OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post

Art Deco · 06-07-2022, 11:27 AM

First order of business: shipping out Yandy and Merrifield:

Well I'm more enthusiastic than our AGM. We get the power-hitting (and righty-hitting) RF in Ramos, who was an impressive 281/346/562 with 10 HR and 33 RBI in 39 games for SF in his major league debut as well as the slick-fielding Lewis, whom the Giants had acquired from Minnesota last year for Wilmer Flores. Ramos projects to be a .275, 25-HR guy and of course is under team control for several years to come and is a solid defensive RF who's capable of playing center at a not-terrible level. Lewis is a possibility at SS to allow Wander to move to 3B, but how much he's going to hit is a question mark. He put up a +4.4 ZR in 74 games at the MLB and MiLB level last year at short. Schmitt can hit (probably .280 with 25 HR), but he's a lousy defensive 3B (35-40). He could figure into the DH mix as a righty hitter.

As for what we gave up aside from Diaz and Merrifield, Carson Williams was our #1 pick in 2021 but has not hit at all in the minors (188/271/299 in 73 games in A ball). The other two were one-star "make it work" guys.

A couple of other trades around MLB: Toronto shipped Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to Texas for former Ray reliever Hunter Wood and pitcher Johan Oviedo, and the Giants dealt another of their prospects, Hunter Bishop (whom I had acquired in my two other Rays saves) to Kansas City for veteran lefty reliever Ryan Buchter as they're in "win now" mode coming off consecutive playoff appearances which fell short.

We also had a wave of signings of arb-eligible players which always include multi-year extensions - the ones of note were Shane Bieber (CLE) at 7/171, LaMonte Wade (SF) for 5/39, Bo Bichette (TOR) for 8/155, Jesse Winker (SEA) 5/102, Carson Kelly (ARI) 4/45, Frankie Montas (OAK) 3/33, Tyler O'Neill (STL) 4/51, Mitch Garver (CLE) 5/82, Tyler Mahle (CIN) 3/38, Yordan Alvarez (HOU) 8/152, Cedric Mullins (BAL) 7/134, Ramon Laureano (OAK) 4/48, and former Ray Nate (sorry Nathaniel) Lowe (TEX) at 5/32.

November 19: Another former Ray is on the move as Detroit dealt Austin Meadows to Texas for OF prospect Garrett Mitchell. Also the Gold Gloves were awarded and as expected no Rays were winners.

November 20: Minnesota's Caleb Thielbar, who had 35 saves and a 1.61 ERA, was named AL Reliever of the Year while Josh Hader, who had 38 saves and 144 whiffs in 72 IP, took the nod in the NL.

November 22: Spencer Torkelson, who blasted 45 homers in his MLB debut, was the unanimous AL Rookie of the Year. Geraldo Perdomo, a slick-fielding SS who earned 3.4 WAR for Arizona, won the NL version. In a trade, Oakland swapped OF Seth Brown to Boston for former Rays IF Christian Arroyo.

November 24: To say the AL Cy Young voting was fragmented would be an understatement, and to make it even more crazy was seeing who finished fourth:

Congrats to Thor who was 15-5, 3.39 (I voted for Bieber), but how in the heck did Jalen Beeks end up with 6 first place votes? I mean he had a great season but didn't even figure into the Reliever of the Year voting. No, I didn't have him on my Cy ballot.

The NL voting was a jumble as well:

I voted for Woodruff, who no-hit the Rays in June, but Peralta's 14-4, 2.94 took it. deGrom nearly won despite missing over half the season but he was so good when he pitched (9-2, 1.52 with 126Ks in 100 IP) that he led the NL in pitcher WAR at 4.8.

November 25: Death, taxes and Mike Trout winning MVP. He did it again with 29 of 30 first-place votes after a .289-44-127-10.3 WAR season. LA's Trea Turner was the runaway winner in the NL, also taking 29 of 30 first-place votes thanks to his .337-34-120 year which was good for 8 WAR.

December 5: The Royals traded CF Michael Taylor Jr, who just won the Gold Glove, to Milwaukee for a prospect.

December 6: More trades: Miami sent former Rays favorite Joey Wendle to Detroit for a minor leaguer and more importantly we made one:

Garcia has intriguing tools (power, speed, defense) but can't hit for average and won't draw walks, plus he was out of options and I didn't want to be handcuffed to him. DeLoach meanwhile offers more of a broad skill set and most importantly doesn't have to go on the 40-man:

December 14: Major trade in MLB as the White Sox send ace Lucas Giolito (and retained 90% of his salary) to Milwaukee for #37 overall prospect, 2B Brice Turang.

December 15: Miami shipped slugger Jorge Soler (and retained 45%) to Cincinnati for a minor leaguer.

December 16: The Reds sent veteran starter Luis Castillo to Texas for a couple of prospects.

December 18: The first of big free agents signed with Trevor Bauer (boo!) going to Philadelphia for 5/92. He was reinstated in the game last summer with the Dodgers.

December 19: SS Xander Bogaerts signed a 6/135 deal with the Cubs.

By the way, we made a 4/24 offer a couple of weeks ago to Christian Vazquez, we're still waiting to hear back.

December 20: A couple of vets in the latter part of their careers were on the move with longtime Rockie Charlie Blackmon headed to Texas and James Paxton traded from Boston to the Mets. Both deals involved salary retention and both involved minor leaguers going the other way.

December 21: Christian Vazquez tells me he's "basically settled" on coming here but he's keeping his options open. OK then. Also some really big free agent signings: Joey Gallo parlayed his 61-homer season into a 7/253 deal with Atlanta, the team he vanquished in the World Series. And the Yankees have another hole in their OF as Aaron Judge went to the Cubs, who are breaking out the checkbook this offseason, for 6/128. Meanwhile Miami did their usual fire-sale thing, shipping C Jacob Stallings (whom I was eyeing as a possible pickup) to Minnesota for a couple of prospects.

December 22: The White Sox shipped closer Liam Hendriks to the Angels for 4 prospects.

December 24: Mike Zunino signed a 2/22.8 deal with the Astros, who also acquired Zack Wheeler from the Phillies for a prospect.

December 25: Teams were wheeling and dealing on Christmas as Boston sent Rafael Devers (retaining 95%) to Cincinnati for a couple of prospects, including 2021 first-round pick Matt McLain.

December 26: Added IF Curtis Mead, IF Jonathan Aranda and P Taj Bradley to the 40-man roster.

Rule 5 time again and of course Mead and Bradley are two of our top prospects with Mead projected for the big club.

7 guys were taken in the Rule 5 draft, nobody of ours.

December 27: The Yankees filled one of their outfield holes by shipping a couple of prospects to the Blue Jays for Teoscar Hernandez, and Josh Bell signed a 4/49 deal with the Red Sox, where he'll probably thrive after stinking for us.

December 28: Another former Ray is on the move as the Padres sent Blake Snell to St. Louis for a couple of prospects and Texas, having already acquired Luis Castillo, beefed up their rotation by signing Mike Clevinger to a 2/31 deal.

06-07-2022, 11:27 AM	#86
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,613	2022-23 Offseason, Part 1 First order of business: shipping out Yandy and Merrifield: Well I'm more enthusiastic than our AGM. We get the power-hitting (and righty-hitting) RF in Ramos, who was an impressive 281/346/562 with 10 HR and 33 RBI in 39 games for SF in his major league debut as well as the slick-fielding Lewis, whom the Giants had acquired from Minnesota last year for Wilmer Flores. Ramos projects to be a .275, 25-HR guy and of course is under team control for several years to come and is a solid defensive RF who's capable of playing center at a not-terrible level. Lewis is a possibility at SS to allow Wander to move to 3B, but how much he's going to hit is a question mark. He put up a +4.4 ZR in 74 games at the MLB and MiLB level last year at short. Schmitt can hit (probably .280 with 25 HR), but he's a lousy defensive 3B (35-40). He could figure into the DH mix as a righty hitter. As for what we gave up aside from Diaz and Merrifield, Carson Williams was our #1 pick in 2021 but has not hit at all in the minors (188/271/299 in 73 games in A ball). The other two were one-star "make it work" guys. A couple of other trades around MLB: Toronto shipped Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to Texas for former Ray reliever Hunter Wood and pitcher Johan Oviedo, and the Giants dealt another of their prospects, Hunter Bishop (whom I had acquired in my two other Rays saves) to Kansas City for veteran lefty reliever Ryan Buchter as they're in "win now" mode coming off consecutive playoff appearances which fell short. We also had a wave of signings of arb-eligible players which always include multi-year extensions - the ones of note were Shane Bieber (CLE) at 7/171, LaMonte Wade (SF) for 5/39, Bo Bichette (TOR) for 8/155, Jesse Winker (SEA) 5/102, Carson Kelly (ARI) 4/45, Frankie Montas (OAK) 3/33, Tyler O'Neill (STL) 4/51, Mitch Garver (CLE) 5/82, Tyler Mahle (CIN) 3/38, Yordan Alvarez (HOU) 8/152, Cedric Mullins (BAL) 7/134, Ramon Laureano (OAK) 4/48, and former Ray Nate (sorry Nathaniel) Lowe (TEX) at 5/32. November 19: Another former Ray is on the move as Detroit dealt Austin Meadows to Texas for OF prospect Garrett Mitchell. Also the Gold Gloves were awarded and as expected no Rays were winners. November 20: Minnesota's Caleb Thielbar, who had 35 saves and a 1.61 ERA, was named AL Reliever of the Year while Josh Hader, who had 38 saves and 144 whiffs in 72 IP, took the nod in the NL. November 22: Spencer Torkelson, who blasted 45 homers in his MLB debut, was the unanimous AL Rookie of the Year. Geraldo Perdomo, a slick-fielding SS who earned 3.4 WAR for Arizona, won the NL version. In a trade, Oakland swapped OF Seth Brown to Boston for former Rays IF Christian Arroyo. November 24: To say the AL Cy Young voting was fragmented would be an understatement, and to make it even more crazy was seeing who finished fourth: Congrats to Thor who was 15-5, 3.39 (I voted for Bieber), but how in the heck did Jalen Beeks end up with 6 first place votes? I mean he had a great season but didn't even figure into the Reliever of the Year voting. No, I didn't have him on my Cy ballot. The NL voting was a jumble as well: I voted for Woodruff, who no-hit the Rays in June, but Peralta's 14-4, 2.94 took it. deGrom nearly won despite missing over half the season but he was so good when he pitched (9-2, 1.52 with 126Ks in 100 IP) that he led the NL in pitcher WAR at 4.8. November 25: Death, taxes and Mike Trout winning MVP. He did it again with 29 of 30 first-place votes after a .289-44-127-10.3 WAR season. LA's Trea Turner was the runaway winner in the NL, also taking 29 of 30 first-place votes thanks to his .337-34-120 year which was good for 8 WAR. December 5: The Royals traded CF Michael Taylor Jr, who just won the Gold Glove, to Milwaukee for a prospect. December 6: More trades: Miami sent former Rays favorite Joey Wendle to Detroit for a minor leaguer and more importantly we made one: Garcia has intriguing tools (power, speed, defense) but can't hit for average and won't draw walks, plus he was out of options and I didn't want to be handcuffed to him. DeLoach meanwhile offers more of a broad skill set and most importantly doesn't have to go on the 40-man: December 14: Major trade in MLB as the White Sox send ace Lucas Giolito (and retained 90% of his salary) to Milwaukee for #37 overall prospect, 2B Brice Turang. December 15: Miami shipped slugger Jorge Soler (and retained 45%) to Cincinnati for a minor leaguer. December 16: The Reds sent veteran starter Luis Castillo to Texas for a couple of prospects. December 18: The first of big free agents signed with Trevor Bauer (boo!) going to Philadelphia for 5/92. He was reinstated in the game last summer with the Dodgers. December 19: SS Xander Bogaerts signed a 6/135 deal with the Cubs. By the way, we made a 4/24 offer a couple of weeks ago to Christian Vazquez, we're still waiting to hear back. December 20: A couple of vets in the latter part of their careers were on the move with longtime Rockie Charlie Blackmon headed to Texas and James Paxton traded from Boston to the Mets. Both deals involved salary retention and both involved minor leaguers going the other way. December 21: Christian Vazquez tells me he's "basically settled" on coming here but he's keeping his options open. OK then. Also some really big free agent signings: Joey Gallo parlayed his 61-homer season into a 7/253 deal with Atlanta, the team he vanquished in the World Series. And the Yankees have another hole in their OF as Aaron Judge went to the Cubs, who are breaking out the checkbook this offseason, for 6/128. Meanwhile Miami did their usual fire-sale thing, shipping C Jacob Stallings (whom I was eyeing as a possible pickup) to Minnesota for a couple of prospects. December 22: The White Sox shipped closer Liam Hendriks to the Angels for 4 prospects. December 24: Mike Zunino signed a 2/22.8 deal with the Astros, who also acquired Zack Wheeler from the Phillies for a prospect. December 25: Teams were wheeling and dealing on Christmas as Boston sent Rafael Devers (retaining 95%) to Cincinnati for a couple of prospects, including 2021 first-round pick Matt McLain. December 26: Added IF Curtis Mead, IF Jonathan Aranda and P Taj Bradley to the 40-man roster. Rule 5 time again and of course Mead and Bradley are two of our top prospects with Mead projected for the big club. 7 guys were taken in the Rule 5 draft, nobody of ours. December 27: The Yankees filled one of their outfield holes by shipping a couple of prospects to the Blue Jays for Teoscar Hernandez, and Josh Bell signed a 4/49 deal with the Red Sox, where he'll probably thrive after stinking for us. December 28: Another former Ray is on the move as the Padres sent Blake Snell to St. Louis for a couple of prospects and Texas, having already acquired Luis Castillo, beefed up their rotation by signing Mike Clevinger to a 2/31 deal.