HandsomeQuack

Look like strawberries and maybe other fruits with chocolate and frosting

gunnar!

When Kevin said "Maikel" it triggered flashbacks

Alright, let's have a laugher after last night's debacle.

That's fine. As long as Mateo and Urias are playing well, it would be silly to trade them for the sake of trading them just to call up guys that might be as good as them. If that creates a logjam and leads to Ortiz and others getting traded, fine. If the team gets offered an enticing enough package for Mateo or Urias that they take it in the hopes that Ortiz and others can fill the holes, that's also fine. The team is contending, these are key players, they are under control for years, there is no need to overcomplicate things. Considering that prospects are less predictable but have higher upside and years of control, they probably make better trade targets for non-contending teams anyway.

Are Mateo and Urias the future? The best part about that question is that it doesn't need to be answered until 2026. For now, they are key players on a contending team. Available for trade, but not on the block.

So Henderson starts against the LHP and rides pine against the RHP... heaven forbid O'Hearn and Frazier don't get their ABs!

He likes the Oriole Bird so much that he emulates the droppings on his helmet

I like 'em. While they should both be available for the right price, I wouldn't be desperate to shop them around. But yeah, I would certainly like to see Urias usurp Frazier as the regular 2B in the short term.

Henderson, for all his struggles, has still been better than Frazier so far offensively.

Yes please! Let Frazier spell Urias, Henderson, and the corner outfielders as needed. Interestingly, Urias is better lifetime against righties than against lefties (.785 OPS vs .691 OPS), but the K and BB rates are similar so that may be somewhat due to BABIP noise.

Yes, we all want Luzardo, but we're not getting Luzardo, so it's a moot point. Maybe we should call Atlanta about Spencer Strider? Personally, I don't see much of a difference between Giolito and E-Rod, but if you strongly prefer E-Rod that's fair enough.

Giolito would be a nice add, depending on the cost. I know he's not "TOR," but who will even be available in that group (other than Cease, arguably)? Regarding Miami, the SP over whom they have the least control is Luzardo, and he's not a FA until 2027. Alcantara, Luzardo, and Cabrera are all future pieces, not trade chips. Unless there is some indication that one or more of their guys will be made available, the Marlins SPs aren't even worth discussing.

Per Baseball Reference, Luzardo is controlled through 2026. And I would love for the team to acquire Cease, for the record. But I haven't given any deep thought to whom I would package to make that happen.

Possibly, but I think it's extremely unlikely that he will be available. He's a young, elite pitcher on such a cheap contract that not even the Marlins need to unload him. The only non-rental candidate I am currently aware of is Cease. Luzardo would be great but I assume they are not hankering to get rid of him, either.

Bemore, I don't think anyone disagrees with what you are saying. The point is that it took the single greatest deadline commodity (Soto) of the last decade to necessitate trading 3-4 top 100 guys. There is no pitcher that will or should command that much. The team would be better off spreading those guys across multiple trades.

You can't QO midseason acquisitions, unfortunately. It's only for guys who spend the whole year with the club. If you count Abrams (who it looks like just barely crossed 130 PAs with San Diego), that's three with Wood and Hassell.

I agree with your point regarding the depth of the organization, but until there is evidence to the contrary, evaluations of possible trades should operate on the assumption that no one is going to get a lucrative extension. I would *love* to be proven wrong, but it's hard to imagine the team trading for Cease or Burnes and then immediately extending them. Whether a lack of spending is a "can't" or a "won't" is largely irrelevant.

Yeah, we had to endure Richie Martin and Dwight Smith Jr., but the punt year Quadruple-A tryouts gave us Wells, Mateo, and Urias.

Looking at his stats re: swing decisions, he only swings at 19.8% of pitches outside the zone (league average 31.5%), but when he does swing on those pitches he only makes contact 39.5% of the time (league average 62.2%). In his time in the bigs last year, he made contact on 60.8% of outside-the-zone swings. Additionally, the first pitch of his PAs is a strike 67.4% of the time (league average 60.5%). I wonder how much of that is the book being out on him that he won't swing, and as a result he falls behind 0-1 a lot. It's been such a weird start for him. With a little less swing-and-miss he could be in the .250/.400/.500 neighborhood. But he takes so many pitches and he can't hit with 2 strikes.

Trading Mateo makes zero sense at the moment considering that no valuation from another team will be as high as the level at which he is currently playing. What kind of first half would he need to have where he is both a) playing well enough to get a decent haul and b) not playing so great that the win-now-mode team can't part with him? Short of Burnes or Cease (which have roughly 0% chance of happening), I struggle to envision a deal that makes sense. Maybe Bobby Miller?

2, and in that scenario Ortiz becomes completely expendable. Mateo remains available via trade, but it would have to be a really enticing offer (i.e., at least one young, controllable pitcher). Short of that, team is in win-now mode and has a really good SS to help with that.

heck yes Ortiz!

I thought McCann contractually had to get every start vs LHP.

Regardless of whether Ortiz *should* get a shot at the everyday 2B role, it seems unlikely that the org would put him ahead of Frazier against RHP. And if Frazier were being demoted from an everyday role, Urias would arguably be the better option anyway. My guess is that the move is temporary, unless the org is fine with him playing part time which I doubt.