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2024 Free Agency
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Post by julyanmorley on Aug 18, 2023 12:05:37 GMT -5
It's not a fix to the offense but the defense has been awful this year, perhaps the answer to a better 2024 season is to prioritize pitching and defense and hope for a better year hitting from who they currently have. Rafaella in CF and not having Hernandez the butcher at SS is certainly a start to the defense. Maybe slide Duran over to LF and play Yoshida at DH more or less full time. That would probably make the OF defense night and day better. Still would like to see some sort of shot in the arm to this offense in the way of a good RHH slugger. This is the simple way to improve in 2024. The defense. Chaim salivating at the opportunity to tell the story of how the 66 win 2007 Rays won the pennant the next year.
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Post by kwodes on Aug 18, 2023 12:43:27 GMT -5
It's not a fix to the offense but the defense has been awful this year, perhaps the answer to a better 2024 season is to prioritize pitching and defense and hope for a better year hitting from who they currently have. Rafaella in CF and not having Hernandez the butcher at SS is certainly a start to the defense. Maybe slide Duran over to LF and play Yoshida at DH more or less full time. That would probably make the OF defense night and day better. Still would like to see some sort of shot in the arm to this offense in the way of a good RHH slugger. This is the simple way to improve in 2024. The defense. how much do we think the defense improves just from having story all year and maybe rafaela in CF?
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Aug 18, 2023 12:44:03 GMT -5
First time I've seen him. That looks like a pretty high effort delivery to me. My shoulder is sore just watching him. I think he'd scare me more than most young pitchers on a big money 5-7 year contract. For those also interested in mechanics: Looking at it in slow motion, his arm is a maybe little late (with good scap retraction and hip/shoulder separation, which is probably how he gets the velocity), but his elbow stays low and he doesn’t do the inverted W/V thing anywhere near as badly as a Mark Prior, where there is an incredible amount of tension in the shoulder and rotator cuff/TOS problems are much more likely. They are not the cleanest mechanics I’ve ever seen, especially in the shoulder loading, but also not horrible. He also looks like he has a very strong lower half and uses it well with a drop and drive style delivery. If I had to guess, I would put him at a 6-6.5 on the Greg Maddux to Mark Prior injury scale. The "inverted W" thing has been largely debunked, I think.
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Post by bluechip on Aug 18, 2023 12:54:01 GMT -5
It's not a fix to the offense but the defense has been awful this year, perhaps the answer to a better 2024 season is to prioritize pitching and defense and hope for a better year hitting from who they currently have. Rafaella in CF and not having Hernandez the butcher at SS is certainly a start to the defense. Maybe slide Duran over to LF and play Yoshida at DH more or less full time. That would probably make the OF defense night and day better. Still would like to see some sort of shot in the arm to this offense in the way of a good RHH slugger. I really like Turner, but he is causing a log jam because Yoshida needs to DH as much as possible. Having Turner and Casas in the field is brutal. Maybe Casas can improve at first, though I’m not holding my breath, but Yoshida is a DH.
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ematz1423
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Post by ematz1423 on Aug 18, 2023 13:08:12 GMT -5
It's not a fix to the offense but the defense has been awful this year, perhaps the answer to a better 2024 season is to prioritize pitching and defense and hope for a better year hitting from who they currently have. Rafaella in CF and not having Hernandez the butcher at SS is certainly a start to the defense. Maybe slide Duran over to LF and play Yoshida at DH more or less full time. That would probably make the OF defense night and day better. Still would like to see some sort of shot in the arm to this offense in the way of a good RHH slugger. I really like Turner, but he is causing a lot jam because Yoshida needs to DH as much as possible. Having Turner and Casas in the field is brutal. Maybe Casas can improve at first, though I’m not holding my breath, but Yoshida is a DH. I think Casas can and should improve from dang close to DH only to closer to average. Don't see him ever being a gold glover over there but he's pretty much only got room to improve at this point. I'm with you on Turner. I like him a lot but Yoshida should be DH the bulk of the time going forward.
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Post by remmartin34 on Aug 18, 2023 13:10:33 GMT -5
The "inverted W" thing has been largely debunked, I think. It has been. But I don’t totally disagree with the following component of the argument, based on what I see from start to finish on the delivery,.. “incredible amount of tension in the shoulder and rotator cuff/TOS problems are much more likely”.. I personally wouldn’t go to the length of saying “incredible amount,” but I would say that it looks significant enough to have some level of concern, when you’re talking about a potentially 8+ year deal. But I personally love the look of the motion on camera. Unicorn territory haha. I haven’t done a dive into Yamamoto to any significant extent, beyond highlight reels. Has he dealt with any injuries up to this point?
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Post by orion09 on Aug 18, 2023 13:33:08 GMT -5
The "inverted W" thing has been largely debunked, I think. Not as far as I know - do you have a source? It has been. But I don’t totally disagree with the following component of the argument, based on what I see from start to finish on the delivery,.. “incredible amount of tension in the shoulder and rotator cuff/TOS problems are much more likely”.. I personally wouldn’t go to the length of saying “incredible amount,” but I would say that it looks significant enough to have some level of concern, when you’re talking about a potentially 8+ year deal. But I personally love the look of the motion on camera. Unicorn territory haha. I haven’t done a dive into Yamamoto to any significant extent, beyond highlight reels. Has he dealt with any injuries up to this point? ”Incredible amount of tension” was referring to guys like Mark Prior - I was saying that Yamamoto isn’t nearly as bad.
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Post by incandenza on Aug 18, 2023 13:38:50 GMT -5
This is the simple way to improve in 2024. The defense. how much do we think the defense improves just from having story all year and maybe rafaela in CF? Kiké-->Story is a pure gain. But Rafaela in CF is a bit of a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul situation, because then presumably you're pushing Duran to LF and Yoshida to DH, which means you're effectively replacing Turner's bat in the lineup with Rafaela's. Plus you'd lose Turner's flexibility in backing up 1B or 3B and then we're only one injury to Casas or Devers from having a major hole in the lineup.
On the other hand they could bring Turner back, but then we're back to crummy defense in LF and CF. So how do you improve the defense, other than Story at SS?
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Post by jmei on Aug 18, 2023 13:54:22 GMT -5
I don't see any issue with both promoting Rafaela (and giving him a good chunk of playing time) and re-signing Turner (or a similar player). You'll have to sit one starting-caliber guy every game if everyone is healthy, but I see that as a feature, not a bug. For all of this front office's purported emphasis on depth, one of the biggest issues with the team over the past few years has been gaping black holes that persist for big chunks of the season (2023 so far: -1.0 fWAR at 2B and -0.4 fWAR at SS; 2022: -0.5 fWAR at RF and -0.7 fWAR at 1B).
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ematz1423
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Post by ematz1423 on Aug 18, 2023 13:54:46 GMT -5
how much do we think the defense improves just from having story all year and maybe rafaela in CF? Kiké-->Story is a pure gain. But Rafaela in CF is a bit of a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul situation, because then presumably you're pushing Duran to LF and Yoshida to DH, which means you're effectively replacing Turner's bat in the lineup with Rafaela's. Plus you'd lose Turner's flexibility in backing up 1B or 3B and then we're only one injury to Casas or Devers from having a major hole in the lineup.
On the other hand they could bring Turner back, but then we're back to crummy defense in LF and CF. So how do you improve the defense, other than Story at SS?
Well the only other option to really improve the defense at that point would be to move either Duran or Verdugo and play Rafaella in CF and whichever you don't trade in RF. Then you're still stuck with Yoshida and his far below avg defense in LF. Instead of bringing back Turner possibly bring in someone who is more oriented for a bench role that can play 1st and 3rd in case of an injury, not that you want Turner playing defense anyway. Edit: or as jmei said above just bring Turner back, call up Rafaella and worry about the PT later.
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Post by jmei on Aug 18, 2023 14:12:28 GMT -5
Couple other high-level thoughts on the OF picture:
-I would not rely on Duran being a starting-caliber outfielder for the entire season next year. He should get first shot at playing time, but they need to have a robust backup (read: someone better than Refsnyder) in case he struggles again. His 2023 line is inflated in part by an unsustainable BABIP, defenders who aren't ready for him to be aggressive in stretching singles into doubles and defensive metrics that are prone to fluctuation. If he's a league-average hitter with meh defense (which is what a lot of the projections see), that's a potential weak spot.
-Refsnyder is a useful bench player but not more than that. Despite being heavily platooned across his career, he's got just a career 90 wRC+ and his power production in 2022 increasingly seems like an outlier. I would not hesitate to try and upgrade that roster spot (for instance, by re-signing Duvall and trading Refsnyder). I'll root for any Asian American player, but he's 32 already, only has one more year of team control and guys who are the short end of a platoon in the OF without plus power or defense are just not that valuable.
-I'm a big Rafaela fan, but wouldn't just pencil him as the starting CF. He will earn plenty of playing time on his defense alone, but his offensive production is volatile enough that I would feel better if he was in the pre-2021 Kiké Hernandez role at least to start the season.
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Post by incandenza on Aug 18, 2023 14:21:42 GMT -5
I don't see any issue with both promoting Rafaela (and giving him a good chunk of playing time) and re-signing Turner (or a similar player). You'll have to sit one starting-caliber guy every game if everyone is healthy, but I see that as a feature, not a bug. For all of this front office's purported emphasis on depth, one of the biggest issues with the team over the past few years has been gaping black holes that persist for big chunks of the season (2023 so far: -1.0 fWAR at 2B and -0.4 fWAR at SS; 2022: -0.5 fWAR at RF and -0.7 fWAR at 1B). Sure, you could carry them both on the roster, but the point is that any particular lineup you run out is either gaining Rafaela's defense at the expense of offense, or else it's just running in place with the offense relative to what it's been this year. It's great to have the depth (and just generally exciting to see what Rafaela can do), but OF/DH depth hasn't actually been a problem this season, so again if the question is what they can do to improve their overall positional player value relative to 2023, it's hard to see how they do it.
Though actually, that -1.4 WAR combined at SS/2B maybe gives the answer... If Story + Urias can combine for, say, 4 WAR next season, that's a pretty massive swing.
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Post by scottysmalls on Aug 18, 2023 14:26:58 GMT -5
I don't see any issue with both promoting Rafaela (and giving him a good chunk of playing time) and re-signing Turner (or a similar player). You'll have to sit one starting-caliber guy every game if everyone is healthy, but I see that as a feature, not a bug. For all of this front office's purported emphasis on depth, one of the biggest issues with the team over the past few years has been gaping black holes that persist for big chunks of the season (2023 so far: -1.0 fWAR at 2B and -0.4 fWAR at SS; 2022: -0.5 fWAR at RF and -0.7 fWAR at 1B). Sure, you could carry them both on the roster, but the point is that any particular lineup you run out is either gaining Rafaela's defense at the expense of offense, or else it's just running in place with the offense relative to what it's been this year. It's great to have the depth (and just generally exciting to see what Rafaela can do), but OF/DH depth hasn't actually been a problem this season, so again if the question is what they can do to improve their overall positional player value relative to 2023, it's hard to see how they do it.
Though actually, that -1.4 WAR combined at SS/2B maybe gives the answer... If Story + Urias can combine for, say, 4 WAR next season, that's a pretty massive swing.
It's Story + Urias vs. Kiké + Arroyo, and Devers and Casas improving IMO that represent the big opportunity for upgrades positionally. I don't see a trade or FA doing that. The one obvious alternative would be signing say Bellinger for the Turner slot. Duran moves to LF, Bellinger might improve on Turner's offense and definitely improves on Yoshida's defense.
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nomar
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Post by nomar on Aug 18, 2023 14:32:31 GMT -5
Sure, you could carry them both on the roster, but the point is that any particular lineup you run out is either gaining Rafaela's defense at the expense of offense, or else it's just running in place with the offense relative to what it's been this year. It's great to have the depth (and just generally exciting to see what Rafaela can do), but OF/DH depth hasn't actually been a problem this season, so again if the question is what they can do to improve their overall positional player value relative to 2023, it's hard to see how they do it. Though actually, that -1.4 WAR combined at SS/2B maybe gives the answer... If Story + Urias can combine for, say, 4 WAR next season, that's a pretty massive swing.
It's Story + Urias vs. Kiké + Arroyo, and Devers and Casas improving IMO that represent the big opportunity for upgrades positionally. I don't see a trade or FA doing that. The one obvious alternative would be signing say Bellinger for the Turner slot. Duran moves to LF, Bellinger might improve on Turner's offense and definitely improves on Yoshida's defense. Bellinger’s ahead of his xwOBA by 60 points and is way above his career average contact rate. He’s due for regression and if the contact comes back down to earth we’re talking about xwOBA regression too. That scares me too much personally. baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/cody-bellinger-641355?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlbThat top line is so ugly. I just can’t shake the feeling that he’s getting lucky. His glove is real but his bat is not.
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Post by Guidas on Aug 18, 2023 14:52:50 GMT -5
how much do we think the defense improves just from having story all year and maybe rafaela in CF? Kiké-->Story is a pure gain. But Rafaela in CF is a bit of a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul situation, because then presumably you're pushing Duran to LF and Yoshida to DH, which means you're effectively replacing Turner's bat in the lineup with Rafaela's. Plus you'd lose Turner's flexibility in backing up 1B or 3B and then we're only one injury to Casas or Devers from having a major hole in the lineup. On the other hand they could bring Turner back, but then we're back to crummy defense in LF and CF. So how do you improve the defense, other than Story at SS?
Maybe they put Rafaela in RF a la HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED. He certainly has the range and arm for it, and he could also probably pick up a lot of right-center in doing so. Also, there may be a couple or three hitters not named Ohtani that give you as much offense or more than Turner, some defensive flexibility (in at least two cases an improvement) who are FAs, younger and with better fWAR. Not that I'm advocating any of these guys but: Cody Bellinger .327 AVE/.379 OBP/.554 SLG, 149 wRC+, 3.9 fWAR so far. Allows you to have a plus OF of Duran/Bellinger/Rafaela with Duran/Yoshida/Bellinger getting opportunities at DH. Jeimer Candelario (he avoids the QO because he was traded mid-season, right?) .273 AVE/.355/OBP/.490 SLG 128 wRC+ 3.7 fWAR (so far), plays both 3rd and 1st, so you get same flexibility as Turner in a younger player. Whit Merrifield .301 AVE/.346 OBP/.428 SLG 115 wRC+ 2.8 fWAR (so far) gives you positional flexibility between 2nd, OF and DH.
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Aug 18, 2023 15:08:32 GMT -5
Kiké-->Story is a pure gain. But Rafaela in CF is a bit of a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul situation, because then presumably you're pushing Duran to LF and Yoshida to DH, which means you're effectively replacing Turner's bat in the lineup with Rafaela's. Plus you'd lose Turner's flexibility in backing up 1B or 3B and then we're only one injury to Casas or Devers from having a major hole in the lineup. On the other hand they could bring Turner back, but then we're back to crummy defense in LF and CF. So how do you improve the defense, other than Story at SS?
Maybe they put Rafaela in RF a la HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED. He certainly has the range and arm for it, and he could also probably pick up a lot of right-center in doing so. Also, there may be a couple or three hitters not named Ohtani that give you as much offense or more than Turner, some defensive flexibility (in at least two cases an improvement) who are FAs, younger and with better fWAR. Not that I'm advocating any of these guys but: Cody Bellinger .327 AVE/.379 OBP/.554 SLG, 149 wRC+, 3.9 fWAR so far. Allows you to have a plus OF of Duran/Bellinger/Rafaela with Duran/Yoshida/Bellinger getting opportunities at DH. Jeimer Candelario (he avoids the QO because he was traded mid-season, right?) .273 AVE/.355/OBP/.490 SLG 128 wRC+ 3.7 fWAR (so far), plays both 3rd and 1st, so you get same flexibility as Turner in a younger player. Whit Merrifield .301 AVE/.346 OBP/.428 SLG 115 wRC+ 2.8 fWAR (so far) gives you positional flexibility between 2nd, OF and DH. RF is like CF in many stadiums. Drew, Victorino and Mookie are basically CF’s we played in right. Could a package of Verdugo, Hauck and a prospect not in our Top 5-6 land a good starter?
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Post by thegoodthebadthesox on Aug 18, 2023 15:10:28 GMT -5
Kiké-->Story is a pure gain. But Rafaela in CF is a bit of a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul situation, because then presumably you're pushing Duran to LF and Yoshida to DH, which means you're effectively replacing Turner's bat in the lineup with Rafaela's. Plus you'd lose Turner's flexibility in backing up 1B or 3B and then we're only one injury to Casas or Devers from having a major hole in the lineup. On the other hand they could bring Turner back, but then we're back to crummy defense in LF and CF. So how do you improve the defense, other than Story at SS?
Maybe they put Rafaela in RF a la HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED. He certainly has the range and arm for it, and he could also probably pick up a lot of right-center in doing so. Also, there may be a couple or three hitters not named Ohtani that give you as much offense or more than Turner, some defensive flexibility (in at least two cases an improvement) who are FAs, younger and with better fWAR. Not that I'm advocating any of these guys but: Cody Bellinger .327 AVE/.379 OBP/.554 SLG, 149 wRC+, 3.9 fWAR so far. Allows you to have a plus OF of Duran/Bellinger/Rafaela with Duran/Yoshida/Bellinger getting opportunities at DH. Jeimer Candelario (he avoids the QO because he was traded mid-season, right?) .273 AVE/.355/OBP/.490 SLG 128 wRC+ 3.7 fWAR (so far), plays both 3rd and 1st, so you get same flexibility as Turner in a younger player. Whit Merrifield .301 AVE/.346 OBP/.428 SLG 115 wRC+ 2.8 fWAR (so far) gives you positional flexibility between 2nd, OF and DH. On Candelario, I'd personally anticipate that Casas will have established himself as a mostly everyday player, and obviously Devers is. Between that and the potential logjam in the outfield pushing Masa to DH more, I don't think there's enough games to go around for a guy that will cost what Candelario probably will. This is, theoretically, his one shot to really cash out. The ideal to me is truly just Turner coming back on a similar deal, or another righty bat in that price range, though if it isn't Turner I don't have a good feel for who it may be.
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ematz1423
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Post by ematz1423 on Aug 18, 2023 15:19:12 GMT -5
Maybe they put Rafaela in RF a la HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED. He certainly has the range and arm for it, and he could also probably pick up a lot of right-center in doing so. Also, there may be a couple or three hitters not named Ohtani that give you as much offense or more than Turner, some defensive flexibility (in at least two cases an improvement) who are FAs, younger and with better fWAR. Not that I'm advocating any of these guys but: Cody Bellinger .327 AVE/.379 OBP/.554 SLG, 149 wRC+, 3.9 fWAR so far. Allows you to have a plus OF of Duran/Bellinger/Rafaela with Duran/Yoshida/Bellinger getting opportunities at DH. Jeimer Candelario (he avoids the QO because he was traded mid-season, right?) .273 AVE/.355/OBP/.490 SLG 128 wRC+ 3.7 fWAR (so far), plays both 3rd and 1st, so you get same flexibility as Turner in a younger player. Whit Merrifield .301 AVE/.346 OBP/.428 SLG 115 wRC+ 2.8 fWAR (so far) gives you positional flexibility between 2nd, OF and DH. On Candelario, I'd personally anticipate that Casas will have established himself as a mostly everyday player, and obviously Devers is. Between that and the potential logjam in the outfield pushing Masa to DH more, I don't think there's enough games to go around for a guy that will cost what Candelario probably will. This is, theoretically, his one shot to really cash out. The ideal to me is truly just Turner coming back on a similar deal, or another righty bat in that price range, though if it isn't Turner I don't have a good feel for who it may be. I think we're there already on Casas, no? Sure he's batting under .200 vs lefties but his wRC+ is still 104. By overall wRC+ he's literally been their best hitter at 126 this year and that's with a dreadful start. Sure against really tough lefties if you have a guy like Turner and want to give Casas a breather then I get sitting him but that's about it from here on out, at least in my opinion.
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Post by incandenza on Aug 18, 2023 15:21:18 GMT -5
Candelario's career wRC+ is 103. Merrifield's is 104. These guys would not "give you as much offense or more" than Turner has in 2023, nor than he projects to provide in 2024. Even Bellinger is doubtful, though he'd make for a nice defensive fit (and but I wouldn't want to spend what he'll probably cost).
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Post by thegoodthebadthesox on Aug 18, 2023 15:22:52 GMT -5
On Candelario, I'd personally anticipate that Casas will have established himself as a mostly everyday player, and obviously Devers is. Between that and the potential logjam in the outfield pushing Masa to DH more, I don't think there's enough games to go around for a guy that will cost what Candelario probably will. This is, theoretically, his one shot to really cash out. The ideal to me is truly just Turner coming back on a similar deal, or another righty bat in that price range, though if it isn't Turner I don't have a good feel for who it may be. I think we're there already on Casas, no? Sure he's batting under .200 vs lefties but his wRC+ is still 104. By overall wRC+ he's literally been their best hitter at 126 this year and that's with a dreadful start. Sure against really tough lefties if you have a guy like Turner and want to give Casas a breather then I get sitting him but that's about it from here on out, at least in my opinion. I mostly just meant how it specifically relates to next year’s roster construction but yeah I think you’re probably right. Just poorly worded on my part.
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Post by ematz1423 on Aug 18, 2023 15:29:11 GMT -5
Yea I'm not seeing Candelario being a very good fit but maybe? Bellinger is intriguing but I don't know that I'd want to give up the draft pick for him and I'd be hesitant to give him a large contract that I think someone will. Of those guys Merrifield certainly makes the most sense to improve the roster at 2nd base. I didn't verify but someone pointed out that SS/2nd this year for the Sox is at -1.4 WAR.
You add Merrifield to Story and you probably have a good shot of getting 4-5 WAR combined from them, perhaps more. So right there you're maybe talking a 6 win swing which would theoretically have them 2.5 games above the Blue Jays for the 3rd WC. I know that's a pretty simplistic way of looking at it and that it's not necessarily the case that 1 WAR= 1 win in real life results but either way probably the biggest hope we have this offseason for a better more consistent lineup/defense is at SS and 2nd.
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Post by Guidas on Aug 18, 2023 16:32:40 GMT -5
Candelario's career wRC+ is 103. Merrifield's is 104. These guys would not "give you as much offense or more" than Turner has in 2023, nor than he projects to provide in 2024. Even Bellinger is doubtful, though he'd make for a nice defensive fit (and but I wouldn't want to spend what he'll probably cost). Legit question: Is career wRC+ a good measure to be judging a player on, especially given that very few players are consistent throughout their careers? I don't know the answer. I'm asking for opinions. Personally, I usually look at this year and the last two and weigh that with injuries over that period or other factors such as absurdly high or low BABIP, known outside issues (i.e. family illness or turmoil, mental health, etc.) and go from there. There is risk with every player, but I'm not so sure an average of something like wRC+ from the entire career is truly representative of the play now and how he will be in the next 3-4 years or so (free agent deal length, though for Merrifield it might be more like 1-2 years).
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Post by scottysmalls on Aug 18, 2023 17:27:49 GMT -5
Scenario A: Ohtani - $50m AAV Scenario B: Yamamoto - $25M, Lorenzen - $12M, Turner - $15M Scenario C: Nola - $25M, Bellinger - $25M Scenario D: Giolito - $15M, Montgomery - $15M, Turner - $15M, Merrifield - $10M
Any preferences? I'm not sure any of these are actually realistic, but throwing out four different sort of aggressive offseason plans.
The conversation about the team being relatively hard to upgrade struck me as an argument you'd make to get the best guy on the market. Ohtani is that both offensively and in the rotation. He's also by far the biggest risk, and there's going to be a ton of competition there. If you go that route maybe you trade Duran or Verdugo and use Rafaela to upgrade the defense, in theory the offense is getting a huge lift.
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Post by orion09 on Aug 18, 2023 17:38:01 GMT -5
The "inverted W" thing has been largely debunked, I think. Not as far as I know - do you have a source? It has been. But I don’t totally disagree with the following component of the argument, based on what I see from start to finish on the delivery,.. “incredible amount of tension in the shoulder and rotator cuff/TOS problems are much more likely”.. I personally wouldn’t go to the length of saying “incredible amount,” but I would say that it looks significant enough to have some level of concern, when you’re talking about a potentially 8+ year deal. But I personally love the look of the motion on camera. Unicorn territory haha. I haven’t done a dive into Yamamoto to any significant extent, beyond highlight reels. Has he dealt with any injuries up to this point? ”Incredible amount of tension” was referring to guys like Mark Prior - I was saying that Yamamoto isn’t nearly as bad. Not to belabor the point, and feel free to move this to its own thread, but I found an article by Driveline showing that the “inverted W” position (low shoulder rotation plus high shoulder abduction at time of front foot plant) results in both greater energy absorption in the shoulder and lower power expressed in the shoulder. To me, both of those would be consistent with reduced shoulder efficiency and thus higher chance of injury. It also makes intuitive sense - if you put your arm in that position, you can feel the tension in the shoulder. If someone has better info, I would love to see it www.drivelinebaseball.com/2010/09/strasburg-the-inverted-w-and-pitching-mechanics/
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Post by Guidas on Aug 18, 2023 19:39:05 GMT -5
Scenario A: Ohtani - $50m AAV Scenario B: Yamamoto - $25M, Lorenzen - $12M, Turner - $15M Scenario C: Nola - $25M, Bellinger - $25M Scenario D: Giolito - $15M, Montgomery - $15M, Turner - $15M, Merrifield - $10M Any preferences? I'm not sure any of these are actually realistic, but throwing out four different sort of aggressive offseason plans. The conversation about the team being relatively hard to upgrade struck me as an argument you'd make to get the best guy on the market. Ohtani is that both offensively and in the rotation. He's also by far the biggest risk, and there's going to be a ton of competition there. If you go that route maybe you trade Duran or Verdugo and use Rafaela to upgrade the defense, in theory the offense is getting a huge lift. I think Ohtani will get in excess of $60M AAV.
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