wildbillhiccup

I was just speaking in general terms...but then again you knew that and were just being an a$$hole. Nice job staying on brand.

I never thought Miller, Woo or Hancock were on the table in the first place. Polanco's a nice cheapish gamble and I don't think it really compromised their future. It's amazing how easy it seems for some teams to make trades that address their needs / plug holes...

Love that move for the Ms. Probably cheaper than India and might be just as good (if he can stay healthy). Definitely plugs their hole at 2B.

Did you seriously just compare Skubal to Irvin? Dude, Skubal might be a dark horse Cy Young candidate this season. Like WTF!?!

One thing this team doesn't need is another infield bat. Even if they trade Ortiz they still have plenty of guys. In a perfect world Henderson (3B), Holliday (SS), and Westburg (2B) would be their Opening Day lineup, but even if Holliday isn't ready they still have Urias or Mateo to keep the seat warm for a few months.

The Tigers are past the rebuilding stage (they contended last season) and there's zero chance they're trading Skubal after how great he looked when he came back from injury.

I mean it makes a lot of sense if the White Sox are hell bent on getting a high end SP (i.e., Woo or Miller) back in a trade. And Cease would basically be a cheaper version of Robbie Ray for Seattle so they'd "technically" be saving money which seems to be a priority for them. And trading a SP just to free up a spot to trade for another cheaper SP certainly seems like a Dipoto type of move. In the long run I really think he's going to regret dealing one of those young arm though (if there's any truth to the rumor).

There's no chance Seattle would be interested in Snell. They seem to be in salary shedding mode and their pitching is solid enough (even w/out Robbie Ray).

Seattle - I doubt they deal another SP now that they've traded Ray. Milwaukee - The Hoskins signing would seem to indicate they're keeping Burnes, unless they fall out of contention, then they might revisit dealing him at the trade deadline. I don' think the rumors of them shopping Peralta were ever true. Cleveland - I know they've been rumored to be shopping Bieber, but I really don't think they can afford to trade him. I also think he's damaged goods. That leaves Chicago (White Sox), Florida, and Houston as the only teams that seem deep enough to me to trade a solid starting pitcher. Houston's my sleeper trade partner. The legitimately have eight SPs slotted in their rotation. Something's gotta give...

I just read that Boras is asking for 9 years / $270M for Snell. Yeah, good luck with that Scotty.

I agree that the other poster was overreacting, but I do think you have to look at the ages of some of those prospects and take that into consideration. I have no issues with a 23 year old Norby spending some time in the minors this season, but Stowers is 26 and Ortiz is 25 and they're both at the point in their careers where they're probably going to start depreciating in value. If the Orioles believe in those players it seems silly to waste anymore of their prime years in the minors. So why not trade some of the veterans now to free up space for them? And if they don't believe in them then why not trade them while they still have decent value. Either way it seems like some sort of move needs to be made to maximize the return on investment. So in that regard I disagree with your general sentiment that doing nothing/holding is a smart play by Elias.

If I'm playing devil's advocate... 1) G-Rod and Wells were so bad for part of the season that they both were demoted. 2) Means is an injury risk and probably on some sort if innings limitation. 3) Kremer and Irvin are barely MLB caliber starting pitchers. 4) By the end of the year (when you think our AAA guys will be ready) we could be out of contention.

So you feel that their "top level depth" also extends to their starting pitching? Because I sure don't.

Elias is a professional and I'm sure he's smart enough to realize that there's absolutely nothing to be gained by publicly bad mouthing a current or former employer. If he eventually feels like he can't operate under John Angelos' constraints he'll simply move on once his contract expires. This idea that he might want to go out in some sort of blaze of glory is ridiculous.

Scott Boras would literally break Snell's left arm before he let him sign a one year deal after winning the Cy Young.

Honestly Elias should probably just pivot away from Cease at this point. I just don't see it happening based on what they the seem to be looking for. The irony is they're so bad and devoid of talent that they really should just take the best package offered to them regardless of player positions. So I guess all our eggs are in the FA basket, unless the Astros decide to trade Valdez. And the only potential difference makers left, Snell and Montgomery, are most likely out of our price range / length of deal comfort level.. It sounds like we're probably destined for another Gibson like signing accompanied by the typical front office rhetoric about how the better FAs were overpriced/overvalued blah blah blah. It will be interesting to see how much Boras will be able to get for Montgomery in particular. You could make comps between Wacha and S.Gray and both of those pitchers received wildly different contracts for some reason. My guess is Boras will push for more than S. Gray. So probably something like 3 years / $80M.

To be fair he said that the White Sox are asking for Woo or Miller, not that the Mariners are offering either one of them. I think the big takeaway though is that it seems that the White Sox would prefer a Cease trade package be headlined by a young pitcher. That would explain why we've seemingly reached a bit of an impasse since we really don't have a Woo or Miller equivalent. Not unless we include Hall in the package. And even then he's still probably a notch below both of those pitchers.

This is never going to happen in any type of business environment. There is nothing to be gained by throwing the person who signs your paychecks under the bus.

That's fine. If you want to scrutinize every single word that I type / say that's perfectly fine. So amend it to he was elite last season and has been a consistent / reliable RP for the majority of his career. Happy now? Congrats on your keyboard trolling victory.

I'm happy to have a conversation with you and defend my point, but I would appreciate it if you dialed back the snark and saved it for when it's actually justified. Hector Neris was literally elite last season. See my below post.

In last year's multiverse? In 2023 Neris led all of MLB with 31 Holds (tied with Cano) and was worth 2.5 WAR. That's pretty damn elite for a non-closer relief pitcher. For context, Seattle's Andres Munoz who is widely considered one of the best non-closer arms in the game had a combined WAR of 2.1 for the last two seasons. If you want to argue that Neris can't repeat last season's performance that's perfectly fine, but it certainly didn't merit the level of condescension in your post since he was literally elite last season.

Have you? Neris was an elite back end reliever/set up guy in 2023 and has been for most of his career. Is it really that "mind boggling" to think he could have closed for the Orioles in 2024 and gone back to being an elite set up guy in 2025 (once Felix came back)?

Eat innings is about the only think Kyle Gibson did well last season. I'm not sure how you can look back on a pitcher that posted a 4.72 ERA and consider him a good signing/success. Especially when you look at how much better several other pitchers who signed one year deals were. Wade Miley, Michael Wacha, Michael Lorenzen, and Mike Clevinger all performed significantly better than Kyle Gibson. In hindsight it's kind of mind boggling that a stat oriented GM thought a pitcher coming off two straight seasons with a 5.00+ ERA would be a good investment. I'd also take Hector Neris all day every day over Craig Kimbrel. And with his club option they could have had an elite set up man for Felix Baustista in 2025 at a very affordable price.

Another better signing than Kimbrel IMO. Between this and the Neris deal it seems like Elias might have screwed the pooch by committing to Kimbrel so early. It seems like he placed a great deal of emphasis on our replacement for Bautista needing to have significant closing experience as opposed to just being a good pitcher. I find that interesting considering he's a guy who uses advanced and predictive statistics to help gauge player performance. And the last I checked there weren't advanced stats for grit and moxie. Ottavino would have been a perfectly fine one your fill in for Bautista. And Neris could have easily transitioned back into an 8th inning role in 2025. Or heck, he could have signed both for just a bit more than Kimbrel. I don't know about you, but my initial opinion of Elias' ability to gauge the market and sign meaningful FAs is not good. Kyle Gibson, Adam Frazier, Mychel GIvens and now Craig Kimbrel is not a very good track record. And I don't think you can blame it all on payroll constraints. It also gives me less faith in his ability to make a trade. Is it possibly that he's really good at player development, but not the other things?