mtutiger

I seem to recall at the time that he may have had an opt-out that would have been exercised had he not been traded. Can't recall for sure tho. Either way, I just think its weird that they signed the guy (while the season was ongoing) and never bothered to avail themselves of his services. With their outfield situations while Robbie was injured, it would have been justified, if not the right thing to do, to have made the move and they (presumably Avila) just didn't.

24-30 is too low... although I tend to agree that a ticket with MTG on it probably ends up closer to 40 than 45.

Grossman got playing time with the idea of showcasing a trade, for better or worse... Was Kris Anglin worth not getting Baddoo more time last year and/or calling up Kerry C earlier? I'd lean toward No

I remember when Stan Papi kept telling us how Durham was Trump's ace in the hole lol

Have to believe some of the new hires (Lund specifically) were made with this in mind.

1.) They spent money last offseason... I believe they were in the Top 5 in total contract money doled out among all teams even iirc. Which, given their progression to 77 wins, made sense... 2.) Don't know how many different ways it needs to be said, this team won 66 games last year. 1-2 big free agents alone will not make a sub-70 win team competitive (see 2022 Texas Rangers). I hate that this debate constantly puts me in the situation of defending Chris I, who by all accounts seems unlikable on many levels, but there's an implication that being more active on the free agent market is a silver bullet for this team at this current juncture when it isn’t. To the extent that this team can improve and even out-perform expectations, it is gonna need to come from the guys already here. Maybe if they do that, it puts them back into a situation where they are more like 10 wins away from a playoff spot and where the investment makes sense.

We will need to see success on the field, but what I appreciate about Harris and why I am with Chas in thinking things really are different is that each transaction this offseason appears to have been done with his pillars in mind. Particularly on the position player side, it has been refreshing to see a coherent strategy in obtaining players who have a history of taking walks and controlling the strike zone. Even if they haven't been the sexy signings that everyone loves, one imagines building depth with guys like that will help bear fruit. Pitching wise, its been a little less coherent on that front, but OTOH, he seems to be leveraging his pillar of being a place where guys can get better... even if the fanbase is leery, the team has a relative level of reputation on the pitching side with a coach who is well respected. And we have seen at least in one case (Lorenzen) a pitcher who has stated he sees this as a place where he can improve and why he ultimately signed here. All of this is to say that Harris has a coherent strategy and it's been a while (since DD) since they've had a guy who has one.

My biggest problem with how things were run last year was that they didn't really avail themselves of the few options they actually had, or at least in the timeliest fashion. In particular, when they were putting Willi out in CF daily, including that monumental ****up in New York where he turned a routine fly ball into a triple ... I said it at the time, but they had Trayce Thompson in the system, presumably as a "break glass" outfield option. And with Meadows and Grossman out, they would have been justified to break glass and just didn't. But I dont think that's AJ's fault... maybe he had input, but ultimately Al is the one who brought Thompson into the org and let him go without ever once giving him a chance to play on the big club. Kerry Carpenter is another one... I know there was a lot of skepticism on this board about bringing him up, but given how things were going and the need to shake things up just to try different things, he probably should have been called up a few weeks earlier. And the fact that he was ultimately called up the day that Avila was fired was really interesting... maybe coincidental, but either way it was kinda telling

Could still happen

Mere days removed from Dak laying an egg up in Santa Clara lol

I would say this is a legit concern, but to an extent the reliance on the Castrei was as much about lacking depth as it was about deep love for them as players. The good news is that they appear to be in better shape depth wise than they were going into last year.

Hernandez stands a decent chance of making this team, one imagines... Solid low risk signing

I don't get people who think this year's team isn't interesting from a story line perspective... While they probably won't win a lot, it's a really strange brew of younger players looking to prove themselves (Greene, Tork, etc.), players coming off of long term injuries looking to reestablish themselves (Meadows, Boyd, Turnbull, Rogers, etc.), and vets who had abysmal years that aren't indicative of the kind of players they should be (Baez, ERod, Schoop, etc.) Success may not be likely, but there's more material for the beat writers than is generally given credit for

'Donny Sands' just sounds like a baseball name lol

lol

Talk about an easy decision...

Due process is required and all, but glad that the Tigers did not pursue or land Clevinger under the circumstances

Shorter McConnell: " You're on your own, Kevin..."

To be fair, he also said he didn't believe Biden did anything nefarious as well earlier today. In general, he's been one of the more level headed folks on the GOP side on this

Cornyn's comments are interesting... maybe this latest revelation pushes this story beyond partisan outrage theater into actual concrete discussions about the classification process, whether it's too tight or not, why things sneak through, etc.

This post looking better and better every day

lol

Yeah, the Catherine Rampell piece I just shared in the 118th Congress thread covers the dilemma facing the GOP well. It's a very pointless fight.