caulfield12

In Silicon Valley shouldn't the same dynamic have existed for the A's...some overconfident/narcissistic Elon Musk type who believes he possesses the ability to walk on water and/or sign Ohtani?

You can't possibly be serious about competing with either Santos or Lopez as your closer...

Well...Adolis Garcia and Arozarena almost provided two separate WS winners on their own.

https://www.mlb.com/news/manager-rumors-and-candidates "It appears we are down to a final three. According to MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi, those candidates include Padres senior advisor Mike Shildt (former StL manager controversially pushed out) and bench coach Ryan Flaherty as well as Angels infield coach Benji Gil." Has to be the last managerial hire Preller ever gets in SD.

Chances of going to playoffs likely much higher at midseason trade in theory unless it was starting off with the Dodgers...who aren't exactly a sure thing these days, either. (Especially if Ohtani ended up in SF.) Braves, Orioles, Rangers, Astros, Phillies, etc. Especially since Sox playoff odds less than 1% already.

At least he was exceptional at fielding...which is far better than being bad at everything. Heck, those Gatorade showers were at least memorable. Best self-produced Latin American prospect in decades...at least non Cubans-wise.

Lucas Love all based upon 2024 Friends & Family coaching staff combination miraculously outdueling money/years??? To pitch for the worst team in baseball? A Top 15-20 FA (at worst) in this market still?

Like Iowa FB fans as they win 2023 Big10 West but lose to Michigan or OSU 61-0 in the Championship Game and then have to face 2024 USC UCLA Washington Oregon…with coaching/managing equivalent of TLR in Ferentz still running 2002 jailbreak screen offense with an immobile pocket-based QB.

Now you’ve only got roughly 8-10 remaining major moves/decisions they have to hit exactly right…like 2004-05. And then all major prospects hitting the ground running without any setbacks…Vaughn being a 2+ fWAR 1B, etc. Quero has to be 2-3 fWAR, Montgomery 4-5 fWAR, Brayan Ramos 1.5-2.0 fWAR, Schultz 3.0+ fWAR. Eder or Nastrini has to stick in the rotation. Crochet has to stay healthy/productive for once. On and on.

Sounds like another bad Benintendi deal if you pick the wrong version equivalent of let’s say 2022-23 Michael Conforto…

It’s basically only enjoying Luis Robert Jr. and/or hoping he avoids another career-threatening injury before he can be traded for optimal value at some point this year or next. Which will just piss off about 2/3rd’s or 75% of the remaining fanbase in the first place due to collective overall skepticism.

2025 pretty sure. Same as Kopech.

Manaea’s velocity is shot and he would get destroyed at GRF compared to that massive outfield in SF working to his favor at night especially with the marine layer. Just doesn’t have enough differentiation in pitches as stuff has deteriorated badly over the last 2-3 seasons. Think Keuchel’s final contract Sox in levels of ineptitude bad. Or Derek Holland.

$135-155 million seems much more realistic…especially with Cease, Jimenez and Moncada (plus offset or subsidy financially of around 50% or more) trades all increasingly likely in the next calendar year.

Let’s say we had Michael Wacha off his 2023 season…the problem is not even going to be realized until later that his value from Year 1 and then that second year option doesn’t exactly lend itself to slam dunk overwhelming value in trade. The only thing that will make sense for Tier B veteran players outperforming their deals is going to be second year options that are quite expensive…in that $14-16 million range, like an Andrew Heaney as well. So now you’re left due to contract risk in Tier B of the pitching market mining for nuggets almost exclusively in Tier C/D. Which means you probably are only going to get 1 huge surprise to the upside…2 if you’re very very fortunate out of let’s say five starters and relievers you’re paying between $6-9 million or so. Out of $50 million in Year 1 FA spending, which might already be the upper band limit on what they spend for 2024 in FA.

If Severino's getting $12 million after last year they're doomed...

The biggest issue is simply getting players to hold their own and put up a 1-2 fWAR. At least to look like they actually belong in the big leagues. A lot of posters seem to be penciling Ramos in at 3rd base for future infields. Hard to really have faith in any of those names after how bad Colas crashed and burned after being gifted a glide path to the starting RF position. Wasn't Getz the one most responsible for signing off on their big league readiness? Unless he simply didn't push back and went along with the big league front office egos/agendas... Ultimately, it's far easier to recognize the ones who won't make it than the ones who will stick. Pushing Lee, for example, into a position he clearly wasn't ready for...did him a disservice.

Or Soto...

Probably had this move ready behind the scenes/unofficial "wink wink" for months and months.

That works quite well on a winning team...not so much on last year's Cardinals or White Sox. He kinda wore out his welcome in SD and NY, but that's a common theme throughout his career. Not sure he's the right leader for a 90-105 loss team. Plus he's a lot older than you'd think.

Dolphins getting absolutely destroyed. Really miss Achane...running attack non existent. Tua flustered.

George from Windy City Limousine...

Okay in the sense that you might get to 70 wins if you pilled out the roster with Frazier equivalents at each position…but not sure what the upside is at his age and stage of career. Better just to throw guys like Sosa, Romy, Remillard out there. And see where Gonzalez is another year from now. Otherwise, just trade someone like Jimenez for Jake Cronenworth and serious cash in order to basically move on from everyone but Luis Robert and Colson and maybe Vaughn for 2025.

Even if Colson is the equivalent of Corey Seager…they’re miles and miles from competing, not unlike the current Royals with Witt, Jr. It’s not going to get done without Rangers level of spending, as most of that core was already in place…and the budget’s going to be far closer to $112 million than the $180-195 million we’d all prefer to see allocated, if done intelligently.

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/amed-rosario/15518/stats?position=SS So team will look and see an athletic (stolen bases/baserunning now work more in his favor) 2.5-2.7 fWAR roughly league average defender (if you were to throw out 2023) just turning 28 who has at least 2-3 more seasons remaining in his prime…and who was a huge catalyst for the 2022 Guardians.