5. Dallas Keuchel could find himself at a significant advantage. Most of the desirable merchandise is long gone, with only one expensive ware alongside the tchotchkes left on the shelves. Keuchel, who turned 31 on Tuesday, is not without warts. Teams are wary of his arm holding up long term. His lack of strikeouts does not typically portend well into a pitcher's 30s. At the same time, he has demonstrable skills, notably his propensity to generate ground balls. According to ESPN Stats & Information's Sarah Langs, Keuchel in 2018 induced 426 batted balls with a 94 mph or lower exit velocity, as measured by Statcast, the most in the majors.
LOL at agents wanting "show of strength" in arbitration. I'm fully prepared for there to be no baseball in 2022. The union is gonna negotiate so hard only to realize they have zero left to negotiate with (gave it all away for nothing). Then the billionaire owners are gonna break them like a twig. My only hope is that the players realize the reality of their situation and the owners are willing to give a little to keep the product on the field.
2022? Wouldn't strike start in 2021 if it happens? Not sure players could strike all of 2022 after missing last 2021 paychecks before owners break them.
The Kikuchi signing probably makes it more likely that Seattle trades Leake. He’s owed $36M/2yr (or $50M/3yr), so it wouldn’t take much in the way of prospects to get him. He’s not a sexy trade target but he’s about as steady as they come in terms of eating innings.
He’s definitely an innings eater, but is he really worth $36M/2yr? That would leave us with about 7 mil in flexibile budget spending for the remainder of the year (unless we make other moves to reduce payroll). I think it would make more sense to find a player like Seth Lugo, who costs little and allows us the financial flexibility moving forward into the season.
St Louis is paying 5 million of his salary in 2019 and 4 million in 2020. He also has an option for 2021 that is for 18 million or a 5 million dollar buyout. That means you can have him for 2 years for 27 million or 3 years for 40 million. I would still pass. He's got a career era over 4 and that most recently includes pitching in Safeco. He posted a 4.36 ERA last year. I would rather go with Josh James or Valdez to start the season.
Good info on the contract. I think I’d also rather see what the young guys can do rather than buy a pitcher with limited upside.
From MLBTR: The Diamondbacks would only consider trading Robbie Ray for a very big return, with Passan noting that Arizona would want more for Ray than the Mariners received from the Yankees for James Paxton back in November. While both Ray and Paxton are front-of-the-rotation southpaws with two remaining years of team control, Ray is almost three full years younger than Paxton, which would explain Arizona’s higher asking price. That deal saw Seattle land an MLB-ready pitching prospect (Justus Sheffield), another young arm on the brink of the majors (Erik Swanson) and a promising lower-level position player (outfielder Dom Thompson-Williams). It’s a steep price tag, though at least two teams with a lot of minor league depth have been linked to Ray in trade rumors. I think the near-equivalent of the Paxton return would be Bukauskas, Martin, Valdez and Nova. More than that would probably be adding a player like Kemp and/or Marisnick. That’s a lot to give up for Ray, although it might make sense given his talent and 2 years of cheap control. I might take it into consideration if Greinke was included as well, with a large sum of cash returned to us.
Yea that was for stros4me, sorry if it came across aimed at you I'd rather put Peacock back in the rotation and address his spot in the pen. I have no reason to think Leake would be any better than Peacock in our rotation, and we wouldn't be giving up anything or taking on his salary
That’s a great thing about our team. Even losing Keuchel, Morton and McCullers (2019), we have so much depth that we can creatively sustain the loss. Not many teams can boast of a rotation led by Verlander and Cole.
I agree that Houston can get production out of its internal options. But I do think they will need to add some innings from somewhere outside. Whether they are able to swing a trade for a top starter, sign or trade for a middling or riskier option, or add a reliever so they can shift Peacock and McHugh both to the rotation, I trust Luhnow. I am bullish on McHugh, James, and Whitley as very productive mlb sp next season (although I wouldn’t want to count on Whitley for more than ~80 innings). I also think Perez and Valdez will be good, I’m just not ready to count on either of them for 150+ innings. I prefer to keep Peacock in the bullpen if possible.
Definitely no to Leake. Too costly, and not really good. How about, piggybacking someone from TCB, Reddick for Vargas (may need to throw in a little extra since Vargas's contract isn't as bad). Bad contract for bad contract. Lefty innings eater for us, slot him at #5 until Whitley is ready, then move back to the pen to preserve his arm. His 1st half of 2017 is intriguing, if we can get him to return to that form it'll be great, but if not we do get insurance for injuries to our pitching staff (which WILL happen, we were SO lucky last year). Mets get the outfielder they're looking for, and we clear room for Tucker. Nimmo-Conforto-Reddick OF for the Mets; Brantley-Springer-Tucker for the Astros (both left to right). As for Lugo, I'd love to have him in an Astros uniform, but I highly doubt the Mets trade him.
Where I differ is i'd rather put Peacock in the rotation and leave McHugh in the pen. I think McHugh will do fine back in the rotation, but he was dominant out of the pen. Unless we think McHugh will be a front line starter, which personally I do not, i'd rather leave the guy who has been dominant in the pen down there, and move the guy who has been solid as a starter and solid in the pen...in the pen As far as us needing to add someone, i don't disagree. I would just rather us start with what we have if we can't add a front line starter, and find someone during the season once we get a better read on how our young guys will do. A guy like Leake just doesn't move the needle for me at all. I'd rather take a chance on a guy with upside who has struggled lately and see if we can get the best out of him than take on a guy that we know will just be an innings eater
Where I differ is i'd rather put Peacock in the rotation and leave McHugh in the pen. I think McHugh will do fine back in the rotation, but he was dominant out of the pen. Unless we think McHugh will be a front line starter, which personally I do not, i'd rather leave the guy who has been dominant in the pen down there, and move the guy who has been solid as a starter and solid in the pen...in the pen As far as us needing to add someone, i don't disagree. I would just rather us start with what we have if we can't add a front line starter, and find someone during the season once we get a better read on how our young guys will do. A guy like Leake just doesn't move the needle for me at all. I'd rather take a chance on a guy with upside who has struggled lately and see if we can get the best out of him than take on a guy that we know will just be an innings eater
We could have had an elite Charlie Morton for that price and without trading any prospects. We didn't think Charlie was even worth $17MM/1 yr (no qualifying offer), so I can't imagine they would pursue a much lesser pitcher at that price.
I think the problem with Peacock is that even when he was good as a starter in 2017, his dominance was early in the game. He tended to go downhill really quickly after inning 5 or so, if I remember correctly? It may just be a matter of stretching him out (rather than switching him midseason), but it may also be that some of his success is a result of short-stint max-effort pitching.
I think we may try out many hands at SP5: rotating Peacock, Valdez, Martin, James, and eventually Whitley, trying to keep arms fresh throughout the season. I expect to add one piece to our rotation, no matter how small.
I can see us trading Reddick, but I doubt we do it before the start of the season unless we add another bat to lengthen our lineup. They probably are going to want to give Tucker time to get his swing and head together rather than forcing him into an important everyday role.
