Viz and Teheran listed as top trade candidates

Would be pushing it. If there's no QO penalty? Probably. Likely to be a safer bet than Cespedes at their expected numbers, and you've gotta love his flexibility.

I think adding him to play 3B, going out and getting an "under-the-radar" guy like Michael Saunders for LF at a reasonable price, and adding Wieters if he can be signed for 4 years or less would be really solid moves. I know lots of folks are against Wieters, but I still would love to have a left-handed option with pop behind the plate to pair with Flowers. If you were able to get 25 bombs from the C platoon, and 20+ in LF and at 3B, I think you'd have a pretty good offense. You could then eat some of Markakis' money to move him or make him your primary LH bench bat and play him in RF against tough lefties if you wanted to sit Mallex against them.

Against RHPs:

CF- Mallex, SS- Swanson, 1B- Freeman, 3B- Desmond, C- Wieters, LF- Saunders, RF- Inciarte, SP, 2B- Albies

Bench: Markakis, Flowers, Peterson or d'Arnaud, Adonis

Against LHPs:

2B- Albies, SS- Swanson, 1B- Freeman, 3B- Desmond, LF- Saunders, RF- Markakis, C- Flowers, CF- Inciarte, SP

Bench: Mallex, Wieters, Peterson or d'Arnaud, Adonis

Lots of flexibility with both pop and speed on the bench, and you could still carry an extra pen arm.

Wieters won't be a platoon player wherever he goes dude and certainly won't be paid like one.
 
I look at it this way, given his performance in the minors so far I think there is probably a 50-60 % chance he becomes a very good player, maybe a 20-30 % chance of being slightly above replacement or decent, and maybe a 10-20 % chance of total bust. If his skill set translates he's going to be very good, and I think he'll hit 5 WAR at least one season out of 6.

I would say it's more likely the reverse is true. There's a 10-20% chance he becomes a very good player, 50% chance (or so) that he's an average player, and at least a 30-40% chance that he's a total bust. And I'd say this holds true for nearly every single prospect. From a talent standpoint, he certainly has the ability to be a 5+ WAR player at some point and certainly he stands a higher chance of doing so than about 98 percent of all prospects in the minors currently. But the odds simply aren't in his favor of doing so.
 
If I'm a Boston fan, I wouldn't want my team to trade Moncada or Beni for Teheran. I get the fair value thing, but they can get what they need without those two guys going anywhere.

If I'm Boston, I'm trading for Matt Garza immediately. He would come cheap in terms of propects, has experience in the AL East, and has proven to be a big game pitcher in the past. Ervin Santana might also be a decent addition as he at the very least is durable.

That said, they will need more than Matt Garza or Ervin Santana to win the AL East or make a WC spot.
 
Guess the question is if you are Boston or a fan. Are you good with Ervin or graza in game 2 or 3 of a best of series. I think for them it is not about making the playoffs but who you have when you get there.
 
If I'm Boston, I'm trading for Matt Garza immediately. He would come cheap in terms of propects, has experience in the AL East, and has proven to be a big game pitcher in the past. Ervin Santana might also be a decent addition as he at the very least is durable.

That said, they will need more than Matt Garza or Ervin Santana to win the AL East or make a WC spot.

Nobody has done less with more in the last ten years than Garza.
 
Nobody has done less with more in the last ten years than Garza.

He's the real life Nuke LaLoosh. Million dollar arm/Ten cent brain. I don't put much stock in clubhouse atmosphere, but much like the Braves' players rejoiced when Yunel Escobar was shipped out, Twins' players were happy to see Garza go.
 
I don't. Seriously, given the old saws about his age and injury history, platooning, at least to a degree, may well be the best way to maximize that investment.

As in not a strict platoon. I'd probably make Flowers Julio's "personal Catcher", and split things up where Wieters worked no more than 4 days a week. Any weeks where we had days off, I'd make sure Wieters didn't work day games after night games unless he was scorching hot, etc..
 
As in not a strict platoon. I'd probably make Flowers Julio's "personal Catcher", and split things up where Wieters worked no more than 4 days a week. Any weeks where we had days off, I'd make sure Wieters didn't work day games after night games unless he was scorching hot, etc..

Weiters is quite possibly the worst defensive catcher in the game. He is consistently negative in pitch framing runs saved. This year he is at -7, last year -8.6, the year before that was a banner year at -1.4.

For comparison, Flowers is at 8.7 this year while Castro is at 10.4. Hell, even the loathed AJP is better than Weiters this year at -3.7.

We are looking at a difference in the neighborhood of 20+ runs defensively between Weiters and someone like Jason Castro in half a season. Matt Weiteres is exactly the opposite of the type of catcher a young pitching staff should be throwing to. He is awful defensively. He is always injured. He is going to be expensive. He would be a terrible signing.
 
I don't want cespedes, Desmond or any FA catchers. It's just not going to be worth it for us. They'll be weighing us down when we can actually be good.
 
Desmond is probably worth 4-80 at SS, but I woudln't pay that for an outfielder. His peripherals really aren't that much out of line with his career numbers assuming consistent growth until the early 30s.

He's walking about the same as last 3 years.
He's striking out a bit less than last 3 but right around career average.
His power is higher, but within th range of what he's done in the past.
His BABIP is unsustainable, but one in the .325 range still puts him as a pretty damn good player.

He's a solid defensive SS despite the rare fielding slump that he had at the start of last year. I would expect 6-7% walk rate, 22-24% k rate, .175 iso, .325 BABIP over the next couple years. That is worth 20 mil per year as a SS.

I think people kinda forget that he's been a pretty good hitter once he reached his mid 20s.

11- 79 wRC+
12- 128 wRC+
13- 116 wRC+
14- 108 wRC+
15- 83 wRC+
16- 133 wRC+
 
Desmond is probably worth 4-80 at SS, but I woudln't pay that for an outfielder. His peripherals really aren't that much out of line with his career numbers assuming consistent growth until the early 30s.

He's walking about the same as last 3 years.
He's striking out a bit less than last 3 but right around career average.
His power is higher, but within th range of what he's done in the past.
His BABIP is unsustainable, but one in the .325 range still puts him as a pretty damn good player.

He's a solid defensive SS despite the rare fielding slump that he had at the start of last year. I would expect 6-7% walk rate, 22-24% k rate, .175 iso, .325 BABIP over the next couple years. That is worth 20 mil per year as a SS.

I think people kinda forget that he's been a pretty good hitter once he reached his mid 20s.

11- 79 wRC+
12- 128 wRC+
13- 116 wRC+
14- 108 wRC+
15- 83 wRC+
16- 133 wRC+

I'm just happy for him because it appears that he's going to recoup some of that money he gambled on when he rejected the extension.
 
Weiters is quite possibly the worst defensive catcher in the game. He is consistently negative in pitch framing runs saved. This year he is at -7, last year -8.6, the year before that was a banner year at -1.4.

For comparison, Flowers is at 8.7 this year while Castro is at 10.4. Hell, even the loathed AJP is better than Weiters this year at -3.7.

We are looking at a difference in the neighborhood of 20+ runs defensively between Weiters and someone like Jason Castro in half a season. Matt Weiteres is exactly the opposite of the type of catcher a young pitching staff should be throwing to. He is awful defensively. He is always injured. He is going to be expensive. He would be a terrible signing.

The fact that people don't like the idea because of defensive metrics makes me love the thought even more. The important numbers you didn't reference for Castro?

.215/.336/.398/.734 and .235/.312/.393/.705

He makes Flowers look like an All-Star when he's got a bat in his hands. His defense is so amazingly impressive that Houston made Gattis a Catcher again.

Come on folks - we all understand that defense is part of the game. The problem is that there's FAR AND AWAY too much focus on it these days by many of you. The Cubs are winning IN SPITE of Heyward, and his "All-Galaxy" defense isn't the reason. His .234/.326/.323/.649 line and 76 OPS+ isn't what the Cubs thought they were going to get. You don't think the Angels would trade Andrelton's .262/.284/.348/.632, 73 OPS+, and "All-Universe" defense back for the arms they gave up and Aybar about right now?

Their defense is great, fun to watch, awesome to compare with whatever the newest metrics are, and beyond useless to a team with below-average bats at 7 positions. Even with the expected struggles from the young Pitchers, this team wouldn't be "terrible" if you had a couple bats. Good "all-around" players aren't going to help this offense in any way, shape, or form.
 
I don't want cespedes, Desmond or any FA catchers. It's just not going to be worth it for us. They'll be weighing us down when we can actually be good.

I think most everyone will agree that free agency isn't the way you build a team, but we will have a lot of money to spend. We'll have a team and a money making complex to "sell". So in this case we will definitely spend that money and maybe even overpay as the money from the gates and the complex will be worth it. As with most free agency contracts the end of the contract will hurt, but if you make enough money off of the meat of the contract, then it's worth it.

I can see the FO spinning it that we're spending money to go for it all in 2017. The die hard fans will know that's not the true timeline, but the casual fan will eat it up and come out to the ballpark. At the end of the day sports is an entertainment industry and we'll have to put an entertaining team on the field opening a new park
 
Back
Top