Ray

Freddy Galvis could honestly be worth something decent as well. He’s been riding a hot stretch recently and has seen an uptick in power. Obviously really good defensively and great clubhouse guy. On top of that, he’s also signed to an affordable $5M team option for next season. When he was traded to the Padres, he ended up netting the Phillies a pretty good piece in Enyel de los Santos. I wonder if we could end up getting a near ready backend of the rotation guy for him, but it depends on which team needs a backup INF for the playoffs, which right now isn’t really many.

Even the expected statistics were supporting his struggles and he legitimately seemed overmatched on league average fastballs. He looks like a completely different hitter now. I recall reading an article recently that stated that the Blue Jays were bringing in former pitchers to help the hitters with their timing. Maybe that did the trick, because the whole team looks different offensively.

I was the stupid guy campaigning to demote Jansen to help him regain his confidence, but I’m glad he proved me wrong. He’s on fire.

If Freddy Galvis going oppo isn’t proof enough for a juiced ball, I don’t know what else to tell you.

Winckowski 3rd Dunedin start: 7IP, 0R, 1H, 1BB, 6K, 82 pitches. He’s now pitched 16 innings of scoreless ball in High-A. How is he not getting more prospect shine?

Biggio seems to really be a true player development success of this front office. Really a lottery ticket out of college, but he's looking the part of a good everyday player.

Jeff McNeil is putting up pseudo MVP type numbers: Through his first 550 PA in the majors: .340/.398/.496, 10.9% K%, 5.2 fWAR. He’s on a 6.2 fWAR pace over 162 games. More gap power than over the fence, but in a 3 true outcome era, he’s been a breath of fresh air.

Cullen Large had himself a day in Dunedin: 4-for-6 with a double.

I think we can get something better than Bukauskas as the 2nd piece. I know he was a Top 100 guy coming into the season, but he just hasn't shown an ability to throw strikes on a consistent basis throughout the minors yet. We already have a former Astros prospect we're trying to teach control in Hector Perez. Maybe I'm just the low guy on Bukauskas. Corbin Martin + 1 of Tyler Ivey, Seth Beer, or Jose Urquidy. Throw in a reliever in the package if you have to. Maybe the Astros are enamored enough with Biagini's curve spin rate (87th percentile),.

TJ Zeuch in his 3rd AAA start: 6 IP, 5H, 2ER, 2BB, 2K. Apparently induced a ton of groundballs. He's a bit of an enigma. Despite his low K-rate and affinity to give up hits, he's really good at suppressing home runs and doesn't walk many. He's had good FIP and xFIP numbers throughout the minors. Seems fairly similar to Dakota Hudson of the Cardinals actually. We could be seeing him soon after Stroman is traded. That 2016 draft is actually looking really good in retrospect: 1st round: TJ Zeuch (likely to debut this season) 2nd round: JB Woodman (eventually traded for Aledmys Diaz who netted us Trent Thornton) 3rd round: Bichette (Top 5 prospect) 5th round: Cavan Biggio 15th round: Josh Winckowski (has yet to allow a run in Dunedin through 9 innings). Potential backend rotation guy, all-star calibre shortstop, everyday player in Biggio, couple other intriguing pieces in Winckowski, Zach Jackson, Josh Palacios, Kirby Snead, and Chavez Young.

His zone breakdown actually paints a pretty good picture: He seems to be absolutely crushing pitches in the middle and only struggling on pitches in parts of the zone where you could argue it's borderline (up and in, and low and away). And generally speaking, most great hitters also struggle with those pitches. Up and in has been Trouts only real weakness during his career. Part of it is that it's very hard to get the bat head up in the zone that quickly, so I wouldn't even necessarily hold that against him. If he can improve low and away by going oppo and increase that walk rate a little more, we're looking at a pretty great/complete hitter. I'm encourage by the increase in walk rate and the fact that he's hitting pitches that he wasn't last year. He's adjusted to the league very well, and hopefully that continues with more PA.

gurribabip only hits bad pitches confirmed

Rich Hill to the 60-day DL due to a forearm strain. Kenley Jansen has also been a little shaky this season. Stroman + Giles as a package would make some sense to the Dodgers. They have a great farm system and top of the line player dev. Start with Gavin Lux as the main centerpiece and go from there imo.

Pardinho and Hiraldo were ranked fairly highly in the 2017 J2 class. Pardinho was considered the best available pitcher and Hiraldo the best pure hitter (Hiraldo actually had a 60 hit and 50 power compared to Wander Franco's 50 hit and 45 power before the J2 period for example). I'd say they're going a tier below that. Not saying it's a bad approach or anything given the extreme volatility of IFA. Juan Soto and Tatis Jr. weren't exactly ranked highly either, but just pointing out that Pardinho and Hiraldo were a tier above the J2 agents we signed this period.

Ken Giles ranks amongst qualified relievers: 4th in fWAR (1.5 fWAR) 6th in ERA (1.24) 1st in FIP (0.97) 3rd in xFIP (2.07) 4th in xwOBA (.224) 3rd in K/9 (15.83) He on pace to have the best year of his career by far. I know people are campaigning to keep him, but relievers are so extremely volatile and very few are consistent every season. Move him for a haul and sell high in my opinion.

I'm not really campaigning to get Biggio out of the lineup. Move Biggio to RF or 1B before Galvis is traded. Biggio will likely get tons of reps at 2B down the stretch once Galvis is moved.

It’s time to option Drury. He’s been tinkering with his swing all season and hasn’t really had much playing time recently. It may just be a case of giving him everyday playing time to see what works and what doesn’t, but not in the major leagues. Option Drury, call up Bichette, Galvis moves to 2nd.

Tyler Skaggs has apparently passed away. Only 27 years old.

Imagine if this young core was supplemented by another 1-2 good hitters from free agency or trades. We’d probably be pretty good. All the more reason to maybe think about it this offseason. Teams with young talent in recent years have turned around quicker than expected sometimes.

"But if you take out the month where he hit 12 home runs, gurribabip wasn't that impressive!" - tercet

It's not so much being down on him as much as trying to properly evaluate him. I'd like to keep him, but probably not for the amount he's going to realistically demand. I simply think he gives up far too many baserunners and relies on external factors to be a true #2, also taking into account that #2 starters on competitive teams have increased in quality in recent years. They don't have to be aces necessarily, but they're better at preventing runners from reaching base and also have a higher than league average strikeout rate. Let's take a look at Stroman's 2016 and 2017: 2016: 9.2 H/9, 0.9 HR/9, 2.4 BB/9, 7.3 K/9, 1.289 WHIP, 4.37 ERA 2017: 9.0 H/9, 0.9 HR/9, 2.8 BB/9, 7.3 K/9, 1.308 WHIP, 3.09 ERA Fairly similar peripherals both years for Stroman, and yet dramatically different results. The main difference between both years? 68.6% LOB% in 2016, and 78.1% LOB%. The fact that his results vary greatly depending on LOB%, which also seems to have variation year to year, doesn't necessarily scream #2 to me.

That's usually how deals before free agency work. You don't get free agent value because you get access to guaranteed money earlier. At the end of the day, Stroman is not a #1 or even #2 on a good team. He's prone to his down seasons due to his pitch to contact philosophy. Even during his best season in 2017, he ranked bottom 8% in the league for Hard-Hit%. He's a career 1.283 WHIP guy. He can can be a FIP overperformer or underperformer in any given year. Which #3 30-year old starter in the league with a near 1.3 career WHIP would get $80M in this day and age? This is not the same market where the Jeff Samardzija and Mike Leake's of the world got $90M. As for who we would trade for top of line starters, probably a package of top prospects. That's usually how trades for elite talent work. Maybe less if they're a veteran with a large contract.

Or you know, trade for Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole like the Astros did. Free agency isn't the only option here. Obviously you're hoping Nate Pearson becomes a front of the rotation guy and Hector Perez finally figures out command (or control?) and becomes a #2, but not only does that have a small likelihood of occurring, if that DOES happen, they also have to prove they can stay (a) healthy ( consistent. Tampa Bay is going through this right now. Blake Snell is struggling mightily after a Cy Young season. Tyler Glasnow is out with a forearm strain. Brent Honeywell is out with TJ. Young pitchers are a landmine. And having cost controlled optionable backend guys is hardly the worst thing in the world. The reason you'll be able to pay those top of the rotation guys (and other major league talent around the field) their hefty salaries is because the Borucki's, Thorntons, Zeuch's and others will be making depressed salaries for 6 seasons. Since 2014 (Stroman's debut): Marcus Stroman: 755.1 IP, 13.7 fWAR, Lance Lynn: 814.2 IP, 13.8 fWAR, 3 yr $30M Sonny Gray: 895.1 IP, 14.2 fWAR, 4 yr $38M JA Happ: 926.1 IP, 13.7 fWAR, 2 yr $34M Not to mention Carlos Carrasco and Kyle Hendricks who were both due to be free agents at the same time as Stroman and got around $50M (and are also considerably better than him). Granted some of those guys got lesser $ because of age, but I struggle to see why we should give Stroman more than twice what those other guys got when they're all inherently mid rotation guys at the end of the day. Does he deserve $40M more just because he's younger? Again, I'm not against an extension. But I am against overpaying for one when similar pitchers got less.

Since his return to the majors on May 24th, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has literally been the 2nd best hitter in the AL: 1. Mike Trout (200 wRC+) 2. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (188 wRC+) https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=al&qual=y&type=8&season=2019&month=1000&season1=2019&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2019-05-24&enddate=2019-12-31&sort=17,d