Laika

24*

"Stretches" must mean a couple of innings within the odd start. He really has not had a string of starts this year that have been good. No, we don't get to count starts where he walked more people than he K'd but he got lucky and didn't give up much runs.

Anthony Alford is going to be a SHOWTIME player. He might struggle for a year in the MLB but the tools will shine through eventually. 2019 is the perfect year to let him learn and put up a below average season. I expect a similar trajectory for Lewis Brinson. Look for him to have at least 8 fWAR (total) beside his name by the time he hits free agency.

Yelich cycle on the Monday and the tilt is huge already.

The pending 40 man roster crunch. Tanking ethics in fantasy baseball.

Dr. Ralph Lifshitz was the doctor (trusted child psychologist) on Rugrats, everyone knows this.

I mean with you

okay now i understand silvergun's whole thing i guess

There is no value difference between a 13th overall or 16th overall pick so I don't care. Boxy has ruined any street cred he had though. Pathetic.

Havok has to be like a 65% favourite next week though. His team is clearly better on both sides of the ball, healthy outside of Schwarber, and he lines up with a handful of 2 start SP and an unconsciously good Christian Yelich. z3r0s has a patch-work pitching staff at this point and the offense seems to be a full grade worse than Havok's on paper (not to mention several of the bats are ice cold).

Havok vs z3r0s is a fun finals. Two up-start teams, more or less. z3r0s' teams were under .500 for four straight season before 2017 (first playoff berth) and now he's in the finals. Havok did sneak into the 2015 playoffs but sandwiched that with two seasons below .400! before getting good in 2017. Now both owners can probably make arguments that their franchises, respectively, should rank above some of the franchises that have been historically the DDL playoff contenders like Spanky, BTS, TCA, TRM/P2F.

Even the little article on the Senators website announcing the trade is a disaster. "Ottawa Senators complete most important trade in rebuild" ... lol "Senators acquire six assets in Erik Karlsson trade" ... because the quantity is what matters? "This decision sets the team up for a promising future, building toward the creation of a younger, faster and stronger roster overall - characterized by a commitment to leadership, character and chemistry." ... Did Melnyk write this himself? "in exchange for Erik Karlsson and an AHL player" ... kind of insulting if you are the "an AHL player" "this deal leverages earlier decisions in the rebuild to deliver the largest pipeline of potential Ottawa has had in its system in the past 15 years. ... hahahah leverages earlier decisions "While looking to the future with excitement and optimism, the franchise does wish to thank Erik Karlsson for his nine years of service." ... oh do you? you wish to thank him for his years of service? lmao

Gross.

Is it that bad? I don't know anything about NHL prospects. What kind of return would have been reasonable.

how the f*** is he a lawyer

That's not the correct way to look at it. Blister issues are definitely more prevalent. Look at Cueto - goes his whole career almost without getting hurt and then all of a sudden recently has chronic blister issues (before his elbow fell apart). The rate seems to have doubled.

Mike Fiers Trevor Cahill Chris Bassitt Daniel Mengden Edwin Jackson ... holding down a playoff spot baseball!

^ that is all I could gather from your post

I don't think his value is as terrible as you guys do. He has amazing stuff, two years of control left, and he was a legitimate star player in 2016. I think I would let teams know he is available but most likely let him start in 2019, see if he can stay healthy and be a great deadline trade chip.

A nice reminder that prospect volatility sometimes runs in the other direction (it's not ALL about failure!) 82 wRC+ in 2014 in A ball with no dingers 91 wRC+ in 2015 in A+ ball with one stupid home run 96 wRC+ in 2016 in AA with four lame wall-scrapers Pre-2017 Longenhagen writes this: "Johan Camargo, INF, o.7 KATOH+- A switch-hitting Panamanian infielder, Camargo will flash impressive leatherwork, but he lacks the range for shortstop and the bat to play anywhere else. His feel for hitting and lack of balance at the plate are both non-starters for any sort of offensive output, but he’s a plus defender at third and has started to see reps at second base. He could have Abraham Nunez’ career." 101 wRC+ in 2017 in MLB with a .364 BABIP; assumed to be a fluke / replacement level guy 123 wRC+ in 2018 in MLB with a .200 ISO and 3.2 fWAR and counting... lmao I guess he's probably on roids

I don't know how you guys even land on some of these comps. McKinney is closer to Seth Smith than he is to any kind of Gardner-ish player.

Brutal. Ohtani and Kopech in the same week :|

This is incredible. Also, and I will probably go to hell for this... "To say that a card with scouting reports on it is a “foreign substance” is just an absurd interpretation." Said the woman with a penis.

McKinney is extremely interesting to me. For the first four years of his pro career he consistently received plus grades on his hit tool, had a flat swing that scouts loved, and he put up decent AVG and OBP figures (the AVG varied but the OBP was always good). But he didn't hit for power, to the point that scouting reports wondered if he even had 50 grade game power. Then he changed his approach. In 2017 he walked less often than ever but hit for way more power. In 2018 in MiLB the power trend continued but his AVG plummeted and took the OBP with it. Scouting reports started to indicate that he had plus game power but a below average hit tool in games! It's just such a wonderful illustration of the often negative connection (or the trade off) between the "hit tool" and the "power tool". A scientific experiment in baseball scouting that really pecks away at our preconceived notion of what a tool is. Or perhaps it's just a great illustration of the trade offs that certain players who have average-ish tools need to make in order to find the formula of in-game skill presentation that works for them. McKinney, at a glance, seems to be a guy who can intentionally be a 60 hit, 40 power dude or a 40 hit, 60 power dude (roughly grading) but he does not have the tool-set to be a 60 hit, 60 power guy. It's just not possible given his abilities, ostensibly. Of course the second wrinkle is that power is positively linked to OBP in some instances, if the player has a good eye. So a 40 hit tool with a great approach can still equal great production. Look no further than Jose Bautista in certain years, of course. But approach vs. hit tool is a big rabbit hole. I think Billy McKinney is my new favourite Blue Jay not named Danny Jansen.

To be fair to everybody - what to do during the 2018 offseason would have been a very tough decision for the front office. It was probably close to a coin flip (retool vs. make modest investments to compete) and either avenue would have been justifiable. The team was tied to a lot of veteran players who really would not have had much trade value. A rebuild would have been pretty awkward--who does the team even shop for good value last offseason aside from JD? Osuna, Stroman, Sanchez all had a bunch of years of control so they wouldn't have been obvious trade candidates in context. Happ probably had much less value last offseason than he was just dealt for at the deadline. I don't think Pearce would have had any value in the offseason. Same for Smoak - almost no trade value in that market. Others have said that JD might have had much less trade value than people are assuming, because the market was overflowing with 3B and other corner bat types. The team would have projected for a win total somewhere between 81 and 86 (I am guessing) so if a couple of hypothetical things panned out competing was not out of the question.