bmags

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.

I love this post because it doesn't make the point it thinks it does.

Moncada had swing and miss issues. Franco has a contact tool like Madrigal except has power. He has an insanely good approach.

With the food accounts circling a possible Q addition, that's something that has been received warmly by sox fans who remember his time here. I loved me some quintana, and was someone who would get angry when teams would not want to hand over their entire farm system for him. That said, I am not that keen on him returning. Let's get the easy stuff out first: - Yes, it is likely he outperforms the extremely bad signing of gio gonzalez. Had we had a full year, gio would have been a big nothingburger. And here is the good: Jose Quintana has pitched 175 innings for most of his career until he tried to cut fruit or whatever last year. For those that need it, I think the Ivan Nova comp for what he gives is legit. BUT: - One thing that was interesting with Q and the sox was how his velocity continued to increase each year, but on the cubs it retreated, now settling in around 91.5 mph on average. - The thing that made Q amazing was his home run suppression. During his sox years through 2016, his HR/FB rate was under 10%, it increased starting 2017 and stayed there during his time with the cubs. - The cubs have generated more whiffs but I don't know if it made him a better pitcher. Quintana's stuff is not great, his command is. But cubs moved him to the recent trend of high fastballs to take advantage of his curve. It has made his curve much more effective, but as we pointed out earlier, that velo drop may matter here as his fastball is getting crushed. And I worry that when he's missing high, he's leaving the ball in the heart of the plate. His hard hit rate has increased recently, up to near 40%. His command keeps people from barreling him up too much, but he still gets crushed when he does leave it out. His hard hit % used to be above average, now it's below. So he'll give you innings, he won't walk batters. That is still true. But I don't know that this doesn't keep getting worse. Nice guy though!

This hit the feels man.