coolhandluke121

Something tells me that this move indicates that the Marlins are asking for the moon for Realmuto. The Nationals made a ton of sense to make that trade, but instead they are going with a platoon of Suzuki and Gomes. It's already been confirmed by multiple credible insiders that the Marlins asked the Nats for Soto or Robles, which qualifies as asking for the moon. Honestly I think it's worth the gamble for the Marlins to hold out for a really good offer. The Woodruff + Ray + Nottingham type of offers will always be there, and those probably represent minor incremental improvements for their organization. It would be overly simplistic to say his trade value goes down the longer they hold on to him. For one thing, the market could change drastically in either direction at any time. For another thing, it would probably be more accurate to say that it becomes less and less likely that they'll get a king's ransom for him the longer they wait, but that's not the same as losing trade value - at least not in the sense that they run the risk of not being able to get the type of offer in August that we're all hoping they'll accept now. I just don't see the point for them to accept the type of offer that they could probably get from 10 different teams any time they want in the next year, barring an injury to Realmuto. So they may as well ask too much and hope someone bites.

I don't believe it was a "comment" though - I believe it was an answer to a question from a reporter. It wasn't in a press release or any official statement, it was something that he said to a reporter who likely asked a question. Tomayto, tomahto. It was something he did not have to say to a reporter. The entire baseball world realizes his mistake. Him taking a shot at the parting player (to me) does nothing. People rally around this taking accountability thing. He can take accountability by just realizing it was a bad trade, non-tendering him, and finding us an actual infielder that will help us win games. That is what I would like to see out of the GM. I tend to agree. There's a reason that kind of candidness is so rare. As outsiders, we'd all probably like to see that more, but workplace politics are important when working on the inside. It seemed kind of disrespectful to a player who I'm sure is just as unhappy about his performance, if not more so. Not a huge deal either way though.

That's still an extremely small sample. LHB's have a career OPS of .583 against him. He is NOT a LOOGY who can't get lefties out. It just comes off as being mad because baseball happened and a handful of LHB's reached base against him at a bad time. He had a 2.43 era on the year with a 2.95 FIP and 1.26 WHIP. He faced more RHB's (though few of them were dangerous, I assume) than LHB's and held them to a .604 OPS. He allowed 7 singles and 3 walks in 8 innings in the regular season with the Brewers: Daniel Murphy - single to RF Zobrist (bats both, slightly better against LHP's) - walk Jeimer Candelario (bats both, much better against LHP's) - single to CF Patrick Wisdom (RHB) - single Matt Carpenter - walk Corey Dickerson - single Joey Votto - single Brandon Crawford - walk Zobrist - single Mark Reynolds - single He gave up 3 singles and a walk in 1 inning in the playoffs (let's judge his value based on 1 inning!!): Yasmani Grandal (bats both, better against RHP's) - single Joc Pederson - single Manny Machado (RHB) - intentional walk Max Muncy - single In case it's not totally obvious, the problem is that he faced some extraordinarily talented LHB's and some dangerous switch-hitters and RHB's as well. The other problem is judging him on an absurdly small sample. You can make the case that the presence of good switch-hitters and the rarity of having 2 or more LHB's in a row in the batting order makes LOOGY's a waste of a roster spot, but it comes off as really spoiled and petulant to act like Cedeno didn't do his job. No LHP gets every single LHB out every single time. Not even Hader. And definitely not when it includes the guys listed above.

The spotlight was too bright for Cedeno on several occasions in the postseason...LOOGY is still an important role, but you need one that can get it done when it counts. He mostly just gave up a few seeing-eye grounders. LHB's OPS something like .600 against him. That's comparable to Hader against RHP's, which just goes to show that even a borderline roster-worthy pitcher can be almost as effective against favorable platoon match-ups as literally one of the most valuable relievers of all time is against unfavorable ones. I'm okay with not wasting a roster spot on a LOOGY with no options because you don't get much use out of them, but I'm not okay with the rationale being based on such a small, flukey sample with a high BABIP. That would be pretty short-sighted.

This is the real issue. You will guess wrong on some moves or non-moves, but you have to make the moves for the right reasons. Once they decided to acquire Moustakas and play Shaw at 2B, they should have crossed Schoop off the list. In a vacuum, I would have been fine with taking the gamble, and even with gambling on him again next year, but I think they had an itchy trigger finger at the deadline and that's not a good way to operate. If Schoop had a .900 OPS for the Brewers there'd be no talk of "fit". He didn't hit. Period. If he had he'd have been a fit. I don't agree with that logic at all. That would make him a bad fit who worked out great anyway. Fit isn't judged by hindsight; it's judged by roster balance. And in terms of judging the reasoning for their decisions (as opposed to evaluating them in hindsight), crossing your fingers and hoping he hits .900 doesn't hold water anyway. Villar was actually a far better fit than Schoop. And in keeping in the theme with not judging fit by hindsight, that's not because he actually did hit better than Schoop the rest of the way; it's because he could reasonably be expected to be better against LHP's and have some pinch-running value, because he actually has much more SS experience at the MLB level, and because he was already on the stinkin' team and wouldn't cost them any prospects. Long story short, it was a real confusing trade even at the time and many people said so. The fact that he did so poorly that it rendered all other concerns moot doesn't change the fact that those concerns were valid and it was a highly questionable move to begin with. There was far too great a chance that Villar would be better the rest of the year, and that's before even factoring in the prospect cost.

LOL. They might just be giving up on the idea of keeping a roster spot for a LOOGY.

This is the real issue. You will guess wrong on some moves or non-moves, but you have to make the moves for the right reasons. Once they decided to acquire Moustakas and play Shaw at 2B, they should have crossed Schoop off the list. In a vacuum, I would have been fine with taking the gamble, and even with gambling on him again next year, but I think they had an itchy trigger finger at the deadline and that's not a good way to operate.

Seems clear that Cedeno took his spot. Drake --> Logan --> Zagurski --> Jennings --> Cedeno just shows what the LOOGY market is like right now.

What? A credible insider says they're leaning that way. That's not at all a done deal, and it certainly doesn't indicate that it was ever even remotely conclusive or an easy decision.

Nice. Underrated part of what made it possible for the Brewers to do what they do, milking a few extra wins out of great late-game defense and getting the most out of their roster spots. Plenty good against LHP's, which the Brewers need. Plus pinch-runner as well. Wish he'd take more pitches because I think he could be a really good player if he did, but for $2.5m I'll gladly take him. I wasn't really worried that they'd let him go anyway.

Schoop just turned 27 in October. He's theoretically not even in his prime, yet he still has arguably had a better career than most of the other options many people have advocated, many of whom have never sniffed the success Schoop had in 2017 and, on top of that, are strong candidates to decline precipitously from their already mediocre levels in the next year or two. He's a good defender and his BABIP is due for some positive regression. He's also a reverse splits hitter, so he's a good platoon partner for Perez. I think 2017 was a fluke, and I don't think such an impatient hitter is likely to ever recapture that magic. I also am not a professional scout or a trainer, and I don't know what went wrong last year. But there's a middle ground between his 2017 and his two months with the Brewers. Look at some of the terrible hitting stretches Bryce Harper has had recently. Look at how Goldschmidt and Carpenter started the season so terribly for sucha long stretch before rebounding. Their slumps were just as bad as Schoop's and lasted almost as long, and they were top-5 MVP candidates by the end of the season. I'm not saying Schoop will ever be anywhere close to a borderline MVP candidate again, but I am saying you can't judge player's based on extended slumps. If there's a better option, by all means grab it. I doubt he's worth $10m next year. But I think he's going to help as much as most of the other options and is one of the only ones who will only require a 1 year commitment. There's also a slim chance he could be an all-star next season, and to me that makes it worth the gamble.

Same here. Easy pass on Woodruff, Burnes, and Peralta, and not because I'm overrating them but rather because I don't think that highly of Bumgarner. Let him go be Arrieta/Archer somewhere else. I'm not against trading some good prospects for clear, significant upgrades with more than 1 year of control, but this does not qualify.

To me it's just like they said at the end of the season. They're going to try to figure out why he was such a disaster and whether they can do anything to fix it, and then they'll make a decision. Personally I'd gladly take him at $10m if he reverts to his career averages, all things considered. No point to handing out 2-3 deals for one of the other guys who has all kinds of question marks himself. It did look like a little more than a slump, but in recent memory we've seen young guys like Segura, Gomez, and Arcia look almost as bad before coming out of it.

I think he always wants to. I just don't think his knees cooperate. Kidd rode his best players extremely hard last year and I think we saw Bledsoe wear down at the end of the year. He's built like an NFL tailback and he plays like one, so it's important to limit his minutes and not invest too much in him after age 30, but he's a good player.

Eh, not a terrible take on the trade, but leaving Aguilar out looked awful for a while. Still not sold on him though. The best stuff in this thread is HighHeat acting like an insider.

I was gonna joke about this but sometimes I dare to dream that Braun would rather be traded to a desirable location than completely marginalized. Arizona made a few appearances on his list of teams that he can't be traded to, back when he didn't have full no-trade rights. This would still be extremely scary though. Arizona would have to take on Braun's full salary and pay some of Greinke's, which defeats the purpose for them.

That is true, maybe it is just reporters trying to make something out of nothing. I do now Coach Bud loved Korver in ATL. Gotta clear some salary to keep even 2 of Middleton, Bledsoe, Brogdon, and Lopez together, let alone all 4 of them. Arguably the second-best starting 5 in the NBA right now. Smith and Korver are only guaranteed about $7.3m next season. It would be a pipe dream to get rid of Snell and Dellavedova for that. All the wasteful spending several years ago has made guys like Smith and Korver much more valuable in trades because so many teams are looking to clear salary. Also, Snell is a dime-a-dozen type of 3-and-d guy right now. His defense is extremely overrated because he's only good as a 1-on-1 defender against guys who don't have a huge quickness advantage. He's not versatile enough to guard quick guards or small-ball 4's, and he's not a smart, alert team defender. He's also not good at actively seeking 3-point opportunities and getting into open passing lanes to help out guys like Giannis when they're doubled. He just passively stands behind the arc and hits over 40% of his 3's precisely because he gets the easy, open ones, and only those. And other than his solid 1-on-1 man defense and good shooting on easy 3's, he's an absolutely terrible basketball player. One of the worst ball-handlers and rebounders at sf I've seen in my entire life. Even at his age, Korver creates extra 3-point opportunities above and beyond the ones any scrub with a decent jumper would get in this offense. He's also a much more astute team defender than Snell, and that's more important than 1-on-1 defense in this day and age.

Was just gonna make a long-winded post about why I wouldn't do this, but this is perfect. I'll sum up my thoughts by saying that it's true the Greinke is the type of pitcher that usually ages well. The problem is that he already has aged well, i.e., that it usually applies to being productive from roughly ages 32-35. To stay worth ~$15m per year would be more than just "aging well". It would be very unusual in the post-PED era.

If Grandal gets low-balled because of his playoff yips, I'd gladly take that risk. I think he could hit a ton of homers in Miller Park, and while I don't think he's ever going to solve his catching woes, I also don't think the yips are a permanent thing. I think his bat could make up for his mistakes behind the plate and then some, and that's coming from a guy who loves defense at key positions (I didn't put Yelich ahead of Cain in my MVP race until the last 2 weeks).

I am shocked that you think people just now figured it out.

Manager/coach of the year awards should be renamed "we didn't think they'd be that good and we can't possibly have been wrong about the team's ability, so the manager/coach must have done something extra special to make them better than we thought they'd be" awards. That's all they ever are. Team exceeds expectations? Give the manager credit. Those awards never go to great managers/coaches if everyone thought the team would be good anyway, even if the manager/coach has been there a long time and part of the reason they're always good, whether you realize it or not, is because of the manager/coach. Also, most of those voters probably can't cite a darn thing the manager/coach did differently from what any average manager/coach would do. The Braves have a ton of young talent and they started producing earlier than expected, not to mention playing in an incredibly weak division. I don't think the manager had much to do with it. On the other hand, you can cite all kinds of things Counsell did differently from what most managers do to get the most out of his team, especially in terms of using the bullpen.

Fun game today. I remember on realGM when nobody wanted to trade Jabari for Deandre and Lou. In fairness to them, that was a long time ago (almost a year now!), when no reasonable person could be expected to realize that Jabari was not a future star in this league.

Except his is a malcontent jerk and has ruined every situation he has ever been in. I wouldn't want anyone who is content in those situations to be honest. The blame goes to Chicago's window closing and Derrick Rose still thinking he was the star in Chicago, and to lazy bums like Wiggins and Towns getting supermax deals despite not giving 1/10th the effort that Butler does. Butler is an incredible competitor and he'll do fine in Philly. Saying all the right things and never raising a fuss but being lazy and entitled is a much worse quality in a teammate than what Butler does.

Yes, they were buying into the system, but it was a bad system. Skiles was the architect of a great defense that was designed to force teams to take as many long 2's as possible, and on the other end they ran an offense that... took as many long 2's as possible? That's what it often seemed like anyway. Kidd's trapping was just something the league figured out, and he couldn't adjust. And even when they bought in, it wasn't sustainable because it was one of the worst defenses in the league if everyone didn't do everything perfectly. He couldn't adjust it for personnel and it was too rigid. Coaches do always have a honeymoon period, no doubt. Budenholzer is considered a coach that players like though. It's more about not having a grating personality and being overly critical or stubborn, like Skiles and Kidd. I'm not worried about coaching and chemistry being an issue any time soon. I am very worried about free agency this summer though.

In a lot of ways, I see this as being a nearly perfect team despite not having multiple elite players like Magic/Kareem, Jordan/Pippen, Oscar/Lew, Shaq/Kobe, or whatever. I think the biggest flaw is going to be foot-speed on the perimeter. Now to be fair, nobody is shutting down great backcourts these days, but the Bucks are going to have trouble closing out on 3-point shooters and staying in front of quick guards and that could keep them from being a truly great team in this era. Brogdon is big and strong and would have been a great combo guard in the 90's, but this is not an era in which he can much more than a good 6th man IMO. I actually think he's a small-ball 3-guard these days. DDV is terrific but his quickness is average at best for a guard in today's game. Bledsoe looks pretty spry right now, but we know about his knees and he looked glued to the floor in last year's playoffs. I'm worried about how well he would hold up if the Bucks re-sign him. Limiting his minutes this year is crucial, but they don't have a true back-up pg, and certainly not one who can mitigate the quickness issue. This is the only thing, besides maybe injuries, that would cause me to reluctantly bet against 60 wins this year. I don't think it would be too hard to address, but we'll see. Ersan, Lopez, and DDV are such terrific additions. Each one of them is already better than Jabari was for the team because of how perfectly they complement the best players. It kills me that for years they could have easily traded Jabari for the potential final piece of a dynasty and turned their nose up at every obvious red flag, but I guess in a way it's more fun to win without having an embarrassment of riches.