casimir

Maybe he gets traded for another player in a comparable situation? I don’t know who that would be nor if there is a comparison to begin with. Maybe he is used as a throw in for a bat? It seems like they should add a proven bat with some sort of multi season control at either 2B or 3B. Or maybe even SS and push Baez to 2B, although that seems tough to see happening. I know there’s a lot of thought that Keith and Jung can be assigned to 2B / 3B one way or another and it’ll be fine going forward. While there’s talk about pitching being a strength, maybe LHH hitting IFs with questionable defensive assignments are a surplus to deal from? Maybe it makes sense to move one for a more defensive IF without punting on offense?

The more a league is broken down into smaller subunits, the higher the chances are for a poor team to “win” a division. 4 team divisions would inevitably lead to a team in the playoffs with a losing record. Some losing record team would win the division. And then MLB would further the mockery by seeding that team 4th rather than last in the bracket. There have been NFL teams that win a division at 7-9 and bump better records from the playoffs. Heck, the Texas Rangers were leading the AL West at 52-62 when MLB shut down for the strike. The only AL teams with records worse than them were all from the AL West. The Baltimore Orioles were 63-49, but would have been bumped from the playoffs for Texas.

Hold on, is this a prediction or a guess? I would hate to get you in a tizzy by misquoting you.

So, given those storylines, what to do with Malloy?

Is there some truth to this? That's the number I kind of use as a barometer when looking at records and "tiering" teams.

I think it turned gray because of all the gray matter activity going on underneath of it. You think that thing is bad, you ought to see my yard work hat. I think I've had thing since before Y2K.

I'd go one further. 1 league of 4 geographical divisions with 8 teams each when they expand. And then the playoff bracket is lined up 1 through 12 (or 16 is probably inevitable) according to winning percentage. So this offseason would have been Atlanta at 1, Baltimore at 2, Los Angeles at 3, Tampa at 4, etc, etc.

I think it was time for a new hat.

One bad year and one good year is much better than the return on Baez.

He’s droppin’ knowledge, yo.

I don’t think anyone expected any team to sign 2 of the 6 available and more sought after SSs that offseason (counting Semien as a SS). Not only did the Rangers land 2, but without looking to confirm, I’d suspect they’ve provided the best returns so far.

Oh for crying out loud….. Why would we guess what happened before will happen again?

Why should it be assumed that what occurred under a different owner & GM/president would occur again now with the current owner & president?

They can kick the tires on Soto now, but he's a free agent after next season. I know in theory they could lock him up before next offseason, but he's a Boras client, so that seems unlikely.

That's a great point.

New team? But he likes being in Detroit....

This is the way to improve the offense this offseason.

Well, I don't agree with him about the emphasis for going undefeated in the future. The playoffs will expand and there won't be 12 undefeated teams. There will still be debates about who lost to who, who beat who, etc in order to seed teams and fill out the wild cards. So scheduling will matter in terms of who played whom, whether its in conference or out of conference.

Baltimore's current roster has one non arbitration contract for next season. James McCann is signed through 2024 at just over $12M. Everybody else is a free agent (Aaron Hicks, Kyle Gibson, Adam Frazier, Jack Flaherty) or in arbitration or pre arbitration. They could use some pitching help, and that's what is available in free agency this offseason.

Are the regular season votes in yet? Did Bochy steal some manager of the year votes from Hyde?

We'll see if they keep them on the schedule. They'll do what they need to in order to keep Notre Dame on there, can't debate that. I hadn't looked at their updated B10 schedule with the new teams rolled in. Michigan hosts USC and Oregon and travels to Ohio State and Washington next year. That's pretty good. So shame on me for not looking at that.

The team that he may be referencing could be Indiana. They recently bought out a 3 game series with Louisville and are rumored to be looking at FCS opponents. I know some around here might think it’s Michigan, but they never schedule anyone of substance anyway, so they wouldn’t need to buy anyone out.

You should’of watched him more against the Tigers. He allowed only 4 runs in 15 innings this season. Or, I guess maybe you did watch plenty and the offense flexed it’s muscles for you vs Maeda?

In back to back posts: Love it. Hate it.

I agree, the number of playoff teams isn't going to be reduced. At the very least, great teams are not being excluded these days. so that's good. The 1993 Giants won 103 games but finished a game behind Atlanta. Philly won the East with 97 wins. 103-59 is a pretty darn good season. San Francisco got screwed twice by geography that season. (1) By being the second best record in the West. (2) Atlanta ain't even a western city!