Laika

2 years away from being 2 years away. Yawn!

Archer Cobb Odorizzi Snell Andriese De Leon Schultz Faria Guerrieri Hu Honeywell Austin Pruitt Chase Whitley Hunter Wood Burch Smith? Enough depth to survive even a nightmare injury season too

GRATEROL NOTES >>>>>Catcher: Juan Graterol There can be feel-good stories on the All Out-of-Position Team, particularly since all of the MLB catchers this year were actually catchers. I’m sure Juan Graterol is a lovely guy, but he's not really a major league-caliber catcher. And yet ... Way back in September of 2005—still the Allard Baird era—the Royals signed Graterol as a 16-year-old out of Venezuela. Before long, it was clear that he was pretty much a non-prospect. He spent six years in the lowest levels of the minors, at one point almost splitting what limited time he had between first base and catcher. By the end of 2011 he'd yet to play more than a couple months above Low-A despite being 22 and had just finished a dismal season in which he hit .195/.255/.235 in 58 games. There would have been no shame in throwing in the towel. Graterol decided to persevere, and he was rewarded with a .301/.338/.393 season at High-A in 2012. It was still a long way to the majors, though. Graterol hit minor-league free agency after 2014, and at age 25 he only had seven Triple-A games to his name. He joined the Yankees and became their organizational catcher, spending time in Charleston, Tampa, and Scranton. He was on the move again at the end of 2015, but so was a higher-up who liked Graterol. Former Yankees executive Billy Eppler became the Angels’ general manager in October of 2015, and a few months later he invited Graterol to spring training. The team decided to stash him at Triple-A Salt Lake City, one step away from the majors. And after 11 years toiling in the minors, he caught a break. Geovany Soto was placed on the DL with inflammation in his knee. He tried to come back a few times during the season to no avail. So that bumped Graterol up the depth chart and actually gave him a brief cameo with the Angels in July, though he did not appear in any games. With Soto still unavailable in September, Graterol was recalled to be the third catcher. It said more about the state of the Angels in 2016 that Graterol was a major leaguer, but it was true nonetheless: "I even surprised myself," Graterol said. "I really made it. Wow. This is unbelievable." Graterol’s first career at-bat was on September 2, 2016, about 11 years to the day that he signed with the Royals. He doubled off Arquimedes Caminero. >>>>> ANAHEIM – Geovany Soto’s injury was Juan Graterol’s opportunity. The Angels placed Soto on the disabled list on Monday with inflammation in his left knee, a condition that cropped up just a day earlier. In order to take his roster spot, the Angels recalled Graterol, a 27-year-old Venezuelan who had spent 11 years in the minors without playing a game in the majors. Graterol, who got the news of his promotion on Monday afternoon while with the Triple-A team in Iowa, did not even make it to Angel Stadium until the second inning on Monday night. After watching his first game as a member of a big league roster, he stood in the clubhouse still in a daze. "I just feel great, amazing," Graterol said. "I feel in shock." Graterol was hitting .292 with a .331 on-base percentage at Salt Lake City. Manager Mike Scioscia wouldn’t commit to how much playing time Graterol would get, but presumably Jett Bandy will get most of the starts. Still, Graterol's wife and daughter will be traveling from Salt Lake City to see Tuesday's game, hoping to watch him finally play in the majors. "I hope I can play," he said. "If not, I'll just wait for my moment." Graterol, who originally signed with the Kansas City Royals as a 16-year-old, spent most of his career in that organization. He eventually moved on to the New York Yankees, where Angels GM Billy Eppler was the assistant GM. Eppler brought him to the Angels this winter. Graterol said, throughout it all, he never doubted he'd one day get the call he finally got on Monday. "I just wanted to keep doing my job," he said. "Whatever happened, someday I would have the opportunity." The Angels recalled Graterol instead of Carlos Perez, who has been in the majors most of the past two seasons, becaue they want Perez to continue to play every day at Triple-A to get his swing right. “He’s starting to get comfortable in the batter’s box and we want him to keep doing that,” Scioscia said. “We want him to keep moving that along and then we can re-evaluate.” Perez had five hits, including two homers, in his first 17 at-bats at Salt Lake City. As for Soto, Scioscia said he probably hurt his left knee compensating for his right knee, which he had surgically repaired two months ago. The Angels are expecting he can return as soon as he’s eligible, July 31. This injury probably reduces the chances Soto will be traded, but it is still possible.

Can you wipe your own butt?

I would rather sign Hank Conger. Maybe he could find the framing skills he had not too long ago. He's also flashed decent BB and power skills at the plate, and is only 29. It doesn't seem like there is anything else out there. Hundley is a nightmare defensively, Hanigan is 35 and probably cooked, Clevenger seems terrible... Thole, Salty, Navarro, Brayan Pena. Nothing!

Yuck, Salty might actually be worse than Kurt Suzuki. Maybe. Probably just as bad.

Talent? Holland was a truly elite reliever, like Kenley Jansen, right up until his arm broke. A potential 85 million dollar man before the injury. Hochevar had good K/BB numbers the last two years but he got a bit rocked in the zone. He was better in 2013 but not close to elite.

So it literally doesn't matter!

No, but there are still a bunch of names that I would like to sign. Howell, Logan, Furbush, Blevins, Wood, Maness, Hunter, Smith, Salas, Romo, Jepsen, Petit, Barrett, Tolleson, Belisle, Blanton, B.Norris, Hernandez, Holland, Hochevar. Look at them all!!!

I didn't notice the Floyd signing back on the 5th. Pretty good minor league deal.

Dermody has options. It would be very bad process to let him break camp with the team.

Salas is good! I think. When he broke in with the Cards back in 2011 he looked like a stud. His talent hasn't changed much or at all since then, but his usage and opportunities have varied considerably. After posting a 3.59 FIP in 2012 he spent half the year in AAA in 2013. Then he was excellent with the Angels but largely unnoticed due to not closing on a bad team. Possible free agent value RP (which is rare).

FWIW, I wouldn't characterize the 'no' argument as a slippery slope one. You're right that these are rare situations. I would characterize it as a "spirit of the rule" argument.

This is my inclination and my feeling. Also, we are talking about something between pick 20b and 40b, or maybe waiver #10. I feel like that level compensation is nearly insignificant and as a rule of thumb, in the spirit of our rule, if we ever find ourselves discussing such a small level of compensation it's probably best to step back and realize that the exercise is largely pointless and no compensation is warranted because it very likely won't have any substantial affect anyway. Being said, I have a conflict of interest with TCA as a division rival and don't want to rule on this unilaterally. So I'd like an odd number of league leaders to discuss it quickly and come to some decision as soon as they can. Maybe three to five of you, dinger, KK, z3r0s, thehurl, and boxy would want to form that committee?

No matter where you draw the line, there will be borderline situations. Making thick black boxes on things often just carries the air of objectivity without the substance. I don't think our rule really needs any tweaking.

And f***ing stupid. And not funny, even if you have assburgers too.

RIP in pieces, Yordano.

My knee-jerk reaction was that Ventura isn't in the class of players we meant to compensate. We can't pretend that 2016 didn't happen. It did, it was real bad, and it affected his projections and his value. If Shelby Miller died right now would we compensate his death? So far we've compensated for Jose Fernandez, a bona-fide Ace in his youth and arguably the #2 or #3 SP in Dynasty, and Oscar Taveras, the arguable #1 prospect in baseball at the time of his death. Those were Dynasty cornerstone assets. Ventura was a SP6 on a good team in our league. Even when he was good, it's not like he was great at K/BB, K/9, or OBPA - he was probably an SP4 on a decent team. We've also never given compensation proportionate to what a player's trade value at time of death would have been. I'm pretty sure TheHurl would not have traded Fernandez for two prospects 3+ years away. I'm pretty sure Boxcar would not have traded Oscar for two draft picks, no matter how high. IF we decide to give something for the loss of Ventura 20b seems high to me. I don't know if I would have been willing to trade pick 21 for Ventura... I recognize that Ventura was much better in 2014 and 2015, and that he still had a lot of upside, and that he was still very young. Those things are points in favour of him being worth compensation. But, this would severely lower the floor and set a different precedent for this type of thing. IF we compensate for Yordano then we are essentially committing to compensate for every objectively keeper quality player that dies. I'm open minded and reading every comment here though. We wrote the compensation rule with specific language. I would encourage people to refer to it.

Juan Adrian road accident, identification of the deceased is expected. Vehicle belongs to baseball player Yordano Ventura. #ZDigital

RE: Co-Managers The DDL's policy is that we frown upon co-managers. They are not strictly against the rules and their benefits in certain circumstances are clear. However, in the league's opinion too many co-managers is a net negative that makes league activity awkward and annoying.

He transitioned to female and followed Peter Pan into the shadow world? cool

As usual, you're wrong and frustrated about it.

Kurt Suzuki is awful. Can't hit, can't frame, can't throw... doesn't have the general athleticism that he had when he was younger that made him an above replacement level catching option.

I like his hats

I think we are at the age point when Miggy doesn't even go top 15 or 20 in a Dynasty draft