Elias answers some questions.

[Sports Guy]

42 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

And we take a step back on defense in that case. 

Maybe.  Depends on what else we do.  I’m sure you can find a cheap defensive OFer.  
 

 

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Bad logic.   We got lucky with Santander.    That kind of luck doesn’t come around every day.  

It’s not bad logic.  It’s simply saying that the guy people act like would decimate us if we traded him was a bargain basement guy.  Lookinup implied that’s where we would look.  Well, you can find those bargains in the basement.

There are  several players out there the Os could easily acquire to fill the spot.  Whether it’s a ML ready prospect, a FA or a ML you trade for.  It’s not hard.  
 

[scOtt]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Maybe.  Depends on what else we do.  I’m sure you can find a cheap defensive OFer.  
 

 

You could find an infielder who hits and can spell guys in the OF sometimes. IF they think Kerstadt or Diaz et al will be solid MLers.

[Sports Guy]

12 minutes ago, scOtt said:

You could find an infielder who hits and can spell guys in the OF sometimes. IF they think Kerstadt or Diaz et al will be solid MLers.

Of course..it’s not hard and since they don’t care about winning in 2021, what difference does it make anyway?

[LookinUp]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Maybe.  Depends on what else we do.  I’m sure you can find a cheap defensive OFer.  

First you mentioned Nunez, who's a pure DH. Now you're talking about a defensive OFer, so you're sacrificing OPS. The point of Santander is it's not easy to replace a good hitter and a good defender in one person.  We're liable to end up with the RF equivalent of Rio Ruiz or Mark Trumbo getting significant innings. That's not ideal on a contender. 

I don't think they grow on as many trees as you think they do.

[LookinUp]

1 hour ago, scOtt said:

You could find an infielder who hits and can spell guys in the OF sometimes. IF they think Kerstadt or Diaz et al will be solid MLers.

This is the key for me, and I'm not ready to conclude that they will be solid.

Diaz is a bit of an enigma to me. Nice talent who has never either been healthy enough or otherwise put it together for long enough stretches to really show that he's an answer in our outfield. He might be, but he hasn't done enough for me to want to just hand him the position without a good plan B. Read Tony's reports and you won't conclude that he's the hyped guy we got from the Dodgers. Not saying he's not, but not saying he is by a long shot.

Kjerstad is months out of a shortened college season. I know he was drafted high, and I have high hopes for him, but I'd like to see him with a wooden bat first before I'm ready to clear the path for him to take over. He could move fast, but he could also struggle with wood, advanced secondaries, etc. 

Haskin is the same, without the lofty draft status. Stewart? Meh. Vavra? Maybe. We're just not as set as it seems to be assumed that we are.  Not in my mind. That picture could be much more rosy in 6 months though.

[scOtt]

16 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

This is the key for me, and I'm not ready to conclude that they will be solid.

Diaz is a bit of an enigma to me. Nice talent who has never either been healthy enough or otherwise put it together for long enough stretches to really show that he's an answer in our outfield. He might be, but he hasn't done enough for me to want to just hand him the position without a good plan B. Read Tony's reports and you won't conclude that he's the hyped guy we got from the Dodgers. Not saying he's not, but not saying he is by a long shot.

Kjerstad is months out of a shortened college season. I know he was drafted high, and I have high hopes for him, but I'd like to see him with a wooden bat first before I'm ready to clear the path for him to take over. He could move fast, but he could also struggle with wood, advanced secondaries, etc. 

Haskin is the same, without the lofty draft status. Stewart? Meh. Vavra? Maybe. We're just not as set as it seems to be assumed that we are.  Not in my mind. That picture could be much more rosy in 6 months though.

My point was IF ME and Sig and crew think they'll be something. Of course that all changes if they don't think so... trying to think like them, not trusting my own eye one iota.

[Number5]

SG, I've got to say that your long series of posts concerning both Nunez and Santander makes me think that maybe Nunez gave you a puppy, and Santander ran over it.  

You've made some good points on each of them over the past month or so, but overall I tend to disagree with the idea that Nunez is the better player between the two.  Besides, I don't see the two as being directly related.  One is clearly a right fielder and the other is clearly a DH.

[Sports Guy]

44 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

First you mentioned Nunez, who's a pure DH. Now you're talking about a defensive OFer, so you're sacrificing OPS. The point of Santander is it's not easy to replace a good hitter and a good defender in one person.  We're liable to end up with the RF equivalent of Rio Ruiz or Mark Trumbo getting significant innings. That's not ideal on a contender. 

I don't think they grow on as many trees as you think they do.

No..what I’m saying is if you trade Santander, you can easily cover his lost offense with Nunez.  If you do that, you obviously still need a RFer until Diaz is up, so just get someone for defense.  
 

And I took your original comments on this to be talking about the 2021 season.  The long term is Kjerstad. The short term is 2021, when we aren’t even trying to win, so just some cheap stop gap for 4-8 weeks and then get Diaz up.

 

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, Number5 said:

SG, I've got to say that your long series of posts concerning both Nunez and Santander makes me think that maybe Nunez gave you a puppy, and Santander ran over it.  

You've made some good points on each of them over the past month or so, but overall I tend to disagree with the idea that Nunez is the better player between the two.  Besides, I don't see the two as being directly related.  One is clearly a right fielder and the other is clearly a DH.

I disagree that he is the best player too, especially since I have never said that.

What I have said is that they are very similar offensively, which they are.

So, if you want to replace offense of a lost Santander, you could just bring Nunez back and put his bat back in the lineup, which replaces the lost offense.  It may not replace it in RG but it replaces it in the lineup.  Overall production is what I’m talking about, not positional production.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

No..what I’m saying is if you trade Santander, you can easily cover his lost offense with Nunez.  If you do that, you obviously still need a RFer until Diaz is up, so just get someone for defense.  
 

And I took your original comments on this to be talking about the 2021 season.  The long term is Kjerstad. The short term is 2021, when we aren’t even trying to win, so just some cheap stop gap for 4-8 weeks and then get Diaz up.

 

Hold up.

If you "replace" Santander's offense with the DH Nunez and you replace his defense with a guy who is poor with the bat you end up with a poor bat equivalent at DH.

[LookinUp]

25 minutes ago, scOtt said:

My point was IF ME and Sig and crew think they'll be something. Of course that all changes if they don't think so... trying to think like them, not trusting my own eye one iota.

Well sure, but I'm arguing that they likely don't have enough of that information yet. Perhaps on Diaz. Not on Kjerstad.

4 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

No..what I’m saying is if you trade Santander, you can easily cover his lost offense with Nunez.  If you do that, you obviously still need a RFer until Diaz is up, so just get someone for defense.  
 

And I took your original comments on this to be talking about the 2021 season.  The long term is Kjerstad. The short term is 2021, when we aren’t even trying to win, so just some cheap stop gap for 4-8 weeks and then get Diaz up.

If you bring in Nunez, you don't replace Santander's offense, you replace whoever we have playing DH's offense. That is Stewart/Mancini/Mountcastle/other. If any of those guys go to the OF, the defense just got worse.

And I'm with you on Nunez in theory, but not as it relates to Santander.

[Sports Guy]

12 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Hold up.

If you "replace" Santander's offense with the DH Nunez and you replace his defense with a guy who is poor with the bat you end up with a poor bat equivalent at DH.

Lookinup is the one worried about the defense out there, not me.

I also didn’t say they have to be worthless with the bat either.

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

Well sure, but I'm arguing that they likely don't have enough of that information yet. Perhaps on Diaz. Not on Kjerstad.

If you bring in Nunez, you don't replace Santander's offense, you replace whoever we have playing DH's offense. That is Stewart/Mancini/Mountcastle/other. If any of those guys go to the OF, the defense just got worse.

And I'm with you on Nunez in theory, but not as it relates to Santander.

The defense got worse but it’s not likely that much of a difference, at least not one that would be measured greatly in a season where they aren’t trying to win games.

[LookinUp]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

The defense got worse but it’s not likely that much of a difference, at least not one that would be measured greatly in a season where they aren’t trying to win games.

If this was about 2021 for me, I'd want him traded. I'm with Elias on 2021. It's still about future years.

For me, this is about our next winning team and whether Santander will be good enough to be a contributor on it. I think he will, which means I only trade him if I have actual surplus or if the right too good to turn down offer comes along.

I think surplus is a real possibility, but far from a certainty at this point.