Terminator

Yeah been saying JD Davis would be a fit all offseason. He’d be a perfect fit if we didn’t sign Turner but I’d still take him at this point. He’s in a FA year and he has flashed some serious offensive potential before. He gets labeled as a butcher at 3B on this board but his UZR is okay and his OAA is decent. Really just his DRS sucks.

Most of the moves made sense at the time: -Chad Green options were picked up very early in the offseason. Seemed like a solid move after the previous offseason saw far worse relievers getting more guaranteed money. -KK on a one year deal seemed like a decent deal. This was lower than what Fangraphs projected. -IKF seemed like an overpay but the numbers are nominal and other than Chapman he seemed like the best 3B fit on the market. They probably see this as an upside play too. But this deal looks worse after the other infield options like Urshela signed for far less than we thought they would but no one has a crystal ball. -Yariel got a good chunk of change but his AAV is low. If he’s even a number 5 pitcher that will be a decent contract. If he’s a #4 that will be a good deal. Another upside play. Ok now all that makes some sense, especially in the timeframe in which those guys signed. But here’s the real kick in the nuts: -Justin Turner signed very late into the offseason for 13.5 mil. By this point it was clear that the market was developing slowly and with ST starting in just a couple of weeks that some prices were going to drop. Chapman was still there as were plenty of DH options in JDM, Soler, Pham, Belt, etc. We also have Horwitz and then picked up Vogelbach for free. We weren’t desperate but Atkins made a desperation move. Even after what turned out to be overpays for KK and IKF, if he doesn’t sign Turner we STILL could have gotten Chapman. And at this point he should have known that there were going to be some bargains. Signing Turner is where Atkins really screwed up. Really, the only explanation for this is that Atkins thinks Chapman is cooked after his final 4.5 months of the season and just doesn’t even want him. It’s possible he’s got some info that we don’t. It’s not like the rest of the league thinks Chapman is that good either. But this doesn’t square with the rumored contract we offered Chapman earlier this offseason. I guess the other explanation would be if we signed Snell or spent money on someone else but that seems almost impossible after letting Chapman walk. I’m not entirely off the Atkins train yet but I would like to formally apologize to the Atkins haters who were sticking a fork in this offseason a month or two ago. IKF and Yariel could ball out and make it turn out okay still but it seems like there were better moves to make.

Tulo was a little different. He hit a 320 foot opposite field wall scraper and then talked s*** the entire time he rounded the bases because we cut him.

He’s such a crybaby over everything

He has one of the slowest trots in the game. He’s definitely enjoying them but let’s be real, I also think it’s a product of his speed and fitness lol

lol yeah Frank the tank couldn’t make contact. I bet the guy in question had some damn good stats in D3 though. I’ve been impressed lol.

Traveling so not posting the link but in Bauer’s defense, that Barstool blogger took some ABs against a Red Sox reliever and he ripped a line drive single off of him with one of his very first swings. He looks like he’s about 5’7’’ 110 pounds but he must be pretty damn good for your average dude.

If Manoah is cooked could go to Francis in addition to White. Tiedemann a midseason add. Could also sign someone like Lorenzen.

I don’t think it’s a slam dunk compared to what we ended up with. IKF/KK/Yariel are about 25 mil AAV and Chapman and Pham are probably going to sign for similar? We’ll see. I’m not even factoring in Turner but he signed late as is. Chapman is about a win better than IKF but KK is a little better than Pham according to Steamer and about a win better according to Zips. We’ll see what Yariel ends up being but if he can stick in the rotation that would help. In the ultimate dream scenario, Atkins pounces on the best offers he gets for Espinal/Biggio/Yimi etc. early in the offseason. He waits on IKF, KK and Yariel until their prices come down and then and we end up signing all of the above at the lower rates in addition to a couple of other guys. Would have loved to have seen the fan reaction to waiting until February to do anything though.

What do you mean

Yeah in a market where Rosario and Urshela are signing for peanuts Espinal isn’t worth jack s***. But maybe he shouldn’t be worth anything. The right move is to maybe option him to try and keep Clement. And if it allows you to upgrade with moves like signing Chapman then it might be worth it anyway.

He did but the beauty of signing short term deals on modest AAVs is that it doesn’t really matter that much. What’s the scenario where Atkins reads the market perfectly? And how much better is the team than what we have now? Seems like that scenario involves bringing back Chapman and/or signing Pham. We could probably still do that stuff still if we dumped a couple of guys.

A Barstool Sports blogger went 2 for 9 with a walk against Bauer lol

Maybe we can still get a smoking cheap deal on Pham or something.

Wow!

You could explain away the other ones like Rosario or Anderson as the SS opportunities they got are a lot different than the ones they would have gotten in TO. But IKF over Urshela for 1.5M can’t really be defended.

Can’t wait for a prankster to wear a thong under his pants this spring lol

How the hell is Nike outsourcing the jersey production to Fanatics? It's got the Nike logo on it so you'd think they'd want to have some quality control over their product.

Lol yeah. Looks like a 37 year old fat Dominican reliever. Former All-Star closer still pitching late innings for a bad team now. Needs a huge wad of chaw in his cheek to finish off the look.

I like that he's not giving cookie cutter answers which 90% of players do. But he's not really the guy to say stuff like this when he's probably the most overpaid player in baseball.

This also tells me that Espinal is worth about jack squat in a trade right now.

Yeah the geographical diversity of the US is such a great feature. Can live in basically any climate you want.

Damn that is cheap. We could have given him way more than that on a one year deal (even after signing IKF) and tell him he's playing 2B, 3B, OF and some SS. The Rays must have told him they will give him SS and that they've got some plans for him to have a monster year or something.