Wade made a smart decision betting on himself at 32 years old by joining this roster. We all know Strom most likely will give him a little boost. The defense is solid and he should get some more postseason run if he is healthy and effective. If he reverts back to pitching like 2017 he'll be gone. Hopefully he turned a corner... at least for a year.
Diaz > Marwin Brantley > Gattis Chirinos > McCann Miley < Keuchel McHugh/Whitley = Morton James = McCullers Pressly/Osuna > Smith/Sipp This team is better than last year. Possibly by quite a bit. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see them sign a decent reliever.
Diaz = Marwin Brantley > Marwin/Kemp Chirinos = McCann/Maldonado Miley > Sipp, but < than Keuchel McHugh=McHugh, but less than Morton We hope James > McCullers Pressly > Devenski Osuna > Giles White=White I think LF and the bullpen are significantly better than what we had entering 2018; the bench has improved as well; the DH may be in for regression; the starting rotation is still a significant downgrade. Overall, we stay extremely competitive. We need a player or two to put us over the top.
I mean I hope y’all are right on the James is greater than McCullers deal But damn, he is gonna need to prove it a little bit more for me to make that assumption
I like where we are. We still have all our prospects to make moves at the deadline. In the meantime we are still the favorites in our division and can let some of the young guys get a chance to play.
Yup. Hate seeing the writing on the wall for DK and Marwin, but such is life. It’s the shrewd move we all knew was coming. The fact that our farm is stacked and our payroll is still flexible is the icing on the cake. JL has built an absolute beast of an organization. We’re showing no signs of slowing down outside of expected losses than were bound to happen. I’m really looking forward to Miley working with Strom. Honestly I’m a bit biased, but when it’s all said and done, Miley and Brantley could be two of the best pickups of the offseason all things considered.
McCullers is like an old exotic car. His stuff looks amazing, but he's always in the shop. In 3 full seasons he's never started more than 22 games or thrown more than 130 innings, and you can make that 4 seasons since he isn't pitching this year. Obviously, the guy means a lot to the city since he contributed so much to the World Series run and pitched last season when he needed Tommy John surgery. I expect Josh James to pitch more than 130 innings this season with a sub 4 ERA. So I think he can fill most of McCullers' shoes this year.
Great value signing but to me he's just a guy to get innings which is fine. If he continues off of last year it'll be an excellent pick up.
Sign me up for 130 innings of a sub 4 for sure. I just don't think he is anywhere close to a sure thing to do that. It's obvious he is capable, and i sure hope he does... I'm hoping we sign Keuchel as our #3, then let James and Miley and the other young guys go to spring training to win a job in the rotation. If two of them do and we can keep McHugh and Peacock in the pen, i'm loving this team. If they don't and we have to use McHugh in the rotation, and possibly Peacock there some too....we at least would have as good of a 1-3 as any team in baseball, and a solid 4/5 and pen....if we are COUNTING on James to be McCullers and our #3 and he doesn't, the domino's all fall back one spot
Depends on the price of Keuchel and how much Crane is willing to spend at the deadline. I'm not worried about how our rotation stacks up against the Yankees, Sox, and Dodgers on paper before the season starts. I want it to match up favorably after the deadline and down the stretch. Maybe our young guys step up, or maybe we trade for a Bumgarner or Greinke at the deadline. Either way, I want to have flexibility incase someone gets hurt.
Comparison to other 1-2 year starting pitcher deals: Matt Harvey 1 yr, 11 mill Garrett Richards 2 yr, 15 mill Tyson Ross 1 yr, 5.75 mill CC Sabathia 1 yr, 7.5 mill Charlie Morton 2 yr, 30 mill JA Happ, 2 yr, 34 mill Mike Fiers 2 yr, 14 mill Derek Holland, 1 yr, 7 mill Trevor Cahill 1 yr, 9 mill
If there is one thing I’m not overly concerned about it’s Luhnow putting himself in a position to have no flexibility. We really don’t know how much more they are willing to spend, but without a doubt Luhnow will keep all of that under consideration before any more moves are made He certainly has an idea of how easy it would be to move Reddicks salary if needed. And you also have to realize that when you are talking about deadline moves, you are only taking on a third of their salary, so adding a guy with a 21 million salary this year at that point is only adding 7 million And I guess where I’m at is here, I’d much rather have what I feel is a legit #3 starter in Keuchel all year and hope for 1 of the guys like James, Perez, Whitley to turn into a stud, than hope for multiple of those guys to turn into really good solid pitchers THIS YEAR I want to win it all THIS YEAR
Very good! This is what I have been waiting for. Left handed starter who had a great year last year. He credits his resurgence to him learning a new pitch over the past offseason, his cutter. That sounds like what I wanted to hear (and not just him having good luck/a good defense behind him). And he was really good at keeping the ball inside the park. Now watch him come in like a wrecking ball and wreck opposing batters!
Have you considered the possibility that verlander or Cole might spend time on the DL? It is exceedingly rare for SP to go through a full season healthy. They are clearly horses, but great teams have depth to weather those injuries, or to give the star pitchers breaks and not have them pressured to perform everytime because the rest of the staff is slumping or unproven. Keuchel on a reasonable 2 year deal is a no brainer
