Laika

Bowden Francis good job! wow! so legit!

Remove Soto's fantastic 2024 and they are basically the same. Like, if Vlad can repeat this in 2025 he will look a lot like if Juan Soto had hit free agency after 2023. Same ceiling. And the same sporadic issue - groundballs - but of course Soto's case of groundballitis was not as bad or at least not as detrimental. Of course Soto is slightly better but it's not a huge gap. Soto can be an 8 WAR player and will likely get there this year. Vlad can probably be a 7 WAR player if he has a year where he never slumps.

who the f*** knows, it's the Angels Ernie Clement.

yoosee kikoochee

Looks like Ross has his propaganda team working overtime

Definitely the worst team I have ever seen. They will end up with zero 1 WAR position players... DeJong gave them 0.9 but he has been traded. Lopez and Robert Jr. have 0.5 each. They have negative WAR from all of these scrubs: Maldonado, Lenyn Sosa, Benintendi, Shewmake, Fletcher, Senzel, Vargas, Vaughn, Eloy, Sheets, Grossman, Bryan Ramos, Julks, Korey Lee, DeLoach, Mendick, and a few more guys who have like 12 PAs. Their only success stories are on the bump. Crochet, Fedde, and I guess Tanner Banks. And if you lower the bar to your ankles, Jonathan Cannon sort of?

they put fWAR in the graphic lmao

Looks like he played the OF for 56 games, and pitched, in 2013 when he was 18. Other than that just a few games. OF/RP is an often discussed route. If he is a 10 WAR RF, that WAR would barely decrease at all on the position player side if he ran in from RF to the mound and closed out 60 games. But he could easily add 2 WAR as an elite closer. So I guess that's the question. RF/RP or SP/DH?

Ohtani is going to end up at 7.5 WAR as a DH He would almost certainly be a plus plus RF with his speed and arm. That gives him 1 more WAR on the positional adjustment alone. Then probably another 1.5 WAR (+15 runs) on defensive skill. 10 WAR seems light though. Hmmmm. Maybe his optimal role is SP/DH?

Steamer thinks he ends up at 39/39, lol Has Ohtani at 51/52 Judge 58 homers

So the Yankees did fix Mayza His velo is up to 2023 levels. No walks and 62% GB rate with them so far.

Tate will be cheap in 2025 if they want him. Get used to this because Toronto will be cycling through relievers from the waiver claim pile for the next ten months or so Some of them won't last a week, others will end up in the 2025 pen and a few of them will probably be good Here if a funny f***ing list. Top Jays 2024 RP by FIP (only including relief appearances): 1. Yimi Garcia 2. Ryan Burr 3. Ernie Clement 4. Ryan Yarbrough 5. Chad Green 6. Mitch White Every other Jays RP in 2024 has a FIP of 4.68 or higher and negative fWAR hahahahahahahahhaahha

Not really They have this glob of guys who could be 2 win players but I wouldn't be excited about any of them. I mean it's exciting that some of them might be league average bats but that's not what we are talking about. Nimmala has his 3% chance of being an all star I think Barger and Orelvis have the tools to be above average, 30 HR guys if they can figure it out

It was ageism I tell ya

I guess you don't really need a minor league system when you are a free agency / trade wizard like Ross. Just pull guys like Ernie and Willy Wags out of your ass when needed... and Bowden...

He IS also, obviously, a highly variable prospect at this point so he could also just show up next year with a 26% k rate and a better batted ball profiles at the next minor league level It's possible. Not likely but it's possible. Could also be the kind of guy to like, suck in AA then repeat the level and be very good. At some point

You are thinking about it the wrong way You can't go looking for the exceptional comps. You need to just look at all kids at that level of the minors who have struck out 30% of the time. And even if you want to look at the exceptional comps, those guys would have had great batter ball profiles and Nimmala's is probably horrible.

Adam Jones

There was no TJS option so I am abstaining... Probably SP4 is the highest I can go right now. Sample too small, novelty can be a big factor, fastball velo remains fringe.

I have it on good authority that Rob Manfred already had a sit down with the Orioles about this A new committee for DEI was formed in the Baltimore organization and Adam Jones Skype'd into the first meeting That is why they drafted Enrique Bradfield 17th overall last year Of course they followed that up with 2024 first round pick Vance Honeycutt, who comes from old plantation money in N Carolina. There has been some controversy about that selection.

He's interesting The stuff+ over the last month is actually pretty middling, like 94 stuff+ But the splitter effectively makes him a wide arsenal pitcher who is 50% FB, 25% splitter, 15% slider 10% curveball or something like that It's also not super common for a SP to throw a splitter that much Since July 28th here are the SP who have thrown a splitter 20%+ of the time: Gausman 35% Imanaga 32% Eovaldi 32% Francis 26% Houck 22% Mitchell Parker 21% (Bryce Miller 15% is next). Six guys. Comp to sliders, you get 19 guys and then a bunch more who are barely below 20% AND we kind of know that stuff+ sucks with changeups and splitters. e.g. it has Gausman and Imanaga's splitters as 90 and 80 pitches this year. Both of those are thrown a lot and have positive run values, so that just doesn't make sense. So if you make some assumptions: - more pitches is better - the splitter is a weapon despite what stuff+ says - he has good command Then I think he could be pretty damn good as a wide arsenal guy with good command and enough tricks up his sleeve. Some guys in that bucket are: - Zach Eflin (he might have 5+ pitches though) - Erick Fedde (cutter, sinker, slider, change) - Michael King (four seamer, sinker, slider, change) - Seth Lugo (four seamer, sinker, slider, curveball, plus three other show-me pitches) - This late career version of Nathan Eovaldi ^ all of the above are good 2024 SP with qualified innings but below average overall stuff+ I guess at the end of the day it could just be the classic baseball developmental touched-by-god leap of "man finds changeup" The thing we don't really know yet is if he actually has good command. If it comes and goes, he won't be as good as the above. And if the splitter isn't as good as it has seemed recently and hitters catch onto it, then he slides down the spectrum.

Before or after the TJS?

Neither of them walk enough. Subject to the BABIP gods forever. Chourio might not even be the best Chourio...

Jackson C is actually a good example of why people should NOT freak out about Jackson H Jackson C through May 31 61 wRC+ 27% K rate Holliday a bit worse than that and his 35% K rate is IMO much more concerning, but still. close. Jackson Merrill is the best Jackson though

It is brutal If you look for home-grown guys who have provided like, 100+ GS and solid WAR to the Blue Jays, there is nobody other than those two. And Chris Carpenter but he was on the edge of 2000. You can sort of give them points for Estrada because he was a swing-man when they traded for him. You can sort of give them points for Happ since he turned into a better P in Toronto. But so many guys who flashed promise just crumbled after 1-2 decent years. Hutchison, Sanchez, Cecil, Litsch, Henderson Alvarez, Marcum (3 years; traded), Romero (3 years), Chacin, McGowan, Manoah... And they traded away some guys who ended up doing it for other teams. Disco and Musgrove off the top of my head. I am tempted to say "that's just pitching" but I would guess that at least half of the league has done a bit better