YourWhatHurts

https://vendettasportsmedia.com/christian-vazquez-best-cather-baseball/ There are a lot of things on the internet. But Grandal is often a dope and Vazquez is one of the top defensive C in baseball, and his offensive game has developed as well. He's cheaper also. He's just better. There was something I read in the offseason also about a scout talking about Realmuto being the clear #1 and Vazquez the clear #2 and then there's a big dropoff after that. But if all you want to think about is framing or whatever than I guess whatever. But Vazquez is still better anyway.

Yeah but we don't want to do that. I wouldn't take on that $17M or whatever without also sending salary out the door and improving in another area. You can't bet on him pitching a full season.

I'm hoping the Nats will rebuild and are looking to get better value than a draft pick. Don't forget about Thompson also. Admittedly Madrigal isn't a Verdugo-like centerpiece either. Other teams could beat this. I just don't want to trade Cease or Kopech and I still want Scherzer. I think a Scherzer-Giolito-Darvish top 3 would be pretty nice especially if we still have Cease, Kopech, Crochet, Kelly and Stiever in the cupboard after.

Good catch. Mendick or a signing in that case.

You people do not obviously consider defense at all. And offensively it's already pretty close. Vazquez is way better than Grandal.

Going off of my last posted idea: Grandal + Lopez + lower prospect for Vazquez + Eovaldi --> add a small amount of money only Keuchel + Dunning + Marshall for Darvish ---> keep money about the same; Cubs get to try to contend with a deeper rotation & bullpen Madrigal + Thompson + Adolfo for Scherzer + cash Sign Springer Sign Colome or someone else for about $6-7M Rotation: Scherzer, Giolito, Darvish, Cease, Eovaldi & Kopech Bullpen: FA, Bummer, Heuer in the back, Crochet gets added later for the postseason run C Vazquez 1B/DH Abreu 1B/DH Vaughn 2B Mendick / FA SS Anderson 3B Moncada LF Eloy CF Robert RF Springer Bench: Collins C, Leury UT, Mendick IF, Engel OF

Sox should approach the Red Sox about Grandal + Lopez + 1-2 small pieces for Vazquez + Eovaldi. Money should be pretty close. Vazquez is an upgrade over Grandal and Eovaldi becomes the 5th starter/swingman. At least he should be able to split the #5 slot with Kopech this year and maybe with Crochet next year. I bet the Red Sox want out of that money.

^I will add it was nice to see the Sox cut Herrera. But then they also fucked their selves twice as bad as that move did them good by dumping INTL slot money in exchange for saving a few dollars on Wellington's and Jones' buyouts. And it was also goo that they cut Danks but they still let that train ride on too long.

Part of the dorf's "getting nothing in return" stems from his philosophies on players earning their salaries or whatever, e.g. his GM makes a mistake and signs a Dunn or a Linebrink and we have to see these guys play like shit until finally another team is willing to take the last 0.5 to 1.0 seasons of their deals off of our hands. Maybe if he dumped some shitty FA signings earlier like other teams do and put just a warm body in their places here and there he would have seen cumulatively better results.

I certainly hope TLR's lineup card sharpie will be kept locked up behind bulletproof glass and attached to a breathalyzer machine. He shouldn't be able to fill out the lineup until he can pass a breathlyzer.

This isn't meant to be a "bash the Cubs" thread. I'm not that kind of fan where I feel like I have to hate the Cubs just because I love the Sox. But still, I think the Cubs are going to be terrible next year. Their pitching is really going to be bad unless they spend a whole lot of money or pull a couple rabbits out their asses i.e. claim a Johan Santana in the Rule-5 or claim a couple Bobby Jenks off of waivers, sign an Esteban Loaiza as a FA, that kind of thing. They really don't have any avenues to get better without spending money, and it doesn't look they will spend money. Per MLB TR: " Yu Darvish and Kyle Hendricks are obviously entrenched atop the starting five, and president of baseball operations Theo Epstein sounds comfortable on Alec Mills and Adbert Alzolay taking up the next pair of rotation spots. There have been questions about Alzolay’s ability to stick in the rotation, but the Cubs were apparently impressed enough with the improvement of his slider to regard him as a starter. Youngsters Tyson Miller, Brailyn Marquez, and Justin Steele will get a shot at the fifth starter’s role, but Chicago is also looking outside the organization at the middle-to-bottom tier of free agent pitchers" If they really think Alec Mills is anything more than a #6/7 depth option starting pitcher, and Alzolay is more than a MR, they are in trouble. Slotting those guys 3 and 4 is the kind of moves teams make when they are in Year 1 of a rebuild, not when they are trying to contend. If this is really going to happen, I think the Cubs are going to be baaaaaaaaad.

I have no idea why they would look into Wong if they aren't planning on trading Madrigal. And unless you can really get a nice piece back I'm not sure why you need to trade him. I think the Sox are fine with Madrigal at 2B. I am not sure that 2B/9 hitter is an area they need to devote resources to when they have such a big hole in RF and in the rotation, and are also in need of a back end arm in their pen.

Wong's price is probably the difference between a #5 FA SP and a #3/4 FA SP, or the difference between a mediocre MR type vs. a closer type. For what? He's not exactly a great player. Supposedly he's a very good defender but the offensive production has resulted in him being thought of as mostly a bust in his history as a player. I mean he's a career .261/.333/.384 hitter. You don't think Danny is capable of matching or bettering that? I definitely do.

They looked at fWAR and thought it was a great idea. They must have missed the WS where half of Dodger Stadium was chanting the name of shitty backup catcher Austin Barnes IIRC. And I'm sure they didn't watch any Brewers games.

If the Sox are going to trade Madrigal then I don't want them to spend money on Wong. Assuming they won't spend money on LeMahieu or Semien, I would not at all mind Mendick out there. I mean you are talking about swapping a #9 hitter for a #9 hitter. Mendick's a good player and I'm genuinely curious to see if he has a little bit of Whit Merrifield going for him in a starting role.

I'm curious about the Nationals plans. Scherzer only has 1 year left. Turner has 2. Victor Robles could be a buy-low guy with upside for RF/CF.

That Woodruff package is fair. Not sure the Crew would do it unless its a full scale teardown. Id also pick Springer up at the airport for that level of pay. And Yates and Colome both back at 12 mil total? Yes please.

You don't think sugarpenis is slang? Its a medical term?

If the above offseason happened how many of those players would have bad to shit seasons here? Id say Marquez would be good, Darvish has one shit season in 3 maybe 2, Q gets a 2 year deal and is mediocre in both, McGee has 1 shit year on a 2 year deal and maybe 2 on a 3 year deal. And Bradley gets 1 year and he is what we thought he was. Yeah I think that sounds like a typical Rick Hahn FA bonanza. I bet thats the plan.

I think Starling Marte is available for a song and salary relief. Also I wonder about the price in Ramon Laureano.

What do we have to add to Madrigal to get Clint Frazier? Is that doable? Maybe the Yanks would want to save some money somewhere.

I believe that people with DUIs deserve the chance to get jobs, go to the grocery store, attend rehab, eat cheerios for breakfast, etc. And one day maybe they can drive again. Because you cant effectively release someone from jail and say they are free to live a free and responsible life as rehabilitated law abiding citizens and then take away so many rights that they can't actually do that. But that said nobody deserves the right to manage a baseball team. This guy is a millionaire with a big pension and enough assets to guarantee his immediate family will be well off for at least their lives if not for a couple generations if they manage their wealth well enough. Nobody needs to cry about some prick like TLR getting a second chance as though hes just another Joe Blow in the ballpark. People of his positions in life should be better examples to society. Hes not Joe Blow and his life outside of baseball and the lives of his family are all peachy. TLR can get fucked and so can any one who wants to paint his story with the same brush they use to paint Joe Blow from the power plants story.

IIRC his 2nd and 3rd innings in his first game were great. The reports on him were excellent. Seeing him only made me more of a believer. Clearly he has work to do but lets not get stupid about a guy who split 2019 in A ball teams and was still developing before the pandemic shut him down. I mean come on in a years time he went from low a to MLB. Theres a reason for that. Sox could have always gone to one of the myriad fringe arms but they went to him. Trust the previous reports.

It probably would be better to lay in the weeds and let the offers develop instead of shouting their intentions so loudly like last year.

Lynn for Grandal. Texas gets better and it looks like they are not going to go full rebuild. Sox can go after Realmuto and Springer with McCann as a backup plan. Definitely don't want to trade Stiever. I am okay with trading Dunning but I think Stiever is the biggest overachiever candidate in the group and i am least worried about him heathwise. Good chance he turns into an MLB #3 or better. I'd almost rather trade Cease but I still dont want to trade Cease. Lets just throw the most money at Bauer (I know it wont happen).