Ennder

How about Counsell manages a full 9 innings? Rather see him play matchups for a complete game rather than assign a rigid role for one player late in 25-30% of the games. I could describe the bullpen last season a lot of ways, but rigid is not one that makes sense at all. What are you even complaining about here?

Not really a huge steal though. It only buys out one year of free agency and arbitration has realistic caps on value. If he pitches like this it is a bargain for them but if he gets hurt in the next 4 years it is a loss. So both sides are taking appropriate risks.

I can't confidently say we have two above average starters. The range of outcomes of this rotation are from replacement level to well above average. The Youngs guys had success last year but they all have big time warts too. Are we talking about the same team? I’m talking about the brewers. Are you talking about the Marlins? Funny you say this, the Marlins rotation most likely has more upside from their 3 top young guys than we do. You are grossly overrating the Brewers if you think they have 7 above average starters. Anderson is at best an average pitcher and that is fine. Davies probably slots more into average than above average. We don't know what Nelson is or isn't for this season. So if you really have faith in the 3 young guys we have 4 above average pitchers. You can certainly win with that, but I just think you are focusing on the upside and not respecting the downsides as well.

He also made a terrible defensive play that gave someone a hit they didn't deserve. For today that is a win but it points to the reality of the downside of his play. He is a bad base runner and an awful defensive player. This does remind me of the Khris Davis deal, we traded away a guy probably one year too early and didn't get enough back. But it was the right move to trade the player as their non offensive stock is just awful, Khris Davis is a terrible baseball player outside of hitting home runs. Hard to decide how much the power gains value over all the huge negatives from the rest of his game. Davis has been a roughly 2.5 WAR player with the A's, so a bit above average but below all star level and that is with insane power.

As a tall relatively large man there is no way Aguilar is anywhere near 300 pounds. He is maybe 260 tops.

One thing that does make me chuckle though. When Trout's contract is up, the Mets will still be paying Bonilla for 5 more years!

It is tough to feel bad for someone making $430M but I feel bad for Trout. That franchise has no clue what to do to become a winner and I could easily see his entire career waste away on it with us never really seeing him on a dominant team.

The difference is some people understand it isn't a given that he is just 100% rebound instantly with no setbacks of any type. Nobody has said Nelson can't have a great season, you just can't assume that it is the only result, it make no sense to do that.

Chacin is the one guy I have faith in. Chase Anderson had a 5.22 FIP last season and a 5.09 in 2016, he easily can be replacement level. Burnes has never started a regular season game in the majors so his range of outcomes are huge. Peralta had a 4.25 ERA, can't pitch from the stretch and relies way too much on his fastball. Woodruff's FIPs were in the mid 4's in the minors. Davies has been all over the place for his entire career This rotation could easily be just terrible, there is no comfort level that it has 7 above average pitchers like you suggest. In fact there is almost no way that is actually true. Nelson cannot be trusted for anything on the season, we have no clue if he is going to get healthy and if he does if he will pitch at full strength. I know I'm looking at the bleak side of things but that side does exist, this could be one of the worst rotations in baseball and it would not surprise me at all. It could also be above average. It is a very volatile rotation. What is painfully clear though is that the rotation is going to have to be babied. None of them are safe the 3rd time through the order and none of them are particularly efficient. We are going to be dipping into the bullpen in the 6th inning on a regular basis and many games in the 5th inning. The bullpen is going to have to save the rotation to make this work. Maybe we just look at baseball differently but this team went as far as it did despite the rotation last season, it was easily the weakest part of the team. We protected it with an overextended bullpen and got lucky that Miley was so good. Overall it was the weakness of the team and I expect the same to be true this season.

Most recently Trevor Bauer and Dan Straily. A lot of players are getting their own version of some of the machines being used like Adam Ottavino.

I can't confidently say we have two above average starters. The range of outcomes of this rotation are from replacement level to well above average. The Youngs guys had success last year but they all have big time warts too.

You had me agreeing until you said Tomlin. Tomlin has been beyond awful the last 2 years. 211 IPs - 258 hits allowed in those innings - 48 HRs allowed - ERA of 5.39 - a .300 batting average allowed. He is little more than a batting practice chump at this point in his career. Granted Davies isn't going to ever be anything more than a 5th starter, but he's still a much better option than a washed-up Tomlin. To be fair that is exactly what everyone said about Miley last season. Tomlin worked hard at driveline to improve his mechanics, it won't surprise me if he looks a ton better than he has the past couple of years. The science of pitching is fixing a lot of guys.

I don't think range is a primary factor in the equation when talking about shifts. I think covering the bag and making the pivot on double plays is what matters. So I'd want Arcia in the position to be the guy taking the throw and turning 2 most often.

Phantom IL stints like the Dodgers use. A single 15 day IL saves like 15 innings.

If you want to make the game faster paced, shorter and more friendly to newer fans make it 2 strikes, 3 balls and 7 innings. That obviously would alienate older fans so it won't happen. The truth is the original game of baseball was not built for TV or for the current lower attention span fanbase and there isn't much they can do to make it better. I don't have an issue with them trying to fit a square peg into a round hole but they are never going to find the perfect solution because it is an imperfect question.

The Royals also got insanely lucky to win that World Series, that is one of the worst World Series teams to win in the past 50 years. Also talking about parking you have to realize that like half the fans in the stadium park on the street and walk to the game. I remember going to a playoff game one season where the parking lot was half empty because they jacked up the prices and cheap wisconsinites including myself refused to pay. That isn't the revenue stream it could be somewhere else~.

This seems odd. We have Adam Silver who is like a fanboy to the NBA stars who is giving them everything they want. The league is almost unwatchable the product on the court is so awful now. We have Goodell who can't seem to make a proper decision at any point when it comes to hot topics in football. He seems so out of loop with the times that it is hard to understand how he keeps the job, plus the NFL is completely tanking as a long term sport. Manfred looks good compared to these guys. He gets what is wrong with baseball, his solutions just seem a bit odd at times but they haven't actually implemented them yet. How the league hasn't added the DH to the NL is one of the most baffling things in sports, it is just so dumb it makes no sense.

What you think of Nelson this season doesn't change the fact that 2017 is an outlier in his career so far. That is a simple fact, by itself it doesn't mean anything. What I personally said is usually when you have that big outlier season the next year you give a little of it back. To use 2017 as the example, out of the top 25 pitchers in ERA that season only 11 had good seasons in 2018. The year to year volatility of SP is just crazy. The good news is xFIP is a bit more stable and he was #5 in xFIP in 2017. Most likely 2017 was sort of the top of his range, everything went well. You can't just expect that to repeat because most of the time it doesn't. Add in the injury and it really isn't fair to just expect it this season, there are going to be some obstacles on the comeback most likely. It doesn't mean I don't believe he broke out, it doesn't mean he is going to turn into a pumpkin. It just isn't safe to assume he is an ace this season until he shows it.

Sure that could happen. Everyone in the rotation is just risky. Chacin feels like the only sure thing and that probably isn't what you want to hear if you are a fan of this team. I wish we had signed one more boring safe guy just for filler in case we get the bad Anderson and Nelson takes longer than expected to come back. Burnes, Peralta and Woodruff all look like they could be fine options but they are all sort of innings limited and are probably going to have growing pains. In a year where I feel we have a championship bullpen/offense, I wish the SP wasn't so iffy. I don't want to sound like too much of a downer though. The entire divisions pitching is iffy. That Cubs rotation could be just awful if Lester pitches to his peripherals and Darvish doesn't come back. The Cardinals have a ton of upside but they have a lot of risk and the Reds might only have 1 major league quality starter if things go poorly for them. The entire division is kind of iffy for pitching. I think the Pirates will be fine but I think their offense is going to be bad.

I will just add that our rotation will make or break the team. I can easily see this rotation being the worst in the NL Central, I can also see it being adequate, I can't really see it being the strength though. The best case scenario is that the bullpen protects the rotation and covers up the weakness.

I think it’s “silly” to ignore the way he’s pitching right now. Looks like his stuff is as good or better than ever, he’s healthy and just needs innings. As far as 2017 being an outlier, I beg to differ, in fact I think most of us who watched him pitch in 2017 had seen Jimmy turn the corner, and that was the ace pitcher he would be moving forward. He wasn't pitching right now, he was still waiting to get into real action so your first statement made no sense. I think he turned a corner in 2017 as well, but usually an outlier season like that is only partially true, not the new level and the fact he is coming off of an injury is a clear sign to lower expectations a bit. There is no reason at all to expect 2017 Jimmy Nelson in the first half of this season, if that is what you are hoping for you are just setting yourself up for disappointment. It isn't a realistic expectation.

There is on reason to think he will be ready opening day, it seems just silly to expect that. It doesn't mean it can't happen but it is silly to expect it. It is also silly to expect a repeat of 2017 considering it was a clear outlier in his career and the fact you have to expect the injury to take some sort of toll on his stats.

You may be right here but what I've seen so far is the players being legit in their responses. It is a concern for sure but it hasn't been a reality yet.

Feels odd to me, I think the Cardinals are likely 3rd in the division for improvements. They got Goldschmidt who made them lose value all over the place moving guys to positions that aren't good for them and then did almost nothing else. The Reds and Brewers easily did more.

Jeffress's best month of the entire season was Sept/Oct so this opinion is just flat out silly, you are reading what you want into things and defending it with results instead of reality. There was no sign at all that he was wearing down.