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MLBTR Chat: 2/22/23
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Anthony Franco
5:58
Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well!
Let's get started
Cleveland cowboy
5:58
How do you see the Angels infield shaping up? Have a lot of bodies but with Ohtani at DH, some guys are sitting.
Anthony Franco
5:59
I think Fletcher and Urshela are probably the odd ones out of the "starting lineup" to open the season (at least against RHP with Walsh at first) but there'll be injuries that quickly sort it out
Armchair GM
5:59
Do you think it's foolish of the Astros to not bring back Yuli?  They have no veteran depth in the bench.  Yes he had a bad year last year, but he was the batting champ in 2021 and his 2022 postseason was actually pretty good, before injury. Plus he is beloved by teammates and  the City
Anthony Franco
6:01
I just don't know where the at-bats are coming from unless they think he can still play third base on occasion. Alvarez/Brantley/Abreu is going to be the DH/1B/LF trio to open the year and guys like Hensley and Dubón have more defensive flexibility
Brian Cashman
6:02
Can teams request physicals for players they trade for? Could I have known about Montas's shoulder?
Anthony Franco
6:02
They generally don't do physicals but they get the player's medical history before finalizing the trade
6:04
I'm sure the Yankees looked into the status of Montas' shoulder. They traded for him a couple weeks after he'd missed a couple starts with shoulder fatigue. There's injury risk with any player you trade for, especially pitchers
Comp pick value
6:04
Since comp picks can be traded, what are they worth?  Prospect 50-100 in mlb? Expiring contract?
Anthony Franco
6:06
Competitive balance picks (which go at the end of the first and second rounds to certain teams based on revenue status) can be traded. Not sure what you mean by expiring contract but they're a lot less valuable than a top 100 prospect
6:08
There are only a handful of players (usually like 5-10) who go right into a top 100 after being drafted. Those guys are always long off the board before the competitive balance round. They're more akin to the 10th to 15th best prospect in an average farm system
Jill
6:08
Can Cleveland extend Shane or will they trade him, if so what would the return package look like?
Anthony Franco
6:09
I'd guess we're too far down the line for Cleveland to get an extension done with Bieber. I expect he'll be traded before he gets to free agency, though certainly not before Opening Day
6:10
He'd be one of the top names on the summer trade market if Cleveland falls out of contention. If they're still in it (which they probably will be), they'd hold until next offseason. When they trade him affects what kind of return they'd get, obviously
Hammer
6:11
Are signing bonuses actually paid up front and then factor into the AAV over the contract? What's the incentive (from either side) to allocating money as a signing bonus vs normal contract money?
Anthony Franco
6:12
Varies by contract but a lot of times the signing bonus will be paid up front, yeah. Or it'll be divided into two or three lump sums over a fairly short period early into a contract as opposed to being evenly distributed as salary throughout the length of the deal
pinstripes
6:12
Given the depth of each team and the injuries of starters Frankie Montas and Nestor Cortes of the Yankees and the injuries of infielders Dylan Moore and Sam Haggerty of the Mariners, would it make sense to trade one year of 28-year-old infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa at $6 million for one year of 28-year-old starter Chris Flexen at $8 million?
Anthony Franco
6:14
I'd rather have Flexen. There's no clear path to playing time for Kiner-Falefa in Seattle barring injury to Wong, Crawford or Suarez. The money lines up pretty well but the rotation depth is probably more valuable to Seattle
Rich
6:14
If the Rays are out of the running for a playoff spot, would they think about trading Tyler Glasnow?
Anthony Franco
6:16
Seems unlikely. Both he and the team talked a lot at the time of his extension last summer about how much he loved being there. The front office has spoken recently about wanting to preserve a little more continuity with this group (manifested in some of the extensions they've signed with the arb-eligible players this spring). I don't think they'd trade Glasnow a couple months into his deal
Big Bob
6:17
A lot of hype about the Padres dethroning the Dodgers. Your estimation of who wins the NL West and why.
Anthony Franco
6:18
I'd still take the Dodgers. More confidence in the pitching depth than San Diego's, stronger farm system should position them well to add midseason via trade
Sal Romano
6:18
Under the new CBA there’s a limit on the number of times a player can be optioned to the minors during the season. Maybe 5 times? Last season it was delayed. Will the limit be in place for the full 2023 season? And if a player is optioned before Opening Day, does it count toward the total?
Anthony Franco
6:19
Yeah it's a five-time limit. It'll be place all season this year; they only held it back last year because the lockout shortened Spring Training
6:20
Options occur during the regular season, not before Opening Day. Players can be reassigned to minor league camp during Spring Training but that's a different move
B Snit’s Bongos
6:21
Should a prospect’s top 100 status (or lack thereof) be a criteria for the $50M pre-Arb bonus pool?
Anthony Franco
6:22
I don't see why it would be. It's a mechanism to reward pre-arbitration players based on their MLB performance. How they were regarded as minor leaguers is irrelevant
Rob
6:22
Is it me or did teams suddenly turn into cheapskates after overpaying on long contracts.  Don’t know why it took so long to sign Chafin, Andrus and others
Anthony Franco
6:24
We see this with a few guys every year. Free agent prices tend to go down as Spring Training gets closer. Players without jobs generally feel the squeeze to a higher degree than teams with uncertain roster spots do
6:25
The left-handed relief market really stagnated after Taylor Rogers signed in December. Seemed like the league has viewed Chafin, Moore, Smith, Britton and Hand as almost interchangeable and just waited that demographic out
6:27
Andrus is generally a low-end regular coming off an outlier offensive season. There were apparently not many teams that viewed him as a notable upgrade over the assorted middle infield/utility options they have in house
Nate
6:27
What's your opinion on the Dbacks' offseason?
Anthony Franco
6:28
They mostly hit on everything they wanted to: trade an outfielder for a top catching talent, add a RHH infield, few bullpen pickups. I liked it
6:29
Maybe they could've done a bit better than bringing back Davies at the back of the rotation, but the market there took off and they've got enough younger pitching talent that Davies probably doesn't hold a rotation spot all year
Skipjack
6:29
How much does hard hit rate really matter? If a batter hits a dunker over the IF, doesn't that hit count as much as a ball hit 110 mph? A hit is a hit no matter how much velocity. And does it matter if a pitcher doesn't have a high strikeout rate but throws a lot of ground balls for outs? Someone like Zack Greinke? An out is an out no matter how it comes.
Anthony Franco
6:30
Depends on how you're framing it. If you're looking backward from the result, then it doesn't matter. A single counts the same whether it's an 86 MPH grounder or a 112 MPH line drive
6:31
If you're trying to project what a player will do moving forward, then it matters a lot. Better process (hitting the ball hard, missing bats as a pitcher) is going to lead to more consistent results over a longer period of time
Paul
6:32
How ludicrous is this take? Zach Thompson represents the biggest upgrade on the depth charts of any Blue Jays offseason addition.
Anthony Franco
6:34
I assume the thinking is that Varsho vs. Teoscar and Bassitt vs. Stripling aren't huge differences? I'd probably still take Bassitt as the "biggest upgrade" if you're just using direct comparisons between the player who came in and who filled that role last season
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