We Hate the Nationals and Stephen Strasburg 2020

[G-Fafif]

Co-ace of the defending champs agrees to re-sign, reportedly for seven years, $245 million...which reads as insane.

[Centerfield]

I saw 7 years, $220, which is much more reasonable.

[G-Fafif]

Full no-trade clause for Strasburg.

[G-Fafif]

=Centerfield post_id=28011 time=1575921432 user_id=65]
I saw 7 years, $220, which is much more reasonable.

[smg58]

So Cole is getting more than that.

[Frayed Knot]

The Nats seem to like to defer money (as they did with Scherzer) so they may be paying him at a lower clip and until 2086 instead of actually giving it all out up front, but that still ...

averages out to $35 per - for seven seasons - for a guy turning 32 mid-season next year - who has averaged less than 28 starts/season.

Good luck with that.



On the other hand there was scuttlebutt out of somewhere the other day saying that the team was resigned to signing Strasburg OR Rendon.

[Ceetar]

looks like it's only three years of deferred money this time, right after the end of the contract.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, this is going to go pear-shaped early. And if this cuts Rendon out of the picture, it's probably the wrong call to make right out of the box.



I'm not as concerned with what this does to Cole's asking price (Gerritt or Hamels), so much as what it does to Syndergaard's. Looks like it's the first players' market in a few years, though.

[Lefty Specialist]

They'll regret that contract. Strasburg is good when he's not injured, but he's injured a lot.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Maybe the Nats won't regret the contract. Maybe the richest baseball owners have so much goddamn money, more than ever, that maybe they're not running their teams with such a rigid eye on the balance sheet. Maybe some of them just want to win at all costs. Meanwhile, some people here are contorting themselves into triple pretzels trying to convince everybody, against all logic that Jeff Wilpon is either a competent owner or that he doesn't matter to the Mets fate and that Steven Cohen doesn't really want to take over the Mets.

[Guest 41Forever]

=smg58 post_id=28014 time=1575922160 user_id=62]
So Cole is getting more than that.

[Edgy MD]

Meanwhile, some people here are contorting themselves into triple pretzels trying to convince everybody, against all logic that Jeff Wilpon is either a competent owner or that he doesn't matter to the Mets fate and that Steven Cohen doesn't really want to take over the Mets.

Don't "some people here," please.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: Meanwhile, some people here are contorting themselves into triple pretzels trying to convince everybody, against all logic that Jeff Wilpon is either a competent owner or that he doesn't matter to the Mets fate and that Steven Cohen doesn't really want to take over the Mets. Don't "some people here," please.

It's so easy. Because Syndrrgaard has no idea what Wheeler and Strasburg just got paid and that Steven Cohen and all of his money is coming. I think that just since last week, Syndergaard made another $5M a year by doing nothing.

[bmfc1]

I don't care if the MFNs eventually regret it unless they regret it from Opening Day 2020. For now, and at least the near future, the f'ing World Champs still have Strasburg, Scherzer and Corbin. Even if they lose Rendon they can sign Donaldson. This, plus Wheeler to PHI and all of ATLs signings, make it that much harder for the 86-win Mets to compete with what might be the same roster, plus Marisnick, a RP, a 5th SP, minus Wheeler. Saul Cohen can't take over soon enough.

[kcmets]

It's gonna be 3-4-5 more years of general suck for the Mets the way

the Nats and the Phil's are spending. At least they'll likely place above

the Marlins most years, so there's that.

[Ceetar]

Mets are still better than the Phillies. The Nationals are claiming they can't afford Rendon, they're certainly not just going to 'get' donaldson who's gonna sign a big contract too.



'all of Atlanta's signings'? meh.



There's really no expectation the Mets are coming back with the same roster either. Hell, even Lowrie and Cespedes are starting at least much healthier than last year. A full year of Stroman and no disaster Vargas April.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Here we go again. Every Met who sucked last season is gonna be great in 2020. And every Met who was great is gonna be even greater. And no, David Wright won't hit 50 homers next season. Don't be ridiculous. But Yoenis will.

[Edgy MD]

Well, I asked please.

[Guest 41Forever]

Average salary of $35 million a year. Incredible.

[Ceetar]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=28029 time=1575937691 user_id=68]
Here we go again. Every Met who sucked last season is gonna be great in 2020. And every Met who was great is gonna be even greater. And no, David Wright won't hit 50 homers next season. Don't be ridiculous. But Yoenis will.

[Edgy MD]

Anyhow, I like the new look division rival threads.



I looked at the Marlins roster, though, and I could hardly find anyone I know well enough to hate on.

[Centerfield]

Here we go again. Every Met who sucked last season is gonna be great in 2020. And every Met who was great is gonna be even greater. And no, David Wright won't hit 50 homers next season. Don't be ridiculous. But Yoenis will.

I tend to agree with him. I think the second half record is a true indication of the talent level and the first half should be disregarded. I know Zack Wheeler won 5 games and pitched to a 2.83 ERA in the second half and he'll be doing that for Philly now, but I don't think he was a significant factor. Stroman, who's not as good as Wheeler, will replace Zack, and Lugo, who's not as good as a starter as Stroman, will replace Stroman. Gsellman, who's not as good as Lugo, will replace Lugo, and we we will round out the pen with "depth" pieces.

[LWFS]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=28022 time=1575928219 user_id=68]
Maybe the Nats won't regret the contract. Maybe the richest baseball owners have so much goddamn money, more than ever, that maybe they're not running their teams with such a rigid eye on the balance sheet. Maybe some of them just want to win at all costs. Meanwhile, some people here are contorting themselves into triple pretzels trying to convince everybody, against all logic that Jeff Wilpon is either a competent owner or that he doesn't matter to the Mets fate and that Steven Cohen doesn't really want to take over the Mets.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=LWFS post_id=28055 time=1575992006 user_id=84]
=batmagadanleadoff post_id=28022 time=1575928219 user_id=68]
Maybe the Nats won't regret the contract. Maybe the richest baseball owners have so much goddamn money, more than ever, that maybe they're not running their teams with such a rigid eye on the balance sheet. Maybe some of them just want to win at all costs. Meanwhile, some people here are contorting themselves into triple pretzels trying to convince everybody, against all logic that Jeff Wilpon is either a competent owner or that he doesn't matter to the Mets fate and that Steven Cohen doesn't really want to take over the Mets.

[Ceetar]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=28066 time=1576000645 user_id=68]




Meanwhile, the Mets strategy will continue to be to compete against teams that have elite top tier talent with second tier talent. Yeah deGrom's a superduperstar but when a team has more than one of those, it's likely that they tapped the top of the FA market. The Mets have an excellent pitching staff but the Nats had three of the top 10 pitchers last year and Scherzer is about as good, if not maybe better than deGrom.

[batmagadanleadoff]

by what Metric? The Mets top three lined up pretty well. Hell, they were projected to be a better pitching staff last year too. That seems pretty competitive.

I went by Bill James's world rankings!



http://www.billjamesonline.com/polls_ratings/starting_pitcher_rankings/http://www.billjamesonline.com/polls_ratings/starting_pitcher_rankings/



The Mets top three -deGrom, Wheeler and Syndergaard, were ranked 3, 38 and 39 respectively. Pretty darn good. But the Nats top three were, collectively, all-time world class out of their minds last year -- Scherzer (4), Strasburg (5) and Corbin (9). The Nats third best pitcher would be the staff ace on just about every other team out there. The Nats run differential was about 100 runs better than the Mets.



The Mets appear to be a good team. But the goal is to win the highly competitive NL East. And the Mets start the off-season by replacing Wheeler with fringy outfielder Marisnick. And Cano is gonna be a year older while getting most of the PT because Fred Wilpon.

[Edgy MD]

For what it's worth, those rankings don't represent last season, so much as career trends. They're designed to resemble golf and tennis rankings, so if a guy is a top pitcher is at the top in 2018, but merely average in 2019, he still won't fall out of the top 12 or so.



Which isn't to say those three weren't terrific. They were.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I know. Those rankings can surely be picked at, but what metric can't? The rankings serve as a quick reliable source to assess where a pitcher stands. And most of the time, what a pitcher did two or three years ago still matters. One can quibble with whether deGrom really is just the third best pitcher when he's the two-time reigning Cy winner but there's no getting around just how awesome the Nats front end of the rotation was last season.

[bmfc1]

Watch Josh Donaldson who hit 235 HRs for ATL against the Mets last season. Washington wants him to play 3B. Hopefully, someone else will get him. Texas and Minnesota are looking at him, too.



Side note: when researching for this post, I should have been more specific in my Twitter search:

https://twitter.com/sukandaersiba11/status/1205105057089368066https://twitter.com/sukandaersiba11/status/1205105057089368066

[Frayed Knot]

Well, whether it's going to be Donaldson or someone else, Washington is going to have to do something with their infield because right now it consists of SS Trea Turner and ... no one.



Rendon is obviously gone from 3rd. 2nd base last season was shared by a trio of 30-somethings -- Brian Dozier, Howie Kendrick, Asdrubal Cabrera -- all of whom are FAs. Kendrick had what was By Far

the best offensive season of his career in 2019 [142 OPS+, best prior was 126 back in 2011 for LAA] but Rizzo is likely smart enough to know not to count on that again, plus he'll turn 36 next season

and is a significant defensive liability these days. They may try to keep him, but I can't see it as an everyday 2B.

And at 1st base the oft-injured (one full-ish season since 2013) Ryan Zimmerman (36) has finally had his contract run out and the Nats also chose the buy-out on Matt Adams' contract when he failed to

repeat his short-term success of 2018 [118 OPS+ plummeted to 83] so he too is a FA

At one point they had hopes for Wilmer Difo, who plays everywhere (man), but he's no longer young (28 by O.D.) nor improving, nor shown himself to be particularly good at this baseball thing [OPS+ = 73

over 1K ML ABs]



And remember that this is a club coming off -- a WS championship, yes -- but also a good-tho-hardly-great 93-win season who finished with a three week span that finally was the exact opposite of their

previous October mojo. And we haven't even brought up the bullpen.

iow, they got work to do.







The other thing that strikes me in the wake of the Rendon signing is: him and Trout likely back-to-back in the same lineup ... Holy Shit!!