Laika

Manoah ugh After back to back tough losses, it's tough that we have to roll out the team's worst SP

Some pieces available. Kutter Crawford and Xzavion Curry --- two live young MLB arms. Crawford is stretched out and could slide into the BOS rotation at some point. Both of these guys have good numbers. Daniel Lynch - 26 years old with prospect pedigree, on rehab, could trade before he gets activated. Kyle Hendricks - on DL and on rehab. Adam Wainwright - on DL and on rehab. Brian Anderson - 3B/OF eligible off to a good start. Charlie Blackmon - off to a good start. I could use one more rock solid reliever. Could also trade for pick(s) or an interesting prospect. I want to clear a few spots for DL activations and prospect promotions. Open to discussing other OF like Haniger and Laureano.

Stuff+ projections love Pressly still for some reason even though his K rate is way down. They also love Abreu, obviously. But they think Mayza is better than any other HOU reliever. And Yimi is about as good as Montero and Neris. For some reason the model does not love Swanson. Seems weird tbh but there is something to pull at there. Visually, he does not have amazing stuff but his results have been fantastic for a while. Stuff+ might have a specific issue measuring his splitter. I'll go so far as to say that the model is just wrong on Swanson. He should have a projected ERA in line with Steamer (3.62) and perhaps even better. Romano - 3.50 Mayza - 3.57 Garcia - 3.84 Pearson - 4.03 Swanson - 4.10 Pop - 4.11 Richards - 4.50 Pressly - 2.77 Abreu - 3.14 Montero - 3.83 Neris - 3.87 Stanek - 3.88 Maton - 4.01 Martinez - 4.60 And again on the Richards number - Stuff+ sucks with most changeup. He should be more like 4.00

MLBTR has an article on the White Sox rebuild and it is fascinating that they have f***ed this up because they made some great trades. 2016 Chris Sale to the Red Sox for Yoán Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe and Victor Diaz 2016 Adam Eaton to the Nationals for young pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and Dane Dunning 2017 José Quintana to the Cubs for a package headlined by prospects Dylan Cease and Eloy Jiménez Drafted / developed Tim Anderson, Luis Robert, Andrew Vaughn, Gavin Sheets, Jake Burger, Garrett Crochet, Aaron Bummer, Oscar Colas... Signed Liam Hendriks, extended Lance Lynn (traded Dunning for him), signed Benintendi and Grandal... From that collection of high-end young assets the only two they have playing towards the top of their potential are Cease and Giolito. And even they are pretty volatile as they are pitchers with some command issues. Just rotten to the core on the developmental side of things I guess... and drafting. But to trade three expiring contract veterans and land MONCADA, KOPECH, GIOLITO, LOPEZ, DUNNING, CEASE, and JIMENEZ and still f***ing suck all the time is really some feat.

Yeah he's a stud. Haters simply do not understand baseball

Toronto bullpen has the 2nd best xFIP in baseball. And second best SIERA. ERA and FIP not as good. It's possible they are getting pretty unlucky. When I think about Yimi Garcia, for example, I can't help but think that he is being tested by god. His K-BB numbers are sublime and he is throwing very hard but he has a f***ing 30% HR/FB rate lmao.

And now Zach Pop looks like a replacement level reliever again. Stupid sinker

George Springer is a f***ing problem. 0.086 ISO. He is playing like Randal Grichuk in a cold streak. Ugh. Belt has been useless. The "supporting cast" is mostly without power. Biggio + Belt + Espinal + Luplow + Lukes + Kiermaier have.... 268 combined PA and 5 combined home runs. Merrifield has none but that's not his game anyway. I'm not worried about the catchers. Their K-BB rates seem fine so they will both come around.

Barriera supposed to debut today

But they just extended him through 2027. Leave it to the Rockies to turn one of their only assets approaching free agency into a brick with no value. He's an okay player but the total package is a bit borderline. Like, the K-BB numbers are fringe and the power isn't amazing. Not a guy I want to own into his 30s. Metrics do like his 3B defense. He's probably a .230/.300/.400 hitter outside of Coors.

The bat looks EXTREMELY legit. But so far the defense and baserunning look horrible. That contract is good for a viable outfielder but if he is closer to a DH it's not good.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/05/cubs-designate-ryan-borucki-for-assignment.html

Every other manager in baseball would bug a FAN with a SERIOUS INTEREST in the results as much or more than John Schneider

I don't see any obvious trade candidates at 3B. The other 3B free agents are Donaldson, Turner, Longoria... Brian Anderson, Candelario, Eduardo Escobar. I don't see any SS or 2B free agents that would work well at 3B on a competitive team. Addison Barger better start hitting!!!

He's just barely missing some of these pitches. Lots of sky high flyballs that he could have put in the seats.

Every free agent Toronto signs, no other team was matching the money. That's just how it works. Basically without exception.

If Toronto did anything wrong WRT Belt their mistake was falling for the "I was injured" narrative for a mid 30s player. It's easy to look at track record and projections and gobble up that narrative. He was a fantastic hitter for years, and his projections remained strong, but he was bad in 300 PA last year with documented leg injuries. So they assume he was bad because of those injuries AND assume he will not be bad going forward because of those injuries. Why make those assumptions? It's not a big deal of course but at this point in time you'd rather they just gave some random guy the job and reserved the $9M for a deadline acquisition.

It's 2023. Inflation is 69% a year. $9M is tinkering for most teams. I dunno, I don't think the front office is incompetent. I doubt they bid against themselves. Wil Myers got $7.5M, Carlos Santana got $7M, Jean Segura got $8.5M, Adam Duvall got $7M, David Peralta got $6.5M.... Toronto might have thrown an extra $1M or $1.5M at Belt to get him to sign.

Bellinger and Gallo would not have signed here though, given the current roster construction, because they would not have full time jobs. Belt signed as a platoon DH and occasional 1B... If Toronto was bringing in Gallo or Bellinger, it would have been instead of the Kiermaier signing or Varsho trade. At the time Belt was signed people were a bit surprised because the thought had been that Jansen and Kirk would occupying DH most of the time. I think the alternative to Belt would have just been signing a much lower cost DH/1B option to backup the position and maybe pinch hit. Someone like Mike Moustakas. Someone you would feel fine cutting if Barger or Horwitz are killing AAA.

Well, Tellez is not a particularly good player despite being a good hitter. Still hunting his first 1 WAR season. Stuff like signing Brandon Belt just falls into the annual roster tinkering category. You don't need to control a long-term platoon DH; you just need to assess your depth chart once a year and add the appropriate final pieces during the offseason to make it all work.

Alex Fast @AlexFast8 · 24s · April CSW Leaders (SP, min 400) 1. Strider: 38.7 2. deGrom: 37.3 3. McClanahan: 36.1 4. Gallen: 33.9 5. Germán: 33.5 6. Lodolo: 33.2 7. Kershaw: 32.9 8. Berríos: 32.9 9. Gore: 32.9 10. Ohtani: 32.8 Alex Fast @AlexFast8 · 12m April's Barrels / PA% Leaders: 1. Chapman: 21.1 2. Gallo: 15.4 3. Burger: 15.3 4. Rooker: 15.1 5. Raley: 14.3 6. Arozarena: 13.6 7. Muncy: 13.6 8. B Reynolds: 12.9 9. E Sosa: 12.9 10. Wisdom: 12.7

The thing with the Bruins this season is... they were never as good as their record. It never made sense that they kept winning. Sure they were good but they must have been the luckiest team in recent history. It's just a normal, solid roster with one star forward and a collection of really solid two way guys. They weren't obviously better than many of the other good teams. Given the ages of some of the core players I did not really expect them to win the cup. They still choked horrendously though. Marchand break away to win the series two games ago, doesn't score. Winning with a minute left in game 7, get scored on.

Swear to god, Espinal tried to get jacked before 2022 so he could hit for some power but becoming a bit muscle bound f***ed up his defense and speed significantly.

Maybe that wanted to give him a full day off for maintenance. I dunno.

2022 Red Sox 16-3 Cubs 2-1 Reds 2-1 Tigers 5-2 Royals 5-2 Angels 4-3 Twins 3-4 As 3-3 Pirates 3-0 Rangers 4-2 47 - 21 against teams that finished under .500