southsider2k5

It's so simple, how did they not think of it

Who?

The Dodgers did give up Luis Avilan to get us to take on Soria.

With his free agency status, not really. He is in the group on the way out, and cheaply replaceable.

The point is to get players who will be on your next playoff team. Either through developing them directly or trading the guys who you have to get them. I don't see Avi giving us either, especially with the group of OFs we have on the horizon. Even if all of the OFs we have currently ready fail, then we move on to the Robert/Eloy/Gonzalez generation. If those guys all fail, and somehow we are a near playoff team is that is only a RF away, we can still go back to free agency and find another OF. This isn't Avi or nothing. This isn't Avi or Cordell/Delmonico. This is seeing if we have anything in this current group of OFs and adjusting accordingly.

Are they letting Leury go?

For my two cents, it isn't worth having him block a player for a low price anyway.

yeah, again, if that offer was something realistic, he would already have been gone when he had 2+ years of control left and during a career year. He is going to be a free agent this time next year which already means that unless he is putting up superstar numbers, his value is low. Let alone the fact that even at his best he was an all bat/bad RF, which is also not something teams want. The system is loaded with high ceiling OFs, and if they all really do fail, we can always go back to free agency and find another Avi Garcia. Matt Davidson put up a better offensive number than Avi did in '18.

Rick Hahn pretty much said they either want a top guy, or nothing big.

At the very least, I hope we force the Yankees to add a lot of money to a Machado contract.

Avi isn't going to be here past this year at most. It isn't about ceiling. It is about who will be on our next playoff team. Realistically these guys are probably place holders until the Eloys and Robert's of the world get here.

This. No one is obligated to listen to your crap, let alone to host it. Freedom of Speech is a governmental guarantee, not a private one.

Damn you Don Cooper!

Yeah, Again, there is a pretty big difference between what we went out and started 2018 with, and what we ended it with. They aren't going to sign 3 major league bullpen arms. They might sign 1, MAYBE 2, but realistically, the kids are here and ready to learn on the job. The one thing I KNOW is that we don't need any lefties, which is really nice. 2019 is looking like (from top to least likely) Jones Fry Hamilton Frare Bummer Minaya Ruiz Gomez Burr Vieira That is a GREAT lefty core potentially, along with some great arms. Looking at what we started 2018 with there really is no comparison, so what the pen did in '18 is irrelevant considering most of them are gone. Realistically while a lot of the rebuild is still pending, the bullpen is arriving en masse, and that is still with guys like Burdi and Tyler Johnson and potential replacements for later failures. While I know a lot of people have no patience for this, this is still only entering year 3 of the rebuild.

FWIW, I can't imagine many players at all are fully drafted and developed as 1B, so it being seemingly thin isn't the worst thing. Thinking back, Jose Abreu was a 3B in Cuba and Paul Konerko was a catcher going up and played a lot of 3B in the minors. There is a really good chance our future 1B isn't currently a 1B.

Hey Matt, no link is posted.

You are officially invalidated because you didn't follow the generally accepted steps to be a democrat.

They weren't asleep at the wheel, they knew the economy wasn't nearly as strong as pundits made it out to be. It still isn't as strong as people are acting like.

Unlike 2018 when you could look out at the pen and know there was zero talent out there, this 2019 version of the pen will have some really good high end arms out there, and that is even if we don't add an arm or two to that group.

But it is WAY too early to come to that conclusion. For crying out loud, we are still trying to figure out who Avi Garcia is after 7 seasons in the majors. To call Nick Madrigal a singles hitter is insanity.

You have a WAY higher view of Avi than pretty much anyone.