There were 32 players just this year who matched Greg Bird’s CAREER plate appearances, and Bird has blown through three years of service time in that span.
He’s not a front line trade chip, at any rate.
So yeah, calling him a “good secondary piece” is about fair. I might even call it far too generous at this point.
That’s difficult to imagine. It would take Gorman, Reyes and then some just to get the Mets interest. So Hudsone would headline a large package of prospects to get Gold? IF that could work the Cardinals instantly have a bottom 5 farm.
Oh trout i can imagine would be an easy pick if he were couple years younger at end of contract entering FA..undoubtedly the best player on the planet. As it stands though, wouldn’t pay 400 for anybody atm
The FA’s that will be coming the next few years dwarf Machado and Harper.
With how much ballplayers are making even before FA, I think every players agent should talk to his quality clients about playing out their option, take some money, and buy an insurance policy each year to guarantee future earnings. Teams are not teams anymore. Teammates come and go like in the minors. GM’s are playing fantasy league for real. Players are traded year around. Rosters change 3-5 times a week during the season. Players on long-term contracts are moved for numerous reasons – they got bad so the FO wants to unload the contract; they got good but the team got bad and wants to cut payroll and rebuild; some other team in contention wants to trade for the player.
It’s why 10-year contract talk for Machado and Harper is a joke. What team in MLB has been a legitimate contender for each of the last 10 years? Even without opt-out clauses, if the team starts sucking players under contract demand a trade.
I had a friend tell me 25 years ago that all players should just get a one year contract, and become a free agent after each season. That seems to be the next step. Have MLB teams draft like fantasy league owners do each year. No more of tanking so the local fans have nothing to look forward to for 3-5 years, and most of those rebuilds fail..
Um, you know that for the vast majority of MLB all players had a perpetual one-year contract right? That’s what the reserve clause was, until free agency eliminated it. The reserve clause did the thing it was designed to do – it kept player salaries down. But it’s not that world anymore.
Credit to AA with putting a padlock on info. I wouldn’t be surprised to see John Farrell and Bryan Price and now Jim Hickey as external candidates with a few internal candidates including Dennis Lewallyn & longshot Dan Meyer. I doubt most have had interviews but there’s probably a few non-coaches that are revered around baseball whose names haven’t been mentioned that also are in contention.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking Lewallyn would be a probable candidate, but figured if he was their man, he’d have the job by now.
Outside the organization, I’ve heard Price being speculated upon, but with Hickey leaving the Cubs he really intrigues me the most. Then again, you can’t help but wonder if Hickey even wants to coach this year. To me, it wasn’t exactly clear why he left the Cubs..
Regardless who it is, it will be an extremely important hire, as the Braves are going to have to rely on quite a few younger pitchers, not to mention the talented but inconsistent Folty and Newk. Plus, you have Soroka and Toussaint whose success will largely influence how far the Braves are able to go towards another playoff run..
Then, undoubtedly there will be injuries, so you can also probably throw in the likes of Fried, Wilson, Allard, Wright, and possibly Weigel making a late appearance or two..
Their ML-ready pitching depth is absurd, they will have a full rotation, plus a full AAA rotation, so I won’t be suprised to see one or two guys traded before the season begins to help fill in a hole. Especially since, that’s not even touching on their next wave of prospects that are coming like Anderson (my personal favorite besides Soroka and Touki), Wentz, or Muller, etc.
What y’all think. Braves stay put with rotation? Trade or sign an arm. Bullpen I believe they sign a vet.
My thought is this. Tho it’s nice to have a true ace what did Boston do this year with yes a loaded staff but their ace wasn’t Sale in The postseason. I believe the Yankees and Redsox and slight nod to Brew crew. But the more arms the more chances of you getting outs. I see baseball going to short relievers or the rover more and more. This means the back end closers and 7,8,9 guys hold more worth. Why not take the Allstar game approach. Anyone see this if rosters shift in that direction?
I wonder what it would take to get Bradley from the dbacks or Leclerc from the Rangers? Maybe both! I read somewhere that one of Trey Riley, Tarnock, or Ynoa plus a lower level prospect could get those trades done…If so I would like to see both of them made.
As far as SP…I think they Braves should go after 1 of 4 options. Sign Corbin or Eovaldi, or they trade for either Kluber or MadBum. If they can’t get 1 of those 4 then stand pat on the rotation and let our guys play! Obviously that changes a little if they were able to trade Teheran for say Domingo Santana.
Franmil Reyes is exactly the sort of corner OF the Indians are looking for. Solid hitter with power. Good OBP history. Young with years of control. Will want one or two other prospects with him, depending on the starter the Indians give up. The Indians can eat his D in their park, while there is too much ground to cover in Petco. Doubt the Indians have any interest in Hunter Renfroe – 3 years older; less control time; poor OBP (Indians value that); awful arm.
As noted, am sure they’d love Andujar. But see the Yankees signing Corbin so they won’t be needing another starter.
Padres will be playing off the Indians interest against the Mets. Then again, maybe they’ll look for 2 starters.
Because none of the Indians corner OF’s have been very good under Francona, yet the team wins. Their home park is not a bandbox, but it’s not big so there’s less OF to cover.
The team badly needs more bats. Last year they went into the playoff’s with a line-up of Lindor, Brantley, Rameriz and Encarnacion. The next 5 guys were pot luck, and didn’t concern the top 3 starters from any playoff team. Going into 2019 they lost Brantley. They’ve added Yandy Diaz to play 3B, and he looks like a late blooming hitter. Kipnis and Naquin are platoon guys with Luplow; Martin and Allen can run down balls in CF, but they have little pop; and if Gomes is traded most catching will be done by Perez, who is not as good of a hitter.
The Indians have guys that can get on base. They badly need another run producer. DH will continue to be a revolving spot for EE, to rest regulars from the field, and rehab injured players. Their up the middle D is excellent, as is their starting pitching. The need more offense, and if they have to give up some corner D, then they’ll have to chance it.
They very probably make the playoff’s in 2019. They’ll need more hitting to get past the 1st round. Right now they cannot play with the Astros, Yankees, and Sox.
As a Dodgers fan, the last two seasons have been gut-wrenching. Baseball is a cruel mistress y’all.
That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying these MadBum articles. Some Giants fans (not all) and most (yes, *most*) old-schoolers are totally overvaluing this guy. I can’t wait to see the underwhelming return and read all of the hand-wringing on the MLBTR comments section. lol
(As an aside, I’m a HUGE Farhan Zaidi fan. I can’t — and won’t— root against the guy. The baseball fan in me knows the Giants made an excellent hire — and I can’t hate on that. Plus SF is gorgeous. It’s way better than LA. lol)
Yeah, Bumgarner will fetch a good return but not overwhelming. Even in his best years he was a guy who survived without tremendous stuff. He had tremendous results – his 2013-15 peak is outstanding – striking out a little more than a batter an inning and limiting walks and especially home runs. He had very good defense behind him and the Giants were using a proprietary, very early advanced batted-ball tracking system, similar to Tracman, which probably helped him out quite a bit too. But he has been hurt, obviously, the last two years; the velocity is down quite a bit, and he’ll be 30 next season.
His postseason pitching is what makes a lot of people think he will get a king’s ransom, and while teams do value intangibles like that, it still doesn’t move the needle too much. Bumgarner has been a fantastic postseason pitcher, save 2012 when he got cuffed around by the Reds and Cards, and his last postseason start, against the Cubs, wasn’t so great. But that’s just three bad starts out of 14 postseason starts, and we obviously all remember the great ones. While intangibles are – by the very name – impossible to measure, teams just don’t ignore them. I could see some team like the Yankees or Cubs or Phillies making a play for him, nursing him through a 160 or 170-inning season to keep him fresh for the postseason.
“ Greg Bird” a good secondary piece is LAUGHABLE
There were 32 players just this year who matched Greg Bird’s CAREER plate appearances, and Bird has blown through three years of service time in that span.
He’s not a front line trade chip, at any rate.
So yeah, calling him a “good secondary piece” is about fair. I might even call it far too generous at this point.
upon hearing this Greg Bird mysteriously ends up back on the DL
The one big move a teams makes to propel them to the top next year…ready…go!
Team*
Brewers signing Corbin or trading for Thor . I think they are a piece or two away .
No way.
Cardinals trade for Thor and Goldy and then sign Harper.
Laughable
That’s difficult to imagine. It would take Gorman, Reyes and then some just to get the Mets interest. So Hudsone would headline a large package of prospects to get Gold? IF that could work the Cardinals instantly have a bottom 5 farm.
Now I understand how Missouri is the capital of meth labs.
Harper wants 400. I don’t think he is worth that money.
Macho same boat.
I think the best player in baseball… Trout is the first 400milli
Trout will also be 29 by time a FA as opposed to 26 like harper/Machado. That has to be taken into consideration as well.
Who would you pay 400 For?
Oh trout i can imagine would be an easy pick if he were couple years younger at end of contract entering FA..undoubtedly the best player on the planet. As it stands though, wouldn’t pay 400 for anybody atm
Betts, Trout, Lindor
Lindor… whoa. Machado will determine his future
I’d pay Lindor $400M before Machado, and it isn’t even close IMO.
The FA’s that will be coming the next few years dwarf Machado and Harper.
With how much ballplayers are making even before FA, I think every players agent should talk to his quality clients about playing out their option, take some money, and buy an insurance policy each year to guarantee future earnings. Teams are not teams anymore. Teammates come and go like in the minors. GM’s are playing fantasy league for real. Players are traded year around. Rosters change 3-5 times a week during the season. Players on long-term contracts are moved for numerous reasons – they got bad so the FO wants to unload the contract; they got good but the team got bad and wants to cut payroll and rebuild; some other team in contention wants to trade for the player.
It’s why 10-year contract talk for Machado and Harper is a joke. What team in MLB has been a legitimate contender for each of the last 10 years? Even without opt-out clauses, if the team starts sucking players under contract demand a trade.
I had a friend tell me 25 years ago that all players should just get a one year contract, and become a free agent after each season. That seems to be the next step. Have MLB teams draft like fantasy league owners do each year. No more of tanking so the local fans have nothing to look forward to for 3-5 years, and most of those rebuilds fail..
Um, you know that for the vast majority of MLB all players had a perpetual one-year contract right? That’s what the reserve clause was, until free agency eliminated it. The reserve clause did the thing it was designed to do – it kept player salaries down. But it’s not that world anymore.
Since I couldn’t get it answered in the chat, does anyone know who the Braves are favoring for their pitching coach job??
I have yet to hear a single report of even any interviews!?!
PLEASE ANYONE!! lol
Credit to AA with putting a padlock on info. I wouldn’t be surprised to see John Farrell and Bryan Price and now Jim Hickey as external candidates with a few internal candidates including Dennis Lewallyn & longshot Dan Meyer. I doubt most have had interviews but there’s probably a few non-coaches that are revered around baseball whose names haven’t been mentioned that also are in contention.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking Lewallyn would be a probable candidate, but figured if he was their man, he’d have the job by now.
Outside the organization, I’ve heard Price being speculated upon, but with Hickey leaving the Cubs he really intrigues me the most. Then again, you can’t help but wonder if Hickey even wants to coach this year. To me, it wasn’t exactly clear why he left the Cubs..
Regardless who it is, it will be an extremely important hire, as the Braves are going to have to rely on quite a few younger pitchers, not to mention the talented but inconsistent Folty and Newk. Plus, you have Soroka and Toussaint whose success will largely influence how far the Braves are able to go towards another playoff run..
Then, undoubtedly there will be injuries, so you can also probably throw in the likes of Fried, Wilson, Allard, Wright, and possibly Weigel making a late appearance or two..
Their ML-ready pitching depth is absurd, they will have a full rotation, plus a full AAA rotation, so I won’t be suprised to see one or two guys traded before the season begins to help fill in a hole. Especially since, that’s not even touching on their next wave of prospects that are coming like Anderson (my personal favorite besides Soroka and Touki), Wentz, or Muller, etc.
What y’all think. Braves stay put with rotation? Trade or sign an arm. Bullpen I believe they sign a vet.
My thought is this. Tho it’s nice to have a true ace what did Boston do this year with yes a loaded staff but their ace wasn’t Sale in The postseason. I believe the Yankees and Redsox and slight nod to Brew crew. But the more arms the more chances of you getting outs. I see baseball going to short relievers or the rover more and more. This means the back end closers and 7,8,9 guys hold more worth. Why not take the Allstar game approach. Anyone see this if rosters shift in that direction?
As things stand now for the Braves pen..They’ll have Vizzy, Minter, Winkler, O’Day, Carle, Venters, Sobotka, and one of either Jackson or Freeman.
I think they could ultimately replace Freeman/Jackson with someone like Britton, and then they’d be fine.
I wonder what it would take to get Bradley from the dbacks or Leclerc from the Rangers? Maybe both! I read somewhere that one of Trey Riley, Tarnock, or Ynoa plus a lower level prospect could get those trades done…If so I would like to see both of them made.
As far as SP…I think they Braves should go after 1 of 4 options. Sign Corbin or Eovaldi, or they trade for either Kluber or MadBum. If they can’t get 1 of those 4 then stand pat on the rotation and let our guys play! Obviously that changes a little if they were able to trade Teheran for say Domingo Santana.
Franmil Reyes is exactly the sort of corner OF the Indians are looking for. Solid hitter with power. Good OBP history. Young with years of control. Will want one or two other prospects with him, depending on the starter the Indians give up. The Indians can eat his D in their park, while there is too much ground to cover in Petco. Doubt the Indians have any interest in Hunter Renfroe – 3 years older; less control time; poor OBP (Indians value that); awful arm.
As noted, am sure they’d love Andujar. But see the Yankees signing Corbin so they won’t be needing another starter.
Padres will be playing off the Indians interest against the Mets. Then again, maybe they’ll look for 2 starters.
Why do you want the Indians to eat his D?
Because none of the Indians corner OF’s have been very good under Francona, yet the team wins. Their home park is not a bandbox, but it’s not big so there’s less OF to cover.
The team badly needs more bats. Last year they went into the playoff’s with a line-up of Lindor, Brantley, Rameriz and Encarnacion. The next 5 guys were pot luck, and didn’t concern the top 3 starters from any playoff team. Going into 2019 they lost Brantley. They’ve added Yandy Diaz to play 3B, and he looks like a late blooming hitter. Kipnis and Naquin are platoon guys with Luplow; Martin and Allen can run down balls in CF, but they have little pop; and if Gomes is traded most catching will be done by Perez, who is not as good of a hitter.
The Indians have guys that can get on base. They badly need another run producer. DH will continue to be a revolving spot for EE, to rest regulars from the field, and rehab injured players. Their up the middle D is excellent, as is their starting pitching. The need more offense, and if they have to give up some corner D, then they’ll have to chance it.
They very probably make the playoff’s in 2019. They’ll need more hitting to get past the 1st round. Right now they cannot play with the Astros, Yankees, and Sox.
I got that reference.
As a Dodgers fan, the last two seasons have been gut-wrenching. Baseball is a cruel mistress y’all.
That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying these MadBum articles. Some Giants fans (not all) and most (yes, *most*) old-schoolers are totally overvaluing this guy. I can’t wait to see the underwhelming return and read all of the hand-wringing on the MLBTR comments section. lol
(As an aside, I’m a HUGE Farhan Zaidi fan. I can’t — and won’t— root against the guy. The baseball fan in me knows the Giants made an excellent hire — and I can’t hate on that. Plus SF is gorgeous. It’s way better than LA. lol)
Giants will win a WS before
LA does …………..LA = Losers Again
Yeah, Bumgarner will fetch a good return but not overwhelming. Even in his best years he was a guy who survived without tremendous stuff. He had tremendous results – his 2013-15 peak is outstanding – striking out a little more than a batter an inning and limiting walks and especially home runs. He had very good defense behind him and the Giants were using a proprietary, very early advanced batted-ball tracking system, similar to Tracman, which probably helped him out quite a bit too. But he has been hurt, obviously, the last two years; the velocity is down quite a bit, and he’ll be 30 next season.
His postseason pitching is what makes a lot of people think he will get a king’s ransom, and while teams do value intangibles like that, it still doesn’t move the needle too much. Bumgarner has been a fantastic postseason pitcher, save 2012 when he got cuffed around by the Reds and Cards, and his last postseason start, against the Cubs, wasn’t so great. But that’s just three bad starts out of 14 postseason starts, and we obviously all remember the great ones. While intangibles are – by the very name – impossible to measure, teams just don’t ignore them. I could see some team like the Yankees or Cubs or Phillies making a play for him, nursing him through a 160 or 170-inning season to keep him fresh for the postseason.
I know one team who wishes they had MadBum’s post season stuff. Dodgers.