Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!

[Big_Maple]

I don’t know where this goes, and I don’t wanna start a new thread for it. But here goes:

I was reading New York Times article on famous people who have died in 2023. I read the obit for Tim Wakefield with some interest. I was always intrigued by the knuckleball (and its bastard cousin, the eephus). My interest was piqued when NPR interviewed RA Dickey a year after he won the Cy Young.

The article referenced a documentary on the knuckleball, and it included some great interviews with the late grade Tim Wakefield. If anyone’s interested, here’s a link:

https://youtu.be/1T3Jk9j9MPY?si=48-obR0GBl9copVY


Happy Christmas Eve, everybody, wishing everybody a safe and Merry Christmas, and looking forward interesting discussions in 2024!

[Big_Maple]

Gone are the days when offseason MLB transactions would be lucky to be noted in agate type below a newspaper's basketball box scores.

Fans often waited until the opening of Spring Training to learn of their favorite team's updated roster.

Today the Hot Stove fuels a media frenzy. Websites and podcasts throw out rumors and proposals in hopes that frantic fans provide the clicks that raise advertising rates.

It's become a cottage industry.

With the internet, anyone has the medium to reach a mass audience without interference from editors and other gatekeepers. The content quality suffers as a result.

This poster misses the bygone days although he's as guilty as anyone for for providing those revenue-generating clicks.

The Hot Stove sort of seems like it’s been over commercialized like Christmas! But I guess the multi gazillion dollar contracts that get handed out, or extensions offered helps keep folks interested when baseball is not being played. So many other activities seem to compete for our collective interests these days that it seems like an exciting hot stove off-season helps keep people excited about baseball during the interval between the World Series and spring training!

I, for one, am feeling like this offseason has been incredibly boring. I can’t imagine what it was like 50 years ago!

[Coeurd’Alene J]

How many around here are comfortable if this is the roster?

[Big_Maple]

How many around here are comfortable if this is the roster?

I’d be outraged. But I get the sense that this is it. Great pitching staff but offensively impotent. Not really inspiring me to want to watch a lot of baseball next season.

[harmony]

In this season of gift-giving, here are a few posts from another forum:

Could Jorge Polanco be this offseason's Kolten Wong?

Last offseason Wong brought similar credentials in his trade to Seattle. At the time Wong, like Polanco today, had played parts of 10 MLB seasons. Wong had posted 23.0 bWAR in 1,102 MLB games while Polanco has posted 17.3 bWAR in 832 MLB games (Polanco's first two MLB seasons were abbreviated). Their per-game bWAR totals are identical carried out to four decimals.

Defensive value accounts for much of the bWAR total for Wong, who has won two Gold Gloves.

In his two seasons before last December's trade, Wong had posted 6.5 bWAR and an OPS+ of 113 in 250 games. In the last two seasons Polanco has posted 4.8 bWAR and an OPS+ of 115 in 184 games. Again Wong and Polanco come out tied in per-game bWAR at .026.

Wong had a 2023 salary of $10 million while Polanco is owed $10.5 million in 2024 with a $750,000 buyout of $12 million club option for 2025.

The Wong experiment failed miserably in Seattle. In response the Mariners have since traded for Luis Garcia, Josh Rojas and Ryan Bliss while witnessing the unexpected (and perhaps unsustainable) emergence of Jose Caballero.

Seattle is unlikely to add Jorge Polanco to the pile.

https://twinsdaily.com/forums/topic/656 ... nt-1352070

Kolten Wong certainly brought down Seattle's production at second base in 2023. In the first half of the season the Mariners ranked 11th in the league with 0.3 fWAR from second base:

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major ... 8&month=30

Aided by Wong's DFA on July 31, the Mariners in 73 second-half games ranked sixth in the league with a robust 2.7 fWAR (and a league-average 101 wRC+) from second base (the Twins ranked first):

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major ... 8&month=31

The second-half rebound was fueled by Josh Rojas, Jose Caballero and Dylan Moore, who remain on the Seattle roster. The Mariners have since added Luis Urias, who would likely slot at third base if the season started today. Second-base prospect Ryan Bliss is projected to debut in 2024.

Like most teams, the Seattle Mariners have offseason needs but second base does not top the list.

https://twinsdaily.com/forums/topic/656 ... nt-1352271

Enjoy the holiday season.

[Coeurd’Alene J]

How many around here are comfortable if this is the roster?

I’d be outraged. But I get the sense that this is it. Great pitching staff but offensively impotent. Not really inspiring me to want to watch a lot of baseball next season.

I agree. It’s looking bleak. Not a lot of options on the table

[Donn Beach]

54% is beyond it idiotic on every level imaginable with number one being thinking that fans should thank them for aspiring to such "lofty" heights.

4th in MLB in wins isn't lofty enough, okay.

What he's saying is be patient, I'm going to build one of the most successful franchises in baseball because that's what it would take to accomplish it. I really don't understand the hard part in grasping that

They literally won 54% of their game THIS season and DID NOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS in the most expanded playoff format in the history of MLB and we should be thankful for that approach. It beyond asinine to even come up with that nonsense let alone show your full ass to the world by stating it publicly.

This is the disconnect, Dipoto referenced winning 54% of your games over a decade, that has nothing to do with winning 88 games in a season, it really doesn't. Do it for a season means means nothing, do it for a decade you're an elite organization, cardinals, Rays, the Guardians. You don't get there by shooting for 88 wins a season. You don't do it by pinching pennies. You do it by running a quality organization. I don't know the context of Dipoto' bringing it up. If he was trying to defend being cautious he's full of shit.

[Donn Beach]

The 54% was in terms of a decade. And he was correct, only the most successful teams in MLB have maintained a 54% winning percentage over a decade. This is his sustainability argument. But yeah, let's keep debating the 54% instead of asking him how he intends to actually do it.

We're watching how he intends to do it.

Last year he achieved it with AJ Pollock and Tommy La Stella. Can't wait to see this year's recipe.

54% hasn't been successful the last three years when they've had a chance. It hasn't been successful since Jerry got here.

But, yeah, he totally still deserves the benefit of the doubt...

He didn't achieve shit, it's not something you calculate season to season. The guardians had the forth most wins over the last decade with a 54.7 win rate. I have no idea if they even had an 88 win season.

[bpj]

The 54% was in terms of a decade. And he was correct, only the most successful teams in MLB have maintained a 54% winning percentage over a decade. This is his sustainability argument. But yeah, let's keep debating the 54% instead of asking him how he intends to actually do it.

We're watching how he intends to do it.

Last year he achieved it with AJ Pollock and Tommy La Stella. Can't wait to see this year's recipe.

54% hasn't been successful the last three years when they've had a chance. It hasn't been successful since Jerry got here.

But, yeah, he totally still deserves the benefit of the doubt...

He didn't achieve shit, it's not something you calculate season to season. The guardians had the forth most wins over the last decade with a 54.7 win rate. I have no idea if they even had an 88 win season.

Oh, cool, good for the Indians.

When did they win their last World Series? (1948)

Winning 54% over 10 years is ruhtarded.

[Donn Beach]

Cardinals won two of them in the last ten years. Win a lot of games as opposed to not winning them? You don't feel Dipoto has taken advantage of this window to win games. Would that help him win more games in the future? I don't see how