smg58

Frayed Knot wrote: There was an old line attributed, I believe, to Bill Veeck, that if you listen to the fans you wind up sitting with them. That's a great line.

Mex17 wrote: smg58 wrote: there are two free agent third basemen who could help us win now Here is a fair question. . . With age and injury history taken into consideration but nothing else (such as "trade vs. free agent") being considered, why choose Donaldson specifically over Tatis, Senzel, or Bryant? It ultimately depends on what your priorities are. I think Donaldson would give you a much better chance of winning in 2019, risks notwithstanding, than Tatis or Senzel. But if your goal is to put together a winning team in the early 2020s, you could easily justify trading Syndergaard for a package led by Tatis or Senzel. Bryant is a different monster. He's a better player than Donaldson right now, and when healthy is at least as good as Machado. Here, I don't think you can remove the "trade" vs. "free agent" context. Syndergaard alone won't get you Bryant. Syndergaard and Wheeler might not get you Bryant. Donaldson would only cost money, and possibly only a short-term commitment at that.

It would be an even trade. I like both Senzel and Iglesias. It would be fair, though, to ask if it satisfies either team's immediate needs. If the Mets intend to win now, grabbing even an excellent prospect whose time at AAA last year was limited by injury might not be the best route. And are the Reds in a position to deal 6+ years of Senzel for 3 years of Syndergaard? And it brings us back to the fact that there are two free agent third basemen who could help us win now, and no free agent pitchers I would rather have going forward than Syndergaard.

The major selling point for Harper is that his 2015 season was pretty unique. The major knock on Harper is that his 2015 season was pretty unique. Somebody is going to shoot the moon expecting Harper to perform somewhere close to 2015 four or five times in the next ten years. It's not a good bet. The biggest mistake the Mets made last season was to make their biggest investment a left-handed corner outfielder they didn't actually need. Harper is obviously not Bruce, but accommodating him would require a convoluted chain of additional deals like what you just mentioned. And it's worth pointing out that Brandon Nimmo was the better player last season. Machado, at third base at least, makes an awful lot of sense if you're willing to spend that kind of money -- that would only require a taker for Frazier. A front-loaded deal with a player option for Donaldson would also make sense, if the bidding on Machado exceeds a reasonable amount. Harper? He's not Machado. He's not really close, to be honest. He's the kind of trap you want the Phillies or the Yankees to fall into.

Maybe Eovaldi because he's youngest, but there are good reasons to not outbid the whole league on any of these guys (Happ is getting old, Morton can't go 6 and is getting old, Gio's best years are behind him, Eovaldi has not been consistent). I'd see if Todd Frazier could get us Sonny Gray or if Cespedes could get us most of the way to Zack Greinke before I added substantial payroll for guys who don't impress me. Another way of saying this is: trading Thor had better give us the best lineup in the league.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: This probably gives us an idea of Thor's starting price in trade. Our guy is younger, with one more year of control and a higher ceiling; theirs is a lefty, with more of a track record, and 52 starts over the last two years (compared to 32). I would disagree on more of a track record -- Paxton's best season was a 2.98 ERA (140 ERA+) over 136 IP, and Syndergaard's was a 2.60 ERA (155 ERA+) over 183 IP. But yeah, you'd need to start with at least the equivalent of this to get a return phone call from me. I like the dealing that Seattle has done; they've gotten younger and cheaper, and it's quite possible they got the best player in 2019 in both deals.

It should have been done years ago. But better late than never, and at least they were smart enough to figure out who the right guy for the job was. Is there a living pitcher from 1962 who could throw Mr. Landreth the first pitch on Opening Day?

Cron, or Matt Adams, or Lucas Duda, or Logan Morrison, or Justin Bour, or probably a half-dozen other similar players that I can't think of off the top of my head -- it's a very safe bet that one of them will wind up in pinstripes.

Likeable guy, 3000 hit club, aged as gracefully as you possibly can in this league -- a tip of the hat to a career well-played.

Nimmo + Plawecki + Bruce at first or on the bench > Bruce + Gomes+ Smith at first or on the bench. Syndergaard is not Kluber, but he also might not be far below him moving forward. And Thor can at least match Carrasco. It would seem like a lot of maneuvering to take on substantial payroll while breaking even (if that) on the field. But getting back to a simple deal for Gomes: His performance has been fickle, but it has been at least good often enough to justify a look.

MFS62 wrote: Is it possibly a release where they don't want to offer him arbitration, but are still willing to work out a deal? The minimum he could have gotten in arbitration was $1.4M apparently. They might be interested for something closer to the MLB minimum or even just a minor league deal. Later Possible, yes, although it's not like they didn't have time to work out something if they really wanted to. And as of yesterday, Mejia can talk to every other team too.

First basemen who can't do much better than an .800 OPS, especially if their defense is suspect, are a dime a dozen right now. The Rays think they can sign Cron (or an equivalent player) for less than Cron would get from an arbiter, and they're probably right. The Marlins cut Derek Dietrich, a useful lefty utility player.

The Mets would have had to offer him arbitration to maintain his services, so he is now a free agent. For what that's worth.

Sheffield is #31 on the MLB.com list of prospects. Paxton just gave up 23 home runs over 160 IP -- a career high -- and is going to hope for better luck in the glorified little league field in the Bronx. The backfire potential is enormous.

The Nationals get proactive and nab Kurt Suzuki for two years and $10M. He was not the first catcher I expected to get signed. He's a good value at that price, but does that mean the Nats lack the funds for a more ambitious signing, or are they anticipating having their budget tied up elsewhere? On edit: I can see the logic here. It's obvious who the Nats most want, and given a choice of (a) getting a catcher who might tighten their budget and make it hard to compete with other bidders for Harper's services, ( waiting for the Harper situation to resolve and hoping there's a decent catcher left (Boras has a way of taking his time), or © quickly grabbing a decent catcher on the cheap, they went for option c.

Centerfield wrote: It's clearly the Wilpon's fault. I think that smg is saying that the Wilpons screwed up on multiple fronts, not just the ponzi scheme. Well, yeah. My point was that the Wilpons' financial issues went beyond the Madoff situation; they took for granted that the new stadium would be a cash cow, and it was the opposite of that. Some of that (the recession, obviously, although that affected every other team too) was beyond their control, but plenty of issues with the stadium (and the team) were not.

Centerfield wrote: I think the Wilpons are sincere in their desire to win. But I think they’re incompetent. I think they can’t afford to fund a $185 million payroll because they’ve over-leveraged the team and SNY to make up for Madoff losses. And I think they meddle too much to allow a smart GM to spend wisely even if they had that money. New GM though. So we will just have to wait and see. Don't overlook the role CitiField played in this. No other major American sports franchise had ever seen a drop in attendance on moving to a new stadium -- and the Mets' attendance dropped the first three years at Citi. They got tax breaks that were overly generous over the long haul, but the Wilpons paid quite a bit up front and the opening coincided with a recession and a very expensive last place team. (It didn't help that the stadium initially paid more tribute to the Dodgers and the Giants than it did to the Mets, either, or that it had fewer seats for the guaranteed sell-outs than Shea did.) The Madoff situation gets all the attention, but there was more at work.

I can only react so much to rumors. Let's see what actually happens. I'm not in principle against trading Thor, it's just that I can't see too many scenarios where it would make the 2019 team better. I'm also not ready for a teardown, either. And there are two free agent third basemen (counting Machado) I would rather have than the best free agent starting pitcher. (And I would rather have Syndergaard than the best available starting pitcher, too.)

I'd take this if we got this.

The Padres have a talent surplus at catcher and centerfield, too. I'd be shocked if Tatis is seriously on the table, but you have to listen if he is.

Wheeler is a challenge, because his upside and his performance to this point are in two very different locations. I would guess that anything he'd agree to beyond 2020 would come with a player option, but having a second year locked in would be nice. The primary incentive to getting Wheeler to agree to that would be offering him more this year than the arbiter would give him ($5.3 M estimated by MLBTradeRumors).

Not expecting much, but bullpen depth from the left side is something we haven't really had for a while. So why not?

There are enough parallels between Rosario's 2018 and Reyes' 2005 to give some cause for hope. Certainly enough that I would ride him another year, and look to upgrade elsewhere. And he certainly doesn't have to become one of the league's best players to vindicate that strategy; he just has to improve. But the strategy could also backfire.

They are basically expecting no net improvement at all from Conforto, despite his recovering from a major shoulder injury and improving measurably in the second half. They are also expecting Nimmo to drop well below his performance over the past two years, when he's 26, and minimal improvement from Rosario when he's 23. So I don't think the picture is nearly as bleak as they're portraying it, but that doesn't mean the picture isn't bleak. They need serious help in a few places.

No to the first part -- I like the format as is. I'd be willing to try the $50 with prizes, but not if it's a dealbreaker for people.