Dominikk85

I agree. That he was able to portray himself as the advocate of the working class and fighter against financial elite is pretty outrageous when you consider his life story. The democrats have certainly missed to adress the working class in the last 30 years (basically any dem president or candidate since carter was a neolib) but trump certainly isn't the solution for the working class at all. I can understand if a white supremacist has voted for trump but some others I can't really understand - christian people: trump actually does not know a single bible verse and probably wasn't in church for 20 years before his presidency. He was was divorced several times, had affairs with porn stars and is constantly swearing. On the other hand biden goes to church every week and actually knows the bible -white working class: sure he promised bringing jobs in back from china but that won't happen and overall he certainly was more corporate friendly than worker friendly. Trump even gained with black and latin voters despite being openly racist. I don't get the fascination, maybe people think his incompetence is kind of a cool novelty?:) I realize Dems have done bad stuff too, Obama deported tons of people and didn't close quantanomo either but really under trump it got 10 times worse.

Doesn't it depend on what those assets are? I would not overpay for him but if he comes cheap, why not?

Yeah with all the infielders they got from the Mets I don't see a fit. They really (like always) need an outfielder and the sox do not have a high profile outfielder (unless they want to trades eloy or robert). The Indians would need like a 55fv outfield prospect as a headliner ideally and the sox don't have that. I don't really see a good fit here.

Seems Like the Indians are quitting. A couple days ago I had the following idea, but fortunately for the sox it did not happen. The Indians have lots of high upside young guys in the 40+ to 45 range who could move up. If I was the Indians I would have packaged some of those with lindor for two mlb ready really good prospects. Kinda like try to get lux, keibert ruiz and a mlb ready relief prospect and give up lindor, gabriel arias (soon 21 to A ball shortstop ranked 45 by longenhagen), logan allen (22yo SP prospect) and for example junior sanquentin (19 yo 40+ Fv shortstop). That way they could have stayed competitive, shed payroll and the dodgers would have gotten a superstar, got rid of a blocked top catching prospect and got 3 high upside pieces to do their player dev magic on and maybe produce a new star. Imo that really would have been a win win for both sides even though it is not a traditional way of doing it.

To be fair he was not projected for no power. Longenhagen saw him as a guy who could eventually hit 15 bombs and maybe even 20 if he does the altuve. He might still get there or not, but if he turns out to be a 3 homer guy like dee gordon that already is underperforming what the sox thought of him. So the 300 with 3 homers already is more a 50th percentile outcome, the ceiling outcome was 330 with 15 homers and great defense for 4-5 war a year which is probably higher than the floor on for example vaughn. Now there also is a downside of being a 270 hitter with 3 homers which would make him a utility guy and not a starter and that would be bad but then again the floor for a HS kid is not being able to hit A ball pitching. Yeah madrigal was not the highest upside guy but you couldn't and maybe can't rule out he could make a little swing change, add some muscles and become an altuve type.

I wouldn't even say that. 4th overall picks 08 to 17 (newer ones can't be judged yet) 17: Brendan mckay 16:riley pint 15: dillon tate 14: schwarber 13: kohl stewart 12: kevin gausman 11: dylan bundi 10: christian colon 09: tony sanchez 08: Brian matusz Would you take anyone of them? The kelenic comparison is unfair because kelenic is 29 picks -i.e the field and could have been just as well been Kyle skipworth (google him). If madrigal turns out to be a 2 war guy he is way above average fo the 4th pick of the last decade plus you have to consider that madrigal at the time wasn't seen as a 3 homer guy put people thought he could become a 15 homer guy an hit 300 with 15 bombs like pedroia so there was upside (maybe still is?).

Cease definitely is a candidate to improve but so was reylo last year, so it is not guaranteed. Command needs to get better, if he doesn't pitch from behind so much his stuff will be more efficient.

His sprint speed was 77th percentile last year. That is not buxton or hamilton level but well above average.

Yeah but it was 30 games. If you run into 2 or 3 stupid outs (which he did) that will drag your stats really far down. Now if he had played 162 and ran into 15 stupid outs (which is 3 runs prorated to 162 from 30) I would be more concerned but I'm confident he would have toned it down a little and learned from his mistakes, he probably just was a little too anxious on the bases when he first came up.

The alternate site thing is gone as soon there is minor league play again. It was better than nothing but it won't replace minor league play.

That is right, there are more old pitchers doing well but there are also counter examples like felix hernandez who were done at 31. A lot comes down to health, elbow injuries often can be overcome but a shoulder injury still often is the end.

Yeah that is right. A superstar deal is less likely to go wrong (at least in the first half of the contract, the final years often are ugly) but if it goes really wrong (player sucks already in the first half of a 10 year deal) it can really sink you while those older player short term deals are more likely to go wrong but more manageable if they do. That's also why those extensions like sale were so valuable, you had a cost controlled guy through age 30 but obviously trading for such a guy is very expensive.

Yeah but if you sign the non superstar free agents there is a good chance you end up with an encarnacion or la roche, those cheaper FAs often are older and have warts. You can hit well on someone like that but some luck is always involved.

Most owners are 65+ years old and they mostly care about the value of their product in the next 10 years. I wouldn't say they hate the game but their main focus is short term profit and not the long term outlook. Contracting the minors for example could cost fans in the long run because less kids are able to see affordable pro ball in stadium but it saves money now. Also like in soccer in europe the focus is more and more on TV (or stream in the future) and less on the live visitors.

That is very hard to do though. You need a strong home grown core but the astros wouldn't have won without adding cole and verlander. The closest thing might be the dodgers who did make additions but only betts as a real superstar.

I think both has its advantages. Really developing tools is very important and if you are a "gamer" and throw 85 that is not getting you very far. But I also some believe learning to win and learning the game is important and since kids nowadays focus on metrics like 60 yards and exit velo since age 12 there are many kids with good tools who don't know how to play. Probably needs both

I think the future will show this. There is thinking in the game that less games and more training complimented with semi game action like live ABs is a more efficient way to develope players. My thinking is that this is true for very raw players as you can work more specifically on weaknesses (mechanics, physical, approach) by for example telling a pitcher to attack a weakness of a hitter so he gets more practice in that but the more advanced a prospect is the more he needs game action as there is only so much you can improve by training and some stuff can't really be replicated in sim games, especially the mental aspect. Also sim games have the disadvantage of facing the same pitchers and hitters all the time and maybe pitchers not throwing you inside as they don't want to hurt someone. On the other hand for a more raw prospect it can be great to do a live AB, then you take him to video, analyze a weakness, do a few mechanics drills and then practice what you just learned in another couple live at bats. I think we won't have a real answer until in a couple years. Also we will see how alternate site prospects are doing this season.

First basemen are overpaid in arbitration. Extending him now could make his arb years cheaper in exchange for certainty for him plus maybe you get an additional year. This would also increase his trade value if you want to trade him towards the end of the window because trade value of first basemen in the final two arb years is low due to their high arb salary.

You can still trade for a backup in season. The prospect cost might be marginally higher but still it won't be super high, I don't think you need to part with any of the top5 to get one.

Btw I wonder how sustainable the uptick in quintana's k rate is. His era wasn't great last year but FIP and k/9 were career bests. His contact rate also was among the lowest in his career so maybe it was not a total fluke.

I do think they should move older non high level pieces (22+ or 4+ years of minor league time). A 40 to 45 FV with 4 years of MILB time is unlikely to turn into the next tatis and I rather get value now than losing him to rule 5 next winter. Yeah you don't want to lose all depth but rule 5 means huge value loss and teams like the yankees and rays do trade away lots of those pieces a year before they reach that point and thus get value. That looks bad in farm system rankings but really once players reach their last milb year the clock is ticking, either they are ready by then or their value will plummet. So once those college players are like 24 and international or HS players are around 22 you need to make a decision.

I would give Collins a Shot. Yeah he hasn't looked good on either end but he only has 120 ABs at the mlb level that is absolutely nothing (for reference Mike trout had a 87 wrc+ his first 135 PAs (no comparison here, I know trout was 18 and had less than 500 PAs above A ball, just to show that sub 300 PAs means nothing) and I do still believe he can be a 110 wRC+ hitter against RHP even if it is a non traditional line (low BA, 20-25 homers, lot of K, tons of walks). I still believe it was a huge mistake to not give Collins 400+ PAs in 2019 when the team was still playing for nothing. They should just have just let him hit everyday and say sink or swim, that way we already would have known him now. I would give him the lefty platoon at DH till may (when vaughn should be up) and after that give him backup catcher.

Hendriks would bei great but i would bei fine with bradley too. Get hendricks or archie bradley, a 4th starter and then the team is pretty much complete.

Yeah, his company was also sentenced for a billion dollar fine for fraud and cohen somehow managed to not be prosecuted personally. He seems to be a finance criminal who probably should be in jail for insider trading and other stuff.

Not sure that is true though. They used to teach finish across, bend forward and scrape the ground in pitching but nowadays many good pitchers stay upright and recoil in the follow through.