April 2021 game thread

[Nick]

Jake Eder fantastic once again in AA, btw.

[rmc523]

3 year/$45 million is what I’d give Marte. Anything more. I don’t think it’s worth it. I think Kris Bryant is a more realistic option than Correa. Whether the DH is in the NL next year is a huge deal.

I'm with you there on the price there.

[sports24/7]

Yes. It's selling everything (and eating salary if necessary) for a young catcher that can play right now and platoon with Alfaro. That should be the goal for Marte (who I don't think they should resign. Too old and he won't take a 2 year deal). I'd trade him, Rojas (most value with the contract next year), Aguilar, Dickerson, Detweiler, Blier, and Yimi. That's the minimum. Everything else should ideally be not something to put on the 40 man for a year.

Then, go all out for Correa in the offseason. I'm a firm believer in him, and kick Jazz permanently to 2B. Keep Cooper and give Lewin a year at 1B, Anderson obviously fine, get the catcher to match with Alfaro with the trade assets. Keep Duvall as one primary outfielder for now, Sanchez gets first crack at another, and then maybe sign someone like Chris Taylor for another slot. He's perfect to me to dabble in the IF. I don't want to devote major money to OF with Bleday coming and someone has to fucking work out from all they have (right?). Hence, why you spend big on Correa because they need a longterm middle infielder to match with Jazz because Isan is not the answer. Nothing ground breaking here.

Alfaro, Major catcher prospect acquired for Marte
Diaz, Cooper
Jazz, Diaz/Devers/Brigham
Correa, Berti
Anderson
Sanchez
Chris Taylor, Brinson/Harrison
Duvall

Pitching is so fucking stacked keep everyone and if the bats all still suck, reassess trade deadline July 2022.

This is my mid season contribution - blow it out and play the kids. Don't over work any arms and shut them down in Sep. if needed. Spend fucking money. Get Correa.

Nice to hear from you. If they're going to spend on Correa, or really any high quality bat, I can get on board with letting Marte go. If you can get a quality young catcher, as well, that's the ideal scenario. My concern is that they're not really going to spend money again, and the lineup will be roughly the same, minus the only good bat on the roster, currently. I also think the fact that he wants to be here matters. This is a team that will probably have to overpay for anyone they get in FA because of the stature of the ball club. If Marte truly wants to be here, you could potentially get him at a fair price. I'm with Nick at 3 years $45M being where I'd go to. You don't love giving him the 3rd year, but that's the price of doing business, and $15M for a guy that should at least be serviceable at 35, shouldn't be some kind of brutal hit. You'd hope that someone from this OF group will pan out, but would it shock anyone if this team, as it stands, doesn't have a young player that will be anything more than above average at the plate? The good news, like you say, is that they're loaded with arms, so if that is the case, they'll have more chances to go out and trade for bats, but their struggles in developing hitters is mildly worrisome to this point. Luckily Jazz gives us some reasonable optimism, and Sanchez as well to a lesser extent. Hopefully one or two of the younger guys break through.

[rmc523]

Nice to hear from you. If they're going to spend on Correa, or really any high quality bat, I can get on board with letting Marte go. If you can get a quality young catcher, as well, that's the ideal scenario. My concern is that they're not really going to spend money again, and the lineup will be roughly the same, minus the only good bat on the roster, currently. I also think the fact that he wants to be here matters. This is a team that will probably have to overpay for anyone they get in FA because of the stature of the ball club. If Marte truly wants to be here, you could potentially get him at a fair price. I'm with Nick at 3 years $45M being where I'd go to. You don't love giving him the 3rd year, but that's the price of doing business, and $15M for a guy that should at least be serviceable at 35, shouldn't be some kind of brutal hit. You'd hope that someone from this OF group will pan out, but would it shock anyone if this team, as it stands, doesn't have a young player that will be anything more than above average at the plate? The good news, like you say, is that they're loaded with arms, so if that is the case, they'll have more chances to go out and trade for bats, but their struggles in developing hitters is mildly worrisome to this point. Luckily Jazz gives us some reasonable optimism, and Sanchez as well to a lesser extent. Hopefully one or two of the younger guys break through.

Also, they could've spent LESS than it'd take to sign Correa to have brought back JT, solving the catcher problem. Obviously there are other factors there given the team history with him, but if they didn't even attempt to sign Realmuto, I have no confidence they'll even consider Correa.

[Nick]

Bye Bye Berti!!

[fish16]

it really is remarkable how many guys we have over .750 OPS, how good our rotation is, how good the numbers in our bullpen have been (albeit not when it counts), how good the run differential is, and how bad the record is. It's really a mystery and something has to break soon, whether its the run differential or they go on a run and get closer to their Pythagorean record at some point over a more representative sample.

we have the 12th best run differential in the league and the 7th worst record. what a nuts season so far.

[fish16]

plus i would find it almost impossible if another team any time in recent memory had 3 starters be this good, stay healthy all year so far, and not finish above .500 at the very least.

[fish16]

thompson has been pretty damn impressive for us in his coupkle of starts. not a long term piece but he has been legit good and not castano type good where it seems inevitable that the league figures him out.

[Nick]

thompson has been pretty damn impressive for us in his coupkle of starts. not a long term piece but he has been legit good and not castano type good where it seems inevitable that the league figures him out.

I was dead wrong about him, I didn't even recognize his name when he was called up. I still don't quite know what to make of him, but maybe he can stick in the bullpen for us for some years.

I'm looking at his minor league stats again, trying to see if there was any clue that this was coming, but 6 ERA at AAA, hadn't made a start in the minors since 2017. He had pretty good numbers in AA as a reliever between 2018 and 2019, but it's another case where you gotta give the organization credit. They've turned both Poteet and Thompson from organizational filler into something with value.

[fish16]

I was dead wrong about him, I didn't even recognize his name when he was called up. I still don't quite know what to make of him, but maybe he can stick in the bullpen for us for some years.

I'm looking at his minor league stats again, trying to see if there was any clue that this was coming, but 6 ERA at AAA, hadn't made a start in the minors since 2017. He had pretty good numbers in AA as a reliever between 2018 and 2019, but it's another case where you gotta give the organization credit. They've turned both Poteet and Thompson from organizational filler into something with value.

same. i know pretty much everyone in the organization or at least know the names and when I saw we called him up to start I legitimately have never heard of him.

[fish16]

our pythagorean record is 40-35. its not a perfect stat but to be 8 full games behind our expected win/loss this early in the year is pretty crazy.

[fish16]

random but jazz reminds me of a clone of ozzie albies. I think that's his best comp and his stat line as he progresses should be similar. 20/20 guy with mid .800's OPS

[Nick]

Damn that hurts. That was a missile.

[Nick]

Well, I’m scared.

[Nick]

We won a close game.