy who's bounced between negative WAR and solid seasons a few times before).

 

Profar is single handedly going to fan the flames of people clamouring to sign former top prospects busts because "we can fix fix", years past their debut and team control days. 12 years after his MLB debut lol. Good for him, he's set himself up well heading into FA.

 

I wouldn't say Profar was all luck, $1M might as well be a minor league deal in this day and age. They signed him in February, maybe they had some workouts with him or his agent sold them on offseason lab metrics he was putting up and saw potential for a bounceback season. And by bounceback I mean gets back to a 1-2 WAR player, any value he's provided beyond that is definitely almost all luck.

[Jimcanuck]

Padres getting hot at the right time

[Brownie19]

I wouldn't say Profar was all luck, $1M might as well be a minor league deal in this day and age. They signed him in February, maybe they had some workouts with him or his agent sold them on offseason lab metrics he was putting up and saw potential for a bounceback season. And by bounceback I mean gets back to a 1-2 WAR player, any value he's provided beyond that is definitely almost all luck.

 

There is some credit there - but the probability of him having this type of season were almost 0. I'm sure they expected they might get a 1-2 WAR solid bench player season out of him and there might have been a 40-50% chance of that happening. Getting what he got out of him is primarily luck.

[AMS528]

There is some credit there - but the probability of him having this type of season were almost 0. I'm sure they expected they might get a 1-2 WAR solid bench player season out of him and there might have been a 40-50% chance of that happening. Getting what he got out of him is primarily luck.

 

They did have him for the best season of his career (2022), and when they signed him again after Colorado released him in 2023, he hit well for them in the short stretch he was there so I get the sense maybe they just looked to fix whatever changed when he wound up in Colorado. I can see them viewing him as being potentially as good as he'd been in 2022 when he was a 2.4 WAR player given what they saw in his brief return.

[Barrelsandbombs]

Reds are hiring Terry Francona to be their next manager.

 

[BTS]

Reds are hiring Terry Francona to be their next manager.

 

 

I thought he had retired

[L54]

Great hire. Would’ve loved to see him Toronto

[G-Snarls]

Great hire. Would’ve loved to see him Toronto

 

I've wanted him for the last 8 years

Edited October 4, 2024 by G-Snarls

[jaysblue]

Reds are hiring Terry Francona to be their next manager.

 

 

I thought the Reds could have been a sleeper team in the NL Central this season. Let's see if Terry can be one of the missing pieces.

[Laika]

I thought he had retired

 

Yeah didn't he get cancer and retire?

[Brownie19]

Yeah didn't he get cancer and retire?

 

Yes he did. This seems like an odd decision.

[Governator]

Help me decide who to root for this postseason... preferably a wild card team

 

I think I've narrowed it down to these but open to thoughts.

 

 

Orioles

I always feel a division rival who wins the WS just shows how strong the division is

Orioles haven't won in 40+ years and would rather them over the Yankees any day of the week.

 

Padres/Brewers

Have never won a WS

Nothing bad to say about them

Padres triple play W to clinch against the Dodgers was fire

 

Braves*

Assuming they get past the Royals this weekend, the Braves begin their postseason on Monday in a double header with the Mets that'll likely determine who's in or out. If that scenario plays out and if the Braves make it in, it'll be a fun ride and they'd be riding a hot streak to start the postseason.

Plus, I still got a soft spot for AA.

 

 

Teams I won't be rooting for:

- Yankees

- Dodgers

- Royals (still have 2015 nightmares, altho I like Bobby Witt Jr. he just wears the wrong uniform)

 

 

Screw all of the above - I'm on the Mets bandwagon

[Brownie19]

Just sayin' - there is some informative information on the off topic page if anyone is interested. Invaluable information for most relationships.