metafour

We got rid of Reyes by acquiring a player with an even bigger/longer contract. Tulo has been a ~2-3 WAR defensive player here. It was an alright trade, but hardly anything incredible considering that we've got 4 years left wherein you better pray that his defense doesn't decline, because his hitting has already regressed to league-average level.

AA couldn't do that again either; hence why all of his other trades for "MVP candidates" (Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes, RA Dickey, Troy Tulowitzki) proved to be colossal flops. The man made a once-in-a-lifetime trade. Remember when we were acquiring an "MVP candidate" in Tulowitzki?

It changes everything, are you serious? Shapiro's analysis found that most hitters/sluggers start falling off significantly at age ~35/36, therefore signing 30 year old Bourn until age 34 or 32 year old Swisher until 36 theoretically made sense because it should have limited "dead contract years" to at most a year or so for both players (with more risk on Bourn because he was a speed-driven player). That is drastically different from going long-term at INFLATED MARKET VALUE on a player like EE who is already 34 and could start declining significantly even a year from now...a thought that isn't even that ridiculous considering that he actually regressed metrically THIS season (~4-5% jump in strikeout rate, ~15 point drop in wRC+ relative to his norm the past ~4 seasons). The scary thought on EE is him giving you 5-6 WAR the next two seasons and then being stuck with a DH making ~$40-60+ million over the last 2-3 years of his contract while he gives you ~1-2 WAR per year.

Why would they trade Stroman (one of only two young, cheap, controllable starters in the staff)? THat makes no sense for a team that should be looking to get YOUNGER. If you want to move a starter, you sell high on someone like Happ who is 34 years old, or Estrada who only has a year left on his contract.

You might want to look at the ages and contract lengths of Bourn and Swisher, LOL. Bourn was 30 years old when he signed a 4 year deal. That is a bit different than 34 year old EE signing a 4-5 year deal that would take him to ages 38/39, now isn't it? Swisher was 32; and neither of those two were guys who were in talks to sign contracts of up to ~$100 million.

Shapiro was one of the first execs in baseball to realize that handing out long term contracts to old and declining players (ie: paying premium for past performance that is unlikely to be replicated) is a stupid idea. While EE isn't in a Price-like situation; the fact that he's a 34 year old hitter looking for a 4-5 year contract is automatically going to make him an unlikely choice from Shapiro's perspective

21 years old playing in a league for 17 year old IFA signees making their NA debuts and 18 year old HS kids moving out of their parents houses for the first time...."not old for the league". OK Todd.

Nobody is paying 37 year old Jose Bautista a long term contract. It worked for Cespedes because he wasn't 36+ years old. David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre...these guys have all been playing on 1-2 years deals. Its not like Bautista is going to opt out and then get 4 years from someone.

Overall.

BA just posted a review of this past draft, with Bo Bichette getting a lot of love: Best Power Hitter: #2 Bo Bichette Best Pro Debut (HS): #1 Bo Bichette Closest to the Majors (HS): #3 Bo Bichette

We got Tory Lanez who has an ongoing beef with Drake...

With all due respect; your point here is pretty stupid. Ortiz is the first guy to maintain elite performance at that high an age since who? Barry Bonds? To pretend that this is some sort of expected outcome at this point is lunacy; it is beyond extremely unlikely...and we've got a guy on our own roster (Jose Bautista?) who proves that, with prime Bautista actually being a better hitter than Encarnacion. The only other name that people can bring up is Jim Thome, and in reality Thome is a guy who clearly regressed after age 35/36 despite ONE fluke season in 2010 (age 39) wherein he managed to re-find his elite hitting albeit in a season wherein he only played in 108 games. To use David Ortiz as some sort of "expectation" of Encarnacion's future outlook is beyond foolish. Even Boston knew that Ortiz's elite hitting performance relative to his age was unlikely, which is why he's been playing on 1-2 year contracts since ~2012. The reality about Encarnacion's season this year is that metrically it was actually the worst hitting season he's had since he officially broke out in 2011. The only reason why it looks like he's been as good as in previous years is because he managed to play in more games this past season than in any of those previous years. More at bats = more standard counting stats (RBI's, HR's, etc). In reality his strikeout rate jumped ~5% this year and his wRC+ dropped about ~15 points. There is no reason to expect that Encarnacion from ages ~34-38+ is going to somehow manage to stay healthier than he did from ~29-33.

Does someone want to look for that outside two-seamer or what?

Wayne Kirby is also overweight. How do you know that it wasn't just a fat joke? Fat people like fried chicken too. Wait...that would make it "fat shaming" though; which I think is as bad as racism these days?

Bruh, we don't even have real grass.......

You mean like Jose Bautista? Maybe he's David Ortiz... or more realistically he's got 2-3 more years before noticeable decline. Young starter who will likely only get even better > aging bat at a non premium position.

He turns 33 in like a week. There is nothing attractive about trading a 22 year old starter who is already among the best pitchers in the game for a 33 year old first baseman.

Michael Holmes was ranked 6th by BA in a "Top 10 Future Scouting Directors" list in 2012.

Crosscheckers are high level scouts who are sent out to evaluate prospects that are recommended by area scouts. They see prospects all over the country and are tasked with comparing the prospects from the different regions that they evaluate. The national crosschecker is the one who will ultimately recommend high round caliber prospects to the Scouting Director, who will then go and evaluate those prospects in person.

Pentecost was injured, therefore any comparison is completely pointless and literally stupid. He's had horrible injury luck, it happens. There are quite a few notable draft analysts who really liked Pentecost, his prospect status has been hurt by injuries and injuries alone.

Check this Instagram; we've signed a couple guys. "Otto Lopez" signed for $70K. Login • Instagram WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

Bo Bichette (playing LF): 2 for 5 with a double. Also had a hit off top pick Kyle Muller.

The signing period lasts a full year, not just one day. We sign guys every year for 6 figures who never make any of these "July 2nd headlines" because they come after the initial wave of signings. I think that a lot of you are making quite rash conclusions.

19 year old Joel Espinal: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K