Around Baseball 2025

[hanton]

Pete Crow-Armstrong playing CF is a treat to watch, gets ridiculous jumps,

PCA OAA 11

Varsho OAA 4

[Spanky__99]

45 minutes ago, hanton said:

Pete Crow-Armstrong playing CF is a treat to watch, gets ridiculous jumps,

PCA OAA 11

Varsho OAA 4

Those numbers are skewed in favour to PCA by playing time, both of them are excellent.

[hanton]

7 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

Those numbers are skewed in favour to PCA by playing time, both of them are excellent.

yea it wasn't really a shot at Varsho

[Pendleton]

 

[hanton]

BOS/TB

8-8

11th

Rays have the bases loaded and 2 times the battery started walking off the field thinking it was called 3rd strike.  Very odd

[hanton]

Ian Seymour's big league debut, gets the win in extras

[thatoneguy]

1 hour ago, Pendleton said:

 

This is, without a doubt, one of the greatest catches I have ever seen. How the f***...

[Pendleton]

8 hours ago, Pendleton said:

 

 

[Brownie19]

Really hoping Denzel Clarke finds his footing at the plate.  It doesn't get much more exciting in CF defensively these days.  

[glory]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

Really hoping Denzel Clarke finds his footing at the plate.  It doesn't get much more exciting in CF defensively these days.  

Yeah the offensive bar isn’t high. Even an 80 wRC+ with that defense is going to be a high WAR player. Hoping he’s at least passable offensively because he’s a highlight reel defensive player every night.

[mphenhef]

15 hours ago, hanton said:

Pete Crow-Armstrong playing CF is a treat to watch, gets ridiculous jumps,

PCA OAA 11

Varsho OAA 4

Innings in CF 

PCA 590.22

Varsho 188

 

OAA/inninig

PCA 0.0186

Varsho 0.0213

[John_Havok]

10 hours ago, thatoneguy said:

This is, without a doubt, one of the greatest catches I have ever seen. How the f***...

Pillar's in LF at the dome was better, but yeah that was was pretty ridiculous

[thatoneguy]

9 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Pillar's in LF at the dome was better, but yeah that was was pretty ridiculous

Pillar's is also one of the greatest catches I've ever seen.

[AMS528]

2 hours ago, glory said:

Yeah the offensive bar isn’t high. Even an 80 wRC+ with that defense is going to be a high WAR player. Hoping he’s at least passable offensively because he’s a highlight reel defensive player every night.

He's 7th in the league in OAA with 8 and he's played 16 games. It's absurd. He can easily be solidly below average at the plate and still super valuable. 

 

[Laika]

Dude has played 16 games and already has 2 all-time catches and multiple other five star catches. 

Is he the best CF ever or is this just a heater? 

Offensively, he was good enough in the minors... he can probably scrape something approaching competence together in time even if it comes with a 35% K rate. He hit the ball 115.2 mph in AAA this year so he's not hopeless, that's a solid top end velo so worst case scenario he could be a guess hitter like Michael A Taylor

[G-Snarls]

The Dodgers are really pushing the limits of their pitching depth, minor league options rules, and the rules for position players pitching 

Wow

[hanton]

50 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

The Dodgers are really pushing the limits of their pitching depth, minor league options rules, and the rules for position players pitching 

Wow

Oh yea - Wrobleski called up to start today and Sheehan should be coming off the IL soon - the biggest disappointment is Bobby Miller.  He's looking like a failed prospect at this point.

[G-Snarls]

And another one 

-

MLBTR

Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe will undergo Tommy John surgery.

[Laika]

Brewers bumped Aaron Civale from their rotation in favour of Misiorowski. 

Civale has requested a trade. 

30 years old. Free agent after 2025. $8M salary this year. 
5.53 FIP on the year (0.0 fWAR) in 5 starts, and 4.74 last year (0.9 fWAR) in 161 innings split between Tampa and Milwaukee. So he has not been very good since 2024 began.
ZiPS projects a 4.55 ERA/FIP if used as a starter which would be about a 1.5 fWAR pitcher in a full season.
His Stuff+ this year is 95, down from 106 and 108 the last two seasons. It seems like the cutter, which he throws a lot, is specifically worse (from a 102 to a 90). 

Bowden Francis now sits at a 6.91 FIP and 6+ ERA, bad for -1.0 fWAR. Projection systems all seem to like Civale more than him. They all seem to rate Francis going forward as replacement level or slightly above replacement level. 

Francis' Stuff+ is 94 this year. The Stuff and Command package you get between Francis and Civale is similar, but Civale has a wider arsenal and maybe more "pitchability." 

Francis has an option and is under team control through 2029. Toronto could acquire Civale and just demote Francis, keeping him around as SP depth for this year and a project entering 2026. \

Do it! Go get Civale. Slight upgrade. 

Or, set the sights higher? 

[Brownie19]

I'd be on board with that - simply because it adds rotational depth.  I can't imagine he'll cost much.  We could do this - and set our sights higher of course...

[Laika]

Should be almost free tbh. Replacement level and still owed several million bucks this year. 

But an veteran SP6 has some inherent value. 

Milwaukee needs offense more than anything. 90 team wRC+. Maybe some random Buffalo dude works.

Joey Ortiz looks like he has been a disaster 

[max silver]

4 minutes ago, Laika said:

Should be almost free tbh. Replacement level and still owed several million bucks this year. 

But an veteran SP6 has some inherent value. 

Milwaukee needs offense more than anything. 90 team wRC+. Maybe some random Buffalo dude works.

Joey Ortiz looks like he has been a disaster 

I guess my only concern with a Civale acquisition is the fact that he isn't going to be happy if he's not in the rotation. If Scherzer manages to come back that leaves the club with 5 starters locked into the rotation at that point, and makes deadline acquistions a little trickier to navigate. At that point I imagine Civale could simply be flipped to a different team if necessary however..

[Terminator]

19 minutes ago, Laika said:

Do it! Go get Civale. Slight upgrade. 

Or, set the sights higher? 

Hmmm...I'm not sure he moves the needle.

He's probably an upgrade on Francis, but Civale himself could get bumped out of a spot as soon as Scherzer or Turnbull are ready.

Now I wouldn't blame you for doubting the latter two, but I think it's probably worth giving them a shot. And there will be bigger fish available in about a month.

That said, if Civale costs almost nothing (including the Brewers eating most of his salary), then I think you could acquire him and give him two turns through the rotation. If he sucks then just cut him loose. But that would be a scenario where the Brewers pay everything but 1 mil of his remaining salary and we give them a 19 year old in return.

[Laika]

I'm not expecting Turnbull to ever be "ready"
He had a 95 stuff+ in relief; if he had to go 5 innings that's probably a 92. 

Coincidentally, that is Lauer's stuff+ right now. I am thinking that Lauer is just getting really lucky and BABIP, LOB% and HR/FB support this. 

Not sure Turnbull and Lauer are really viable options with the stuff they have now, other than as craftily used long reliever types. 

But I guess that does beg the question, would some dude + Lauer as a tandem be better than Civale? Maybe. 

Remember, Max Scherzer is a con artist so his goal is probably to wait and see if a playoff spot is on lock then decide he wants to pitch five games plus the postseason. 

The wild cards are Manoah, Macko, and Yesavage. 

I guess if you acquire Civale you probably only want to pay for like 5 or 6 starts by him, since there is a decent chance he gets bumped and cut after that. 

God I am just so sick of Bowden Francis and now the projections even hate him so it just seems stupid to roll him out there at all. 

[Orgfiller]

16 minutes ago, max silver said:

I guess my only concern with a Civale acquisition is the fact that he isn't going to be happy if he's not in the rotation. If Scherzer manages to come back that leaves the club with 5 starters locked into the rotation at that point, and makes deadline acquistions a little trickier to navigate. At that point I imagine Civale could simply be flipped to a different team if necessary however..

I mean, we've reached a point where Bowden Francis might be the worst active SP in baseball. Like, the bullpen contingency of Lauer/Schultz/anyone is literally maybe 1-2 wins better on the basis of not actively hurting the team. Scherzer's health can't be trusted at all, and you can always piggyback Lauer with Civale, or have a 6-man rotation to give the old guys some extra rest in between starts which they benefit from.

[Terminator]

22 minutes ago, Laika said:

I'm not expecting Turnbull to ever be "ready"
He had a 95 stuff+ in relief; if he had to go 5 innings that's probably a 92. 

Coincidentally, that is Lauer's stuff+ right now. I am thinking that Lauer is just getting really lucky and BABIP, LOB% and HR/FB support this. 

Not sure Turnbull and Lauer are really viable options with the stuff they have now, other than as craftily used long reliever types. 

But I guess that does beg the question, would some dude + Lauer as a tandem be better than Civale? Maybe. 

Remember, Max Scherzer is a con artist so his goal is probably to wait and see if a playoff spot is on lock then decide he wants to pitch five games plus the postseason. 

The wild cards are Manoah, Macko, and Yesavage. 

I guess if you acquire Civale you probably only want to pay for like 5 or 6 starts by him, since there is a decent chance he gets bumped and cut after that. 

God I am just so sick of Bowden Francis and now the projections even hate him so it just seems stupid to roll him out there at all. 

I hear you on all this.

I will say as far as the projections go is that Francis has always had bad projections.

Not this bad, but bad nonetheless. I believe he had a true talent change when he started throwing a splitter.

I am also sick of him and he needs to go down but it's really tough right now with two out of the 5 spots essentially being bullpen spots.

I'm on board with Civale, just make sure to pay for him like he's a guy you are going to cut in a month.

[max silver]

2 hours ago, Orgfiller said:

I mean, we've reached a point where Bowden Francis might be the worst active SP in baseball. Like, the bullpen contingency of Lauer/Schultz/anyone is literally maybe 1-2 wins better on the basis of not actively hurting the team. Scherzer's health can't be trusted at all, and you can always piggyback Lauer with Civale, or have a 6-man rotation to give the old guys some extra rest in between starts which they benefit from.

Yeah I hear you. Depending on acquisition cost this could be a very worthwhile addition. In the end I'd like the club to aim higher on a rotation addition, and I'd really like to see the team take a shot at reacquiring Kikuchi as the deadline nears as he would be a nice replacement for Bassitt if/when he leaves in free agency. 

[Spanky__99]

Pick up Civale for now and flip him when need be closer to the deadline, I'd approve of this. 

It's kind of a no-brainer at this point as SP don't become available at this time in the season. Gir R Done!

[jaysblue]

On 6/11/2025 at 7:30 PM, G-Snarls said:

And another one 

-

MLBTR

Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe will undergo Tommy John surgery.

Yeah Jobe never looked right at all this season. You figured something was up. 

[jaysblue]

Yeah Jays need to navigate through these next couple of weeks to the All-Star break. 

If Civale costs nothing to add, definitely worth adding and giving him a couple starts. Rotation depth is never a bad thing and you never know if another arm goes down at some point. 

At the deadline, would like to aim higher, but that is never a guarantee and the prices definitely will be higher for a top SP. 

Like Max's idea of re-acquiring Kikuchi if the Angels make him available. Would be a perfect fit in this rotation. Kind of wish the Jays were able to bring him back last offseason again.