Harold's Leg Lift

They're going to trade Kimbrel. I guess if Rodon accepts they could try to trade him too but I haven't heard that as a likely scenario.

He would get a $15M pay increase and the odds of him even coming close to repeating that performance is just about zero. A draft pick isn't worth it.

The Sox don't want to pay Rodon $18M and Rodon does not want another 1 yr deal. If they offfer it it's because they're confident he's going to turn it down. Conforto's gonna get paid.

They're off to a bang up start.

Did you watch the World Series, Jack?

Recency bias.

They traded for him because he had the extra year of control and they weren't going to change their process based on the results or because they were scared of the money. This is how big market teams go about their business.

duh

Everyone needs pitching and the good thing for Rodon is some of the big boys (Houston, LAD, Toronto, NYM) will get picks back so giving one up won't hurt. I think they'll be a big enough market for him that Boras will work his magic.

Remember they nontendered Rodon a year ago. The last thing they want is to do is go from paying him $3M to paying him $18M. They know his history and makeup better than anyone. I still think they'll offer it and he'll find a multi year deal elsewhere but they better be sure.

It looks like this.

I don't think he throws it. It's called the Dodger slider because they were the first to really deploy it. Other teams call it the sweeper. It's pretty much a slurve with lots of horizontal break but being new school means you simply rename something old so the sweeper is born. The Dodgers, Astros, Yankees, Twins and Brewers are the teams that used it last season and they saw good results. Now it's all the rage.

Tough day for the SHIFT MORE! crowd.

Target guys who throw the Dodger slider.

Yep. He's 26 and 3+ years removed from TJ. He's as strong as he'll ever be so there's no reason to hold him back. Take the kid gloves off and lets see what he can do.

Reynolds has 4.

Pittsburgh

but the important question is did he hit a lot of infield popups?

They need a left handed hitting run producer in the middle of the order. They don't have to pigeon hole themselves by saying that guy has to play RF or 2B. They have options. That guy can be a DH then they can fill the 2B and RF positions with more athletic and versatile players i.e better defenders.

St Louis had the lowest batting avg on infield groundballs the same year they acquired arguably the greatest defensive third baseman ever. Shocking

I would assume they would want some young pitching.

That is the question. They have some tough decisions to make.

Would you include Vaughn in a package for Bryan Reynolds?

Sign Schwarber to DH and they can get more athletic and versatile at 2B and RF.

Dude was on fire today. Tyler “SLAB” O’Neill: Which defensive metric do you trust most? Kevin Goldstein: My eyes. I just still very skeptical of nearly any defensive metric. Fred: In most publicly available pitch frame metrics Martin Maldonado is average. Do the Astros’ metrics say different? What makes him so valuable? Kevin Goldstein: He’s game management and his working with pitchers is as good as anyone in the game. It’s not something you can put a number on, but it’s there, and it’s incredibly valuable. Dalton Wilcox: You scare me with all this talk of unquantified Value. Life only counts if quantified, no? Everything else is stupid unlike me Kevin Goldstein: An economist won a Nobel Prize in the 1970s by yelling at other economists who believed they should ignore that which can not be quantified. I yell at baseball fans who ignore that which can not be quantified. SJ: What are the best online resources if I want to try to train my brain to see what scouts see? Watching video of players with really good individual tool grades on the board has been helpful but can I supplement that in any way? Kevin Goldstein: If you want to train your brain to see what scouts see, you need to sit behind home plate at games.