Jerry says he has meetings set-up

[Sexymarinersfan]

JP jumping on the recruitment train!

[Donn Beach]

he didn't blow them off with a meme

[bpj]

Bryant as your bat is about as exciting as Marcus Stroman as your ace would be.

Like, yeah, it's probably an upgrade. But it's like getting new shoes for Christmas. At least they're not jeans.. but they're no Nintendo.

[Donn Beach]

CBSsports, which I respect actually, has him ranked as the 3rd best FA available...that utility thing, makes me think of Chone Figgins...yikes!

he sure checks the boxes I think Dipoto is looking for

Kris Bryant
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS 3B
What is there to write about Bryant that hasn't been written before? He's a middle-of-the-order hitter who can play each of the corner spots (as well as some center field) and who carries himself like a face of the franchise. It's too bad that his legacy is going to be intertwined with the popularization (and, therefore, the normalization) of service-time manipulation. He deserves better.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/top- ... is-winter/

[Donn Beach]

Brooks Raley anybody?

37
headshot-image
Brooks Raley
HOUSTON ASTROS RP
In a different era, one not far removed from the present, Raley would be on his way back overseas after posting an unsightly 4.83 ERA in 79 appearances the last two seasons. In this era, though, he's likely going to sign a multi-year deal to pitch in high-leverage situations. Hidden behind the bloated ERA is the fact that he's led the majors in average exit velocity allowed in each of the last two seasons. In addition to being an elite contact manager, Raley has proven he's capable of throwing strikes and missing bats with a cutter and a sweeping slider that had the third-most horizontal break among lefties. He's not the most marquee name on the market, but he should be a nifty addition for a team unmoved by the numbers on his baseball card.

[Donn Beach]

what they have to say about Kyle, not pretty

38
headshot-image
Kyle Seager
SEATTLE MARINERS 3B
As we noted in the introduction, we didn't include players with option clauses unless we were confident about the outcome. We were always comfortable with Seager, who, for whatever reason, fell out of favor with Seattle's front office despite being one of the franchise's biggest wins and best players for the past decade. Oh well. It's easy to envision a team signing Seager with the hope he provides a league-average season. That might work out, but there are legitimate reasons to have concern about him cratering. Seager's strikeout rate ballooned last season to a career-worst 24 percent, in no small part because he suffered one of the biggest year-to-year declines on his in-zone contact rate. He set a new career-high in home runs, yet his average exit velocity was worse than in previous seasons; add in his increased dependence on pulling the ball, and it's easy to paint a mental portrait of a player who has to cheat to hit the heat. There's also the matter of how he's become almost unplayable against lefties. Maybe this proves to be too skeptical of a read on Seager as he enters his age-34 season, but he's a lot riskier than he appears from a surface-level perspective.

[SeattleSportsRUs]

CBSsports, which I respect actually, has him ranked as the 3rd best FA available...that utility thing, makes me think of Chone Figgins...yikes!

he sure checks the boxes I think Dipoto is looking for

Kris Bryant
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS 3B
What is there to write about Bryant that hasn't been written before? He's a middle-of-the-order hitter who can play each of the corner spots (as well as some center field) and who carries himself like a face of the franchise. It's too bad that his legacy is going to be intertwined with the popularization (and, therefore, the normalization) of service-time manipulation. He deserves better.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/top- ... is-winter/

The obvious difference being that Bryant has dropped an OPS over .900 three times while Figgins dropped an OPS over .800 once. If Bryant is healthy, he's a potential .850-.950 OPS bat.

The two couldn't be more different.

Also, I don't quite understand why people internalized the Figgins contract so harshly. It was 4-years $36 million. $9 million a year was pretty mediocre, even for 2010-2012.

If the M's signed Stroman I'd be over the moon. 200 innings of 3.00-3.25 ERA a year? Sign me up.

Semien, Bryant, Stroman and a trade for a starting pitcher would be one hell of an off season.

[Donn Beach]

I didn't mean in terms of their numbers, I meant in terms of value in utility, particularly at 3rd base... it's interesting, on one hand you can argue Chones contract wasn't that egregious, but on the other I'd argue it really changed the course of the franchise. How it effected the direction Z took things. What if the figgins signing had been successful, Z doesn't reject analytics, who knows

[Donn Beach]

Stroman at 9

headshot-image
Marcus Stroman
NEW YORK METS SP
Stroman showed no rust after opting out of the 2020 season. Instead, he started 33 times (matching a career-high) while posting his best quality-of-contact and whiff rate in years. Stroman seemingly made two adjustments. First, he started to pitch inside more frequently with an arsenal that drips with seam-shifted wake; second, he added a splitter, giving him another weapon to deploy versus lefties and righties alike. Stroman's split has a Gausmanian movement profile, though it doesn't have the utility to match just yet. (You figure he's a candidate to outpitch his projections if he improves in that respect.) The same old criticisms of Stroman's game still apply -- he's short; he doesn't strike out a ton; and so on -- but he's a fascinating pitcher, and one who should get paid based on his track record of being an above-average starter.

[D-train]

there its February

Ryan Divish
@RyanDivish
Dipoto said he’s still uncertain about Kyle Lewis’ status for spring training and that they won’t be able to project his role until they see him in February.

Lewis has not resumed baseball activity

So he lost HIS cell phone # as well?