long term deal in the "1s?" yeah, seems OK actually, but if the goal is to compete this season need to apply those savings on a couple other pieces. compared to $300+ over 10 for Correa or Seager, idk, i don't hate it?
And easily worth $20 million a year. He's been worth on average $23.5 million the last six years according to fangraphs value and that's with his awful COVID year where he had negative worth.
I hope AJ is behind this and knows what he's doing. I just don't like Baez. I can't stand his approach at the plate. I don't think he's as good defensively as many (including him) think. And he does stuff that makes me think he's not a "chips are down" type of guy that this org probably needed from whatever big money guy they signed. Giving that guy 6-7 years or whatever it's going to be terrifies me. In a dream world, maybe being around Miggy helps him mature a bit and finally change his approach, but that almost never happens with guys you give that kind of $$ to when they lose that motivation.
His approach seemed to improve when he got to Mets. Took more walks and had a career high OBP. Idk...maybe I'm just trying to be positive, but I'm starting to not hate this signing. If it was done in a vacuum in a season that Correa was not a FA, I think more people would hate it less. Still don't love it, but I think its an OK gamble
He walked more with the Mets, but the numbers behind it suggested it wasn't because he suddenly stopped swinging as much. It was just kind of a random spike. And when you walk 4.2% of the time for 4 months in Chicago, all of a sudden walking 7% of the time is some crazy thing. I was never in the Correa or bust camp. I get the premise of it after the last 5 years, but we didn't have to sign Correa. I hope Baez can still be a 3-4 win player because of the defense and power. I think that's certainly doable. It just sucks when your team signs a guy for 6 years that you just don't like.
I'm guessing we're done until the lockout. Whenever the CBA is signed, I hope we at least get into the Michael Conforto market. That's an upside play for a middle of the order LH bat if he can get back to where he was pre-2021.
An infield of Tork, Schoop, Baez and Candy is pretty good both offensively and defensively. Add Grossman, Green and Barnhart and hopefully continued success from Baddoo and this is a major league baseball team right from Opening Day. First time in a while.
Given the starters on the market today, I say we go after Conforto when business starts again, roll into Opening Day with something like... Greene, CF Baez, SS Conforto, RF Torkelson, 1B Candelario, 3B Cabrera, DH Grossman, LF Schoop, 2B Barnhart, C Rodriguez, LHP Mize, RHP Skubal, LHP Manning, RHP Alexander, LHP That's an interesting team, at least. There's no starting pitcher depth unless Wentz/Faedo give you options coming back from TJ, but the pen was pretty good the second half of last year.
Maybe I should have said "major league lineup" but I'm not super worried about finding 2 decent starters behind Mize, Skubal and Rodriguez. Manning and Alexander are serviceable in filling 1 spot and they'll sign somebody else.
So all the money being spent over the past week is probably going to make the CBA negotiations even more contentious when the owners cry poor, yes?
Not really. As much as everyone has talked about down FA markets in recent years, this fight isn't really about that. It's about what happens when guys are under team control and how/when they get paid. I don't think this is about owners crying poor. This is about owners dominating players in this system, and if we know anything about rich white dudes who run business, you can pry that power from their cold dead hands. And that's why we're probably not going to be playing baseball in early April.
Not over any of those three, IMO. I don't expect the Tigers to actually sign Conforto, so I think Baddoo or Hill/Cameron probably starts whenever the season does.
If the tigers are going to spend some money there are a few places I'd spend it before OF unless they plan on starting Greene in minors again. I have more faith in Baddoo and Hill being ok in the OF than I do Manning consistently being ok in a starting role. Think they really need another SP on a 1 or 2 year deal to give Manning another year of potentially getting some more time in minors if needed and buys a year until Turnbull is back
Baez having a 2 year out annoys me. He plays well and we only have him 2 years instead of 6, he sucks and we are stuck with him all 6
Agree even though I don’t want him. I didn’t see Seager or Siemen with those terms. Avila was forced to make a SS signing and choked
It's the same as the Rodriguez deal, which annoyed me. If you're footing the bill on the term, you shouldn't have to give in on the upside if the deal turns out good.
Our beat writers in this town always just push the teams agenda. Based on articles I'm reading the agenda is 1. We are serious about winning now and will spend to compete (unless it costs "ridiculous" amounts of money) 2. Big name free agents are dumb to give big contracts too 3. Our prospects may not be ready yet, may need to keep them in minors to start so they stay in prospect lists 4. Unless those prospects potentially can fill a spot that stops us from maybe having to sign another player (Kreidler is ready) 5. Hitting Harold is a legend and needs to be in the lineup.
Fuck McCoskey. Baddoo is not an every day player. Grossman is a good #4 OF, but also not an every day guy. Seeing that lineup makes adding another OF a big priority. Sign Chris Taylor.
On a winning team, they make a great platoon partner. Baddoo had a .523 OPS against lefties. And Grossman hit 221/347/387 against righties. Having both in your lineup and playing 130 games it probably not ideal. I think we see some regression from Baddoo this year too.
Thought he violated covid protocol by bringing a pizza to spring training to share, and then when reprimanded showed up next day being an ass and joking about it
Sadly I don't think McCoskey is that far off. Outside of signing an additional FA position player, which seems unlikely, I bet opening day lineup is close to something like this: Akil Baddoo, LF Robbie Grossman, RF Jeimer Candelario, 3B Miguel Cabrera, 1B Javy Baez, SS Jonathan Schoop, 2B Eric Haase DH Tucker Barnhart, C Derek Hill CF
I think service time is changed in some way. That and FA draft pick compensation are the two easiest changes for MLB to make to give players something that doesn't affect their bottom line that much. Even if it doesn't, I would be surprised if at least one of Torkelson/Greene wasn't on the Opening Day roster unless they're either hurt or awful in spring. I think it's more likely they're both up for Opening Day than both down in Toledo.