2023-2024 Offseason Thread

[Namaste]

Xavier Edwards walking with a boot in the clubhouse

[lou]

Xavier Edwards walking with a boot in the clubhouse

Garcia Tonya Harding scenario maybe? Maybe they can get Sixto one of those boots?


They also signed Michael Givens to a MILB deal. He used to be awesome so a fine flyer if he is healthy now. They have an absolute ton of fringe relievers at this point

[Nick]

Edward Cabrera scratched from his start today.

[Nick]

Ryan Weathers continues to dominate.

[lou]

Ryan Weathers continues to dominate.

He should frankly open as the # 5 SP with what he’s doing. He has the third most innings capacity in the organization and is maybe 2nd if Garrett is going to miss a month. Let him rip and try and get 150+ out of him. They need the innings. Let Rogers come in after Eury and make Cabrera/Puk the combo 5. They’d all hit their season max of innings easily. Slot them like this to split up the right handers a little, and give Rogers and Puk their own day with Soriano helping more if Garret and Cabrera miss a few weeks. Eventually, Max can help too and would be a perfect bulk reliever with them always throwing a lefty with this set up.

Luzardo
Eury + Rogers
Garrett
Cabrera + Puk
Chargois opener to Weathers

Cabrera sounds precautionary also but we’ll see. Really great development to see Weathers and Puk throwing well.

[Namaste]

Looks like Cabrera is joining Brax with shoulder soreness.

[Namaste]

Tanner Scott has 7 walks in 1.2 innings.

[fish16]

we might run out of guys in the rotation for opening day anyways so it wont be a tough call, but weathers has earned a rotation spot

[rmc523]

we might run out of guys in the rotation for opening day anyways so it wont be a tough call, but weathers has earned a rotation spot

But we don’t need more pitching!

[fish16]

But we don’t need more pitching!

we still have more quality starting pitching depth at this point than most teams in the league. Even without Garrett, Sandy, and possibly cabrera, we could still trot out Eury, Luzardo, Weathers, Rogers, and Meyer. We wont need another arm until the deadline as long as neither Cabrera or Garrett are a long term injury.

[Nick]

we still have more quality starting pitching depth at this point than most teams in the league. Even without Garrett, Sandy, and possibly cabrera, we could still trot out Eury, Luzardo, Weathers, Rogers, and Meyer. We wont need another arm until the deadline as long as neither Cabrera or Garrett are a long term injury.

Bryan Hoeing will pitch 30+ innings in the majors in April and May. I'm calling it now.

[lou]

But we don’t need more pitching!

The Orioles scaled Grayson Rodriguez up 90+ innings last year. He was 23 and is a big guy (6'5). He also was very good so they were as low stress innings as possible. This would be the counterpoint to the more modest tick them up slower 20-30 IP a year.

If we're looking for another 100-150 innings, the best route is just letting the older guys - Cabrera(160+), Rogers(160+), Weathers(150+), and Puk (130+) - loose. They are all 25+, Cabrera/Rogers/Puk are huge human beings (i.e. can handle the wear and tear more than Max), and Weathers threw a ton of innings so he's built up already to handle that. Eury you protect a bit more as he is younger and hasn't been in pro conditioning too long, and Luzardo/Garrett will just do their thing when healthy.

But if the organization wants to make the argument they don't need another arm, it's that above and letting those four rip and just trusting they have been in major college/pro conditioning programs for 8-10 years each so don't worry about it. Don't scale them higher than that, but maybe that isn't unreasonable.

They jumped Garret 35 IP, Eury 50 IP(but he started really low), and Luzardo 67 IP last year. They were all cruising doing great, so it was relatively low stress for them to add those many innings. I do think if they weren't in playoff contention Eury and Luzardo would have been shut down 3-4 starts (15-20 IP) earlier easy FWIW.

For the above 4, those would be jumping innings roughly 25 for Weathers (but also moving to MLB level as he threw over 80 in AAA so that's a big jump for him), 35 for Cabrera (higher end of reasonable with his arm troubles), 70 for Puk (higher end for a SP conversion), and fuck ton for Rogers because he was hurt. If they do that, they could be in business like this:

180 - Luzardo
160 - Weathers
150 - Garrett and Cabrera (because hurt to open, scale up 10+ innings if they don't miss first 2-3 starts)
140 - Eury and Rogers (tempering Rogers expectations from above here)
130 - Puk
90 - Soriano
70 - Scott
60 - Nardi, Chargois, Bender
50 - Sixto
=1440 Innings

That's a full season, not accounting for some injury replacement innings for Garrett/Cabrera to open maybe, and getting some guys on double header appearances, etc. Plus Soriano probably gets optioned 2-3 times for an assortment of optionable one off arms.


Effectively, they have to let Weathers throw and push Cabrera, Rogers, and especially Puk a little harder than they probably want. But that could work, and then Max is major injury replacement innings coming, maybe Sixto has a lot more ability than that as I'm really slow rolling him there and even 30 more garbage innings from him would be huge, and getting something from a Guitterez/ Yonny/Faucher/whoever builds in a very respectable depth situation behind this.

I'd sign Lorenzen/Clevinger and eliminate doubt here as I think we may see the under on innings from literally the top 8 names there, but if we're finding 1440 innings, there is that path above I guess? Reasonable of the organization?

[lou]

Bryan Hoeing will pitch 30+ innings in the majors in April and May. I'm calling it now.

I agree, but I'd raise it to 40+ innings and make that a Hoeing, Brazoban, Munoz, Faucher, Cronin, and McCaughan 6 headed optionable monster and they option them down after every 2nd appearance for the next guy so they always have some availability from that spot.

[fish16]

I agree, but I'd raise it to 40+ innings and make that a Hoeing, Brazoban, Munoz, Faucher, Cronin, and McCaughan 6 headed optionable monster and they option them down after every 2nd appearance for the next guy so they always have some availability from that spot.

it's a monster alright, but not in a good way. Also, Brazoban is not going to be with the team anywhere near opening day. He still hasnt gotten his visa situation taken care of, and the beat writers reporter that Givens was Givens his locker.

[lou]

it's a monster alright, but not in a good way. Also, Brazoban is not going to be with the team anywhere near opening day. He still hasnt gotten his visa situation taken care of, and the beat writers reporter that Givens was Givens his locker.

I mean the first part is why they need another arm. But ultimately, this will mostly be garbage innings but they'll need to count on those guys (+ Sixto), for 4+ important/game competitive innings per week at a minimum. They could do this to open pretty easily and cycle them every 2+ appearances just to have maximum inventory of innings.

P12 - Hoeing (McCaughan, Faucher)
P13 - Munoz (Cronin, Simpson, Maldonado)

Hoeing, Munoz, and Cronin are all top 8 in innings so far to mention (so is Smeltzer and Yonny, but Smeltzer seems like an injury replacement for that Cabrera one). I have a hard time seeing Yonny making the team as-is without options but we'll see. I do think they can live with a few weeks of mostly Hoeing/Munoz/Cronin/Someone throwing mostly garbage time but Garrett and Cabrera need to be back ASAP of course and Weathers/Puk/Rogers/Soriano are going to have to look competent as the 3-4-5 SP + main longman/bridge reliever to help those three.


And that's weird with Brazoban. Wonder what is going on there.