Hanley

well, we're talking next year and Hanley's a free agent after this season, so if you wanna hand Hanley the kind of contract he's looking for and deal with his sucky defense @ either SS or 3B AND have to deal with his health issues every year then you're probably in the minority. Hanley's done them a favor this year and with all the money they spent on the SS position last winter, you can see that they likely predicted he'd regress back into a .270-ish hitter with occasional power and despicable defense.

i stand by my prediction from months ago..Hanley will be a Yankee..occasionally DH, hit 20+ HRs in their little league park and play the kind of defense they're used to dealing with in NY. no harm, no foul. Kasten tried to catch lightning in a bottle with Hanley and he did..until the Cardinals plunked him, shut him down and our manager just accepted it.

 

My tuppence is: let them keep him and spend 18 billion for him, if they have to....I could give a shit less what they spend.
Then when he's right, play him and deal with his milk carton glove and scatter arm...we have to score at least a couple of runs, and another hitter , now and then, would be nice; get as much as we can when he can swing a bat. It's worth it, right Ned?
Or have Turner, Rojas, Barney and hopefully Gonzalez as the IF. Offensive paradise.
Rojas catches everything, but adds about as much as AJ does to the offense.
Then when Hanley gets injured, he goes on the DL....so what? In light of what they are paying some of the other POS, especially in the BP.
They'll get 3.5 million asses in the seats, no matter what. Don't they lead or are near the top in attendence every year? And what have they done?
This team is aging pretty quickly at the corners, catcher, and some OF spots. Lots of dead weight, and the traditional LAD reticence to bring up seemingly useful minor leaguers will continue forever, like so many other quirks in the organization. Puig was an anomaly.
There are just so many years when you are in striking distance, like this one, and you can't fritter them away.
Give him what he wants. Buy the guy an island ...whatever.

 

If you want Miguel Rojas getting 400 AB's next year... you're probably in the minority

 

i can't agree with that at all and i'm as big a Hanley guy as you'll see here. see, it's not just " pay Hanley whatever he wants because who cares, he hits "..we're stuck with Ethier, Crawford and Kemp because nobody wants to take on their money, so why lock into Hanley as well when he looks like he's headed down that sort of path? i mean there's a reason why we're not giving up any of our Top 3 prospects..because Kasten's not solely playing the short game. he's not only looking for the quick title win..he's also tryin to build what the NYY built in the mid-90's when their core 4 farm guys came up together and ran off multiple titles.

see, if they pay Hanley " 18 billion " that also means Hanley MUST play. what i mean there is that it won't even matter if Seager is still raking in the minors, ready to come up, or if his best opportunity to be a plus defender is at 3B..none of that will matter because Hanley's making " 18 billion " so he has to play and SS isn't an option anymore, so then they'd be fucking with Seager's development. and to that i'd say enough is enough. no more of this " well, we owe this guy 70+ million dollars so he has to play and the better option in the minors will just have to stay down. " nah. i've waited since 1988..i can't a little while longer. ya don't ruin Seager because " what are we gonna do without Hanley for a year! " Seager needs a fair chance..especially when he's projected to be better than his brother (who's a HELL of a player up in Seattle).

you mentioned Turner, Rojas and Barney..well, we all slept on Dee being a great impact guy this year, so i warn you not to do the same again with our minor league options. we all saw the raking that Guerrero was doing before the incident..if Guerrero can give us 2 or 3 good ABs a game @ SS along with Hanley-like shitty defense ( and un-Hanley-like health issues) and then give way to Arruba's glove late in games, the money they spent on those 2 will be money well spent. they don't have to be Puig. together, they just need to be solid as a tandem and buy in. and then along come Seager and we go from there on the left side. i'll gladly take the extra 1st rounder that a qualifying offer to Hanley would bring. Hanley on a 1yr deal or nothing, if i'm Ned or Kasten.

 

my post to you didn't say anything about Rojas. i'd like to see your thoughts on the money they spent on Guerrero and Arruba last winter.

 

and if he's not healthy and can't play..he's lost anyway, right? except now.." lost " with a huge paycheck.

for those of you who also follow the Lakers..Hanley has a Steve Nash-esque back issue. they're constantly working and prepping him to overcome nerve issues in there. but yea..load him up. smh

 

btw, for those of you who've forgotten..within Guerrero's contract is the stipulation that he can only be sent to the minors during his 1st year. so he's playing with the big club next year, guaranteed. at what position? we'll find out soon, but he can't be any worse than Hanley defensively and we know Guerrero's younger and not dealing with those chronic issues that plague Hanley. right now, i'm gonna assume Guerrero starts @ SS next year..thanks to Dee ( which is a good problem being that Dee is a pleasant surprise @ 2B). who's gonna be Guerrero's late game sub when they need defense? Arruba's making the money, so i'm following the money. Arruba backing up Guerrero and also getting time @ 3B to help cover ground that Guerrero can't and give old man Uribe days off.

if i have to guess, we'll see a good portion of Arruba @ 3B, Guerrero @ SS, Dee @ 2B next year. between Dee and Arruba, Guerrero can be as slow and as unathletic as he needs to be..those two cover plenty of ground defensively.

 

Actually, I'm just disgusted with the way things are all turning out. Probably premature, but pessimism rules in my world. Maybe not a done deal, but a horrific foreboding feeling, and there's no denying, it's at least headed that way.
I really didn't mean 18 billion...more like only 10 or 11 billion. It's just all these goddamn huge contracts for guys that can't even stay on the field for a length of time.
I truly don't care what Kasten spends at all though. Who gives a shit, really? Buy everyfreakingbody. Sell your children for all I care.
Rather than trying to build what the Yankees had, how about winning or at least getting to the WS...just once?
What is a dynasty without the prize?
Tempest in a teapot.
But they'll all come and watch, and dodos like us will be watching Oakland playing Milwaukee or some other vile shit in October. And our faces will grow long once again, as always.

 

i want them to buy all the talent too, but it has to make sense. the dude has lingering health issues. giving Hanley whatever he wants just wouldn't make sense for what they did last winter and for who they have coming up in a couple years. i mean he gives them a good bat, but that's obviously only when he's in the lineup and healthy. his back isn't gonna get any better. in fact, it's likely to lead to other nagging injuries. i really hope they don't lock into him for another 3 or 4 seasons. it's really NOT " all or nothing " right now..this organization is getting better and doesn't need to sell it's soul by adding more albatross contracts that aren't tradeable.

LAsports used the term " experiment " earlier..well, imo the experiment was trading for Hanley and going out making that huge deal with Boston. Kasten was given the freedom to try and catch lightning in a bottle and give us a WS run or two before the younger wave was ready to come up. i mean i'm certainly pleased with their plan..hopefully they're just smart about how they move forward and shift gears. i would've been all for dealing for Utley and shifting Dee to CF for the stretch run. Utley's still pretty good and more importantly, his contract is tradeable, so they could shift gears quite smoothly and hand the 2B job back to Dee next year. but that's over and done with i guess unless they have a surprise up their sleeve at this point. the offense certainly could use a boost. i mean they aren't really scoring big even when Hanley's in the lineup.

at some point, we all have to agree that this coaching staff is shaky at best. i mean all McGwire did was preach " patience " right after he was hired. well, this lineup is not patient. in fact, these motherfuckers swing at everything. i've never sat and watched games where i said " just don't swing, bro " as much as these past 2 years. they're one of the worst at drawing walks and one of the worst in terms of striking out. smh

 

so you're giving Guerrero no shot at hitting big league pitching or being on Hanley's level defensively? from everything i've heard, the front office believes Guerrero's bat will play so much so that they were working him in left field and just looking for ways to somehow get his bat in the lineup. are you giving Puig a chance to get better? are you giving Kemp his walking papers, or are you giving him a shot to be a .290-ish/20HR/80RBI guy next year? AGon hasn't been himself for much of this year either. what about Dee?..can he build on this season and get better? guys just have to perform and be consistent. jerking Hanley on and off the DL hinders any kind of flow.

give Puig a chance, bro. he had 30HRs in his first 150 games. the power is there. he's seen most of what the league has for him now and he's still giving pitchers fits. a " junior slump "..i doubt it.

good call, Stat. you're so right. and i'm constantly checking on their OBP clip too, so there's no excuse.

i guess i just watch these games and it just seems like they're impatient at the plate to me.

i feel bad for wanting him out so bad and then also hoping he comes back raking for us down the stretch and in the playoffs, but it is what it is. i'm kinda the same way with Kemp.