Terminator

How do you know it's not actually a 4 week injury and they are already giving it an extra 3 to 5 weeks to be extra safe?

Yeah I agree, I think that's the most common argument in favor of the DH right now. But watching the manager make some scratches on his lineup card a few times a game does not make up for the pain of watching pitchers fail to get bunt attempts down a few times a game.

Todd was ahead of the curve on Alford. This totally vindicates him. Todd is like a more autistic/smarter Tercet.

Watching pitchers hit f***ing sucks.

Lol seriously?

Who could the Raps target with buyouts? They've got some exception money for that and they need to fill out the roster.

ESPN Insider Trade Grades Raptors get: Marc Gasol Grizzlies get: Jonas Valanciunas, Delon Wright, CJ Miles and a 2024 second-round pick Toronto Raptors: B-plus At this stage of his career, Gasol can no longer be considered a star player. At a position where players are scoring more efficiently than ever -- the average center has a true shooting percentage of .595 this season -- Gasol has become a volume scorer, with his .541 true shooting percentage worse than the league average across all positions (.558). That makes the Raptors an ideal fit for Gasol, assuming he's ready to accept a smaller role. When he plays with Toronto's starters, Gasol won't need to create much of his own offense. The Raptors have plenty of other options for that, and his playmaking from the high post and floor spacing will fit in well with the offense Nick Nurse wants to run. Toronto may turn Gasol loose offensively with the second unit, the role Valanciunas played before he was sidelined by thumb surgery in mid-December. (Amazingly, Valanciunas' usage rate of 25.6 percent this season is higher than Gasol's 22.6 percent usage.) There, he should benefit from far superior floor spacing -- compared to what he saw in Memphis -- and the opportunity to feast on lesser defenders. According to Second Spectrum tracking, Valanciunas was double-teamed on just 7.1 percent of his post-up opportunities this season, as compared to 12.8 percent of Gasol's post-ups drawing help. There's no question that Gasol is an upgrade over the more limited Valanciunas, particularly at the defensive end of the court. The concern is whether Gasol will be amenable to the kind of role reduction Valanciunas accepted this season, when Nurse moved him to the bench in favor of the starting frontcourt of Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam that has been so effective for Toronto. In certain playoff matchups, particularly against Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers, starting Gasol next to either Ibaka or Siakam will probably make sense for the Raptors. But whether Gasol starts or not, he's probably not going to be the right choice to finish games against the stretchier East bigs, Al Horford of the Boston Celtics and Brook Lopez of the Milwaukee Bucks. Toronto didn't have to worry about sitting Valanciunas in those situations. Will Gasol be OK with it? That concern noted, the structure of this deal made it one the Raptors almost had to make. They didn't have to give up a draft pick of value, leaving impending restricted free agent Wright as the only value Toronto is surrendering. With Fred VanVleet already under contract for 2019-20, re-signing Wright was no sure thing. The Raptors also benefited by moving Miles' $8.7 million 2019-20 salary. Mired in a shooting slump that has seen him make just 31 percent of his 3-pointers this season, Miles had moved to the fringes of Toronto's rotation. Amazingly, the Raptors managed to cut their luxury-tax bill from nearly $30 million to $26.5 million with this trade. (That figure includes Gasol's trade bonus.) That will go up when Toronto fills out the roster, having dropped to 12 players after dealing Malachi Richardson to Philadelphia in a tax-saving move Wednesday ahead of this three-for-one deal. The Raptors could be aggressive in pursuing buyout candidates using their taxpayer midlevel exception, which they did not dip into last summer. For all the talk of Toronto being all-in on this season ahead of Kawhi Leonard's free agency, this trade -- like the one for Leonard -- allows the Raptors to build a veteran-laden team competing for the championship now without sacrificing their young core of Siakam, VanVleet and OG Anunoby. Toronto has few long-term salary commitments -- only Anunoby and Norman Powell are under contract beyond next season -- and plenty of flexibility if things don't work out for this group. Memphis Grizzlies: C I doubt this is exactly the kind of return the Grizzlies were envisioning when they formally made Gasol available for trades a few weeks ago. While keeping Gasol made little sense from a basketball perspective, his important role as part of the best era of Memphis' NBA history set the bar a little higher than usual for a player of his current value. On the plus side, the Grizzlies avoided taking on truly awful salary. Given the limited value of centers on the market, Valanciunas is overpaid at $17.6 million next season, but he's a solid player who can keep Jaren Jackson Jr. from having to move to center full-time if Memphis wants to delay that transition. Miles also is bad salary, though a strong veteran leader in the locker room who might be able to rebuild his value if he can get back on track from long distance. (Both Miles and Valanciunas have 2019-20 player options, but given their high salaries they appear likely to exercise them and stay on the books.) It will be interesting to see how the Grizzlies handle Wright's restricted free agency, which may depend on whether they trade starting point guard Mike Conley by then. If so, Wright has shown enough with the Raptors to potentially be a low-end starting point guard to bridge the gap to Memphis' starter of the future. All told, this makes this perhaps a slight upgrade on just keeping Gasol. I'm not sure that's enough to justify moving on from a franchise icon.

Really good deal for the Phillies IMO.

Jeff Passan says it's done. Sixto, Alfaro, Will Stewart and intl bonus money for Realmuto.

I'm kind of ok with it. The DeRozan core wasn't getting it done. This team is much better but the emergence of the Bucks throws a wrench into the plans. Still, come playoff time when the intensity picks up the Raps D is going to be pretty nuts. It's going to be rebuilding time if it does or doesn't work but they won't be saddled with any bad contracts or anything at least.

Mirotic to the Bucks sucks for the Raps. He's a big upgrade over Ilyasova and others that have been getting a lot of minutes.

I think it's a good trade. I assume JV and MG opt out and will become FA. Delon is a RFA but losing him doesn't matter much, especially when he's going to be getting a raise. CJ will opt in so shedding the 8 million is a good thing. Getting a 2nd is a bonus. As for this year, MG isn't a huge upgrade over JV but he plays almost double the minutes so in a sense he kind of is. So we get better for the playoff run this year, and look better next year by shedding 8 mil and gaining a 2nd. Not sure why Memphis did this? They must like Delon?

He's entering his Age 26 season!

I think we should! It's paid content and it's only 1 out of 6 rankings, it won't affect it THAT much. We should add Sickels stuff too when he comes out with his. Up to you guys though.

Woops I misread what Laika said. Alfaro isn't very good. He's put up decent stats so far in 500 career ABs but it's been fueled by a .405 BABIP. When that normalizes his number are going to crash big time. Strikeout rate of 35%. He doesn't appear to be a good pitch framer either. Steamer projects a 77 wRC+ for him. He's a backup which means in this market he's worth next to nothing and I don't think he's much better than Andrew Knapp anyway. Sanchez is a solid prospect but he's a 20 year old pitcher. Good prospect but I'd give him up to acquire two years of 3.5 to 5 WAR play from the C spot any day.

Leaving Danny Jansen off your top 100 might be the dumbest ranking of the year.

Keith Law's 2019 Top 100 Prospects RANK NAME POSITION TEAM 1 Fernando Tatis Jr. SS San Diego Padres 2 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 3B Toronto Blue Jays 3 Wander Franco SS Tampa Bay Rays 4 Forrest Whitley RHP Houston Astros 5 Eloy Jimenez OF Chicago White Sox 6 Nick Senzel 3B Cincinnati Reds 7 Mackenzie Gore LHP San Diego Padres 8 Jo Adell OF Los Angeles Angels 9 Royce Lewis SS Minnesota Twins 10 Victor Robles OF Washington Nationals 11 Alex Kirilloff OF Minnesota Twins 12 Taylor Trammell OF Cincinnati Reds 13 Bo Bichette SS Toronto Blue Jays 14 Brendan McKay LHP/1B Tampa Bay Rays 15 Casey Mize RHP Detroit Tigers 16 Hunter Greene RHP Cincinnati Reds 17 Kyle Tucker OF Houston Astros 18 Ke'Bryan Hayes 3B Pittsburgh Pirates 19 Brent Honeywell RHP Tampa Bay Rays 20 Michael Kopech RHP Chicago White Sox 21 Keston Hiura 2B Milwaukee Brewers 22 Kyle Wright RHP Atlanta Braves 23 Triston McKenzie RHP Cleveland Indians 24 Mitch Keller RHP Pittsburgh Pirates 25 Dylan Cease RHP Chicago White Sox 26 Touki Toussaint RHP Atlanta Braves 27 Keibert Ruiz C Los Angeles Dodgers 28 Brendan Rodgers SS Colorado Rockies 29 Francisco Mejia C San Diego Padres 30 Ian Anderson RHP Atlanta Braves 31 Jesus Luzardo LHP Oakland A's 32 Jazz Chisholm SS Arizona Diamondbacks 33 AJ Puk LHP Oakland A's 34 Justus Sheffield LHP Seattle Mariners 35 Sixto Sanchez RHP Philadelphia Phillies 36 Matt Liberatore LHP Tampa Bay Rays 37 Alex Verdugo OF Los Angeles Dodgers 38 Jarred Kelenic OF Seattle Mariners 39 Nolan Gorman 3B St. Louis Cardinals 40 Jon Duplantier RHP Arizona Diamondbacks 41 Gavin Lux SS Los Angeles Dodgers 42 Alex Reyes RHP St. Louis Cardinals 43 Nolan Jones 3B Cleveland Indians 44 Chris Paddack RHP San Diego Padres 45 Cristian Pache OF Atlanta Braves 46 Adrian Morejon LHP San Diego Padres 47 Travis Swaggerty OF Pittsburgh Pirates 48 Corbin Martin RHP Houston Astros 49 Dustin May RHP Los Angeles Dodgers 50 Luis Patino RHP San Diego Padres 51 Bryse Wilson RHP Atlanta Braves 52 Spencer Howard RHP Philadelphia Phillies 53 Daniel Lynch LHP Kansas City Royals 54 Luis Robert OF Chicago White Sox 55 Khalil Lee OF Kansas City Royals 56 Luis Urias 2B San Diego Padres 57 Mike Soroka RHP Atlanta Braves 58 Justin Dunn RHP Seattle Mariners 59 Vidal Brujan 2B Tampa Bay Rays 60 Mark Vientos 3B New York Mets 61 Deivi Garcia RHP New York Yankees 62 Leody Taveras OF Texas Rangers 63 DL Hall LHP Baltimore Orioles 64 Eli Montero 3B St. Louis Cardinals 65 Matt Manning RHP Detroit Tigers 66 JoJo Romero LHP Philadelphia Phillies 67 JB Bukauskas RHP Houston Astros 68 Daz Cameron OF Detroit Tigers 69 Luis Garcia SS Philadelphia Phillies 70 Josh James RHP Houston Astros 71 Jesus Sanchez OF Tampa Bay Rays 72 Cole Winn RHP Texas Rangers 73 Brandon Marsh OF Los Angeles Angels 74 Noah Naylor C/3B Cleveland Indians 75 Drew Waters OF Atlanta Braves 76 Jonathan India 3B Cincinnati Reds 77 Nate Pearson RHP Toronto Blue Jays 78 Oneil Cruz 3B Pittsburgh Pirates 79 Will Smith C Los Angeles Dodgers 80 Logan Allen LHP San Diego Padres 81 William Contreras C Atlanta Braves 82 Joey Bart C San Francisco Giants 83 Antonio Santillan RHP Cincinnati Reds 84 Ronaldo Hernandez C Tampa Bay Rays 85 Zack Brown RHP Milwaukee Brewers 86 Griffin Canning RHP Los Angeles Angels 87 Austin Riley 3B Atlanta Braves 88 Sean Murphy C Oakland A's 89 Daulton Varsho C Arizona Diamondbacks 90 Peter Alonso 1B New York Mets 91 Miguel Amaya C Chicago Cubs 92 Peter Lambert RHP Colorado Rockies 93 Kristian Robinson OF Arizona Diamondbacks 94 Shane Baz RHP Tampa Bay Rays 95 Hans Crouse RHP Texas Rangers 96 Mason Denaburg RHP Washington Nationals 97 Andres Gimenez SS New York Mets 98 Carter Kieboom SS/2B Washington Nationals 99 Ronny Mauricio SS New York Mets 100 Lucius Fox SS Tampa Bay Rays

Yeah that's a good trade for Philly. Improves Alfaro to Realmuto which changes their Catcher situation from one of the worst in MLB to the best for 2 seasons. All it costs is Sixto Sanchez? No brainer.

Wasn't a criticism I'm just working my way through it all and am commenting on things that stand out. I thought it was pretty fitting for him. Seems like McGuire could be one of those Cs that's a black hole in the lineup but he finds himself playing in the big leagues for a decade anyway. Batting left handed and playing mostly against Righties could help keep his wRC+ floating above 80 as well which is going to help him stick around. Hard to rank someone like that.

Lol you guys broke the 4th wall on the Reese McGuire write up. Seems like you know he should be higher but just didn't bother with him because he's so unexciting. If you had to objectively rank him somewhere, how high would you put him?

You guys make good points. I guess a hole in my theory is that Hiraldo performed well in the Dominic Summer League as a 17 year old. Still impressive but he's only a year younger than average for that league. The Gulf Coast League is where he would need to make noise in order for it to truly be impressive. Fangraphs doesn't properly delineate the two leagues on the profile page, they simply refer to both as ® so you have to click on each ® to gain an understanding on which is which.

I knew about Bonilla but I did not know about those other guys. Johan Santana and David Wright also making big chunks of change coming up as well. Unreal.

I really liked the Martinez/Hiraldo debate. You guys obviously put a lot of time into thinking about that. But we actually have some pro ball data for Hiraldo and he did pretty well in Rookie ball last year as a 17 year old. We don't have any data for Martinez yet. How much credit should Hidalgo get for putting up a solid year like that? Seems like you didn't give him much since he's ranked so much lower than Martinez.

This is really really good. The percentiles are good but I love the write ups too. This article is something worthy to be published on Fangraphs or ESPN or something.

Diaz is barely acceptable at SS but he can hit so overall hes okay. Galvis is pretty good defensively which allows him to be useful because his bat kinda sux.