2023 Game Thread

[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.

The Cubs are 4 back of WC and 5.5 of their division. Their run differential is +55 (Reds and Brewers are negative. The Marlins is negative).

The Cubs are buyers.

[lou]

And on cue, Fangraphs posts an article about how unlucky the Cubs are and that the Cubs have easiest SOS in the league ROS - https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-cubs...l-to-good-use/

Buyers. Marlins should have signed Swanson.

[fish16]

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.

Yes, of course, everyone's salary is prorated at this point, so if we take in a guy making $13 million over the course of the season and offload the other guys who are also making 13 million over the course of the season, bruce's bottom line doesnt change. That's what im saying.

[fish16]

The Cubs are 4 back of WC and 5.5 of their division. Their run differential is +55 (Reds and Brewers are negative. The Marlins is negative).

The Cubs are buyers.

their two biggest trade chips are free agents to be at the end of the year that they likely wont re-sign. there are 2 teams ahead of them in the division and 5 ahead of them in the wild card for 3 spots. They were 7 games below .500 11 days ago and played the cardinals, white sox, and nationals. They have the braves and the reds next week. Maybe they will delude themselves into thinking they will jump a bunch of teams and play 6 games better than every other contender the rest of the way, but good luck with that if they choose to do so.

[fish16]

marlins made a push for carlos santana before he went to the Brewers apparently. rosenthal now reporting (last night) that we are turning our attention to Candelario. Cooper is as good as gone.

[fish16]

also, in regards to the cubs and gomes, they have one of the best catcher prospects in baseball backing gomes up and already hitting well at .782 OPS in 70 ab's so far. Even if they dont tear it down, they can still theoretically sell gomes for future assets and turn the catching spot over to Amaya and still try to get a playoff spot.

[rmc523]

Oh and btw was for 8-21 in his short cup of coffee on the big league team.

Why would a team that needs bats bother calling up a bat that is doing well? Makes no sense! Lpl

[Namaste]

Zero chance they trade Stallings after Sandy throws a complete game at The Trop.

[lou]

Zero chance they trade Stallings after Sandy throws a complete game at The Trop.

Pretty much.

This is like how the Astros swear by Maldonado, and basically all of baseball Jeff Mathis for years, despite everything saying they aren't good. The teams love these guys.

[Erick]

Just a thought, would it be stupid to trade prospects for Bednar?

It’s clear we have an innings problem. One way to solve that would be to build the deepest bullpen possible.

Adding another elite reliever would give us the deepest/best bullpen in the game imo.

You’d have your 1 workhorse in Sandy who hopefully is on track to turning it around and then you’re only counting on your other starters to give you 5 innings pretty much.

And if a bullpen arm needs a day off, you’d have several guys capable of closing out a game/throwing high leverage innings.

Edit: I guess the same question applies to Hader. Would probably give up less in this case as he’s another rental.

[fish16]

Just a thought, would it be stupid to trade prospects for Bednar?

It’s clear we have an innings problem. One way to solve that would be to build the deepest bullpen possible.

Adding another elite reliever would give us the deepest/best bullpen in the game imo.

You’d have your 1 workhorse in Sandy who hopefully is on track to turning it around and then you’re only counting on your other starters to give you 5 innings pretty much.

And if a bullpen arm needs a day off, you’d have several guys capable of closing out a game/throwing high leverage innings.

Edit: I guess the same question applies to Hader. Would probably give up less in this case as he’s another rental.

if they didnt have so many other needs in the rotation and especially the lineup, id be all for it. but realistically, they have too many other needs elsewhere. I still see them getting 1 more middle relief righty

[lou]

Just a thought, would it be stupid to trade prospects for Bednar?

It’s clear we have an innings problem. One way to solve that would be to build the deepest bullpen possible.

Adding another elite reliever would give us the deepest/best bullpen in the game imo.

You’d have your 1 workhorse in Sandy who hopefully is on track to turning it around and then you’re only counting on your other starters to give you 5 innings pretty much.

And if a bullpen arm needs a day off, you’d have several guys capable of closing out a game/throwing high leverage innings.

Edit: I guess the same question applies to Hader. Would probably give up less in this case as he’s another rental.

I'm not sure how that works practically.

Sandy, Luzardo, Cabrera, Garrett, Eury every 5.....

Robertson, Chargois, R. Garcia, Puk, Scott, and Okert aren't being sent down I don't think.

Then there is Cueto. He'd be the 12th guy. Are they cutting him loose?

And you have Nardi, Brazoban, Soriano, and others with options. They can pitch these guys 3 times over 4 days if needed and go with Nardi up 5, send down, Brazoban up for 5, send Brazoban down, Soriano up for 5, call Nardi back up and send Soriano down, and repeat this cycle to kick out the call ups/downs every 10 days. If anyone has a huge innings outing for mop up, call up Hoeing as a brief replacement or Reynolds. This effectively would make your 13th rostered pitcher pitching 5+ innings a week which is a lot for 1 bullpen spot. That's starting level innings for the roster spot. So you start eating into innings through an aggressive call up strategy of numerous of your optionable arms. A lot of flights here for these 3-4 guys over 1-2 months, but it is a way to find innings. Then September 1st, you get to keep two of them up with roster expansion. And perhaps, you keep up this same plan with the 3-4 of them and Rogers is the added player if he can rehab. God willingly.

So how does Bednar fit in here? Not sure. He'd be replacing Cueto, or a luxury upgrade for Chargois sort of thing. And Cueto is probably being replaced by a more dedicated SP as is right now?

I think the pen is done absent them trading one of Chargois, Scott, or Okert and a spot opens.

[Nick]

You gotta pitch Cueto until he proves last start was an aberration. I don't know how to explain his year, but if he was just fucking around and is now ready to turn it on and be the guy he was in 2022, then he's not just a useful piece, he's a sorely needed piece. A piece we should be trading for. If he's 2022 Cueto, I see no need to get another starter, and can focus on bats. Problem is, is that one start enough proof? Not quite enough for me.

[fish16]

I'm not sure how that works practically.

Sandy, Luzardo, Cabrera, Garrett, Eury every 5.....

Robertson, Chargois, R. Garcia, Puk, Scott, and Okert aren't being sent down I don't think.

Then there is Cueto. He'd be the 12th guy. Are they cutting him loose?

And you have Nardi, Brazoban, Soriano, and others with options. They can pitch these guys 3 times over 4 days if needed and go with Nardi up 5, send down, Brazoban up for 5, send Brazoban down, Soriano up for 5, call Nardi back up and send Soriano down, and repeat this cycle to kick out the call ups/downs every 10 days. If anyone has a huge innings outing for mop up, call up Hoeing as a brief replacement or Reynolds. This effectively would make your 13th rostered pitcher pitching 5+ innings a week which is a lot for 1 bullpen spot. That's starting level innings for the roster spot. So you start eating into innings through an aggressive call up strategy of numerous of your optionable arms. A lot of flights here for these 3-4 guys over 1-2 months, but it is a way to find innings. Then September 1st, you get to keep two of them up with roster expansion. And perhaps, you keep up this same plan with the 3-4 of them and Rogers is the added player if he can rehab. God willingly.

So how does Bednar fit in here? Not sure. He'd be replacing Cueto, or a luxury upgrade for Chargois sort of thing. And Cueto is probably being replaced by a more dedicated SP as is right now?

I think the pen is done absent them trading one of Chargois, Scott, or Okert and a spot opens.

Robert garcia was sent down literally 10 days ago.

[fish16]

You gotta pitch Cueto until he proves last start was an aberration. I don't know how to explain his year, but if he was just fucking around and is now ready to turn it on and be the guy he was in 2022, then he's not just a useful piece, he's a sorely needed piece. A piece we should be trading for. If he's 2022 Cueto, I see no need to get another starter, and can focus on bats. Problem is, is that one start enough proof? Not quite enough for me.

Agreed. I even think, in the unlikely event the last start was what he actually is and not a lucky aberration, he could be a really valuable multi inning weapon out of the pen if needed. I hope it was for real, but i just think it would be a huge huge surprise if he is all of a sudden just a quality pitcher again. That would be one of the weirdest turns of events in marlins history.