caulfield12

Of course, the irony of that is almost no one believes Collins can catch 120+ games and rank as the fifth best offensive catcher without being a bottom 10% ranked catcher defensively. We shall see.

At least he didn’t call for App State to be there...lol...he had that ESPN conference championship call, better than Boise in the snow, I suppose. If CFU can somehow manage to knock off LSU or Georgia in a bowl game without Milton, and a new coach in Josh Heupel, Benetti might have a point. Pat Forde argues for a Bama/UGA rematch. No thanks. https://sports.yahoo.com/yes-alabama-georgia-belong-college-football-playoff-013638376.html

Brantley is more the fear of Melky Cabrera, Part Deux. Diesnt matter that they’re totally different players, it’s just the risk of going for a McCutcheon/Adam Jones/Markakis and being a year or two (or three) late and still paying them $14-18 million per season. Whereas Pollock and Brantley have more upside (age-wise) but also elevated injury risk. There’s no doubt we need to spread out the risk somewhat with players who are in that 2-4 fWAR category...obviously, selecting the right ones. Taking a key contributor away from a main rival and adding to your own team certainly makes sense, though.

Yeah, he’d have to rank up there just a notch below Kimbrel, but not by much. The main unknown is how he’d perform in a playoff atmosphere. The pressure in NY, Boston or Philly is a different beast altogether.

The only difference is almost nobody expected the White Sox to be leading for most of the first five weeks of the 2016 season...it was a bid to stay in the race, rather than trying to become relevant again after the huge success of 2015 and then falling off a cliff again (Cespedes, Harvey and Wright falling apart simultaneously didn’t help much.)

https://bossip.com/886388/athletes-hoes-did-detroit-tigers-baller-prince-fielder-get-traded-because-his-teammate-chopped-down-his-wife/ Yeah, it was Cabrera who actually was injured in the clubhouse fight related to this whole situation, then Fielder was dumped on the Rangers. Avi’s name was also spelled incorrectly in that link.

Garbage player and significant regression risk at $20 million per year through age 40/41 are two quite different things. Part of it’s marketing-related for the Mets, they’re simply fighting to stay relevant in that NYC market and also squaring up against the long odds the Braves and Phillies represent in the future. This sorta feels like the kind of move the White Sox would have made from 2014-2016...also not unlike the move for Thome in 2006.

The Twins kept Max Kepler (1.2, 1.4 and 2.6) over Palka, as well as Grossman, Sano and Mauer. Of course, most glaringly, Morrison pulled a LaRoche and went from 3.2 to -0.7, and now Grossman is finally gone (0.8, 0.5, 0.7). Arguably, they made the wrong call there, but they weren’t going anywhere without Buxton, Berrios and Sano being stars, with Rosario trailing not too far behind. Kepler is simply a better version of Avi Garcia. But I wouldn’t bet a house on him being a true 3ish fWAR OF.

As Hawk always says, baseball is a game of adjustments. Whether he can follow it up is the big question, which could just as easily be Delmonico/Davidson/Leury or Giolito In 2018, or Omar Narvaez on the offensive side this year. You put any hitter in a stadium like Oakland, Seattle or Minnesota, their numbers are likely to fall off significantly (unless you’re Marcus Semien, apparently.)

In the end, the failure rate for #75-150 ranked prospects isn’t all that different, especially compared to the top 30 or top 50. Many prospects who put up great AA numbers or even cup of tea (see Delmonico two seasons ago) late season MLB numbers can sustain it. Half of that trade always was about dumping Peavy’s salary, rather than getting back a can’t miss guy. From the beginning, mini-Miggy was always a false comp because it was mostly a physical comparison (unless you go by ballpark gossip/rumors, where he was the Dave Martinez to Miggy’s Ryno.)

2013 MILB #74, Baseball America (#2 DET)

https://www.mlb.com/news/list-of-non-tendered-players-new-free-agents/c-301309678 Seems more likely they find an extra starter like Shelby Miller from this list...Bush peaked three years ago, depends on the money.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/25423798/yan-gomes-gives-nationals-upgrade-catcher

ESPN is reporting just $20 million to NYM. That would leave 5 years at $100 million, not likely to be a bargain.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46413196 Big news is for American soybean farmers and Qualcomm acquisition being unblocked, as well as attempting to crack down on fentanyl. Still a million things that could go wrong on the thorny issues that China won’t give in on, but Trump can declare a temporary victory and the stock market should jump again.

Georgia has Bama in their heads now about as much as Michigan with Ohio State. CFP also would have had a huge debate for the 4th spot if UGA won there...potentially taking two SEC teams over OU in the B12 and likely OSU as B10 champs. Can’t imagine Clemson losing.

Narvaez was under control through 2022...

McCann from Detroit would be an obvious pick now...not sure what his salary would be, though.

If the Indians can follow up and make the right trade with Kluber/Carrasco/Bauer...they’ll be set for winning the division the next two years, unless something astounding happens. But they won’t have much margin for error in terms of injuries. The pitching depth will be much thinner. At any rate, $54 million between Encarnacion, Kluber and Kipnis is too much for carrying two players who are no longer nearly as productive. That said, they can buy out Kipnis for $2.5 million next year and Encarnacion for $5 million. Theoretically, they should be in very decent shape financially in 2020...logic dictates that they should sell high on Kluber now, especially with Corbin and Keuchel being the best options out there on the FA market.

For many traditional Republicans, he was one of the best of his generation, but raising taxes cost him the 1992 election...along with being completely out of touch (didn’t know what a scanner in the grocery store was used for.) I will never forget the Willie Horton ad (Atwater), the positives, such as his love of baseball, World War Two heroism and 1000 Points of Light volunteering movement as well as unfortunately being swept up in the #metoo movement. Three kids born in that Baby Boom period to the “Greatest Generation” in 1946 went on to become presidents...GW Bush, Bill Clinton, and Trump. Probably the last of the true political dynasties, along with the Kennedys.

Narvaez has quietly been one of the better-hitting catchers the last few years, putting up a career .274 batting average and .366 on-base percentage and showing increasing power each year. Overall, his .809 OPS last season ranked fifth among all big league catchers with at least 300 plate appearances. Narvaez is strictly an offensive catcher. He ranked last out of 117 catchers in pitch framing last year, according to Baseball Prospectus, and he had the third-most errors (seven), fourth-most passed balls (12) and second-most stolen bases allowed (66) of any AL catcher. He is under team control through 2022, giving the Mariners four seasons before he hits free agency. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/white-sox-acquire-alex-colome-from-mariners-for-omar-narvaez/ Forgot that both were Rays’ prospects in 2014-15.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25420692/cleveland-indians-trade-catcher-yan-gomes-washington-nationals https://www.cleveland.com/expo/sports/erry-2018/12/af18a56fd42040/cleveland-indians-trade-catche.html $27 million saved, Perez will be starter with Haase on the rise after Mejia deal last year... Reaction to the trade from Indians fans was overwhelmingly skeptical as the team begins to reconfigure its salary structure with what is expected to be a number of offseason trades. Many fans view sending Gomes to Washington as a move based purely on finances with little return for the Tribe.

Flowers and Junior Guerra (since departing) have contributed roughly the same amount (8) of fWAR as Yolmer, Anderson and Moncada combined. Marcus Semien was good for 3.7 this year, and roughly 9 career-wise. Devenski and Jose Martinez have been worth another 8.4, Eduardo Escobar, 9.5. Etc.

Unless you’re a big fan of Cordell or Medeiros?

Gives Burdi some additional time to get his feet underneath him...Hamilton also won’t be thrown to the wolves prematurely.