jay87shot

Miqueas Mercedes had a 2.6 era, I get that he isn't a big prospect and walked to many but I think he should get some recognition. Crow is a good pick however I think Cam Wagoner is my pitcher of the year.

The Cubs are 1.5 up on the D-backs and a half up on the Phillies. Any chance that if the Cubs lose they could be out? I dont know the 3 way tiebreaker.

When you get a guy like Misi in the 2nd the draft is an A+ regardless of the rest of the draft.

Can he become that guy, sure. However I think the odds are much more against it, maybe his injuries just fix themselves and he can be a plus defender again. I doubt that happens just poof, but maybe overtime he can get stronger. If we trade William I don't think I would worry to much with having a Quero/Naylor platoon especially with Wood and maybe eventually Dinges around (probably add a Haase style AAA depth catcher). But in no way have I or likely anyone else penciled him in as the catcher for the next 5 years like we probably did a couple years ago.

I don't think the lack of power is a fatal flaw, last year we could have hit 5 more HR in that Dodger series and still wouldn't have been close becuase they would have likely been solo shots. Anyone facing Skubal, Yamamoto, Snell, and Glasnow is going to struggle and it just was that we had 4 tough ones in a row. I would rather have a scrappy team that can get on base and play some small ball to steal a run here or there than really on a random solo HR or two when facing that rotation. We have enough guys who can hit HR, maybe no 40 HR guys but 6 guys who can hit 20+ is alright.

For me I wouldn't give up one of those higher end pitchers just because it is one year of Alcantara, you could be correct on the value for sure. I do think the bidding for Sandy would get a little out of hand if he is made available.

There was an a small update on the Gart Trent investigation, basically just that a law firm was designated to investigate and that the Bucks and Klutch sports are "cooperating". I have become a little torn on this. Obviously it is a stupid and really bad business deal. However I don't see the big deal. I doubt Trent had been offered any big long-term deals over the past 2 years. I am sure we saved a decent amount of money. My guess is that he would have been a mid-level exception style guy instead of 3ish milly a year. However I feel like teams are always doing things like this. Vets often have agreements/discussions with teams to decline a bigger player option for a longer lower AAV deal, which for me is the same thing. Even something like LeBron playing for 3/4 million in Philly could be looked at as a similar cap circumvention, however there is no likely handshake agreement a year or two in advance on that one.

What would you all say to something like Megill and Crow (throw in someone like Dylan O'Rae if necessary) for Sandy Alcantara? Instead of getting prospects for Megill we could flip him for a perfect starter like Alcantara. The Marlins need relief help badly and have other top of the rotation starters, Megill would make their pen look decent and they could get good value still in a trade if they aren't contenders at the deadline. If the Marlins want mlb players, this would be a pretty good package for Alcantara. We would get a perfect workhorse arm that I believe we could offer arby to and get a little back for. If we gave up Frias and Ragsdale for 1/2 a year of May, I could see us going after a guy like Alcantara to add alot of stability to the rotation.

Wow, Letson with the performance of the year. He had a very uneven season but he was able to get over 100 innings in with the playoffs and it's pretty easy to see a #3 type starter with that breaking stuff. Hardin, Letson, and Knoth all showed out pretty well towards the end of the year really helping easy some of the pitching concerns from most of the season.

I would use both Gasser and May in game 3 as a piggyback, especially if the team we play uses a couple platoons. If Misi and Henderson can both go 6+, the game 3 piggyback would hopefully leave a mostly fresh bullpen for a game 4 bullpen game that could maximize lefty/righty matchups.

Miz, Henderson, Harrison, Gasser, Drohan, Sproat, Priester, Crow, Hardin, Stallings, Gordon with Patrick in case is better depth than any other team. As I said originally said probably the top priority would be adding another top of the rotation potential arm. But as far as pure depth goes we have 12 guys who could make starts next year.

My guess would be that with the inability to shift that wouldn't be as big as an issue. I definitely could see Joey or Turang "steal a grounder" here or there possibly having a small impact.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/09/kaima-taira-expected-to-be-posted-for-mlb-teams-this-offseason.html I think Kaima Taira could be a sneaky interesting option for us to look into. He likely has some funky metrics being a much shorter than usual pitcher. I have seen some different opinions that he could be the best pitcher on the market after Skubal (not buying that much hype). There are some smaller injury concerns and he has been a reliever most of his career (started on in 2024 and 2026). I do think that is possible he could be a guy that would be in our price range, especially if teams look to guys like KIng, Gray, Rogers, Holmes, Gausmann, Freddy, and others before Taira. It would be a gamble but I think that there is likely an interesting enough profile that our pitching lab could make him into something special. He also will only be 27 next year so his age is better than other FA starters. Imai from the Astros sign 3/54 last year, this guy might be similar but I could see size, injuries, and relief concerns pushing the price down a bit. Thoughts????

I am interested to see the offseason plan, if we keep Megill and Contreras they really aren't any holes. If we lose Bauers there are plenty of 1B options even after Vaughn. We have great depth in the rotation, it would be nice to add another young top of the rotation starter as always. The bullpen is solid, even if we trade Megill as we usually trade 1 year left high end relievers, we have lots of late inning options and upside young arms coming up. Clearly how the playoffs and CBA shake up will decide alot.

I think this is the most balanced offense we have ever had. With Joey's 180 and Pratt and Lara at least being avaerage there isn't a weak spot in the lineup. Yes we could hit more HR but everyone other than Lara and Pratt (probably Joey) are guys who can easily be 20-35 HR guys. I think next year we could see Chourio take off and really make a run at MVP type numbers, his confidence is really starting to match his ability. Yeli is probably our worst bat right now but we have seen a few flashes, hopefully he is the leader we know him to be in the playoffs and had a couple big knocks.

Agreed, his stuff alone will give him a pretty high floor. I said this when we got him but he is very similar to Luis Severino going into FA, who got 3/67. I think 3/45 is the floor if he isn't great in the postseason, with a couple good starts in the postseason that 3/60+ deal could be there.

MLB.com came out with a predictions 2 weeks ago and had no Brewers. I think Chourio has passed Ian Happ in every measurable defense category so I don't see how he doesn't win. Turang and Wetherholt is close Turang leads in DRS and runs +/- (21 to 13 and 19 to 9) but Wetherholt has OAA and FRV 13 to 23 and 13 to 22). Turang also has played over 200 innings more than Wetherholt, I don't know if that helps or hurts. Turang leads PCA in the first 2 as well but I think PCA likely has the Platinum in the bag. I would like to note that Lara has played 298 innings in RF if you average his stats out to a full year he would be on pace for 36 drs. I think Ortiz should win the utility glove but Dubon will probably get it because he plays OF as well, even though Joey's stats are better. Hamilton is close to but probably a step down. I notice our teams OAA and FRV are much less than other teams, does that take into effect some positioning. I know how DRS work but no sure on OAA or FRV. For what it's worth MItchell has positive stats with a weak start to the year statistically on defense. However I would put him up against PCA the last month or two he has been superb. Pratt statistically has slowed down but still has the makeup of a future gold glover.

What happens to these type of deals when the mlb bargaining happens and they likely go to an int. draft format? I teach 14 year olds, I can't imagine giving any of them 800k for any reason even the truly gifted ones.

I think Garrett Stallings has a pretty good chance to make the playoff roster and if he puts together another couple scoreless outing I would be ok with him starting a bullpen style game 3 or 4 over Drohan, Gasser, Harrison.

Agreed, there is always a price, Joey has been amazing so I would set his price very high right now. I have mentioned this somewhere but I like the idea of keeping him to start the year and if Made plays well and pushes him the 1st month of the season I would do an early season deal like we did when we acquired Willy Adames. However if someone would offer us 3 really good pieces I would have a hard time turning it down, especially with Hamilton on board to hold the fort for Made. I am not a big fan of the Phillies farm system but I would take the risk on Francisco Renteria as the main piece. Renteria should be off limits if the Phillies were smart, Gage Wood is also a great piece that would likely be off limits. However I don't like Aiden Miller with Pratt around, Andrew Painter and Justin Crawford have been rough in the bigs and those guys would be the only high end Phillies young guys that likely start a deal for Joey.

I have heard the number 30% used for how much runs (maybe HR) have increased in the minors. I think it is interesting to apply that to the pitchers. For example Manuel Rodriguez has a 4.74 era, 70 earned runs in 133 innings. If you take 30% off that, it is 49 runs which I believe comes out to an ERA of 3.31 which would be really good for a guy who just turn 21 in AA all year. 4.74 doesn't feel like a great year however 3.31 does. I think we have a ton of pitchers that could really fit into that not great on paper but when looked at comparing them to peers (especially of similar age) things are alot better.

How is KeBryan Hayes still a mlb player? In over 200 abs he only has 8 rbi (9 if he gets one for the double play). I get he has the longterm deal and is a good defender. However he has been the worst hitter in the league for like 3 years.

Hopefully being a year further removed from his surgery he can even add a bit to his stuff with a full 100% healthy offseason as well.

Bauers will come down alot to the finances of the team, if the front office is going to trade some combination of Contreras, Megill, Vaughn, or even Ashby a QO is possible. We showed that we can be a little risky last year with Woody and the QO and I think Bauers is a similar decision. The OF with Mitchell and Frelick will be interesting, my guess is that we just keep all 4. However Mitchell would seem like he could have really good value and would be relatively easy to replace. Our other high end OF prospects likely won't be ready until mid-season, so going with Sal and Lockridge (maybe a cheap FA) is manageable. Like you said trading Sal won't bring back much and it isn't to difficult to envision a rebound. I think the Joey, Pratt, Hamilton rotation has been humming along so well I wouldn't change much there. With Made in AAA next year we have really good insurance, if Ortiz is playing well and Made forces his way up I could see a situation where we could move Joey in like June kind of like the Rays trading us Willy when Wander Franco was ready. I think after paying Woody like 40 million for like 110 innings, I feel like a 1 year 2 million dollar deal with incentives to say 6 or 7 makes sense for both sides. Maybe throw in a bigger team option (say 12) with a low buyout just because. I think if he looks healthy Woody as the long man in the bullpen would be a great spot for him. If he gets a little velo back he could slide into a later inning relief role or get stretched out if we end up with a need for a starter at some point. If his injuries come back the low value isn't a backbraker.

4.85 ERA 4.43 FIP, 153 innings 142 k, 55 bb -0.1 WAR, ERA+ 86 that is pretty average to me (slightly below). Yes really really bad compared to what he has been but as far as starters go that isn't awful.