Danchat

This seems to be an annual thing... last year it was "France's deal isn't guaranteed, he probably won't be the everyday 1B" and "Bader is here to the 4th OF, he's not going to get more than 400 PAs". Maybe he DHs quite a bit, but he is absolutely going to be the starting 1B this year. It is in every player's interest to have a good season...

I'm surprised it cost that much for Bell, given he didn't hit that well for a 1B/DH type. He's better than the likes of Clemens and Julien, but he's a pure placeholder. Falvey is intent on not moving any of his prospects to 1B, so I guess he isn't blocking anyone technically.

The Bengals aren't trading Burrow, and if they are his trade price is going to be bid to ridiculous levels. A package of 2 1sts (the first being a non-top 10), a reclamation project of a QB and a WR2 that needs to be paid is not gonna do it for them. The trade for that happened a couple picks after us, the Rams got a really good deal moving from the late 1st to 2nd round for the Falcons next year first. I wished we could have made that move, it was a good move on paper at the time and now that the Falcons are bad, it could be a top 10 pick. The Falcons' one consolation is that they guy they moved up for looks like a stud, ED James Pearce who already has 8 sacks. You could say it was a variation of the Dallas Turner trade, except we didn't give up a 1st and Pearce is much better already.

He's the only "hit" after the Polanco/Sano/Kepler crop. They need to start hitting on more, hopefully Rodriguez will be the start of that.

And they didn't lose anybody, as I suspected. None of these prospects are good enough for another team to have to give them a full shot in the majors. Culpepper has upside, but he seems like he's not close to helping a MLB team yet, given the MPH drop and command issues.

So they essentially passed on a Rule 5 draft pick to land a 17 year old catching prospect? Geez. So much for finding a guy who might help the big league team, even if the odds are small of hitting on one.

Susac being available to take given how well he hit at AAA there is suspicious, is he not a very good defensive catcher? Otherwise it seems like a no-brainer to take him, especially given the dearth of depth at catcher in our farm system (who knows if Tait sticks at C). Might as well take a shot to bolster that position for the future, I like the move.

They'll wait until making an addition before making a subtraction like Gasper. There isn't any need to clear room on the 40 man roster right now when they can do it right before making a move.

I don't believe that. I am willing to bet teams were wary of his injury history and they didn't get many offers for him.

Oh yeah, you're right. That's a lot less rest advantage than I thought.

He should be the utility man, not the everyday 1B like he will start the season as.

Roden doesn't belong in the conversation with Outman, he should be viewed far higher on the totem pole. You're reminding me of the Adam Thielen trade... unlike Outman at least he was good in 2024.

They had a day less of rest plus their MNF game went to the end of overtime. Daniels rushed back from his elbow injury, and their team also sucks. It is hard to believe they were in the Championship game last year, but their defense is terrible and the offense is completely reliant on Daniels.

For those interested, here's my updated PFF depth chart: Almost every player on defense is having their worst PFF season in years, which is probably related to A) the team trailing most games and being on the field for a long time, B) the older guys are encountering age regression, and C) a few players getting misused (Hargrave is not a NT, Metellus is not a traditional safety, Turner isn't rushing the passer enough). Offensively, JJM is close from going from NEI to Abysmal, and the OL looks good on paper but it's only been healthy enough to play as the intended 5 man group for 2 quarters. The good news is Jackson is having a solid year for a rookie OL as they usually jump in quality in Years 2 or 3, the bad news is that Fries' grades are down at his career low level, and we signed him to a 5 year deal. The OL moves for this offseason will be interesting (a better backup OT feels necessary with Darrisaw's durability problems, Kelly will be cut and a starting center must be found, O'Neill will be very expensive to retain).

In 150 PAs, only 12 games as a Twin. He'll be 26 and has already crushed AAA pitching, he should be given every chance to prove himself. Otherwise why did they trade for him? I'm not high on him as a player, but we're not going to figure out any more about him as a hitter until he gets more chances to hit in the majors. I agree that Mendez likely won't be a factor, perhaps late in the season.

There's a high chance Kreidler will get DFA'd sooner than later with intent of getting him back to play at AAA assuming he clears waivers. They've done this several times in past years with similar players.

I'm aware, it's closer to $40M, but they're going to add a veteran of some level. I'd pay him something in the range of $10M unless he gets bid out of that. We will have that kind of money to spend.

...yeah, I'd take Mariota as a bridge QB over spending a draft pick to get Mac Jones.

I didn't know QB-gami was a thing... there's got to be a whole lot of unique one of those.

I'm 99% sure that is sarcasm.

I put a few units on a custom line of Seattle -13.5. Easy money!

I don't know about that, he played 35 games in the minors and was hitting well at AAA for all of July until they finally called him up the day after the trade-a-thon. Seemed to me like that had more to do with them not trusting him over the likes of Bader and Castro rather than giving him an extended period of recovery time, given the timing of the call up.

Interestingly, JJM's best two games at QB have been the Week 1 Bears game and the Lions game... both happening to be after a very long layoff and a 6 week gap. It's almost as if the more he gets settled into playing KOC's system, the worse he performs. He plays his best when they're in no-huddle mode where there is less time for KOC to talk to him in the mic. JJM's playing like one of the worst QBs of all time, he looks like he's light years away from being a quality starter but I think KOC's complete inability to coach him is a factor. A young player, even a bust of a QB should improve with experience. Is it unreasonable to expect KOC to get him to play at the level of a backup QB even if he doesn't have what it takes to be a starter? They even got him to stop scrambling, which was a big factor in moving the chains in the Lions game. It's the same when Dobbs was QB, KOC got him to stop scrambling and didn't design a single play to take advantage of his running ability and he got worse as he learned the system. And unfortunately he's also fragile, if it is true he was concussed on the scramble play. That'll be his third injury on a run in his career. I'd like to see if Brosmer's any better, but my suspicion is that KOC isn't very good at mentoring young QBs, he needs a vet to run his scheme. He sure as hell isn't going to adjust to his personnel to his players. It'll be just like the last two games of Darnold, most of JJM and Wentz's games - a lot of holding onto the ball, KOC trying to make him throw deep too often, poorly blocked screens, and no slants.

I'm not shocked they tendered Larnach, I think they still plan to trade him. As has been discussed his value isn't that high, but I think there are a few teams out there that would use him as a DH against RHs given his numbers against them, and last I looked there are a lot of teams with worse production than what Larnach did last year in the DH spot. Knowing Falvey, I wouldn't be shocked if he gets flipped for a rehab project a la Outman, or another pedestrian reliever.

Seeing that Jackson has no options and will be tendered, looks like he is the backup catcher. If they can get something close to what he did for Baltimore then that'll pass as a backup catcher... but wow, that strikeout rate. Yikes. They are moving Jackson for a reason. I don't think Eeles will do any damage in the majors, so I'm not concerned with losing him.