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https://www.mlb.com/news/pitchers-to-have-tommy-john-surgery-twice?partnerID=web_article-share
The link throws just a bit of shade on pitchers after the 2nd Tommy John surgery.
I'm amazed at the lack of critical writing about Ohtani's pitching challenges when his elbow allows him to throw again. To read the glowing reports of the Dodgers signing, It's like the injury last year didn't even happen, or at worse, it's merely a question of a year before Ohtani is challenging Burnes for the Cy Young. The hype around this guy and his deal is not going to be good for anyone IMO. Fans will be expecting 2022 production with the arm and bat, which ain't gonna happen. I can't imagine this amount of money/contract disparity is going to play well in the clubhouse either.
On the upside, I think Ohtani will give you everything he has, with no Arod or Tatis PED suspension surprises. Hard to believe that's a big plus, but hey, we had Braun to believe in.
So with all the complaints about my GM, who you loved when he signed, what dudes would you sign for what amounts if you were in his shoes? Snell for 5-7 years? Bellinger for 8 years?
Any one else thanking the Dodgers for saving their team 700 million bucks which they can use on other players?
It's getting a bit stale in LA. Starting to remind me of those Braves teams in the 90's. The TV camera would work the crowd in the pennant or world series games at fulton county stadium during the 7th inning stretch until it found Jane Fonda and Ted Turner. Ted was often nodding out, snoozing away; too much of the same thing.
Lots of rumours out there. Yanks fans are especially vain in their belief that the baseball sun rises and sets in Yankee stadium.
Maybe Yamamoto ends up in the Bronx, but I seriously doubt he'll be taking much of a pay cut because he's enchanted by the Yankee mystique. Of course, maybe the Yankee contract negotiators have somehow been able to bury the fact that there's a very large pRick running the show named Cashman, the guy who wouldn't give Godzilla Matsui a courtesy "thank you" contract in 2010 after Matsui crushed it in the 2009 world series.
Sigh. The issue with all of these OTC companies is the lack of accountability and, for lack of a better word, professionalism. All you can go by is the word of the great leader, often known as the great scammer.
To leaf through the OWPC pr history and find high falutin claims and forecasts that haven't come close to meeting their targets is as easy as reading Dr Seuss.
The total lack of credibility has made this company basically uninvestable; the OTC features 1000s of tickers with lottery ticket prospects and fresher stories than OWPC.
That said, I'm waiting, finger on the sell button if for some reason this jumps on a rehash of another bogus promise of billion dollar glory.
I can see now why Jordan vetoed Isaiah from membership on the Dream Team!
Ha! I do recall how against that trade you were at the time! Turns out you were right. But there's nothing stopping Cashman from overpaying Montgomery now, though there are only 2 pitchers worth splashing the $$ or prospects on at the moment, Yamamoto and Burnes, with Cease in shadows.
The Dodgers out-cohened Cohen with their idiotic Ohtani signing. I don't think Cohen will let that happen with Yamamoto. It might cost $350 million to get it done, but the Mets will make that deal, if only to stop SSKILLZ from deriding my "former GM".
I notice you left Cole and Nestor out of that post. I also don't recall too much complaining last season when Rodon was inked. There was a bit more tetchiness on this board among the Yankee faithful when Monty was swapped for Bader, but just a bit.
Montas I gotta give you. Unmitigated nightmare!
Cashman will overpay for Soto if Soto is indispensable. Look what happened with Judge.
If the Yanks win it all in 2024 and Soto signs elsewhere in 2025, is that enough for you?
To be honest, the 2&3 spots look awesome, but the rest of it is one huge question mark. Torres had a decent year in 2023, but the rest of those players could qualify for Comeback Player of the Year. Rizzo and DJ are hitting their mid 30's after awful 2023 seasons. They might play like 28 year Olds or they might be done. Were you happy with Volpe's 2023 season at the plate?
Haha! Cashman has already ridiculed Stanton half way out of town. I think Giancarlo will get a look at the start of the season, and unless he produces consistently, he's gone.
Someone will roll the dice on him if the Yanks kick in enough money.
If what you think is true, why would JAGX not release the data they had (supposedly) for the non placebo patients? They surely wouldn't need to wait to include patients who were never part of the non-control group unless....
You shouldn't have to guess at why the results haven't been released. The company has done a horrendous job of handling this information. Clear as mud.
Better to have hinted nothing and released news when they had it, like most professional companies do.
Yanks certainly gave a lot of position players a decent look in 2023, and for the most part, they were awful. Might be a bit different with the pitchers, but that's hard to predict. No argument here about Rodon though!!
We'll see. I can easily imagine someone signing Soto for 12-15 years. And following on to the current disastrous CBA which mirrors the criminal paypackets corporate American management makes, Soto will continue the trend of the massive $$ discrepancy between the handful elite players in MLB and everyone else. Helluva union.
Soto is already the best FA next season by a huge margin.
Much more than Judge money I would think. Judge was 30 when he signed his latest contract. Soto will be 26 when he hits free agency. When was the last time a 26 year old with numbers like Soto's hit free agency?
Soto could surpass Ohtani money if he has a monster year IMO, at least in total contract value.
Cole is certainly the exception. And I think Yamamoto will be too.
Soto in left, Grisham in Center, Judge in right for starters. Maybe the Yanks can live with Grisham's anaemic bat. Or maybe Grisham can find a way to at least hit.250. If not, that's why you signed Verdugo.
I don't think judge in center is a good idea. IMO you let your best player field the position that will keep him on the field for the most games. And that's right field for Judge with a lot of looks at DH once Stanton goes. Still cracks me up how Yanks fans thought Cashedman taught Jeter a lesson with the Stanton deal.
Gonna be a whole lot of old, fading, former MLB stars playing out the last 3-5 years of their bloated contracts in the near future.
Jeez, now you're just being greedy. What more could you want than an ex Brewer hitting .190 thrown in to sweeten the deal?
Yanks don't develop pitching. They buy it.
Yanks have a window of 3 years to win it all. Soto sure makes that much easier to do in 2024.
Great deal for both sides. Yanks definitely upped their woeful offense, though there are limits to what a single bat can do. Soto in his contract year is probably the best Soto you're going to see.
That said, you still need some players to pull their thumbs out and at least show up. Volpe has to build on last season's gold glove Xmas present and Stanton....well, I think Cashman has already trashed Stanton to the point where the Yankees might be paying him to crush his 25 homers elsewhere. Minnesota comes to mind.
And this move really ups the need for signing Yamamoto. It's only money. Lil ' Georgie has to open his big boy wallet if he wants to step out of daddy's shadow.
Fingers crossed here. Last move they made like this was Yelich, which hasn't been a disaster but also hasn't fulfilled the promise of 2 MVP calibre seasons.
...cost me a few bucks but I shot a 31 yesterday.
31?? Not bad! Hopefully it was a par 5.
Look,how much worse can the Yankees be in 2024 than they were last year? If the pitching ticks up even a little bit, like Rodon is half the pitcher he was in 2022, well there's 10 games improvement right there.
With the hitting, I can't think of a single Yankees batter who had his best season, or even close to it, so with a 15% improvement in batting, add 10 more games to the W column.
Then there's addition by subtraction. Not relying on Hicks or Donaldson for all of 2024 adds 8 more wins.
Finally, your gritty new bench coach will school up Boonie, to the tune of a 9 game improvement.
This leaves the Yanks with a 2024 projected record of 125-37 (give or take).
Mets with another blockbuster move: The Mets claimed catcher Tyler Heineman off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday and outfielder/catcher Cooper Hummel from the Seattle Mariners.
I like that thought of Ohtani as closer. He has the make up and strike out pitches to do the job. The transition from starter to closer sure helped Eckersley's career.
SASI
Pitching is what wins. And there's not much high-quality, proven MLB pitching on the market right now. Once the dust settles on the off-season and spring training begins, we'll get a much clearer picture of what contenders we can expect in 2024. The only known right now is that clubs are going to overpay for the pitching that's available.
If teams do indeed make it to October, the pitching staff shrinks considerably, and if you have Bruce Bochy calling the shots, you have a great chance of riding the 5-6 hot arms deep into the playoffs, but there's not many guys like that out there: Look how many years it took Dave Roberts to learn to let Urias finish the pennant and World Series instead of being the manager who sticks to the plan and gets the joy of making excuses for Kershaw and Jansen in the losers press conference.
And as much as you might have wanted Counsell, he's proven himself to be a regular season manager. He has not shown that he can adjust his strategy in the playoffs, especially with the bullpen, and this lack of thinking outside of the analytics box is a big reason the crew are 1-9 in their last 10 playoff games. I do think you're right about your rookie manager: I doubt he'll be confident enough to deviate from the line up card and the in-game change recommendations that the front office slides under his door 162 times next year. Maybe Stearns chose him because he'll fit so well under the bus at the end of the 2024 season.
I know you love Alonso, but the Mets have shown they can lose plenty of games with Alonso hitting 40 HRs and batting in 120 runs. Is that a reason to walk away from him? Well, I guess that depends on if your plan is to ink Soto long term, or if Cohen wants to show off his big fat wallet again and sign Ohtani and create an east coast Angels. The way 2024 stacks up, I think the Mets are in worse shape than the Brewers, but let's see what happens with Burnes and Williams.
Love this line from ESPN about Stearns after the Severino signing: The joke here goes you can take the exec out of Milwaukee, but you can't take Milwaukee out of the exec.
Yup, with Cohen, who doesn't love seeing a big-mouthed upstart knocked down a few dozen rungs? The way he made the Mets all about himself, you would have thought he was the one stepping in the box to face a 98 mph inside fastball.
I love that he actually believed that he was going to teach baseball a lesson with his bank account. Pure genius! Have you noticed he's not crowing so loud these days?
Nice when you can roll the dice on a 13 million dollar flier! Seve's available becuase he has sucked dog's balls the past couple of seasons. It could be injury, it could be Cashman, but whatever the case, this is a guy who was forecast to anchor the Yank's rotation for the next 10 years. Well, after Cole. If the med reports come back clean on him, it's a great deal for both parties. Seve gets a year to rebuild his value and the Mets get a year of a pitcher with tremendous potential upside for what will be seen as a bargain. To be honest, there aren't many pitchers out there who offer this much reward vs risk for any price IMO.
I've seen too many Rodons and Verlanders in free agency: guys who somehow manage to string together a career season in their walk year, which they parlay into 5-7 years at astronomical dollars. Then in their first first season of the new contract, the wheels fall off and they spend the bulk of the time in the trainer's room crying about how badly they want to be out there. Maybe Rodon performs well in 2024. Maybe Verlander wins another Cy, but when I look at Snell, Nola, Gray and Montgomery, I'm not too eager to open the wallet for more than 3 years. Guys with 5-7 year deals are playing the long game and aren't about to blow out their careers in year 1. At the first toe stub, that's 15 days minimum.Severino will be highly motivated this season. If injuries stop him from pitching, fire the guy who said he'd be fine, but considering how rarely a Cole hits the market, signing the likes of Seve is a solid move.
Yup. Better for the Mets to ink Severino!!
Looks to me like it's tear down time in Milwaukee. The Brewers have excellent young prospects, but very few of them are pitchers. They've dumped Canha, who was a great fit in Milwaukee, which signals that the youngsters are going to get a lot of playing time. I'm fine with that; the team they've fielded for the past 5-6 years has hit the wall in October, for whatever reason, and with Woodruff gone, there's no reason to think the 2024 team will fare any better than the teams in the Counsell era. The other teams in that division are ready to spend to compete, which Milwaukee isn't.
The Crew has some very juicy trade chips: Burnes, Williams and Adames atop the list. Burnes is far and away the best pitcher possibly available in 2024. Any contender would be ecstatic to have Burnes in their rotation. It could be time to move them, but they better get a huge haul in return, mainly young pitching that can develop with the young hitting they've begun showcasing. I don't want to see a Mets redux of last year: move pitching for non-pitching and wonder why you're struggling to field a decent line up in 2024. Keep Fastball Freddy and build around him.
Hader's going to get paid better than Diaz, so no point in fantasizing about him in a Mets uniform. I doubt Timmy Trumpet would be willing to tune it up for the 8th inning anyway.
Yamamoto is a no-brainer for the Mets. Senga sure worked out fine, and this guy had better numbers and is younger. Or you can overpay for 5 innings of Snell every 5th day for 7 years. I'm not a big believer that this is an awesome FA year for pitchers, but if I had Cohen's money.....lol
Either way, it's an uphill climb in that division, especially if you trade the polar bear. Of the guys who will certainly get overpaid, I like Montgomery the best. For one Snell or Montgomery, you could probably get Wacha, Flaherty and/or Martinez.
Sums it up nicely: Lots of smoke, nothing to get high about....
Mets could definitely recycle that sign for the 2024 season, 'cause that's exactly what it's going to take! This is a team built for...what? The 2023 roster was a team built for 2019. Who knows? Could be the rotation puts up the 2nd best ERA in MLB. And maybe Baty hits .315 with 32 dongs and 106 RBIs. Or Marte finds his legs again and logs a .400+ OBP with 53 swipes. Mendoza wins Manager of the Year? Any other miracles you want to believe in?
Well, at least you hired a qualified babysitter to act as bench coach for your new manager. Weird pairing; often the experienced veteran is the master and the rookie youngster is the apprentice, but the Mets are subverting the norm again.
Wonder what the salary range is for a bench coach. And if Mendoza had any input in the selection process.
Trade for little Yaz and trot him out to left field every night. Build on that history!
Can't be much worse than Houck or Whitlock! I guess one thing the Sox have going is a decided lack of innings on Sales' arm. Seems like another era when he K'ed Manny for the title. Hard to believe it was a mere 300 innings ago. If mileage is a decider, Sale should pitch well into his 60's at his current rate!
Too bad you let Big Game Nate walk away. Wade Miley is available!
You definitely need to sign Yamamoto. Minimum. Let Ohtani play in LA- his best years are behind him, which is to say I can't see him pitching for more years at a level approaching his 2022 stats when they glue his elbow back together.
The formula for playoff relief pitching was inked by the Royals in 2015: win every game you lead after 6 innings with the same 3 reliable arms. Those arms know when they're coming in before the game starts. Stearns knows this, as it has worked very well in Milwaukee during their playoff run. Stay away from guys who are a roll of the dice in the playoffs. IMO, if you trot out Kimbrel and you lose, there's no surprise there. But to let it happen twice in a pennant series...Grady Little was fired for less! Look how long it took Dave Roberts to not let Kenly Jansen lose another big game for the Dodgers.
I wouldn't quit on 2024 just yet. If the snakes and fish can make the playoffs given the predictions for them at the start of the 2023 season, anyone can get in.
And learn to love your GM! It cracked me up when I read "your former GM..." Or is there someone else you would have preferred? Bring back Brodie?
Have you been copying and pasting this post for the past 5 years??!!!