poppysox

Our best deals come out of the blue. Grandal was a pleasant surprise. These deals that are be talked about for days just seem to blowup. RH does his best work in stealth mode.

December 5 is a little early to throw in the towel. It ain't over til RH says it's over.

Guys with 4.5 ERA's are going to win quite a few games with our improved defense and greatly improved lineup. Grandel is going to help as well. Our pitchers don't all need to win 1-0 & 2-1.

Darvish is an interesting name at the right price.

If the 200 million is workable and Moncada is both willing and able to move to RF I'm all in. If what happens is we trade Madrigal so that Moncada can move to 2nd where he really isn't defensively very good...no interest. Since I doubt both the 200 price tag and Moncada's willingness to move to RF... don't expect this move to happen.

Any two of the 3 guys you mention would greatly improve the rotation we start the season with. Who knows...one of them could prove to be better than Wheeler. We have to play the hand dealt to us.

Unfortunately, you need to have Gio/Moncada/Robert types of players extended before they get two years from free agency. The sooner you do it the cheaper. You can't let this type of player walk without getting excellent compensation. This can't happen with only one year left to sell.

These guys getting 9 figures can afford to leave a few million on the table for preferences such as hometown and weather. The other normal guys follow the money. The whole super star thing is hard to compute for average joes. What is troubling to me is guys like Wheeler are not super stars but getting that kind of money. One or two of these big deals going South and you are sunk for the next decade. Heavy duty gambling.

No argument there.

Your last sentence is not true. We will undoubtedly sign a right fielder and some bullpen pieces at a minimum.

Already addressed that with Robert, Madrigal, Grandal and new right fielder like Pederson or whomever.

I agree that Rendon is the most getable of the top 3 but he doesn't fill a current need. IMO better to spend money where the need is...pitching and RF. I'm not trading Madrigal so I can jerry-rig a spot for Rendon. If the move of Moncada to RF is fine with him and the FO...I can see that since it would fill a current need.

At this moment in time...catcher is the least of our worries.

It's his thing...live and let live.

The FO has to trust the input of their staff and scouts as to quality and value. Decide in what range they value individual prospective FA's and act accordingly. We would kill the rebuild by overpaying and taking on more risk than warranted. Apparently we were at the top of our range and in fact had the high bid. Bad break but time to move on.

I'm afraid you might be right. The money has gotten stupid for pitching.

I like your Moncada + Madrigal + Grandal > Manny + Moncada + Castro...I agree.

Probably got the money he was after with a team he wanted to play for....no reason to drag it out. Not every player needs to squeeze the last possible dime.

The money has gotten out of hand for pitching. Sale, Price, and Bum are all OK if money is in line with current level of ability. We might be left praying Kopech, Dunning, Rodon and Cease develop and return in better shape than we have any right to expect. Two Nova caliber guys on one or year contracts might be the prudent move. Turn attention to the best right fielder and best bullpen guys. Bottom line 100 million for Bum is just plain scary. Ryu at 45-50 would probably merit heavy consideration at this point as well.

The DH will primarily be McCann or Grandal...whichever isn't catching that day with Collins getting well situated opportunities, Eloy, Robert and a platoon of Paderson/Engle is an above average defensive outfield. There is absolutely no reason to think Anderson and McCann regress defensively...actually every hope for improvement from Timmy. Jose will continue to be his steady self IMO and Kopech and Cease could both be on their way to be TOR pitchers. Giolito is expected to improve with a better lineup behind him and that goes for every pitcher we have. Lopez might be the biggest and best find of the year...he surely showed flashes. I think my 91+ is pretty safe and for sure would be disappointed with 83-85.

There are different ways to improve the team. Signing the big names is great...who didn't like the Grandal signing. But with 26 players on the ML roster there are lots of places to improve with "good" players. RF is an example where we could really make up some ground. The signing of Grandal indirectly fills the DH role with the catchers rotating through. We are for sure upgrading 4 of 9 players in the batting order and have a TOR arm in Kopech coming back for probably 2/3 of the year. You mention Rodon and Dunning as well will show up one of these days. Robert, Madrigal, Kopech, Grandal, new RF, better DH, 2 "good" starters and 2 "good" releivers. How can we not win 90+ games?

There are always guys who think they know more than other guys...I get it. Some guys can quote batting averages for the last 25 years, etc. I don't find that interesting or informative but it's their thing. I've been a hard core fan of the WS for 64 years and think I know a fair bit about them. I also played some college ball so have a general idea of which base to throw to etc.. I think WAR has a place in the front office analyzing trades and dollars, etc. but only baseball nerds care much. Batting ave,, homers, RBI's, ERA, W&L's still the yardsticks used by most fans including myself. I can look up some guys WAR just like you... but not interested. I think of the forum as a bunch of guys sitting around talking about their favorite team. Some like to b**** about the team and others think the new rookie will be the next Trout. It's all good by me. Lastly...why would you care how many post I make. You like statistics so do the math...works out to about 12 post per day. Is that insane...I don't know? You have posted slightly more than double my # of post and have slightly more than double my likes. Seems just as many people like my post as like yours.? Believe it or not there are some posters and subjects I don't enjoy or agree with. I just skip right by their post. You should try it.

Yeah...need to work on that in depth analysis you are so famous for.

Many times these disappointments become blessings in disguise. Lets see what happens over the next week or two.

Thank you.......yes I know that you didn't mean it as a compliment. You know that you come off as a Gloomy Gus. It doesn't hurt a forum to have some of both.