This week in baseball blogs…
- Fish Stripes looks at how much it could cost the Marlins to extend catcher J.T. Realmuto.
- A’s Farm talks to young Athletics building blocks Matt Olson, Bruce Maxwell and Chad Pinder.
- BP Toronto chats with Blue Jays reliever Tyler Clippard about some problems with his pitch mix last year and how he’s planning to fix it this season.
- The K Zone shares an offseason interview with young Phillies Rhys Hoskins and Scott Kingery.
- Camden Depot explains what will need to happen for the Orioles to win the AL East this season.
- MLB & Fantasy Baseball Analyzed lists the biggest winners and losers of the offseason.
- The Junkball Daily delves into the greatness of Joey Votto.
- Know Hitter regards Kyle Schwarber and Nelson Cruz as potential in-season trade chips.
- District On Deck compares the Nationals to other likely NL contenders.
- Pro Sports Fandom recaps Corey Seager’s second season.
- Call to the Pen (links: 1, 2) reacts to the Twins’ Lance Lynn signing and writes about the Phillies’ roster battles.
- Brew City Sports Report looks back at an active Brewers offseason.
- Pirates Breakdown previews Corey Dickerson’s season.
- Good Fundies asks if Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki is ready to break out.
- Chin Music Baseball ranks the game’s top 10 starting rotations.
- Rotisserie Duck names the worst trades of all-time.
- Jays Journal analyzes Toronto’s first base options beyond Justin Smoak.
- Tomahawk Take details why Braves have been a bit thrifty on their spending in recent years – and why 2019 will be different.
- Baseball Takes has high hopes for the Indians’ Yandy Diaz.
- The Sports Tank and Bronx To Bushville respond to the Yankees’ addition of Neil Walker.
- Sports Talk Philly projects the Phillies’ Opening Day lineup.
- The Loop Sports highlights several Cubs’ spring performances.
- The Daily Jay tries to figure out what Toronto has in Teoscar Hernandez.
- Rox Pile wonders wonders what the Rockies can do to take the NL West.
- The Point of Pittsburgh assembles the worst Pirates’ 25-man roster of the last 25 years.
- Mets Daddy contends that having to play at Citi Field may help keep David Wright out of the Hall of Fame.
- The Runner Sports (links: 1, 2, 3) examines Yankees prospect Miguel Andujar’s future, reflects on Kennys Vargas’ Twins tenure and touches on Astros prospect Myles Straw’s newfound bond with Jose Altuve.
- Jays From the Couch imagines if Toronto didn’t have Kendrys Morales on its roster.
- Orioles Hangout wonders if Trey Mancini will be a role player or a future star.
- Extra Innings UK runs down the week’s international baseball headlines, involving everything from Cal Ripken Jr. to visits with several minor league teams.
- Always The Jake (links: 1, 2, 3) profiles Indians prospects Francisco Mejia, Triston McKenzie and Bobby Bradley.
- Dodgers Way spotlights LA pitching prospect Imani Abdullah.
- Friars On Base is optimistic about the Padres’ stable of young arms.
- Motor City Bengals focuses on five Tigers prospects who could debut in 2018.
- STL Hat Trick names five underrated Cardinals prospects who are making progress.
- Notes from the Sally previews the Charleston Riverdogs, the Yankees’ Single-A South Atlantic League club.
- Everything Bluebirds is excited about the Blue Jays’ next wave of talent.
- Pinstriped Prospects offers the latest on Yankees spring training.
- The NatsGM Show (podcast) chats with Russell Carleton, author of the soon-to-be published book, “The Shift.”
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Rotisserie Duck is in “all caps”.
I want to read, but it’s painful.
The o’s winning the al east is a far fetched prediction, they needed to trade Machado to get some young pitching in return. Now they will not get a big package in return.
angelsfan4life412 they’ll be lucky if they get a half eaten hotdog , a penny, and a snotty rag for Machado now. The o’s think they’re going to contend. I think they’ll be good for third or fourth.
> Camden Depot explains what will need to happen for the Orioles to win the AL East this season.
A bunch of plane crashes.
Wow! Bleak lol
The author of that article concludes that the O’s have a 1 in 100,000,000 chance of winning the division.
That roughly the same as buying 3 power ball tickets and hoping that one of them hits the jackpot.
Few comments
– While I don’t love the Arrieta signing, I would hardly call them the losers of the offseason. Citing low-averages as an issue for Santana makes no sense as his plate discipline is among the best in the league, and while he might not be a great fit defensively, he adds extra protection in a line-up that includes developing sluggers like Hoskins and Franco. I also think that the leadership element is important there as well as he could potentially help players lacking plate discipline such as Nick Williams and Maikel Franco with their approach.
-I may be in the minority here, however I think the Mets had a horrible offseason, and I wasn’t fond of the Rays either..
As for the Mets, who were admittedly strapped for cash this offseason, the biggest needs were first base and the rotation: meanwhile, they spend $14,000,000 on a bullpen arm when they already had Ramos, Blevins and Familia, and spend $39m on Bruce, a power hitting outfielder, in a market where power hitters could have been had for pennies on the dollar. Furthermore, why Vargas (the injury notwithstanding) at $16 million when they could have signed an arguably better arm in Jaime Garcia for $8m or Laynce Lynn for $12m?
As for Tampa, as I’ve explained before- I am a huge supporter of rebuilding. I think its a proven method to set a team up for long term success- however what the Rays did this offseason was: give away Corey Dickerson, Jake Odorizzi and Brad Boxberger for nothing.
Focusing on the Dickerson trade, I am about to poke holes in every theory justifying it- without even taking into account the idea that they couldn’t have traded him for more had they not killed all of their leverage by designating him for assignment
The Rays saved $1,450,000 in trading DIckerson to the Pirates for an overpriced, and quite frankly not very good reliever and a class a depth piece, and spent $4,000,000 on Carlos Gomez. By that logic, they came out with $450,000 in savings.
Ok, I can understand this, HOWEVER’
if they really wanted to save money, they would have been better off releasing Dickerson and only having to pay $938k (1/6th of his arb salary), in which case, they would have saved more than double the amount of money than they did.
So the question really becomes- was Tristan Gray, a 13th round draft pick who posted solid, however unspectacular numbers at Class A Short Season- really worth half a million?
Also- in using WAR
by Baseball-Reference’s Standards, their total projection in these two transactions decreased `1.0 WAR (Dickerson 2.7, Gomez 1.7, Hudson 0.0)
by Fangraphs’ Standards, they decreased by 0.2 WAR (Dickerson 2.6, Gomez 2.6 and Hudson 0.1)
Bottom line- Without taking into account a better return for Dickerson, The Rays could have released Corey Dickerson and signed Gomez while saving more money.
As for the Odorizzi and Boxberger trades, I genuinely have difficulty wrapping my head around either.
The Mets aren’t strapped for cash they play in one of the largest media outlets in the entire game. They may not choose to spend past a certain limit but that has nothing to do with their ability. Adding Swarzak was a huge boost for their pen and it made perfect sense to do so. He essentially replaces Addison Reed and if they have any hope of winning a WC they’ll need a strong pen. Jaime Garcia got at least a guaranteed 10 if they decline his option. Lance Lynn wasn’t going to sign for 12 million when they signed vargas. He was looking at a 3 year deal at minimum at that point. I’m not a fan of the vargas signing but it is what it is.
The Mets went out and signed guys and didn’t wait for the market to completely fall. As we all know in a typical offseason you usually don’t have impact fa’s sitting out there during Spring training. Bruce did get significantly more than moose or Morrison but he can also play RF which the Mets needed. It looks expensive now but Morrison and moose can’t cover an OF slot. The Mets did just fine and actually spent a little bit of money. They didn’t make any serious long term commitments and at the least made the team competitive.
That’s a fair assessment. I was basing my “strapped for cash” comment on the team mentioning they only had a small amount to spend but I guess in retrospect they may have been bluffing.
Great article from Fred Owens about the Braves (the comments section was informative too).
Haha, extend Realmuto? He wants out so bad he can taste it. Maybe he’d trade short-term happiness for a Stanton contract, but otherwise he’s playing out his arb years & getting the hell out. And he ain’t getting a Stanton contract.