makoman

Yes definitely. Hyde seemed reluctant to use him, and Elias would certainly have told him otherwise if Akin was in the plans. Or this is all some massive super 2 manipulation because they called him up too early.

I don’t recall it being pluralized either, but also can’t recall any deals with more than one, I think that’s pretty unusual. So can’t really look up how it was announced originally. I’m sure in the history of baseball it must have happened...

Also helps when you can win 83 games and make the playoffs.

Probably a lot of deals will be like this. Will be tough for us to compare value till the offseason.

It's hard to say he's giving the starters too much leash when they're pitching 4 1/3 innings a game. Even with a big bullpen I don't know that you want to have a quick hook in the 2nd inning.

4.49 is basically the same as last year, so that makes some sense. Even if you think a handful of guys have improved, they lost their two best hitters from last year and the run scoring environment is worse. Projecting them at 5.5 per game just seems so far out there.

I would trade him too but is this true? Givens is approximately a year ahead of him in service time, makes $3.2M this year after $2.1M last year. Castro makes just $1M this year so no way he should get to $3M. He's still got his issues but his K's are up and BB down in a tiny sample, and he's effective enough I'd think you have to give him another chance to see if the light turns on for like $2-2.5M.

They don't give out awards after 30 games either.

Availability is the most important tool. Harvey might be basically untouchable if he had it, but here we are.

Nope. I don’t get it.

We haven’t had such a guy since Nelson Cruz and look how well we did in 2014.

This, and also we shouldn’t forget that the O’s got the two guys on this list for nothing and for nothing but a roster spot. It happens.

I made her my avatar. It’s an old pic but it’s way back when she was happy and not blind and deaf and sick and hurting and I’m happy for folks to see her so I’ll leave it for a while. I didn’t mean to jump on and take away from your pain so I hope I didn’t in any way, I hope all goes well with you.

I’m sorry to hear and just wanted to say I feel for you. I’m euthanizing my dog Mako, source of my screen name, on Thursday. She’s 14 and has so many problems that will never get better and such poor quality of life that it’s just time. It’s still hard to believe and it’s not even here yet. I hope all works out with your mom and sorry about Nikki.

You totally misunderstood me. 0.3-0.5 so far in 1/6-1/5 of a year. So over a full year maybe 1.5-3.0. But he is likely doing better than should be expected given we have little better data for several years. Sure he was hurt a lot but that matters to expectations.

I like Lindor too for the same reasons. He’s just good and looks like he’s having a blast, it’s infectious. I like Trout too cause again he’s just so good, but I just never watch Pacific time games. I almost hate to say it but my favorite all time is watching Pedro pitch during his Boston run. They were rivals, but the Sox and their fans were a lot less insufferable back then before they won.

And people will complain that Elias doesn't know how to trade. He's a 0.3-0.5 WAR guy in like 1/6-1/5 of a season and this is probably his peak. He has no excess value, so I don't see why you'd get more than you got for Cashner.

And if you have a bad cornerback the other team will just attack him over and over, get more than half of their yards against him, including the tying and winning TDs. Nothing you can do if you can't replace him. https://www.espn.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/158585/recapping-rashaan-melvins-rough-game

Yeah, I don't really get the point of their argument. All of the team sports are extensively influenced by the team. Even in basketball, which I think is regarded as the most superstar-centric of them all, Jordan won nothing until he got better teammates, same with LeBron. The NFL is incredibly team reliant. I don't get why we have to try and elevate baseball as somehow different. In fact, I think the starting pitcher probably has the most influence of any individual in sports over the outcome of a single game, the only problem is you can't use him every day.

Isn't that the minor leagues? Don't we hear every year about minor league pitchers that are limited in how they use their best pitches in hope that they can develop their other ones?

I guess it’s fun to take contrarian opinions and when once in a while they hit you can point out how smart you are. Like Abrams was the obvious #1 pick and Stewart will never get out of AA ball. No one goes back and checks how often you might have been wrong, especially for all these long term calls.

If they knew what he was going to do they probably wouldn’t have sent him to AAA for almost two months. (unless they were super 2 manipulating of course)

I think he looks decently athletic, good enough. Which is why I thought he would probably be fine in left once he gets enough practice, it always seemed like he went down the spectrum mostly due to arm. I’m curious what the runs or wins difference is between an averageish fielding LF with average arm and an averageish LF with below average to poor arm.

Just think about it like we did Yaz for Severino, since they happened the same day. That’s a bit easier, I don’t care if it’s cognitive dissonance or something.

Since J2 was pushed back this year, I guess these count against last year's pool maybe?