Mike Fiers versus the Astros would be must see TV. Will it happen? The As must win game 4 first. The Asterisks beat the Athletics to advance to the League Championship series. Choakland is eliminated. Maybe Joe Kelly will get another chance to pitch to the Asterisks. Our old friend Tommy La Stella suffered an elbow contusion but X-Rays came back negative. He played yesterday afternoon and went 2 for 5 with an RBI. Zack Greinke started game 4 of the ALDS against the Athletics despite his allegedly sore arm. The As and the Astros set a Division Series record for most combined home runs, but the ball is not juiced. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. However, Jake Diekman grooved one to Jose Altuve with a man down and trailing by five runs. Guess what happened. Choakland is eliminated.
This year the Qualifying Offer is set at $18.9 million. Therefore, I am pretty sure we won’t extend a QO to Andrelton Simmons. The Braves swept the Marlins right out of the Division Series. Buh bye, Jetahs! Holy crap! Terry Francona went through a lot during his health scare in 2020. This is for the people talking about hiring Jeff Luhnow for General Manager. And never one to be shy about self-promotion, Trevor Bauer tweeted out suggestions to the Yankees and the Padres concerning his availability as an elite starting pitcher.
A Little Bit of Angels Related Stuff
Anaheim’s City Council finalized the deal by which SRB Management will purchase Angels Stadium and adjacent lands. Meanwhile, is it worth it to us to pursue this young shortstop who will be posted by the KBO’s own Kiwoom Heroes? We have David Fletcher and several inexpensive guys who can audition for second base next spring.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
No Monday news crash so I will post this here
RIP Joe Morgan
R.I.P. Whitey, fourth Hall Of Famer in 2020 Strange, Heaven has added a lot of Good Guys to the League up there this year. 😢
😁😀😊Baseball Sunday😄🙃😎…….Side Bar OJ……. Basketball, NBA game 6, Football, NFL Sunday, Big Sports Day.😉
🤐😮😞 No Baseball today😝😫😬
Next Round is easy;
Atlanta Braves vs Los Angeles Dodgers…..Dodgers (in 6)
Asstros vs Tampa Bay Rays…..Tampa Bay Rays (in 7)
LAD vs SD Padres….. LA Dodgers move on Check
Atl Braves vs Miami Marlins….. Atlanta Braves move on Check
TB Rays vs NY Yankees….. Tampa Bay Rays move on Check
Oakland A’s vs Cheatstros…… Asstros move on Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, missed.
So 3 outta 4, not bad l guess. 5 – 3 prior, so now at 8 – 4 is Kool. Still on track for TBR vs LAD in the WS.
Lemahieu will bring 25 mil a year. Yankees losing has brought MLB-tv and ESPN to the point of such sorrow that the conversation is now how to make them better because they are good for MLB. There went LAD vs NYY, funny stuff. Oh boy, so the Yankees are the only team that can keep the fans interested, Good Grief..
Casual fans love a narrative. A good guy vs bad guy match up. Tampa vs Houston provides that. Yanks vs Houston didn’t. I hope these ratings are OK.
Can’t be worse than the NBA’s. Yikes.
Here’s a few paragraphs from a longer piece by Craig Calcaterra about the Asstros today-
Houston is obviously no one’s favorite outside of their own fan base. As I noted the other day, though, beware of the bad narratives about “redemption” or “proving the haters wrong” or anything like that you might see about the Astros in the coming days.
If Houston goes on to win the ALCS or even the World Series, there will be displeasure on the part of people rooting against them. That may give Astros fans who have assumed an “everyone’s against us” stance some satisfaction, but that’s not functionally different than any disliked team triumphing, which happens fairly often. What it does not do is clean the Astros’ slate or render the broad dislike of the Astros somehow foolish or illegitimate.
While the past may not impact the present, the present does not change the past. Athletic performance now does not absolve moral and ethical violations then. An Astros title in 2020 will stand on its own. The Astros title in 2017 will always be tainted.
So how much does everyone think the Korean SS cost and do we really need/want him?
If it’s like players from Japan, I think we would need to pony up something like $25,000 just to have a seat at the table, and then we would need to outbid everybody else for a 25 year old shortstop when we already have a controllable David Fletcher. The guy’s bat apparently plays well in the KBO but we don’t know if that will translate well to MLB.
The bids will probably be limited somewhat because why bid Gregorius or Semien type money for this guy when you can just go after Gregorius or Semien? (or Simba)
I was just looking around on BBREF and Fletcher put up 1.6 bWAR while Gregorius = 0.9 and Semien = 0.4. (Both those guys apparently did better than this in fWAR if I look in the Fangraphs free agent tracker.)
It is not a perfect comparison because Fletch played all over the place rather than just short.
why can’t we just scour the waiver wire for somebody else’s failed 28 yr old? 😎
Marcus Semien is by no means gonna be cheap and will already be 30 ( turned 30 on Sept 17 )…..that’s the way it goes when you draft HS outfielders and overrated hitting college catchers for 3 yrs. Also we have no prospects who were drafted after the 3rd round for two years ( 2016-2017 ) who aren’t working out. Trade everybody Eppler drafted and get something for them while we can! ( before the other teams finds out they can’t pitch or hit! ). 😣 😥 Matt Swanson should be gone too.
Do you really see the bidding reaching Gregorius, Semien type of money even considering this kid is 5 years younger with no MLB experience?
Hard to say, but I don’t think it would be too crazy of a price. The closest comparables I can think of are Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who signed with the Twins for 3 years and $9M in 2011, and Jung Ho Kang, who signed for 4 years and $11M with the Pirates going into 2015.
Those deals were under the old posting system, so I bet the per-year price goes up in a league-wide bidding war but the deal length stays kind of short. Four years and $20M is my ballpark estimate.
So would he be worth a look see over spending on Gregorius or Semien or trusting Rengifo or Barretto?
After we get Bauer or some other good pitching, yeah. If I were the Angels’ GM (which I COULD BE), I definitely would.
Can someone explain why it was such the right move to offer simmons a QO a few weeks ago and now that the amount went up $1.1 M that all of a sudden its now a bad idea?
I mean was $1.1M “really” enough to push this decision over the edge?
No. I never thought a QO for Simba was a good idea. There are way too many options for replacing him on the market.
Fletcher is the new GM’s MVP. He can shop in either the shortstop or 2nd base markets and where Semien, Didi, Simba, likely Kolten Wong, Cesar Hernandez, Jonathon Schoop, DJ Lemehaui all make good fits. I’d bet heavily on several of them being available for far less than $18.9 million per year.
Not necessarily you but all over Twitter and fb this seemed to be the right move. Fabian/Fletch hinted as such as such ..
Now all of sudden its the wrong move
For reference
Fabs tweet
https://twitter.com/FabianArdaya/status/1302726659217395712?s=19
Fletch said the same thing in Sunday with the scribes
https://twitter.com/FoxSportsWest/status/1305218103593361411?s=09
I know. I’ve heard/seen it several places. I just don’t think people really thought it through. So I can’t explain it is all I’m saying.
This is a game of musical chairs and there are more contestants than likely landing spots.
That’s actually a good point/observation. There are a slew of borderline cases where fanbases were clamoring for a QO, assuredly to reap the draft pick. Now that it’s $18.9m instead of $17.8m it’s pretty quiet in those crowds. Strangely enough I think I’m with them in Simba’s case.
I was of the mind that the risk of him accepting ($17.8m) was worth the reward of him rejecting (2nd round pick) or accepting, being a 2.5-4.0 WAR player, and either helping us to the playoffs or being traded for a decent prospect before the end of next season. Sure he could get injured again and make a mess of things but, again I felt the risk was worth taking.
Now that the QO is $18.9m I’m less sure it’s worthwhile as I was borderline at $17.8m
No way LeMahieu will be available for less than $18 mil per.
Agreed. But his availability takes a high paying spot from the other guys.
Pretty darn expensive there…..especially Semien and LeMahieu.
Plus our pitching is still deplorable.
RIP Whitey Ford
Brutal run for baseball right now. We’ve been fortunate to have so many living legends for so long. Let’s really cherish Mays, Aaron, and the rest while we still have them.
At just about $19m I agree that it’s unlikely we offer a QO to Simba. Staying on the topic, with the uncertainty of team finances, I doubt many are offered at all. Sure Bauer, JT Realmuto, and Springer almost certainly get the tag but I’m not overly confident on any of the borderline cases. Maybe this works in our favor, ie. Stroman is free of draft pick compensation and will take a Bauer-like short term high AAV deal. That way we mitigate risk and likely get to a draft pick at the end of the deal through the QO.
I think you nailed the only three who will get it. I could possibly see Houston not extending one to Springer, they have some mega deals on the books already, but in the end I bet they do.
How do you figure the Asstros going this far? Well anytime you have a tournament like this all the way up to NCAA March Madness and 68 teams you have got to expect that there will be a Cinderella team, a long shot so to speak, and the Asstros are it. Maybe the surprise is that they were so bad during the season adjusting to no trash cans and laid back Dusty Baker. It’s just if they had not been cheater’s and getting caught and nothing happens.
Manfred was not going to jeopardize MLB with a scandal, but what he did is weaken the league and then allowing the Red Sox and Yankees to eight skate and donate.
which wealthy underachieving team is gonna succumb to getting Jeff Luhnow or DD?
Phillies, Mets, Braves….if the get rolled by the Doyers, Astros might get DD if they lose out, Cubs, Rangers. Don’t think it will be us…..we don’t have what DD wants ( loaded farm system and AM’s miserly attitude against pitching ) not willing to be a 5yr rebuilder again like he was in Detroit. 🤔
Thanks, Oakland for the roll over and croak. Does anybody want a sub-.500 team in the World Series? Show of hands?
The A’s did what they always do — choke!!
Again, they had a lead they could not hold — a good lead. I really enjoy seeing them lose.
Now, it is time for either the Rays or Yankees to take care of the Asterisks.
HOUSTON is not a complete team. Their starting pitching is more than suspect. With no Cole and no Verlander they are very beatable. Choakland is just not very good.
I think either TB or NYY take them down.
And if not, the Dodgers (who are definitely winning the NL again), will do it. In fact I sort of suspect a 2017 rematch WS with the Dodgers delivering some revenge we can all get behind.
Uhh nope! Please Baseball Gods and Goddesses allow TB vs ATL in the series
Cole is pitching for the Skanks in tonight’s elimination game. Let’s hope Tampa Bay can solve him.
Totally agree. The Dodgers are the one team I would be more unhappy about winning than the Asstros.
all small market teams choke in MLB and the NBA.
Hey…….I thot CTPG was all about analytics!! Pretty sure analytics had a lot to do with LBJ and Anthony Davis coming to the Lakers…..LOL!!!!! 😆
What point are you even trying to make? What you wrote was nonsensical.
And why are you laughing?
As for your comment that “all small market teams choke in MLB and the NBA” you are VERY wrong.
Ever hear of the Kansas City Royals? They made two straight WS appearances and won the second one. That was pretty recently.
In the NBA really only New York, LA and Chicago are “large” markets , so any team that wins in a city other than those is a small market winning. There have been plenty, including Detroit, Miami, Cleveland etc.
Actually… starting to get there. I don’t want the Yankees to advance, that’s for sure. But if the Rays choke, then I’d rather have the Astros in it. It’d be such a 2020 thing. I definitely don’t want the Doyers to win it. So, Astros of Doyers again would be amazing, just to read everyone’s heads blowing up over it.