Bobthe4th

Grisham must have been under intense pressure, replacing the best player in the NL, leading off, and playing in the first winner takes all game of his career. Still, that was an horrendous mistake that threw away the season. He won't be able to sleep for a while.

Why is that a lol? Stroman was by far our best starter when he was here, and is still the pitching WAR leader.

It's now 2-2!

Considering that Grichuk won the player of the year which can only be for his home run and RBI totals (team leader in both), I guess Biggio's low batting average and (relatively low) home run totals harmed him. Or maybe the player's vote on personality and he's a dick - who knows!

This offseason is big for Vlad. If he doesn't get in better shape now (while he's young and hasn't quite yet established himself as a star, and we can afford to let him stay at 3B) then he's never going to do it.

Not quite sure how only one player voted for Giles!

This is the most participation a thread has got in months! Good to see.

Strasburg is meant to be available from the bullpen. Him and Scherzer could easily pitch all 9 innings together.

Nationals A's

Of the 21 starters we used this season (the most of any team in 100 years), only 3 had a WAR of 1 or over. 2 of those 3 were Sanchez and Stroman. TBF quite a few were openers, but still!

That 2nd half wRC+ is still only good enough for 13th. Yes our pitching is terrible, but we need a lot more than 2 starters to turn this team around.

I'm not convinced Shapiro would be interested anyway, but as you say we don't know for sure. But interested when we are a minimum of a year away from competing (and that's if a lot goes right and we also acquire more than just Cole)? No chance.

The issue isn't whether we can afford to offer whatever Cole wants (in theory we can). It's that outbidding everyone else (which is what it would take to get him to even consider joining us right now) is so far from Shatkins' ethos that it's crazy to even dream about.

Fisher has been awful for us, but it’s a short sample size, and it’s far too early to write him off. Atkins likes him, maybe he turns it around next year. If not he can be non-tendered at the end of 2020. McKinney has shown nothing in the majors, but has options. He should start 2020 at AAA. Ditto Davis. Hernandez is in a similar contract situation to Fisher, he gets next season to improve. Grichuk has had an awful season, but isn’t going anywhere with his contract, and could easily bounce back. Gurriel needs to continue to play well next year to secure his long term place in the outfield but he’s been one of the few good stories this year (despite beginning the season as such a liability that he was demoted). Alford has never had a chance in the majors, despite being a former top prospect. Would have been the perfect time to give him a month of starts to see if he could bat ok enough to get his defensive talents in the team. If he failed, there’s no downside and he’s dfa in the offseason. Conclusion - our outfield f***ing sucks.

TBF it’s unlikely that your friends were earning half a million dollars at that age!

This is key IMO. He seems to really want to stick at 3B and it’s clear (and he appears to have accepted) that he needs to lose weight to be able to do that.

A more positive spin would be he didn’t say that he’s never been in a gym - he said he doesn’t do weight lifting and has never done a regulated work out programme in the offseason. He also has always dominated at every level in his short career. This is the first time he’s faced setbacks so has never felt the need to go the extra mile. He wants to stay at 3B and to do that and maximise his other talents, maybe he now realises he has to work even harder to achieve his goals. He’s also not lazy compared to a ‘real’ person. The amount of batting and fielding practice he’s done in his life is insane. He just eats too much - something that will be a much harder habit to break than not working out in the offseason.

Same questions remain about Anthony Alford’s MLB potential "Alford’s hot streaks have been so blistering, and his raw tools are so real, that the question remains: with health and consistent playing time, could he be that average MLB outfielder? Could he be even better? Despite spending time in the majors every season since 2017, Alford’s appeared in only 28 games. He’s yet to accumulate 50 big-league plate appearances. Wherever his true talent level may be, he hasn’t been given much runway to reach it."

Ryan Dull DFA = shortest Jays career ever? I wonder if he even got a jersey with his name printed?

Have to trade Giles IMO, he's our last valuable asset that is expendable. No guarantee he'll still be elite in 2 years or even interested in an extension that isn't a mega deal.