Orgfiller

In classic Yimi fashion he gives up an absolute bomb out of nowhere. What a swing from Termarr Johnson, turned around 96 at the letters like it was nothing. 19 years old and won't turn 20 until June.

Yimi sitting 96 up to 98 already.

The pitching has looked to be in great shape this game. Romano was the only one that was a bit wild but the fastball had some zip to it already, he was overpowering.

They either want to evaluate his defense some more, or they just want to give him more reps out there. Espinal already got his 3 PAs for the day so he was likely done regardless.

Urshela is also coming back from major injury that ended his season around the halfway mark. That's as big a question mark as any and likely the main reason for the contract he got, considering the track record.

You missed the joke.

That is the gut of a 45 year old man who stopped caring about his body a long time ago.

I think that's just what his head looks like lol. He has that classic chubby baby face.

Meh, this just seems like a broader symptom of him not having a repeatable delivery and struggling with his mechanics. Not really a cause of his struggles, just another piece that would be addressed by having better consistency in his delivery, which would also see improved command of all his pitches.

Honestly with Pearson, aside from his poor command, one of his biggest disappointments to me is that the fastball isn't actually an 80 pitch. Averaging 97.9 is great and all, but a lot of guys can get it up there these days. Among relievers pitchers with at least 40 IP, he ranks 21st, lower the threshold to 20 IP and he's 28. The command is too mediocre for the fastball not being overpowering enough. A lot of these elite relievers can get away with mediocre command because they usually have an 80 fastball and a 60-70+ secondary, both of which they can at least throw it down the middle for and it's good enough. Pearson not consistently hitting 99-100+ is as big of a disappointment as anything else in his prospect trajectory. He was supposed to be doing that as a starter! Him hitting 96 at all is a complete travesty.

I mean Jay Jackson is a 36 year old replacement level journeyman reliever, great for him to have gotten a guaranteed contract. Despite the success story there was some smoke and mirrors to his performance from last season, the velo is decidedly mediocre which means he's a righty reliever with one plus pitch that isn't coming from a particularly funky angle. I doubt anyone will look back at this contract as a steal on the Twins' end, but I certainly am happy for JJ and hope he can hit all the escalators.

I don't think every HOF is generational. Harper was a generational prospect but ended up being "merely" really good, and if he retired tomorrow he wouldn't sniff the HOF having completed his age 30 season. Mookie Betts is a lot closer to that label, as at the same age he has 11 more fWAR and has just about put himself as a lock. Even him I'm skeptical of placing that label on, since actual generational players like Trout, Pujols are Ohtani are leaps ahead. On the pitching side, generational is like Kershaw and Verlander, maybe Scherzer. Someone like deGrom is a unicorn and could have been generational but missed out on the health portion to be worthy of the title.

Varsho projects to be league average offensively with 25+ HR, I think a disaster is being harsh there. The upside is that he unlocks something in his physical profile that can allow him to tap into the power more frequently, he's already demonstrated 5 WAR upside before, and was a top prospect who demolished the upper levels of the minors. IKF I can agree has no real offensive upside, just a boring low offense utility guy who can play 3B really well and other positions pretty well.

I don't know about every other day. The Red Sox completely soured on him playing 3B during last season, and that's with him providing the option to rest Devers who isn't exactly Matt Chapman out there either. I think if we get 30 games from Turner at 3B it'll be too many. He can probably play a better 1B than Vlad so I'm sure we'll see him in the Belt role with rare appearances at 3B or 2B (late game, PH opportunities).

Squatting without shoes on is pretty common and probably recommended, especially if you don't have super gym bro completely flat lifting shoes. It allows you to get closer to the ground and be able to put your weight properly on your heels as opposed to the front of your feet, to drive more efficiently on the way up.

That's not a hashtag, I'm pretty sure he's just tagging his brother's gym/fitness training Instagram page. Some of you guys give your age away too easily lol.

Kershaw is out until at least midseason. Like BTS says, as soon as they can punt someone to the 60-day IL they can sign him and then also move him to the 60-day. This is with me assuming that you can't sign someone straight into the 60-day IL without having to make room on the 40-man to make the signing official first.

Good deal for the Nats. Most likely case Gallo is a 1 win/150G player with 30 HR, in which case it's not a lot of money and raises their floor a bit so their team is a bit less unwatchable. Best case he has a 2021-esque resurgence and they move him for prospects at the deadline, giving them quite a bit of surplus value on this contract. Worst case he sucks and has to be DFA'd, and $5M is nothing to them.

Players like Garcia are getting 3/30 at the minimum in free agency. If it was so easy to replace a guy like him then teams wouldn't be paying a premium to sign comparable players. Richards' inconsistency is sort of baked into his overall projection. Some weeks/months he's unhittable and can give you multiple innings, then he'll lose his release point for a month resulting in him walking the stadium and giving up massive bombs. He's not even someone you can count on in the playoffs since you never know which version of Trevor Richards you're gonna get. I'm not saying he's worthless but he's very cromulent on the whole, and I'm very much over him discovering any semblance of consistency or a tier bump in control. Garcia is who he is, good-great velo from a funky angle, solid number of whiffs, excellent control, will give up a bomb or two every now and then. 2 wins the last 2 seasons. Richards has provided less than half of that in 2.5 seasons while actually pitching more innings. At that point just use your 7-8th starter on the depth charts (Mitch White?) to give you the same amount of near replacement level inning as depth and let the big boys handle the single inning appearances where you need stops.

Garcia is only $4M more expensive with a much better track record and projections. In a world where Robert Stephenson gets 3/33, Rafael Montero 3/35, Reynaldo Lopez 3/30, I don't see how everyone isn't seeing how valuable Yimi at his price point is. Still gets whiffs and is several tiers ahead of Richards in control, I really don't think it's that close of a decision if you had to pick one to keep. It's really only if you believe you could get a legit player back in trading him.

Nah the Cubs traded some decent prospects for him, they'll use him. Whom this actually sucks the most for is Matt Mervis, as between Busch and Morel he might be getting extra blocked at 1B/DH. They could try Busch at third but he really just shouldn't be playing a position.

I don’t think he’s much of a 4th OF since he can’t cover CF though, I feel like that’s basically a requirement. Valuable utility/pinch hitter, but I think a proper 4th OF has to be someone that can play a passable CF.

There's no such thing as "using Gallo properly". The last 3 orgs he's been in have been the Twins, Dodgers and Yankees. It's not like these are stupid orgs/FOs that are throwing him at the wolves without a plan, Gallo just hasn't been good since he left the Rangers. Additionally, for a player as extreme as he is, he actually has pretty decent splits, career 111 wRC+ vs RHP and 103 against LHP, so you don't even have to hide him against lefties. The only thing you're hoping if you sign him is that he cuts his K rate down to "reasonable", which for him is 35% at best, and then taking that with his positional versatility and running with it.

Bounce back to what? The only time he was good was as a rookie running a .400 BABIP with really bad defense. The fact that the Brewers didn't call him up at all in 2023 should be very telling, and they were trotting out Rowdy Tellez and his 78 wRC+ more than half the season.

I wouldn't give him more than an MiLB deal with a spring training invite. He's a R/R 1B only guy with a horrendous K rate and doesn't have the walks or the power (although the power is good) to make up for it. I think he's the definition of a AAAA guy, consistently rakes in AAA with a decent K rate and is fully exposed at the MLB level. When his BABIP isn't .350+ he's one of the worst hitters in the league. I'd rather have Gallo. He also has extremely weird splits; he's blind against lefties or something, as a right handed hitter.