Anthony Franco
- Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed your weekend!
- Different schedule with the holiday so I'll have to keep this one around an hour
RoxTalks
- When Arenado gets into Cooperstown, does he go in as a Rockie, or is there too much bad blood there? Thanks!
Anthony Franco
- Agree he's a Hall of Famer, and yes, pretty clearly a Rockie for me
- Could argue his best season was with St. Louis in '22 but majority of his career was in Colorado, including five of the six top 10 MVP finishes. Second or third best player in franchise history for the Rox
Guest
- Over Under 93.5 Mets wins, and what is the X-factor
Anthony Franco
- I'll go under but not dramatically so. If I have to pick one x-factor, it's McLean
- Confident they're going to hit. Bullpen isn't elite but should be solid enough. Rotation's the highest variance but obviously looks much stronger if McLean is immediately a #2 starter
Joe from Milwaukee
- Do you think the Brewers make an effort to extend Contreras? They seem a lot more willing to give big money to their position players historically and he's one of the best catchers in baseball. Also, the Yelich money is gone after 2028 anyway.
Anthony Franco
- Pretty far outside their usual spending habits at this stage of a player's career. Quero's hanging around as a potential long-term answer as long as the throwing drop-off isn't permanent. Eventual trade of Contreras seems more probable
el jefe
- After a busy week (Andujar, Castellanos, France, Canning, Marquez), how much have the Padres improved?
Thoughts on the Preller extension?
Anthony Franco
- Probably added two wins between all those moves? Not bad for the cost. Canning's my favorite of them but they're all sensible since rotation depth and the bench were the biggest issues and not that difficult to address for cheap
- France would've been overkill on an MLB deal. For a minor league deal, sure. Decent chance he just doesn't break camp and opts out at the end of Spring Training
- We'll see how long the Preller extension runs but makes sense to keep him around. Much as the approach can be shortsighted at times, especially with the free agent spending toward the end of Peter Seidler's ownership, they continue to trot out top 5-10 teams that are also far more exciting than virtually any Padres teams from before Preller was hired
Ms fan
- Are teams generally staying away from promoting their top prospects to AAA now? Seems like you get a lot more guys going straight from AA to the majors.
Anthony Franco
- Yeah it seems like this is happening more often. The Prospect Promotion Incentive rules are part of it. There's also just less to be gleaned from Triple-A from an evaluation perspective
- The Pacific Coast League, in particular, is so hitter-friendly that the stats there don't mean much. The pitcher quality at Triple-A continues to drop as injuries at the MLB level rise and force teams to call up more of their depth arms. There's also more of a tendency for the interesting Quad-A pitchers to move to Asia rather than sticking around in Triple-A because they can see the earning potential if they have success overseas
Guards4Life
- Is Kwan open to an extension or is he gone? Haven't heard much from his camp.
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Anthony, I’m just here to say I believe the Cardinals will finish ahead of the Pirates. Thanks for the chat!
That suggests you think Bucs finish last. I don’t know about that Don.
That is what I’m suggesting. Their defense is going to be terrible. Lowe and Ozuna are declining. One injury to Skenes and suddenly nobody else likes them very much either.
Good for you RoxTalks. Very cool.
I’ll second that emotion.
Arenado is not 2nd or 3rd best in Rockies history. He is 4th at best whether you look at it from peak value or for longevity.
Longevity
1. Helton
2. Blackmon
3. Walker
4. Arenado
5. Story/Tulo
Peak value
1. Helton
2, Walker
3. Tulowitzki
4. Gonzalez
5. Arenado
Just my opinion, but I consider myself a Rockies expert considering I have followed them closely since day one.
Alan53 doing Alan53 things still. Sigh. New year same stuff. Reds/Pirates as 1/2 in the division with Cubs/Brewers 3/4.
He’s the kind of guy to say Velma was better looking than Daphne, Godfather Part 3 was the best of the trilogy, Trump is better than FDR…. It just doesn’t stop with that numbskull.
Don’t see how Jacob Degrom is “already in the conversation” for the HOF. He’s amazing when he pitches but his counting stats…starts, innings, K’s, etc., are so low it’s hard to even really considerate it. He’s had his dominance but even his most dominant seasons aren’t fully on par with Pedro Martinez. Degrom still needs a few more years for it to be a real conversation.
Tom how do you feel about Koufax being in the HOF? If DeGrom never pitches again, his numbers are a close parallel. i’m not arguing he should be in the HOF, just bringing up a question about elite pitchers with shorter careers and with low counting stats.
Are you sure about their numbers being parallel? Koufax started more than 60 more games (roughly 2.5-3 years worth), pitched nearly 800 more innings, struck out 500 more batters, had better/more dominant seasons across nearly every metric, was an MVP, won multiple WS MVPs, pitched 4 No-Hitters including a perfect game, etc.
DeGrom has been great but he’s not in Koufax’s league…yet. He could get there.
He was the best pitcher in baseball during his most dominant seasons. What more do you want? Those seasons are definitely on par with just about anyone, minus the longevity.
Agreed, he was the best in baseball during a couple of years. But it is the longevity issue. There are a lot of pitchers who’ve had dominant runs—some considered the best in baseball—and didn’t last long enough for HOF enshrinement. Examples:
Johan Santana — 2 Cys, great run, as good if not better than DeGrom, more longevity, not in the HOF
Tim Lincecum — 2 Cys, multiple WS, dominat, no HOF
Doc Gooden — did anyone ever have a more dominant run?
The point is, DeGrom has been amazing…but hasn’t pitched enough to be considered for the HOF. But it’s not out of the possibility that he could pitch himself in.
Somebody should know that the Braves “corner outfield” wasn’t “just fine” when they signed Yaz. Profar had hernia surgery shortly after the season ended. Braves obviously wanted cover for that as well as trying to improve the outfield defense. Somebody’s too busy bashing the Braves for not wasting salary on all the free agent pitchers he insists the Braves should have signed to consider other positional situations. Acuna’s balky knees and Profar’s surgery and poor defense suggested their corner outfield needed shoring up. “Shrug.”