bmags

Indians take Trevor Stephan from Yankees.

white sox pass,

probably famous last words but feeling somewhat safe on sox guys now.

Phillies take Kyle Holder, yanks first round pick from 2017.

guessing this is tigers not twins.

lotta picks so far!

Dbacks take Zack Pop. Jordan sheffield taken.

Red Sox get whitlock. Darn.

Starting meow. We have 1 spot. No whammies.

Said it before but there are so many relievers. I think As will get Bradley, personally.

Alright so if we are going to be stuck where we are, I know a lot of people mentioned Schwarber for DH. I don't think he takes an AL DH role that gets him replaced, but I do think it's possible we say we'll rotate him with Eloy to get him some reps and probably could make the ABs work even with a vaughn call up. But I don't think schwarber signs here, so: - Howie Kendrick - great vet coming off down year (but you didn't care about that with Eaton) who generally hits RHP well because he generally hits everyone well. Possibly babip bad luck last year, or the sign that he finally is about cooked. But generally low risk, whereas if he's great, you give yourself leeway to let Vaughn marinate. 1 yr/5 mill vet bonus. - Travis Shaw - While not great, he is versatile and would provide some insurance in case [i can't say it, but you know what I am saying]. He is also LH and would be an option against RHP. He's also pretty good against breaking pitches, so maybe that helps. He was horrendous in 2019 but was closer last year. Maybe you get that sweet 2017-18 Shaw that was a 130 wRC+ against RHP. Steamer basically pegs him where he was at last year, slightly below average. Probably cheap, gives us some more insurance if we lose Moncada/Madrigal for some time, and in the meantime can play DH against RHP while we wait for Vaughn.

It also puts us for ozuna and putting Eaton/Engel into a LF platoon...

It looks like Pfizer's effectiveness at first dose is pretty good at 80-85%. If J&J ends up lower than that with a single dose, I wonder if there isn't pressure to just make Pfizer a one-dose vaccine to cover more people.

My only goal today is not to lose McClure.

I don't really understand why Brantley was the guy they targeted. I really worry they are being way too myopic on the RF search ("must be LH bat good against Indians"). I think most on board wouldn't want that to come at cost of an outfield defense that bookends robert with trash, and we already have a great offense. I mean maybe last year when our whole season was against the AL central that would have been helpful.

We didn't have a chance once Grandal hit. And I get it, Grandal introduced lefty power and OBP into one of the few positions we didn't have long-term players in (and many of our longterm guys are RH hitters who are not as good vs RHP). I don't think it was a bad idea, I just think Sox were a little too cute with in 2017-19 with their dumpster diving hoping to get a career resurgence and flip them. James was one of the few we had with control, and I think they were still just in the mindset of flipping and not valuing anything coming from vets. Lynn is actually an example of sox missing out on, they just weren't looking for players like that that required some additional commitment in years, but were relatively cheap on marketplace and could be valuable if things turned around. But as it is, it's all ok. They did benefit from not bogging down roster with a Eric Hosmer or something. But they should have experimented more with whether their FA scouting was actually finding better talent at that tier of player that we will probably still be diving in for 5th starters/backups.

I didn't say it wasn't. But the extension talks were discussed in 2019.

I disagree. Even now, yes he's getting a four year deal. People are talking about 10 mill a year. We'll see where it ends up. But catchers are cheap outside of Grandal/Realmuto. We paid 8 mill a year for Kelvin herrerras injured ass, and I think 3 for 25 would have gotten him.

The problem is Adam's 2019, and if Adam's speed is starting to slow if his lower BABIPs are the norm. He's actually hitting the ball harder, but it may not be enough to compensate for a lower OBP.

LOL. His 2019 was his career year, 2020 was his second best in his career. He had a 146 wRC+ which puts him at 46% better than average. He could get 20% worse and still be better than Adam Eatons career best offensively )124 wRC+. Adam Eaton the last 4 years wRC+ went from 124 (23 games played), to 122 (95 games played), to 107 (155 games played), to 75 (44 games played). George Springer: 140, 118, 156, 146. Little different, but basically the same you are right.

Yes I don't think it's unlikely that pre-Grandal signing the sox could have given him an extension. And as someone who was supportive of it, I think key was the reason to extend him was his work with pitching staff not his offensive resurgence. I didn't expect that to keep up, but then it did. So that would have been cool.

He's going to need to have a big year, because we lose our extension on his rights. He's going to be rule 5 fodder very soon if he's middling.