Brownie19

I don't think Willie's parents even believe in him anymore man. Unfortunately, he's a failed prospect. He may catch on with some bottom feeding team that needs warm bodies, but without some major swing change - his MLB days are likely nearing the end.

Yeah I think it would need to be something along those lines. He's such a risk. The guy was set to retire last year before some of the Dodgers reached out to him and begged the GM to give him a spring training invite and then he goes on to have a very solid season (although his statcast page is blue). His defense, BsR and speed continue to decline, which really lowers his floor to someone who could be below replacement level. His bat is a complete crapshoot. He seems to change his stance and approach annually and you really have no idea what you'll get. He went from a 131 wRC+ in a platoon role in 2020 to a 70 and 61 wRC+ the follow 2 seasons (and essentially repeated that cycle in 2015, 2016 and 2017). Whoever signs him has to be prepared for the possibility they are just burning that money and may be releasing him by July.

Are you OK man? You offered an opinion and I offered an different view on it. That's not an argument. I just said that it's not a forgone conclusion that the Cards made bad decisions to sign Lynn & Gibson early in the offseason. Sometimes the approach to "jump the gun" and target/sign guys early on can work and we won't really know until the offseason is over. Could they have aimed higher? Maybe. Or maybe they expect a very competitive market and felt some of the short term SP with higher upside (let's say Lugo, Maeda, Bauer?) may get into bidding wars that they wouldn't win? Maybe they think guys like Montas, Severino, German, Paxton are too risky and wanted to grab guys with a better track record of health? Or maybe the Cards are f***ed - time will tell. I am curious to see if Lynn has anything left. Velo down, HRs up last year isn't a good recipe. He's had a really good career and I think there's a decent chance for a dead cat bounce. We'll see. And sorry I don't respond to all your posts? Sometimes life gets in the way. Don't jump off a cliff when someone doesn't share the same viewpoint as you.

The reality is we won't know whether these early Cards moves were a good idea or a bad idea until the rest of the offseason plays out. Sometimes jumping the market makes a lot of sense and you can look like a genius, other times, it kicks you in the nuts. If the Cards are adding Lynn and Gibson to be their #3/#4 or #4/#5 starters, then I don't see any issue with these signings at those costs and durations. Let's all remember that Taijaun Walker signed for 4 years $72M last year and Jameson Taillon signed for 4 years $68M. Give me Lance Lynn on a 1 year deal all day long over that. That said, there does seem to be a lot of interesting arms available - several of which you can probably get on a 1 year deal, so maybe we'll look back and laugh at the Cards. I'm not surprised to see the White Sox sign DeJong. He was having a very good year last year (like a 2.5 WAR pace) until he was traded - then everything went for a s***. White Sox won't want to spend much, given how bad they'll be this year, so they need cheap fillers - ideally ones who could have solid years and fetch them something at the deadline. They're just looking for some lightning in a bottle.

There are very few things on earth I hate more than the Baseball Reference website. I just tried again, and I can't even find the 2023 WAR leaderboard, or a WAR leaderboard sorted by team. bWAR is essentially dead to me.

What's the story on Spencer Turnbull? Anything left in that arm?

Except it hasn't been 8 years with an upper tier payroll - not was it ever reasonable to expect them to win much of anything in the first few years, given the state of the team when AA left. You can complain about playoff wins all you want, heck, join connorp in the theory they don't know how to build a team that wins in the playoffs, but the truth is we've had 4 straight years with a record above .500 - which is something the Jays haven't done since 1993. The team certainly looks positioned to continue that trend of the next couple of seasons. I'm curious what fans thought sustainable winning would look like? Despite what connorp tells you, the playoffs are a crapshoot.

Give it a f***ing rest.

I asked one of the Leafs skating coaches (whom I know) if he's taking full credit for Nylander developing into this beast/top player. He said since he's been there, Nylander hasn't once skated with their specialty coaches and that when he's working with players, he uses Willy as the example of how to skate.

Well I'm glad to hear the recovery process is complete.

Yeah I saw something about that. That would be incredible.

Boohoo Max - whiney little bitch he's become. Viewership was up big time last year, there's no going back. Adapt or die Max. Maybe pitchers won't be able to throw every pitch at 100% effort anymore?

Are you going to do an AMA for the board members? Either way, welcome back

Oh my. Well he's certainly on a roll now that he's returned. How long did you serve soupy?

Braves signed RHP Reynaldo López, who had been with the Guardians, to a three-year, $30 million contract with a club option for 2024. Even though he’s had some consistency issues and has little experience closing, López, 29, was considered one of the top handful of relievers available. He had a 3.27 ERA and an 83/34 K/BB ratio in 66 innings with the White Sox, Angels and Guardians last season. He’s set to make $4 million next season and $11 million in 2025 and ’26. He’ll get either $8 million or a $4 million buyout in 2027. I think I prefer Chad Green over Lopez.

Did Frenchsoup just come out of hibernation or something?

Are you 2 talking about Deshaun Watson?

Good stuff. I do enjoy a good tailgate. It's almost always better than the game itself.

This is Nylander's team now boys. The guy is incredible. They need to find a way to keep him.

You think Garver gets a lower AAV? much lower?

I believe they use innings and not pitches. Like for U13 baseball in Ontario, you can throw 85 pitches and then you need to rest for 4 days. That typically get's a good pitcher through 4-5 innings, 6 if you're getting a lot of quick outs, but that's very unlikely. In the US, they'll say you can only throw 7 innings in 1 day and then you need 1 full day off before you can throw 7 again (I'm 100% guessing at this, but it's nowhere near as restrictive as it is in Ontario). 11-12 year old kids will throw 7 innings (with probably 100+ pitches) on a Friday night of a tournament and then throw another 7 innings on the Sunday without anyone blinking an eye.

How much is Mitch Garver going to get? How much compared to JD Martinez?

Yeah I'm not overly convinced he's that mentally tough either. Or at least I don't know how some people decide that certain players are mentally tough. Perhaps in JD's case because he educated himself and changed his swing - allowing him to be a late bloomer?

Eduardo Escobar maybe?

He made $25M last year. I guess it will be interesting to see if he still wants to play for like $3M a year