bmags

Thompson, Gladney, Adolfo to pitt.

alright hell yes I'm dusting off ye olde spreadsheets and putting my plan in place

But that's a fairly typical slashline from Joc, it's even fairly low for his slugging which he's hit over .500 several times.

No I know, sorry should have clarified why I quoted. We are just seeing a lot of "sox looking at RF, sights on brantley". That's fine if he is out there for some 25 games, but not for 150.

But it's also a 60 game season. If you add in his playoff games, his slash goes from .190/.285/.387 to .232/.314/.432 He's not all sunshine and roses, but he has a good track record and I think he's getting too much of his negatives focused on instead of his positives. He still hits the crap out of the ball and defends.

I love brantley's bat, but man I really want it to be planned for as a DH. I do not want sox to use Robert as a cure-all for outfield defense.

This is true. man some of those weeks where cease/lopez couldn't get through their starts and then we had a bullpen day next were rough (or a 3 inning start from gio). This is where the durability part of Quintana too shouldn't be discounted, though I feel like we can use Lynn's to take a flyer on a high upside guy like Kluber/Paxton.

Exactly. Fathom mentions the off-the-field stuff, but one thing that may be distracted there is just your approach. If he's not all there, he is more vulnerable to being fooled by stuff he may be able to take/foul off. I am fine being the high-man on Joc. I'm completely confident he is going to be very good on the white sox if they sign him.

The one thing about Heyward is with the money we were getting back, he becomes more moveable to us anyway. I like Darvish more than Lynn. But I do like having the flexibility. I could see us really making our bullpen stronger this year with the extra budget to hedge against regressions from younger guys that only pitched realistically like 1/4 of a season.

Exactly, even though we can't count on having an MVP abreu or even Giolito and Anderson after 2024 (3?)

There is a TON of interesting bullpen arms. I'm personally hoping they get Jake McGee.

I like Bauer a lot and would be thrilled to sign him, but come on, just because trades 20 years ago didn't work out means very little. Lots of teams trade for players every year.

And on top of that, Weems was a discount 6th rounder. That was our dalquist/thompson/beard year that needed heavy savings. All of us just looked at those dudes as senior signs. And even more excitement: instructs showed revamped stuff for Kade McClure and Isaiah Carranza. They are finding more value out of existing guys. Hansen was specifically mentioned for McClure - he found him more velo. Suddenly the hostetler drafts are starting to look good.

guessing he'll be elected to lead the umpires union next year.

Heard there's a lot of interest in Trevor Williams as the new pirates reclamation du jour. I don't think he has a lot to work with, but it is funny looking at his profile and seeing stuff like this: His slider and curveball appear to be used the same way... I just ...don't know what the pirates were doing. They at least tried to get away from his sinker this year, an awful pitch.

This is going to be unpopular but I'm ok being fairly year by year with the backend of our pitching rotation.

One thing that is nice is at the very least I think acquiring lynn guarantees either returning Colome or a big splash in hendriks

Drew Smyly.

107 million I think

I agree, I am circling paxton, though his fb was awful last year. But still feel slightly more confident than Kluber.

I get it but I'd love it.

He absolutely does. My only point there was that was not my standard here. I would like us to get the best talent.

Great point

But we still have the uncertainty of Cease.

It's very very toxic, horrible in fact. You should definitely avoid it.