LouisEly

Uh... Yoho in?

He made up for it...

I know. But some others in this thread aren't, and my comments were directed towards them. Sorry for the confusion.

He's been taking advantage of a pitcher's park at home, but has been just awful on the road this year. He was pretty even though home vs road in 2025, so maybe it is just a blip. Definitely need some advanced analytics to see which is real, 2026 or 2025.

This is one of two reasons for trading for him. He leads the league in innings pitched, and this is a staff that desperately needs innings covered just to get them to the playoffs. Second, he's been very good against LHH (.685 OPS-A this season). If they are going to get past the Phillies/Dodgers, they will need pitchers who are effective against LHH. Like I said in the initial post, I'm assuming Skubal doesn't happen. I'd love it if it did, but I don't see the Brewers giving up the prospect haul for an impending FA, and someone is going to overpay based on his start yesterday. But Wacha has been more effective against LHH this season than Skubal (.758 OPS-A vs LHH, .577 OPS-A vs RHH). Casey Mize has been even more effective against LHH this season (.488 OPS-A), and would cost less than Skubal. But he's never thrown more than 155 innings in a season. Will he run out of gas in October? If you don't like it, then suggest someone better. And be specific about who and not cop out and say, "think better".

Maybe the Brewers know how to use him better than the Mets? I.e., better understand his strengths/weaknesses, what pitches to call in what situations, how to align the defense behind him, etc.

When I lived in Chicago the air show was always the weekend of my birthday. They did practice runs on Thursday and Friday before the actual show on Saturday, and would always buzz my rooftop all afternoon. I'm on the short list of people who can say they got a Blue Angels flyover at their house for their birthday. (You know how pictures make things appear further away than they are...)

Converse of this - which top prospects are you most willing to part with and why? Also, who are the top 3 pitchers you are targeting who are realistically going to be available and why?

$14M-$18M for a good FA starting pitcher really isn't much. He's already at 2.2 bWAR and was a 2.8 and 3.1 bWAR pitcher in 2025 and 2024. I believe @sveumrules last calculation of average FA $/WAR is around $9M, so even if he loses half of his WAR value next year, he'd still be average FA value.

That's fair. Who's better against LHH not named "Skubal" that's likely to be available?

You didn't need the first two words. And if you don't like trading for All-Stars, then that's fine.

I'm really starting to like Michael Wacha as a SP target (assuming Skubal doesn't happen). He's actually been more effective against LHB (.685 OPS-A) than RHB (.752 OPS-A) this season, likely due to his changeup and cutter. They'll need a pitcher who is effective against LHB to have a chance against PHI (Schwarber, Harper) and LAD (Ohtani, Freeman, Muncy, Tucker). Not a rental, under contract for 2027 for a reasonable $14M (plus up to $4M in incentives) at age 35. Team option for 2028 with $1M buyout. So, won't come cheap. Also, under reclamation projects, Matt Strahm has been bitten by the HR bug this year but was very effective for PHI the last 3 years. Maybe the analytics/lab can find a tweak with him to get him back to 2024-2025 form. Shouldn't cost much with the year he's having plus being a true rental.

Problem is that Toronto's top two prospects are SS and are in A and AA. I don't know that they would want a third, and another that is several years away. They certainly need OF and I think OFs, particularly those who are closer to the majors, may be more enticing to them. I also think that after being in the WS last year, they want players back who they think may be able to contribute next season.

I don't think anybody is/was thinking Jadyn Fielder was going to play in the majors. It was a reference to them playing together in the minors.

So much for CC's and Prince's kids excitement about getting to play together...