Vulture

True. I don't like La Russia, but age has nothing to do with it.

He played 2 innings behind the plate in his career. Its called an emergency catcher.

I didn't want either of them. They way it was spun that there were only two options is unbelievable. This wasn't a US election where a third party candidate in nonviable. Just shows how susceptible people are to suggestion.

Yeah but Larussa's teams were doing it in the 80s. Look at Bonds, he came right out and said he did because he wasn't just going to let McGwire and Sosa get the advantage. LA Russa was a steroids in baseball lynch pin, there is no denying that.

Great idea but who is going to want to play for La Russia?

Horrible

Politics was brought in long before that post

The phrase is

McCann has a higher WAR in less games since the beginning of 2019, has longer tenure with the Sox and is generally regarded as better handler of pitchers. Sox have retained almost their entire core with extensions, resigned Abreu etc. The fact they signed long term deals willingly foregoing free agency reflects more than trading Grandal would. A free agent would be attracted to a team that made itself better. I don't think that potential free agents are worried about Grandal if he's traded in favor of a catcher with a better reputation of handling pitchers, has longer tenure and has outperformed him the last two years. And having McCann and Nimmo is better than Grandal. Probably less expensive too. Can you actually give an example of a team primed to win trading a player and subsequently being unable to sign free agents?

I don't buy that. Players are traded all the time.

Re-sign McCann, trade Grandal to the catching deprived Mets for Nimmo, and put the money into the pitching staff, is what I would do.

BAAB How many players are kept on mlb roster again?

Of the shit head triumvirate of Laroche, Sale, and Eaton, he was the lesser shithead IMO. Six straight seasons of .362-.394 OBP but he stunk it up in 2020. Any evidence that was an aberration? The .360+ obp version would look pretty good balancing out the lineup, no doubt

He's confusing lost revenue with a net loss.

Bauer's value has been closer to Grandal or Keuchel than Machado or Harper, or Strasburg, or Cole or Grienke or Kershaw, or any of these top ten contract players, though. If he can get 35 mil a year, more power to him, but I think he's closer to the range of wheeler's value.

I don't see how 11 starts puts Bauer into Strasbourg's range. 17.5 career war vs 33.5 is not even close. Those were an incredible 11 starts but no way he'd keep that up over 30+ starts. Is a team going to put 35 million a year over multiple years to risk getting 2019 production out of him based on 11 starts. You could pay quintana 12 million for the same or better production as Bauer's 2019 numbers. His career numbers are actually lesser than quintana's. Obviously on different trajectories, but if quintana suddenly had a 11 start stretch would that put him at 35 million a year. Their 2019 numbers were actually pretty comparable, except quintana had better HR,BB rates and FIP. Compare these numbers: Quintana through age 29: 24.3 WAR, 1314 IP, 3.60 ERA, 3.63 FIP Bauer: 17.5 WAR, 1190 IP, 3.90 ERA, 3.85 FIP You're probably saying Quintana was never as dominate as Bauer in '20. Maybe not quite, but compare Q's first eleven starts of 2016 to Bauer's '20: Q: 72 IP, 2.13 ERA, 2.32 FIP, 0.25 HR/9 B: 73 IP, 1.73 ERA, 2.88 FIP, 1.1 HR/9 But what about Bauer's strike out rate? I'd argue giving up less than 1/4 home runs is more valuable than 25% more strikeouts. At any rate, if after 2016, Q declared free agency, would that make Quintana worth a top five salary in the game? He would have already accumalted 20.3 career war, nearly three more than Bauer's entire career at this point, and opened a season with an 11 game stretch nearly as dominant as Bauer's. Would anybody have advocated making him a top five paid player in the game? I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to add Bauer, but putting him at Strasburg's level because of eleven dominant starts is ridiculous. Add his last 20 starts prior to those and his ERA is closer to 4.

I'm still trying to figure out why they eliminated the curveball from Lopez's repertoire. Because it worked with giolito is not a good reason but that's the only one I can come up with. It clearly didnt work out with Lopez. It was his best pitch when he came up with the Nats. I'd like to see if he can bounce back employing it before giving up on him.

I don't think Bauer is comparable to Strasburg. Sure he had a hell of an 11 start stretch in 2020 but the track record isn't even close. 17.5 career war vs 33.2, not to mention Strasburg's post season success with a career 1.46 ERA and two world series wins in '19. Baseball reference has Cole, Kluber and Sale listed as similar to Stras, but guys like Chris Young and Mike Fiers to Bauer. Granted, he's turned a corner, but I'm not sure eleven starts is enough to justify the comparison when it comes to contract negotiations. He has been excellent, but he also has been exceedingly mediocre. Strasbourg has never had any seasons as weak as Bauer's '17 or '19.

I think after Bauer, he's the best pitcher available in free agency. Strikeouts are great and all, but they aren't exactly efficient and aren't as great as home run suppression. Stroman keeps the ball on the ground. He has the lowest launch angle against of any pitcher in the majors, which keeps the ball in the park and induces double play balls. He's never allowed more than 0.9 hr/9 in any season. He's never had a FIP above 3.9. He's a bull dog on the mound, kind of a starter version of Colome. Put him together with a good defense and good offense he'd win a lot of games

Does being a windsock actually qualify as a political viewpoint though?

He guaranteed on his twitter feed a minimum 3.5 war per year to whoever signs him for one He guaranteed on his twitter feed a minimum 3.5 war every year to whoever signs him for one.

There's a big difference between a loss of revenue and a loss. Mlb TV revenue alone is greater than mlb payroll.

That is incorrect. The least the Sox can offer him in arbitration is 4.448 million. Given his performance, if he had any sense, his counter wouldn't be much more than 5 million since he would be more likely to lose the higher he went.

It's been lasting for years. He's gotten the job done since he put on a Sox uniform. His whip was around 0.85 a couple nights ago. Hard to blow games when you give up one run in 13.2 innings. He has given up 2 homeruns in more than 75 innings with the Sox. Claiming the Sox are winning in spite of him is LUDICROUS. Sox infield had to put up a clown show for him to blow a game. Maybe we can clone Mariano Rivera and make you happy.