Post by gerry on Aug 24, 2018 12:01:54 GMT -5
Just wondering has anyone missed Vasquez? Did Leon help Price get here ? Are Vasquez days numbered? I would not give him away. But things to think about in the offseason. Swihart is incredible athlete.
I keep remembering Lou Merloni saying this kids days are numbered. We are only scratching the surface with him.
The FO will certainly have the results of how well next year's projected starting pitchers (Sale, Porcello, Price, ERod, Eovaldi, Johnson, Wright, Velasquez, ?) and RP's responded to the three catchers. Just by win-loss record, ERA and BAA, Leon appears to have had tremendous success, and I imagine more sophisticated metrics support this. They must have objective mechanisms to both determine success with each SP and RP; and some way to get input by all pitchers in this regard. In this light, extending CV must have been a well considered move based on considerable information. Yet Sandy seems to have outperformed CV. So color me confused.
Can we expect Defense, CS%, game calling, framing, blocked balls from CV to return to form in 2019? Did Sandy actually move to another level in 2018 and will he improve or regress in 2019? Can we be certain both would stay healthy in 2019? Is it worth trading either of them in a package to upgrade the position to All-Star level? I don't think so.
If I were building a roster I would build the bench around Blake Swihart. IMO he is emerging as a very important member of this extraordinary team, now and in future years, and will only get better as his playing time and reps increase. With relatively minimal experience and playing time, this superb athlete has looked very good at 1B, 3B, OF as well as C, pinch runner. His hitting has really come around with reps. He might even be the superior backup at 2B if Pedey needs downtime in 2019. With both Pearce and Kinsler entering their late 30's, and likely expecting another contract of $8-10M, Blake becomes even more attractive. A bench of CV/SL, Swihart, a healthy Holt and Nunez (low cost player option) would be more than pretty good, and save enough to help start extending some players.