Around Baseball 2015 Edition

Russ2dollas said:
If that's the case....
CB full time at C
Cunnigham full time at LF
Peterson full time at 3B
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I'm gonna keep an open mind on Bethancourt over the next few months, but right now I see him as a below average defender and below average hitter.

I do think Peterson can be part of the solution at 3B. If we can move CJ for $0.50 on the dollar and sign a solid defender at 3B to platoon with Jace (Juan Uribe?), then that might achieve the stated mission of mediocre hitting and plus defense.

I think Cunningham could have a place as a 4th or 5th OF, but I don't expect his offense to live up to my ambitious standard of mediocre.
 
dak said:
I'm gonna keep an open mind on Bethancourt over the next few months, but right now I see him as a below average defender and below average hitter.

I do think Peterson can be part of the solution at 3B. If we can move CJ for $0.50 on the dollar and sign a solid defender at 3B to platoon with Jace (Juan Uribe?), then that might achieve the stated mission of mediocre hitting and plus defense.

I think Cunningham could have a place as a 4th or 5th OF, but I don't expect his offense to live up to my ambitious standard of mediocre.
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Pretty much agree. The four moves I would like to see from the front office are: upgrade at catcher, upgrade at left or third, re-sign KJ, acquire a veteran starting pitcher, a Charlie Liebrandt type to mix in with the young guns.
 
I think the upgrade at left (or more precisely upgrade in the outfield) will be accomplished when Mallex Smith is on the big league roster next season. Not sure how the team is going to play musical chairs but I think Maybin is going to stick around so maybe you move Nick to LF and Maybin to RF while Smith plays his natural position.

I think the same is going to happen for 3B with Peraza coming up and Peterson moving to third. Team is not going to have much power at all and I think we all know that. Lets just try this experiment of a talented defensive team at every position that will be tough outs (aside from CB). Assess the results and then determine what moves need to be made. Its possible that all the improvements which are needed can be found internally.
 
thethe said:
I think the upgrade at left (or more precisely upgrade in the outfield) will be accomplished when Mallex Smith is on the big league roster next season. Not sure how the team is going to play musical chairs but I think Maybin is going to stick around so maybe you move Nick to LF and Maybin to RF while Smith plays his natural position.

I think the same is going to happen for 3B with Peraza coming up and Peterson moving to third. Team is not going to have much power at all and I think we all know that. Lets just try this experiment of a talented defensive team at every position that will be tough outs (aside from CB). Assess the results and then determine what moves need to be made. Its possible that all the improvements which are needed can be found internally.
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We will have an opportunity to upgrade the entire 25 man roster both through promotions from the farm system and outside acquisitions. We started this season with guys like Callaspo and EYJr on the roster. You want upgrades over those guys. At the start of this season there was a competition between Peterson and Callaspo for second. Peterson won and has done a good job. But ideally you want to have a better alternative than Callaspo. Next season we will want a better alternative in left than we currently have. We don't want to assume that Cunningham or Mallex Smith will be able to carry the load. If they win the position great. But ideally they don't win it by default because the competition is a Callaspo-level retread.

Also there is nothing wrong with having a strong group in Gwinnett at the start of the season. It was nice to have someone like Cunningham to call up when guys started going down with injuries. Every season there are demands made of our "second bench" in AAA. Ideally you start the season with a very solid group of 25 in the majors and a good group in AAA. We don't want to start 2016 with guys like Callaspo, Stults and EYJr as part of the picture. We have the resources to do better than that.
 
While I don't think we will sign J-Up regardless, I honestly see him aging pretty well. He's a natural hitter. I don't view LF defense as all that important if you can hit well enough to compensate. I think he'll age kinda like Manny Ramirez. You'll put up with the defense cause the offense will be great. But I honestly think he either stays in San Diego or signs with one of the AL West teams.
 
Signs are not looking good for Kimbrel. Just getting hit a bunch more than we are used to seeing. I wonder if this would be happening if he were still a Brave.
 
thethe said:
Signs are not looking good for Kimbrel. Just getting hit a bunch more than we are used to seeing. I wonder if this would be happening if he were still a Brave.
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Kimbrel's xFIP is basically the same as last year, his SIERA is not far off either. He'll settle in. He's a reliever and a bad outing or 2 takes a long time to statistically correct.
 
zitothebrave said:
Kimbrel's xFIP is basically the same as last year, his SIERA is not far off either. He'll settle in. He's a reliever and a bad outing or 2 takes a long time to statistically correct.
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I hope so. Maybe its all part of the master plan and we will trade back for him this offseason.
 
thethe said:
I hope so. Maybe its all part of the master plan and we will trade back for him this offseason.
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That won't happen.

Kimbrel is fine, he's a bit unlucky and it happens for relievers. SOmetimes they don't overcome it that season, so far peripherally he has an almost identical K rate and BB rate to last year. Maybe it's settling into a new stadium, maybe it's dumb luck, maybe it's the Padres all time terrible defensive OF, who knows.
 
zitothebrave said:
That won't happen.

Kimbrel is fine, he's a bit unlucky and it happens for relievers. SOmetimes they don't overcome it that season, so far peripherally he has an almost identical K rate and BB rate to last year. Maybe it's settling into a new stadium, maybe it's dumb luck, maybe it's the Padres all time terrible defensive OF, who knows.
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I agree that Kimbrel will be fine. He's just been hit harder this year than he's ever been. I don't think that's sustainable.

However, the Padres needed Kimbrel to be flawless to justify that trade. He's got time to turn it around, but it goes to show why the Braves had to trade him this offseason to get his peak value.
 
chop2chip said:
I agree that Kimbrel will be fine. He's just been hit harder this year than he's ever been. I don't think that's sustainable.

However, the Padres needed Kimbrel to be flawless to justify that trade. He's got time to turn it around, but it goes to show why the Braves had to trade him this offseason to get his peak value.
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I don't know about that because we've faced a weak schedule so far and are in a weak division too (even worse than I expected). Plus Kimbrel loved it here playing basically for his home team. Kimbrel would likely be doing great if still with us IMO. I think a better argument would be that it's better to trade him now than later because of possible injury along with the already covered arguments about the trade itself (unloading BJ and quite a bit of his contract, getting Wisler and another prospect back along with Maybin, etc).
 
It sounds like Ruben Amaro is secretly a poster on these forums:

(speaking of fan reactions so far to the Phillies supposed 'plan')

“They don’t understand the game,” Amaro said. “They don’t understand the process. There’s a process. And then they bitch and complain because we don’t have a plan. There’s a plan in place and we’re sticking with the plan. We can’t do what’s best for the fan. We have to do what’s best for the organization so the fan can reap the benefit of it later on. That’s the truth.”
 
Hawk said:
It sounds like Ruben Amaro is secretly a poster on these forums:

(speaking of fan reactions so far to the Phillies supposed 'plan')

“They don’t understand the game,” Amaro said. “They don’t understand the process. There’s a process. And then they bitch and complain because we don’t have a plan. There’s a plan in place and we’re sticking with the plan. We can’t do what’s best for the fan. We have to do what’s best for the organization so the fan can reap the benefit of it later on. That’s the truth.”
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Ha, what in the world does this guy need to do to get fired? The Phillies ownership seems like the polar opposite of Jeffrey Loria. Amaro is just slowly burning this thing to the ground and no one give a rip.
 
Random speculation time. The Jays have a desperate need for pitching so how about trading one of Miller/Teheran/Wood for Josh Donaldson? I dont know that Toronto has any decent 3B option after Donaldson so we can throw Chris Johnson in too. The years of team control are about equal.
 
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