nrockway

Naylor's set to make $14mil and Manzardo will make $750k. Manzardo is likely better too.

he was playing for the Chicago Dogs a couple years ago. I don't see the point in continuing to bring in these relievers when there are like 20 guys in the minors who should be playing.

2005-2008 is what I was looking at in which he did not play the field at all, although he was essentially the DH from 1998 on, only (like you say) playing 131 games at 1B the rest of his career. I picked 2005 because he played 0 games at 1b after that year. However, his defensive stats were 'fine' over that period (1998-2004). Maybe moving to DH extended his career in terms of injuries, but I don't really see evidence of that. If the DH doesn't exist, I speculate Frank is still putting up the same hitting numbers and continuing to play 1b, his Hall of Fame legacy intact. I'd rather use David Ortiz as an example. That guy shouldn't be in the Hall for, primarily steroids, but also the fact that he could not play the field. Frank played four fewer seasons but compiled 6000 more innings in the field. Principally, I think baseball players should play both sides of the ball and I imagine Thomas, Thome, Edgar Martinez could have still played the field and had Hall of Fame careers if the DH never existed. And if they were forced into an earlier retirement, then maybe they weren't good enough at the entire sport of baseball. The sport isn't exclusively hitting and pitching. Frank Thomas is one of my favorite players and the homer in me says he would've made it no matter what. But I sorta think if you can't play the field anymore, if your bad defense outweighs your good offense, it's time to call it quits. I don't think the MLB ever really needed to make rules to make offense more prevalent (besides the dead ball). Baseball is a pretty slow sport, adding a couple more hits per game isn't going to make it entertaining for would-be fans who think the game is too slow. They can just watch cricket, there's plenty of hitting in that sport and consequently 'bowling', the other side of the ball, is pretty boring; there isn't as much depth as with baseball pitching. Pitchers hitting is also just fun to watch, kind of like comic relief, and there's an extra dimension of strategy when he is expected to hit. A pitcher hitting a home run is far more memorable than a DH hitting one. Bartolo Colon hitting a home run is an awesome moment for the sport, Eloy Jimenez grounding out to the shortstop 90% of the time is...not. I thought the system was fine when the AL had the DH and the NL did not. Standardization is boring and the relative lack of it in baseball is another aspect of the sport which makes it more interesting than, say, basketball or hockey. Watch how in 20 years every ballpark is going to have the exact same dimensions and feature a dome and I blame Ron Blomberg for it.

Truly, the latter. Defense is a relevant aspect of baseball, if you can't even play first base, you probably shouldn't be playing professionally anymore. Frank compiled another ~9ish WAR after moving to permanent DH, maybe that was the difference between him entering the Hall or not. But I wouldn't change my opinion on this for Homeristic reasons, I reckon he would've got in anyway, eventually. Thome is fundamentally an Indians player so I don't really care.

you can delete that post but my hoop dreams were definitely crushed by people who were actually good at baseball

Right? This is an all-time Sox performance. It's a tragedy he'll never get a real chance.

I hope he gets a chance. Hate the designated hitter, takes value away from a guy like Lorenzen or MadBum. Lorenzen would probably be one of the better hitters on this team...

this seems like a good idea until you want to play center field and cody bellinger goes to your high school.

He's still got a little bit of potential, I think. I wouldn't have paid him that much though. I'm surprised, good for him. Aren't the Nats notoriously bad at developing pitchers?

I’m thinking of that key and peele sketch. “Is there a Bruh-ee-say on this team? Stop playing with me, Bruh-ee-say!”

Maybe part of it is that there's less interest in the team and fewer fans are tuning in, but this just seems to be the way things are going. Why have a thoughtful, knowledgeable journalist when you can have a former pro athlete interview his buddy about what his favorite Nike shoe is. I reckon that's what people want to watch/listen to/consume these days, morons they've heard of that used to be good at the sport they like who have nothing interesting to say. Gen Z athletes are also wimps for only wanting to answer softball questions from their friends about their various sponsorships. Roger Angell could never have a career in 2024.

Pilfering the NL Central

Don't know what rule changes you could actually institute. A pitch over 100 mph is a ball? No more giving "max effort"? I guess this is what the MLB recommends: Doesn't seem particularly helpful. Rather than have a rule that says starting pitchers 'must' pitch 6 innings (delusional), why doesn't the MLB come up with its own version of Pitcher WAR that can be tied to arbitration payments and likely to free agent contracts? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the current WARs don't reward pitchers for going deep into games. A strikeout in the first inning will be worth as much as a strikeout in a pitcher's 7th inning of work. Yes, you can potentially rack up more WAR by throwing more innings, but there's something useful about a pitcher that gets outs deep into games that isn't adequately recognized. Fangraphs makes a 'leverage' adjustment for relievers, there should be something similar for starters. Will pitchers regulate themselves if there's a statistical and financial component to 'not giving max effort'? Couldn't hurt. Youth sports is the bigger issue to me, I feel somewhat sorry for millionaires blowing out their elbows and shoulders, I feel worse about the kids who will never play professionally. Especially the Latin kids because they're obviously being fed drugs from a very young age and MLB turns a blind eye to it. What if scouts aren't allowed to report the velocity of players under 18 to teams anymore, else face a fine? That seems unlikely and like a wonderful incentive for even more corruption. Gotta do something though, I just don't know what MLB could do. Wouldn't mind seeing more two+ inning relief pitchers though, interested to see what "regulate the availability of pitchers on a roster" might mean.

right! more than moderately annoyed, that guy rocks.

He kinda sucks at hitting and doesn't really fit anywhere except center field. A good team probably wants a better-hitting first baseman and they have PCA to play center. Perfect fit on the Yankees, I love this for them, they look to be a better team despite losing Soto. Think the Cubs definitely could've gotten more than a reliever/salary dump though. I'd be more upset about not retaining a lot more of his salary (they gave Yankees $5m) to get back an actually good player. Maybe they spend it on a player. Unlikely. Why am I getting the feeling that Yoan Moncada will be their starting third baseman?

also, Brewers catching coach guy strikes again!

I forget who they dumped to keep Chuckie, but I remember being moderately annoyed.

Five more years of "Rate"! Why didn't they rebrand to something smart like "The Winners"? It's just good marketing. I would probably buy insurance (or whatever they sell, I haven't figured it out) from "The Winners". They might change their logo to a thumbs up too. Still sad Wintrust didn't win the bid. Like Rate, I don't totally know what they do, but the name inspires confidence.

That's my thinking too, but I think he comps a little bit to Imanaga and his (although flyball heavy) 92 MPH fastball in this regard. I didn't think Imanaga would be any good for that reason, that he was already giving up a lot of homers and it was only going to be worse facing MLB players at Wrigley. His HR/9 was pretty bad but the rest of his peripherals were great. Fewer walks than in NPB, similar K rate. However, Imanaga struck out 9.4 batters per 9 in NPB compared to 7.7 for Sugano. Sugano is also old and his past couple seasons have been around ~6. That seems fairly significant and might suggest he won't be fooling MLB players. Senga and Yamamoto actually improved on their K rate in the MLB, but then they already had the 'big stuff' reputations and were striking out 9+ guys per 9, but they are also in their athletic primes. if I was an O's fan, I'd probably prefer Corbin Burnes. Doesn't seem like a great fit for them, they need star pitching, seems like a better fit for a team that might want to dangle him at the trade deadline a la Fedde. But yeah I think what you say is right, a pretty good 4 or 5 that might turn out to be a little bit better. I'm excited to watch him pitch.

Pretty clever. He'd probably get an Imanaga type contract if he came over before he's 35, I might've thought the Sox could be in on this type of signing. Does his groundball-producing "stuff" and his 92mph fastball translate to the MLB? I wondered that about Imanaga and he was excellent, though trending the wrong direction after an incredible start to the season. Maybe the 15-year vet with 1900 IP takes a step back though.

Good post, mostly agree, I like the bit about the spectacular gymnast. I'd quibble with the bolded a little bit. I don't see it, why'd they re-sign Clevinger? Signing him once, maybe you get the benefit of the doubt (they knew), but twice? and he makes like one start? hmm. It actually seems to contradict what I thought was a well-established policy, I feel like we were always whining that the Sox/Bulls wouldn't go after knuckleheads with star power, then they go out and sign Clev twice. He's not even good. You could say something similar about Josh Giddey, regardless of whether or not the allegations against him are true. He's radioactive, OKC wasn't re-signing him and other teams didn't seem interested in trading for him, despite being pretty talented and young. Seems to me that the Reinsdorf teams had a change in ethics and it didn't even help the teams win games, actually they're as bad as ever. I bet we're thinking about if Deshaun Watson can hit a curveball.

I was thinking about Schriffen last night. He's not very good. I didn't even care about all the times he put his foot in his mouth. Actually I thought it was a little endearing. LA PANTERA (cat sounds) is objectively funny...like why would anyone say that? it's absurd. very amusing. Everybody seems to hate him which makes me like him a little bit. It's the Carlos Boozer effect. However, his issue to me is how seemingly proud he is about his complete lack of knowledge and his reluctance to learn anything about the sport he has a full-time job talking about. I'm reading very much into some statement he made in a Guardians game, he was talking about Kyle Manzardo and got the scouting report completely wrong, then later in the game, when talking about Sox prospects, he said something like, "oh yeah these nerds know so much about the minor leagues. I wish I had time to learn about all that." Dawg, I feel like it's 50% of your job to know that stuff. You have to talk about baseball for like 500 hours a year, you should figure out some stuff to talk about. Maybe talk about the baseball players, maybe pony up for a Baseball America subscription. that Bill VEEEK remark too. Buddy, if you did a modicum of preparation for this great job you have, people would not make fun of you so relentlessly. I'm also convinced he got drunk during that 9th inning rain delay in St Louis.

Seems like a lot of players (that I've heard of, they must be good) to give up for Robert. Pipedream would be to get back Caba and Crawford imo. After we trade Robert, who even has the ability to play center field? Sign some defensive specialist, maybe, a guy like Blake Perkins, but it would be a shame to lose Robert's (theoretical) offensive ability or just swap it over to a less important position. If Montgomery2 pans out, that would be nice, but then the hole in right field moves to center field. Montgomery1 probably can't play shortstop, I'm not sure anyone in the system has the range, but you could give him until 2027 to try to make it work. When he inevitably moves to third (or first), Caba should be ready. I mean, he's 19, so he still has plenty of time to blow it (especially in the Sox system), but his athleticism and defensive ability makes me think he's going to be a gold glove contender for a long time even if he doesn't figure out how to hit the ball. Phillies had a CF prospect like that though, forget his name, but I think they DFA'd him this past season.

I don't trust the renovations, I don't want to pay more for a ticket and a hot dog so that I can enter through a fancy lobby. I wasn't really begging for a "8,500-sq.-ft., interactive LED video wall that can be programmed with dynamic content. This video wall glows like a beacon and is visible from several blocks away." Maybe they should renovate the three point line back a couple feet and then basketball will actually be interesting. Actually I'm looking through the 'renovations' and I hate all of them. absolutely nothing about upgrading the toilets. I'm seeing these self-cleaning ones now, add some of those. "Restrooms have been refreshed with new graphics, finishes and fixtures" though. A gorilla in sunglasses can watch you piss.

Ishbia spent like crazy with the Suns and they ended up a worse team. same thing with Mikhail Prokhorov, except not only were the Nets bad, it crippled the franchise and handed Boston a title. Rich idiots may be rich but they're still idiots. I guess they can pay out $700mil contracts and retain $70mil on trades, but that's more so an indictment on the league IMO.