keggy

If Richards is anything less than good he needs to go. Managing a bullpen with just one optionable slot is just too difficult over a long season.

Based on a limited eye test I agree with reports that he's a bit stiff for SS. I think he can handle 3B but I would also love to see what he can do at 2B. He has a strong throw with some slingshot action like Cano had.

Barger's swing is something else.

Look at Beeston and Gillick's personal and team accolades during their tenure in Toronto. Shapiro and Atkins don't belong in this conversation.

Spring training is a different breed. In the old days, players would run laps in the outfield to get back into playing shape. DURING the game.

He's borderline. If he gets to 3000 Ks it will be hard to keep him out.

The wife didn't respect her husband's wishes, but the HOF giving her the choice was a purely emotional move. They put themselves in the position of either making an egregious error or having a public dispute with a recently widowed woman. What if she said something completely ridiculous like 'He grew up in Colorado, so he should go in with a Rockies hat'?

This should be a major option against LHP, especially if the pitcher falls off to the third base side.

The short term deals are placeholders. I'm guessing Swanson and Taillon are for a 2024 run, similar to what the did with Jon Lester.

I've never seen him not be relaxed.

This indicates how desperate Boras was. Creating arbitrary urgent deadlines is a typical scumbag sales move. He must know how damaged Correa's ankle is. If this is progressive arthritis from his previous fracture, it could be career threatening, similar to the hip injury that ended Albert Belle's career. If this is true, taking that short term show-me deal last year was a 100% idiot move by Boras and Correa. All of this is speculation though.

Splitting Varsho and Kiermaier in the 5-9 slots should be good enough because it prevents a lefty from facing both in a clean inning. Having Espinal and/or Merrifield to counter a lefty reliever is really important too. Varsho deserves more rope against LHP than Kiermaier but at this stage neither one should be facing a lefty reliever when we're down late.

A lot has been said already, so just touching on main objective points. Purely from a roster construction perspective, this is probably the most perfect possible fit outside of getting someone like Ohtani. Varsho is a legit everyday player who is overstretched as a fulltime C, but can easily handle backup duty. This has cascading effects on the roster, as you effectively remove all limitations on Kirk DHing. The team now can and should pinch run for Kirk aggressively in close games. This is normally a trivial factor, but Kirk is so slow that pinch running Merrifield, Biggio, or Kiermaier will add real value over the course of a season. This also makes late inning defensive C replacement feasible during blowouts which we almost never did last year. I don't put a lot of stock in handedness, but he is a LHH that can play every day, which the front office has desperately sought. People clearly have a problem with Varsho's offensive production, which is fair. He's being compared to Grichuk. His bat could be a liability, and he's borderline unplayable against LHP. With that said, he is a great athlete with that power-speed-defense combo that scouts love. I think he'll age better than someone like Grichuk and has a much better chance of breaking out offensively. Young Jayson Werth coming up as a catcher comes to mind as a best case scenario. With all that said, Varsho's present value is almost entirely in his defense, which is elite. I'm not sure people appreciate how much better Varsho is over someone like Gurriel. This makes his floor super high even if he doesn't break out offensively. In a fantasy world, you could imagine a scenario for the Jays where basically every position on the field is gold glove calibre except shortstop. Varsho replaces Gurriel who is a league average player on a cheap contract for 1 year and isn't worth a QO for draft compensation. To me Gurriel is a non-factor in this trade. Losing Moreno is brutal. His absolute ceiling is a gold glove C with at least an above average MLB bat, so basically a perennial allstar. He's making the league minimum which is going to hurt the team more than you think moving forward. Even if he doesn't reach his potential, it's going to be hard for Moreno to be a total bust. With the farm system wrecked and payroll maxed out, this is undoubtedly a move to go for a championship within the Guerrero window. This is the type of deal that might look bad in 5 years, but there is huge variance based on how both Varsho and Moreno develop.

If you go back exactly 12 months, people were having the exact same conversations about trading Kirk or Jansen so Moreno isn't wasted at AAA. Some people had him pencilled in as our starting 3B before we got Chapman. I think he's ready to play in the big leagues, but don't assume he'll be an MVP candidate right away like we did last year.

Kiermaier just provided as much value in 60 games plagued by injury as Tapia's entire career combined. 400 PA of a Kiermaier platoon is fine, we just have to worry about injuries affecting his defensive value.

Halladay was incredibly loyal to Toronto. If Ricciardi didn't alienate him for no reason he would've retired a lifelong Jay.

Whether it's intentional or not, MLB is a corrupt joke that is meddling with the basic integrity of the game. For the Judge games, this could be a case where Yankees pitchers were using dead balls and opposing pitchers were given live balls against their best hitter--during meaningful games in September. For comparison, Deflategate was one of the biggest scandals in NFL history which only involved altering the football equally for both teams.

Yankees are making a clear statement that they expect Judge to be the successor to Jeter as the next all time Yankee. Two red flags are his late career start and his unprecedented body type. I would normally never expect a player like Judge to be around for his age 39 season. On the other side, Judge may be helped by eventual roboumps more than any player in baseball.

Honestly a Bellinger/Merrifield platoon probably makes up for all of Teoscar's 2022 WAR. Positive defense + baserunning and league average hitting from your CF is pretty valuable.

Anyone interested in Bellinger should have a long look at video and talk to as many scouts as possible. With a bizarre swing like that I don't think projections will be accurate.

Let the kids play

I have a much better feeling about Kirk than Guerrero. Vlad is basically a rich kid who has been touted since he was 15. He's shown some signs of laziness and immaturity early on in his career. Kirk signed for pocket change out of the bush leagues and barely spent any time in the minors. He's built like he used to get his nutrients from rainbow skittles. He certainly hasn't shown up to camp even more disgusting like Vlad did in 2020. I'm optimistic about Kirk.

Honestly this is why I'm optimistic that Kirk can lose more weight. Any professional baseball player is burning way more calories than the average internet forum poster. This guy must have literally known nothing about basic nutrition to get this big. Also if he wasn't financially well off in the minors he was probably getting his calories from cheap garbage food. Any competent nutritionist could improve this guy's diet in an offseason.

Other than framing Sal Perez is considered an elite defensive catcher and above league average hitter while playing an obscene number of games by modern standards. All of his negative value comes from framing. Basically with good framing he's Yadier Molina. Really big catchers in general are known to have trouble behind the plate. Matt Wieters was another guy who had a horrible time with framing the low pitch despite being a pretty good athlete.

Does anyone know how much weight Kirk lost in the 2021 offseason? He allegedly went on a diet and lost a lot of weight. I can't tell but I don't have a good eye for men's bodies. Presumably he could continue losing weight this offseason? Slim Kirk should is an untouchable asset in my opinion.