MLB NEWS/RUMORS Thread

I blame that MF for taking LAD back in time, back to the loser McCourt era that had Kemp as it's face. That fuckin Kemp trade was a bad omen for this season. LAD is supposed to be moving forward, primadonnas in the rear view. What's next? We need a shortstop..trade for Hanley and bring him back too? LA96 would jizz himself. They could've found another way to shed payroll and dip below the lux tax. Could've maybe done a similar trade for Cole Hamels and hit an actual need.

And no I don't give a damn that Kemp is hitting. He's only hit against shitty teams/pitchers thus far anyway..which is more than can be said for a good amount of guys on the team, but still. Dude is living off the Padres, A's, Giants and Marlins. If I'm a team that's buying at the trade deadline and LAD is tapping me on my shoulder about Kemp, show me who he's hitting against first and foremost. He was conspicuously absent from the lineup against Scherzer. If I'm a team that's making a post season run, I want guys that hit good pitching. I think most would be looking for the same. Fluff those numbers all they like, I would not be buying.

 

Uhhh...that decision is above my pay grade.
Dave is a wonderful guy, a mench, should be cannonized, supports public TV, etc, etc. All that good shit.
But I think there is someone out there that can take this team from first to worst, (or close to it), as well as Dave did, and maybe takes better advantage of the opportunities he had...if we ever got another shot.

 

Not an issue. Kershaw is a choke artist. Not a loser. If LAD is out of the post season picture and a big contender came calling for his services, he'd go. He's opting out of LAD anyway.

Also, he avoids the QO if he's traded and decides to opt out thereafter. Obviously, that QO has stifled guys' value in recent years. To that point, I wonder if interested teams would try to get his commitment in not opting out. Get that commitment and maybe LAD gets considerably more in return

 

Locastro and Farmer were optioned to AAA for Forsythe and Turner’s return. I’m interested to see how Muncy responds to significantly less playing time, but he could be a really decent bench bat if he can adjust. He got off to a shitty start, but the last 10-15 games he has been drastically better (near .900 OPS). SSS for sure, but something this team could certainly use is a more reliable bench bat.

 

Also, a successful postseason run could weigh bigly to a new contract if he opts out. So I'm with you.

I don't think he would be against a trade, it's just an interesting little wrinkle. It could cause some trouble if there is more than one team with serious interest, and he has a preference for one reason or another.

The QO is a minor concern, if anything. It's stifled value for mid-low range guys, but it has hardly made a hiccup for high-end guys. Also, the QO rules have changed so now a team would only lose it's 2nd highest pick (most likely) and we would only gain a compensation pick after the 2nd round.

 

Whoa.... Robinson Cano has been suspended 80 games for violating the MLB drug program, rumored to be for (UPDATED) a diuretic that is banned by MLB. (Update 2) The drug is said to be used widely as a masking agent for other PED use. This is an interesting turn of events as the Mariners are off to a really good start. It will be interesting to see how the club responds, but there is a potential scenario that the club will be moving Gordon back to 2B to weather this storm. It frees up some money for the club and both of the M's COF's have experience in CF. I have looked at them as a potential landing spot for Kemp since the trade and I wonder if now the team will try to fill the void in the lineup left behind by Cano's absence.

 

To take it further, if Kemp is one of your more productive hitters, you're in deep shit.

Someone needs to reminds Friedman that he's in LA not in AAA Tampa.​

 

The thing that bothers me is: getting below the tax threshold is a perfectly reasonable goal, but it’s just terrible business sense to do it ridiculously abruptly (ie slash 60M in the span of an off-season). Just stupid. You can’t spend an offseason taking nothing but losses and expect things to turn out rosy.

Re kemp: a 900 OPS is a 900 OPS. I mean...obviously the guy can barely move but the offensive production can’t be denied. Not saying I disagree with you but the fact that he’s getting PT has literally been the least of our problems

 

Last season we had 6 players with an 800+ OPS. This year we have 2, and neither of them are the same guys.

Kemp has been as good as could be expected, but Taylor, Puig, Bellinger, Seager... everyone is to blame.

 

Yes, the Man With Fake Hair speaks with a split tongue.
Always has.
That is why he was hired.

 

I think Toles is injured. Injured his hamstring a while ago and had a recent setback.

 

Lol. Injured while rehabbing last I heard which was 3 days ago.

 

It also sounds like the setback is a bad one. Roberts said it is going to be a while before he sees the field again. Another injury note is that apparently Edwin Rios suffered a pretty bad calf injury. Damn shame as he would have been one of the first call ups when the injuries started to pile up.

 

If Bellinger, Taylor, Puig, Forsythe, etc are all gonna suck at baseball, it doesn't even matter what the fringe guys do.

 

Here's the thing about that..it was actually solid timing. MLB just went through perhaps the roughest FA offseason period, maybe of all time. Indians, who rarely find themselves on the doorstep of winning a WS, downgraded at 1B and did a bunch of nothing when obviously, they won 100+ last year. Only 2 or 3 teams really did anything worth noting this past offseason. You can throw the Halos in that group if you like with them signing Ohtani and him being a positive force thus far, but most of this board was cursing Ohtani and calling him an entitled punk because he wanted to hit and pitch..mirroring all the bellyaching from Kershaw about how the meeting went with Ohtani went bad. I can't even say I blame Ohtani for looking Kershaw off at that meeting..Kershaw's a fuckin choker. Ohtani should want to beat Kershaw.

And then of course, everybody and nobody wanted Stanton. I watched so many on this board go from being anti-Stanton/pro-Braun during last season, to " god damn, we should've gotten Stanton! " in the offseason. Smh Anybody thinking Stanton could carry this mess is out of their mind. Stanton is lucky, TBH..coming home to this shit would've been a huge waste. For all the complaining about what this team is..all of the projection systems loved this team. 95+ projected wins from all of them.

And when Turner went down I was definitely one saying " next man up " because that's what usually happens. Kershaw gets hurt, next man up, they keep winning. Seager goes down, next man up, they keep winning. We even had some here saying Joc and others ( depth) would make it so Turner would hardly be missed. Can't recall 100%, but I'm pretty sure I saw several say the Turner injury would just leave us at 92 or so wins instead of 97 or 98. But now that it's all bad, of course, it's blame game time..which I will partake in, myself. And I exclude no one.

 

A couple of things, i've pretty much given up on this season, so below is a link to track the standings and the status of that draft pick, and related, some of the top prospects for 2019.

http://www.tankathon.com/mlb

https://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=14736