ericmvan
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Supposed to be working on something more important
Posts: 8,907
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Post by ericmvan on Dec 6, 2019 22:27:08 GMT -5
First Q: how many arms do you want or need?
I've always thought that a contender should have as many guys who project to be above-average as they have roster spots for them. Not more and not less. Those are all guys you would be unwilling to send to the minors. In the ironic worst case scenario that everyone is healthy, you have good pitchers pitching mop-up, but you don't have to trade away anyone who's good. More likely, you have at least one guy (and often more) on the IL, and that's why you want a phalanx of upside guys with options pitching in AAA.
I count only 10 guys that fit that description now. The four starters, Workman, Barnes, Darwinzon, Taylor, Walden, and Hembree. That means they should be looking to add three good guys, and if they deal Hembree to cut the payroll (which I think is very likely), that means adding four good pitches to the roster.
At least one of those guys should be a long man / spot starter type. You might want a pure reliever (two if you're counting Hembree's replacement), and a guy somewhere in between who could serve as an opener.
I'm dubious that they can do all that if by "projects to be above average" we mean the consensus projection. I think they really need to find at least one guy and ideally two that they are reasonably confident has upside that others are missing. Which is to say, they should be looking to pick up mostly Colten Brewer types, but one or two of those guys needs to be better than that.
The AAAA crew is an interesting bunch: Brasier, Velazquez, Brewer, Lakins, Shawaryn, Osich, Hart, Poyner on the 40 man, and Johnson, Houck and maybe Feltman outside it.
The other thing is, I don't think they have room on the 40 man to add three arms. They're at 36 now, minus two for Weber and Reyes, plus one for a backup C = 35. That's five open spots:
(This excludes replacing JDM, JBJ, and Hembree. 1-for-1).
Holt 2b -> Lin to bench X at 1B -> Chavis to bench 4th bench guy (OF / 1B) -> Travis through waivers
That leaves just two spots (they can fill the Travis and Pedroia roster spots at the end of ST with waiver claims). One solution would be to include Poyner, the least interesting of the AAAA crew, in one of the salary-reducing trades (not that he'd have much value).
I think the available talent will determine which of these three positions might be filled by someone making a little bit of money, versus close to MLB minimum.
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Post by johnsilver52 on Dec 6, 2019 22:56:56 GMT -5
He has a habit of pretty much dumpster diving, or searching the waiver wire for relievers and hitting on them on a decent amount. Will Bloom continue that? Brach may have been one, but he went today for cheap. Cishek maybe won't cost a fortune with his age. Strop shouldn't be that high and I'm loving the idea of getting Taijuan Walker, even if he costs as much(around 5m) as he made last year.
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iii
Rookie
Posts: 46 
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Post by iii on Dec 7, 2019 10:26:38 GMT -5
Julio Teherán
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Post by larrycook on Dec 8, 2019 23:26:59 GMT -5
He has a habit of pretty much dumpster diving, or searching the waiver wire for relievers and hitting on them on a decent amount. Will Bloom continue that? Brach may have been one, but he went today for cheap. Cishek maybe won't cost a fortune with his age. Strop shouldn't be that high and I'm loving the idea of getting Taijuan Walker, even if he costs as much(around 5m) as he made last year. Are we sure bloom had anything to do with recycling the retreads when he was in Tampa? Or is it the guy that just dumped Pham? |
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Dec 9, 2019 0:42:42 GMT -5
He has a habit of pretty much dumpster diving, or searching the waiver wire for relievers and hitting on them on a decent amount. Will Bloom continue that? Brach may have been one, but he went today for cheap. Cishek maybe won't cost a fortune with his age. Strop shouldn't be that high and I'm loving the idea of getting Taijuan Walker, even if he costs as much(around 5m) as he made last year. Are we sure bloom had anything to do with recycling the retreads when he was in Tampa? Or is it the guy that just dumped Pham? This is not groupthink so I don't know how "we" would collectively come to a conclusion about anything. And as far as whether we know if Bloom specifically had anything to do with "recycling the retreads" when he was in Tampa, he hasn't had any transactions of significance in his very brief tenure as Red Sox baseball ops chief or whatever his title is - at least not as of this moment. Common sense tells you if he's considered as highly regarded in MLB circles as he is or from what has been reported, then he certainly was a key voice in the decision making process of Tampa. One guy might make the final decision but decision making is for a lot of teams a collaborative effort, something that the Red Sox apparently got away from last year, something that John Henry wanted restored to the organization. I'm sure Bloom had valuable input into the direction of the Rays over the past several plus years. |
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ericmvan
Veteran
Supposed to be working on something more important
Posts: 8,907
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Post by ericmvan on Dec 9, 2019 3:47:15 GMT -5
One thing that would improve the situation: a strong reason to believe that either Brasier or Velazquez would bounce back to their form of two years ago. IOW, an internal projection that they would be better than average / too good to option.
Another strategy that's worth mentioning again: outbid everyone for the best mlfa's who fall short of earning a spot on anyone's 40-man roster.
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