The Yankees are 100% trading Sonny Gray. Here's an article from April about how the Yankees ruined him. I think he's a guy that could have a bounce back year at the back of our rotation.
We have so many more interesting candidates for back of rotation than Sonny Gray who are internal and would cost nothing and aren't in late-arb stage.
In the departure of Mike Fast, the Astros lost a key member of their front office By Jake Kaplan Sep 21, 2018 Mike Fast, a core member of Jeff Luhnow’s front office throughout the Houston Astros’ rise from last-place finishers to 2017 World Series champions, has left the team after seven seasons to seek a new opportunity. It’s not known what prompted Fast’s decision to depart the only team he’s ever worked for, but he said Friday he hopes to continue working in baseball. His contract with the Astros is set to expire at the end of October and he informed Luhnow on Wednesday he wouldn’t seek a renewal. “It was time to move on, and I’m looking for other opportunities,” Fast told The Athletic. “I definitely would like to latch on with another team.” As the director of their research and development department, Fast filled a pivotal role in the Astros’ data-driven front office. He assumed that title and began leading their analytics team after the 2015 season, when Sig Mejdal was promoted from director of decision sciences to special assistant to the GM. Fast declined to elaborate on Friday about his reasons for leaving the Astros, with whom he was in charge of eight analysts. Given his pedigree and reputation around the game, it’s expected he will have his choice of suitors for his next landing spot. Fast was among Luhnow’s first hires after Luhnow left the St. Louis Cardinals to lead the Astros in December 2011. He officially joined the team in February 2012 as one of their top analysts after proving his expertise in player performance-tracking systems like PITCHf/x and HITf/x through his writing job at Baseball Prospectus. He is also considered a pioneer in pitch-framing research. Before he began his career in baseball, Fast spent 17 years as a semiconductor engineer. “It was amazing. There are a lot of very special people that I worked with and many of them still here with the Astros. I’ve never had a job like this before,” Fast said. “Obviously, we went from bottom of the standings to World Series and that didn’t happen by accident. There were a lot of people putting in a lot of hard work and a lot of amazing baseball people in all departments. I’m just very grateful for the opportunity to have been part of that.” Fast was one of five department directors in the Astros’ front office, the others being Pete Putila (player development), Bill Firkus (sports medicine and performance), Armando Velasco (minor league operations) and Jay Edmiston (Florida operations). It’s uncertain as to how the Astros will fill Fast’s position, be it internally or with an outside hire. Luhnow declined to comment Friday on Fast’s departure, citing a team policy about not discussing the status of front office employees currently under contract.
Who do you believe the Braves value more between Pache and Riley. They seem to be the main two position players prospects we can dangle. Pretty good debate among us ATL fans. Kiley McDaniel: Almost certain it’s Pache, which is also how we have them ranked. Do you see the Braves just trading Teheran away for a low level back of pack prospect just to get his 11 million off the books and open a spot? Or need to eat salary to move him? Thanks!! Kiley McDaniel: Yeah, I think that’s the most likely outcome
I wonder if some of the other Houston analytics folks that left last month might find their way to Atlanta as well...
What’s does that lineup look like? Acuna Albies Realmuto Freeman Camargo Markakis Swanson Enciarte Pitcher
I dont think you push Freddie from the 3 hole. And I want a 2nd tier OF guy like Brantley and spend our money on one starter and one closer
The lineup is not easy to construct with Markakis so I certainly hope DOB is wring about that. They need more slugging from the outfield and I’m on board with Brantley as well.
Think he's just saying what he would do. Dave has his favorites (pete, Med) which is probably why he'd keep Markakis.
Still not sure I truly believe him. He’s a secretive guy by all accounts and, of course, has an agenda. He’s obviously doing what he thinks is in our best interest though so I’m all for it. I guess we’ll see once the first trade drops.
This is still so much about semantics. Just like college football coaches don’t officially get an “offer” until a school knows they accept. The definition of “offer” makes it impossible to know what’s going on. I still lean heavily towards believing Mish. All the Braves writers denying it are clearly getting their info from Braves sources, and obviously they would want that squashed.
There’s a disproportionate amount of DOB tweets on the last few pages compared to the entire thread and I refuse to trust anything he says until I know which classic tunes he’s vibing.
Bryce Harper knows that he’s not worth $30 mil a year. I think the Braves and Bryce know that 15 to 20 is the sweet spot.
Do we though? Mlb.com had an article up on him this morning.. His road splits are elite. Apparently he just can't pitch in Yankee stadium. Gray, 2017-18 with Yankees, all other parks 107 2/3 innings 2.84 ERA 24 percent strikeout rate 8 percent walk rate 52 percent ground-ball rate 33 percent hard-hit rate .286 Expected wOBA (similar to Blake Snell in 2017-18 He also has a great ground ball rate. With our infield defense that plays incredibly well. Pitchers with 50 percent ground-ball rate and 20 percent strikeout rate, 2018 Aaron Nola, 51/27 Walker Buehler, 50/28 Lance McCullers Jr., 55/27 Trevor Cahill, 53/22 Gray, 50/21 Feel like he's an interesting option.
There has been rumors going around that if we sign someone like Brantley with a good OBP (or someone with an even higher OBP) then he would go to leadoff and they will move Ronnie to the #2 spot (like Judge/Kris Bryant) to get maximum value. Im torn on this one
Mallex Smith has played 3 years in the majors and got traded last night for the 4th time. Actually had a very good year for the rays this year .296 AVG, .367 OBP, 40 SB, 115 wRC+ with almost 200 TB
I still like the trade if gohara can keep the weight down and go back to the awesome prospect that he can be next season (still just 22). But mallex would look awfully good in our OF as well
I'm wondering if I'd like Markakis more in left. He's been very solid for us and apparently his teammates love him. I don't think I hate bringing him back if we could get him the fuck out of RF.
I don't care about the defense tbh, he batted .258, 332 OBP, .701 OPS in the entire 2nd half and was very bad in the 4 game NLDS. That is unacceptable and very below average and we can do much better I think. Brantley would be a significant upgrade
I'd rather try and upgrade the bat. His hot stretch in the first couple months is really skewing things.
Rosenthal thinks the Kluber ask could be so high he doesn't move.. While Kluber is the most expensive of that group, he also is the most accomplished, a Cy Young finalist in three of the past five seasons and a winner twice. Thus, the Indians might want to exceed the Yoan Moncada-Michael Kopech-plus return for Sale, and the Tyler Glasnow-Austin Meadows-Shane Baz return for Archer Also said the Marlins want to keep Realmuto and could keep him around hoping he'll change his mind on extension