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Spring training is nearly done and the World Baseball Classic has everybody all revved up for some baseball. There might be eight to ten teams that are trying to win this season and everything! So it’s time for this years installment of meet the team, IMO. Write up about your favorite baseboys and why they’re going to be good or bad. Or don’t. I don’t want to make you feel pressured to write stuff. Anyway I wrote about my favorite team so here goes. ——————— The St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis cardinales are a baseball team from St. Louis Missouri. I would like to introduce you to them. Sort of a Meet Cute. Let’s recap last year real quick first though. 2022: the cardinals were kind of middling through the first half of the season. They resigned Albert pujols to be the DH for the final season. He hit a few dingers and was named to the HR Derby for allstar weekend. Then everything changed. Or depending on who you ask, the balls got juiced. Pujols had a second half of the season that reminded people why he was called The Machine, and hit some truly incredible dongers to get over the hump and make it all the way to 702. https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1573515430135832579?s=20 The nostalgia tour had paid off, never mind that the team made no other significant moves. The entire offense was excellent, the defense was excellent, young dudes stepped up, Paul Goldschmidt won MVP, and the cardinals won the division. Oh, and our two best players both refused to get vaxxed and both turned into pumpkins for the playoffs, where, outside of some nice moments for Pujols and Yadier Molina and one great dinger by Juan Yepez, the whole team, manager included, pooped their pants. Pujols and Molina retired, and here we are. The 2023 Cardinals (not Including the pitchers) are below. Enjoy! Catcher: Yadier Molina  Oh, I was wrong. Sorry. It’s former Cub Willy Contreras! Wil is our big free agent signing to replace Yadier Molina. He has said a bunch of stuff about how much better our organization is, how he knows Cubs fans hated him the entire time he was there, how Chicago’s crime rate is way worse than St. Louis’s. All accurate. Batting fifth behind Goldschmidt and Arenado. Cardinals fans have been spoiled with elite pitch framing and base runner gun downs for like twenty years straight so if Wilson’s even slightly worse he won’t hear the end of it, probably. But he’ll be hitting better than Yadi probably ever did so call it a wash. IMO 1st Base: NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt  Goldy mixed up his routine last year. Instead of having a slow start to the year, he started off hot and raked all year long…right up until September when he had an insane (for him) slump that lasted all the way into our playoff series, where he utterly embarrassed himself. He won the MVP, deservingly, but left a really bad taste in fans mouths. He has to have a better end of the season this year, it would suck for his legacy to be “great regular season player who chokes in the playoffs”. 2nd Base: Brendan Donovan and Nolan Gorman   Brendan Donovan was last year’s Devil Magic Rookie. He hit a ton, walked a ton, struck out never, and played competent defense at basically every position but 1B and C. He’ll play at about every position but the two I just mentioned, but will probably see the majority of his time at second base. He is working on adding more power at the plate, and is pencilled in as the lead off guy because he doesn’t strike out. Dude was awesome. Nolan Gorman was a highly touted midseason callup who should be at 3B but is blocked. His defense is ok at 2B and will probably be better with no shift. Hits for power well but had issues with high fastballs. Strikes out a lot, mostly on those. Supposedly looks like he’s ironed that out a bit in spring training. He’ll probably be at either 2B or DH when he plays. Shortstop: Tommy Edman  Devil Magic Alum Tommy moved to SS last year amid some concerns that he would take a step down defensively. Fortunately he was as usual a total stud in that regard. He started the season very hot and tailed off a bit at the end. We have a hot prospect waiting in the wings for shortstop and I wouldn’t be surprised if Tommy ends up getting traded in the future. He’s my favorite guy on the roster right now though. 3rd Base: Nolan Arenado  Same story as Goldy but without the nice mvp trophy. Arenado was a killer last season and there’s a good chance he wins mvp if Goldschmidt wasn’t here. Oh well! Also turned into a playoff pumpkin. He’s on a relatively affordable deal so he’ll be here for a long time. I don’t know what else to say here. He’s really good. Outfield Mystery Zone: Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson  Canadian Bacon had a rough go round last season. He was hurt a ton and couldn’t find a rhythm. Fast for a bulky dude.  Dylan Carlson was supposed to be locked in at CF after Harrison Bader got traded last year. He proceeded to have a wretched second half of the season and the team had to trot out injury excuses. One of these two dudes is going to be the center fielder, and the other is going to be riding pine. At this point I’d bet on Carlson as the starter but who knows. Would not be surprised at all to see neither one with the team after this season. Hopefully they can both bounce back but I’m not holding my breath. If O’Neill isn’t productive I suspect he’ll be gone at the trade deadline, probably in a package for a pitcher. Ok I saved the best two guys for last. Let’s get it. Right Field: Lars Nootbaar  Noot is fresh off the WBC championship and hopefully a lot of conversations with shohei otahni about playing in St. Louis. As the only non-Wainwright person on the roster to win anything of consequence, I expect Lil Bro Lars to take a step forward as a leader this year. He played awesome the second half of last year and everyone loved him. Jordan Walker  After years and years of being told, no, THIS guy is the prospect that is gonna come up and instantly transform this team, shout outs Colby rasmus, shout outs Oscar taveras, shout outs Steven Piscotty, shout outs Dylan Carlson, shout outs Nolan Gorman…it seems like it’s finally happening. Jordan Walker is seven feet tall, nineteen years old, and is going to displace one of the outfielders listed above that isn’t named Lars. Dude raked at AA in both games I got to watch him there as well as basically all the other ones last season, raked at AAA, and raked this spring. All of the beat writers are comparing him to when Pujols was a rookie and was so good in camp that he forced the team to call him up. If the stodgy rear end cardinals beat people are already anointing this guy, it’s for real. I cannot loving wait to watch this guy play in the bigs. I won’t bore you too much with the bench guys. Paul DeJong has sucked for like three years in a row and is hurt, he’ll probably be on the IL until we can unload him in a trade. Sorry man. Juan yepez was pencilled in as the DH last year before Pujols showed up. Had an amazing homer in the playoffs. He’ll probably DH some and that’s it because his defense is pretty bad. Alec Burleson got a cup of coffee last year and might be around still, and Andrew knizner is somehow still the backup catcher in spite of being bad last year and awful in spring training. Next time I will post about pitchers. Ok bye.
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Mar 25, 2023 20:47
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I watched Brendan Donovan hit a grand slam in Jacksonville when he was playing for Memphis. He's really small so this was extremely surprising to watch.
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Mar 25, 2023 22:22
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I remember that the state of the Cardinals pitching last year was "ancient relics supporting the shattered dreams of what could be", has the situation improved from that? I would offer the take on my Twins but I do not know nearly enough about their scenario as thinking about baseball often drives me to despair and madness. If the Twins can win An Singular Playoffs Series that would greatly help such a situation. My conclusion is gently caress the Yankees.
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Mar 26, 2023 03:32
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Redeye Flight posted:I remember that the state of the Cardinals pitching last year was "ancient relics supporting the shattered dreams of what could be", has the situation improved from that? No. I’m working on a post about the pitching staff. It might be better but will probably be worse than last year.
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Mar 26, 2023 04:06
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An attempt at the Mariners. If someone else writes one up I'll be happy to remove this one. ----- The Seattle Mariners The history of the Mariners is far too long and confusing to get into here (there's a Jon Bois documentary and it's very, very good). In recent times they've gone from being a strange and itinerant kind of terrible to being mediocre, then bad, then good. 2022 saw the team break the 21 year playoff drought before running directly into the Astros buzzsaw. After a few significant changes the 2023 club looks to come back and make a run at the American League West division title. It's a team with a good mix of young players, some older vets, a great pitching staff, and a management team that tends to get out of the way. The (Positional) Guys Catcher -- Cal Raleigh 2022 was Raleigh's breakout year. Found his footing after a very short stint in AAA was ruined by a shoulder injury to Tom Murphy, Cal came back up and put a new formula into action: hit the poo poo out of the ball, avoid breaking pitches. 2023 Raleigh will hopefully find more comfort at the plate and more contact with the bat, even if some of his incredible power drops off. Also has the best/worst nickname in baseball (Big Dumper). First Base -- Ty France Not actually French. Aside from that joke being driven into the ground, France is an all contact 1B with somehow less and more power than you think. He's also the slowest player on the team and manages to combine a pedestrian top speed with incredibly lazy acceleration. Says he will steal two bases this year, is probably wrong. Second Base -- Kolten Wong One of the two significant additions made this off-season, Wong should stabilize a 2B spot that's been a rotation of fringe guys since Cano left. Should form a great defensive tandem with JP Crawford, seems to like Seattle and being closer to home. Likely a rental but you never know. Shortstop -- JP Crawford Coolest guy on the team and until recently the only Mariner with any kind of personality. Recently outed as a very strong UFO/alien guy. Inverted the book on him after an acquisition from the Phillies from an all bat/fringe glove SS to an all glove/fringe bat SS. Should hopefully be more consistent at the plate this year with some days off after having played 160 games in 2021 and 145 games in 2022. Thirdbase -- Eugenio Suarez Relentelessly positive, Geno came to camp an unknown in 2022 with a two tone dye job and ended up a fan favorite. One of the unsung heroes of the 2022 campaign, the hope for Geno is that he maintains that production or takes a small step back. Replaced his two tone haircut with a late career Razor Ramon; it's working for him. Right Field -- Teoscar Hernandez The other acquisition over the 2022 offseason and the replacement for the departed (not dead, just gone) Mitch Haniger. Teo should slot right in as a power bat in RF who turns every defensive play into a journey. More likely to be extended than K. Wong and is quickly becoming a friend of Julio. Center Field -- Julio Rodriguez What else is there to say about the best player to put on a Mariners uniform since A-Rod? 2022's rookie season put him firmly in the conversation for 2nd or 3rd best CF in the AL, Julio's looking to make gains defensively in 2023 and to stay healthy. If Julio plays 150+ games he'll be seriously in the AL MVP conversation. Left Field -- Jarred Kelenic The saga of Kelenic is reaching the culmination this season. Has oscillated between an above average OF and literally the worst player in baseball in his first 2 seasons in the bigs. After spending all off-season last year talking to Mark McGwire about hitting (???) Kelenic trimmed down and showed up to spring training with a much more modern, compact swing. There's reason to be hopeful Kelenic can put it together this year, and his successes or failures determine the ceiling on this team. The (Pitching) Guys Luis Castillo Acquired at the deadline last year, La Piedra brings a bonafide and credentialed #2 to the top of the Mariners rotation. 4 pitch guy who is a little notorious for starting seasons slowly, Castillo pitched very differently after the Seattle acquisition while maintaining his effectiveness. If he can find a way to bring back his power changeup from Cincinnati and meld it with his confidence in the slider he showed in Seattle last year, could find more consistency and move into a #1 conversation. George Kirby Likely the best pitcher on the Mariners staff already, Kirby is a control artist with sneaky velocity. Is limited slightly by some of his secondary pitches, if Kirby can bring a sharp curve from 2023 spring training into the regular season he will also be a clear #1. Has 1 fact that people know about him (he is from Rye, NY), hopefully Kirby starts showing some personality this year. Logan Gilbert The Florida version of Dustin May, Logan is all arms and legs. His major league success so far is almost entirely reliant on a dominating fastball that's mixed with great extension. Hopefully is leaving that pitcher in 2022, alongside some truly horrible facial hair, and will be more confident and assertive with his secondaries this year. Could be a #2, is likely a #3 absent that secondary growth. Robbie Ray The surest of sure things in the Mariners staff, Robbie Ray has been the same guy for a few seasons now. Showed up out of shape and overweight last year, ended up hurt by a shortened offseason and bookended 4 months of great starts with some truly horrible early season showings and a baffling playoffs. But with a fastball sitting 95 in spring training Ray is poised to once again strike a ton of guys out, give up a lot of homeruns, and end up the season somewhere around 3.5-3.8 fWAR. Marco Gonzales That dawg. Has pitched like rear end for a few years. Is likely out of the rotation by May, unless he can recapture command flashed earlier in his career. Is notably very surly and insecure about his arm. Bryce Miller The guy who will be taking Marco's spot in May. Maybe the best fastball in the Mariners system, is looking to emulate the path Logan Gilbert took his rookie year to success. The (Bench) Guys Tom Murphy -- C Career minor leaguer who the Mariners turned into a competent starting catcher. Tom has crazy eyes and is the strongest guy on the team (allegedly). Does cartwheels sometimes. Will probably play more than your usual backup C to get Raleigh's bat in the lineup at DH. Sam Haggerty -- Utility The latest in a long line of average players fans fall in love with. Used the Godfather theme as his walkup music and went absolutely nuclear for like 3 weeks in the midst of the 14 game win streak. Haggerty is the main OF utility guy, but can also play 2B if needed. Dylan Moore -- Utility The other utility guy. Moore is a better fielder than Haggerty and has a slightly more established record of success as a big leaguer. Will probably mostly play in the infield. Hopefully does not get 250 PAs again because someone gets hurt. Cooper Hummel -- Emergency C, utility The newest Jerry Dipoto project, Hummel is the main return in the trade sending Kyle Lewis to the Diamondbacks. Some Mariners fans think this means that the team values Hummel highly, I think it was more to get Lewis out of the organization after some reported anger/frustration at being sent down. Whatever the reason, Hummel is here and will likely play mostly at the corners and DH with the occasional (very occasional) days catching. Is one of the fastest guys on the team, somehow. The Bullpen I'll cover the bullpen generally. The Mariners separate their pen into tranches of leverage: high leverage, medium, low leverage/mop up. Lots of sliders with huge horizontal break, lots of flat fastballs. The only guy who fits the traditional 'closer' mold is Andres Munoz. And Matt Brash if he can ever figure out where the baseball is going. Should be a strength of the team because the management staff tends to deploy them well. The Manager Scott Servais is a TV midwestern Dad. Does a great job relating to most of his players, has generally good opinions and doesn't embarass himself in public. Early questions about his bullpen usage have quieted down as the team improved and now Scott represents the best of a major league manager: won't lose you games, won't alienate players, and every now and then will make a clever move to steal a win. Predictions? Anywhere from 85-98 wins. The Mariners floor is defined by Julio but the ceiling is defined by Kelenic. Look for the team to be active around the deadline no matter where they sit in the standings and for them to chase the Astros close all year. Ultimately I think this is probably another WC team, but the Astros have made some questionable decisions this off-season and are entering 2023 with questions and injuries. There's a path to the AL West title and likely the #1 seed in the AL for the Mariners, if they can put the pieces together in the right way. Penisaurus Sex fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Mar 26, 2023 |
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Mar 26, 2023 04:12
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THE CHICAGO CUBS SPENT A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY TO WIN 77 GAMES What happened last season Well the Cubs traded away most of the World Series Hero players in order to get prospects and allow the Ricketts family to spend more money trying to elect politicians who want to ban Hop on Pop or whatever the gently caress those people are up to now, so the Cubs just sort of sucked. They made two signings: Marcus Stroman, who finished the season strong after a rocky start, and Japanese superstar Seiya Suzuki, who annihilated pitching for a month and then spent the rest of the season nursing various injuries. We figured out that Nico Hoerner is a viable major league shortstop and all of the 30 year old guy rookies who played well for 2 months in 2021 are actually not secret superstars but guys who couldn't break into the majors until they were 30 years old for a reason. With fans fuming and demanding that the Cubs actually pretend to be a major league team, they spent some more money in the offseason, but the roster is still pretty ok and it's going to tread water while some prospects develop. Key Departures Willson Contreras, C Willson, the heart and soul of the team and only position player left from 2016, was going to be traded all year. They kept talking about trading him and he had numerous tearful ovations like he was going to be sent to the Western Front and then the trade deadline passed and there he was, still on the team. Contreras had an excellent year at the plate but also spent a fair amount of time at DH. The Cubs FO simply does not believe in him as a catcher. Instead, he will go the Cardinals, a much more competent organization, and hit what I predict is 35 home runs against the Cubs this year. I'm hurt and baffled by this move. Jason Heyward Jason Heyward gave the greatest speech in the history of baseball, did a lot of cool catches, and rolled over into approximately 12,000 4-6-3 double plays. Heyward took a lot of poo poo for hitting like rear end, but he is by all accounts a good guy and did a lot of philanthropy in the city and I am glad he was a Cub. Frank Schwindel, 1b Well it turns out the two months that Frank Schwindel hit in 2021 were the only two months he'd ever hit in the Big Leagues. So long Frank The Tank, I hope he hits a million dingers in Japan. Lineup  Ian Happ, LF Happ had his best season at the plate, got a gold glove, and was named an all-star for the first time. He's a good player entering his prime, so naturally the Cubs have become obsessed with trading him, and we get to have another season-long nightmare of trade rumors and hug watches, and ovations. On top of that, he is no longer appearing on Brian Urlacher Hair Billboards on the Jane Addams tollway. Happ has become the veteran leader of this clubhouse, and I would like to see him remain a Cub, even if some of the best prospects they have coming up are outfielders.  Dansby Swanson, SS Swanson, the fourth best of the Big Four shortstops on the market, is an elite glove and a guy who hit for one season that was conveniently in his contract year. He parlayed that into a big payday with the Cubs, who needed to sign him in order to prevent fans from throwing Italian beef sandwiches at the Ricketts family during the Cubs convention. I'm skeptical that he has figured something out and will remain an elite or even above-average bat, but the Cubs hope that he is part of what will be an elite defense. His wife Mallory (Pugh) Swanson is a star for the Chicago Red Stars and USWNT, so they have immediately become the city's most important sports couple now that Courtney Vandersloot plays in New York. He is, as far as I can tell, the only major leaguer ever to be named "Dansby."  Seiya Suzuki, RF Last year, the big question would be how Seiya would transition to major league pitching. His April showed that he could still clobber the absolute poo poo out of the ball. Now the question is how he will adjust to pitchers finding ways to get him out and the goddamned umps deciding to barrage him with some of the absolute shittiest calls I've persistently seen against a single hitter. Suzuki also revealed himself as a delightful, effervescent guy that the team seems to love. Unfortunately, Suzuki hurt his oblique and had to miss the WBC, so he'll be on the shelf for awhile.  Nico Hoerner, SS The one thing the Cubs proved last year is that Hoerner could hold up as an everyday shortstop in the majors with an excellent glove. But, they also decided they needed one of the big free agent shortstops, so Hoerner goes back to second. The theory is that Hoerner and Swanson, with the shift gone, will work together to smother every ball in the infield and improve the team's garbage defense from the last couple of seasons. If Hoerner can take a step at the plate and stay healthy, it would also be very cool.  Cody Bellinger, CF Bellinger, the only baseball player to grievously injure himself doing a Forearm Celebration, was the MVP in 2019 and then he got injured a bunch and completely forgot how to hit a baseball. The glove, though, is still legit, giving the Cubs in theory a gold-glove winner in left, center, and an NPB gold-glover in right, assuming Suzuki didn't get so swole that he can't move. Over the course of the season, I will hear an estimated 55 hours of announcers talking about how he's trying to figure it out that the plate. I'm very skeptical the Cubs will be able to do something with him that the Dodgers, an exponentially better organization, have not been able to do, but I hope Cody enjoys playing at Wrigley and wearing 1980s bully sunglasses and maybe hitting some dingers onto Sheffield. With Pete Crow-Armstrong on the way up and Suzuki locked up, Bellinger is just filling a hole for a year with him trying to rebound into a lucrative contract somewhere else and the Cubs possibly having someone to trade away at the deadline.  Patrick Wisdom, 3B The Cubs have a bunch of extremely mediocre guys looking for time at third, but Wisdom is the incumbent and had a good spring, so I expect to see him there. At this point, we know what Wisdom is: a one-man green energy initiative powering the city by swinging and missing but being capable of launching complete moonshots. He's got a cannon arm but his defense slipped last year. I'd expect to see him playing some right field at the beginning of the season too.  Trey Manicini 1B/RF Mancini was brought in to platoon with The Dreaded Eric Hosmer at first, but I expect to see a good deal of him in right while Suzuki is out. Mancini, who gave the best years of his career to the loving Orioles, was shipped out of Baltimore when they started to get good. His half-year on Houston was pretty lousy, but he did win a ring. Mancini dropped out of the WBC where he was due to drink espresso and making stereotypical hand gestures with Team Italy so he could bond more with his new team. Mancini is what the Cubs needed: a steady veteran and bona fide major leaguer that they can trot out there every day instead of the AAAA dreck they've been working with at first for two seasons.  Yan Gomes, C Gomes is an excellent defensive catcher and play caller that apparently helped the pitching staff a lot. He's a veteran leader and apparently someone tagged as a future manager, but he can't loving hit and he's not Willson Contreras.  The Dreaded Eric Hosmer, 1B/DH The Cubs' first base situation is dire. They spent the season rotating among AAAA guys and got like a .630 OPS from what should be a big hitting position. In order to shore it up, the Cubs went out and acquired former World Series hero, multiple all star and gold glove winner Eric Hosmer for the league minimum, and Cubs fans got about as angry as I've seen them over such a minor transaction. The problem is that Hosmer is washed up and sucks and can't even really field his position anymore. He loves to roll weak grounders to second and talk about Playing The Game The Right Way and he doesn't even hit dingers. Ideally, the Cubs will call up prospect Matt "Mash" Mervis at some point and Hosmer will be a distant memory, but it's impossible to imagine Ross benching him as long as he is still on the roster. Bench It's still too early to tell who will be on the bench because the Cubs have a bunch of interchangeably mediocre utility guys on the roster, but here's some of them:  Christopher Morel, UTIL Morel won Cub fans' hearts when he blasted a pitch out onto Waveland in his first MLB at bat after coming up from AA as an emergency replacement. He was red hot for the first few months and stayed on the roster mostly as a very bad center fielder, but then his bat really cooled off. Morel is sunshine in human form, a guy who almost had his career cut short when he fell through a window and nearly lost the use of his left hand, and he is constantly smiling, hugging people, and even dapping up umpires. If the Cubs are not going to be very good, it would be nice to have him on the team. Zach McKinstry, IF McKinstry is a left-handed infielder who destroys AAA pitching but can't really hit in the majors. May be replaced by something called "Miles Mastrubuoni" who as far as I can tell is the same guy. Nick Madrigal, IF Madrigal was garbage last season, but apparently he was injured all year. With Nico at second, there's nowhere to put him, so the Cubs have moved him to third. I have no idea where he fits on the team, but who doesn't love the idea of a tiny slap hitter zooming around the bases. David Bote is also lurking around in the minors. Tucker Barnhart, C This guy might as well go up to bat swinging a large party sub. Pitchers  Marcus Stroman, RH Stroman was the Cubs' big pitching signing last year, and he had a rough go of it at first. After recovering from a nasty case of Covid, Stroman was excellent at the end of the year, and he'll be at the top of the rotation to start the year. Stroman, like most Cubs pitchers, is not a velocity guy, but he gets a lot of movement on his two-seamer to get weak contact. The upgrades on defense should help with that too. Stroman's hobbies include arguing with extremely stupid sports personalities on twitter.  Jameson Taillon, RHP Taillon was the big pitcher signing this year. Taillon, the former Pirate and Yankee, is another guy who won't blow anyone away, but is a perfectly cromulent option and, as an above-average pitcher, represents a massive upgrade for the Cubs' abysmal rotation. Taillon's been through a lot: two Tommy John surgeries and testicular cancer, and he seems like a cool dude who hopefully will flourish here.  Justin Steele, LHP I don't want to alarm anyone, but the Cubs may have their first actual starter that they drafted in 20 years. Steele, a lefty with a nasty slider, moved into the rotation in his second year and established himself as the Cubs' best pitcher for much of the season. Steele was the only guy in the rotation really striking guys out, but he tended to take a lot of pitches to do that. Hopefully, he'll be better at pacing himself this season and establish himself as a legit #2/#3 guy that can stick in the rotation for awhile.  Drew Smyly, LHP Smyly unexpectedly had a decent year on a miserable, injured rotation last year so the Cubs brought him back. He mostly throws curveballs now and, like every other Cubs pitcher, is looking for soft contact. The Cubs are looking for a guy they can trot out every five days and not completely embarrass them.  Hayden Wesneski, RHP Wow, it's an actual pitching prospect. Wesneski, aquired from the Yankees at the deadline, has actual stuff including a ridiculous frisbee slider. He has been mowing guys down in spring training after looking good to end last year. There's an outside shot he ends the year as the Cubs' best starter.  "Cool" Kyle Hendricks, RHP Hendricks, the sole holdover from the World Series team, is hurt and undergoing rehab. He was pretty bad the last two years, and I hope this isn't the end for him. The way baseball is trending, it is very unlikely we will see another guy get a chance in the majors who throws 88 as a prospect, and his run with the Cubs was ridiculous despite looking like he should be one of those vest-wearing front office guys and not someone striking out Paul Goldschmidt with an 84 MPH changeup. This may be his last season in Chicago, and I hope Hendricks can have a few more vintage Professor starts in him. Bullpen Adbert Alzolay, RHP Adbert missed most of last season with a shoulder injury, but the Cubs are hoping he can be a multi-inning weapon or even a closer. Now that he is no longer starting, his fastball has gone up in velocity and he's got a filthy slider. Keegan Thompson The Cubs tried him in the rotation last year, but where he really excelled was as a fireman that could give you two or three nails innings from the pen. Should be one of the Cubs' key bullpen pieces this year. Brad Boxberger RHP; Roenis Elias, LHP; Michael Fulmer, RHP The Cubs have had good luck with getting something out of veteran relievers. Expect these guys to be potentially flipped. Season Outlook The Cubs made two major changes this season: they replaced most of their fungible AAAA placeholders with at least somewhat credible major-league veterans, and they greatly upgraded their defense. They still don't really have a bat that will scare anyone. Despite this, they still play in a dogshit division, where a few untimely injuries to the Cardinals or Brewers could allow them to hang around. There is a remote possibility that Swanson hits like he did last year, Bellinger rediscovers his MVP form, Suzuki returns and turns into an absolute monster, and their young pitchers make a leap where the Cubs may be able to sneak into the playoffs, but for now this is a holding pattern team that is waiting for the prospects to develop and it would not surprise me to see another sell-off at the trade deadline. The defense should be fun and Wrigley field is a fun place to watch a baseball game.
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Mar 26, 2023 04:30
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In last years state of the team for the cardinals I went on a whole big schpiel about how they were counting on guys to stay healthy who couldn’t stay healthy, and as a result Adam wainwright spent the last two months of the season with dead arm. Rather than learn their lesson and bolster the rotation in the offseason, the cardinals front office has instead opted to do nothing, cry poor, and do the same poo poo as last year. We’ll see how that turns out. Adam Wainwright  Uncle Charlie is back for one last ride. He was effective last season but dealt with a dead arm like I mentioned before. The writing is on the wall and I hope he is able to go out with some grace. Oh, and he’s already on the IL for the first month of the year. 🥲 Miles Mikolas  Just got himself a nice extension! Mikolas is the most consistent guy in our rotation. Ideally he’s a perfect 2 or 3, he can pitch deep into games and has that hardheaded shitboy attitude where he gets extra pissed if you take him out. Rarely spectacular but he isn’t gonna go out there and poo poo himself either. We about ran him off a cliff last year because our manager has a slow hook for him. Understandable but still stupid. Jack Flaherty  Jack was incredible four years ago. Unfortunately since then he’s been hurt a lot. Last year I said that he was going to bolt for California which may still come to pass but I think his injury issues might actually make it easier to keep him in St. Louis. A lot of the young pitching depth in AA and AAA is coming out soon though. I don’t know what to expect from Jack, he’s looked pretty bad in spring training. Jordan Montgomery  The cardinals traded for this guy last year. He was really good! The Yankees probably wish they still had him given their injury problems now. I suspect the returns will diminish a bit but he’s serviceable at worst. Keep the beard though homie. Steven Matz  Barely played last season due to injuries. If he’s healthy he’ll project well with our elite defense behind him but we’ll see. Has looked very good in spring. Fingers crossed! Jake Woodford  Woody is actually kind of an interesting story. Came up and played a bit in 2021. Had a good fastball. Barely got any run in 2022, was constantly negged by the manager whenever the beat writers would ask about why he wasn’t here. The team doesn’t like the way he pitches. Flash forward to now, he’s the next man up replacing Waino in the rotation. I’m rooting hard for Jake, this is a huge chance for him to show that our manager was wrong. The bullpen is a strength and I’ll spare you the full write up. Gio Gallegos and Ryan Helsley are the high leverage guys. Jordan Hicks can throw really really really hard but his development got stunted when he maybe came up a year too early. He hit 104.6mph in spring training today lol. Andre pallante is a long relief guy who made a ton of starts last year with all the injury issues the team had. The manager likes him a lot. Chase Stratton was actually ok last year and will probably fall off a cliff this year. Packy naughton is a lefty who will see limited time, zack Thompson is a lefty who will probably be playing a ton. Drew verhagen is gonna be interesting, he sucked poo poo last year but was injured and has looked like a killer in camp so far. Curious to see what his role is. Manager: Oliver Marmol  Our last manager was fired due to philosophical disagreements with the methodology of our front office, and Oli came in. I think most fans expected him to be a bit of a yes man as a result. Overall he managed some things better (more willing to platoon things), and hosed some other things up (deferred to older players too frequently, rode our closer into the dirt). His overreliance on Helsley specifically blew one of the playoff games. I don’t think managers win games but they can definitely lose them. He lost that one anyway. His need to piss on Woodford last year was also very weird and seemed a bit personal. The results were pretty dang good overall but it was a good team already so I’m reticent to give him much credit. President of Baseball Ops I Think: John Mozeliak  I don’t think any fan of an MLB team likes their teams general manager. It is a thankless position. Mo has been here for an eternity and people are always pissed about everything he does or doesn’t do. I think he totally mismanaged our starting rotation last season, but he also pivoted strongly at the deadline and addressed the issue. But it was not timely enough. This year looks like we’ll be in the same boat. Adam wainwright is already on ice for a month, we’re relying on two good not great guys in Mikolas and Montgomery, two guys who can’t stay healthy in Matz and Flaherty, and a relative unknown in Woodford. This team really really should have brought in another starting pitcher, but they didn’t. Now that the negative is out of the way, here’s some positives. The cardinals are not known for loving guys on their service time. The cardinals have an excellent pipeline of talent from our farm teams. The cardinals haven’t had a losing season in like fifteen years. Overall I would say mozeliak has been an excellent GM who deserves to catch the poo poo he’s catching right now but we could do a lot worse. Bizzys Predictions This team is gonna score a shitload of runs. Our batting order is murderous. I think we’ll score more than last season. Our infield defense is going to be elite again, no surprise there. The outfield will be interesting. I’m predicting it’ll start off with Walker - Carlson - Nootbaar from left to right but expect to see O’Neill take over as the main center fielder pretty quickly. The pitching situation is scary. Liberatore is down in Memphis and could be brought up as needed. Honestly my real concern is with the manager, he rode mikolas waino and helsley really hard last year and two of the three totally fell apart by years end. Our bullpen projects to be fantastic, I hope he is willing to mix it up and rely on them a little more. The division is ours for the taking, the Cubs will probably be a little better this year but not good enough to challenge us yet. And the brewers are trending down too. I’m predicting the cards win the division pretty comfortably, win their wild card series, and get punked in the divisional round…..UNLESS Jordan Walker lives up to the hype. Then all bets are off. If he’s ROTY material then the sky’s the limit.
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Mar 26, 2023 04:53
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R.D. Mangles posted:The way baseball is trending, it is very unlikely we will see another guy get a chance in the majors who throws 88 as a prospect, and his run with the Cubs was ridiculous despite looking like he should be one of those vest-wearing front office guys and not someone striking out Paul Goldschmidt with an 84 MPH changeup. Oh? https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1635673790301589504
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Mar 26, 2023 05:02
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Redeye Flight posted:I remember that the state of the Cardinals pitching last year was "ancient relics supporting the shattered dreams of what could be", has the situation improved from that? gently caress a series, I'll just take a game vvv nah I don't have it in me to effort up a team post it's all yours vvv IcePhoenix fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Mar 26, 2023 |
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Mar 26, 2023 05:09
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Redeye Flight posted:I would offer the take on my Twins but I do not know nearly enough about their scenario I know basically gently caress all but I'm gonna give it a stab. IcePhoenix et al. will likely do better, but I'm gonna try, dang it.
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Mar 26, 2023 06:01
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Alright, here it is, YOUR MINNESOTA TWINS Last year was a real wet fart of a season for Minnesota. By which I mean there was actual poo poo in your shorts. You thought it was safe. After an amazing 2019, and an okay covid 2020, and a surprising 2021, 2022 really could have been safe. But nope. You absolutely poo poo your pants, and ended up surrendering the division to a Cleveland team that wasn't really good but somehow managed to eke out several postseason wins. Heck, the Twins even ended up behind literal-.500-ball Chicago with a team that was almost as banged up as ours. Position Players - Infield Oh dear god, the injuries have already started. Not a single one of the names to follow is set in stone, and if any of them is somehow not on the Opening Day roster, I will not be surprised. The Twins nuked their training staff over the offseason, theoretically due to all the injuries last year, but a lot of guys still aren't really making headway yet this year, even this late into spring. C: Christian Vasquez/Ryan Jeffers - Another seasons of a vet paired up with Jeffers after the team let Gary Sanchez walk after last season. Vasquez had a couple bigger offensive seasons with the Red Sox, but other than a 2019 that was likely helped by a juiced ball, he's nothing particularly special. The Twins have him for the next three years at $10 mil a year, so it's likely he'll be taking more plate time than Jeffers, who is just... he's not very good at batting. Jeffers is capable at catching, but he looks more like he'll be tracking toward a more Literal Human Drew Butera catcher than a Joe Mauer or even Terry Steinbach. 1B: Joey Gallo/Donovan Solano - Likely platooning in the face of an absent Alex Kiriloff, whose wrist is still some kind of quagmire. Gallo is... he's not good. He is the epitome of Three True Outcomes, and like the guy he basically replaced on the roster, Miguel Sano, those outcomes lean hard into strikeouts. Solano is also not good. Neither of them are a 1B-native player, with Gallo being a RF and Solano being a 2B. First base is basically a warm body position on the Twins at this point, unless for some bizarre reason Jose Miranda comes across. 2B: 3B: Jose Miranda - Miranda was a revelation last year, but he spent more time at 1B due to Gio Urshela really being a fun guy to watch defensively. But with Gio being dealt in the offseason to the Angels for a pitching prospect, Miranda will likely be the guy taking reps at the hot corner. He's an exciting young guy, and the fanbase is really warming up to him. SS: Carlos Correa - The Twins ended up being the lucky team to get Correa's mysteriously obliterated (maybe?) ankle after several months and millions of potential dollars lost by Correa and agent Scott Boras. Apparently one doctor called said ankle "the worst he'd ever seen," which I strongly doubt both on the basis that I, not a doctor, have seen a break so bad just the X-ray almost made me barf, and that Correa has been playing elite defense with that ankle for 8 years of professional shortstopping. The Twins made an absolute steal. The signing of Correa for potentially the next NINE YEARS also makes a person wonder what's going to happen with Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis (another blown knee haver) in the next few, and whether either will be shifted to second for an eventual Polanco replacement or if Correa gets shifted and converted to more of a DH role. Regardless, Minnesota currently has a First Pick that has played that way for approximately his whole career thus far. Position Players - Outfield Jesus. Just. gently caress. The outfield in general is some kind of Minnesota Goodbye of players and positions. Entirely too much ambiguity about intent, too many cordial, likeable folks that really don't want to upset anyone. And it's just frustrating to watch. LF: Man, I don't know. Trevor Larnach maybe? The guy that got the most time in the OF for the Twins last season that wasn't Buxton or Kepler (more on them later) was Gilberto Celestino, and his UCL blew up (on the thumb end, not the elbow end) and he's out til probably May at least. Don't slide headfirst, kids. Larnach, to his credit, is not a terrible option in LF, and he hit the cover off the ball this spring. Michael A. Taylor is also a strong possibility, given that his defense is pretty and his offense is Good Enough. We'll see. CF: This is Buxton's Year, Year 8. The single year that Byron was healthy for the whole season, in which he did not run into a wall or break a toe or screw up a shoulder or hip or break a hand or whatever, he put up a Gold Glove defense, garnered MVP votes, and put up a 97% stolen base rate. His #1 comp at 28 according to B-R is Bo loving Jackson. Last year he managed his first All-Star nod, thanks largely to his incredible 2021 (you know, despite playing for a little more than a third of the season.) If this is the year he can keep his legs under him, his arms whole and not crushed in the wall, and his brains not scrombled, he could show everyone why he was the Number Two pick to Correa's Number One. RF: Oh god, it's Max Kepler again. Kep is a fan's darling. He's cute, he's nice, he's the archetypal Minnesota Right Fielder who Plays the Game the Right Way and mashes some huge taters. Unfortunately, he's also very inconsistent, and if the ball doesn't go over the fence, it probably goes right into a glove. One possible glimmering hope for Kepler this year is the banning of the shift, with he and Gallo likely being two of the biggest beneficiaries--even though it still won't likely mean much for the league as a whole. However! Kepler's hip is increasingly causing him problems, and he'll basically be starting the season day-to-day. He'll likely be floated as trade bait again this year if his health stays up, but his only truly remarkable season was his 2019. You know. The whole juiced balls, Twins shattering the home run record thing. Other than that, he's decidedly average. Bench: whoever the 4th outfielder ends up being, Nick Gordon, Kyle Farmer. Gordon is most likely going to be the Twins traditional Play Everywhere Guy in the vein of Nick Punto, Luis Arraez, and Willians Astudillo. He's a good kid. Farmer is the definition of a bench player. That's about all I can say there, as I haven't really seen him play or even heard that much about him. Pitchers - Rotation Always the biggest wildcard in the Twins' deck is how the starting pitching holds up, not just as pitchers, but literally as human bodies. Not only have the last couple seasons trended toward Grizzled Road Dog veterans to eat innings, but the injuries did not leave the rotation unscathed. A number of faces departed, but this year sports a number of names that should be familiar, at least a little, to Twins fans. Pablo Lopez - Acquired in the offseason from the Marlins in exchange for fan favorite Luiz Arraez, Lopez has high upside and really showed off what he could do with Venezuela in the WBC. His ERA+ is a career 106, and he has a WHIP of 1.167. He's nothing stunning, but he is a primarily ground-ball pitcher, and Minnesota is blessed to have two of the best middle infielders (when healthy) and arguably the best centerfielder (when healthy) behind them. How he'll pan out in the frozen north is up in the air, but he's absolutely a guy to watch. Sonny Gray - A great get for the Twins for 2022 after he had several good seasons around the majors (and a couple disasterous ones), he posted a solid 3.08 ERA, made 24 starts, and averaged very nearly a strikeout per inning. He's also one of the pitchers with the most experience on the team, which helps with all the young guys he's now surrounded with. Tyler Mahle - Another former Cinncinati Red like Sonny Gray, Mahle is fairly pedestrian as far as starting pitching. His brief time with Minnesota last year was not a good look, really, but his nearly dead-even LD/GB/FB tendencies, slightly favoring fly balls, has not really helped his home run numbers. Oh, also his shoulder is crap. Or was last year. I guess we'll see! Joe Ryan - Ryan has been showing off his abilities for a season and a half with the Twins, and he's right at that age where it could be time for him to really break out. Acquired as the main chip in the trade that sent Nelson Cruz to Tampa, Ryan quickly started making waves in the system, doubly so in his first full season. Fans seem to have embraced the marketing team's hype on him, and young Twins pitchers are always exciting to watch, if they're not blowing up elbow ligaments. Kenta Maeda - Speaking of elbow ligaments, we get to another big question mark for the 2023 team. Maeda's ticket was finally punched for his known-quantity failing elbow. In his 2020 campaign he lost the Cy Young to an otherworldly Shane Beiber, but his 2021 was wildly inconsistent, and he was finally shut down in August, and opted for Tommy John surgery to fix his 33-year-old elbow with 13 years of professional wear and tear on it. There were some question marks about if he'd make it back in the 2022 season, but ultimately he did not. His spring has been unremarkable, really, and how his performance ends up this year as a 35-year-old with a new elbow is anybody's guess. Not everyone is Justin Verlander, but it's more than possible Maeda still ends up being a solid choice going forward. On the Bubble, Bailey Ober - Ober is a Huge Dude. Which is to say he is very tall and intense. Ober has been making his case known for the better part of the past two years, and there have been real rumblings of the Twins rolling with a six-man rotation to start the year. But Ober is unfortunately in the same position he was in last year AND 2021, in that the Twins pitching situation is a combination of a trash heap and a warzone, with a slight dash of general chaotic void. The main reason I'm including him is that he could very well replace ANY of these pitchers at ANY point in the season. Pitchers - Bullpen I almost never pay attention to the bullpen outside of one or two names of guys I know from years previous. This isn't really much different, so here's a list of guys I've heard of and vaguely remember. Jhoan Duran - Most notable for his so-called "splinker" which can occasionally top 100mph with vicious downward action. Pitching Ninja is ridiculously high on him, and with good reason: pure power and unhittability. He had an ERA+ of 208(!) last year, and is showing no signs of slowing down. Hitters have a .571 OPS against him. He is arguably the most electric pitcher on the entire roster. Jorge Lopez - A late acquisition last year from the Orioles, who got much better use from him than the Twins did. Historically he has been kinda bad on paper, but the last year and a half in Baltimore were lights-out. Here's hoping he keeps it up for the Twins this year. Griffin Jax, Caleb Thielbar - These sure are guys. Both are... effective. Thielbar has been pretty good on his return to the Twins after a long history of being DFA'd, bouncing around the minors, coaching at Augustana (my girlfriend went there!), and then finally back onto the big league club. He is technically still in arbitration this year despite being 35 since he went so long without playing. Jax is young-ish and really has thrived in the bullpen, with a return to starting unlikely outside of catastrophe. Jorge Alcala, Emilio Pagan, Jovani Moran - Effectively untested. Alcala's elbow is likely a time-bomb, Pagan has struggled, Moran is just plain young. In fact, this goes for just about all of the rest of the guys in the bullpen, whose names I definitely recognize but I don't think I ever saw play--I checked out on the season right around the time they dropped the division lead and the injuries piled. Conclusion: This year is a very big "I guess we'll just have to see" season for the Twins. Like the last few years, a lot rides on both the starting rotation and whether or not the starting lineup can stay healthy. Baldelli likes to use DH as a rotational position more than a set spot in the lineup, following Molitor before him and, to an extent, Gardenhire before HIM. There is no real standout option there until literally everyone in the depth chart ends up healthy. Prediction: Fangraphs have Cleveland, Chicago, and Minnesota all within four games of each other with only Cleveland and MN having positive records. Given historical trends, we're gonna have to win the division to even sniff the playoffs and the inevitable slaughter at the hands of the Yankees. I don't have faith this year. There's so many unproven guys, so much unknown talent. And as last year proved, injuries can come at any time, from anywhere, for any reason (literally the first time you play center professionally, running into the wall, because Baldelli thought it would be fun to see what happened) and that health is ultimately what is going to be this team's biggest enemy. Not Cleveland, not even the Yankees. The Twins have to overcome their own literal bodies first. Post-script: I was curious about former Uber driver Randy Dobnak, who became a quick fan favorite because he was, y'know, an Uber driver, and the last I remember he'd been signed to an extension and then just sort of disappeared. It seems that last year he was waived and outrighted to AAA and came to camp this year and did okay, where he was then reassigned to AAA again. Whether or not he ever comes back to the major league team is up in the air, but he's been battling finger strain for the better part of two years now. While it's unlikely he'll ever repeat his early successes, here's hoping the Uber driver pitcher makes it back to The Show one day. rickiep00h fucked around with this message at 09:40 on Mar 26, 2023 |
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Mar 26, 2023 09:04
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I would do the Rockies but I kinda like showing up to games two weeks in the season and being like "huh...I've never heard of ANY of these guys" every year.
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Mar 26, 2023 09:09
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It's amazing how quickly I forgot that Nick Madrigal is still on the Cubs. Excellent write-up, Mangles 
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Mar 26, 2023 13:41
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Jeez I forgot Taillon signed with the Cubs. I hate when ex-Pirates pitchers have success so I hope we light him up this year
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Mar 26, 2023 14:20
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The Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves, currently working on a five-year division title streak, entered 2022 coming off a championship season in which they backed into the playoffs with an 88-win season, then got hot and won the whole thing. So, in 2022, they followed that up by winning 101 games, beating the Mets for the division title on a tiebreaker, then getting bounced in the first round by a third-place team. Go figure. During the offseason they let a position player stalwart walk in free agency for the second consecutive year, and mostly sat on their hands for the rest of the offseason. Their second-biggest acquisition after Sean Murphy was either Joe Jimenez or Jordan Luplow, just to give you an idea of what they spent their time on. Thankfully, they've spent the last several years locking up most of their young core for the rest of the decade, so they've still got a very strong team despite their winter hibernation. The Lineup! The 2023 Braves' lineup is very feast-or-famine. At six positions they have a literal top-five player. At the other three they have a rank pile of poo poo. Catcher -- Sean Murphy and Travis d'Arnaud The Braves have arguably the best catching situation in the league. While there are a handful of guys better than Sean Murphy, like J.T. Realmuto in Philadelphia and Will Smith in LA, none of them have a backup of the caliber of d'Arnaud, who could start on a lot of playoff teams. The Braves are betting on catcher throwing being more important with the new rules, so they locked up Murphy, a stellar defensive player, to a six-year extension after acquiring him from Oakland in a three-team deal this offseason. He'll get most of the starts, but when d'Arnaud is behind the plate Murphy will probably still be in the lineup at DH or possibly 1B. 1B -- Matt Olson After refusing to give Freddie Freeman a sixth year last offseason, the Braves spent a prospect package to acquire a significantly inferior player and spent more money than Freeman was asking for or got locking him up long-term. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Olson wasn't awful or anything in 2022, but he definitely didn't live up to either Freddie's standards or his own. Still, he's in his prime, so he's got lots of time and space to improve and provide the Braves the kind of production they thought they were buying when they signed him to a market-value extension. If any player has demolished the ball more in Spring Training, I haven't heard of him, so hopefully he's in for a monster season. 2B -- Ozzie Albies Incredibly, Ozzie is now the longest-tenured Brave, so in the absence of Freeman and Swanson, the mantle of veteran leadership falls on him. He had pretty much a lost season in 2022 due to a pair of fluke injuries that cost him months, but he seems to be healthy now. When he's on, he's one of the most dynamic players in the game, providing speed, power, and up-the-middle defense. 3B -- Austin Riley It took him a few years to get his bearings, but Riley is now one of the most prolific power hitters in the game. His ability to annihilate baseballs is superhuman. After watching him play like an MVP candidate for half a season, the Braves committed to him as the centerpiece of their lineup for a decade... after which he immediately fell off a cliff for the rest of the season. Probably just one of those things. Hopefully. He's looked good in Spring Training, at least. Say, every player we've discussed so far has All-Star potential. Let's keep this train rolling, yeah? SS -- Orlando Arcia *record scratch* Dansby Swanson's career year weirdly came at the worst possible time for the Braves, because it meant there was no possibility of signing him to the kind of below-market deal that is the only one the Braves ever offer free agents. So he walked, and the Braves spent the offseason declaring that the shortstop position would be a competition between their utility infielder Orlando Arcia and the young infielder Vaughn Grissom, who hit well in limited time in 2022 but whose defense is questionable. So Spring Training arrives, and Arcia is handily outplayed by not only Grissom but also former first-round pick Braden Shewmake, who the Braves' coaching staff talked up as the most improved player in camp... so the team sent down both Grissom and Shewmake and handed the job to Arcia anyway. I don't really have an explanation here. The Braves' media outlets reported that the reasoning was that it allowed them to retain Ehire Adrianza, who could not be sent down to the minors without losing him, thus allowing them to maintain maximum roster flexibility early in the season... but Adrianza sucks! If I had to guess, I'd say that the team was unimpressed with Grissom's defense and Shewmake's bat, so they're going to ride with Arcia for 4-6 weeks so they can observe the two young guys in AAA for a while and decide which of them they want to commit to long-term. But I could be completely wrong. Honestly, it's as likely that Amed Rosario or Tim Anderson is playing shortstop for the team in September as it is that Grissom takes control of the job and signs an extension that keeps him there for the rest of the decade. The only thing I am sure of is that Arcia isn't the answer. 2022 was his career year and he still wasn't that good. If you want a laugh, go look up his splits by opponent and see how much of his production was done against the Washington Nationals, a team my grandmother could hit .270 against. Man, that was weirdly negative. Hopefully the next position is better. LF -- Eddie Rosario *sigh* Of the four outfielders AA acquired to rebuild the offense during the 2021 playoff run, he decided to retain the worst of them for 2022 and 2023. Rosario, never that good to begin with outside the 2021 NLCS, was plagued by eye problems so severe that they eventually required surgery and a several-months rehab to repair. Even after returning, he was unplayable. The team didn't bother to address the position in the offseason, so Rosario's getting first crack at the gig again. The team and its media outlets have claimed he's looked like a completely different guy this spring, but if he has it hasn't show up in his performance either in camp or in the WBC. He doesn't have to be an MVP candidate in this lineup, but not being replacement level would surely help, and I'm not sure he even has that in him anymore. CF -- Michael Harris II Finally, a good player again. Your 2022 NL RoY is a physical specimen, one of those players who rose through the minors too quickly for prospect outlets to spend years hyping him up, so he seemed to come out of nowhere. He's a sterling defensive center fielder, with speed, power, and good bat-to-ball skills. His one weakness is pitch selection, and his ability to improve it will determine whether he's an annual MVP candidate or "just" a Gold Glover who provides some value with the bat. Either way, the team saw enough after only a few months to lock him up into what would have been his first few free agent seasons. RF -- Ronald Acuna, Jr The last time Acuna was fully healthy, he looked like the best player in the universe, non-Anaheim division. That was 2021, just before the All-Star break. He was never really himself even after returning in 2022, so I think a lot of people have let him fall off their radars, but he's healthy now and there's nothing he can't do on a baseball diamond. He spent winter ball hitting baseballs to the moon and has been putting on a clinic in Spring Training. Expect a huge season. DH -- Marcell Ozuna It figures that the only time AA sticks his neck out and pays market value for a free agent, this would be the result. The Braves signed Ozuna to a one-year pillow contract before the 2020 season to replace the departing Josh Donaldson in the lineup, and he mashed the ball during the abbreviated campaign while endearing himself to his teammates and fans. Then the team signed him to what seemed, at the time, a reasonable four-year contract after the season, and it immediately blew up in their face. Not only has he basically not hit at all since signing that contract, he's also acted like a complete jackass off the field, with a domestic violence incident and a drunk driving incident. In a just world he would have been released about three or four times over by now, but the Braves seem hesitant to eat the money, so he's not only still on the team but also seemingly penciled into the starting lineup. The Braves spent the spring pettily making him ride the bus to basically every away game, but it seems likely that's the worst consequences he'll receive. Still two more years to go. The Braves' beat reporters have been insinuating that he's on a short leash, but I've heard that song and dance before. If they do sack up and cut him, expect whoever is not catching to get most of the DH ABs, supplemented by some of the losers I mentioned in the LF section and possibly Vaughn Grissom, if the Braves determine his infield defense is unsalvageable. The Rotation! The Braves have good top-end options in the rotation as well as a lot of mostly-interchangeable depth to fill out the back end. Max Fried One of the prizes of John Coppolella's sell-off of the team nearly a decade ago, Max has blossomed into the unquestioned ace of the staff. He just gets outs, despite not boasting incredible velocity or an eye-catching strikeout rate. The Braves have probably missed their chance to extend him at the price they'd prefer, so you're probably looking at his penultimate season with the organization. No reason he can't put up another 180+ innings of superb pitching this season -- enjoy it while you can. Spencer Strider Your 2022 RoY runner up, Strider was overlooked as an amateur and as a prospect because his two-pitch mix screamed "reliever." What no one except the Braves counted on was those two pitches being good enough to strike out the universe anyway. In addition to a four-seamer and slider, Strider boasts an amazing porn stache and is probably the most notable Bernie Bro in the league. Charlie Morton Morton's pretty close to the end of the line, but the Braves value his veteran presence enough to keep extending him anyway, and he can toss a heap of average-ish innings for you. A lot of people criticized the team for picking up his $20 million option, but that decision looked a lot better when you saw what mediocrities like Jameson Taillon and Taljuan Walker got. Kyle Wright Twenty years ago, Wright's breakthrough 2022 probably would have won him the Cy Young, but those days are past. He's still a perfectly effective pitcher to slot in behind Fried and Strider, though... assuming he's healthy. He got a late start in spring and is already on the IL. The Braves are claiming it's only going to be a minimum stay, but it's a shoulder thing, and that could go south in a hurry. He's already in his age 27 season due being a college pitcher who took a while to figure it out, so who knows if the Braves are even interesting in extending him. ...And The Rest Right now rookies Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd will get a look in the rotation due to Wright's injury, but presumably one will be sent down once he's healthy. Both have looked great in Spring Training and could play the role of fifth starter admirably, but if neither does, the team will turn to Ian Anderson or Bryce Elder. A name to watch here is Michael Soroka -- the last time he was on a mound, he looked like a young ace, but that was two years ago and he may no longer be able to go without exploding. Stay tuned. The Bullpen! The Braves have one of the best bullpens in the game and lots of depth to supplement it. It was supposed to look like this coming out of camp: Raisel Iglesias AJ Minter Collin McHugh Kirby Yates Joe Jimenez Lucas Luetge Dylan Lee Jesse Chavez ...But Iglesias is hurt and has been shut down for a few weeks, so move everyone else up a slot. The Braves also have Nick Anderson, Michael Tonkin, and Jackson Stephens floating around in this mix, and any of the aforementioned fifth starter candidates could conceivably spend some time in the pen as well. Management! Brian Snitker received another contract extension this year, so he's going to be around a little while longer at least. Snitker is an old-school manager in terms of how he manages playing time, and a lot of people have problems with how he manages the pitching staff, but his players would follow him into hell, and I've never even heard a whisper of dissatisfaction from the clubhouse. As someone who watched the team quit on Fredi Gonzalez every other season, that's way more important to me than not deploying Johan Carmago correctly or using Lucas Luetge in the wrong inning in some random May game. He brings back, to my knowledge, his entire coaching staff. Alex Anthopoulos is the president and GM and has as much rope as he wants. Although I'm frequently frustrated by his lack of urgency in dealing with some of the team's glaring holes (see SS, LF), you can't deny the quality of the teams he's built, and the way he gets players to sign their prime years over to the team is nothing short of wizardry. The Astros hired away the Braves' director of scouting, Dana Brown, to be their new GM. The team has said they're not going to fill the position until after the draft. The Farm System! HAHAHAHAHA The Braves are pretty much universally agreed to have the worst farm system in baseball presently. This is because they've emptied it out via graduations and trades for major league pieces, granted, but it does mean they don't have much capital for in-season additions. The guys to keep an eye on this season are mostly recent draftees and international signings who will be getting the chance to show what they can do in pro ball for the first time, but don't expect any miracle callups a la Harris/Strider/Grissom. Expectations: The team has enough good players that anything less than 90 wins should feel like a disappointment. They play in a tough division with the deep-pocketed Mets and Phillies, so another division title is by no means guaranteed -- but a playoff spot should be. Most of the drama here will come in the form of health and whether they can coax production out of some of their gaping holes -- and, of course, whether they can win another ring in October. bravesword fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Mar 26, 2023 |
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Mar 26, 2023 17:25
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gonna post mine too mostly because i spent too drat long on it while procrastinating other things Atlanta What happened last season The Braves followed up a 2021 season where they looked like reheated rear end most of the year and then caught fire and won the World Series with a 2022 where they looked like reheated rear end for a couple months and then caught fire to go neck and neck with the Mets in a torrid and utterly pointless division race that exhausted both teams and probably doomed them both in the playoffs—though it remains very funny that the Braves didn't even let them have that one little trinket. The team had to battle through a lot of injuries and, especially those first few months, had maybe the worst outfield in baseball; when they bounced back it wasn’t even because of veterans turning in career months (as in 2021) but instead outrageous debuts by runaway rookies of the year Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider. Key Departures Dansby Swanson, SS: good glove, great hair, fantastic contract year. almost certain to regress to historic Dansby, which is a week or two of looking like he's figuring things out followed by the most desperate slump. Kenley Jansen, RP: Kenley was sort of a surprise signing but went on to have a very Kenley season: lots of saves, a few blown ones, multiple heart attacks induced in the fanbase. closers, man. William Contreras, C: a really useful looking player, seemed set to be the catcher of the future but immediately disposable once it became clear that Sean Murphy would be available. think the Brewers did well to horn in on that deal. Adam Duvall, OF: already really stretching the definition of “key” departure but he has been a fun player in his Atlanta stints, especially his week of three-homer games. seems cooked. Jesse Chavez, RP: just kidding you know we could never let him leave for long. lock him down as coaching staff the second he retires. Lineup The Braves love striking out and slugging dongs, and that looks set to continue.  Ronald Acuña, Jr., RF Did not immediately regain his status as one of the best players in baseball after recovering from an ACL, which seems to have frustrated many idiots in the fanbase. Almost certainly came back too quick, played too many games, and too many innings in those games, even with the team trying to DH him when possible. Showed a lot of the old spark in his spring games, and the wheels seem back, so with the rule changes he could be back to the 40-40 chase this year. Including the options, signed until 2028.  Matt Olson, 1B Olson had an overall pretty solid year, despite several absolutely glacial slumps that made his stats lag his career averages. Was always going to suffer in comparison to Freeman, but won a lot of people over all the same, in part because he’s a local kid. Had an insane spring so either he’s going to go ice cold again straight away, or he’ll fulfill his career pattern of being significantly better in odd-numbered years. Kinda looks weird to me, in some indefinable way? Including the option, signed until 2030.  Austin Riley, 3B Austin dealt out another year of quiet ownage, just a consistently very good-to-great player. Another Southern boy, though of the Mississippi variety; spends basically every offseason minute possible hunting. Including the option, signed until 2033.  Sean Murphy, C The big surprise of the offseason; when it seemed like the team might concentrate on their abyss in left field or the Dansby-shaped hole at short, they instead strengthened at catcher, a position they looked set at for years as d’Arnaud gradually gave way to William Contreras. But Anthopoulos is not one to sit around, and he pulled the trigger to bring over an elite defensive catcher who’s still growing into his power at the plate (and getting out of Oakland certainly can’t hurt). Including the option, signed until 2029.  Ozzie Albies, 2B Was having a bit of a down year and then just brutal injury luck, first breaking his foot in June, then the day after he came back from that fracturing his pinky sliding into second. One of the most fun players in the sport when he’s on his game, famously adorable with his dogs. Including options, signed until 2027, at which point I hope someone (ideally Atlanta) pays him what he’s actually worth.  Michael Harris II, CF A lot of folks had their eye on Harris as one of the most exciting players in the Braves system, but I don’t think anyone thought he’d produce at this level, certainly not this early. Money Mike (he even came with an A-grade nickname!) was the youngest player in the league when he got called up and instantly smoothed out the Braves’ woeful outfield, which had been one of the worst units both offensively and defensively. Due a bit of regression this year but even a suboptimal Harris is a very valuable player. Including options, signed until 2032.  Eddie Rosario, LF Another Brave with a nightmare year; Rosario’s strikeout rate spiked and he was probably the worst defensive outfielder in a team that ran Marcell Ozuna out there on occasion. Rosario was never all that great but he wasn’t anywhere near that bad either, and finally the team doctors figured out that his right retina had swollen and his vision was severely blurred. Did not have good spring numbers but his contact was fine and he no longer looks like a legally blind person in the outfield, so given the other options he’ll have to do. Braves have a team option on him for next year and it’d be swell if he did enough to earn it. Marcell Ozuna, DH Look, I don’t want him here. I don’t think anyone wants him here. He shouldn’t even get that many ABs at DH, just the days when one of the catchers needs a full game off. The Braves tried to move him on for some other tragic contracts, like Patrick Corbin’s, but either they were asking other teams to even out a bit much or Ozuna’s particular combo of toxic + lovely is too much for other teams to associate themselves with even for salary dumps. So they’ll keep him around for a month or two and hope he either rebounds enough to contribute occasionally or is so awful that they’ll have no choice but to DFA him. i wonder if even Japan would take him at this point. No jokey image here, just too depressing. Unfortunately, signed until 2024.  Orlando Arcia, SS The Dansby replacement nobody saw coming. The story all summer was that Vaughn Grissom was working out his glove issues with Ron Washington, and Wash was nothing if not supportive of his protege, but in the end it was probably best that he go down to Gwinnett and actually learn to play the position in competitive games there—plus get more consistent at the plate; after a thrilling start including a homer and SB in his debut the league caught up to him quick. Then the story became the redemption of former top prospect Brendan Shewmake, who is a natural with the glove and finally looked to be working things out at the plate. And just when everyone was expecting him to get the job, the Braves dumped them both back into minor league camp and Arcia was the only SS left standing. He’s still only 28, so maybe he has more to show, but I’d still expect one of the other two, and maybe both of them, to push him out of the lineup this year. The benefit he’s very cheap, as is his option for next season. Bench This will be in flux for a good while as all the players with options get shuttled back and forth.  Travis d’Arnaud, C The other half of the game’s best catching duo. d’Arnaud is perfectly fine behind the plate and a solid hitter with a lot of pop. His terrible 2021 does give some pause, but he bounced back strong last year. Should catch 30-40% of the games and DH in plenty of others; the more ABs go to the catcher pair and the fewer to Ozuna, the better. Needs to stay healthy because after him it’s Chadwick Tromp and a whole lot of org catchers.  Sam Hilliard, OF Hilliard is one of the Braves’ many bad outfielders. However he has a solid glove and no options, so he’ll probably make the team. Wikipedia informs me his mother was a former Miss Texas (and also had a brief, odd movie career), and his face is definitely his best tool.  Kevin Pillar, OF The Braves apparently think there’s something in him still, which sure doesn’t seem likely. Not sure what they even think he can do anymore; hopefully just org cover for a while. Played in the WBC for Israel. Has a kid named after Kobe Bryant, which, sure, whatever dude. Other lovely outfielders in the Braves’ collection include Eli White, Jordan Luplow, and Forrest Wall, who at least has the benefit of being fast as gently caress.  Ehire Adrianza, IF They have to have someone else who can play infield, and with Grissom (probably a long-term utility guy) and Shewmake (hopefully a long-term decent enough shortstop) in the minors, it’ll have to be Adrianza again, there is no one else around. Pitchers A very young (Morton excepted) and solid rotation that will strike out a whole bunch of dudes, with some depth to call on as needed.  Max Fried, LHP One of the best pitchers in baseball period, and you could make a case for him at this point as the best lefty outright. Five good pitches capped by a lights-out curve that he acknowledges modeling on Koufax’s. Vicious pickoff move, though it remains to be seen how much longer he’ll get away with it. One of the best fielders of the position since Maddux, a capable pinch runner, and probably a better hitter than multiple players the Braves will send up to the plate this year. Very pointedly did not sign a long-term extension with Atlanta; likely to look to head back west once he hits free agency, especially if the Dodgers came calling.  Spencer Strider, RHP Just your average mustached vegan leftist rookie of the year / Cy Young candidate with quads bigger than a lot of people’s torsos. Didn’t hit the Braves rotation till late May, and then proceeded to rack up a 200 K season faster than anyone before him—obviously that’s somewhat a function of the era but still. Really only uses two pitches, a fastball that runs up to 102 and a completely unfair slider; he’s got a changeup and a four-seamer but he really hasn’t needed them to do much of anything yet, and he purposefully “forgot” how to throw a curve that only ever got him in trouble. Will see how hitters adjust this year, but the main worry would seem to be him proving that his arm has a whole season in it. The Braves are definitely banking on him making hitters look silly for years to come; Including options, he’s signed through 2029.  Kyle Wright, RHP Safe to say that Kyle exceeded expectations last season. While he’d shown flashes of the pitcher he’d been at Vanderbilt, he looked more and more like a bust till last year, when suddenly something clicked and both his control and command looked unbelievably better. First 20-game winner for Atlanta since Russ Ortiz in 2003. A shoulder injury kept him out for a lot of the spring, he’ll take his first turn or two in the rotation recovering and stretching out instead. Feels like he’s been around forever but won’t even hit arbitration till next year, so if he keeps it up maybe he’ll get a shiny contract extension this year.  Charlie Morton, RHP Morton has been at least three different pitchers during his career and is probably on his way to being a fourth, at least if he’s going to survive into his 40s; he definitely needs to find something for the days when the curve isn’t biting quite as hard. Looked absolutely cooked at times last year and then would come back with a totally dominant start or two, still racked up over 200 Ks. Has never pitched 200 innings in any single season, hard to imagine him starting now but at least the Braves have a little depth for starters if Morton, Wright, or god forbid one of the top two blows up.  Jared Shuster, LHP Maybe the biggest surprise of the spring, Shuster looked poised, in control, and ready for a crack at the rotation. The Braves seem ready to drop him straight in, possible he starts as debuts as early as game 3. His velocity has actually dropped since college but he makes up for it with a magnificent changeup and excellent command. A future innings eater, if nothing else. Gotta be the oldest looking rookie out there this year.  Dylan Dodd, LHP The other surprise of spring, and another command lefty to boot, Dodd didn’t have anything like the pedigree of Shuster but still managed to stick in the rotation battle well after Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder were both sent back for more work at Gwinnett. (They’ll be back at some point, and Michael Soroka might finally be back too if he can manage to go more than a week or two or even just walk through the clubhouse without getting re-injured. You gotta root for the guy.) Set to get added to the roster and start the fifth game of the year, then go down once Wright is back. He and Shuster average out to one normal haircut. Bullpen Another deep bunch, shouldn’t poo poo the bed too often. Raisel Iglesias, RHP The reason the Braves could let Kenley walk. Had an utterly ludicrous couple months with the Braves after getting swapped over from the Angels. Will start the season on the IR. Signed through 2025 so hopefully doesn’t blow up in standard closer fashion. A.J. Minter, LHP Minter will be the closer till Iglesias comes back, but it’s not a role he’s excelled in—everything else in the pen though he does just fine; at this point he should just settle into being an elite setup guy. Lucas Luetge, Dylan Lee, LHPs The other lefty setup guys in the pen. Would be nice if Luetge was anything near what he’s been for the Yankees the past couple seasons. Joe Jiménez, Collin McHugh, Kirby Yates, Nick Anderson, Michael Tonkin, and the immortal Jesse Chavez, RHPs Various bullpen guys. Jiménez was the biggest acquisition but has looked terrible since his offseason surgery, may need some time on rehab to get right. Season Outlook I dunno, obviously it’s always gonna seem like your team could’ve done more, or better, in the offseason. The Braves are tissue thin at the major league level; any injury in the lineup whatsoever would result in a massive downgrade. Nonetheless, thanks to Anthopoulos getting signatures they’re more settled than they were going into either of the past few seasons, and the rotation, bullpen, and the top of the lineup can measure up to just about anyone’s. Still might only be good enough for third in a division where the Mets (injury curse permitting) and the Phillies are also always improving, and the Marlins are still cheap as hell but nobody’s doormat. If it all goes tits up then hey, basically the entire team will be back next year, and the year after, and so on….
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Mar 26, 2023 18:43
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THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX ARE TRYING VERY HARD NOT TO BE AN INSANE SOAP OPERA AGAIN 2022 In Review The White Sox entered the season as trendy World Series contenders with an astonishing collection of super talented young players coming into their own after getting bloodied by the Astros in the playoffs. They were derailed by two problems. One was that everyone got hurt, again. The other issue was that the previous year, Jerry Reinsdorf installed his friend Tony La Russa as the manager in order to take them over the top without understanding that La Russa is an 895 year-old drunk and one of the shittiest dudes in baseball, a galaxy-brained know-it-all and unwritten rules guy who would be a horrible manager anywhere he landed but was particularly catastrophic on a team whose entire ethos is young guys who like to yell and flip bats. There has been no purely vibes-based crisis as obvious in Chicago sports since the Three Alphas experiment on the Chicago Bulls ended in a series of Rajon Rondo instagram admonitions. La Russa not only was a cantankerous pain in the rear end who poisoned the locker room, he also just seemed incredibly old and possibly deranged, vociferously denying that cameras had caught him asleep in the dugout when he was clearly nodding off and repeatedly calling for intentional walks with two strikes on the batter. https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1535011955672506384?s=20 Anyway, as the White Sox plummeted out of contention, passed by both the Twins and the Guardians, La Russa developed some heart issues and was allowed to medically retire with about six weeks left in the season. The White Sox have enough talent that it is possible that just switching to a normal manager and hoping that the entire team doesn't injure all of their tendons simultaneously for the third year in a row will rocket them back into contention in an increasingly competitive AL Central. Key Departures Tony La Russa, Manager Tony La Russa retire bitch Jose Abreu The longest-tenured White Sox and the heart and soul of the team, Abreu was not only an excellent hitter but an important leader in the clubhouse, especially for the Sox' many young, Cuban stars. The Sox had a logjam at first/DH and I'm not sure how many good years Abreu has left in his bat, but it will be weird to see him as a visitor at Comiskey, especially for a team that, as far as I can tell, is enemy #1 over at 35th and Shields. I would not be surprised to see the Sox retire his number one day, but a possible Sox/Astros playoff series would be spicy as hell. Leury Garcia This is a utility guy that was on the team for a gazillion years and was horrible last year and apparently drove Sox fans insane, and so they're happy that Jerry's eating his contract and just letting him go. The Lineup Tim Anderson, SS With Abreu gone, Anderson is now the unquestioned face of the team. Fortunately, he rules. He just looked fantastic at the WBC, even shifting to second where he has never played before. Coming off a season cut short by injury. Dedicated to trying to get the stodgy old baseball farts to loosen up. If he can stay healthy [cut and past in all Sox entries], he's one of the best hitters in baseball, and the guy who makes this team go. Luis Robert, CF When Robert came up in 2020, he looked like an absolute superstar. An all-tool guy who could potentially be an MVP candidate, he's coming off a disappointing season when he was (everyone all at once) derailed by injury, as he had been the year before. It's far too early to say it, but he's looking less like the Mike Trout comparisons he got as a prospect and more like the Cuban Byron Buxton. Yoan Moncada, 3B Hey it's another former super prospect who has been kind of disappointing because he's always hurt! Moncada, along with Robert, had a good showing at the WBC for Cuba, and they're hoping that new manager Pedro Grifol can connect with him better than a drunk old mummy because sometimes Moncada doesn't really seem to give a poo poo about baseball or maybe just could not thrive through all of the turmoil. Eloy Jimenez, DH Eloy is a huge man who hits gigantic dingers but kept getting hurt trying to play the outfield. At last the White Sox have told him he will be the DH, which will hopefully help him stay healthy. If he doesn't miss his customary two months with Boneitis, he can easily hit 40 homers and lurk at the center of the lineup as a terrifying power bat. Andrew Benintendi, LF Hey, it's the most expensive free agent signing in White Sox history! Benintendi is fine, a fast little dude who can field his position and can hit ok and is generally a professional left fielder, which is an immediate upgrade over the lumbering Jimenez experiment and the desiccated corpse of AJ Pollock, which is really all the Sox need out there. Andrew Vaughn, 1B Vaughn was drafted as a hitting prodigy with a lot of skepticism over whether he could even stick at first base in the majors. The White Sox then called him up, sent him into the outfield where he had never played before and he was largely ok-ish. He made up for it with his bat. Now, he's back at first with Abreu gone, and he is free absolutely mash. Yasmani Grandal, C Yasmani was an absolute disaster at the plate last year and also he was hurt a bunch. They'll need any sort of rebound from him, but he might just be cooked. Oscar Colas, RF The big question for the Sox this offseason on the baseball field would be whether they would call up their top outfield prospect Oscar Colas. Well guess what: they did. He's another potential power bat and a person who can actually catch a ball in the outfield, so that should help them immensely. Elvis Andrus, 2B ELVIS LIVES! Andrus, signed off the scrap heap late last season after serious injuries to both Tim Anderson and his backup Danny Mendick (lol), was a pleasant surprise. He's never played second before, but the Sox liked him enough to bring him back this year to try to shore up second base, which has been an embarrassing void since Nick Madrigal got hurt and then traded. Bench Guys Expect to see a lot of Gavin Sheets, a power-hitting lefty. I once saw Sebby Zavala, a light-hitting catcher, blast a bunch of dingers in a game, which was cool. Also there's a guy named Jake Burger. Rotation Dylan Cease, RHP Cease made two changes last year: he started throwing his slider all of the time and grew a ridiculous mustache. I'll let you decide which one powered him to an incredible Cy Young runner-up season. Cease should be one of the best pitchers in the American League this year. Lance Lynn, RHP Lynn is a gigantic beard man who is coming off an injury-plagued 2022. Looked good for the USA in the WBC. Lucas Giolito RHP One of the most enigmatic pitchers in baseball. Came over as touted prospect from the Nationals, his first season was an unmitigated disaster, suddenly became unhittable the next couple years, and then seemed to completely lose it last season. Giolito, when he's right, has a devastating changeup, and it's possible that a loss in velocity has made that pitch less threatening. Hopefully, Giolito figures it out this year, he seems like a good dude. Michael Kopech Came over as a flame throwing monster throwing 102, thrived in the bullpen. Then he kept getting injured and sat out 2020, and now, though he's no longer throwing quite as fast, he seemed to grow as a pitcher last year. He has ridiculous stuff and it's not hard to see him being a 1b to Cease's 1a ace or spend a large part of the season with icebags on his shoulders. Mike Clevinger MLB is not even suspending this loving guy! gently caress off! Bullpen The Sox are missing their top reliever, closer Liam Hendriks who is undergoing treatment for cancer. Hendriks is a boisterous Australian metal guy and a really good dude and everyone in baseball is rooting for him. The Sox will rely on Kendall Graveman, whose name sounds like a monster truck, lefty setup guy Aaron Bummer (lol), noted Face Guy and First-Time Author Joe Kelly, and converted starter Reynaldo Lopez. This is a pretty solid group. Season Outlook The White Sox are basically an experiment that asks how much better a team can be just by replacing a sour, old dipshit with a normal manager. Just look at this team on paper. It's impossible to imagine that they could be as lovely as they were last year. But this year will be a test to see if they are a collection of potential stars ready to break out or if they are just inconsistent pros who constantly take turns getting injured. Last year's disaster as well as Reinsdorf's very modest spending has taken all of the pressure off this team, which I think will help them. But the Guardians and Twins are not standing idly by waiting for the Sox to start getting good again, and the division will be a stiffer test for them than in previous years when it was absolute dogshit. They are, even without the constant drama from the La Russa teams, one of the most interesting teams in baseball and I have no idea what they will do. R.D. Mangles fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Mar 29, 2023 |
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Mar 29, 2023 03:58
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Bismack Billabongo posted:
Flaherty is totally cooked and a big gently caress you to Bill DeWitt III for crying poor after saying this is the year spending was going to increase. get a front end rotation guy you dickhead!! they're going to slaughter the central though
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Mar 29, 2023 04:59
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Grem posted:I would do the Rockies but I kinda like showing up to games two weeks in the season and being like "huh...I've never heard of ANY of these guys" every year. Rockies fans should generally put as much positive effort into the club as the Monforts do which is to say little to none.
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Mar 30, 2023 20:25
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