Aristotelian

I don't think financial incentives would really help. I believe the umpires are trying to be good, they are just human beings and we are worse than robots. I think the system they are using now in the minors is great. Let the humans call it but give the batters a chance to challenge egregious calls a few times per game.

Just Regular's guess is as good as any for the long term plan based on what we know as of today. We already have five of the pieces (Adley, Gunnar, Westburg, Cowser, Kjerstad) in place, with Mayo and Norby very close behind. Bradfield is probably the biggest question mark on the list but we've got Beavers and Etzel. If Cowser or Kjerstad fail, Stowers is another option. It's really not that far fetched. So far Elias's modus operandi has been to not trade anyone that could potentially be in a future top 9.

Anyone watching his AB's right now? Is he using the time at Norfolk to work on the leg kick and change it up at all?

Possible but there is little downside to keeping a guy with options, regardless of health issues. If that was their thinking, that was a mistake and they should take a look at bringing him back.

Just a hunch, I don't think we would have given up on him without a reason. At the time he was a live arm with options making the minimum. Maybe an attitude thing or Sigbot metric they don't like. On paper he's an interesting target.

Sorry if I am out of compliance with the thread police.

I would go with Burnes but since there is zero chance he would ever be moved to the bullpen, so I said Grayson. (Of course, I started the Grayson thread). He also led our staff in K/9 and Felix showed us many times why high K/9 is valuable for the closer role.

I have no doubt Gunnar can play SS and that is the most likely scenario. The problem is that most likely pushes Westburg to 3B where he isn't as good. If Holliday can play SS, you would be getting elite level defense at 2B and 3B. But it's a dream scenario not only in that it is high upside but also that it is probably not happening based on what we've seen of Holliday. Still, he was the 1:1 and could grow into it so I don't think it should be ruled out if it could make the team better.

The dream '26 alignment is something like Gunnar 3B/Holliday SS/Westburg 2B/Mayo 1B. If Holliday isn't SS (which is looking perhaps more likely), we could still accomodate all four via Gunnar SS/Westburg 3B/Holliday 2B/Mayo 1B. The question is how to get there and find AB's for everyone as long as O'Hearn/Mountcastle, Santander, and Urias/Mateo are on the team. Not sure about this year, but next year, I could see Mayo playing a super sub role splitting time in RF with Kjerstad, 1B/DH with O'Hearn/Mountcastle, and 3B with Westburg. Then in '26 things open up with O'Hearn and Mountcastle gone, as well as Mateo. Westburg has been impressive at 2B, so I'd really hate to move him. If we are going to move Westburg or Holliday to outfield, why would we move the guy who is already playing 2B at a high level?

I would be all over Helsley. Perfect target.

Worth considering. If he is the odd man out from the rotation I would like to see how Kremer does in relief and maybe work his way into high leverage. Still, Grayson's stuff is more intriguing as a potential lights out closer.

I agree Kopech is in a class above Fuji. Fuji is a more extreme example of a guy with a high walk rate and lack of command that offsets electric stuff. But he's got enough Fuji in him to be concerning. He led the AL in walks in only 129 innings. If you add it all up he is at 5 WAR in 3+ years: good, but not elite. I'm not sure who to target yet but if we were going to target a bullpen and squeeze out a guy like Baumann I would want more of a sure thing than Kopech.

I was thinking Fuji. That walk rate just scares me too much but the stuff is tempting. I think Kopech is a soft pass for me but if we got him I'd root for him and I could see a world where he is getting huge outs in October.

Do we know if he was at all connected to the rumors about their bullpen having toxic character issues last year? I guess he was mostly a starter last year so wouldn't have been connected to any of that?

Lol, glad to see at least a couple folks out there think it's not completely nuts. Definitely not a hill to die on but I really feel like this could be the year for us and it's time to start thinking seriously about roster and roles in October, development be damned. Fangraphs already has us at close to 90% probability of making the playoffs. I love him as a starter too but we have him through 2029 and the time to win is right now. Part of this is baseball-PTSD from what Kelvin Herrera and that KC bullpen did to us in 2014. I know, I know, it's not realistic and we are going to need 6 or 7 guys because Bradish and Means will be toast at some point...