Spring Training thread

[tjfla]

GAME ON!!!!

Volquez gets the start

Looks like they are gonna try to get Yefri Perez up on the ML Roster(Speed) eventually. He is at 2B today

[Namaste]

Dee Gordon not in the starting line up in the first spring training game.

[tjfla]

Big Hurt is already in mid season form

Bases Loaded NO Outs and grounds into a DP

[emkayseven]

Yelich and Bour hit MOONSHOTS

[Blackout Pact]

We're back!

[tjfla]

5th inning and damn do we have a terrible system. Cards running out prospects(announcers bragging about how fast they moved to) while we have our 30 yr old minor league FA with Brian Anderson. If anyone wanted to know why Prado got extension,watch Brian Anderson play 3B(Lucky he can hit some)

[Nick]

I was looking at today's lineup. Austin Nola isn't a catcher is he?

[tjfla]

I was looking at today's lineup. Austin Nola isn't a catcher is he?

No but he is behind Rojas,Riddle,Perez and can't hit so they have been trying to make him a Catcher since the AFL. Some reports were looked decent but kinda hard to make someone a C at 25(Call a game/framing). He will go to AAA and be a backup IF/C likely will be off the 40 man by next year

Telis/Cabrera/Paulino/Nola are the AAA C

[Nick]

I guess it's a good career move for him, but doesn't do anything for him being able to make it to the bigs this year.

[tjfla]

I guess it's a good career move for him, but doesn't do anything for him being able to make it to the bigs this year.

Not really he is already a solid UT guy-could stick around for years as SS/2B(Think John McDonald). His issue is like most of the guys we draft-he has NO bat.

Maybe he can catch but I would rather have a guy like Cabrera/Paulino as a 3rd/4th C or even Telis. Guys who have caught since they were 14/15 yrs old have tons of exp. Can't hate on Nola tho for trying

[fish16]

Granted, our best players have all been in the WBC, but our lack of depth has been on full display in spring training. No team will field a competent spring training lineup when your 2 best all star hitters arent there and your #1 (scary thought that volquez is considered our #1) is also away, but our lineup of non roster invitees and non-prospects are yet again going to likely be a major issue when the inevitable injuries pop up throughout the season. Our lineup has been scary bad, although admittedly it is not at all important.

Also, am I the only one who now considers Yelich to be our best player ahead of Stanton? Stanton is obviously the better player when he is clicking, but to me his ups and downs and injury proneness puts him as our #2 hitter to me. Granted, it really doesnt matter, just wanted to see everyone elses opinion.

As you know im always overly critical of the front office and ownership, but the Yelich long term signing was one of the best moves in baseball the last few years. His deal is incredible. 7 years about 50 million and it still has 6 years left? That is unbelievable value and was a great signing.

If Yelich was a free agent, he gets at least $125 million right? Or am i way too high on Yelich?

Not the best comparison at all admittedly, but reminds me of the Braun/Fielder days in Milwaukee. Fielder was the more explosive power bat, but Braun was the more consistently great player with less pure power but a higher all around hitting ability. I know this has been random.

Edit- Forgot Prado was gone too, so arguably our 3 best hitters are gone, but my overall point was our lack of depth is incredibly apparent and will likely become a major problem throughout the year.

[tjfla]

Granted, our best players have all been in the WBC, but our lack of depth has been on full display in spring training. No team will field a competent spring training lineup when your 2 best all star hitters arent there and your #1 (scary thought that volquez is considered our #1) is also away, but our lineup of non roster invitees and non-prospects are yet again going to likely be a major issue when the inevitable injuries pop up throughout the season. Our lineup has been scary bad, although admittedly it is not at all important.

Also, am I the only one who now considers Yelich to be our best player ahead of Stanton? Stanton is obviously the better player when he is clicking, but to me his ups and downs and injury proneness puts him as our #2 hitter to me. Granted, it really doesnt matter, just wanted to see everyone elses opinion.

As you know im always overly critical of the front office and ownership, but the Yelich long term signing was one of the best moves in baseball the last few years. His deal is incredible. 7 years about 50 million and it still has 6 years left? That is unbelievable value and was a great signing.

If Yelich was a free agent, he gets at least $125 million right? Or am i way too high on Yelich?

Not the best comparison at all admittedly, but reminds me of the Braun/Fielder days in Milwaukee. Fielder was the more explosive power bat, but Braun was the more consistently great player with less pure power but a higher all around hitting ability. I know this has been random.

Edit- Forgot Prado was gone too, so arguably our 3 best hitters are gone, but my overall point was our lack of depth is incredibly apparent and will likely become a major problem throughout the year.

Pretty much which is why when they blow the team up that Yelich and JT(plus few arms) should be only ones left here.

I would put Prado ahead of Stanton IF he has a year like last year. Guy who hits above .310 and can play a solid 3B is pretty hard to find now(Arenado/Donaldson) with most teams either hoping the guy can crush the ball or just play defense

Stanton's issue is that he can't stay healthy. Pretty much has earned "The Big Hurt" nickname and not cause he just crushes the ball. Unable to stay on the field and massive contract kills value

[fish16]

Pretty much which is why when they blow the team up that Yelich and JT(plus few arms) should be only ones left here.

I would put Prado ahead of Stanton IF he has a year like last year. Guy who hits above .310 and can play a solid 3B is pretty hard to find now(Arenado/Donaldson) with most teams either hoping the guy can crush the ball or just play defense

I see what you're saying, I just cant put him over Stanton. But I understand the argument. Prado has grown on me a whole hell of a lot. It annoyed me 2 years ago when he couldnt really get it going until well after we were out of it which made that years numbers a lot more inflated than his actual impact, but watching him in the lineup last year everyday showed just what he brings. His stats will never be incredible, but his veteran influence, as much as i think stuff like that can be overrated, is incredibly important. He is a great consistent presence in the lineup on this team.

Also as an aside, JT Realmuto seems to not get the type of credit he deserves given how he performed last year. He doesnt bring much defensively, but his ability offensively out of the catcher position is very valuable. I might be completely off base because I havent done all that much research into the hitting performance of catchers around the league, but he has to be a top 5 hitting every day catcher.

I really like our lineup and think it has the chance to be really fucking good, I just think it is missing something. All the pieces individually are really nice, but for some reason we havent been able to combine really good hitting with scoring runs. A lot of it is due to Stanton missing time and then Bour going down last year which obviously exposed our lack of depth, but I think this lineup really needed just one more middle of the order impact run producing bat.

- - - - - - - - - -

Just going off your "blowing up the team" comment. I agree with those 2 guys as the main pieces to keep around along with Stanton because he is virtually untradable, but what exactly else is there to "blow up." We have a few guys in the lineup with varying value, specifically Ozuna and Bour, but what else is there really to deal off and start over again if we were to rebuild.

Im not disagreeing with you in any way, just saying that this team has been so poorly managed from a front office and ownership perspective, I dont know if blowing things up after this year would do much good. From a strictly team performance and not salary cutting standpoint, I would be of the opinion that rather than blowing it up and trading away non yelich, stanton, and JT guys, we would be much better off if we continue as is, obviously dealing a few guys, and just overhauling our scouting, drafting, and international investment strategies and seeing the returns from that over time and hoping that those strategical differences would make themselves apparent sooner rather than later to help the current "core" of talent that we have.

A bunch of our guys are solid players, but just might not have tremendous value in a rebuild. Pre-Jose I would have agreed with you. I was clamoring for the exact deal from the Red Sox that the White Sox got for Sale. I was incredibly high on Moncada and thought he was the piece to go after if we traded Jose, but now that he's unfortunately gone, I just dont see a major rebuild being the correct move. We dont really have that one piece that will allow us to get a huge haul to really make a rebuild and complete sell off worth it.

Obviously we have the whole year to see where the direction of the franchise should go, but I think it would be wiser to keep building around JT, Yelich, Stanton, Gordon, Prado for a couple more years, and maybe seeing if we can get a front line starter for guys like Dietrich, Ozuna, Ramos, Bour or through free agency. Then with incoming better ownership (eventually), thoughtful free agent additions, and a less cheap draft and international spending strategy, hopefully we can add to those guys just by virtue of not being as cheap in those avenues.

Not sure if I worded that well enough to articulate my thoughts on a possible blow up vs staying the course, but hopefully I did.

[Namaste]

So I think I just read people sort of complaining about our Spring Training results.

I mean, I myself don't think we'll win 80 games this year but who gives a shit about wins and losses in Spring Training?

[Nick]

What do we think about Dillon Peters? Seems to have had a really good season last year between Jupiter and Jacksonville and having a good spring training so far. Chance he makes the rotation, what about the bullpen?

Urena has been terrible so far this spring. It'll be interesting to see what they do with him.