caulfield12

Does that make you happy? And Vaughn is going to get increasing playing time if he continues to hit right and left-handed pitching. Their prospects pedigrees are nothing alike…

2015 you had the Royals with the lowest K percentage, and the Cubs with the worst, but they made the NLCS and won it all the following year. Toronto had the fifth best (lowest) K percentage. Toronto also had the highest wRC+ 117, with the Royals and Mets (#10/12) in the middle of the pack (99/98) and Cubs 17th at 96. But the Royals far and away had the best MLB fielding, with Toronto second. And that doesn’t even account for the bullpen and baserunning. So the Royals were far from sluggers, just like the 2005 White Sox offense, but they were certainly an above average offense and that’s all you need when you have other aspects of the team that are outstanding or elite. The Cubs, of course, were a totally different kind of team than the Royals the following year, so its hard to generalize such a “squishy” idea from a statistical standpoint.

Yeah, but I didn't exceed my limit of ten!

If Moncada is actually hurting the offense, the likelihood of a World Series with this team just fell by 25%.

The infamous Alex Cintron trade (Bajenaru)...well, at least Quentin and Eaton turned out well, those were a couple of NL trades that we clearly won. Jeff Bajenaru is currently a pitching coach for the Hillsboro Hops, A level affiliate for the Diamondbacks. (Just looking it up, another one from that era was Chris Young and El Duque's ghost and Luis Vizcaino to AZ for Javy V. and CASH after the World Series. In 2007, it looked like Young would be a superstar, with 30 homers and 25 stolen bases.)

Back to Burger and Moncada. You don't think about moving Moncada anywhere in the middle of the season, period. You stick Burger in Charlotte once Yoan comes back and play him all over the infield (well, not SS, clearly) and let him hit everyday, putting up some monster numbers to increase his trade value. Maybe even LF or RF, but it's probably better to keep him from having to do long sprints for balls if it can be avoided.

Gee, it's simply IMPOSSIBLE to imagine if I had put up a player like Abrams (which I was smart enough not to do) as a thread like Harold braved to do with Kelenic that every day it would be getting riddled with comments. Heck, it could have been Hosmer, but then everyone would have had to be quiet for the first month, not that he's a 400 average, .972 OPS guy long-term, obviously. Whenever you attach your name to a player so closely, you have to live with the ups and downs. For example, if Tatis got hurt (again) the other day playing soccer in the outfield by landing on his injured wrist. Parkman has Giolito. I used to have Puig...then moved on. Are you going to stake your name on Suzuki/Madrigal? P.S. The mods, by and large, have busy lives these days and have MUCH BETTER things to do with their time than mediate your board policings. And as soon as Kelenic can move his average from .182 to at least .240, then Harold won't have to hear it as much.

He just passed Nick Madrigal on the OPS list. Almost all of the young studs are struggling this year. Witt and Rodriguez in Seattle. Torkelson's doing okay now after a rough start. Abrams is struggling with the Padres, unsurprisingly after missing half the year and barely having 350 minor league at-bats (coming from high school, too).

(Poor LeBron.) You can certainly make legit arguments for Cease and Kopech. I prefer Dylan for now because of the increased consistency with secondary offerings, but he's also 18 months ahead on development time as well. As for Lynn, I hope it's not like those QO guys who start at midseason and never get it going...hopefully the additional downtime will conserve his arm for the second half.

Sure, if they hope to get 2 or 3 innings... Maybe his high-intensity offseason workouts will kick in, but that's more about aerobic conditioning than being able to go out and throw 75 pitches.

Cueto isn't close to ready. And looking like at least a 50/50 probability that Thursday's game in CLE is lost as well...

Well, that would have been a huge bargain even if he only put up 100-120 innings because he's currently on pace for a 6+ fWAR. All he needed was 2-2.25 to be considered "earning his pay" based on $8-9 million for FA f/WAR standards.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/33761895/ranking-mlb-2022-aces-pitchers-make-leap Giolito in a category all of his own of six high-performing "steady vets" with TJ surgeries in their past (including Chris Sale), Cease and Lynn on the bottom list of others under consideration. Need to do it a little longer Carlos Rodon (TJ in 2019) Alek Manoah Sandy Alcantara I had Rodon on the list in earliest incarnations, but this would be based on 26 starts over the past two seasons and that's just not enough bulk given his prior history -- even if he's been clearly among the top 10 pitchers in the game during that time. His velo has also spiked again this year and the Giants are good at this exact thing, so Rodon might earn his spot by midseason.

They don't make movies like City Slickers anymore.

Goes along with extensions for McMahon, Marquez, Sanzatela and $180 million for Bryant...going in some sort of direction. Rodgers in theory would be next. They're actually off to a pretty decent start...and always draw well. Mysterious franchise that never seems to be the sum of all those positive parts.

"We all spent most of last year waiting for Jarred Kelenic to get it going, and by the end of the year, he finally did. Looks like 2022 is going to be the same, not just for Kelenic, but for the even more highly regarded phenom Julio Rodríguez. They’re a combined 9-for-61 so far, with three extra base hits and 27 strikeouts. Young players are young players, obviously, but it’s fair to say the Mariners, who are trying to end a certain drought here, would like to get that in gear, and fast." mlb.com

Back-up QB syndrome…

Thursday game looks to be in jeopardy as well with rain predicted most of the afternoon...

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/11/09/im-tired-of-being-treated-like-this-oakland-as-season-ticket-holders-revolt-after-hiked-prices/ Or you can basically double your ticket prices while slashing payroll by trading away Olson, Chapman, Manaea, etc. They actually used to have some of the most innovative food and beverage deals in the sport.. but now seem to think they're marketing the Golden State Warriors instead.

Seems he had different thoughts...still won the game despite a massive walk total.

https://www.mlb.com/news/seiya-suzuki-makes-more-history-for-cubs-vs-rays Apparently not a big fan of analytics...let's see what happens after the pitchers start making some adjustments.

https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/player/209185/ UDFA for Dodgers, but his entire minor league career was spent developing with Houston.

Well, that and unexpected off days…

It’s a cross between a wage-price spiral and wage inflation spiral. The problem is that if wages for average or middle class workers don’t keep up with inflation…and they never do…there will inevitably be less demand from those consumers as price elastic goods become more wants than necessities. Essentially, the White Sox have always bet on their Top 20% of fans (the ones that go to the most games and tend to have more discretionary income as corporate and individual season ticket holders) making up for any “losses” in terms of diminished spending from the bottom 80% of Sox fans. In other words, a wealth tax or surcharge on the best Sox fans…at least those willing to spend the most money on the product. Which has nothing to do with economists who work for the government, universities or think tanks/NGO’s.

Sounds like a Two for Tuesday's/Thirsty Thursday minor league promotion. Interestingly, Baltimore isn't doing all that poorly attendance wise despite having one of the worst teams in baseball.