jay87shot

I like the Josh Jung idea, Brett Baty (mets) and Miguel Vargas (Dodgers) would also be ideal middle of the order 3B prospects who will be MLB ready. In the case of the Rangers they would likely be more desperate for high level pitching.

For sure the knee injury at the end of 2019 into the disaster of what was 2020 hurt. In addition, the league unjuiced the balls and had the cheating scandals Astros, Red Sox, and whatever the Yankees did that the league seemingly won't unseen evidence (unless they have and I missed it). I say that because the Cubs complained a bunch about our bullpen giving some kind of signals. Put a bunch of that together with some natural regression and wa-la.

I was thinking more along the lines of trading Lauer, however if getting a bat means Woody (or Burnes) has to go so be it. Obviously Devers would be perfect but to trade him we would need to trade Yelich and sign Devers. All of that seems next to impossible, I'm sure Devers would want 8 ish year at close to 30 mill. Here is my idea. Trade= Yelich, Urias, and Woody(probably a prospect or 2 from Boston)to Angel's, Boston gets Ohtani, We get Devers and a secondary piece from somewhere. Devers get 8/240 with an opt out in 4 years. Would Eric Lauer (maybe a smaller secondary piece) get someone like Brandon Lowe or Yandy Diaz?

Middle of the order trade options. Obvious) Reynolds, Mullins, ??? Interesting) Nick Castellanos, Cody Bellinger, Austin Meadows, Brandon Lowe, Yancy Diaz, Luke Voit, Lourdes Gurriel Keep Dreaming) Trout, Ohtani, Jose Ramirez, Devers, Cron, Munetaka Murakami ( Japan 3B sensation) Free Agent Maybes) Mancini, JD Martinez, Brantley, Haniger, Bell, Pederson There are some pretty iffy guys on the Interesting list and I am sure I missed a few.

As I look at our top prospects playing well, I was daydreaming about the near future. So I was thinking about what to do next year. Obviously we have a ton of Outfield talent and 7 quality starting options for next year (counting Small). Here is a go in no order. 1)Decline Wong's 10 million option (maybe pickup and trade if he ends the season well). 2) Trade for a middle of the order bat. I need to organize my thoughts on who but we need someone to impart more consistency in this lineup. I doubt we have money to afford a quality free agent. 3)Pickup Boxburger option. 4)Offer Rogers and Peterson fair deals but don't overpay. Something like 2/14 to Rogers and 1/4 with a 2nd club option for Jace. 5) Let Omar and Cutch walk. We have 4 (or 5) decent options at catcher and enough DH options that can do as well as Cutch. 6) Trade a starter, this might go with #2 depending on who is available.

If we knew we were just going to cut Lamet loose, why didn't we get Hosmer instead. The Pads paid 44 million of his future salary.

1) Chorio, He will be in mlb top 10 by the end of year. 2)Frelick, He will be top 25 by end of the year. 3) Weimer, this is a hard chose between Turang, Ruiz, Mitchell, and Weimer. Power prevails. 4) Ruiz, Speed prevails 5) Mitchell, He has been very good the past month. 6)Turang, always forgotten, should be the starting 2B opening day 2023 in my opinion. 7)Quero, I could make the case that all of this top 7 could potential be in the mlb top 100 if they play well the rest of the way. 8)Black, Seems like he has a higher floor and if some power develops could be more. 9)Small, Not great at MLB but still our top pitching prospect, in my eyes. 10)Gasser, seems like a guy who should be similar to Lauer when developed. 11) Misiorowski, 6'7" 190 and can hit 100, 1st low floor type prospect, Will take longer to develop. imo 12)Mendez, Mendez, Perez, and Garcia all in the same category for me. 13) Perez, Needs to make better contact, however the tools are there. 14) Garcia, a year older than the other 2 so he slots in here. 15)Feliciano, Some more power would be nice, but has recovered nicely. 16)Brown, I am not overly hyped but if we took him in the 1st, so he can rise up my list quickly. 17)Cam Robinson, really great year. Gets bumped down a bit because he doesn't start. 18) Valerio, Showing more power and less contact than I would have though. 19)Castaneda, I can never quite get a great read on him. One month I think top 20, the next not in top 30. 20)Reetz, 25 HR in 77 games at catcher. Enough said 21)Jace Avina, Showing out in rookie ball, promotion needed. 22)Justin Jarvis, has been really good the past month or 2. 23)Brandon Knarr, 1 guy I haven't seen a lot of video. Good year 24) Cornielle, like Knarr not a lot I've seen. But 20 and throwing it well in A ball. 25)Lutz, Almost lost hope bit still only 23, may be massively blocked though. 26)Zamora, slow starting and injury drop him a bunch. 27)Arienamo, looks like some potental here. Maybe a Valerio type 28)Robert Moore, seems like a good bet to be a utility guy down the line. 29)Steven Cruz, another I haven't seen alot about but going on a solid year. 30) Joe Gray, probably the most disappointing year, hopefully the eyesight thing helps.

There are 4 parts to grade for me. Hader trade, B. If Lamet is good this could be an easy A. But the lack of a potential middle of order potential bat drops this for me. Bush trade, B+. It seems like our lack of pitching depth seems like we had to over pay with Kelly. If we had some decent prospects in our 20-25 pitching range weight have been able to use one of them. Rosenthal trade, D-. I can't see Rosenthal putting in more than 10 innings. Peters is a big overpay for 10 innings of a reliever who hasnt pitched in 2 year. The 4th is getting a lack of a bat, F. I do think that teams were paying more for quality bats compared to pitching. Drury went for Pads 6th prospect, Bell kind of went for the 18 year old pitcher (Nats gm alluded to in press conference) and maybe Voit. That being said Hosmer went for almost nothing and the Pads are eating basically his entire contract. Mancini wasn't a ton either. Also we still have 3 catchers. Overall like a C.

I don't get it, do we control him next year as well? He was a good arm and but he won't be ready until September. So we traded Peter's for what like 5 to 10 innings of a questionable. There has to be more to this.

Bush's stuff is pretty great 97 fastball, 92 cutter, 81 curve. Should play well with Williams,, Roger's, and Box. Kelly still a tough pill to swallow.

Kelly seems way to much to give up for Bush. Granted if Bush can pitch well with 2 more years of control this could be fine. Kelly is still a ways away and I doubt anyone would take him in the rule 5 but maybe.

Also we have 28 guys who would be likely on the 26 man when Peterson, Peralta, Houser, Cousins come of the DL. However that might be ok if Peterson and Houser come back in Setember and rosters expnad.

I think it is important to look at our 40 man roster when loom at tomorrow. We have 43 players on the 40 man, 4 on 60 day dl dont count so 39. However Peralta, Cousins, and maybe Topa and/or Samchez would mean some guys would need to be let go. We do have Alexander, Kelley, Barker, Strzlecki, and Alex Jackson who really wouldn't be much lost if needed. As well as Topa, Pablo Reyes, or Mark Mathias who don't have much value. Basically I think we will definitely trade a couple guys off the 40 man roster for a bat.

They slotted Gasser at 8 and Ruiz at 9 on mlb.com prospects ahead of Ethan Small. I know those rankings need to be updated, but Ruiz seems like he should be higher. I would put him at 4 or 5 around Garrett Mitchell. Also could this be a setup up for a trade that sends out an OF. Weimer, Fralick, Mitchell. Ruiz, and eventually Chorio. With Yeli in LF I would say something has to give.

Wow. I am OK with moving Hader if we get a kings ransom and then get a different back end reliever or 2.

With Yeli and Wong starting to hit better and Renfrow on fire I think it would be best if Counsil re-configured the lineup. Essentially it is time to move Adames, Tellez, and Cutch out of the 2,3,4 spots. Adames at 2 is insane to me, Tellez has been a below average bat when when you take out his 4 multi-homer games, and Cutch has been solid as of late but a lack of power makes him ideal at 2. This probably a couple days early but our usual lineup should probably be.... 1)Wong 2)Cutch 3)Yeli 4) Renfrow 5) Rowdy/Brousseau 6)Adames 7)Catcher ? Urias 9)Taylor I would be ok with flopping Adames to 8 with Urias.

Lots of Lauereano rumblings, I don't see how he makes any improvement over Taylor. He has been a good RF this year but worth -7 runs in center in 24 games. That is putrid, albeit he has always been a decent defense CF. With 2 1/2 years left the A's are going to want something decent. I just don't see how he moves the needle at all.

Mariners just traded for Luis Castillo. Noelvi Marte (18th overall prospect), Edwin Arroyo (93rd (probably higher, similar prospect to Chourio)), Levi Stoudt (Mariners #5), Andrew Moore (unranked reliever, 58 ks in 32 innings). That's a great haul for a year and a half even if Castillo is a borderline top 15 starter who can have some control issues.

Bell .303/.387/.877 13 HR(39 xbh) 53 RBI 50 runs 3.3 WAR, Benentendi .320/.387/.785 3 HR(19xbh) 39 RBI, 40 runs 2.4 WAR All those extra base hits mean runs, I would also think that there are more teams looking for a middle of the order bats.

Bell .303/.387/.877 13 HR(39 xbh) 53 RBI 50 runs 3.3 WAR, Benentendi .320/.387/.785 3 HR(19xbh) 39 RBI, 40 runs 2.4 WAR All those extra base hits mean runs, I would also think that there are more teams looking for a middle of the order bats.

With Benentendi getting 3 mid tier prospects (15-30)I would think it makes Bell's price pretty clear. 2 mid tier prospects and 1 higher propsect should do it. Who knows what it will look like but my guess is they would want Turang/Mitchell as the headliner (at least). I would be hesitant to send on of those guys for a couple months of Bell.

With Benentendi getting 3 mid tier prospects (15-30)I would think it makes Bell's price pretty clear. 2 mid tier prospects and 1 higher propsect should do it. Who knows what it will look like but my guess is they would want Turang/Mitchell as the headliner (at least). I would be hesitant to send on of those guys for a couple months of Bell.

I wouldn't mind taking a flier on Gallo but I would want the Yanks to pay the rest of his salary or add a prospect. Even if Gallo gets back to his pre-yankees self he doesn't help the streaky-ness of the offense. Overall I would call Gallo a backup plan if the other less risky bats cost to much.

Admittedly the Indians trading Karinchak is a reach. The Indians big league catchers are awful. Hedges/Maile have a 42 and 66 ops+ , they do have Bo Naylor as a decent AAA catcher. Maybe swap out Feliciano for a 2nd tier OF prospect. To me trading Wong makes to much sense, the Urias/Brosseau/Peterson 2B is better than what Wong has been (unless his recent hot streak continues). I doubt we pick up his option next year with Turang ready.

Thanks, I should remember that. OK here is my 1 week game plan. 1. Trade for Trey Mancini for Keston Huira and a PTBNL (mid level prospect). We get a middle of the improvement and Huira gets some consistent playing time somewhere else. 2. Trade Mario Feliciano and Pedro Severino to Guardians for James Karinchak. We get a late inning guy for catcher depth. 3. Trade Kolten Wong to White Sox for prospcets We get something back and can replace Wong in house. 4. Trade Hader to Dodgers for Miguel Vargas and Ryan Pepiot The dodgers are going to be desperate for a closer and we cash in getting 2 high end prospects who can make a difference this year. I feel like in those deals we could improve our offense Mancini/Vargas and the additions of Karinchak and Pepiot help make up for the loss of Hader short term and long term give us cheap higher end arms.