jay87shot

Dunn has looked pretty good in spring even if it is under 20 abs. I have said this before, he has the tools to be a very good player. He recorded high sprint rates, played a solid 3B in a limited sample, and showed some power, and the ability in the minors to take a walk. I wouldnt be to surprised to see a .250/.333/.425 type guy who could get close to a 20/20 season with positive defense if things go well.

Power can be replaced by the young guys hitting like 5 more each and then Yeli and/or Mitchell staying healthy. The rbi presence in the middle of the order hopefully will be Chourio, but with Chourio, Yeli, and William and hopefully at least 1 of Mitchell and Hoskins I think that can be covered. His defense wasn't great so that should give a 3rd base platoon/Ortiz to SS a little leeway. The big loss is in leadership and energy. I feel like we have enough vets to make up for the leadership and enough youth to maintain the energy throughout the entire year.

Not all strikeouts are the same, sure a strikeout with a man on 1st is actually better than a ground out. In turn however, a strikeout with 1 out and a man on third is way way worse than a fly out or ground out. On top of that by not hitting the ball you don't have errors, bloopers, or dinky infield singles those are things that lead to crooked numbers. I get that at times strikouts aren't the end of the world but I will take a guy who strikes out less 8 or 9 times out of 10 times.

I've said it a few times Mitchell has 30/30 potential with a gold glove ability. It may take a couple fully healthy years to meet that potential but there is a dude there.

I don't see Swansen in the top 100 for MLB.com, as a senior from the big 10 without a standout skill I doubt he gets picked in the 1st couple rounds. Add in a rough start to the year and I don't see it, I don't mind him but maybe as like a 5th rounder. Here is my prospect crush, Chase Shores 6'8 245, throws upper 90's to 100. Had TJ and missed 2024 and most of 2023. Ranked 38 but has had a good start to the year, I doubt he stays ranked that low if he stays healthy but a 1st round option who could even save us slot money if he stays out of the top 30 rankings. I really like Kruz Schoolcraft a 17 yo HS 6'8 225 P/1B and 3B Xavier Neyens HS power hitter, however both will be long gone by our turn.

The Plank Walker, The Buckler, The Yoho Oh-No-No Maybe we name all his pitches and The them "Ship, Captain, Crew"

C- Contreras 1B-Rhys 2B-Turang SS- Ortiz 3B- Black (ehhh) OF-Chourio, Sal, Mitchell, Yeli (DH) Bench-Haase, Canha, Mone, Dunn SP- Freddy, Cortes, Civale, Myers, Ashby (Woody DL first week or two?) RP-Megill, Koenig, Hudson, Payamps, Mears, Peguero, E Rodriguez, C Thomas I will go with the 3 man mix of Munn, Dunn, Black at 3B. I think Yoho makes it obvious he should get a chance but the org, stays true to our motto and give Connor Thomas a chance and then in a month (when Yoho gains the extra year of control) we see Yoho. I don't know why but I will go with Elvin over the other bullpen options.

Obviously this is to early to fully know who makes the team but I think there will be a lot of good discussion on this before the season starts.

It all depends on his defense for me, I think I put his bat ahead of all the other options at 3B or 1B platoon but what does he look like on the grass. If he is close to the others defensively I start him in the bigs either at 3rd everyday (super nervous about this) or in a super platoon role spliting 1st with Rhys, a little 3rd with the other utility guy/guys, and also as a OF and DH when needed. His numbers really fell with a late slump in AAA but he was a better hitter before the mlb callup and inconsistent pt. I think the biggest thing is that when he comes up he needs some consistent playing time/ab's. Give him like a full month of everyday work before we make up our minds one way or the other. It seemed like he played a game or two than sat a game or two back and forth for the time he was up last year and I can see how that might be hard for a young guy, especially one who has switched positions like 4 times.

I know we don't need more relief help but if the price on Kyle Finnegan or David Robertson comes down enough to say 1/5 what are thoughts on getting a solid vet reliever? In theory, we have a bunch of late inning quality arms but overall there isn't a lot of late inning experience after Megill and Payamps. I still like the idea of trading a bullpen arm or two for a blocked 3rd baseman, if that happens I would be all over either guy if they are discounted. I do still think Robertson will sign a more lucrative deal once there is a couple meaningful bullpen injuries over the next couple weeks, but I could see Finnegan having to take a reduced salary just to be on a team opening day.

Let's not over react to 1 good spring training game. The is Dunn, Mone, Collins, Durbin, and Black all in front of him, I still say it is more likely that he losses the 40 man spot than get on the mlb roster. He only hit .261 in AAA and every team has a couple Vinny Capra type players. I like him overall but I still doubt we see much of him.

I think we had this discussion last year in a minor league forum and the one I liked best was "The Air-Ender"

If we could do McMahon for couple of lower ranked prospects (and the Rockies eat 6-14 million, better prospects for more money eaten or Rhys could go) I would be ok with this but my concern with him is the strikeouts. I don't see a path where he hits better out of Coors, his splits aren't terrible and he can play a good 3rd and 1st if we would need him to move. There is at least good consistency from him, he has been a 2-4 WAR player for basically his entire career.

It does say worst case. I could see us trading William maybe next offseason (agreed extremely unlikely at deadline) if Quero looks really good in AAA and gets some decent mlb experience. Also we would likely get like 3 top 100 prospects and more for him.

I didn't listen/read all of the Mark A interview but I do worry that Attenasio is struggling to keep up as the other owners have much deeper pockets. Overall, I like Mark and remember what it was like growing up with the Selig's. I think his heart is generally in the right place but I do think that he runs the team as a straight business and doesn't really gamble with the books. Being the smallest market I get the idea of needing to build a contender as cheaply as possible but I do think needs to be a point where Mark A needs to says, we need player A to give this team a chance at a championship, even though I need to go $10 million over budget lets do it. I think the year we got Sabathia was the only year I can say he possibly did that and that was like 17 years between playoffs or something.

Best=William top 3 in MVP, gets to DH 1-2 times a week, Haase is solid. Quero is amazing in AAA but not needed in the bigs until September callup. Dinges and Corobo show really high upside potential and become top 20 prospects in the system. Worse= I can't see Contreras struggling to much so injuries really are the worst scenario I see. Maybe the team isn't great we trade Contreras at the deadline for a huge haul and then Quero gets hurt. I don't like even typing that.

I agree, I am all for giving Black a chance I just kind of thought he would get 1B reps and then some DH when Yeli is in the OF, and likely some OF time. I don't mind giving him a shot to claim the position, I like him for 3rd better than the other options but everything I've read makes it seem like he will be like Ryan Braun was as a rookie defensively. The lineup will look very nice though if he can hit like we think he will and the other young guys make some improvements. Turang, Contreras/Chourio, Yeli, Contreras/Chourio, Mitchell, Rhys, Black, Ortiz, Sal I think that lineup has the potential to be awesome with all the guys with .340+ obps (maybe .350)

I would think next offseason would be the time. He will get us a comp pick so my guess is that next offseason we should get more than Devin but less than Burnes. I would think maybe like an Ortiz and Comp pick value would be good with me. If for some reason we are looking to trade him at the deadline we should get 3 solid pieces.

I'll go Juan Ortuno, Adamzewski , and Eric Brown Jr. for bats. Orunto is the guy that really get overlooked with the amazing DSL group because his tools aren't as loud. .344/.464/.481 more bb than k's puts him right with Made and Pena but because he is 5'8" and sign for a lot less he doesn't get mentioned. I doubt he starts in Biloxi but I would think 100 good ab's in rookie league could get him a promotion. Josh A has been talked about so I won't say much. Eric Brown, ok he had a nightmare year but he is just to good of an athlete to just disappear. Hopefully this is a Trent Grisham 2019 style year where they team let's his funky swing just be what it is and he gets out of his head. With how bad the year was he did only strikeout 83 times in 441 ab's. I have more faith in EBJ than Hebert or Eduardo Garcia. For pitchers I will go Manny Rodriguez, Jason Woodward, Quinten Low Manny Rodriguez has gotten some bottom of the top 30 love which is really a testament to how strong our system is. He was only 18 and had a 77/10 k/bb ratio in 94 innings. He showed the qualities that you can teach with some really gritty performances. He is kind of in the same boat as Ortuno were he doesn't have loud tools but at 6'2 175 he can add up to 5+ mph on his heater by the time he gets to the bigs. If he goes an affiliate a year he will be in the bigs around 22 throwing 93-95 with a solid pitcher mix and that bulldog approach and control. Woodward was up to 98 last year if I'm not mistaken. The problem is that he has thrown 40ish innings in 3 years. I envision a Brett Wichrowski style year for him, great first 4/5 starts that turns some heads. Probably a pretty early promotion to AA and then he holds his own. I don't know where Quinton Low is in recovery but if he is ready to go I think there is a lights out reliever in there. If he recovers fully and then gets a bump in mph from the surgery and/or switching to relief I think there is 100 mph easy. Trying to be a 2 way player (more pitching) and starting he was throwing up to 98 if I remember correctly in 2023. He is still only 22.

Love this, he can be the 5th OF until Perk is back. He can play 1st, DH, and maybe best of all is a perfect pinch hitter late in the game if a lefty is slumping. He could even play an odd game at 3rd, probably not more than an emergency situation. He also provides a strong vet presence and like we saw at the end of 2023 every at bat was a battle.

Hope to see a ton of that Yoho sequence for year to come. Filthy change over the plate, heater up in the zone, not even close change the batter can't help but swing at. Devin 2.0 style but maybe with better command?

Hopefully there are a couple arms that turn out like Hunt/Yoho/Letson/Wichrowski/Kuehner/Manfredi/even Woodward, Robinson, and Birchard had some signs of upside in limited time. Hopefully some of the extra HS arms we got for show some good result in rookie ball and the college guys can advance quickly.

I like the Steven Kwan angle, Sal has always reminded me of a smaller Johnny Damon. Hopefully the weight he added this offseason adds some power. I don't need Sal to hit HR's but with his speed he should be at like 40 combined 2B and 3B which a little more launch angle should help and he needs to take a few more walks. If he can get his OBP up over .350 and closer to .375 I think we will get the version of Sal I envisioned as a prospect. Have we heard if he is taking any reps at 3B or 2B? I haven't heard a lot from camp so far.

I do think that the beginning of last year showed we moved Chourio a bit fast. I like the idea of A balls this year, AA/AAA next and start 2027 in the bigs at 19 an that is if he is hitting like .300 every level and showing defense chops.

What is more likely Turang or Sal hitting .300 HR with 12+HR, Freddy (or other starter) being top 5 cy young, or one of Chourio/Contreras/Yeli be top 3 mvp? I could see any of those happening and wouldn't be to surprised but that is what I would call our dominating chances.