Laika

ok bud that's not how anybody reputable rates arms you goof

Reading the MLB FA market isn't an exercise in rational foresight though. It's not simple to just, say, count the DHs and predict that the market will fall out. The MLB FA market is irrational as f***. I support a moderate quick strike strategy, year over year. Identify reasonable targets who could pay dividends and pounce on them. There is always risk in FA investing. It didn't particularly work with Morales (apparently, at this point in time) but it has paid off big for Toronto with JA Happ, should pay off big with Steve Pearce. Paid off big with Estrada (did he ever actually reach FA?) Happ got significantly less money last year than Kennedy, Leake, Chen, Zimmerman, Shark, Kazmir... he outperformed all of them and nearly paid for his whole contract in one year. Heck, he was better than Zack Greinke. Getting slightly less $$ than Happ were guys like Gallardo, Anderson, Pelfrey - pieces of s*** that ended up being worthless. Toronto clearly likes Morales. Maybe there's something in his statistical indicators that isn't obvious to us. We do already know about his hard hit rate being very good. Maybe he'll blow Moss et al. out of the water going forward. Maybe not. It doesn't mean Toronto's free agency policies are mistaken.

Yeah Morales is going to have to significantly outperform his projections to make Toronto not look kind of stupid. Billy Butler risk level Of course, Toronto only targeted him because they have some reason to believe that he is the most preferably option out of all the mid-range DH/1B options that were on the market. They obviously think they landed the best guy for the job, from the pool they were looking in.

Napoli > Moss = Lind = Carter

Moss gets 2/$12

I agree entirely. Even if Vlad hits his absolute ceiling, BA/MLB/BP would launch him up the list in the exact same pattern as Kris Bryant. Bryant - 1.078 OPS in 2013 after being drafted 2nd overall, rated 8th and 9th and 17th by MLB and BA and BP, respectively. - 1.098 OPS in 2014 in AA/AAA, rated 2nd and 1st and 5th by MLB and BA and BP, respectively. Even if Vlad nukes the Midwest league this year as an 18 year old, he's only maybe cracking a couple top 10s.

Well when he signed, up until some point in 2016, scouts had him pegged as something pretty close to bat-only (a corner outfielder who might outgrow the position and end up as a 1B/DH.) The Blue Jays putting him at 3B surprised people. Obviously, Toronto had a different opinion on his athleticism. Now he's being regarded as a fringe defender at 3B. And the reports on his arm have gone from 40/45 to 55/60, so he might even work in RF.

In response to: @jimcallisMLB who is your way-too-early number 1 prospect for 2018?

It's bloody awful depth

I don't think there is enough knowledge here to do something of any quality. Could crowdsource a fantasy top 100 in the OT forum though. Many people in those leagues know prospects in depth, from a fantasy perspective. Then we could use it to power rank farms

Eddie Butler has some plus pitching tools, and he has an option left. He's a good target. How he has been so bad with multiple plus pitches is a nice riddle for the analysts, and a nice communication problem for upper management to the coaches.

The seeds of a violent trape were planted

358 7-Apr-15 2015 Burrito Boyz Hyun-Jin Ryu, Eduardo Rodriguez, MiLB #53 London Slayers JD Martinez, Trevor Story, Gary Sanchez, MiLB #41, MiLB #86 Aggravated Trape in the 1st degree

The jaysblue tariff stifles most meaningful trades

It is in these here parts

Why do people care about his opinion?

Does Sickels even scout? Did he ever?

Bellinger might be the most overrated prospect in baseball. .271/.365 this year .264/.336 last year with 150 k's in 128 games .843 OPS in the minors, career. These simply are not numbers that viable 1B prospects put up. Stat-scout NJH says he will be a total f***ing flop. The tools can smell my farts.

f*** you

The Rockies are such a shame. Always have been. It always seems like with a competent front office their rosters would be good enough to pull things together very quickly. Even right now, they have Story and Arenado, some other OK bats, a deep enough pitching rotation with some potential front end young guys, and some good prospects.

Unfortunately, the command and control are about as steady as an inebriated Dominican on the back roads behind the wheel of his custom Range Rover

I just want Blackmon to get dealt to San Francisco and turn into a fantasy pumpkin overnight. I would be soooo happy.

1B prospects are so hard to predict that I don't really care about how much other people do or don't care about Tellez. Whatever. He'll either hit enough to matter or he won't - just like every other 1B prospect and non-prospect that came and died or thrived before him. And so on and so on and so on until Logan Morrison is an angel

He's got an abusive fastball, a violent slider, and a wife beating changeup.

Yeah, they clearly weren't thinking. Desperation move.