$5.25M for Mercer seems high, but it's not my money and it's not like we're trying to put a perfect team together.
It's not going to happen and there's nothing out there that even hints we have any interest, but I've convinced myself that signing Bryce Harper to an 8-10 year deal is a good idea if his market doesn't take off the way he hopes.
Curious what Iglesias signs for. It will be hilarious if we overpaid for Mercier, and Jose signs for left
I think we’re trying to be the worst team in the league next year. Hopefully our draft goes well. We picking #5? Who are the potential picks?
I really dont know anything about Mercer, but have bad associations due to using him as a cheap lead off guy in DFS
I guess $5M is the going rate for 1 WAR. He's shittier than Jose, older than Jose and I bet Jose signs for less. Useless early signing, and I don't even like Jose. Could get the same player in February for $1.2M.
So are we trying to lock up our bad season ASAP, or do we actually have some analytics that like him? Neither situation seems ideal
Don't think you can just compare him to Iglesias like we could have had either for the same price. We've had Iglesias since 2013. I think it's very possible that both the Tigers and Iglesias wanted to move on at this point, and very likely at least one of the parties involved did. If we were contending, I would probably be annoyed that we jumped out and did this now. Since we're not contending and money is only relevant to whether the owner is willing to spend it or not to fill place holder spots on a bad team, I really don't care how much we paid to get it done now because it doesn't matter.
Agree 100% trash signing. Hopefully we finish in last place this year. Fire Avila, and get a real GM to finish the rebuild.
His analytic measures are bad and degrading, and he turns 33 next season. He's also a bigger body at SS, which doesn't seem ideal for maintaining defensive value at the position. And his defensive value already wasn't amazing. He's terrible.
I don't care about Iglesias, but it'll be funny when he signs for less. I don't care about how much money they spend, but spending $5M more makes no sense for a replacement-level player. It's only annoying because it's a worthless move and indicative of how these guys think. If you need a warm body at SS, you simply don't need to sign one at the league meetings for $5.25M. The Ross and Moore signings are a lottery ticket and an innings eater, and defensible as potential trade bait and rotation fodder. Mercer on December 12 stinks of boredom and laziness.
That's fair. They clearly are just trying to check off boxes at this point and value isn't really in their mentality right now. That's not what I would prefer. I'm just not going to get worked up and go "fire Avila!!" every time they do something like this. Avila's job is tied to the young players currently in the minor leagues. Who he signs to play SS or be the 5th starter is irrelevant to me, as is whether they overpaid their stop gap SS by $2M on a one-year deal when he's probably not going to finish the season as the starter at the position, anyway.
What happened to Galvis? I kinda liked that idea. 3 switch hitters in the lineup, works for the Indians ...
Galvis is very likely to get more than Mercer, and is probably waiting to see what happens with Machado to try to get on a better team. He's also basically the same hitter (maybe a little worse) as Mercer, for what that's worth. Iglesias is better than both, probably, but Iglesias isn't for everyone with his personality.
I'm not Vinegar Strokes in terms of firing Al, but I do think there is value to making every move count for something. Maybe at SS a better fielder or at least more range for less money, to support the young pitchers or pump Ross's trade value and also put a few million in the bank to eat some of Nic's contract at the deadline. Basically, even if money isn't really an object, grind it out. Also, what else do we have to talk about baseball-wise.
We don't really disagree, I think. I'm not trying to yell at or scold anyone or anything and don't want it to come across that way. I agree that it would make me feel better if I thought the FO was grinding to find the best values with the most upside rather than just trying to complete a check list as early as possible so they can go on vacation in January. I just have a hard time getting worked up anymore about these kinds of moves, given our situation. As I've said previously several times, I would be a lot more worked up if we were competing and every dollar on the payroll mattered. Castellanos is a difficult call, and I would personally prefer to keep him around rather than just dump him for what is likely to be a tough return. I think there's still enough upside in the bat to where I'm okay with them asking for more than he's likely going to fetch in a trade at this stage.
I think we're basically in the same place. I'm just more complainy tonight. My issue with Castellanos is I'm not sure where he plays on a good team in Comerica. So what's his role in 2021-2022. I don't think he's a very good first baseman and Miggy is there, but he might improve in RF to serviceable and he's still only going to be 27 in March, but he's a long way from serviceable now. I'm fine resigning him for a 4 years and using him as a RF/DH, but I'd try to extend him now and if he insists on testing the market I'd move him for whatever in July.
My feelings on Castellanos are basically that I have a hard time deciding whether we should trade or keep him without knowing what a potential return is. I think there's a decent chance he improves in the OF. I don't think he can be better than below average, but some of his issues last year were that he had no experience and he was running into walls and batting fly balls over the fence. I think some of that is correctable with experience. I also think some of it can improve with better positioning, which is ideally going to happen the better we get with the analytics. I think his bat has the potential to get to at least JD Martinez in Detroit levels, which is why I don't want to just give him away and watch him become that somewhere else. I'm not big on the line-up protection thing, but he was all by himself last year after Cabrera went down and that's not ideal for someone whose only real issue at the plate is he could stand to be a bit more patient.
If they think he can play a below average RF, rather than league worst RF, I'd probably sign him to a longer deal. Not sure at what dollar per year, but he's young enough that 4-5 years will stand up at the plate. Then again, what position does Stewart play? LF? That's a bad OF.
Castellanos won’t be back next year, so they better trade him before season starts. He won’t get us shit at the deadline. Then at that point, your better off getting draft pick. Him and Stewart would be worst OF in all of baseball.
So the Indians are pulling off some trade that is gonna net them Jake Bauers from the TB? That pisses me off
To trade him to the Yankees, who picked after us? The minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft is weird and doesn't really matter. There's a 5-10% chance of a player taken in the MLB rule 5 draft turning into something useful (or better) long term. The odds of a minor league rule 5 guy turning into anything would seem lower than that.
Dammit, I immediately liked that OF for his BB and SB ability, but he's not young for high A ball and so getting anything for him at all is fine.
Just for the record in case people aren't sure due to DeToxRox posting the news in a weird way, Reed Garrett is our Rule 5 pick. He's the guy who either sticks with the big league club all season or goes back to Texas. The other guy was a minor leaguer and not part of the main Rule 5 draft. I don't even understand the rules for the minor league "phase" of the draft.
DFS-centric, but McCann has been something of a fantasy darling the past few years as a "lefty masher" ...
Is she wearing the exact same shirt/jacket as in her Twitter profile? Homegirl needs a wardrobe update or stylist. Dresses like a grandma ...
Current 2019 roster projection (by me) C (2) - Greiner, Hicks IF (6) - Cabrera, Goodrum, Mercer, Candelario, Rodriguez, Dixon OF (5) - Castellanos, Jones, Stewart, Mahtook, Reyes SP (5) - Fulmer, Boyd, Zimmermann, Ross, Moore RP (7) - Greene, Jimenez, Norris, VerHagen, Hardy, Turnbull, Garrett Would expect we sign a 1B/DH somewhere, preferably a LH bat. Otherwise, we probably sign a veteran catcher and use Hicks in that role. I think the pitching staff is pretty much done at this point, with a bunch of competition coming in the pen. I'm hoping Gardenhire walks back his statement about Greene being the closer. I think Jimenez is better suited for that role, while Greene is better suited as a fireman-type.