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David Hernandez? Really? Liam Hendriks? Trevor May?
Ew. Ew. EEWW.
Give me Andrew Miller/Aroldis Chapman/Michael Neris level thermonuclear explosives or give me death.
Trade Rumors - In the Bullpen
In a jarring turn of events, Dr. D votes "Stars & Scrubs"
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You're trying to ignore it, but it's coming. On July 29, 30, 31, you're not going to be able to feign indifference on it any longer. MLB Trade Rumors captures the general sentiment about the Mariners' July:
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- The Mariners could look to upgrade at closer in the coming weeks. Steve Cishek has been a nice pickup for the team (though he did blow a save tonight), but Joel Peralta didn’t pan out in Seattle and Joaquin Benoit has struggled. Heyman notes that GM Jerry Dipoto is a big fan of Angels setup man Joe Smith, which isn’t a big surprise considering Dipoto signed him to a three-year deal when he was the Halos’ GM. Smith, though, doesn’t really fit the description of the closer upgrade Heyman initially mentioned. That’s not meant to downplay Smith’s ability to help the Mariners, but I’d imagine a more powerful arm would be the type of target the club would pursue if looking to upgrade over Cishek.
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Browns hooked us up to this article, which is especially amusing for the fanreply which follows. (For the 1000th time, all MLB orgs have ten times as much trade capital as needed to obtain any player alive, up to and including Albert Pujols his ownself. But that's not our pernt.)
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Jason Churchill did a comprehensive piece on possible trade targets in the bullpen. Interestingly, he's not hostile to Aroldis Chapman on a political level, which we presume echo'es the feeling from baseball people in Seattle. Chapman has been "laundered" through New York; 80% of the HOW COULD ANY TEAM EVEN THINK ABOUT IT outrage has been dissipated. Chapman isn't going to be blacklisted out of baseball.
Admittedly, it would be intriguing to see if my man Geoffy could sustain a one-man crusade to blacklist him in Seattle. ;- ) If any July rumors ever wisped up, Geoffy's Twitter account would be worth the price of admission.
Churchill's fave targets are: David Hernandez, Liam Hendricks, and Trevor May.
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And here's that Dec. 2015 Konspiracy Korner on Chapman's non-arrest, complete with Mojician's legal research and all the trimmings. Don't miss Mo' Dawg's comment #2.
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DR'S DIAGNOSIS
(1) You play two months to see what you need, and two months to get what you need, and two months playing with what you got. We saw it on a street sign in an Oakland riot.
If DiPoto is going to bring in somebody to pitch in front of Cishek, it's got to be a major trade. D.J. Peterson and Tyler O'Neill are kewl and all, but they didn't blow the 10 leads in June.
"The going price" for a superstar closer is enough to --- > give one pause. "The going price" for blowing 10 leads IN JUNE ALONE is also enough to --- > give one pause.
(2) Steve Cishek is throwing the vicious-est slider we've seen since Jeff Nelson. He would make one whale of a ROOGY. You should see the SLG off him from righties.
(3) It's always a comfortable fallback to say nah, we can play for a couple of years on. Coupla years on, though, Nelson Cruz might not be hitting 40 per season.
Comments
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so, I guess that makes +2 today ...
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I can't figure a real headliner that makes sense to move. I assume you mean the Phillies' Hector Neris and if he's comparable to Chapman in cost I like that suggestion (years remaining). Everything I see that we have to top a package is either Zunino, in the rotation, in the bullpen or an OF that we should be using now if they were ready. O'Neill looks like a hopeful replacement in a corner for the departing platoon and I don't think the others carry the value needed. I want to keep O'Neil and Zunino, while it doesn't make sense to move anyone from the 25 man that has enough value.
Maybe the Phillies would be happy with a package around Drew Jackson and a deal for Neris could include Peter Bourjous if they want to bring up Nick Williams.
I don't think the Yankees are looking for a package of players that are all over a year away but I think that's all the Ms should be offering. I'm happy to think of what Dipoto could acquire but what can he logically give up to get it?
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OK, DiPoto LOVES the spaghetti against the wall theory about picking up relievers. In that respect I don't see him paying big for a reliever. He's more likely to get two cheap guys and see which one gets hot. And the 2013-2014 Joe Smith hasn't lived since, well 2014. He's been pretty pedestrian the past two seasons. Is he a better get (being more expensive) than your run-of-the-mill spaghetti? A Chapman would be lot different!
But some of this may depend on MiMo's start tomorrow: If he lights it up and is throwing 94 in the 7th, then we may have to go get an RP.
I would be tickled to watch a Kuma-to-the-pen experiment but you have to get Kuma buy-in AND then we have to pick up a starter.
But I bet that any move we make doesn't give away much of the farm...and isn't "big," unless we're getting a starter...or Chapman. But starters are gong to be wildly expensive and Chapman comes with some downside.
And you will likely think I'm nuts....but if I'm going big I would go really big and sniff around the Angels, politely inquiring just how much I would have to give up for Trout. For that, I would gladly give up Tank and Deej and Martin and all the pretty young things. To make it work on the balance sheet you would have to commit to a true Stars and Scrubs attitude in '17 and '18...no Smith or Lind type signings, for example. (although I would get ni early on a1-yr extension of Lee). You would have to play with the Kivlehans/Romeros/Pizzanos/Robertsons etc in the complementary roles. After '18 Cruz is off the books and then he pays for much of Trout's $34M for '19 and '20.
Smith and Lind are costing us $15M this year...They basically pay for Trout this year and nearly next year. If you traded Lind out for something right now....you could do this financially, knowing that you're going to have $34M for Trout in '19 and '20.
Ask yourself, was Willie Mays worth $34M?
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Here's hoping he shows the same flexibility that he did on OF defense in Safeco!
Our farm system for Mike Trout would kill about 84 birds with one stone ... position scarcity, OF defense, marketability, division balance, and Jerry DiPoto reunion factors... officer thinking bro ...
*Last* offseason there was a fair amount of smoke around the issue of a Mike Trout deal. You might think the Angels would be willing to consider Leonys Martin as one of the 17 pieces, too, as you said. Then we give them four or five Great White Whales of cost-controlled starting players and bang. Our roto deal takes shape.
We can dream :- )
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Moreno's starting position on Trout is: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHHHHAHHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHHHHAAAAA *gasping for air* *click*"
For Trout, we would have to give them Paxton AND Walker AND O'Neill AND Martin I think.
Because ask yourself if Trout is worth 34 M/Year (he unquestioningly is)
I want to trade for an innings-eating starter and move Iwakuma to the pen or trade for an ace reliever. I like the first route better because the innings-eating starter is probably an upgrade in playoff payoff over Iwakuma even if it's Ervin Santana and because I think Iwakuma is the next Uehara gem. But trading for the reliever might be slightly cheaper...so...YMMV
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I could do the starter deal, Matt, sure could.
But not for a Santana, who is pretty pedestrian really. Oh, he's decently expensive for the next two seasons, as well. You can do better in FA.
And I agree that Trout is likely too expensive. No question about it. But I'm certainly sniffing it out.
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Just at a glance, it seems that we do have Wade Mileys and to spare. Deals for SP's who wouldn't come in and pitch #2 are a little hard for me to follow.
Rich Hill is exciting, Jake Odorizzo is interesting, Drew Smyly gives us a variation on James Paxton perhaps... course this is all fantalk at this point...
I could do with a bit of July speculation, though. And what fun is it to speculate about dealing for a Nuno-level starter...
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I'd want Miller over Chapman and am less hesitant to give up prospects for longer control. In a vacuum, Chapman makes perfect sense but being a pitcher all it takes is a tweak. Varitek/Lowe type package for a pitcher that gets inured then becomes a FA might surpass all other "worst trade in team history"candidates. I'm not saying it's likely, just that it should be a consideration. A consideration that is helping convince me that Miller is worth more than twice as much because of the years remaining. If it's too much for Miller I'd cross my fingers with Chapman.
Or go with Jason's smoking hot pipe dream of Julio Teheran.
I don't see the need in the outfield with Heredia so close. Or O'Neill. Etc.
If it takes Walker, Paxton or Diaz to start the package for any of them I just don't know if I'm on board anymore. Maybe Diaz? Anything else in the minors (over a year in the system) I could see parting with. Zunino...maybe for Teheran. I don't like it so it's probably the minimum headliner. Anybody other than those 4 that could headline that level of acquisition?
I can't complain about bringing in 2-3 middling arms for the rotation and pen at much less cost in view of that. When help is needed, some is much better than none. Zunino heading out could hurt for a long time. At least with Varitek we still had Wilson.