2024 Game Thread

[Namaste]

:popcorn:

[lou]

i never said "it's fine." I said bitching about michael lorenzon not signing here when the rotation was already completely decimated was a waste of time. And i was right because there was no signing that was making up for the complete devastation they had in our rotation. A bullpen of Faucher, Nardi, Bender, Cronin, Tinoco, Oller, and Veneziano/Mcmillan is a truly awful bullpen. Going into next season with that being the bullpen would be a giant mistake.

this team is not signing significant bats. there is no desperate money issue here. any bats they add would be cost controlled long term pieces. so yes, there is plenty of room to both add bats as well as spend on a couple bullpen arms that would provide stability in the early months of the year plus give them potentially a few pieces to deal in july. obviously bats are a priority. ive never said anything to the contrary. But adding cost controlled long term bats AND spending on making the bullpen better are not incompatible. Relying on that group of relievers is a really fucking dumb idea. it is the lee stone of bullpen construction. and it will go very poorly.

Faucher, Nardi, Bender, Cronin, Tinoco, Oller, Veneziano, and McMillian - 5.3 WAR in 2024. Would be the # 8 bullpen in baseball in 2024. If they do half that, 22nd in baseball. Which is not "truly awful." Just below average. Only Marlins fans could have the # 1 bullpen in baseball 2023 and 2024 combined, have a ton of viable options who are fine, and be so down on it.


And I would love the bold to be true for this organization. A viable 2nd lefty would genuinely be a good get over say Baumann or Petersen for the last spot, even if those guys are fine to keep.

I'll say it again - Angels have Neto, T. Ward, and B. Burke which is a SS, right handed CF, and lefty reliever. Blow them away. That's 5, 2 and 2 years of control, and combined 6.6 WAR last year and will cost $9m total next year. Blow out the farm, Angels suck and headline that with Noble, Serna, Head/Morlando/Johnson, and 3 more guys outside the top 10 prospects. That is really hard for them to pass up for just Neto as Ward don't get too much with only 2 years of control and Burke is solid reliever only and not going to get a Scott return down the road.

Payroll $74m:

Fortes, ____ ----> Ramirez
Burger, Bride ----> DDLS
Edwards, Otto
NETO
Norby
Stowers, Dane ----> Martorella, Marsee
WARD, Sanoja
Sanchez

Sandy, Luzardo, Cabrera, Garrett, Weathers, Max ----> Eury, Snelling, Mazur
Faucher, Bender, Tinoco/Cronin, Oller (AAA - McMillian, Maldonado, Petersen, Bellozo)
Nardi, Burke, Veneziano (AAA - Simpson)


That's the kind of move that could be a lightning bolt as Bruce does spend $90m and this is SCREAMING for a free agent 3B/LF to kick someone to AAA there and the rest can be moved to a bridge catcher.

So that loops back to Nick - are they going to do something like this, as there will be a cost in prospects at a minimum. I would not give 1 fuck giving up Noble, Serna, and another strong FV45+ top 10 guy and three more guys in top 10-20 (excluding Mack) if they some long term bats.