AnythingO's

OK, I thought I was following all the active threads but I'm obviously missing the context here so I'll declare myself mentally altered at the mo and I'll quietly bow out, have another and toddle off to bed. lol Carry on, keep moving along, nothing to see....

Wait, it's been a long day and I'm addled by alcohol, but are you SERIOUSLY suggesting we could get Woo for Cowser straight up and keep the $25-30 move over 4-5 years Snell would cost (John-boy is rolling on the floor of the Warehouse over that) or did I completely miss the point???????

I can't believe nobody as posted Lowenstein-Roenicke. How about Palmer-Weaver, (the only ting Earl knew about pitching is that he couldn't hit it) or words to that effect

Eury Perez, the 6'8" rookie last year

I don't believe Luzardo is available, I absolutely refuse HK & Westburg for Cease. Cowser & Ortiz for Cease, and not much else, was my pain point. Cease would be nice but not at that price. I believe HK is closer to Mayo level bat and will play an average RF. Westburg has shown he belongs and plays above avg at 2B & 3B. With Gunnar here and Holiday coming, Ortiz will not play SS in BAL and SS is where his max value is. Cowser is not a CF, he needs to play LF at AAA exclusively until Hay's inevitable injury. I would go for a Paxton/Ryu signing to eat the innings delta that Means won't cover relative to Gibson. We still need Bradish, GRod, and Kremer to cover what they did last year. Hyde needs to use his long men for multi innings like he did in early 2022 with Aiken to avoid the burnout of the bullpen in 1 inning-matchup roles. I would prefer a 1-year FA coupled with a MIA trade for Rogers/Perez/Meyer. They need SS (Ortiz/Mateo/Urias), power (Santa/Stowers/Norby) plus Paxton.

I think whatever they do now to start 2024 will be different than how they finish. Joey needs a chance now, while we wait for Mayo and Holliday, or we are wasting an asset IMO. If he hits, we need to decide between Westburg and Ortiz. They won't move Gunnar off SS for Joey so WEstburg goes to 3B, where he is better, and Joey to 2B. When Holliday forces his way up they have to decide what to do with Joey. Similar thing with Mayo. I understand 1B is a waste of a special arm so they are looking at him for 3B and RF. Will he be better than Cowser or HK in RF defensively? IDK butI would try to keep the infielder on the dirt. If someone has to move from the dirt to the COF, my choice would be Westburg due to his speed and athleticism. Long story short I want to see Mayo at 1B, Westy at 2B, Holiday at SS and Gunnar at 3B but what do I know.

re: RZNJ's post: I think the WS board prefers Westburg or HK in a trade because they both hit OK in their MLB debuts so it's easier for them to project success vs Cowser or Ortiz. Most of us are sick of all the Cease talk and just want something done to make it stop. For me it's Cowser and/or Ortiz that are available, not Westburg or HK. I believe in HK's bat over Cowser from a power perspective and average, Cowser will have a better BB percentage. I love Ortiz but his time is now and I don't believe Elias -Hyde would move ROY Gunnar off his preferred position for Joey. That moves Westburg to 3B to make room for Joey at 2B. Westburg is better at 3B than anyone not named Gunnar. What happens when Holiday come up. Joey to Util? That would be a poor use of a prospect asset unless Joey just doesn't hit, but I believe he will. Joey should be a starting SS in 2024 somewhere, probably not here because of Gunnar-Holiday.

I also believe HK is underrated here. His line after June and July at AAA was Then, after playing continuously from June 2022 trying to makeup for 2 lost years, he cratered in August hitting 0.228 before rebounding in Sept to 0.375 and getting called up. The final line in AAA was heavily influenced by August. His bat is closer to Mayo than Cowser. Many don't think he can stick in RF but why? Savant has both Kjerstad and Cowser rated 64 in sprint speed (27.9 fps) when Mullins is rated 68 (28.0 fps). Hays by comparison is rated 53 (27.5 fps). HK had 5 triples at AAA vs 1 for Cowser, in fewer ABs, and never drew a throw. HK had another 3 triples in AA. So it's not speed. Fangraphs rates HK as 6.0 in their Speed rating which includes baserunning, Cowser is 4.9 where 5.0 is good/average and Mayo, who many want in RF because of his arm, was 3.3. Cowser has a better arm than HK but HK's bat is ready now and Mayo's is close behind. In the Holiday batting video, Tony-OH wondered who the othe rguy was with a really fast bat, it was HK. Cowser needs to fix his 27-28% SO rate at AAA and work on defense in LF. Santander is a viable 1B-DH, moving O'Hearn for a low level prospect just makes sense to free ABs for HK.

This. I like Ortiz as well as anyone for SS but there is no way Hyde is moving Gunnar off SS in 2024 for Joey. Gunnar is the best 3B we have but also a fine SS. Holiday is coming this year and probably mans 2B initially. Westburg has shown he belongs and can play 2B and 3B. To start Gunnar at SS Westburg at 3B and Joey at 2B. Holiday's arrival moves Joey to Utility which is a shame and a waste of prospect talent. In a year or 2 Holiday to SS Gunnar to 3B and Westburg back to 2B. The pieces just fit better with Westburg in the mix vs Ortiz. I think he is a better 3B than Joey and Joey won't displace either Gunnar or Holiday. I believe in Westburg's bat more and his defense is above average already.

I agree with this but wonder how much is ME vs Hyde's wishes. Hyde didn't use Cowser or Ortiz when they came up but ME announced Westburg who did get playing time. Was that ME sending a message or was Westburg just a "finished product"?? Hyde likes his vets.

Well if the Fangraphs Speed ratings are close to accurate (remember they include baserunning as well) Kjerstad is 6.0, Cowser is 4.9 (with 5.0 being average) and Mayo at 3.3 which is behind Stowers at 3.9. So I would doubt Mayo has the footspeed but what do I know.

No, the most I would do is Cowser, Ortiz, and someone like Armbruster or below of a pitching prospect.

To me the most pressing decision is to decide what to do about the depth in the minors, who goes and who stays. By doing that you may end up with a Cease or Bieber or you may just acquire more Povich, McDermott, Johnson like prospects. Most want a guy to slot with Bradish and GRod in a short playoff series but Wells or Means could be that guy if Hyde uses them wisely during the season. I am more concerned about who is lined up behind Johnson in the upper minors today while we wait for the International guys to emerge. For me, I keep HK and Westburg along with Mayo and Basallo. Cowser, Ortiz, Norby, Stowers are available for the right pitcher. Holiday is the SS and Mayo is 1B when they come; Gunnar is 3B. O'Hearn, Mounty, Santa are available.

I believe HK's bat is MLB ready now, the coach in Bowie said that it was. Cowser is reported to be faster than HK but the speed rating at Fangraphs which includes base running says otherwise. Then there are the number of triples that HK put up, he is sneaky fast. In his 33 MLB ABs he put up . I expect those to improve significantly in 2024 if he is given regular ABs and by the trading deadline he will be putting up Santander numbers or better. He will be beast.

Doesn't Georgia get the benefit of a bump up in asset value from $173 M to current after PA dies, which would avoid most Cap gains tax????

So why not Trevor Rogers? He is a DL Hall level talent beset with injuries. Last year he was in their starting rotation until IL with "arm tenderness". In rehab he tore a Lat but NOT on his pitching side, and was out the rest of the year. MIA made the playoffs without him so they effectively replaced him. He is expected to be healthy for ST. I am NOT saying he would be the off season SP trade. IMO he is more of the Povich / Seth Johnson type trade, depth with upside. After Soler, a FA RF-DH that missed the last half season, the next best returning OPS is 0.715. Santander alone replaces Soler and they need a SS badly. Ortiz and Mateo are backup INF on the 2024 O's at best, baring unlikely breakouts. Why not some combo of Santa-SS for Rogers???

There were few of us that were on the Kjerstad bandwagon back then but somewhere I saw him talk about the 2 lost years and his determination to make it to the MLB in 2023. After his June 2022 debut and his AFL performance, I just had the image of a man on a MISSION and he hit in ST and kept hitting at each stop thru August 2023. That represents over a year from becoming physically eligible to play. This is what he did in AAA thru July, (compare to Holiday) after about 13 months of work. Then he crashed, hit 0.228 in August with a SO/BB ratio of almost 3, before rebounding to 0.375 in September and being called up: I believe he will continue building up over this winter and in ST 2024 we will see the real HK and non-believers will say Cowser who. HK and Westburg IMO have shown they belong on the MLB team and Cowser and Ortiz and the rest are fighting for somebody else's slots.

We talk about teams with surplus pitching and last year that was MIA who traded Lopez. Trevor Rogers was in their starting rotation at the beginning of the year, had a sore arm and was out for a bit. While rehabbing he tore a lat on his non-pitching side and missed the rest of the year. They obviously replaced him in the rotation the rest of the season. He is supposed to be ready for ST. What would he take to acquire? He is their DL Hall equivalent. Maybe he starts or maybe goes to the BP. Either way he is a talent.

I believe his contract has an opt out when he turns 25 in November of next year so he might be available then rather than after the 6th year. Could he be traded for before the contract finishes?

I don't remember the timeframe but it was before my 2005 profile date. I remember the BRob-Hairston debates. What I really remember was SG asking what Flanny was thinking when he signed a reliever, Buddy Groom I believe, and I answered "he thought he had a .500 ballclub and this would push them to contention. SG gave me a green pip (remember those). I found out about this site on either Sunspot or Birds of Prey. Someone there was a big Frank Robison fan (FR500 maybe) an I had a detailed article of Frank's career I had trapped somewhere as I moved around for work. I copied it and emailed it to him and he told me about this place. The rest is history. My post count does not reflect the number of times I check in each and every day, thank you Tony for providing this service.

Isn't Cowser the guy whose swing we rebuilt to get to his power? Wasn't he a high contact rate, plate discipline guy in college. It could be that he hasn't settled into whatever type of hitter he will be going forward. Maybe his 27-28% SO rate at AAA indicates he is guessing-cheating to catch up to good FBs?

Thank you for doing this Tony. I learned there was a Veteran cemetery in Crownsville, as someone who grew up in Pasadena, I never knew that. So I had to shift to Baltimore where my relatives are. However, that raises another question, who does the "delivery" or placement of the wreaths? Would they accept volunteers who aren't vets? Would I be able to place the wreaths on my uncles' graves?

WC I respect your enthusiasm but saying JM will "probably" pitch 150 innings is is bordering on fantasy. You said "if healthy" but that qualifier applies to every pitcher, every year. Did they not monitor Wells last year? Hyde kept pitching him until he crashed, yet again. You say they don't care about innings but Bradish only went from117 in 2022 to 168 and Grod went from 69 at AAA in 2022 to 163 combined. Means rehabbed for like 16 months and only got thru 24 innings before being shut down with a sore elbow. The likelihood of JM going from 24 to 150 innings is very low. Certainly too low to count on it in 2024 when you say Elias "is going for it".

Thanks, I suspected that but wasn't sure. I assume that rules out "quality" measures like fWAR or pitcher ranking at end of year?

I'm not trading Kjerstad for Cease straight up. My order for available top 100 guys starts with Ortiz and ends with Cowser but they only get 1. Norby is just outside top 100 and Stowers is a viable MLB prospect if they prefer them to Fabian or Povich.