Dominikk85

Through 2017 Bauer really was just ok (4.3 era) but since 2018 he had two very elite seasons. He also had a mediocre 2019 and 2020 was shortened so he is not a totally sure thing but the potential is there and 2019 might just be a little fluke in his new self. He also has been very durable so far which is a plus.

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His sprint speed was 77th percentile last year. That is not an 80 but probably a 60-65 grade.

Well cespedes is at least 25 pounds heavier and thus a lot stronger (were is the 180 from? Fg has him at 165) However with cespedes there might be another problem i.e a "bad body" that could affect his agility, flexibility and play a position other than DH. You don't want to bulk up too much as a short guy or you will be labeled a bad body player.

Madrigal already did gain a couple pounds before 2020 and also hit the ball slightly harder than in the minors. I think he can gain another 10 pounds but he shouldn't gain more than to not lose speed and agility.

Hitters are also up there to swing early if it is a fastball over the plate. Back in the day you would start with a fastball over the plate and the hitter would usually take it to get a little deeper in the count and then the AB would start. But today hitters have to attack every mistake over the plate because you usually only see one fat pitch per AB. That means pitchers need to be more careful with the first pitch which leads to deeper counts and more walks. But still strike 1 is important of course and especially reylo and cease have to improve that. Pitch one doesn't have to be a FB and it doesn't even have to be in the zone but it has to be close enough to be either called a strike or get a swing. That being said the "coop let the pitchers only throw FBs" is a bit overblown, I think it was time to replace him but he also wasn't that old school, the sox in 2020 were 8th in fastball percentage in the AL which is middle of the pack.

Owning a team will always be a business and you can't expect owners to lose money consistently. However it is still bad that some teams have 3 times the payroll of others. That some are at 220 and others at 60 is just bad for the game. Maybe the league should make sure that every team is between 130 and 180 instead, maybe combined with more revenue sharing. You could grant teams a two to three year rebuild exception per decade but otherwise you have to be at 130+. No other league has such a big payroll spread as mlb.

Bauer definitely got a bit better on social media. It is good that he mostly stopped posting about politics. As for his agent she is certainly a bit unorthodox but I think that is mostly for entertainment purposes and to gain followers. But that doesn't mean she is bad at her job, I don't think she acts like that in a closed room with a GM. We will see what kind of contract he gets.

Some of the stuff that biden has promised like free college could help. I think it was great that bernie hung in so long. Back then people said quit the race already and support biden against trump but by staying in the race and being annoying he forced biden to promise stuff like debt cancelation, free college and so on and now is probably the best chance to get that stuff done. I would also like m4all but even going back to and slightly improving Obamacare already would be a good start.

He should absolutely win and it sucks they scapegoat him but he probably is still done in baseball because privacy and trust is very important to mlb players and if he gives names of pitchers on court to prove that anyone does it they will be really pissed at him. He can probably get a settlement payment but I don't see how he can continue to work in baseball after naming offenders.

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.