John_Havok

Would cause far more problems than it would hope to solve

That was already reduced a few years ago to maximum 5 times per season.

Yes even more of a thing with an elite CF in place.

I think it makes sense completely why you wouldn’t save as many runs or have as quite a high OAA in LF or Rf. The biggest factor would be that you’re deferring to the CF on balls hit where both of you might make the catch, most of the time. That could make a big difference over the course of a season.

Will never get a cut back of roster players with a players union around. There also the issue that guys being optioned up and down is now capped at 5 times per year, so trimming the amount of pitchers on a roster would be greatly impacted by that cap

Especially in a game where the wind is swirling in all kinds of crazy ways and the Rays 3b nearly muffed a simple pop up the inning before. In The RC he makes that play 99/100 without even needing to dive. It’s Florida in spring, the wind is nuttier than baseball players pics in the new pants.

Pfft. Manfred is destroying baseball again! Scherzer has a completely weird take on it though…they aren’t “too scared to let pitchers fail” like they’re trying to protect the pitchers ego or something, they’re doing it because they don’t want to give up any more runs… which happens a lot more often the third time through the order for almost every pitcher in baseball except the very best. It’s always been that way. Now teams just realize it’s better to take a guy out sooner rather than later when it comes to winning games. The quote from Dave Roberts sums it up perfectly… “From a fan perspective, yeah, to see a guy in there to go seven, eight innings, I absolutely get it. Doesn’t necessarily help you win baseball games, and I’m in the business of winning games."

mechanics are still very clearly out of whack. THe command was nowhere near this bad even in his "results beating peripherals" year 1st start of spring so not ready to throw out Baby Huey with the bathwater but... as a continuation of last season its certainly worrisome. I'm just surprised all the weight loss didn't instantly fix all of his problems.

This might be the single greatest 1st post in board history.

Wait until we get into how long a steak needs to be cooked to be edible.

A physically underdeveloped high schooler... who is now 6'6" 216 at 20 years old. That's a timely growth spurt

Who wants to tell him?

You don’t need to “learn” Celsius. It’s not you’re required to do calculations to figure out the temperature…. It’s no harder than changing your clock in the spring. You just change the numbers you look at and accept the new reality

Yeah, I think he’s looking at the same framework as Bellinger got, just with lower AAV. Me and Spanky hashed that out either in this thread or a different one yesterday.

And yes, I’m jealous because I’m not in Florida at ST and instead am sitting in a -25 freezing hellhole of Saskatchewan. Definitely a SS in his day…look at that form!

What people infer from a statement is just that…an inference. I concede the possibility exists that Atkins had and continues to have no intention of bringing back Chapman, because I’m not in his head. But either way he can’t state he’s not interested in any specific player since it’s against the CBA to do so.

Oh that one, yeah that was Oct 7th. He said initially “The bulk of our team [is] essentially returning,” Atkins said. “We’ll miss Matt Chapman and Brandon Belt and Kevin Kiermaier. We’ll see opportunities to work to fill those holes from within and externally. The bulk of our pitching returning, minus Hyun-Jin Ryu. Maybe a couple of others, Alek Manoah coming back into the fold, thought Hyun-Jin Ryu could also be an alternative for us.” Then he said a few minutes later he was open to bringing back all three guys, one of which happened. Then Nov 7th - Atkins says “absolutely remain interested” on a multi-year deal for Chapman. Atkins has had dialogue with both Chapman and his agent, Scott Boras, and said, “our engagement has been great.” For context, the Atkins quote was after they had extended the qualifying offer but before the deadline to accept or reflect so the rejection that was clearly a formality had not happened yet. Chapman hasn’t made any comments post season as you’d expect but before the end of the season, Chapman said he was “definitely open to coming back” and praised the organization for how they take care of players. “They really care about (the) players, and there’s nothing that they wouldn’t do for you. So I have a lot of respect for everybody in this organization,” Chapman said. That last bit was from a story in the Athletic on Nov 8th

Nice! For a vid on a pasty bald white dude in a sleeveless shirt and fashionably questionable shorts catching a Westburg HR ball, click here! Please note the very excellent and fundamentally sound fielding position displayed at the 12 second mark of the video https://www.mlb.com/gameday/orioles-vs-braves/2024/02/26/748228/final/wrap

Which comments are you referring to and from when?

From recent stuff out there from a wide variety of sources, nobody can even confirm a team having even made offers on Chapman, Montgomery or Snell since the season ended. They called Boras, got the asking price, probably laughed, hung up and just never called back.

Twins GM the other day said something about free agency on a radio show "We're not going to go out and spend $30 million on a player right now," he said. "The players that are out there right now that probably a bunch of fans are talking about, we are not in the market for those players." Dangerously close to a violation. He stopped short of naming specific players, but it’s not exactly rocket science to connect the dots. Per the CBA “none of the Covered Parties may make comments to the media about the value of an unsigned free agent, or about possible or contemplated terms for an unsigned free agent, regardless of whether discussions have occurred. The prohibitions apply equally to comments that are on and off the record, as well as to comments that are provided on the condition of anonymity or published without identifying the source (e.g., "an industry source"). Making comments about the general budget is fine

Not when they both bat RH….

He hit .366 in Buffalo. With the Jays he hit .192 over 31 PA in 29 games.

Defensively he'll be fine. the only ? is how well his bat will play.

to be fair, there aren't many 3b prospects in any org that project to be an adequate replacement for Chapman.