chw42

The lack of an exaggerated shift will help Gallo a decent amount. And maybe that'll be enough to make you forget about that 40% K rate. He has been an effective player before despite having a K rate near that number. FWIW, this is Gallo's spray chart last year on pulled/straight away grounders/liners that were either barrels, solid contact, or flares. Let's just say he gets 9 extra hits from that (just from eyeballing). And I think that's being kind of generous. His batting average improves from .160 to .186. His overall OPS, assuming those hits are singles, goes up to .690. Better, but that's still pretty bad. I did a similar lookup for Grandal and it looks like he would gain about 10 hits from the lack of a shift. That would have brought his average from .202 to .232. That would have brought his slugging up to about .300. While the shift should help Grandal, it won't lift him out of awfulness until he finds his power again. The same could be said about Moncada. All 3 of these guys get about 10 extra singles from the shift going away. It's not a bad improvement on batting average, but it will not change who they are as hitters.

He won a gold glove a year ago. He's a decent left fielder and the metrics back it up.

Gallo has the much higher ceiling, but his floor will have every fan hating him. Benintendi's floor is much higher, but the likelihood he gives you anything more than a 3 WAR season is pretty low.

Benitendi is a way better defender. But yeah, he really didn't take advantage of the short porch in Yankee stadium. Even though his slugging was similar to what it was in KC, his ISO was 2x what it was in KC. His BABIP dropped 60 points after he got traded. Whether that was the smaller stadium, change in approach, small sample size, IDK.

His TD to Mooney was a great throw. He made some good throws in that last drive. But one was a PI that wasn't called and the other got dropped by a receiver when it hit him in the hands. He shows flashes in the passing game, even if he hasn't put it altogether yet. Lamar Jackson couldn't throw for s%*# either when he first started, but then he won an MVP in his 2nd year when he improved dramatically in the passing game. Fields has gotten dramatically better since the mini-bye a few weeks ago. Using his legs has opened up more possibilities for him in the passing game. He's still not a good passer, don't get me wrong, but the trajectory for him is going up and it seems like he's starting to get it. It's clear that Getsy running the offense like he had Aaron Rodgers the first 5 weeks of the season. But ever since the 10 day break they got coming off the TNF loss to Washington, they've used Fields a lot more like a running QB and his numbers have been great since.

That was what, 10+ years ago? Baseball is a different game now.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2023-top-50-free-agents/ Notable crowdsource projections: 7. Carlos Rodon - 4.87 years/$27.2 M AAV - Rodon's market will probably yield higher than the crowdsource projections. There is no way JR is ever willing to go that high for a pitcher. 9. Brandon Nimmo - 4.82 years/$20.7 M AAV - Nimmo at 5 years and about $100 million seems like a very fair deal. But I don't know if the Sox would be willing to commit that much money to a guy with a history of being on the IL. If the Sox do choose to go with a budget around $195 million, they can probably afford Nimmo. It's very likely his market is higher than that as well. 10. Willson Contreras - 3.84 years/$17.4 M AAV - I'm surprised that Contreras is only projected for a deal similar to what Grandal got. But then again, he will have a QO attached. 12. Jose Abreu - 2.23 years/$17 M AAV - This seems much more realistic than Heyman's 3 years and $75 million projection. 17. Andrew Benintendi - 3.67 years/$14.1 M AAV - Not a bad backup plan to Nimmo. But for half the price you get more or less half the player. 26. Jose Quintana - 2.07 years/$11.6 M AAV - Sox were interested at the deadline. They could be again at a fair price point. 28. Sean Manaea - 2.16 years/$11 M AAV - If I had to choose between Manaea and Quintana, I'd probably go Quintana. Manaea's stuff faded hard during the season and that seems to have been an issue with him for a while now. 29. Corey Kluber - 1.26 years/$11.3 M AAV - Would be a nice 5th starter on a 1 year deal. 30. Michael Conforto - 1.66 years/$12 M AAV - Who knows what's going on with him coming off the injury. I doubt Boras would do a club option, so I'm not sure how interested the Sox will be. 32. Johnny Cueto - 1.17 years/$8.8 M AAV - He was great for us, but you have to wonder just how long he can skate by on his tiny margins between success and failure. 39. Michael Wacha - 1.99 years/$9.9 M AAV - Similar tier to Cueto, but would require maybe an extra year of commitment. 42. Mike Clevinger - 1.57 years/$9.1 M AAV - There's upside, but he was so damn bad in the playoffs. Plus he doesn't sound like a guy that contributes to a good clubhouse. 45. Omar Narvaez - 1.98 years/$7.6 M AAV - I doubt they actually address catcher if they address the OF and the 5th starter, but Narvaez wouldn't be a bad guy to have in case Grandal continues his slide. 47. Mitch Haniger - 2.26 years/$12.6 M AAV - Injury issues scare me. His defense isn't great, but the guy will hit you 30 home runs if he's healthy. Him being right handed isn't a good fit for the team though. 48. Joc Pederson - $2.08 years/$11 M AAV - Maybe Rick will finally get his guy when he whiffs on Nimmo and Benintendi.

Didn't the Braves and Nationals clinch in Houston?

I also want to point out that what Maldonado did was bush league. He went up to the plate looking to get hit and he basically ran into the pitch. The only reason they didn't call it was because he was technically moving his elbow closer to his body.

Thompson probably also let Nola go for too long in game 4. It was apparent that the Astros were on him in the 4th before he gave up 3 hits in the 5th. Maybe that's why Wheeler had such a quick hook.

Was Wheeler really worth taking out there? He hit a guy that was looking to get hit and gave up a single.

No team is gonna give Jose $75 million at age 36. That's just throwing money away.

Turner is 2 years older. He might not get the 10 year deal Seager got just because of age.

Keep dreaming. Turner is gonna get a $250 million contract and that's something Jerry will never give out.

All the guys he named sound like pipe dreams outside of Conforto. And that's only because he's coming off an injury and nobody knows how good he'll actually be.

Left text: signing a capable RFer Right text: signing yet another bullpen arm

That's how you end up signing Joe Kelly and Leury Garcia to bad 3 year deals.

If LA couldn't fix Gallo then there really isn't a ton of hope for him. Maybe going back to Texas will help him.

Maybe don't make him play OF (which is a far more taxing position physically than 1B) and he won't fade at the end of the year.

Yeah. His arm sucks. But he's pretty good at actually fielding the ball. I'll settle for that when we've had Vaughn and Sheets out there the past 2 years. His power dropped a lot last year, but one thing to note is that he would have had twice the amount of homers had he played in Chicago instead of that vast stadium in KC. He would have had 30 homers in 2021 if he played all his games at GRate.

I wonder if hiring Grifol means they'll go hard after Benintendi.

If the other team got out to a 3+ run lead, the game was pretty much over. The offense was like watching nails on a chalkboard.

Wasn't that Narron?

The biggest change is Jose leaving.

Yeah Grifol is talking about analytics...but it's gonna be awkward when we sacrifice bunt on opening day.