2023 Game Thread

[Nick]

Cardinals are talking about Arenado, I'd have to think that'd mean Goldschmidt is available too.

What would it take to get Goldschmidt, Knizner and Flaherty?

Eder, Cappe, Monteverde, Amaya, Jacob Miller?

See if you can somehow deal Cooper for a reliever.

Call up Edwards

1. Arraez 1B/DH
2. Edwards 2B
3. Goldschmidt 1B/DH
4. Soler RF
5. Sanchez/DLC LF (have we heard anything on Sanchez Injury?)
6. Myers CF (Jazz when he comes back replaces him)
7. Berti/Wendle SS
8. Segura 3B
9. Knizner/Fortes C

[lou]

Some analytics guys agree with Lee that this is a fleece by the Mets, love Vargas - https://twitter.com/TomTrudeau/statu...23485406040064

Multiple posts there, but you can find them all from that. Just contributing to the conversation here.

[Nick]

Some analytics guys agree with Lee that this is a fleece by the Mets, love Vargas - https://twitter.com/TomTrudeau/statu...23485406040064

Multiple posts there, but you can find them all from that. Just contributing to the conversation here.

We'll see, obviously I haven't watched Vargas don't know a ton about him, but at this point I'd have to say he's in the same category as Cappe and Salas were at this stage of their careers, and 2 years later we're seeing the struggles. Plenty of time for those guys to bounce back, but it's just so hard to tell about an 18 year old in rookie ball. I would say especially when it comes to hitting.

[sports24/7]

Some analytics guys agree with Lee that this is a fleece by the Mets, love Vargas - https://twitter.com/TomTrudeau/statu...23485406040064

Multiple posts there, but you can find them all from that. Just contributing to the conversation here.

Time will tell, but these are two guys, who if they end up being good, it won’t be for years. We talk about not hoarding prospects, and this is a win-now move. As long as they continue to fill their holes before the deadline, it’s hard to be mad about giving up these guys for arguably the best reliever on the market.

[lou]

Cardinals are talking about Arenado, I'd have to think that'd mean Goldschmidt is available too.

What would it take to get Goldschmidt, Knizner and Flaherty?

Eder, Cappe, Monteverde, Amaya, Jacob Miller?

See if you can somehow deal Cooper for a reliever.

Call up Edwards

1. Arraez 1B/DH
2. Edwards 2B
3. Goldschmidt 1B/DH
4. Soler RF
5. Sanchez/DLC LF (have we heard anything on Sanchez Injury?)
6. Myers CF (Jazz when he comes back replaces him)
7. Berti/Wendle SS
8. Segura 3B
9. Knizner/Fortes C

That's probably $40-42m (depending on Knizner arbitrations in payroll) in payroll, and quite frankly the surplus value isn't extremely high with that amount of coin.

I think Eder, Fulton/Monteverde, Miller, Fitterer, and some other FV40 arm gets that done. All pitchers, they have infielders even if they ditch Arenado and Goldschmidt. They can easily play Donovan - Winn - Edman - Gorman as their longterm infield with Walker maybe also a 1B option kicking Donovan to the super-sub roll as Walker really sucks defensively in the OF. Nootbar and Carlson are a very good OF base for them on top of that, etc., for them to sign an OF somewhere else. They'd have a TON of money moving Arenado and Goldschmidt.

Not a lot of control years with the guys you mentioned so there cannot be sky high expectations unless the "everyone is contending" vortex kicks in and someone does something bananas for Goldschmidt. If that's the case, I'd say Cappe as a kicker and taking DeJong back on top levels that out. Something like that.

[lou]

We'll see, obviously I haven't watched Vargas don't know a ton about him, but at this point I'd have to say he's in the same category as Cappe and Salas were at this stage of their careers, and 2 years later we're seeing the struggles. Plenty of time for those guys to bounce back, but it's just so hard to tell about an 18 year old in rookie ball. I would say especially when it comes to hitting.

For sure, and also, just sign some free agents, and don't whiff on literally all of them you do sign (Segura, Garcia, Cueto), and absent Vargas becoming a star, not having a low end starter/platoon guy isn't something any legitimate franchise should care about. Those guys can be replaced with signings like Segura every year and more often then not, you won't be signing a -1 WAR player as that is just outrageous luck.

[fish16]

on a totally and completely unrelated note relative to the current conversation of paying too much for immediate major league improvements, Jose Salas is hitting .181 with a .533 OPS in A+ ball for the twins. Luis Arraez is hitting .376 with an .897 on a major league team.

[fish16]

Cardinals are talking about Arenado, I'd have to think that'd mean Goldschmidt is available too.

What would it take to get Goldschmidt, Knizner and Flaherty?

Eder, Cappe, Monteverde, Amaya, Jacob Miller?

See if you can somehow deal Cooper for a reliever.

Call up Edwards

1. Arraez 1B/DH
2. Edwards 2B
3. Goldschmidt 1B/DH
4. Soler RF
5. Sanchez/DLC LF (have we heard anything on Sanchez Injury?)
6. Myers CF (Jazz when he comes back replaces him)
7. Berti/Wendle SS
8. Segura 3B
9. Knizner/Fortes C

if he's available, you go for it, but realistically from what's been reported, Arenado isnt really available, and if he is, he is going to teams with better high end farm systems.
\
We absolutely have the guys to go get improvements, but not for guys like that.

[Namaste]

I would have much preferred to trade Cappe,

FV 50 who is also our top SS prospect? You sure about that?

[fish16]

the cubs continuing to theoretically hang around is annoying, but i continue to say yan gomes is the perfect addition at catcher. He's hitting .274, .751 OPS, 8 homers from the catcher spot, doesnt walk, but also is striking out a lot less than his career numbers at just 18.9% this year. As a catcher free agent to be, i cant imagine it's any kind of crazy price. That's such an improvement over Stallings and Fortes, and the defense isnt what it once was (at least so far this year), but he has been exactly average so far this year defensively. He has a 101 WRC+ from the catcher position (WRC+ doesnt take into consideration defense). For reference, Stallings WRC+ is 59 and Fortes is 52. You can give them stallings so they have a catcher for the rest of the year and a decent prospect and you have made a huge improvement to the bottom of the lineup. I pray they dont do the stupid thing and hold onto the same catchers for the sake of pitcher catcher continuity. They desperately need an upgrade at C.

[lou]

the cubs continuing to theoretically hang around is annoying, but i continue to say yan gomes is the perfect addition at catcher. He's hitting .274, .751 OPS, 8 homers from the catcher spot, doesnt walk, but also is striking out a lot less than his career numbers at just 18.9% this year. As a catcher free agent to be, i cant imagine it's any kind of crazy price. That's such an improvement over Stallings and Fortes, and the defense isnt what it once was (at least so far this year), but he has been exactly average so far this year defensively. He has a 101 WRC+ from the catcher position (WRC+ doesnt take into consideration defense). For reference, Stallings WRC+ is 59 and Fortes is 52. You can give them stallings so they have a catcher for the rest of the year and a decent prospect and you have made a huge improvement to the bottom of the lineup. I pray they dont do the stupid thing and hold onto the same catchers for the sake of pitcher catcher continuity. They desperately need an upgrade at C.

Fortes is one of the best pitcher framers in baseball, but the control of the bases is severely lacking. This is quite valuable until robo umps show up. But he certainly can be upgraded, but hes not a defensive liability with all he brings. I think if they got a catcher they'd option Fortes and roll with new guy and Stallings. Not saying its a good idea, just saying that would be my expectation.

[Namaste]

They’re not gonna trade Stallings

[fish16]

They’re not gonna trade Stallings

i unfortunately think they will continue with the same catching duo for some reason, but if they do acquire one, i think they will try to offload Stallings couple million in another deal. I think they will add payroll and subtract payroll. I think Cooper will be gone, and i can see Wendle and Stallings going as well. That's 13 million they can offload while taking on other money. If stallings is your defensive backup, it's also not the end of the world. I just cant see him and fortes in the lineup everyday though.

[fish16]

Gomes has thrown out 22% of runners this year for what it's worth. was close to 40% as well last year, though im seeing different numbers between statcast and the basic stats on ESPN so im not sure why there is a discrepancy there. For reference, Stallings this year is at 14% as is Fortes.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leade...Direction=desc

A lot of it can be attributed to the pitchers we have as well, but statcast has an "expected" caught stealing stat as well. Gomes is exactly as he should be at 0% and Fortes and Stallings are each at -1%.

[lou]

i unfortunately think they will continue with the same catching duo for some reason, but if they do acquire one, i think they will try to offload Stallings couple million in another deal. I think they will add payroll and subtract payroll. I think Cooper will be gone, and i can see Wendle and Stallings going as well. That's 13 million they can offload while taking on other money. If stallings is your defensive backup, it's also not the end of the world. I just cant see him and fortes in the lineup everyday though.

Cooper, Wendle, and Stallings off load maybe $4.5-5m ROS. Their preseason salary has been paid for months so they'd have to take money back and not sure that's happening. It's also offset by paying new guys the minimum. That being said, I would gladly offload Cooper and Stallings for literally nothing, and Wendle to recoup a FV40 prospect (someone would take him quickly), and have that $5m be apportioned to improvements as those guys aren't moving a needle.