Finally! Official Hot Stove League Thread

[gil]

Wow, I remember when he was a trade target a few years ago.

I just looked up his stats. He was a stud in 2020. Maybe we need another pandemic!

I went into a back for a Notary for the first time in years. Every employee was wearing a mask. Even a guy alone in his office!

I asked, "Do they make you wear masks" She says, "No we all decided to do it" Beyond belief. I just read a peer reviewed scientific study that masks to little to nothing to prevent the spread of viruses.

Are you referring to Cochrane et al.? ("Physical interventions ...") I started reading it after Bret Stephens in the NYTimes wrote about it 2 days ago (His article title is "the mask mandates did noting. Will any lessons be learned?")

[D-train]

I just looked up his stats. He was a stud in 2020. Maybe we need another pandemic!

I went into a back for a Notary for the first time in years. Every employee was wearing a mask. Even a guy alone in his office!

I asked, "Do they make you wear masks" She says, "No we all decided to do it" Beyond belief. I just read a peer reviewed scientific study that masks to little to nothing to prevent the spread of viruses.

Are you referring to Cochrane et al.? ("Physical interventions ...") I started reading it after Bret Stephens in the NYTimes wrote about it 2 days ago (His article title is "the mask mandates did noting. Will any lessons be learned?")

Yes, that rings a bell. We still have a spot for you at the Spring Training Crib Gil. Will only cost you airfare. Free lodging...

[gil]

I went into a back for a Notary for the first time in years. Every employee was wearing a mask. Even a guy alone in his office!

I asked, "Do they make you wear masks" She says, "No we all decided to do it" Beyond belief. I just read a peer reviewed scientific study that masks to little to nothing to prevent the spread of viruses.

Are you referring to Cochrane et al.? ("Physical interventions ...") I started reading it after Bret Stephens in the NYTimes wrote about it 2 days ago (His article title is "the mask mandates did noting. Will any lessons be learned?")

Yes, that rings a bell. We still have a spot for you at the Spring Training Crib Gil. Will only cost you airfare. Free lodging...

I had the name wrong, sorry. It was Jefferson et al., and it was published by Cochrane reports (I think that's the name). British not-for-profit.

Thanks for the offer. I'm sure it would be a blast, but I can't this year. Really appreciate it!

[harmony]

The Seattle Mariners reportedly will sign a minor league contract with 35-year-old lefthand-hitting outfielder Kole Calhoun, a one-time Gold Glove winner:

https://twitter.com/shannondrayer/statu ... 15713?s=20

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... ko01.shtml

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/kole- ... osition=OF

The FanGraphs analysis of the Kole Calhoun signing:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-mariner ... -outfield/

[D-train]

The Seattle Mariners reportedly will sign a minor league contract with 35-year-old lefthand-hitting outfielder Kole Calhoun, a one-time Gold Glove winner:

https://twitter.com/shannondrayer/statu ... 15713?s=20

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... ko01.shtml

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/kole- ... osition=OF

The FanGraphs analysis of the Kole Calhoun signing:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-mariner ... -outfield/

Steven Souza 2.0

[Sexymarinersfan]

The Seattle Mariners reportedly will sign a minor league contract with 35-year-old lefthand-hitting outfielder Kole Calhoun, a one-time Gold Glove winner:

https://twitter.com/shannondrayer/statu ... 15713?s=20

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... ko01.shtml

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/kole- ... osition=OF

The FanGraphs analysis of the Kole Calhoun signing:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-mariner ... -outfield/

Steven Souza 2.0

As I was reading that I was hoping to add that it would be awesome to see a Matt Carpenter revitalization, but they ended with exactly what I was thinking. Calhoun's a great clubhouse guy from what I hear, but at this point I'd almost rather have Joey Belle in the damned clubhouse throwing up 50 Bombs with 50 doubles and a horrific attitude than a guy with 1 and a half feet out the door to retirement.

[bpj]

Sometimes I forget why they stopped letting him spend money, then remember how he's allocated money previously...

2016:
Aoki $5.5M
Lind $8M
Miley $6M
Seth Smith $6.75M
Iannetta $4.25M
Cishek $4M
Benoit $8M
TOTAL: $42.5M
As % of Payroll: 29.86%
Total WAR: 3.0
$/WAR: $14.17M

2017:
Gallardo $9M
Smyly $6.85M
Cishek $6M
Valencia $5.5M
Rzepczynski $5.5M
Ruiz $4.5M
TOTAL: $37.35M
As % of Payroll: 24.2%
Total WAR: -0.3
$/WAR: error

2018:
Gordon $10.8M
Nicasio $7.75M
David Phelps $5.5M
Rzepczynski $5.5M
TOTAL: $29.6M
As % of Payroll: 18.75%
Total WAR: 0.5
$/WAR: $59.2M

2019:
Gordon $13.3M
Kikuchi $9.5M
TOTAL: $22.8M
As % of Payroll: 15.56%
Total WAR: 0.7
$/WAR: $32.57M

2020:
Kikuchi $16M
Gordon $13.74M
Mallex Smith $2.35M
TOTAL: $32M
Short season

2021:
Kikuchi $16.5M
Paxton $8.5M
Montero $2.25M
TOTAL: $27.25M
As % of Payroll: 37.12%
Total WAR: 1.4
$/WAR: $19.46M

2022:
Frazier $8M
Winker $6.75M
Giles $5.25M
Romo $2M
White $1.4M
TOTAL: $23.4M
As % of Payroll: 22.52%
Total WAR: 0.9
$/WAR: $26M

From this group of players, over 6 years (covid pass for 2020), these players accumulated 6.2 WAR for a cost of $182.9M, good for a $/WAR cost of $29.5M

In a market where they estimate one WAR is worth ~$8M on the free agent market, Dipoto paid $29.5M/WAR for these bums.

And got a promotion.

Can add Ray, Wong and Pollock to the list of wasted dollars at this point...

With Teoscar Hernandez still trying to swing his way out of a wet paper bag... And Geno Suarez seems to be hitting like he did in Cincinnati...

At least Dipoto's consistent...

[D-train]

I was just going to update this.


2023:
Wong: $8.25M -0.8 fWAR
Pollack: $7M -0.2
Teo: $14M 0.3
Ray $21M 0.0
La Stella $750k -0.2
TOTAL: $51.0M
As % of Payroll: 37%
Total WAR: -0.5
$/WAR: Negative return.

[seattlefan-daBronx]

I was just going to update this.


2023:
Wong: $8.25M -0.8 fWAR
Pollack: $7M -0.2
Teo: $14M 0.3
Ray $21M 0.0
La Stella $750k -0.2
TOTAL: $51.0M
As % of Payroll: 37%
Total WAR: -0.5
$/WAR: Negative return.

Damn! That's a bad ROI. Disasterous off-season for Jerry and co. imho.
Wong is probably the most surprising bust. We expected him to be an improvement over Frasier. His defense is aweful too.
Ray getting injured is unfortunate but I question whether he would be better than young Miller at this point?
LaStella OMG please. Can you say scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Pollack Ditto. Can't believe they paid $7M for that guy. Jeez.
I do have a hope however that Teo will find his groove second half. Toronto knew something old Jerry didn't.
We coulda had a couple of nice bats for $51M. Unreal.

[D-train]

Over 1800 posts on this thread discussing good reasonable ideas and they come up with that shit show. What a waste of time.