biggentleben

I think the primary move there was getting Grisham, not Davies.

The full deal included two likely top 100 guys changing hands. The Padres get Pham, and his skills have been covered plenty here, but he’s also 32, making $8.6M this year, and he’s got one more year of arb that will certainly be eight figures. They also get Jake Cronenworth, a borderline top-100 guy, who is MLB-ready, but his ceiling isn’t tremendously high. The Rays get Renfroe, whose underlying stats have been improving each year and could really break out in the AL East road parks. They also get Edwards, whose a backend top-100 guy, but one with plenty of untapped potential. Last, they have another PTBNL. That usually indicates at this time of year that the desired player is Rule 5 eligible, and they’re going to see if he makes it through the draft. It’s truly an even move in overall value. Solid trade. Could bite either team in the backside, though as there’s potential for big value headed the other way.

A testicle emerging from a vagina. That is going to sell well... Sort of the way University of South Carolina apparel that has their shortened team name sells like hot cakes..it has nothing to do with the school for sure.

And now we will see it in our local teams. While there have been some larger contracts handed out in free agency this offseason, also note how many very quality players were just non-tendered. I mentioned last year that the economics of television deals forever going up by astronomical percentages was over, and teams know it, players know it, and smart players last spring cashed in significantly on extensions.

Ugh, the WOTE death is almost a year old at this point. That's incredible to think about. I'd been following them for a long time. My subscription list is incredibly long but includes a lot of vocal groups. My yearly song-a-day Advent posting on Facebook is influenced heavily by those groups.

I haven't entered into this area of the site in some time, but this thread is definitely one to read! First, I've had very good experiences with the moderators. As someone who has moderated boards as ridiculous as the old ESPN boards, this is a glorious difference in communication and the ability to sort out differences. While I've not always agreed with views (sometimes quite vehemently) of the moderating staff, I've always been informed of why something was removed. Many times, my perspective as an outside fan has rubbed folks the wrong way as has my complete dislike for Kent Hrbek as a person (off the field, not anything to do with his on-field play), but that's a whole other thread/article/book. Second, on the Celebrity Death Pool...I'll gladly take up the defense of this one. Who here has not played Cards Against Humanity or a similar sort of game? Who hasn't discussed the passing of a politician or sportscaster or former local hero with less than pure reverence? In the years I've been playing, I've found myself paying significantly more attention to those lost and exposing myself to art, music, and writing of those who have been mentioned that I was unfamiliar with. My time researching for the list each winter (which starts in about 10 days) often leads me to explore the music, movies, and other artistic works of many considered "near death". I know that I've found many musicians that I now love through that thread each year. It's also inspired me to do a yearly "who we lost in baseball" article each year that typically runs about 10K-15K words with notations of players, announcers, managers, umpires, and all sorts of figures around the game that have passed on in the past year, giving one last opportunity to remember their contribution to the game I love. We all have things like a Celebrity Death Pool in our lives. It allows us an opportunity for reflection, humor, and reverence at a time and issue that is often purely about grief and sadness. Not to make this a political post, but this is similar to what Trevor Noah and John Oliver do currently and has been done for years in similar comedic shows focused on an often-intensely-divisive topic of politics. I can respect that the CDP is not every person's cup of tea, but its purpose is not solely to make light of the topic of death or cheer in others' misery. It's to allow us to reflect on those who have left us. Otherwise, we'd all have rosters of 20-year-old celebrities in order to hit the jackpot when one passes rather than significant rosters of those over 90, who really do little for the points of the game. That we don't have rosters to "celebrate" tragedy but more to react to and respect the ending of a long life should indicate exactly what is the purpose of the thread for those who do participate.

You can thank her. Did the same thing for me.

First thing my wife said as I had the new logo up on my computer "is that thing coming out of a...uh...woman's...area?!" Made me look again, and, well, it's not NOT there.

Issue is finding that on the market. As mentioned on the podcast, I'm not sure Gordon has a ton of value beyond a utility infielder, which he's pretty much ready to become at the big league level, but that's his ceiling. Obviously, the Twins know how valuable a utility guy can be (Adrianza was signed while Cron/Hildenberger/etc. were not), but that doesn't add a ton to a trade.

We finally got the Twins podcast recorded and up going over the list. I think you'll enjoy this. Eddy prodded me into it, but I did compare Larnach to some pretty heady company, which is a big reason why I have him #3. Here's the pod for your listening ears: https://www.prospectslive.com/podcasts/2019/12/3/podcast-twins-top-30-breakdown

Comparing a pitcher and hitter future value is tough to do. Balazovic made huge strides in 2019, but there's still a lot that could go wrong that would take away his chance to even work in the bullpen. Duran, for me, has a higher floor due to his chance to be a very good reliever as a floor. I argued on a 60 for Balazovic's ceiling, but the talk in the room was heavily on concern about repeating his 2019 strides, which kept his ceiling at the 55 mark.

Vizquel is no Andrelton. Essentially, on a per-game basis, Vizquel is Jose Iglesias. So, Jose Iglesias for a long time is a Hall of Famer...

Preach.

I like this as a fan. I like it even better knowing that every solid source I have points to the guys signed so far being secondary pieces in their offseason plan (other than Smith).

Or both have been in roles that required that mindset. With Friedman, he's been with a team that had minimal money to spend overall and then a team with significant long-term money spent that needed to maximize on the edges to stay under luxury tax, so prospects would always have high value. Dombrowski has, in fact, built a winner from within. He cleared off an older roster in the early 1990s in Montreal to give playing time to guys like DeShields, Walker, and Grissom while drafting guys like Cliff Floyd, Mark Grudzielanek, and Rondell White before heading to take over the Marlins in 1992. There, he made Charles Johnson his first draft pick and in the organization's first season traded for 24 y/o Gary Sheffield. He plugged in Robb Nen and acquired guys like Quilvio Veras for the lineup. Heck, a look at the expansion draft for the Marlins, orchestrated by Dombrowski is a sign of just how in tune he is to roster construction via young players - Bret Barberie, Trevor Hoffman, Chuck Carr, Bryan Harvey, Jeff Conine, Carl Everett, David Weathers, and Robert Person, along with another 3-4 guys who were decent middle relievers were all in that expansion draft. The 1997 team is infamous for having a ton of big-time players, but Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, Alex Fernandez, Devon White, Moises Alou, and Bobby Bonilla were all free agent signings, none of them costing prospects, and that '97 team famously played rookies Luis Castillo and Edgar Renteria up the middle and even with three FA starters, rookie Livan Hernandez was their playoff hero on the mound (along with Eric Gregg). Ownership forced the tear-down after the 1997 season, but the team that won in 2003 was built largely on the back of Dombrowski as well, with guys like Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, and Josh Willingham coming from his drafts between 1998-2001, and 2003 cornerstones like Derrek Lee, A.J. Burnett, Juan Pierre (via Preston Wilson), Braden Looper, Mike Lowell, Brad Penny, and Dontrelle Willis (via Matt Clement) were all part of trades between the end of that World Series and his departure after the 2001 season. Add in that he signed Miguel Cabrera in that time, and he built a pretty incredible team that eventually won in 2003 again.

All I know is the first woman to act as head coach of one of the "big four" pro sports was a South Dakota girl, Becky Hammon, who recently took over as the "official" head coach when Greg Popovich was thrown out of a game. She worked in coordination with other coaches on the bench through the rest of the game, but she is the next in line as far as the responsible party, so to speak, when Pops is no there. Pretty cool moment.

FWIW, that's how Justine is introduced consistently and I believe that's even mentioned on her LinkedIn profile.

McCann was a negative defender last year. Grandal is a monster upgrade over a bat-first backup type.

I can't ever do a ballot with Vizquel and without Andruw. Vizquel was a good defender that added flash as well, not a once-a-century sort of defender. Offensively, it's not even close.

He'd been fairly widely moved into the top-50 before this deal by a lot of the guys who keep their ranks consistently updated. I do think he could see a false push with this deal, but whether it's because folks look at his home/away stats and realize that he was one of the best hitters in AA last season playing in one of the worst parks for hitters or whether it's because of perception due to the contract, he's a legit 25-50 prospect as a 1B, which is a pretty impressive prospect. The thing I do find amusing is that the Mariners now basically control White's livelihood. If all options are picked up, he's in his mid-30s before he ever tastes free agency. Yet no one is ripping the Mariners for taking advantage of White or swindling him the way that the Acuna/Albies deals created days of media worry last spring.

Shoulder issues and Tommy John surgery, and he's 27. Not a good combination at this point. From views on him, he's back to previous velocity, which was low-90s, upper-80s fastball with three good breaking pitches. What's not come back since his shoulder issues is his once-devastating change. He used to get wicked late movement on his fastball and his change mirrored so well that it played as a double-plus pitch present (one review after 2015 had his change as the best in the game, majors or minors). That change relied on excellent arm speed mirroring with the fastball as well as excellent pitch tunneling. The pitch doesn't do that the same way anymore since the shoulder issues, and while it's still an above-average change, a guy with a 45 fastball, 55 change, 50 slider, and 45/50 curve is a swingman type.

On happier news, at least personally, the Braves have decided to forego a rotation for 2020, with their third bullpen signing. Technically, two are re-signings, but those two combined for roughly 4 months on field for the Braves. Also, word I’ve been hearing a lot is not so much payroll number for Anthopolous this offseason, it’s remaining a certain number under luxury tax. I’ve heard that number as little as $30 million, which would mean a bump to $160-170 million for the Braves and certainly have them in the market for Donaldson plus a top starter (not named Stras or Cole) even with current signings and no significant non-tenders.

Not sure where this best fits, but I didn’t want a whole new thread for him. Felipe Vazquez has 20 ADDITIONAL charges levied on him this week. What a dirtbag human being.

It was very well done. Casting was tremendous, IMO.

I won't disagree there, but the books often did the same thing. He'd have moments of being this superstar combat guy but then an entire book where he was the background guy directing frontline operatives.