BamaDoc

At our current position in the rebuild, I don't think you do a qualifying offer player unless it is Cole or Strasburg. I expect Cole to be an Angel or Yankee. I expect the Nats to sweeten Strasburgs deal by some additional money and years especially if they lose Rendon. The fact Stras signed an early extension tells me he likes his situation and is unlikely to move.

I did see that. I expect a player to be loyal to a guy who helped him. Did you see after the game, the MLB crew all apologized to Eaton for criticizing the trade at the time and that all that was given up for him was fine. LOL

I would add, you have never have a player who has left the team say anything bad about him. He is probably a great human being and an ok x/o manager.

The stories were Grandal turned down 4-60 from the Mets last year. Several big market teams are actually dealing with budget issues. It is actually why on page one of this thread I proposed a 3-60 deal with an optional fourth year. To sweeten it for him and mess with other teams budgets while accounting for aging, I structured it as 24-20-16 per year and then the option at 16. Total max 4-76. This structure also has his salary decreasing when we will potentially need money for more of our own players. Grandal OPS second half .787 solid for the wear and tear of catching and by DHing some you might expect it to be a bit higher. McCann second half .695 though much due to a terrible July.

Check Pederson's splits. His OPS vs LHP was .505 so you will need a platoon partner.

I think the early bidding battles will center around pitchers who don't have qualifying offers. That is where we should be looking but I think many others will as well. It is a no brainer that if two guys are equal to go for the non qualifier.

JDM is a great hitter. The two biggest downfalls I see with him is it pretty much forces you to play Abreu at first a lot. Secondly, what do you do in interleague play as JDM glove is not at all good? I worry about Ozuna's glove in RF and the fact it will take a multi year commitment. I thought about Jose but same issues for JDM come into play for Jose.

I started this thread and if you look, Gardner was a complementary signing to Grandal. If you get a primary bat addition, Grandal in my case, Gardner would hit lower in my lineup to balance handedness and our poor OBP. I agree if RF is your only big bat signing you want more but I don't see it out there this year. If he were younger, he probably wouldn't be on a Yankee roster bubble and may not be. Hell he is batting three for them in the playoffs. His four WAR this year would be third on our team, ahead of everyone but Giolitto and Moncada. The game is not only played with a bat but you also do many other things, which he does better than most options. Since 2015, his WARs are 3.9, 3.2, 3.4, 4.9, 2.8, 4.0 OBP of .327, .343, .351, .350, .322 .325 Father time will get all but with this track record is a WAR of 2.5 unreasonable to expect? For comparison Mazzara has NO seasons with over 1WAR. Nimmo ONE season over 1 WAR. Dickerson 1 season over 2.5 WAR since 2015. Mazzara and Nimmo you have to trade for so you are giving up prospects/players who unless they are scrap I don't wish to do. We need a lot to go right to just contend and I felt Gardner was one of the safest bets out there. It may not mater as the Yankees probably realize his value even as a fourth outfielder for them.

As far as wanting a lot of money and max years, sure. I think his health concerns are much less than Ryu. I think Keuchel is way overvaluing himself. I think the years/value of Strasburg will dwarf the other two. Because they/agent is thinking high values, I was trying to point out they will not be quick signs in my opinion.

Ryu is a Boras client. Boras spinning his bad injury history as a low mileage arm and wants long years at high dollar. Won't be a quick sign. Keuchel also a Boras guy still talks like he thinks he deserves a huge deal. Boras previously inferred he had multi year deals that Boras was okay with but his client said no. Again probably a later signing.

The other point of getting Gardner that I tried to point out is it gives you two options. First it gives time for your non Robert outfield prospects to develop potentially giving you a cheap homegrown replacement. Secondly, Gardner does not keep you from signing someone like Pederson the following year. In that scenario all you have done is spent money and not lost any prospects.

Colinski, thanks for taking the time to present a plan and not bad. I am figuring you are around 125 new money if Abreu comes back so I am doubtful on getting it all done and appreciate the plan B part as well. I agree someone from our relievers steps up and I am not crazy about Colome at 10 million closing as I fear regression. Hopefully Hererra is what he was supposed to be and balances some of it out. As you watch the playoffs, you see little things matter like defense, getting guys over or in from third. Ray Ray awesome stuff. Ive gotta dig into it more. Thanks

It would have been but it does make the assumption that the Dodgers would have accepted it. They actually had a multitude of starting pitching.

He wants to stay but I am hoping he is odd man out. They have big money committed to Stanton, Hicks and Judge is not going anywhere. They wouldn't trade Frazier (young OF) at deadline and found some cheap productive players. They have been up at the tax levels and they seem to want to stay below or around the max. They have to add pitching which will be expensive thus I hope he simply is odd man out. Hell they hit him #3 last night so they do like him.

That is about 120 plus million annual out lay. I would like it a lot (still Gardner over Cast, yes I think his glove is a problem) but I know I am not getting everything I want. My plan was trying to be realistic.

Hate thread hijacked and I am continuing that but I wonder if part of trouble is he is being to fine and getting behind hitters because he doesn't trust stuff. Rather than aiming at corners, missing, then getting crushed could he start pitch over not the middle but six inches from a corner and trust his movement? Between the ears stuff is hard to fix. Maybe a lot of mental work, visualization stuff in offseason. As a competitive golfer in a past life, at higher levels the mental part is more and more important. Yogi was right, "90% of the game is half mental"!

I agree especially with a 26 man roster. Collins is not a absolute guarantee. Yermin could get a try as a bat. Grandal being a switch hitter would allow some mixing and matching. If no Grandal, I would be scared but could you go with Collins and Mercedes being primary DH's (Collins struggles vs LHP) and Collins as your #2 catcher, Yermin emergency catcher?

I could see Fulmer going in a change os scenery trade as you mentioned. That trade worked well for one team!

Part of my rational is they sign Grandal who would hit higher in lineup so Gardner would provide balance and possibly be more in the 6-8 range. You wouldn't require the bat to be as important and the glove (especially compared to other options) would be there even if he does drop slugging a bit. He walks at close to 9% indicative of making a pitcher work like Grandal. Gardner's numbers home and away are similar so it wasn't just hitting them into the short porch in right. He is a stop gap and would not span our window of opportunity but as he winds down I expect one of our prospects to be ready. Plugging a young cheap option in gives financial flexibility as others get to bigger dollar levels. Other free agents would require longer years and many have bad gloves or other risks. His shorter contract length could allow you to fire at a Betts or Springer if everything breaks right although with current FO/O I doubt that is possible. More about putting a solid 3 WAR guy in RF where we were negative WAR last year. In a realistic plan you can't get every top guy but you need solid players also.

Sorry back on page one when I started thread. It is Brett Gardner. Only thing against him is age but he hasn't shown signs of any slowdown. One year and option or two years probably gets it done. I think he would be a great mentor as well. Never heard a bad thing about him with NY writers around everyday. Allows time for our young minor league guys to develop or allows you to go after big FA RF down the road. When I started researching, I was very surprised by his numbers. Keep an open mind and take a look https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gardnbr01.shtml

Why Ozuna? He is not a great glove. Had a real good year in 2017, 6.1 WAR. Last year 2.9, this year 2.1. He is going to require significant years and dollars and probably has a qualifying offer attached. He is a national leaguer, (who knows how he adjusts to AL?), hits right-handed. He will need to move from left to right field. The guy I want has WARs of 4.9, 2.8, 4.0. (Better WAR total and this year). Hits left-handed, played a lot of CF as well as corners. AL bat with no home park inflation of his numbers, no qualifying offer, and will be a lot cheaper.

signing a player because the scrubs want him is perhaps not the best way to build a team.

Willie Calhoun has a interesting bat but another player with a bad glove. Choo has a terrible glove. The short term answer while our prospects develop is Gardner.

Abreu

That is why I proposed cutting Yolmer to about 3.3 million but give him a couple years as a sweetener. I don't see Leury, Yolmer, and Engel all being back. I want better hitting so I left out Engel.