Not saying Hunter isn't there in long run. I'm doubting Baker wants a 6 man rotation knowing his old school tendencies. They like Urquidy a lot and think they would lean on veterans first... I think Brown is more the Odorizzi situation and they bring him along slowly in extended relief outings for 2 or 3 innings at a time.
I'm fully expecting Correa's desire to be ARod is going to lead to him roiding up at some point... probably if he's wearing pinstripes...
This is exactly why the Astros are better than the Yankees and the Phillies. Yankees and Phillies have line ups that feast on average pitching or below. They will score tons of runs in those games. But they struggle once they face high-end pitching because overall their lineups fail to make contact way to often. In contrast the Astros hitters are for the most part very good at pitting the ball in play verse everyone. Game set match, World Series. Keep the high and pitching, Jose Abreu is another tough at bat ( in of the toughest out in all of MLB). Those are the guys we want, Hensely is gonna surpise many because he is the same cloth.
~The Yankees are ALWAYS working on something. Sometimes it involves players. Other times it's how to preserve their reputation by making others take the fall for their misbehavior. One low level employee was frustrated because he couldn't find the valve to inflate the baseball on the orders of Cashman.~ If you don't see the sarcasm of this post, you cannot ever hope to see sarcasm. But sarcasm only work with a grain of truth.
Bullpens change from year to year. Astros had best bullpen last year, it was also used the least Competitive Balance Tax Threshold $233,000,00 Yankees Proj. Tax Payroll $221,716,666 Proj. Tax Payroll (Active + Est. Arb + Est. Pre-Arb) $261,881,565 Correa 35 mil Rodon 25 mil Benny 15 mill 331,881,565.00. Payroll for Yankees? 2026: $244 million max before penalties A club that exceeds the Competitive Balance Tax threshold is subject to an increasing tax rate depending on how many consecutive years it has done so. First year: 20 percent tax on all overages Second consecutive year: 30 percent Third consecutive year or more: 50 percent There’s also a surcharge threshold for clubs that exceed the base threshold by $20 million or more. $20 million to $40 million: 12 percent surcharge $40 million to $60 million: 42.5 percent surcharge for first year; 45 percent for each consecutive year after that $60 million or more: 60 percent surcharge Teams that exceed the CBT threshold more than $40 million also have their next first-round draft pick moved back 10 spots.
The improvements by Seattle, LAA and TEX are annoying AF. I wonder if the Astros projections view the division race as tight. I think Seattle is a real challenger this year and could be the second best team in the AL as things stand at this moment. I bring this up because the Astros had the luxury of resting regulars a lot last year. Plus, we could roll with a six man rotation because of insane pitching depth. Basically we were allowed to make decisions with the focus on player health for the post season. If our division had not improved, I wonder if we would feel more comfortable simply planning for the postseason, and signing Brantley and Yuli as veteran bats that are unnecessary luxuries in the reg season, but could be brought along slowly to peak at the postseason to give us those tough out, veteran ABs at DH. Similarly, a tight division could make us pitch Javier, Brown and/or Mccullers a little more, whereas with a weak division, we could turn the dial a little and throw some kind of an “inning eater” like Bielak (or sign a slightly better one”. I think we are good favorites to win the division if we do nothing else but bring back Brantley, or do nothing else. But bringing in a Conforto and/or Kluber would not just make us better, but would give us more ability to rest and pace for the playoffs. I’m sure somewhere in the front office, they have algorithms that map out the importance and impact of resting the regulars, and they’ll pay accordingly. At this point, I think the risk/reward for Conforto is the best move if it takes a 2/40ish deal with a player option for year 2. It sucks because we take all the risk, but Conforto is the guy who has upside to be the biggest difference maker. We also have some luxury of time to let him heal/rest in the first part of the season if that’s what he needs. He seems to be a much more expensive Brantley bet.
1) so agree with you and would do the Conforto deal in a heartbeat 2) remember we are down from 19 games against divisional opponents to 13 games starting this year- so the improved teams in Anaheim, Texas and Seattle aren’t that big a deal to us. 3) we won the division last year by roughly eleventy billion games without really playing over our heads, and we would be favored to win the division with you or me playing Lf and hitting 8th. 4) it would be borderline criminal to be coming off a World Series, have 37m or 41m to spend up to the tax line, watch everyone else spending huge money, and then see Crane say “no thanks- I’m good” at adding an upgrade. I’ve posited elsewhere that I believe Crane might be secretly cheap, but he’s not super tight, just the guy that buys generic instead of name brand or only shops on Thursday afternoons when he has triple coupons or something. He’s not going to go without. Conforto seems like the call here because he seems like a value play, but it could also be someone like Peralta in a platoon with Chas or something that could work out really well for less than super big money. But if we did we would be still clear cut division title favorites.
According to what stats? And also compared to who? Bc compared to Maldy he's a significant upgrade at the plate. Look, I love Maldy and he deserves to have a role on this team but committing to him as our starting C is hogwash. If they were so committed to him they wouldn't be openly searching for another.
I’m very interested in a centerfielder that can turn McCormick into a platoon. How is Peralta’s defense in centerfield? Looking at Baseball Savant it seems he has a weak arm and average speed but possibly a good glove.
I suppose the H2H is one of two elements. The other Is that there is a greater chance that Seattle will hang close later into the year, into and past the trade deadline. But maybe this concern is more borne from the fact that we haven’t had serious challenge for the division in forever and any step toward that situation is annoying. On spending, I was furious that crane didn’t match the Correa/Minny deal, and then didn’t do anything after that. I think you were too. It is a damn good thing we signed Abreu and Montero early, or I’d be preparing hard to be pissed. But that’s sort of silly because we should be almost as ticked as last offseason if Crane doesn’t spend more. The fact that we have empty spots on the 40 man, large amount of money to spend, and low cost alternatives like Brantley and Yuli probably makes it unlikely that Crane literally does nothing more. The fact that we won the title takes the pressure off to some extent, but that’s sort of nonsensical because the man should spend to the tax line to win another one. Buying some lower cost platoon alternatives for Chas and Maldy would be low cost but helpful. It is so hard to meaningfully improve the team because the roster is so good. But that’s an excuse - gotta spend even if it is diminishing returns.
Dubon doesn't hit RHP...or any pitching for that matter. Peralta could be a sneaky good tag team partner with Chaz, don't know if he will hold up well enough in center though, and he's no spring chicken.
Vazquez has a career wRC+ of 84 (well below league average, roughly average for a catcher). Korey Lee projects to have a wRC+ of 85, above Vazquez’s career mark and only marginally below Vazquez’s 2023 projection of 93. Vazquez is a solid, starting caliber catcher but he’s a marginal upgrade over Maldonado and there’s a viable argument for sticking with Korey Lee over paying Vazquez.
