bighurt574

It's not like Shields replaced Cy Young in our rotation. If not Shields, it would have been some other schmuck. Latos? Fulmer? We gave away a generational, HOF talent, if he's not derailed by injuries or something. Between him and Machado, I don't think I can watch a Padres game for the next decade.

I'd probably plan on McCann/Collins and spend that Grandal money elsewhere. Bigger holes to worry about.

In today's market, there really aren't many of these SP's who should be out of their budget.

I don’t know who I’d target yet (Kuechel hasn’t even thrown a pitch this year) but it would be criminal not to spend the money to add at least one top flight starter to the rotation. Probably a second depth piece too like Nova (with hopefully better results). Our window to compete is starting to open next year, the organization better show it is serious.

Pretty tough to justify anyone else at this point, given the injuries and/or underperformance after our top 5.

Filling out the rest of that lineup is really the million dollar question. When this rebuild began, we were very top heavy. We had some valuable assets (Sale, Q, Eaton, etc.), but not nearly enough depth to actually be competitive. With a bunch of our second-tier prospects hurt or struggling, I'm worried we're headed to the same place again. If we don't right that ship, we're going to have to make some smart FA signings and/or trades to fill the gap.

I’m assuming Robert will be in the majors a month into the 2020 season, so you sort of have to work back from that. The only real question is how to divide up his time between AA and AAA until then. Not sure it really even matters all that much, but I’d probably move him to AAA in another month or so, giving him a few months in AAA this year.

Yeah, under the current system, these HS guys are facing a good 3-4 years in the minors if not more making basically nothing, then even if they make the majors eventually, they're cost controlled for six years. This is basically their only chance for the next decade of being able to extract some extra money.

I certainly don't blame HS guys for asking for overslot deals. They have leverage, they can just go to college instead. They're also typically fairly straightforward in communicating their rough $$$ expectations ahead of time, so teams usually know what they're getting into, more or less, and can plan accordingly. On the flip side, teams aren't shy about shafting college seniors, who have no leverage and end up with underslot deals. The HS guys are sort of the other side of the coin. It's a business, for both the players and the teams.

I've been convinced all along Baltimore is just trying to keep Rutschman's money demands in check.

That's not automatic....

The Orioles would be fools not to take Rutschman. I assume everything else is a smokescreen to keep his bonus demands in check.

I wouldn't mind making a run at Kuechel to solidify the rotation the next few years, especially since we would have saved paying 40% of his salary this year.

I don't know, even if he keeps it up, as a rental at a decent salary already, he'd probably net a second-tier prospect at best.

Agree, even if Anderson was being dumb, it's on Abreu to be watching the baserunners in front of him.

Eh, if all these 10 year offers came in recently, Boras is going to play them against each other to try raising the price.

If the Sox are offering Harper more than Machado, that just makes them look dumb/desperate, not face saving. Should have offered that to Machado then. And if they're offering Harper a similar $250M guarantee, that's not exactly "respectable" either if he has $300M+ offers.

Not really. It sounds like they had the highest offer on the table for a while until SDG swooped in. I wish we would have ponied up more and probably earlier, but I wouldn't call it insulting. Comps are awfully tough here. You're really shopping for a $10M home that is the most expensive on the market.

If the reports are true that Philly is the only team talking about a long term deal, then they’re basically bidding against themselves. I guess I could see the Sox (and Boras) keeping in touch in case Philly is well aware they’re bidding against themselves and holding back.

And if he hits his potential, that’s a pretty key piece right there.

If Eloy turns into a 40 HR guy with a solid OBP, he’ll be a centerpiece regardless of what WAR says about his defense.

The hold up on years 9 and 10 is almost certainly an owner issue, not a GM issue. No GM has that much job security. Panicking and over paying for Harper would only compound the mistake, however. If they’re willing to top $300M, they should have given it to Machado, he was the better bet.

Didn’t say it was better than SD. Wish they would have just guaranteed it. Or at least guaranteed a 9th year to make it a more interesting choice.

That's actually a pretty solid offer, 550 PA's is easy enough if he's reasonably healthy. But I still hate to lose a guy over that. Wish we would have just guaranteed 10 years.

Think we can package Alonso and Jay to SD for a lottery ticket?