monkeytargets39

Baseball not having stupid gimmicks is the main thing I like about it. Let the ADHD crowd go follow something else.

If he’s good enough to make the team over other players and contribute positively, they’d find a position for him.

Obviously Harris should’ve traded for Ohtani. I mean…..duh.

You’d think Skubal would want to go to a contender…..

You either trade him in the offseason or keep him through next year and let everyone know that’s the plan. You aren’t getting anything good trying to deal him at the deadline. If the season starts out badly, every other GM is gonna be circling the waters trying to get Skubal for Pennies on the dollar.

I’d have to imagine if that’s accurate then the reason for that gap is the years attached to it and/or incentives

I’d like to see us sign one more legitimate starter—maybe Dylan Cease—and start Olson or Flaherty as a late inning reliever—and then convert them back to starter when the inevitable injury happens. Depending on when Jobe is able to return, maybe use him in a late inning role as well. I’d trust that more than bringing in bargain bin relievers who are free agents. I would also like to get Danny Coloumbe so we have a better LHP out of the pen than the Holton/Hurter combo

Supposedly he may have been available had we made the WS. Seems like he would be good to go for Spring.

Based on how Toronto has played….its looking like we were a Javy broken bat from the World Series…..

We have a major potential problem developing. The Twins are interviewing Nick Punto for their managerial opening. If he gets it, we are doomed to lose every game vs Minnesota by ridiculous BABIP and other assorted small-ball related shenanigans.

The Skubal problem would have been quite a bit less complicated if Jobe hadn’t gotten injured. I’d feel a lot better about keeping Skubal and letting him walk if we had an heir apparent in house.

There were about 2,000 less strikeouts league wide than there was in 2019. Granted, there’s over 10k more per year now than there was 30 years ago. Pitchers definitely throw harder and put a lot more spin on the ball than they used to—but they’re also a lot more fragile and don’t throw as many pitches. I think you’d see change once teams stop giving huge contracts to pitchers—it would incentivize pitchers themselves to back down a little bit to stay healthier collectively. I think the long term trend will be to have a roster full of pitchers who still throw hard, but only pitch 2-3 innings per appearance. Starters will go the way of the dinosaur in another decade if things stay as they are IMO.

I don’t know if it’s official yet, just a lot of news sites speculating that it will be the punishment.

Didn’t see it mentioned anywhere: Apparently Emmanuel Claase will be banned from MLB for the gambling investigation

To some extent I agree with you. On the flip side, trading two of the top 6 prospects away and then Skubal walking away would just as easily nuke any chance of competing after next year. I’d look to trade Skubal or Greene this year with the goal of getting major league ready help along with a prospect or two. I’d at the very least entertain offers for either guy just to get a read of the room this winter

Suarez is the exact opposite type of player than what we should be looking to acquire

I’m fine with Harris to this point, but this offseason is his first big test. I understood everything he was trying to do this year and it unfortunately fell apart unexpectedly. I will judge him a lot harsher from this point forward because this offseason through the next trade deadline is critical for the direction of the franchise.

I’m fine if we decide to keep Skubal IF We address the deficiencies of this roster. If we are going to run it back with the current lineup, and then just piece together a makeshift bullpen again—then why keep Skubal? Two years in a row we’ve seen that what we have now is not enough. Expecting Jobe to become anything close to what Skubal is now is wishful thinking. Olsen has had consecutive years of missing good amounts of time. Flaherty and Mize are high pitch count merchants—so the bullpen has to be rebuilt if they’re both going to be big parts of the rotation next year. Melton looks great so far, but I’m not going to ink him in as a #2 or 3 just yet. If a Skubal trade can net us a high level arm and a long term solution at either corner outfield or 3B….I think it’s worth it. As of now, I’m not convinced we should be assuming a playoff run next year just yet.

That’s probably a lot more realistic. Then you’d have to narrow down organizations that are both going hard to compete for next year AND have prospects in those ranges that we want. But then we also have to pony up and bring in a couple #2/3 level starters minimally because I doubt we would get an impact SP that is major league ready in return.

You can’t really equalize the value between an everyday position player and a starting pitcher. The risk is monumentally more with the pitcher.

I’m not sure we get 3 top 50 prospects for 1 year of Skubal

I’d argue it was the most professional thing I’ve ever heard. No announcer has ever summed up my exact feelings that well.

The problem is that the whole team is #6 hitters outside of Torres. We need guys who can put the ball on the bat consistently, foul off tough pitches, and draw walks. Torres was the only regular with above a .333 OBP this year.

I’m not saying he isn’t good or isn’t an all-star caliber player. All I’m saying is that there are key things that make me think as of now that he’s not worth a long term deal and trading him right now would get us a good return that could potentially improve the team now and in the future. His K rate has ballooned to 30%. His walk rate plummeted. He barely OPSd .800 while having career highs in doubles and HRs. His defense in LF also fell all a cliff this year. He doesn’t move well—he has a history of lower half injuries, so that’s not likely to get better. He slashed .218/.279/.694 in the second half. Is that closer to what he is becoming? He needs to make A LOT of adjustments and improvements for next year to get back to being a 5+ WAR player. if you can offload him to a desperate contender now and get a good package back—I’d do it.

So you link to his savant page which clearly shows he is a negative as a fielder and as a runner, and is among the worst in the league at Ks, Whiff %, and doesn’t make up for it by drawing walks. There is A LOT of things to be concerned about for a 25 year old player there when you look at the drop off from 2024.