Rant Rave Friday
OK, you want to be all in? Let s go dream: The Mets trade Yoenis Cespedes, Noah Syndegard and Edwin Diaz to the Dodgers for Keibert Ruiz, Tony Gonsolin, Ross Stripling and Joc Pederson. Maybe there is one more piece It s a salary dump for the Mets and the Dodgers save some prospects, including May in the deal. I really like Tony Gonsolin, but Dustin May is a player I would
- OK, you want to be “all in?” Let’s go dream: The Mets trade Yoenis Cespedes, Noah Syndegard and Edwin Diaz to the Dodgers for Keibert Ruiz, Tony Gonsolin, Ross Stripling and Joc Pederson. Maybe there is one more piece… It’s a salary dump for the Mets and the Dodgers save some prospects, including May in the deal. I really like Tony Gonsolin, but Dustin May is a player I would not trade. Cespedes is owed $30 million next year and may or may not play again. Think about that rotation. Maeda immediately goes to the pen.
- Hey, didn’t you used to be Ender Inciarte? If anyone still wants him, he’s there for the taking at the trade deadline. A bucket of balls should get the job done. He has lost his starting position and is suffering from Austin Barnes Disease, hitting .205 with a .293 OB%. Yikes!
- It’s looking more-and-more like the Giants could actually be “buyers” at the deadline. What a run they have been on… They are playing way over their heads, and Bruce Bochy has them wired! It’s not sustainable… is it? However, he may be Manager of the Year.
- Yasmani Grandal is hitting .259 with a .373 OB%. He has 19 HR and 64 RBI, and leads all MLB catchers in WAR at 3.5 (Realmuto is 2nd at 2.8). However, I am not looking back. Good for him. Let’s see what happens down the stretch.
- I think the Dodgers handled the Austin Barnes demotion perfectly. Since he is a vet and Kershaw and Buehler’s personal catcher, they had to give him a lot of rope. He hung himself. I hope he can right his ship, but I could also see him being traded…
- Tyler White could be Muncy-esque. I think Robert Van Socyoc sees something there. He had a very good year in 2018 and tailed off this year.
- Kike and Mr. Freese could both be headed to the DL. The Dodgers are close-lipped on both. Loose-lips sink ships. CT3 isn’t due back until late August.
- The Dodgers are a solid #1 in team ERA in all of MLB.
- The bullpen is now 9th in team ERA, but is #2 in WHIP (yeah, I know there’s that “inherited runner” thing), but if Maeda goes to the pen, the whole dynamic changes.
- Pedro Moura said a mouthful in TheAthletic.com: “But it will be difficult over the next six days for the Dodgers to acquire a reliever with more potential than Kelly, and impossible for them to find a reliever with a better track record than closer Kenley Jansen. Arguably, the form those two find down the stretch will be more important than any additions. “
- Pedro goes on to say this: “The current team is not deeply flawed. It’s not even a team with much room to add to the roster.” True!
- There are a number of scouts who believe Dustin May’s stuff will play right now in the majors.
- Gavin Lux is coming!
Minor League Highlights
- Gavin Lux was 2-4 with a BB ((.483 BA/1.502 OPS)
- Kaybear was 2-4 (.357 BA/.928 OPS) Gives you pause about what Smith has done at AAA
- Tony Gonsolin was lit up.
- Edwin Uceta pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits
- Christian Santana was 2-4 as was Avans. Estevez was 2-3 with a BB.
- Brayan Morales of RC was 3-4 with a BB
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Discussion (124)
Disagree, not disagreeable
More on the Giants…
Do you remember early on when the Mariners and Mets were both in first place? It’s hard to imagine that people were talking about these teams as playoff contenders early on. And now the’re both bringing up the rear and the talk of the town is the Giants…
This was the year the Giants were going to start their rebuild. Posey is now a shell of his former self, same can be said about Crawford and Belt. Pence is gone, the Panda is back. Do they have some post-season magic left? Hell no!
This is Bochey’s last year, do they owe it to him to try to compete for another Wild Card run? They brought in Farhan to make some moves to setup their future, do they abandon the master plan and go for gold?
I hate the freaking Giants. But, I don’t give a damn if they decide to compete, or rebuild for the future. It brings me no joy having them in last place for several years longer. I don’t care if they begin their rebuild sooner. Whatever they decide, they are NOT going to win a Wild Card this year. The Nats, Phillies, Cardinals, Brewers are all better teams. It would be criminally stupid of them to try to buy at the deadline and make a run. Even stupider would be to stand pat when all the other teams ahead of them are trying to get better. I don’t think Farhan is great, but I don’t think he’s stupid either. The smart move would be to get as much as you can for your expiring assets and pretending like your in to drive the price up is a smart move. Let’s see what happens.
Now is the time to be patient. Not a single big name as been traded so far with 6 days remaining. If no one makes any trades, it works to our advantage as all of the other contenders have bigger holes to fill.
You’re lips to Brodie’s ears! Yes to Thor, that would be grand! Then go back to the well one more time and get Garrett from the Reds. Don’t forget about Abreu from the Chi-Sox.
Is Tyler White going to be the next Travis d’Arnaud? Is this one of those moves to take up a roster spot until it’s needed by someone better? Or, are the Dodgers going to fix him and make him Max Muncy? Literally, they look like twins!
Verlander was traded after the July 31 deadline, he had to pass through waivers first and had to pitch better to drive up the price. At the “non-waiver” deadline, Darvish was the better pitcher and the Dodgers got him. They should have known better as Darvish gave up around 10 runs in his last start before being traded.
As much as I like the Thor trade proposal, I would hate to see Julio get jerked around yet again with his development. I think the Dodgers are going to stick with the plan and get him into the rotation soon or later and no matter what. They need him in the rotation next year and need to stick to the plan and build up his innings this year.
Yesterday, I stated that the Dodgers needed to…
Get two arms for the pen – one left and one with experience getting saves
Get a right handed bat – Abreu, Castellanos, Merrifield.
Bring up Will Smith
One down, three to go.
Castellanos is interesting here. I’ve been looking up articles and found a lot of frustration from him towards the Tigers. He was a SS coming up, moved to third and then to the outfield. They also tried to move him to 1B and he said no. After being an infielder for almost all his life, I would imagine a switch to 1B would be much easier than Joc’s attempted switch. He’s also been mouthing off about center field at Comerica calling it a joke.
Lux is all the sudden on everyone’s radar. You know that every club that has a closer for sale is asking for him. After reading that article, it explains why he had that one bad year in the minors. Since then, he revamped his swing and put on 20 lbs of muscle. He also fixed his throwing issues from SS. This dude is the real deal and a keeper. He may be a more athletic Corey Seager, let that sink in for a while. Imagine that defense up the middle. He’s never going to have Corey’s arm, but having two shortstops up the middle is something that makes me very excited.
6 more days…
Current thinking of some baseball exec’s (from the NY Post);
So when it comes to Diaz, one interested executive said, “They are open, but I think they are trying to exceed what they paid.” With Diaz struggling that will be a difficult — perhaps impossible — request to meet. As for Syndergaard, an AL official said, “It’s tough to trade [Syndergaard] and make the kind of multiple acquisitions that will leave [the Mets] feeling they have moved the needle forward to a better, contending team next year. That is hard. That is why I am skeptical he will actually move.”
The Mets GM will also need to convince the Wilpon’s to buy off on any deal.
Losing Freese and Kike would be a big loss. But if they can come back by Sept that would be plenty of time to get there timing back for playoffs