metafour

He gave up 2 soft-ass singles and a walk. Lots of weak contact off him, but he's not putting guys away effectively. He really hasn't been bad.

Barriera looks fat smh.

Yeah bro, they would have traded Moreno for 1.5 years of a 40 year old 1.5 WAR pitcher. Super amazing trade idea.

You said he was being "rewarded" for yesterday, which would logically imply that you were inferring that he wouldn't deserve to play over Luplow otherwise.

Kirk is a much better hitter than Luplow, so I fail to see what the confusion is.

I hated that they pulled Manoah at only 82 pitches. Getting the bullpen tired smh.

And? He breezed through the 3 batters he faced. Or let me guess, he was "getting lucky" lol?

How dare they put an elite defender into the game with a lead.

Ricky Tiedemann in Dunedin: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K

Nimmala sighting coming soon:

6th round pick OF Jace Bohrofen is DH'ing in the FCL today.

He's 19th among catchers with 200+ plate appearances this season at 89 wRC+. Let's not exaggerate. Even while disappointing he is a few hits away from being basically mid-tier at his position from an offensive standpoint.

Josh Kasevich was 2 for 3 with a HR (#3) and a BB last night. On the season: .296/.371/.372 with 25 BB to 29 K If he can add even a bit of launch angle to his swing, he's a player.

Recent draftees Brennan Orf (13th round) and Bryce Arnold (UDFA) are making their pro debuts with Dunedin tonight.

He just hit a double lol.

Davis Schneider just homered again lol (#20). He is 2 for 2 with a BB.

Orelvis just cleared the bases with a double, after already hitting a line drive single earlier in the inning. He's 2 for 3 with 4 RBI.

The Vancouver Canadians were no-hit for 11 innings and collected two hits in the 12th inning to win in a walk-off lol.

Man what an elite pickup by Ross. A real master class in player acquisition.

I used that term because you clearly presented that trade package as if it was a big deal, when in fact it wasn't at all. It was one Top 100 prospect and 4 mid-level throw ins. Tiedemann entered the season as #31 on BA's Top 100 and only dropped because he suffered a non-serious injury and didn't pitch. He is currently #50 on their list but is back pitching and could easily shoot back up if he closes strong. I never said that he was a "phenom", I said that he is easily worth as much as Yusniel Diaz was at the time of the Machado trade, which he absolutely is (in fact he likely has a higher ceiling). And Diaz was literally the main piece in acquiring Machado. Here is what Longenhagan wrote about the trade when it was made: "As far as Future Values go, Diaz is a 45+ for us right now and was only left off our recent top 131 due to his lack of power output in games, which is a concern for a likely left fielder. He projects as an average regular. Kremer, Pop, and Valera are all 40 FV players, with Kremer having the best chance to outpace that mark if he develops a way to deal with lefties. Pop and Valera are high-probability big leaguers almost certainly ticketed for lesser roles. Bannon is a 35+ FV as a likely org guy with a chance to transform a few niche attributes into something more than that." Tiedemann is a 55 FV on Fangraphs right now. So actually, Fangraphs considers him much better than Diaz lol. Again, at the time of the trade: "As far as Future Values go, Diaz is a 45+ for us right now and was only left off our recent top 131 due to his lack of power output in games, which is a concern for a likely left fielder. He projects as an average regular. Kremer, Pop, and Valera are all 40 FV players, with Kremer having the best chance to outpace that mark if he develops a way to deal with lefties. Pop and Valera are high-probability big leaguers almost certainly ticketed for lesser roles. Bannon is a 35+ FV as a likely org guy with a chance to transform a few niche attributes into something more than that." The career fWAR agrees to what was predicted at the time. The Orioles didn't get s***. Your point does not stand unless you believe that Ohtani is literally 3+ times better/worth more than Machado was in 2018 when he was traded. Machado was a 7 fWAR player in 2018; literally one of the best players in the entire league. Your actual statement was that Guerrero and Tiedemann isn't even close to enough for Ohtani, which is hilariously asinine. I just showed you that the package that LA sent for Machado was extremely light, and yet you think that Guerrero (a proven MLB player who is worth considerably more than pie in the sky "prospects") and Tiedemann (who is probably better than any prospect that was sent for Machado) isn't even close? My guy, Ohtani is not THAT much better than Machado was. He is a rental, just like Machado was. Teams aren't stupid anymore.

Right, so at the trade deadline Machado was already up to 4 fWAR that season (he finished with 7 fWAR) and yet all Baltimore could get for him was LA's 4th best prospect and 4 other guys who were "lottery picks". You're literally proving the point. Diaz was a Top 100 prospect, but he was nowhere near a "superstar prospect". I mean, the final point here is that not one of those 5 players that the Orioles acquired for Machado are a key piece in their current success. The best player there is Dean Kremer and he's putting up a 0.5 fWAR season for Baltimore. He's also the only player still with the team. That package was not "a lot" at all. And this isn't even hindsight talking, you just said it yourself: they got LA's 4th best prospect and 4 other mid-tier guys, for an elite player (Machado). Yes Ohtani is worth more than Machado, but I don't think you understand that Guerrero (even with his "decline") and Tiedemann is hilariously more than that trash-dump list of players that LA traded for Machado. Vladimir Guerrero is a young MLB regular, he's not a "prospect". That has more value than you seem to think it does. How do we know? Well, all 5 of those players put together don't have anywhere near Guerrero's career fWAR. He's THAT far above those "prospects" ended up being. Again, this is just a buzz sentence that doesn't actually correlate with real trade valuation. It's 3 months of a player. The fact that it's a "generational player" doesn't magically mean that anyone is trading multiple MLB players and/or elite prospects for what is still at the end of the day a rental. No, Ohtani doesn't even guarantee anyone a WS win. The Angels don't have as much bargaining power as you seem to think they do, and all they can do is trade him for the best package presented to them, or hold onto him like idiots. If you've followed the trade deadline recently, you'd know that teams are very reluctant to part with elite prospects. The Jays literally got two years of Matt Chapman for Gunnar Hoglund (who hadn't even thrown a pro pitch yet and was coming off TJ surgery) and Kevin Smith. But now for some reason some of you think that 3 months of Ohtani is going to land the Angels proven MLB stars with control, or super-elite prospects? 3 months of Ohtani has a numerical value - the fact that he's a "generational talent" doesn't mean that teams will defy common logic all of a sudden.

Uhm, Yusniel Diaz wasn't even the Dodgers best prospect at the time he was traded. He immediately scuffled after being traded and fell to #71 on BA's rankings in 2019. The rest of those guys you named were decent throw ins. You just kind of proved the point. The Orioles didn't even get one elite prospect for Machado. Diaz was never an "elite" prospect, not with the Dodgers and definitely not with the Orioles. All of those guys you just named put together are not even close to Guerrero. So I'm not exactly sure how you just named those guys and then concluded with "Guerrero and Tiedemann aren't even in the ballpark". You realize that Guerrero is approaching ~10 MLB WAR and is under control for multiple seasons, correct? Tiedemann alone is worth as much as Yusniel Diaz. He only "dropped" in rankings because of a non-significant injury.

Ohtani has never even been in the playoffs, so what do you qualify his playoff worth as? The playoffs are extremely small sample, which means that he can EASILY underwhelm over a 4-5 game series and be worth little to nothing. You don't even need to go back far in time for the perfect example of this. The Yankees were bounced 4-0 by the Astros in the ALCS just last season. Over those 4 games, Aaron Judge hit a whopping .063/.118/.063. He had 1 hit in 16 at bats. Aaron Judge was worth 11.5 fWAR last season and had a comical 207 wRC+ over the full season. As you probably remember it was an all-time great hitting season. It didn't help the Yankees one lick over 4 games against the Astros. I don't see what a 1992 trade has any relevance in this discussion. It's 2023, all of these MLB teams are run by data-nerds (the Orioles especially) and they are all making moves based off of expected value coming in vs. out. There is no chance in hell that any smart front office is moving the absurd value of Jackson Holliday for 3 months of Ohtani, when all of these teams understand that the playoffs are a crap-shoot anyway, which means that Ohtani doesn't even guarantee you anything. This isn't the 1990's anymore when teams had no idea how to properly compare asset value. Elite prospects rarely get traded these days, and when they do it is for players who have years of control.

"The #1 talent in MLB history" is just a sentence that has no bearing on trade calculation. Ohtani is a baseball player that is worth an expected amount of wins over 3 months of gametime. Just how much value do you think he brings over 3 months? Hint: it's far less than what Jackson Holliday is worth. You're acting like Ohtani is worth 10+ wins over 3 months; when in reality the Angels aren't even a playoff team with him.