MLB Off-Season Thread

[Namaste]

Pudge stinks, he's really no better than Bard was.

Wang is probably done, I really don't see home coming back and being productive again.

Marquis is meh. He's a 4.5 ERA pitcher at best.

Adam Kennedy is meh. He's like the Jason Marquis of 2nd basemen. He's no offense, all defense, but he has some value in not being all around terrible.

They could win 70, but I'd be very surprised if they are .500. Very. they are still the worst team in the division by a good amount.

70 wins is 11 more than last year.

Baby steps.

[Metes]

Well, particularly this offseason, the Nats have shown the will to win. Whether their strategy is effective is another point entirely, but they will spend the money. With some of the younger talent they've acquired, along with a willingness to add payroll to put their team over the edge, I can see them experiencing a Rays-like renaissance in the next 5 years.

[Swifty]

If Stanton flops and we don't spend because of the new stadium, I could absolutely see the Nats being the class of the division in 3 years.

[Bobbob1313]

If nobody ever shows up to their stadium and Stephen Strasburg blows his arm out, they aren't. It works both ways.

I think they are relatively well set up for the future, except that they really don't have much to speak of at the major league level. Things are definitely looking up for them, but I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that they are going to be a playoff team in the next three years. A lot more has to go right for them than it does for most teams, because their franchise was in such bad shape before like two years ago.

Baseball America has their minor league system ranked 26th in baseball. I think we are maybe overrating their prospects.

[Ralph]

I said they gon get fvcking Bryce Harper

[DColts]

Doesn't his swing suck?

[Bobbob1313]

I'm not that big of a fan of him from what I've seen. I think he's going to be a batting practice all star, but I don't like his swing for in game. Granted, I've never seen in game footage of him, but that little leg thing he does when he swings to time it seems like it's going to throw him off against good breaking stuff.

[Beef]

He is young, they can probably work on some things

[Bobbob1313]

Sure. But let's not pencil a 17 year old in for stardom. Who do we think we are, Sports Illustrated?

[Beef]

Mr. Big Stuff

[Swifty]

If nobody ever shows up to their stadium and Stephen Strasburg blows his arm out, they aren't. It works both ways.

I think they are relatively well set up for the future, except that they really don't have much to speak of at the major league level. Things are definitely looking up for them, but I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that they are going to be a playoff team in the next three years. A lot more has to go right for them than it does for most teams, because their franchise was in such bad shape before like two years ago.

Baseball America has their minor league system ranked 26th in baseball. I think we are maybe overrating their prospects.

If Hanley kills a guy with machete, and on and on.

My point was basically behind us, I think the Nats are the best set up for the future in the division.

The Phillies are exceptionally old, I could see this being their last year of juggernaut status. Maybe the park keeps Howard and Utley looking younger than they are, but we've had an entire offseason to hear why Uggla isn't a franchise building block because of his age, yet he's 2 years younger than Utley and a year younger than Howard (years of birth: Howard - '79, Utley '78, Uggla '80). There's a lot to be skeptical about for Philly going forward.

The Braves have a tremendous amount of young talent coming in, but that's replacing a tremendous amount of talent that's on the back 9 of their careers. Maybe Heyward becomes the best corner outfielder in baseball, but they're hanging a tremendous amount of pressure on him to carry their offense in a manner even greater than Chipper.

The Mets are the Mets, they'll find a way to fuck it up. And really, you have to figure that after this knee stuff Beltran is done as an elite center-fielder, and there's no elite player in their system, asking a team to be as good as its free agent shopping is a tremendously tough undertaking.

I really do think it's us and the Nats going forward. The question is basically whether you like their long-term rotation (Straus, Lannon, Zimmerman) over our long-term lineup, since I think those will be the selling points of our respective futures.

[Bobbob1313]

I am not that big a fan of Lannan. Like, it's cool that he has two sub-4 ERA seasons, but it feels unsustainable.

[Namaste]

I am not that big a fan of Lannan. Like, it's cool that he has two sub-4 ERA seasons, but it feels unsustainable.

But you can't be a stat guy only when the stat backs up your stance. I don't know what his WHIP was the past 2 seasons but if they were healthy numbers then doesn't that mean more than what you feel?

[Bobbob1313]

But you can't be a stat guy only when the stat backs up your stance. I don't know what his WHIP was the past 2 seasons but if they were healthy numbers then doesn't that mean more than what you feel?

My feeling is based on stats.

He doesn't have exceptional control, he doesn't strike guys out, and he doesn't do an especially good job of keeping the ball in the park.

I guess he gets a lot of double plays, but that can't just be it. He has outperformed his FIP by almost a full run each of the past two years, but it has been two years, so maybe it's repeatable. I just don't think it is. This could be the year it all falls down on him.

[Todd]

The Nats still have Balester, Clippard, Martis, and Detwiler, who could all turn into decent to very good rotation arms as well, plus maybe one or two I am forgetting.

They dont lack for arms.