Dominikk85

Will the new owner spend as much though? Mike Ilitch was an old man who was willing to lose money because he wanted to win a WS before he died (did not quite work as they lost two WS in his last 10 years). Apparently his son chris who runs it now is not willing to spend as much money as Detroit is more of a mid size market and after the downfall of industry not super affluent either. The tigers are not the As or marlins but I doubt they will spend 180+ M like they did in the last years under Mike Illitch.

Royals are super stupid. They got good depth in their system due to all the comp picks they got but they would have gotten much more if they had traded Hosmer, cain, moustakas and also Perez and merrifield instead of just cashing in comp picks. Comp picks are great but on average you only get a 45 which is great in the back half of your top 20 but not so great in your top5.

It depends on how well they do their rebuild. They have some good pieces especially pitching and have gotten some good hitting prospects too but the hitting still lacks depth and pitching can fade away quickly with injuries (as we have seen in the early days of the sox rebuild too).

Grandal won't stay this hot as he was the last two weeks and he will have empty weeks where he hits .100 with one extra base hit again (still will give you walks) but it is the bottom line you pay for and that bottom line is good.

It is pretty bad. After setting the all time homer record the twins have regressed quite a bit this year. Nelson Cruz is still nelson cruz but overall the team is hitting pretty pedestrian or better yet bad. The twins are ranked 11th in the AL with a 94 wRC+ which is worse than the orioles and tigers. Sure some of it is bad luck and players should get a little better but they probably also had some over performers last year. Wrc+ 19/20 Kepler 121/104 Polanco 119/93 Arraez 125/76 Buxton 111/76 Rosario 103/91 Gonzalez 93/68 New acquisition donaldson was solid but hurt most of the year, only sano and cruz have consistently performed well. I do expect some guys get a little better but I dont think kepler, arraez and polanco are 120 wrc+ guys and buxton is also probably more of a 90 wrc+ guy. Projections till end of 2020 Kepler around 110 Polanco around 103 Arraez around 100 Rosario around 103 I think some people maybe believed a bit too much into the breakouts they had last year (especially kepler, rosario, arraez and polanco). I probably overrated them a bit too.

He does hit the ball a bit harder than last year (85 average EV) but so far he has been exactly as advertised with very few Ks, no extra basehits and very few walks. The good sign is that he hits the ball hard enough to get it out if the infield. He was a bit lucky but his xBA for the season is still .333.

I agree. Moncada is a highly paid star player who should be in the lineup almost every day. Either he is healthy and then he needs to play (except for an off day or two) or he is injured and then the medical staff needs to speak out and put him on the DL. Moncada did get a few off days but playing a star player in his prime part time makes no sense, if a couple off days don't resolve it he needs to be on the DL.

Season wRC+ up to 122 which is basically what you expect. In a normal season a bad first two weeks probably wouldn't have been noticed but of course this year it is like a quarter of the season.

I hope kopech comes back strong but you probably can't expect more than 120 IP or so from him in 21.

The pitchers would probably go on a strike then. You could put vaughn in right 1 or 2 games as a fill in but having Vaughn AND eloy in the OF every day would be terrible.

EE has hit a bit better recently. Not great but a 114 wrc+ the last two weeks is at least playable and lowers the chance of vaughn getting called up (at this point I think you can't expect much more than a 110 wrc+ from vaughn who only has played intrasquad games the last months).

Sheets (and generally the 23-25 yo college guys) is really hurt by that cancelled milb season. Sheets did take a step forward last year hitting decently in AA last year with 16 homers and with another step forward he could have helped his prospect status. A strong season at age 24 would have been nice but now he was not able to build on that and next year he is 25 which is nearing the "non prospect" age. Obviously some of those older non prospects can still become dudes (like JD Martinez or jose bautista) but that is rather rare. Vaughn is hurt a little too but he is a bit younger and he is so advanced that his development is mostly finished so it doesn't hurt him as much.

It seems that that outrageous framing by contreras is really paying off. It looks crazy but it seems that way (starting glove a foot outside the zone and the move it in when catching) is the way to go. Good job by cubs coaching as he used to be one of the worst framers in the game.

Yeah if grandal becomes worse at catching and hitting he is no longer a top2 catcher:).

I think milb will be gone in a couple years at least as an independent org. Most likely mlb will run their own dev league in a reduced form (maybe only 3 teams per franchise).

We simply don't know it yet. Maybe Abrams becomes Lindor and vaughn becomes justin Smoak. Or vaughn becomes Goldschmidt and Abrams becomes tim beckham.

Last month he had a 128 wrc+. First month was really bad but August he was quite good.

Obviously he is not getting fired in season while making the post season but I could see them upgrading next season. I don't think he is as bad as people think because some of his moves are questionable but also caused by constraints of the roster, especially a solid but not very deep bullpen which means that sometimes you have to risk losing a game and hoping a struggling pitcher gets out of it but I also think it would be possible to get an upgrade if the right guy becomes available. Ultimately it will depend on how the team does in the post season. If the sox lose in the first round RR might be gone. But if they make the WS or at least the semifinal (is it still called ALCS?) he will probably stay. I think he is getting along well with the players and keeps them happy so that is worth something but tactically it would be possible to get an upgrade. Also EE and grandal haven't been that bad recently. EE had a 110 wrc+ in august and grandal had a 128 wrc+ in august.

Obviously he is not getting fired in season while making the post season but I could see them upgrading next season. I don't think he is as bad as people think because some of his moves are questionable but also caused by constraints of the roster, especially a solid but not very deep bullpen which means that sometimes you have to risk losing a game and hoping a struggling pitcher gets out of it but I also think it would be possible to get an upgrade if the right guy becomes available. Ultimately it will depend on how the team does in the post season. If the sox lose in the first round RR might be gone. But if they make the WS or at least the semifinal (is it still called ALCS?) he will probably stay. I think he is getting along well with the players and keeps them happy so that is worth something but tactically it would be possible to get an upgrade.

He does have some warts as a hitter, for example he also has a 37% career postseason K Rate and seems to struggle against the really good pitchers but overall he still usually has posted like a 115-120 wrc+ and he could get there too. He also is an elite defensive catcher where the average wRC+ is like 90 so him hitting 110 is basically like a 1b hitting 130 when it comes to plus/minus for your team. He did slightly underperform this year so far but not that much and it wouldn't surprise me if he ends up with a 115 wrc+ too this year. If you expected that he hits 300 that was not realistic anyway, he is a 240 hitter who hits 25 bombs with lots of walks in a full season and that will come with some empty weeks.

Grandal is underperforming a little but he still has a quite solid season. Sure you would want him a bit better and he will likely get there but he always was a streaky hitter who strikes out and gets a lot of his value by walks. He is only hitting 226 but has a 345 obp and a solid 106 wRC+. He also has 0.7 war which is a 3 war full season pace. That is not quite what you hoped for but he definitely isn't a black hole and only should get better.

I would also be a bit cautious. I think he will be a good mlb hitter but as it was said he never played above high A and while he did good but did not destroy it either. He also only played in sim games in the last 2 months. Yeah he did well in spring but Chris davis batted .400 in spring and now he is back to hitting sub .150, that doesn't mean much. I don't think he would embarrass himself and likely he would be better than mazara but another 300 minor league plate appearances probably wouldn't hurt his development either. But if you want to bring him up bring him up now because of service time and getting maximum ABs before the playoffs.

Yeah robert is still raw and he will throw away ABs but he also is able to make adjustments. He will strike out on 3 sliders in the dirt but also has the ability to come back from that and hit a hanging slider 450 feet the next AB. that is a valuable skill even though it still needs refinement.

MVP: I think Jose and Tim both could be in the running for the MVP, maybe even robert. CY: giolito is currently second in WAR to bieber Roy: Robert us probably the favorite to win it. MVP and CY are probably a bit of an outside chance but robert should run away with the ROY.

Got away with one here against cruz, that was middle middle.