2022-2023 Offseason Thread

[Nick]

I wonder what they would've done if they had the pitch clock and still allowed shifting. Would it have stopped a 3rd Baseman from being able to run out to short RF and back? I would think so.

[lou]

In regards to puk, I think a lot of innings is the plan. Probably closer to 80 than 90 as that might be pushing it with his injury history, but skip seemed to indicate he will be an Andrew Miller multi inning weapon potentially out of the pen. I think that deal is going to be a steal for us. He was building up to be a starter for this year supposedly, so i think he’s going to pitch a lot. Skip has really
impressed me this spring as far as his comments about how he will manage, especially the bullpen. He has said our best pitchers will pitch against their best hitters, whether that’s the 8th or 9th. That’s the way to go. Outs aren’t more valuable in the 9th than the 8th if their best hitters are up in the 8th.

it’s little small things like This that should be self explanatory that drove me completely nuts with Mattingly. Skip should be a much better in game manager. Mattingly was a great clubhouse guy for a rebuilding team as a manager, but for a team trying to win, he’s an ideal bench coach, not a manager. He’s in the perfect role now for Toronto

Yes it's all about usage. I hope he gets it. The Cardinals (and before that Padres) run a tight ship over there with their relievers so we can hope.


Rangers GM has said they wouldn't be surprised if Brock Burke gets 100 IP out of the bullpen. That may be high, but that hasn't happened for "a reliever" in awhile I think. I am real confident this is the future for these max-effort guys and to let them start throwing 2 innings in their appearances. You'd be surprised, but Andrew Miller maxed out at 74 innings (in 70 appearances) in his highest usage year. I think that's not the move we're going to see. 40-50x appearances by 2x innings for guys like Puk. The Barnes, Floro, Enright, Scott, and Okert crew can be single inning relievers as that is what they have always been, but Puk needs to be treated differently IMO. It makes sense. Shave 20 appearances off these guys moved from the rotation for more off days and let them loose every 3-4 games for 2 innings. And the better ones (Garrett) become quasi 5th starter/bulk relievers for 4+ innings and don't let them go a 3rd time through the lineup. This is where we say - Cabrera, Garrett, Puk, Meyer, Eder, Fulton, and Sixto could all be 90 or 125 IP guys and the team is well positioned to have an assortment of these guys considering Sandy/Eury/Luzardo/Rogers is probably pretty locked in right now as the longterm rotation. A new world order is coming with this. Brock Burke is going to be awesome this year and the imitators will follow. Optimistically, Puk is the other example across baseball everyone points to as he has that ability IMO. What was Oakland thinking?

[Namaste]

The 15 second pitch clock should go to 18-20 and then start the ghost runner in the 13th inning and I’m good with all the changes

[lou]

Lux out for the season. Brutal, but good for Rojas.

[rmc523]

Sure but this doesn't change the fan experience which was the comment. It's going to have no difference IMO with someone like Soler getting 8 more singles. The pitch clock/speed of game is going to be huge. Shaving 30 minutes off games maybe is going to make everyone happier with consistent game time action. Big improvement.

Lower the mound if we want more "hitting" than "hacking" I say.

Sure it could. I'd rather watch a single through the 1st/2nd baseman into right than an out to the 3rd baseman playing in right field. Not to mention the potential of a runner scoring from 2nd in that scenario vs. just an out.

[lou]

Sure it could. I'd rather watch a single through the 1st/2nd baseman into right than an out to the 3rd baseman playing in right field. Not to mention the potential of a runner scoring from 2nd in that scenario vs. just an out.

We are also masochist baseball fans versus the larger population of day to day fans this organization needs. It might help a little for entertainment purposes, but it's not going to help when the 6th guy out of the bullpen is pumping 98 with knee breaking sliders which everyone has these days. The true change from the HR or bust mentality is when the pitchers are put into a tougher position (i.e. the lower mound) so batters might stand a chance. They've arguably become too good so I buy the philosophy of, you probably can't hit these guys anyways so just try and hit it 500 feet and who cares if you whiff 30% of the time. It's rational.

It's just the mound IMO. They are working on this also but this is a harder change to implement. I saw another article at one point if they move it back 1 foot its effectively 1.5 MPH less to the batter's eye. Lowering the mound 1-2 inches also impacts this. Considering everyone has gas these days, I think that would be a radical change and with no shifts/larger bases might be conducive to not just trying to hack everything - https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/m...-rule-changes/

[fish16]

News from Jackson and Mish's latest work in the herald.

We have a rash of minor bullpen injuries early. Puk has a minor leg thing. Should be back soon. Brazoban's visa issue fixed and will be there tomorrow. Nance is dealing with a shoulder injury. They are still interested in guerriel potentially on an invite to spring training deal. they are looking at a whole group of potential backup 1b options including of course Arraez, Fortes, Leblanc who is dealing with his own minor issue, and Groshans. and Tanner scott is dealing with a minor biceps injury but is throwing a bullpen tonight along with Puk.

They say the following 5 rare locks for the bullpen: Floro, Puk, Barnes, Chargois, Scott and Okert. That leaves a few more spots, likely for Garrett and then one other guy. Have to think Brazoban's visa issue makes him highly unlikely to make the team out of spring even though they like him for some reason.

and glenn geffner called bullshit on whatever excuse the marlins gave for letting him go and said it was obviously because of money.

[fish16]

We signed richard rodriguez to a minor league deal. Really solid career numbers in the bigs, but didnt pitch in the majors last year. He had a really nice run of 4 straight really solid play from 2018-2021 with the pirates and Braves though. So much so that the braves actually sent 2 prospects to the Pirates for him at the deadline in 2021. Saved 14/17 games for the pirates in 2021 before being traded. really nice signing if he hasnt lost his stuff. That could be a name to look out for to steal a spot on the roster to start the year.

Edit- just saw the reason he didnt pitch in the bigs last year was because he got suspended for roids for 80 games. That makes more sense. His numbers were too good for 4 straight years not to at least get an opportunity somewhere. If it wasnt all the roids causing his success, that's a guy i think will make the roster opening day.

[fish16]

Fulton is pitching 2nd today. Still no word on starter, but it's either rogers or cabrera going based off who has pitched so far and sandy pitching tomorrow. Chargois also making his spring debut.

Edit- It's rogers

[sports24/7]

I happened across this concept for an M hat. Based on the old unis. And it pisses me off that they didn't just make this minor change. Especially since you can easily rearrange the old MARLINS font to make it say Miami.

Yep. Hopefully eventually they'll go back to something similar to the old uniforms. I don't know if I saw it in here or on twitter, but there was some speculation that this year they'd change the blue in their current uniforms to the previous teal color, and just that made them look so much better.

[rmc523]

Yep. Hopefully eventually they'll go back to something similar to the old uniforms. I don't know if I saw it in here or on twitter, but there was some speculation that this year they'd change the blue in their current uniforms to the previous teal color, and just that made them look so much better.

I think that may have been based on the spying of some pinstripe uniforms in a trailer.....those turned out to be the throwbacks.

I happen to like the current blue, but I don't think it's used enough. No reason for us to not have a blue alt instead of the black.

[fish16]

Opening day lineup minus stallings/fortes and dlc/Sanchez for us tonight at 6 on mlb network.

Alfaro in the Sox lineup

[fish16]

Rogers velocity is really good. Touching 96 from what I’ve seen. Looks to be throwing with more confidence super early here. Last year he clearly looked unsure and lost confidence towards the middle of the year when he couldn’t figure it out. This is a big year for him

[fish16]

Garcia looks noticeably skinnier this year

[fish16]

Great first outing for rogers. Looked confident, velocity up, pounding the strike zone, 4 k’s, no walks, 2 hits and 1 was a blooper down the right field line that stayed fair by an inch. It’s spring and just the first start, but that looked a lot closer to 2021 than 2022 for him