I pretty much feel that way too. As we have seen the last couple of weeks, we have pretty good health insurance already in these young guys getting the call and producing up here. Martes and Musgrove have shown some good pen work, and with Peacock likely to return there, if we add a reliever through trade I think we're ready for October. Unless we're trading for a TOR starter, I don't think there is anybody to add that would be better than we already have.
Who's burning up innings? We're running irrelevant guys out there for enough innings that no one outside of Devo is being overused. We already have 6 SPs (Keuchel, McCullers, Peacock, Morton, McHugh, Fiers). One of those guys is getting benched next week. Who else do you want to bench? McCullers would deserve it from a performance perspective, but he's not getting benched. Presuming Morton gets benched first, then anyone the team picks up is currently pitching worse than Peacock or Fiers, so not sure how any of that helps this team.
The exception to my view would be dangling a collection of guys that we are unlikely to be able to protect in Rule 5 that other clubs may view more highly than we do. If that nets us anything helpful at all, that would be a plus given we may lose them for nothing.
As good as Fiers and Peacock have been, there is nobody on our staff who has been pitching as good as Sonny Gray over the last month.
We don't need a rental. We should save up our farm capital for seasons that we actually need. How are you going to feel if we blow our prospects on Darvish who leaves us dry next year and we're at 55-45 next year trying to make the playoffs and we can't trade for any top guys because we don't have players to trade?
And I know I've made posts on this very site saying that Sonny Gray isn't someone I'd sell the farm for, but I'm starting to reconsider that stance.
Like I just said, A rental is OK if it only takes Rule 5 guys to get it done. Agree, no top prospects.
Darvish ain't blowing up our farm in that drastic of a manner. In fact we could get Darvish or Gray plus a reliever and our farm will be perfectly fine. We have 5 top 100 guys (I assume alavarez makes it almost 6). Plus a plethora of former top 100 guys that have only had 1 shot at the show and could all just be needing that next chance. Our farm is deep enough for this year and next. Next year is when we might need to feel a little extra stingy (assuming we deal now).
His stats are victim to two really bad outings, the most recent vs us. He's no Sale. But he might be the best available at this point. http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/32082/sonny-gray
Rich Hill, Scott Kazmir...I don't trust Oakland pitchers once they leave. You can go back as far as Joe Blanton, Rich Harden, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito. Oakland pitchers are guaranteed to have less gaudy stats once they leave Oakland. It's almost like trading for a Rockies hitter.
Except the Coors air explains the Rockies hitters. The Oakland pitchers doesn't seem any more than a correlation unless there is some sort of evidence to this that I am unaware of. I am not Sonny Gray or bust by any means. But I like him better than most of the others that have been mentioned. Still not sure if I would offer more than scraps for him though.
Still sticking to my prediction from last week: Gray to the Yankees, Darvish to the Dodgers, Verlander to the Astros. Would we be happy with adding Verlander, Wilson, and Britton, while giving up Martes, Fisher, F Perez, Alvarez, Davis, Cameron, and H Perez?
If we trade for Sonny Gray, we are doing it more for 2018 and 2019 than for 2017. That's why we would be willing to give up big prospects.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/athletics/article/Sonny-Gray-takes-loss-in-possible-last-start-for-11418388.php On Tuesday at Rogers Center, seven teams had scouts on had to watch Gray: the Yankees, who are making a strong push for the right-hander, along with the Cubs, Dodgers, Brewers, Pirates, Indians and Royals. The Astros remain one of the frontrunners to land Gray, but the AL West leaders have seen so much of Gray that they don’t need to scout him at this point. Several teams, including Atlanta, which scouted Gray in June, have interest in Gray because he has two more years of club control beyond this one.
I agree. I've been a fan since '68 and in that time frame (this is the 50th yr) there's been a handfull of playoff appearances and the one WS appearance. Thus the opportunities are VERY hard to come by. They're not going to be able to keep this core together for too much longer (because like you've pointed out we're not the Yankees, or Boston, or the Dodgers), however there's a good window right in front of us with some AWESOME talent and they may not have this opportunity to win it all in a LONG time. I know the past doesn't equal the future, but it's extremely difficult to win a title and they NEED to strike while the iron is hot and try to win one with this great core of players as it's kind of like the perfect storm.
Pretty much my viewpoint. Just look at the Cubs, Rangers and Indians this year... they've had regression because not every season can be great, even with a solid core and health in place. We know this year is great... even with all the problems, they keep winning. This exact same group of players may not see the same sort of success next year... or the year after. Even then, I have confidence in continuing to build as much around the key players they have now (even at the expense of prospects), and let the front office continue to replenish the farm year after year (like they have been ever since they took over).
What metric are you using? ERA, FIP, xFIP, K/9:BB/9, HR/9, BABIP Sonny Gray: 1.37, 2.66, 2.95, 8.24:2.06, .46, .209 Mike Fiers: 3.03, 2.98, 3.52, 12.13:3.03, .91, .277 B Peacock: 1.93, 2.41, 4.21, 10.74:4.96, .00, .291 Gray has pitched very well, but I think all three have produced similar results.
