8 minutes ago, almagest said:

There are two guys on that list you'd want - Mahle and Holmes. That's the deadline for you, though. A fool's game to trade high level assets for what is essentially random luck if the guy is going to be good or not.

While there is absolutely some luck here, betting on guys who have been good to stay good seems like a better bet that guys who have been bad to get good.

3 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

While there is absolutely some luck here, betting on guys who have been good to stay good seems like a better bet that guys who have been bad to get good.

The only guy that would really apply to at this deadline was Skubal. The rest have either had up and down careers, were getting old and declining, and/or had some alarming signs that they weren't good. I feel like that's a pretty typical deadline - one or two studs and a bunch of random rentals you hope catch lightning in a bottle.

8 minutes ago, almagest said:

The only guy that would really apply to at this deadline was Skubal. The rest have either had up and down careers, were getting old and declining, and/or had some alarming signs that they weren't good. I feel like that's a pretty typical deadline - one or two studs and a bunch of random rentals you hope catch lightning in a bottle.

I put Skubal in a totally different category.

so how does assembling a playoff roster work, is it 26? obviously the minor league season is over, so if someone isn't on the IL, how do you not roster them?

58 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

I put Skubal in a totally different category.

Then there were no guys traded at the deadline who were good in a sustained way and kept that performance up. The only real success story is Mahle, who was an inconsistent backend starter in his career and was terrible with SF until the Braves identified something to fix. Foster Griffin was only good for the Nats this year, and has regressed back to a pumpkin with Cleveland. Clay Holmes has been injury prone in his career and has made about as many starts with the Cubs as Mets this year while providing a lot less value. Mize was on a huge positive outlier and has since regressed to about his career numbers. Jose Soriano has had a pretty good career but had been carried by an electric start to this season. He hasn't been good since being traded due to regression as well. Ray and Gausman are old and have been terrible. We all know what Castillo has inflicted upon us.

Like I said, it's a crapshoot and you can't count on anyone being good unless it's a guy like Skubal, and you're going to pay for that. Hell, teams paid for these other guys too. Holmes and Soriano went for top 100 prospects. Mize went for the #2 Padres prospect (a likely mid-rotation pitcher). Ray went for the Padres #4 prospect. Brett Bateman went for Gausman, and he's been worth 1.9 bWAR for the Jays.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by almagest

Freddy Peralta would have been a good pickup. He's got a 3.60 ERA across nine starts for the Tampa Bay Rays since his trade from the Mets. Rays only gave up three low-level prospects for him, and they aren't on the hook for his salary after this year. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/freddy-peralta-turnaround-gives-mets-231946662.html

37 minutes ago, waltwilliams said:

Freddy Peralta would have been a good pickup. He's got a 3.60 ERA across nine starts for the Tampa Bay Rays since his trade from the Mets. Rays only gave up three low-level prospects for him, and they aren't on the hook for his salary after this year. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/freddy-peralta-turnaround-gives-mets-231946662.html

Probably #2 to Mahle...Rays have lots of good problems to resolve, setting their Top 3 playoff rotation