BTS

I'm not talking about offensive players though. I posted this a few weeks ago, but: Dodgers just gave Heyward 9M for 1 year and Hernandez 4M. Joe Kelly 8M. Rays gave Phil Maton 6.5M Braves gave Joe Jimenez 3/26 and Reynaldo Lopez 3/30 Orioles have Kimbrel 13M Phillies gave Merrifield 8M

Also - I think it's pretty clear that the team thinks IKF projects better than Urshela this year, given that they jumped on him early when Urshela was still available. If their assessments have IKF as the better player this year by, say, 0.5-1 win. It's perfectly justifiable to prefer spending 7.5M on IKF instead of 2 or 3? on Urshela. Fans are considering Urshela and Rosario as completely interchangeable with IKF, but the team probably doesn't see it that way.

I don't know if they were there in previous CBAs, but the incentives in the current CBA should probably be addressed. Teams are incentivized to lowball arbitration eligible players pre-arb. It's better for them to go to arbitration than to settle because that preserves the flexibility to cut players before the season if roster situations change between December and opening day. Players are not incentivized to maximize earnings because the more they make, the more likely they get cut a few weeks before the season and hit the FA market when most teams have no more money to spend. It's pretty crazy that they arrived at this set of rules.

That's not actually true though. Teams like TB, LAD, ATL all spent IKF money or more on players expected to be worth about 1 win this season. I'm not really defending the choice to sign IKF. I think that's the valid criticism to make here. We'll see how well they evaluated him. I think the cost is immaterial though. They decided that they were comfortable with IKF getting 400+ PA at 3B. If he's good nobody will care that he cost 7.5M a year and if he's bad the the opportunity cost of going to him instead of another solution will be the real harm, not that they signed him for 15M instead of 5M or whatever. I think the complaints about the cost are mostly just silly. First it was whining that they couldn't afford Chapman because they signed IKF. Then it turned out that the FO isn't completely moronic, and knew at the time that Chapman didn't want to come back. Now people are complaining that Clement is blocked. We'll see how that plays out, but almost all whining that fans do in ST about players being blocked ends up being a complete non-issue once injuries and poor performance start to kick in.

I don’t think that’s an actual problem. 2B is open if Schneider earns it. They can easily roster Clement. Playing time will be available. I’ll concede the point if Clement is waived and then plays well for whoever claims him.

This forum is pathetic sometimes. The Rays run a payroll less than half of Toronto's, and shockingly 6.5M for Phil Maton is not a daily source of histrionics. Nor are Braves fans melting down over Joe Jimenez getting 26M. I get that 15M for IKF is a bit much, but also, it just doesn't really matter.

The teams scooping up these cheap vets after the cratered market are the Marlins, Pirates, A's, and Rays of the world. The teams who don't spend any money, and weren't competitive on players before before things fell off a cliff. Basically every team with an actual payroll bought players at prices that look high compared to what we're seeing right now.

WTF minor league deal for Domingo German

Damn, dude would have made like 2x the money this year if he had accepted SF's pre-arb offer.

Tell Varsho he’s catching 2-3x week until Jansen is back.

Take it to PM

They're back in a couple days

Yup. I'm watching Zack Littell right now and he's throwing like 50% sliders, a bunch of them at 85-87 mph. He hasn't been a starter since 2018, but the Rays are going to have him throwing a few dozen high velo sliders a game. It will work until his arm explodes in June, but they won't care because they have nothing invested in him and can just move on to the next guy up.

Nobody was banned for using that word, they were banned for not shutting the f*** up after being told they couldn’t.

New forum policy: Anyone confirmed to have had intercourse with Dinger can use homophobic slurs.

Discussion is over. This is a baseball forum, and you can't say f**got on it. If you feel aggrieved by that there are other places you can post about it.

Do you feel very strongly that we delete every post that includes the word r**ard? If so, I'll be happy to accommodate you. Regardless of whether r**tard is permissible, we'll continue to delete the 1 or 2 posts a year that use the word f**got.

Yes, this forum is like 99.9% male.

If people feel very strongly that the r word also not be allowed under any circumstances, that's something we should consider.

f***ot is not a permitted word on this forum. No need for further discussion.

They're being managed like an impulsive person's dynasty league team

That team has absolutely no direction

Apparently they told Chris Devenski he might be a starter for them. He’ll give them like 60 innings if 3.50 ERA ball, blow out his arm and never pitch in the majors again

Yariel Rodriguez apparently pitching vs. the Phillies Sunday

I feel like the league isn't at a stable place right now with pitching. Teams are burning through arms by squeezing every last ounce of velo and spin out of them on every pitch. And they don't want to commit to them because they know they're pushing them hard enough that they're going to break over the course of a long-term deal. There will probably need to be incentives put in place that reduce the amount of different pitchers available to teams over the course of a season, because right now they're treating them like completely disposable assets.