2025-2026 offseason thread

I am not saying walker is good. I am saying he at least sniffed being good.

Also. Not a huge fan of run value. Walker could give up a first pitch bloop with bases loaded that scores 2 runs while Perez gives up a 8 pitch rocket to right that gives up 2 runs yet he would see better run value because of the non hit pitches. Doesn’t mean he is better.
History can be thrown out the window after his inquiries. He isn't remotely the same pitcher.

He's lost velocity and movement. His fastball went from one of the best in the league in terms of movement and velocity, to bottom half of the league. His chase rate and whiff % are bottom of the league. He gets barrelled up among the highest in the league. He's cooked unless he completely revamps his arsenal or changes his mechanics in a way to get more movement.
 
I am not saying walker is good. I am saying he at least sniffed being good.

Also. Not a huge fan of run value. Walker could give up a first pitch bloop with bases loaded that scores 2 runs while Perez gives up a 8 pitch rocket to right that gives up 2 runs yet he would see better run value because of the non hit pitches. Doesn’t mean he is better.
It’s not accurate to say Perez has never been good. Dude just had a 3.9 fWAR season in 2022 and has had a few other 2+ fWAR seasons. He's definitely not been a star but has been a useful and times an above average pitcher. Buehlers arm is cooked and has had a big sample size that backs that up. I don’t want Perez pitching meaningful innings but it’s better than Beuhler.
 
He doesn’t want to pay prospects for players and he doesn’t want to pay cash for players. He also doesn’t want to trade aging players away (Ozuna) when he wasn’t doing us any good and wasn’t being retained the following season. I find it very hard to understand what he’s actually doing.
Ozuna rejected at least two trades.
 
Talking small sample with Peréz who hasn’t been good ever. Junk baller who pitched close to a 5 xfip. He sucks. Walker sucks too. But he at least was good once and is coming back from major surgery. Neither really excite me, but I take potential over junk ball luck everyday.
Martin Perez has more career WAR than Buehler and has been an All-Star more recently. Buehler holds an outsized image in our collective consciousness because he wrecked us in 2020.
 
Don’t really care about Buehler, because he has sucked, but again, we sign every crappy reliever under the sun to minor league deals, so what would be the harm?
 
Yikes. Less than a year before the CBA expires and a potentially nasty lockout looming

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Yikes. Less than a year before the CBA expires and a potentially nasty lockout looming

I suspect that one of the reasons the owners are willing to go balls-to-the-wall for a salary cap this time is that they sense a potentially fatal weakening in the union. The owners have more or less won the last handful of CBA negotiations, and the "strongest union in America" seems weaker and more discombobulated than ever. The owners very well might see this as their best opportunity to establish a permanent advantage over the union.

I hope they fail, to be clear. But Clark's tenure was nothing short of disastrous for the union.
 
I am not saying walker is good. I am saying he at least sniffed being good.

Also. Not a huge fan of run value. Walker could give up a first pitch bloop with bases loaded that scores 2 runs while Perez gives up a 8 pitch rocket to right that gives up 2 runs yet he would see better run value because of the non hit pitches. Doesn’t mean he is better.

That pitcfher is gone. He had his second TJ surgery in 2022 and has been a totally different pitcher since. So what did did early in his career is irrelevant to what he does now.
 
Braves signed Dominic Smith to a minor league deal. Exhibit 5,000

In the days of yore, when 50Poundhead was a young man on the make and MLB teams had deep benches, a guy like Smith could make a lot of sense as an endgame bench bat and pinch hitter. These days, it's hard to see how he fits on a thin bench and on a team with a first baseman who plays 162 games a year. But seems definitely worth a spring training invite.
 
Sure. But that's the reason he opted for the brace and not the whole surgery. Was it the right choice? Who knows but I have to think that's why he went that route instead of a total replacement.
I've grown pessimistic in my older age, so hopefully it's just that, but no reports at all on SS#1 velocity worries me. Also AA sorta standing pat so far after 2 potential key cogs going down has me worried SS#1 just ain't right. Makes sense in my head that if you have basically sale and Lopez (most likely on a limit), no reason to push up the salary
 
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