2021-2022 Offseason Thread

[fish16]

sanchez going down for a month is what he needs. i still love his talent and he will be back probably for a month to end the year, but it's really tough to ask these young kids to play big roles in these terrible lineups and expect them to have a ton of success. granted the stars will generally succeed no matter the lineup, but these guys you're trying to develop are really being put in tough positions with some of these roles they are asked to play and with such little talent around them in the lineup

[lou]

sanchez going down for a month is what he needs. i still love his talent and he will be back probably for a month to end the year, but it's really tough to ask these young kids to play big roles in these terrible lineups and expect them to have a ton of success. granted the stars will generally succeed no matter the lineup, but these guys you're trying to develop are really being put in tough positions with some of these roles they are asked to play and with such little talent around them in the lineup

Burdick has a .944 OPS vs LHP pitching this year to note, and .867 last year.

Bleday/Sanchez and Burdick should be the LF platoon and let Bleday and Sanchez battle this shit out.

Assuming Bleday/Sanchez and Burdick are deemed an adequate backup CF. Then get the longterm CF and call it a day here, move to upgrading 1B or SS.

[Erick]

Quick dive into CF that I am thinking here:

Arizona - Carroll, Thomas, or Varsho. Obviously Varsho is special as he can catch, but Carroll/Thomas are perfect if they can figure that out with some SP. Interestingly, they are all left handed so I'm wondering if SP (would be Eury for Carroll and likely Rogers/Cabrera and someone one else for Thomas) + Burdick in a swap makes some sense here for everyone. To note, Burdick is the 31st CF prospect on FG (Misner 29)

Dodgers - Pages. They may have a real 40 man crunch and may move on different options. The Marlins could trade them Salas here virtually straight up (Pages 74, Salas 81 on FG top 100) and Salas doesn't need 40 man protection. Maybe they get Cooper to help them for cheap for a year as a kicker, or Floro back, etc. This could be another Gallen-Jazz deal with throw ins. Pages is right handed so perfect with Bleday/Sanchez around. Of course, they may move on from Bellinger and Gallo, and then their OF is effectively Mookie, C. Taylor, ______. Pages may be a real fit for them, but hopefully they spend money on someone else so this is a possibility.

Twins - Martin. Is he a real CF? He is like Groshans, the slugging is non-existent but it's making a bet its coming with the BB/K. This is one of more uninspiring options even though I like him. Im not even sure he is MLB ready.

Pitt - Swaggerty. A cheap option trade, maybe for like Dax Fulton and pray. He is another Burdick level prospect so taking 2 bets here. And not great ones.

Oak - Laureano. The more expensive option.


Big picture, I think it's figure out how to get Arizona some pitching or swap non-40 identical prospects for Pages and make it worth their while. The Pablo trade could get triggered for Pages too, and they have other guys to make it work.

Past that, it's Laureano, Nimmo, or praying Bleday/Sanchez/Burdick is a thing.

I would love to have Daulton Varsho.

[lou]

I would love to have Daulton Varsho.

Says everyone!

I think Thomas is the move here. He isn't a fantastic defender in CF, but he's good enough and fast. I think you'd live with him and in 3 years move to a corner where FG says he'd be a real asset in LF. His hard hit rates are lacking today (https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savan...-r-hitting-mlb), but he is also 22 and about to drop a 2.5+ WAR rookie season. As you'd expect from a lefty, he is hitting RHP hard (.811) and lefties are demolishing him. I'd bet on him. Burdick is a perfect platoon player for him too.

The price will be very very high. Rogers/Luzardo + another really good player (this could be Eder/Meyer/Cappe/Lewis level) + giving them Cooper and/or Anderson as they need cheap righty bats (but who cares about them. Move salary). It's probably worth it because CF depth across MLB is horrible. I'm fine with Sandy, Pablo, Rogers/Luzardo, Garrett, Cabrera, with Poteet and Neidert in the pen and Eury/Sixto/others coming. ESPECIALLY if they can get Pablo to sign a 4/$55 sort of deal, which he may prefer versus a non-guaranteed $6m-ish and non-guaranteed 2024.

A lot of options to figure this out. They'll probably just get Laureano though and continue pitching hording.

[lou]

No one claimed Fishman and sent to AAA - so we can put him into organizational depth and not 40 man category FWIW

[fish16]

why does it take us falling out of the race to make any effort to change what the club was doing offensively? We watched for 4 months Rojas, Aguilar, Garcia, Soler, Stallings all struggle, and only when we fall 10 games under and completely out of the race do we start playing Fortes more and call up Bleday, Burdick, Lewin, and Leblanc.

I think they would have struggled anyways, but what exactly were they watching where they were content with what we were doing that couldn't win a series against a good team all year?

[lou]

why does it take us falling out of the race to make any effort to change what the club was doing offensively? We watched for 4 months Rojas, Aguilar, Garcia, Soler, Stallings all struggle, and only when we fall 10 games under and completely out of the race do we start playing Fortes more and call up Bleday, Burdick, Lewin, and Leblanc.

I think they would have struggled anyways, but what exactly were they watching where they were content with what we were doing that couldn't win a series against a good team all year?

The short answer is - they have no real internal alternatives and A LOT of guys (Berti, Jazz, Anderson, Wendle all at times) have been hurt really limiting their options.

Super 2 issues with Bleday/Burdick pushing them post June 20th or so. You can say they are late a few weeks here. Maybe

LeBlanc is whatever and not very good so he doesn't matter. He has earned a ROS look though today forward.

They can't really keep four 1B/DH only on the roster, but practically speaking, Aguilar/Soler/Cooper should all hit more than Lewin so they were stuck and had to play them

Garcia should have been batting 8th-9th for sure with Stallings. You have he'd snap out of it so you'd have to play Garcia still. Would this move the needle?

Stallings also should have sat a few more for Fortes, nothing major though. You'd hope Stallings would snap out of it. This is one is the only annoying one of the late to me.

And Rojas has been normal Rojas and fine. He's playing like his normal defense heavy 1.5-2 WAR player.



Frankly, we're in try it out land and I hope to see this:

C - Primarily Fortes, Stallings can work on things offseason
1B - Primarily Lewin
2B - Williams/Berti when back
SS - Wendle RHP, Rojas LHP
3B - Williams/LeBlanc
LF - Bleday/Berti < - Get Berti some LHP work and see if he is worth keeping or trading
CF - Burdick
RF - Sanchez < -- Back in a few weeks once head straight, Garcia only LHP for ROS
DH - Soler just to hopefully catch on fire so maybe he'd opt out, or shows promise for next year

If they keep playing Aguilar absent injury, that's just really bad. They should honestly cut him as a professional courtesy and let him try and get a bench spot on a contender.

[Nick]

I'd be fine if Stallings caught Sandy and Pablo and Fortes caught everyone else. As long as Fortes is getting more ABs on a week to week basis.

[rmc523]

why does it take us falling out of the race to make any effort to change what the club was doing offensively? We watched for 4 months Rojas, Aguilar, Garcia, Soler, Stallings all struggle, and only when we fall 10 games under and completely out of the race do we start playing Fortes more and call up Bleday, Burdick, Lewin, and Leblanc.

I think they would have struggled anyways, but what exactly were they watching where they were content with what we were doing that couldn't win a series against a good team all year?

Stupidity and stubornness.

I agree with the idea to not completely knee-jerk react after a few weeks of the season, but changes should've been made a long time ago, when it was clear to everyone but the FO that it wasn't working......but then again, everyone but the FO saw the train wreck of the offseason too.

[lou]

I'd be fine if Stallings caught Sandy and Pablo and Fortes caught everyone else. As long as Fortes is getting more ABs on a week to week basis.

I think a 2/3 split makes sense, and honestly it's idiotic, but we need to view this as developmental time for next year so give Fortes 1-2 DH games on top of that to get him reps.

After Jazz, Bleday, Burdick, and Groshans, he's frankly the 5th most important position player in the organization right now at the AAA/MLB level. He may even be "2" here.

[fish16]

I think a 2/3 split makes sense, and honestly it's idiotic, but we need to view this as developmental time for next year so give Fortes 1-2 DH games on top of that to get him reps.

After Jazz, Bleday, Burdick, and Groshans, he's frankly the 5th most important position player in the organization right now at the AAA/MLB level. He may even be "2" here.

forget the fact that stallings cant hit his way out of a wet paper bag, but fortes seems to be a legitimately good hitter, not just for a catcher. and with the other options we've been starting some days, his bat needs to be in the lineup at the very least. But realistically, they might have stumbled into a starting catcher for a few years by accident. How henry was the backup to start the year is still beyond comprehension.

[fish16]

super excited to see Cabrera back today. he needs to be in the plans as either a starter for years to come or a filthy closing option. 96 mph changeup is just ridiculous. Just pray he stays healthy the rest of the year, and hopefully he actually shows up to camp on time next year instead of the weird visa stuff he seems to keep have happening at the beginning of every spring. I'd trade pablo but if not, Sandy, Pablo, Luzardo, Cabrera, Eury is a ridiculously filthy rotation. But we've also said that for years with different combos including sixto, Meyer, eder, etc, so they need to actually produce instead of just being fun to think of on paper. I'm guessing garrett has earned a rotation spot next year to start while they inevitably play service time games with eury until may.

Side note- baseball America tweeted today that not only is Eury the youngest starter in AA, he'd be the youngest guy in A+ ball too. He is a surefire ace type guy and a top 5 prospect in baseball. Him and Sandy will be fun to watch for years, hopefully along with Cabrera, Meyer, Luzardo, and the corpse of sixto sanchez one day after his 5 year rehab period.

The domination by eury the last 2 years has been nothing short of incredible. He's 19 until next April, and over 2 years facing hitters who are much older, in 35 starts he's thrown 149 innings, 209 k's, 2.71 ERA, just 43 walks, .188 BAA, and a .95 WHIP. Just flat out domination.

[fish16]

we're playing the kids now, but not maximizing their playing time. Why is rojas batting leadoff, and why is de la Cruz and aguilar ahead of bleday, burdick, and leblanc, and why is stallings starting instead of fortes, and if you insist on playing staliings, DH Fortes then. Aguilar has become an overweight singles hitter who cant play defense. what are we doing? Bench the guy already.

[lou]

we're playing the kids now, but not maximizing their playing time. Why is rojas batting leadoff, and why is de la Cruz and aguilar ahead of bleday, burdick, and leblanc, and why is stallings starting instead of fortes, and if you insist on playing staliings, DH Fortes then. Aguilar has become an overweight singles hitter who cant play defense. what are we doing? Bench the guy already.

Williams just had the best game of his career and is better than DLC. He has to play over him unless DLC has to play CF (Williams played some CF in 2021 regardless):

It should be something like:

LF Williams < - Fine against lefties
RF Burdick < - Kills lefties minors
1B Cooper < - Burdick protection and best hitter
CF Bleday < - Best spot left to succeed with best hitter in front and MLB player behind him
SS Rojas < - Bleday protection. Sadly, there is nothing better but this is a MLB baseball hitter
DH Fortes < - LHP splits bad but yes let him play
3B LeBlanc < - Best position to maybe hit
2B Wendle < - Protection for LeBlanc to the extent that is even a thing at this point, does not hit lefties historically
C Stallings < - Defense goes here

Let's see some vision here

[lou]

They really got to get some bats to help the pitching next year. I mean frustration aside, Cabrera might be their 6th SP and this is nuts.