2023 Game Thread

[lou]

Yes, we all loved him when he was drafted. He was drafted over 2 years ago. Since then he hasnt been very good when he has played and has been a nightmare off the field last year. He mimicked shooting an ump with his bat after a bad call for fucks sake and was sent back to the rookie league. Who was their top 100 preseason guy? I didnt see Cappe in a top 100 list. I liked him but i never valued him like that. And he's been bad this year. I still like Watson's potential, but he isnt close to a slam dunk. I dont have any untouchables aside from Eury. Anyone else can go in the right deal for all i care. They have a window to win, and this same core is still under team control for next year, so it's not like this will completely blow up and everyone is gone next year. In theory, they should be even better next year.

And Candelario won't cost a top 100 guy. That's what i've said. He will cost a guy around the #10 range in the system and then a guy around #20 in our system. He's a rental. If he had even 1 more year of control he would cost a lot more than that. But he's a 60 game rental.

Id love to extend candelario on a modest 2-3 year deal, but i doubt he signs an extension before testing free agency.

I don't disagree with you anyone can go in the right deal, but this description is effectively everything you've said about Berry for a year and the next post is literally saying Berry is coming around and let's not sell low. This same analysis applies to Cappe and Watson. These are kids, it may take some time but they can all click in an instant.

[lou]

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2023-mar...a-great-trade/

TLDR
Mets - A-
Marlins - B, maybe B+

They like Candelario, DeJong, and Pham as potential more rentals for Marlins

[sports24/7]

I like that they’re going for it, and buying, but it would be really nice to see them add guys with control instead of just rentals, or maybe even better, re-sign the expiring guys they might add. It’ll be a tough pill to swallow if they sell the farm for rentals, miss out on the playoffs, and then end up in a worse spot overall moving forward.

[Todd]

I'd be fine moving on from Khalil Watson. Kid has the tools but has been nothing but a headache from day 1. But he is still young enough to have a decent amount of value.

[fish16]

Has anyone heard whether sanchez is ok? That didnt look good the other day. I was going to ask what the fuck are they going to do with Garcia other than gaslight us into thinking he is going to be good again all of a sudden, but they might just luck out and get to bring him up and put sanchez on the IL.

[Erick]

I feel like some people are upset at what we gave the Mets for Robertson.

At the same time, also upset that Robertson is a rental.

You can’t have it both ways. Non-rentals are going to cost more in terms of prospects so the backlash should be entertaining if it just so happens we get non-rentals.

I’m cool with doing everything possible to make the playoffs this year and making a run.

[fish16]

jazz is taking BP right now. Cant be much longer before he's back. Probably sometime next week if theres no setbacks.

[lou]

My marlins top 11 right now would be

1. New Meyer
2. Old Meyer
3. Eder
4. Edwards
5. Fulton
6. White
7. Watson
8. Alderman
9. Berry
10. VM Jr.
11. Cappe

Edit- and then a whole mess of guys in the 12-20 range including Banfield, Nasim Nunez, Monteverde, the giant 6'8 1b they just drafted, Amaya, Miller, Myers if he counts, Johnston and others

Myers counts. He is a rookie.


I'd venture to say this is a personal top 25 or so doing it quickly. There is that first cliff after guy 3, and another after guy 9. It becomes real skeptical with flyers after that.

------FV50/FV45+
Eder
M. Meyer
N. Meyer

------FV45
Berry (1st round pedigree still holds for me)
White (they paid him A LOT of money. There is major conviction here)
X. Edwards (performance jumps the preseason darling, 1st rounder, and injured 2nd rounder)
Cappe
Watson
Fulton
(Vargas would have been here)

------FV40+ --- > Higher probability backups and any kind of remote catcher projection
Amaya
D. Myers
Monteverde
Mack
Alderman (if a catcher, knock down if not)

------Preferred FV40s, as there another 10-15 guys that could slot around here. This is the cliff of guys 15-40 in the farm or so.
Mesa Jr. (Defensive backup potentials)
Nasim
Ja. Miller (Some upside)
(R. Hernandez would have been here)
Reynolds (High probability relievers)
Maldonado
Hoeing
Johnston (he's hitting!)
Vradenburg (the giant 1B)
Banfield (he's slugging!)
Groshans (BB/K is still good)
Sixto (because this far down, you just hope the highest upside guy is healthy eventually)



MLB sort of likes I. Lewis, Millbrandt, some of the 18 year olds (Gerardo, Peguero), more reliever types (Simpson, Soriano, Fitterer), and good old McIntosh. Fangraphs likes some other 18 year olds (Sanoja, Janero Miller) and other reliever types (Pushard, F. Sanchez) to mention the next dozen or so guys from an aggregation.

It's a decent but not top 10 farm but happy to trade Eder, half the FV45s, and another six FV40 types if it relatively fixes the MLB roster with some future control years.

[lou]

I like that they’re going for it, and buying, but it would be really nice to see them add guys with control instead of just rentals, or maybe even better, re-sign the expiring guys they might add. It’ll be a tough pill to swallow if they sell the farm for rentals, miss out on the playoffs, and then end up in a worse spot overall moving forward.

But then Bruce can just sign real stop-gap 1 year plugs (and Kim can not blow it on Garcia, Cueto, Segura) so they can also NOT miss these guys if they just operate in $120m land!

Which is still bottom 10 in payroll historically!

[fish16]

i didnt realize just how bad of a year joe mack is having after a solid year last year. He's hitting .219, .282 obp and a .257 slugging. He has 23 walks this year in 311 ab's and he had 33 last year in 148 ab's. He's taken a serious step back and banfield has put together his first solid hitting year in the minors. I think banfield is still just going to be a guy who cant hit big league pitching though given how often he is still striking out and how little he walks. Good to see some power from him finally though.

[sports24/7]

I feel like some people are upset at what we gave the Mets for Robertson.

At the same time, also upset that Robertson is a rental.

You can’t have it both ways. Non-rentals are going to cost more in terms of prospects so the backlash should be entertaining if it just so happens we get non-rentals.

I’m cool with doing everything possible to make the playoffs this year and making a run.

I think the people that are upset at what Miami gave up are the same that are upset he’s just a rental. Regardless of where those two were ranked to start the season, both have been very good. So some people think they overpaid to have a guy for a couple of months. Personally, I think if you’re going for it, you can afford to sell players that are a ways away from the bigs. But in a perfect world, I’d like to see them also trade for guys who can be here longer than just this year, if they’re going to start dipping into their top prospects who are closer to the majors.

[Nick]

i didnt realize just how bad of a year joe mack is having after a solid year last year. He's hitting .219, .282 obp and a .257 slugging. He has 23 walks this year in 311 ab's and he had 33 last year in 148 ab's. He's taken a serious step back and banfield has put together his first solid hitting year in the minors. I think banfield is still just going to be a guy who cant hit big league pitching though given how often he is still striking out and how little he walks. Good to see some power from him finally though.

I'm very encouraged by Banfield. If you even go back to 2022 when he got called up to Pensacola. His OPS is right around .750 in 441 PAs, his k-rate is 22.6% in AA, which isn't great but not catastrophic either. If his defense is as advertised, I think he's now a guy that needs to be 40-man protected.

[fish16]

I'm very encouraged by Banfield. If you even go back to 2022 when he got called up to Pensacola. His OPS is right around .750 in 441 PAs, his k-rate is 22.6% in AA, which isn't great but not catastrophic either. If his defense is as advertised, I think he's now a guy that needs to be 40-man protected.

Im encouraged by the power, but i think until i see more he will get eaten up by big league pitching. Which if the power is legit, is still a good player with his defense, just maybe not starter worthy. More Mathis, Hedges, Stallings etc type of player. Last year in AA his OBP was .302, this year it is .299. His walk rate was 4% last year, 4.1% this year. He needs to get on base more before he becomes starter material. but he should absolutely be protected. That's still a good backup catcher profile if his defense and arm are as advertised. I honestly thought he was striking out more, so that's good that it's really only around 23%, down from 29% or so at lower levels. If he can make a swing adjustment to make more contact or develop better plate discipline to walk some more, then we can start really getting hopes up that we have finally got a catcher internally.

[Namaste]

Sanchez is batting cleanup tonight for whoever was wondering about his status.

[Erick]

It’s interesting that the Marlins were interested in Carlos Santana before the Brewers got him.

Garrett Cooper is not in the lineup tonight.