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MLBTR Chat: 4/26/23
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Anthony Franco
5:59
Hey everyone, hope you're enjoying your evening!
6:00
Looking forward to another chat, let's get started
The Guy Next Door
6:00
What should we expect from the Yankees at the trade deadline...not looking good so far...
Anthony Franco
6:02
A lot of that just depends on health, which is unknowable right now. Outfield looks like an issue -- left field especially -- but a healthy Bader could solidify one of those spots by pushing Judge back out of center. Similar story with the rotation. It's not great right now but a potentially healthy Rodón and Severino would go a long way towards fixing it
6:03
Hasn't been a fantastic start but they're keeping their head above water with a bunch of key players on the shelf right now. Still think they're making the playoffs
Too Quick?
6:03
Do you think the likes of Tork and Kelenic were promoted too quickly, hampering their development? Is this going to be a recurring problem for rebuilding teams that have hyped their prospects too much to keep fans engaged? Seems like few of the Cubs/Astros/Braves guys struggled and they weren’t as popular at the time of promotion (Bryant aside of course).
Anthony Franco
6:05
Kelenic's been awesome this year so I wouldn't put him in this category. But to the larger question, I'm not sure. It can be easy to use that as an explanation in retrospect after a player struggles but there was nothing in Tork's minor league production that gave me pause about him handling a jump to the majors in 2022
6:07
It's possible he needed more minor league time, and I'm sure in some instances this has been the case for prospects, but it's not easy to separate those guys from the Adley Rutschman types who immediately are one of the best players in the league until it actually happens
Crash Davis
6:07
Isn't it obvious the RSN setup has failed miserably?  Why does MLB persist?  A deal like other sports where fans can see all the games via a national package without blackouts and ALL TV revenue is shared equslly would go a long way toward fixing the revenue disparities in the sport, wouldn't you agree?
Anthony Franco
6:08
The big-market clubs wouldn't have any interest in equally sharing TV revenues. Does seem like MLB would be amenable to the national package without blackouts available on its own streaming service, but they can't back out of the contracts where the RSN is holding up its end of the bargain
Baseballs
6:08
You think this will be one of the busiest deadlines considering the amount of teams becoming competitive?
Anthony Franco
6:09
I think it cuts the other way. Not too many clear-cut sellers, could be a limited supply of good players who are available this summer
6:10
The offseason trade market was rough for that reason
Skipjack
6:10
Is there any hope for the White Sox or should I start watching the Cornhole championship?
Anthony Franco
6:11
Wouldn't jump to cornhole yet but we're getting closer to that point. Feels a little similar to what happened with the Red Sox last year
6:12
Borderline playoff contender gets off to terrible start and digs themselves a hole. Even if they start clicking in May or June, they could be in a tough spot around the deadline in terms of deciding which way to go. Boston tried to buy and sell and it didn't work
6:13
White Sox have the advantage of playing in a softer division and there's still enough high-end talent on the roster I wouldn't consider all hope lost. But they're running out of rope to start winning some games
Irate Nate
6:13
The next extension the Reds complete will be with ???
Anthony Franco
6:14
I'd guess Ashcraft. He and Lodolo feel like the natural next targets after getting Greene done, Ashcraft could be more amenable since he doesn't have the multi-million dollar signing bonus in the bank
The Oreos
6:15
Not familiar with the O's ownership...  would they be aggressive in upgrade their starting pitching if they are playoff bound?
Anthony Franco
6:16
No one has a great read on current Baltimore ownership. Peter Angelos passed the team down to his son John a couple years back when the franchise was at the nadir of a rebuild. They haven't spent but at least until last offseason, they never really had a reason to do so
6:17
From a deadline perspective though, I don't know that it matters all that much. Even if they're planning to keep the payroll towards the bottom third of the league, they can start leveraging some of the farm talent for arbitration-eligible rotation help in trade. I expect they'll do that if they're in the playoff hunt
Oz
6:18
Since 1901, 16 players have struck out 200 or more times in a season.  But at their current pace, we will see 10 or more exceed that number this year.  What’s up with all the strikeouts?
Anthony Franco
6:20
Strikeouts go up almost every year. This has been the case throughout MLB history and really escalated the past decade and a half or so. Hitter approach is part of it -- guys don't care as much about making weak contact just for the sake of putting the ball in play as they used to -- but the biggest explanation for me is just that pitching has improved at a rapid rate in recent seasons
6:21
Quicker hooks of starters for short-burst relievers, velocity training, increased reliance on breaking stuff at the expense of "establishing the fastball" all result in more swing-and-miss
Eye patch
6:21
are you a fan of the advertisement patches on the jerseys?
Anthony Franco
6:22
Basically don't notice them. The virtual ads on the pitching mound kind of annoy me sometimes but that's about it
Colorado Pebbles
6:22
Explain sending down Montero? I get it he’s young with options but doesn’t that make the trade look even worse? Basically saying with a throw away season he’s not worth a 26 man roster spot? Why not just let him play?
Anthony Franco
6:22
There's no way to make the Arenado trade look good from Colorado's perspective. They just have to wear that
6:24
Sending down Elehuris Montero is primarily about giving him a lower-pressure environment to work on his infield defense after a bunch of early-season misuses. That seems reasonable to me
Winston-Salem
6:24
Who do you think will have a higher WAR this year between Goldschmidt and Arenado?
Anthony Franco
6:24
Arenado
Nico Hoerner
6:24
Early choice for best “baseball player” that people don’t know?   He does absolutely everything correctly.
Anthony Franco
6:26
Not sure if it's true that people don't know Nico Hoerner but he's off to a hell of a start. Not swinging and missing at anything, excellent baserunning, predictably stellar second base defense
6:28
I was iffy on the Cubs coming into the year and while I don't want to move too far off any opinion because of 3-4 weeks, I didn't bank on Hoerner as a well above-average hitter
Don't expect him to remain this good but he's a better hitter than I would've given him credit for a month ago
Trav
6:28
With the inconsistency the Rangers have gotten from their left field options so far, how long can/will they wait to consider Evan Carter. I realize that he doesn’t have a lot of experience in even AA but he has to be better than Grossman etc.
Anthony Franco
6:30
This is a really tough one that ties back into that question earlier about how aggressively to promote top prospects. Carter has 19 games above High-A and zero Triple-A experience. He's been phenomenal in that stretch, has an elite approach, is a consensus top prospect and plays a position where the team is getting nothing at the MLB level
6:32
I'd need a little more time to see how he responds as upper level pitching adjusts to him but if he's still playing like this at the end of May, I'd probably call him up
Judas In My Mind
6:32
If you had to pick one, what happens to Soto: extended by the Padres, or the Pads let him walk after 2024 for the qualifying offer? I'm not even including "traded by the Padres" as an option since there's zero way that happens until summer 2024 at the earliest.
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