SoxBlanco

100% this. Couldn't have said it any better myself.

I actually wasn’t even talking about Lopez. Giolito, Cease, Kopech, and Lynn (via Dunning). But now that you mention it, if Lopez starts in place of Lynn and performs better than Keuchel, we could have a situation when Lynn returns where the entire starting rotation is a result of the big 3 trades.

Yeah, if you don’t count 80% of the rotation and a third of the lineup, we would probably be struggling.

Velazquez! ???

Alright, as one of the more optimistic people here, I’m going to attempt to stay positive. Let’s say Lynn misses 8 starts. How many of those games would we have won? Last year, we were 5-3 in his first 8 starts, so that seems like a reasonable estimate. I assume Lopez will be taking these starts. So how many of those first 8 games with Lopez/Velasquez pitching will we win? Maybe 3? So we are looking at a 2 or 3 game difference, perhaps. Could be more, could even be less. Definitely sucks, but not the end of the world. Like others have said, though, one more injury and we could be in big trouble.

I think the plan is to just wait until the deadline now. See what the team looks like in July and see what other players (pitchers) might be available. Some of our younger prospects might have increased their value a little bit, too.

He can also play a decent LF (and possibly RF). And could end up being one of the best hitters in the league. Even if he’s at 1B, that’s very valuable.

The board also told us that Vaughn was out for year because the team played him out of position. They also told us Kimbrel could not be traded.

Bookmark this comment and get back to me in a couple years, Jack.

He’s one of the best hitters to come out of the draft in the last ten years. He held his own after skipping AA and AAA. Yes, he might hit like an MVP at some point in the next few years.

The argument here is kind of silly because it all depends on the price. If we give up Vaughn (which we won’t), then I would agree with all of the bullet points. But if we don’t have to give up much, then the bullet points are dumb. So basically, until we see the return, there’s no point in discussing whether the trade is a good idea.

I think he’s saying that Madrigal’s “per game” stats in 2021 are meaningless because he will rarely play a full season.

Many people here thought it was stupid to pick up Kimbrel’s option. For those people, anything Pollock gives us should be a bonus. Of course, those people will counter by saying they would have signed a better RF after declining Kimbrel’s option. So we should be comparing Pollock’s numbers to Conforto’s or Castellanos’ or Suzuki’s numbers and then compare the contracts of all of them. Also, if one of our prospects (Colas, Cespedes, etc) is playing RF in 2024, then we should compare his stats and contract to the numbers of the RF that was preferred.

Vaughn will improve more than Sheets will because he had to play last year after making the jump straight from A ball. Sheets was given the luxury of making those improvements while moving through the minors at a normal pace. I even recall a time a couple years ago when people were calling Sheets a bust, and he was facing minor league pitching at that time.

I’ll set the fake line for Kimbrel’s saves at 36.5. You guys taking the over or under?

I think you might have mentioned that the Twins could beat any offer we would make. If I’m imagining that, then ignore this post, but my question is this: Would the Twins even be willing to beat us with an offer? For only one year, it seems like they might prefer to just keep their prospects. Is Manaea really going to change the outcome of their season much?

I feel like we aren’t appreciating Pollock’s ability to hit RHP as much as we should. He had a 140 wRC+ against RHP last year. I guess the question is whether that was a fluke year against righties. Can he come close to that this year?

Wrong thread.

The closer we get to actual baseball, the more I love Ray Ray. He’s back!

You'll feel better after seeing Fegan's tweet posted above my post.

I would just like to post my comment again here from a thread that is now closed... There were several people here complaining about the lack of a RF and the inability to unload Kimbrel. Both were accomplished today, and we still have a week until opening day.

Did Pollock even get injured 2 years ago? I have no clue, but he played 55 games in the shortened season.

Will we ever get to the point where a player just decides to operate early at the first sign of potential troubles? It would have been great if Crochet had TJS right after the 2020 postseason.

Kudos to you for posting this, Ray Ray.

Agreed. But some very vocal people (I won't name names) have been complaining about picking up that option because Kimbrel would not be traded.