July 2019 Game Thread

[Namaste]

Yup.

It’s always nice when your team stinks and its top WAR player (Pablo Lopez) is on the IL.

[fish16]

Did we say what we were gonna do with the rotation now that smith is back or since the all star break starts tomorrow we just slotted him in there and will announce something after the all star break? I think it makes the most sense to just move elieser to the pen and go with a 5 man rotation of Sandy, Smith, Richards, Yamamoto, and Gallen. Id also be cool with just keeping elieser in there and allow guys to get an extra day of rest each time out given that a bunch of these guys are going to approach innings limits come the end of the year anyways.

[Namaste]

You gotta send the runner with 2 outs there come the fuck on

[fish16]

I think that’s the only time I’ve actually seen yadiel Rivera get a hit while watching a game live in his 2 years here

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Smith has settled down nicely after a shaky start. Also max fried looks like he is 13 max

[fish16]

Jesus Austin Riley’s pure power is unreal

[Madman81]

why do we insist on playing riddle in cf?

[lou]

why do we insist on playing riddle in cf?

Because this season is a try out for next year and I guess they think Riddle can be a 25th man?

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Boras represents Rendon and asked Nats for 7/$234 according to media. That’s the Arenado deal basically. Nolan is 2 years younger so Boras is being Boras here.

Nats have some contract bombs for Strausburg, Max, and Corbin, and impending massive Trea deal, but they have a lot of cheap talent with Soto, Robles, Kieboom, etc, and they have real expiring money with Zimmerman, Eaton, and Dozier. They can probably handle a guy like Rendon at $25-30 assuming they are maintaining prior year payrolls and they need to go for it while they still have Max.

That’s a worse case scenario for me they actually pay in that $27-28 million a year range so he has no reason to leave. Seems like 7/$200 is the magic number to me

[tjfla]

why do we insist on playing riddle in cf?

Cause Rojas is at SS and Castro is at 2B. Won't play much there next year with Brinson/Harrison/Sierra up next year but gives u options

Before people say Sierra won't be up-he is out of options next year so he either has to stick as 4th OF or DFA

2020-Sierra as 4th OF and Brian Miller sitting in AAA in case he sucks again

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2020 ML OF

LF-Harrison/FA(Corners)
CF-Brinson/Sierra(4th OF)
RF-Ramirez

Anderson/Cooper can play corners/1B too and Dean will either be up or in AAA at corners/1B. Plus probably sign a FA(Walker/Grandy type)

[Nick]

2020 ML OF

LF-Harrison/FA(Corners)
CF-Brinson/Sierra(4th OF)
RF-Ramirez

Woof, that could be real rough. We gotta get some bats in Free Agency or trades to make sure this doesn't happen.

[lou]

Woof, that could be real rough. We gotta get some bats in Free Agency or trades to make sure this doesn't happen.

Monte would be a mid-season call up I would presume.

C - Alfaro, Wallach/whoever
1B - Cooper, "Back up 1B"
2B - Diaz
SS - "Didi", "Back up IF"
3B - Anderson (or sign Rendon and move him to RF)
LF - H. Ramirez
CF - Brinson, "4th OF"
RF - Starting 3B/RF

I know we keep chatting about this, but they can spend $50 million on those 5 bolds (or a SP and then trade a younger SP) and have a bottom 3 payroll.

They will have a lot of options unless they prioritize debt and circle 2022. Can't see that happening though as they need to build momentum with the fans (right?).

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Rendon or G. Cole are obviously dream scenarios and I know that, but if those 5 blanks are say:

Didi ($17ish, 4/$68)
M. Ozuna ($17ish, 5/$85)
Rojas (keep him, extend 3/$12. He'd take it.)
N. Walker (keep, extend 1/$4)
J. Dyson (1/$something under 8 million)

I think you can get 8 WAR out of those guys, with some slugging upside with the first two. If Alfaro, Cooper, Diaz, and Anderson average into 2 WAR starting players, you can get to a 20 WAR position core if you get anything out of Ramirez and Brinson (and Monte and VVM and Sierra and whoever). That is a middle of the pack position core with real upside if Anderson is a 3+ WAR guy, Diaz really hits, one of Brinson/Monte land, and the others creep up a little.

[Lee Stone]

Weird to say this but Yamamoto is more effective than Gallen in the small sample size. By quite a bit actually.

I'm comfortable with the belief that Gallen will be the far better starter by season's end.

[Nick]

I just don't see a scenario where both Brinson and Harrison are effective starters and are starting at the major league level at the same time. Best case scenario is one of them works out. Brinson should be called up August 1st, give him 2 months, and if he doesn't hit in the .750-.800 OPS range he's either starting the year in AAA or on the bench. Hopefully Monte can come back healthy and maintain the production he's had this year in AAA, and if so he gets the first shot at CF next year assuming Brinson does not tear it up when he comes back to the majors for those last 2 months. (seems unlikely to me)

[fish16]

Monte would be a mid-season call up I would presume.

C - Alfaro, Wallach/whoever
1B - Cooper, "Back up 1B"
2B - Diaz
SS - "Didi", "Back up IF"
3B - Anderson (or sign Rendon and move him to RF)
LF - H. Ramirez
CF - Brinson, "4th OF"
RF - Starting 3B/RF

I know we keep chatting about this, but they can spend $50 million on those 5 bolds (or a SP and then trade a younger SP) and have a bottom 3 payroll.

They will have a lot of options unless they prioritize debt and circle 2022. Can't see that happening though as they need to build momentum with the fans (right?).

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Rendon or G. Cole are obviously dream scenarios and I know that, but if those 5 blanks are say:

Didi ($17ish, 4/$68)
M. Ozuna ($17ish, 5/$85)
Rojas (keep him, extend 3/$12. He'd take it.)
N. Walker (keep, extend 1/$4)
J. Dyson (1/$something under 8 million)

I think you can get 8 WAR out of those guys, with some slugging upside with the first two. If Alfaro, Cooper, Diaz, and Anderson average into 2 WAR starting players, you can get to a 20 WAR position core if you get anything out of Ramirez and Brinson (and Monte and VVM and Sierra and whoever). That is a middle of the pack position core with real upside if Anderson is a 3+ WAR guy, Diaz really hits, one of Brinson/Monte land, and the others creep up a little.

Or, if we arent comfortable with the free agent market, we can shift Cooper to RF/LF and sign Abreu to a 1 year deal and try again the next year. I dont want to get into this again because we both now where we stand on the subject, but one thing they absolutely cannot do is try to fill each of those positions long term this offseason just to get something done. Making a smart but less splashy signing for 1 year and going back to try to find another replacement in free agency the next year is a much more preferable scenario than convincing yourself that you absolutely need to lock a guy down at the position long term just because we have money to spend. If you sign Didi and Abreu and then maybe a decent OF stop gap guy on a 1 year deal that's not terrible, and it will give you a chance to evaluate the OF's like Brinson and Monte next year and then re-evaluate things after next year. I wouldnt mind something like this:


C- Alfaro
1b- Abreu
2b- Diaz
SS- Didi/ you know who i want
3b- Anderson
LF- Decent stop gap OF type (but better than the granderson level guy we got this year)/ Ramirez
CF- give brinson a full year
RF- Cooper/Monte comes up mid year

Then, rather than forcing the issue and spending money long term on position players who arent worth it for the sake of spending available money, you invest that into some decent bullpen arms on 1 year deals. That will allow you to create a very well rounded team, and if you arent in contention come july you can deal a guy like Abreu and some of the bullpen arms and maybe even one out of our current group of SP surplus and then go into free agency next year with money to spend again but a better idea as to how the OF pieces from the Yelich trade might factor into our team long term.

[Nick]

There's no way in hell I give Brinson another full year unless he's showed me something at the major league level in the next two months.

[lou]

Or, if we arent comfortable with the free agent market, we can shift Cooper to RF/LF and sign Abreu to a 1 year deal and try again the next year

Not a good idea. They should sign the two "big" longterm free agents at the same time as they are likely both qualifying offer players and they need to piggyback the lost draft picks versus giving up 2 better ones in successive years. I think this is a big deal to maintain better picks as they need a higher probability of cheap players for obvious reasons.

The free agents stink for 2021 (Mookie - who they will never get, Springer, and SP only for longterm guys). 2022 is an amazing collection of 15-20 stars so you could wait 2 years, but again, they can't really do that with trying to convince fans they care now. They can't run out a $35 million payroll next year with how good the SP look.

Didi is obvious like Boborovsky for the Panthers. A total need and need him for years. So your pool is pretty much Rendon, Cole, with the next best being Ozuna, and then Castellanos, Puig, and Wheeler.

They should get 2 of those dudes with Didi being 1 of them.

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There's no way in hell I give Brinson another full year unless he's showed me something at the major league level in the next two months.

Which is why you wait 3 weeks to call him up to keep him club controlled for 2 years, and next year, roll with a deep bench (like the example above, Walker, Rojas, and J. Dyson type) so if Brinson, H. Ramirez, and one of Cooper/Diaz all stink, you have a pretty acceptable starting core with "Didi", "Rendon/Ozuna", Anderson, and Alfaro, and Monte/Sierra/Miller/VVM on the way (hopefully).