TJseven7

I'm really hopeful its Cobb... I'll go 64/4.

4 man bench could be a thread of its own. Make this roster fit a 4 man bench on offense. If Brauns "I'm not playing 1st often" comment is legit? Yikes. Whats the 4-5 starters 7-8 pen makeup. Piggyback stuff on the way? Suter wilkerson split squad day 1... welcome back baseball? Hey it could be Gallardo miley so I'll shut up.

That's a big jump.

There was a lot of crap pitching for us last year. Starting and pen. I can see the team being 500... cant see them being considered good though.

Yes it would. What brew posted about needing 336 ip from the 4-5 screams cobb woodruff with suter on his hip. Getting cobbs 6ip per start arm into the lineup could allow us to use our long man as more of a woodruff piggy back than true long man. If you could get 150 ip (pace) from woodruff and piggy back suter for 3 to 4 ip depending on score situation (90-120 ip pace). That would 240-270 ip would take some serious strain off the pen. If we end up needing a long man when suter is burnt well barnes jeffress are throwing 4 ip combined because they can. I do hope we put suter as a long man and use him as an asset instead of a mop up guy. That can't happen without 1 more starter.

Id be onboard with buying 1. I think payroll is the first move. That add anderson nelson davies woodruff chacin burnes decide if that's your group for a title team or if you are 1 all in young controlled arm away. If you don't have it inhouse after the fa add, or dont have 3 you believe in in a playoff series, you don't push the farm in for an addition.

If anderson Davies chacin and woodruff are truly 2-3-4-5 guys then adding 1 won't be enough. 2 (including nelson) wont be enough. Look at what a 2-5 actually does.

Well adding a sp is hard when 3 of the "big 4" are FAs still and trade asks for young controlled guys are borderline insane. Im annoyed more that 3 starting arms, moose walker and holland don't have a home yet.

Once again... the silence of the market has become deffening. There's so many shoes to drop... whats the hold up.

It always shows up more when you don't do things that give people a reason to overlook it.

Yeah but he's the type that even when he's doing many great things he mixes in a good amount of incredibly foolish or absent minded stuff. Kinda like gogo. Good or bad he's not dependable.

I know it's kind of not really talked about because we are at the point now of the 'what can we do but try to make it work?' stage of the relationship with Braun, but he is such a terrible fit for this team right now in almost every way. 1) If he were gone it would pretty much solve the roster logjam as Santana could play RF, Thames and Aguilar could platoon at 1st and Phillips would stay as a top notch 4th OFer with plenty of PT. 2) His presence is going to force us to keep productive players off the roster. Like Aguilar for probably nothing. Or perhaps Phillips to Colorado Springs. 3) He doesn't really fit from either a versatility standpoint or the new defense first philosophy in the organization. He might be able to play 1st, remains to be seen but right now it just looks like playing Scooter in the OF last spring, doing it because we are kind of forced to try. 4) His salary, while not a disaster, is an overpay in this market and pretty much eliminates the chance of trading him to the 1 or 2 places he might want to go. While some say his contract doesn't prevent us from making moves now, that was a lot more true when we were at a $60M payroll than now at $90. Right now an Arrieta type deal would probably pretty much max us out, instead of having the flexibility to do both that and maybe also go for Walker and Lucroy too. 5) We don't have the DH. It's a shame. Here's hoping he stays healthy and has a nice career resurgence now and fits somewhere defensively because it looks like at this point he's going to be here 3 more years. Yeah every time I think through the roster, cap etc... always come back to: I wish Braun wasn't here. Was really hoping Braun for Kemp and Prospects was a real rumor.

Nice to see Zach on the top 25. Think he's closer to 18-19 by that list but at least they didn't snub him. It's weird to see 3 "failed" (or injury delayed) starters who are already pegged for relief work in the top 30. We have a weird combination of talent. Wonder what we do with Houser Williams and Lopez. Jeffress Albers blocked them this year and possibly next too. Barnes is still on top of the pecking order there. Really isn't room on the mlb roster.

That is a lot of hope. That's what you need to small market a title. You add stroman cobb to nelson anderson and these 2 of these 4 flame out... your farms gone and your playing for a wc at best. Add cobb... wait. If the window opens push it wide open. If it doesn't contend for a wc and keep your farm. Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes

Why on earth would you blow up the farm before you see how Nelson can return? You add stroman and nelson doesn't come back your risk isnt mitigated... you pushed all in and DON'T have the horses needed to win. The 1 more arm trade is a finishing trade... ahem verlander. Nows when you sign cobb. If 3 of cobb nelson abderson woodruff davies arent close to last years anderson you dont go all in.

I'm saying... Add cobb now, anderson cobb nelson davies woodruff/chacin. Push for a big arm in a trade only if Anderson Nelson Cobb etc prove to cover 3 of the 4 playoff starting spots on a title contending team. If that's the case then 1 add makes Davies the 5... woodruff chacin displaced. I think its foolish to bleed the farm unless you have nelson anderson cobb (maybe chacin davies woodruff can dazzle who knows) as a rock solid 2-3-4 or 1-3-4 who need 1 piece to complete a playoff 4 pack. Don't want a big add only to have 2. Or 3. If nelson cobb anderson can't open the window... you dont trade for the kill shot addition.

He was 20ip short of being a qualifier on the era lists. Missed 5-6 starts. His era would have been 5th. I'm sure there are other non-qualifying starters that were better who missed the list. I'm also sure there weren't 11 of said examples. That would put him in the top half of all 1s in era. Now I know earned runs are only what the pitcher is responsible for allowing the other team to score and all... but you don't remove runs from the scoreboard because your fipx numbers come in good. He doesn't pitch ace innings. Hes around 5.6 ip per start. But he has had an ace era for 203 innings and counting. Counts for something right. There are a lot of guys I'd put anderson against for 4-5 ip in the playoffs and not worry. There aren't many teams who could top hader knebel as well. Keep Anderson close to this level and we need Nelson back at his new form 3.10 era and cobb in 2013-2014 mode. You get that and its time to push for 1 more. That is a 4 pack NO ONE likes coming their way. Aces be damned, 4 deep around 3.2 era infront of a wipe out pen is a rough draw for anyone. Its why you add cobb. Anderson Cobb and Nelson can signal its time to push all in.

How big is the shift?

Everyone thinks sogard streak was a fluke. Careers for sogard perez platoon is a whole 10 ba and 20 obp points behind drury. So you'd take a shot. Ok. This is not taking a shot on him... its trading assets for him. That's the problem. If he was in our system sure fine take a shot. If he was discarded by a team sure a shot. Assets out for him, no pointless. I'd take a shot on dubon who likely 0 wars offense. I'd take a shot again on villar who despite a horrid 2017 still beats drurys value in the last 2 years by a mile. Drury's defense also needed to rebound last year to save face but it was real real bad his first year. He's -.5 dwar per year. Why scooter talk... because as you stated after his first 200 ab he declined... to numbers very similar to drury and we cut him. Now trade assets for a guy who's doing no better than he did? Makes zero sense.

When's the last time we had back to back drafts look this impactful quickly? When's the last time we had int signings to talk about? 2017 preseason watched burnes harrison peralta stokes carmona yamamoto explode up the rankings. Kodi and Supak made a big move as well. 2017 added hiura lutz kj straight into our top 20. Traded 1 big mover in Harrison, diaz slid, brinson was the star labeled prospect and yamamoto went from not mentioned to our top 25. 1 year. 8 big movers and not due to graduations, trades or declining stock from others. I'd bet on a farm thats producing a good number of fast risers over the crops we've had pre 2015 where people rose then vanished. No need to be so pessimistic. Its not like people are expecting multiple top 20 guys here.

I think for the most part you are looking in the wrong places but I do agree with you for different reasons. Guys who got delayed and aged usually don't rebound in the top 100 rankings without setting the world on fire. Kodi still has rhb issues despite his big improvement. Kirby will get babied, we know this. Lara is toast and Grisham doesn't have enough flash with the cf defense concerns. I like Dev, I like Williams, I like houser but I expect bullpen which is not top 100 stuff. BUT I think Burnes Hiura climb as Woodruff loses eligability. Phillips could get enough love to stay top 100 low. Peralta is going to crack the top 100 soon Lutz is going to crack the top 100 soon Erceg as you said, soo depressed by carolina could crack the top 100 Dubon could if CS inflates him. And the other reason is a lot of pitchers. Young guys on the proper trajectory who could pop. Ponce ended last year on fire. 2nd round pedigree. Jumped to AA improved and it could be clicking for the big man. Jankins Zach Brown ended last season on fire and Braden Webb improved down the stretch. 3 college arms from 2016. Doing woodruff like things but 1-2 years from catching up with him in service time. They keep this up in A+ AA ball and attention will come their way fast. Lemons and Murphy too new to know. Theres some guys who could really jump. I dont see much on offense hiding. I don't see the Harrison jump type. Carmona is very interesting but he might need to be 20 in A+ first. Love stokes as a 4th OF but that's not top 100. Then ray ortiz have stagnated... but a break out is possible and would get them back in the top 100 fast. I see some potential. Maybe not top 50 except for Hiura and Burnes this year but plenty in the low 75-100 range. Lutz could get top 50 just don't think this year. 2016 draft class arms are showing up. Burnes Brown Webb Jankins even Roegner. It's an impressive start. O... eh. Erceg. Feliciano Henry have my attention though. 2017 the reverse. Unknown arms but hiura lutz kj carroll all look good.

Brewcrewdude80...You'd be correct. I don't know where I put Anderson at this point but I think its strange to see: End of 2016 Offseason start of 2017 Oblique dl, close of 2017 All at 2.74 era and say yeah zips hates him so 3.75. They hated him last year too. I dont think hes a +200 ip guy. 170-180 ip is likely with health but something changed with him over the course of 2016. I think 3.2 isn't an absurd ask of him at this point.

While stroman degrom paxton are more interesting to me I'm getting more and more adverse to these types of deals. Sticker shock is pushing me away from it unless a title is looking possible. If anderson nelson cobb run off seasons in the 3.0-3.2 range then I'm probably in but these all seem like drop the hammer all in deals. What we have to realize though is at that point we are likely bringing a TOR in but sending a guy like Davies or Woodruff out. Chacin moves to a slider heavy pen arm. I think its a next offseason move (2019) or even next deadline but if 1-5 is rocking... and anyone in the 6-8 slots are surprising... Woodruff Burnes Ortiz Ray Dubon Phillips Grisham. All on the table. I'm still going to try to keep Hiura Lutz Erceg Peralta and everyone on the MLB squad besides Davies or Woodruff but I'd pay up. I'd try to keep Peralta for the pen effective immediately upon the trade. Everything has to line up. No regressions, nelson back 100%, pen making a big jump forward from last year. But Im paying woodruff and farm because I'm not weakening the MLB team. It defeats the purpose of all in. Otherwise these offers can stay in dream land.

Every time I see 8 man pen ideas, I think it through and the only reason it could work is perez. Its a shame he didn't get to catch last year. :-)

As the roster stands today, he's not getting 100-120 starts. If by "games" you mean PH opportunities sure. Just keeping him out of the OF completely should help his wheels. Unfortunately it didn't help him last year. He needed to play about 4 days a week at various points battling leg issues by late April Hmmm Braun gets knicked up easy. Thames gets knicked up easy. Thames kills rhp, braun traditionally kills lhp. Neither are young. Braun can play passable defense in LF. Our 3 OF starters sit about 35 games. 115 and 82+ dh ph. It just makes sense. I wonder if they'd consider it. I'm in the camp of these two well managed and healthy will have a bigger impact than these two playing as much as possible. Not just this year... but next... and next. We sit soo pretty.