2022-2023 Offseason Thread

[Nick]

Ten breakout bats from Eno Sarris/Athletic (I consider Eno an upper tier writer) - https://theathletic.com/4192015/2023...breakout-bats/

TLDR - DLC, J. Sanchez, *and* Fortes. The first two hit the ball really really hard and Fortes has one of the fastest swing speeds in baseball which is suggestive of some real power/contact ability. What's fun is, Jazz and Sanchez are on that swing speed list and the other names are..... Julio, L. Robert, Stanton, Machado, Alvarez, Witt, Alonso...... and then some pedestrian guys like F. Reyes, T. Thompson, Cron, MJ Melendez, and Wisdom.


They couldn't have signed a SS or Nimmo and moved Jazz to SS?

I will say, even though I've never seen Jazz play CF, I have more confidence in him being a good CF than SS. Have not been impressed with Jazz's defense since he got to the big leagues. I think having him at 2B instead of SS, which is what he came up as of course, has hidden a lot of his deficiencies.

[fish16]

I will say, even though I've never seen Jazz play CF, I have more confidence in him being a good CF than SS. Have not been impressed with Jazz's defense since he got to the big leagues. I think having him at 2B instead of SS, which is what he came up as of course, has hidden a lot of his deficiencies.

agreed, if jazz could play ss, he would be playing SS. theres a reason they transitioned him to 2b to begin with. I think he will be really good in CF, i just hope he doesnt become too reckless like Buxton and get hurt often. He has the athleticism to play out there, he just needs to get comfortable and stay healthy.

[fish16]

Ten breakout bats from Eno Sarris/Athletic (I consider Eno an upper tier writer) - https://theathletic.com/4192015/2023...breakout-bats/

TLDR - DLC, J. Sanchez, *and* Fortes. The first two hit the ball really really hard and Fortes has one of the fastest swing speeds in baseball which is suggestive of some real power/contact ability. What's fun is, Jazz and Sanchez are on that swing speed list and the other names are..... Julio, L. Robert, Stanton, Machado, Alvarez, Witt, Alonso...... and then some pedestrian guys like F. Reyes, T. Thompson, Cron, MJ Melendez, and Wisdom.


They couldn't have signed a SS or Nimmo and moved Jazz to SS?

i think sanchez is poised for a breakout. He just had a nightmare year from start to finish last year, and you could argue they put too much pressure on him to carry the offense with jazz from opening day on. He seems to have matured a bit hopefully, and i think he will benefit greatly from the shift. He crushes the ball, but its hard to find a hole on the right side of the infield with 3-4 guys over there.

Fortes i think can become a really solid C. I also think he will play some 1b as well. He will never be a star, but he has decent power and puts the ball in play and doesnt K much. theres a solid floor there at least, with maybe some room to grow into a nice ceiling of mid to upper .700's ops with solid defense. He's a good development.

DLC again, i just wont buy until i see it.

[fish16]

Fangraphs list came out. Eury is 4 as the top pitching prospect in all of baseball, which is nuts when you consider how good our rotation already is. Eder at 62, and then Cappe at 99 and Berry at 106. Cappe is super young but promising and years away. He was really fucking good last year at 19, but he was also just playing in the GCL and low A jupiter, so this year will be big for him. After seeing pictures of him at fan fest, he is absolutely going to move off SS. He's super tall and lanky. He will be a 3b.

Ideally, in a few years, we have Berry at 1b, Arraez at 2b, Watson/Amaya/Groshans at SS, Cappe at 3b, Reynolds in LF, Jazz in CF, and Burdick/Sanchez in RF. These projections never end up right, but if we can develop a few bats it would go a long way towards contending on an annual basis with this really fucking cheap group of SP's we have under team control for years.

[Erick]

Fangraphs list came out. Eury is 4 as the top pitching prospect in all of baseball, which is nuts when you consider how good our rotation already is. Eder at 62, and then Cappe at 99 and Berry at 106. Cappe is super young but promising and years away. He was really fucking good last year at 19, but he was also just playing in the GCL and low A jupiter, so this year will be big for him. After seeing pictures of him at fan fest, he is absolutely going to move off SS. He's super tall and lanky. He will be a 3b.

Ideally, in a few years, we have Berry at 1b, Arraez at 2b, Watson/Amaya/Groshans at SS, Cappe at 3b, Reynolds in LF, Jazz in CF, and Burdick/Sanchez in RF. These projections never end up right, but if we can develop a few bats it would go a long way towards contending on an annual basis with this really fucking cheap group of SP's we have under team control for years.

The Reynolds thing is not going to happen.

[lou]

i think sanchez is poised for a breakout. He just had a nightmare year from start to finish last year, and you could argue they put too much pressure on him to carry the offense with jazz from opening day on. He seems to have matured a bit hopefully, and i think he will benefit greatly from the shift. He crushes the ball, but its hard to find a hole on the right side of the infield with 3-4 guys over there.

Fortes i think can become a really solid C. I also think he will play some 1b as well. He will never be a star, but he has decent power and puts the ball in play and doesnt K much. theres a solid floor there at least, with maybe some room to grow into a nice ceiling of mid to upper .700's ops with solid defense. He's a good development.

DLC again, i just wont buy until i see it.

It'll be a bad day when that happens as that means Cooper and one of Segura/Wendle/Arraez/Berti is also hurt necessitating a real trickle down to debating is Fortes at 1B better than Groshans at 3B, or Amaya at SS, or LeBlanc anywhere in the IF, etc.

Fortes is nonetheless, a good development. Just realized he has under 1 year of service time so they control him 6 full seasons, his age 26-31 seasons. Could be a real win for them if he's going to be a 2+ WAR catcher over 400+ PA which he might be. Career .258 BABIP, a 63rd percentile sprint speed, under 20% whiff rates, and has elite bat speed somehow. Good omens all around here for him to be a solid hitter. Hopefully Banfield goes into this magical late blooming catcher cave the Marlins have hidden somewhere and we don't have to think about catchers for a decade combined with Mack and Hernandez after them.

[fish16]

The Reynolds thing is not going to happen.

They aren’t paying him. They will absolutely trade him at some point unless they increase their reported offer by like 50 million, which seems unlikely given that their payroll is absurdly low. The question is really if we get him or someone else gets him

[lou]

The Reynolds thing is not going to happen.

Probably, but TBH I am struggling with this with all the love being shot at DLC/Sanchez. Maybe they actually have real solutions here, along with Burdick being a lefty killer maybe and Jerar could still work out. The joke could be on us. Hence, why no SS?

[lou]

Fangraphs list came out. Eury is 4 as the top pitching prospect in all of baseball, which is nuts when you consider how good our rotation already is. Eder at 62, and then Cappe at 99 and Berry at 106. Cappe is super young but promising and years away. He was really fucking good last year at 19, but he was also just playing in the GCL and low A jupiter, so this year will be big for him. After seeing pictures of him at fan fest, he is absolutely going to move off SS. He's super tall and lanky. He will be a 3b.

Ideally, in a few years, we have Berry at 1b, Arraez at 2b, Watson/Amaya/Groshans at SS, Cappe at 3b, Reynolds in LF, Jazz in CF, and Burdick/Sanchez in RF. These projections never end up right, but if we can develop a few bats it would go a long way towards contending on an annual basis with this really fucking cheap group of SP's we have under team control for years.

These are nice write ups for Cappe and Berry.

Berry sounds like they should just move him to 1B - He’s actually a fairly rangy third baseman, as his foot speed allows him to cover a lot of ground, but his hands and arm accuracy are both pretty rough and cause him to be error-prone. That doesn't sound like he's a stiff and it's not like he's making tough throws at 1B consistently. Keep him at 3B now, but maybe this is really a 1B solution and not a DH one which would be great. Plus, Segura, Groshans, and eventually Cappe are the 3B solutions more than likely so Berry would just get moved anyways if things go well. That being said, they wanted Casas for a reason so the writing may be on the wall. We can hope they didn't draft a DH at 6 but we'll see.

[fish16]

These are nice write ups for Cappe and Berry.

Berry sounds like they should just move him to 1B - He’s actually a fairly rangy third baseman, as his foot speed allows him to cover a lot of ground, but his hands and arm accuracy are both pretty rough and cause him to be error-prone. That doesn't sound like he's a stiff and it's not like he's making tough throws at 1B consistently. Keep him at 3B now, but maybe this is really a 1B solution and not a DH one which would be great. Plus, Segura, Groshans, and eventually Cappe are the 3B solutions more than likely so Berry would just get moved anyways if things go well. That being said, they wanted Casas for a reason so the writing may be on the wall. We can hope they didn't draft a DH at 6 but we'll see.

Berry sounds like Jorge Cantu before they moved him to first.

[fish16]

Biggest wildcards to me are what Jerar and Berry become in the infield and whether Sanchez and Burdick pan out to form a really good platoon, or maybe more. Lot of ifs there, but thats a lot of power to add to the lineup long term if they do pan out. Helps keep the door open on signing a long term SS as opposed to somehow getting 1 more longterm OF piece in a signing or trade.

[Namaste]

I’m a little surprised Dax didn’t make the Top 112

Also, they have Berry’s ETA as 2027

[Namaste]

Dodgers have 6 guys in the Top 100

[fish16]

I’m a little surprised Dax didn’t make the Top 112

Also, they have Berry’s ETA as 2027

gotta be a typo for Berry. I'm guessing for Dax he is right off that list. Fangraphs is very often against the grain compared to the traditional lists, especially in the backend of the list.

[lou]

Dodgers have 6 guys in the Top 100

Don't bait Lee into telling us which 5 he wants for Sandy