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Post by dmaineah on Oct 14, 2016 11:37:16 GMT -5
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Oct 15, 2016 4:27:28 GMT -5
With that said, the Red Sox certainly don't need Encarnacion, and their roster gives them the flexibility and see how the market shakes out before committing to someone. Unfortunately, that's not really Dombrowski's style, so we'll see. If you and some other savvy posters (that's you, telson) would answer the questions in the first post, we could see whether EE actually maes the team better, and if so, by how much.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Oct 15, 2016 5:20:16 GMT -5
I wouldn't assume that there will be a huge bidding war for Encarnacion, especially if teams think he is or soon will be a DH-only guy. Most AL teams are some combination of (a) have good DHs already (Mariners, Indians, Astros, Twins), (b) have incumbent options that they can't move (Tigers, Angels), or (c) don't have the payroll to be major players (Rays, Athletics, Royals). The teams that I see maybe being in the hunt for a DH this offseason are the Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles, Rangers and maybe White Sox. But there will also be a pretty significant list of free agent DHs, including Encarnacion, Bautista, Trumbo, Beltran and others (e.g., Napoli, Alvarez, Moss, etc). If some of those teams choose to go cheap at DH (e.g., if the White Sox and/or Yankees decide to do a longer rebuild), the market for Encarnacion might well be almost reasonable. Looking at his defensive numbers at 1B, it seems as if he's actually made himself into an OK defender there: 0 DRS in 1108 innings the last two years, with a positive UZR. There's probably some SSS noise, but he was -17 in 2186 prior innings and that's a big difference that's hard to see as entirely random. I think that some teams are going to want him as a 1B, so you can add the Indians, Mariners, Marlins, Nationals (if they're willing to regard Zimmerman, 0.5 WAR / 650 his last three years, as a sunk cost*), and Cardinals to the list of potential suitors. Maybe the Mets if they don't think Dominic Smith is too good to block. *OBP starting from 2010: .388, .355, .346, .344, .342, .308, .272.
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Post by jdb on Oct 16, 2016 21:09:39 GMT -5
I just don't see a ton of landing spots for him. You can probably go ahead and eliminate NL teams and a lot of the bigger AL markets have 1B/DH types.
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