Balta1701

How might a team go about minimizing the weaknesses by a guy like Grandal? Well, the front office could do it. You might make sure you have a backup who can block stuff and who you have confidence coming in late in games, which could also help rest Grandal’s older legs. If say, you had 2 backups, one was bad at framing and the other even worse at blocking, maybe you keep the guy around who blocks the plate better. Better still, you start working with that guy to improve his framing, it can be done. Or if you are thinking of paying a high price for a reliever in a trade, and that reliever relies heavily on a nasty knuckle curve in the dirt, maybe you recognize this will be a problem for your catcher and skip that trade. And if you don’t have people in your org who recognize that issue beforehand, you find better people. And hypothetically if you are in a playoff elimination game and your starter has a big fastball and a wipeout slider, but has had shoulder problems lately and not thrown a lot of pitches, and that starter gets in trouble in say the third inning, maybe with a runner on third, you recognize as a good manager that the catcher might not want to call for the slider and risk a passed ball, so before your pitcher throws three straight fastballs, you ask whether the pitcher still has his best fastball, and if he doesn’t you take him out before that at bat. Totally hypothetical.

Yasmani Grandal will not be magically correcting his passed balls based on either his framing technique or based on his mental errors. This isn’t a guy who is young or who hasn’t had good coaching. This is just who he is. You get a lot of good with him but some bad, you just need to make sure you minimize the impact of the bad through other moves.

A passes ball still counts even if the intent was to catch it.

…ok…?

Why do the Braves need to bring racism into baseball? Some of us would like to just enjoy the games.

He’s a free agent this offseason.

The Lynn and Rodon moves last offseason should get some credit.

What do you think he would get if he were a free agent this year under the old CBA? I could see him getting $20 million guaranteed but over 2 years. I can’t see him coming close to $16 million on a one year deal. Maybe $12 if the market was strong that year?

So here's the thing with teams like the Phillies...Assume for a moment they pick up Odubel Herrera's option which they may or may not do, both Spotrac and Baseball-Reference would put them in the range of $190 million for 2022 payroll right now. When MLB's owners have already proposed dropping the luxury tax to $180 million (Obviously this wasn't happening in that proposal, but it shows that there is some potential risk here) - why would they take on Kimbrel's contract without knowing the CBA Structure? If the cap was hardened or lowered, that could readily push them into tax or "over the cap" territory, or so close to it that it limits their ability to do anything else, depending on what the final state looks like. You can apply that same reasoning to the Yankees, Dodgers, etc. - why would you take that contract on even for 1 year without knowing how much it will actually cost?

At this point I think a lot of us are skeptical, but fine no choice to wait until March or whenever they're able to actually get trades done and see if anything comes back. My prediction is still he's on the White Sox in June if his option is picked up.

I mean, GM's do stupid things, but that still seems like relying on other GMs to be stupid. But hey, as I said, good luck.

You do it anyway so that you get a nice big article spread in the papers and maybe a shot on the news or social media for publicity, and because it’s very nice to the writers who support your business all year to give them that content.

I saw that in August and it did matter at that time, but then by the time the season was over he was throwing his breaking ball as much or more than he did with the Cubs and it just stopped being effective.

Craig Kimbrel shouldn’t be so bad at his job that things cascade like that. For this pitcher, I expected better.

His FIP with the white Sox was 4.56. It might have been a minor factor, but so many bigger problems.

Aside from the catching spot, Craig Kimbrel should rely on defense less than almost anyone else in baseball.

And our major league scouts missed major league problems with the guys we paid a lot more for.

The way isn’t complicated, it just takes a $175 or $180 million payroll. Let Kimbrel go, give Rodon the QO and either sign him to that or a little more than that on a 1 year deal, and sign Conforto to an Ozuna level deal (he probably won’t get more than that from anyone if he has a QO attached).

We actually have a trade comp that is somewhat recent. Abreu has outperformed Anthony Rizzo the last 2 seasons but Rizzo was better in 2019, and their salaries are comparable. Rizzo is a lefty and that filled a major need for the Yankees. Rizzo returned a 24 year old injured pitcher from their 40 man roster with a career minor league ERA of 5 and a BB/9 IP this year of just about 9, and a 19 year old international signing from A-Ball who had solid numbers this year but who averages under 2 pitches per plate appearance so he has some work to do before having a game that will translate to the big leagues. That would have been a fine return for the 2016 White Sox for a player, but it’s hard to see how that return would make a substantial dent in the 2022 White Sox.

1. Was Robert in the MLB in 2018? Do minor league injuries not count as injuries? They happen to a different body? 2. I think Keuchel was a high injury risk coming into this year. Not Rodon high, but back injury following up on 2 shortened seasons - you had to expect a good chance of missed time. 3. Lopez has been generally healthy, save one event in 2017 where is elbow was sore, he told Renteria he was fine, Abreu went to the mound and asked “what’s really up” and he told Abreu his elbow felt funny. Please remember that level of detail the next time you think I haven’t watched enough of this team. He also had a shoulder injury in 2020. I have to give you credit for being right about Rodon coming into this year, you were. Did you think Lopez was serviceable this year? What about when he was terrible at Charlotte, did you expect a strong second half? 4. When Leury is on your bench, Eloy and Eaton are your starters, and the whole season of conditioning was messed up, then no, you cannot be surprised if your 26th man gets 120 starts. Leury stayed healthy and Engel didn’t, surprise?

Robert? 2 moderate injuries with a good amount of time missed in 2018, so banged up in 1 of his 2.5 pro seasons coming into this year. A lower injury risk than Eloy but obviously not zero. Leury? Hurt ALL THE TIME. 60 day IL stint in 2020. 3 IL stints in 2018 with leg injuries. 2 IL stints in 2017 with hand injuries. Multiple minor league IL stints in 2016. Did you not watch any games those years? Dallas Keuchel, 2 months on the IL in 2017 with a neck injury, notable back issues in the short 2020 season leading to him being pulled early from a game but with no IL stint, and back injuries always linger.

Or have guys 9 and 10 capable of stepping in?

That actually sounds like a prime example of a team being quite well prepared for it.