Love me some Greinke. Dude is a stone cold stud. But I wouldn't pay $206 big ones for a 32 year old pitcher. Now is when we see what Friedman can do.
Supposedly they are still in the running for Jayson Heyward, Johnny Cueto, Kazmir, Iwakuma, and new Japanese import Kenta Maeda (who has some brilliant numbers overseas). None of these would cost a first round draft pick. Hopefully we get a couple of these big names, but I'm not really counting on it. As we've seen all last year, I think we continue the trend of making creative "value" trades to fill holes, build our farm, and attain draft picks. A couple of big trades might be in place, like getting Jose Fernandez or a nice starting pitcher from the Indians. Justin Upton has been mentioned (despite his lack of defense and high strikeouts). Unfortunately I don't know what pieces we can trade other than Puig, and we know Freidman never likes to sell low. I think Puig stays, but we'll see. Gonna be a long off-season...
A f***ing nightmare and I saw this coming. The Dodgers want to pinch pennies and cut their salary down now and rely on the farm while raking in huge profits from tickets and merchandise sales. They don't care about winning as much as they care about profit margins. I've got a buddy that covers the Dodgers and he said ,"Well I'm glad he's gone at that price. I wouldn't want to pay him that much." I completely disagree. I'm going to be pretty upset watching our #2 not look anywhere near as good as Greinke as the Diamondbacks boost themselves up IN OUR OWN DIVISION. Just awful and I hope the Dodgers lose a ton of money. I like Fernandez and I know his name has been floated, but Greinke/Kershaw was the closest thing we've had to a pennant in 30 years and now it's gone before they could do something about it. Even worse, if they don't get another ace somehow Kershaw's prime is going to be wasted on a team that wanted to rebuild. F***ing unbelievable. They've got ONE option left: Trade Puig/assets for Fernandez Sign Hayward Sign bullpen pieces I can't think of Probably go out and sign Kazmir as well F*** I hate the Dodgers so much right now.
We signed Iwakuma!!! Career 3.17 ERA with 7.59 K/9 and 1.65 BB/9. Not bad stats at all!! He's no Greinke, but still, if we also get Chapman, that would more than make up for his departure. Speaking of Chapman, I find it strange that we are giving up prospects for him. Friedman almost never gives up prospects for anyone.
Iwakuma/Chapman to replace Greinke. I mean that's interesting, but it opens up new problems: 1. Who closes? 2. Iwakuma is an older, not as good version of Greinke. Still a step down. I can't help but feel like the Dodgers have more things cooking. It was recently said that they're still pursuing Hernandez, but I'm not sure what it would take to get him at this point. I know the Dodgers have said they plan on keeping both Chapman and Jansen, but one of them is going to be unhappy with not being the closer. I'd say this is a positive step, but I'm far from sold. Another name they're connected to now is Ben Zobrist.
Chapman has to close. Jansen will have to adjust. He won't like it because it's his contract year, but oh well. I still want Maeda for the Japanese connection with Iwakuma.
One solution someone came up with is give Jansen a big extension right now. He's young enough and great enough to deserve one. Sure he'll be 8th inning, but if he's getting paid then who cares? Cueto would finish it for me. I'd officially be happy if they went out and got Cueto at this point. I'd love Hayward, but I'm not hopeful at this point.
Cueto would be awesome, but I'm thinking after the Price / Greinke contracts he is going to ask for too much. Maeda may be more reasonable and just as effective.
Well hopefully as effective. Either way I want more starting pitching still. I like Ryu a lot, but injuries are now a very serious concern. McCarthy was given a crap contract the first time around and he won't be healthy for a while anyway. I like Anderson and Wood, but they're back end guys at this point. Give me one more high quality starter and I'll feel confident. I guess worth noting is we brought back Utley for one year seven million dollars. Seems like a lot for a bench utility option.
Oh my goodness so much is happening can't think to myself!!! Anywho, hooray for getting Chapman! I think we gave up Grant Holmes and Peraza, which seems like a lot. But for Chapman, hells yeah! With Peraza likely in the trade, it's no wonder we gave big money to Utley and are also talking about getting Ben Zobrist. Remember, Utley was largely hurt last year, hence the performance decline (well, that and age too), so hopefully he has another good year left. Zobrist would be a solid upgrade, though hopefully he still has the speed to play defense well. Having Utley and Hernandez would allow us to give Zobrist enough rest to stay fresh for the playoffs.
That said, I can still see Kenley getting shipped out for a solid #2 starter. Remember, we made like 4 big trades last Winter, so expect to see more changes coming...
I had heard we didn't give up any big name prospects for Chapman because he's a rental. If we gave up Peraza, I'm going to be livid. It's okay to give up Peraza (our only speed left in the system) for a rental bullpen pitcher, but not for a starter during our title run? Hm. Seems legit. I'm fine with Utley and Zobrist, but that's not my main concern. My main concern is clearing the logjam of average talent in the outfield. Get rid of Crawford, get rid of Puig if you can get something good, get rid of Ethier while he's got solid value. Use those guys to get more bullpen/farm help. Go get another #2 pitcher, another bullpen arm, and Heyward. Then I'll be satisfied that this organization cares about winning still after letting one of the best pitchers in baseball go.
Sounds like a solid plan. There's probably no way to get rid of Crawford, so I say whatever about him. Ethier probably, if we can pay half or most of his salary. Puig, I still think can produce (remember he was injured most of last year), so we'll see. I still think the F.O. wants to wait to sell high, unless we find the right deal. Speaking of which, I think Fernandez is back on the table again. Flip Puig for Fernandez and sign Heyward. Oh man that would just be perfect.
Urrrrr well the Chapman deal is still not 100%. That and Fernandez asking price is too high. Also Zobrist has a slim chance of coming here. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, who knows, maybe the tables will turn once more an hour later.
The Dodgers are still treating it like we've got Chapman while the Reds are denying it. strange. I'm warming up to the Chapman/Jansen dynamic IF you can get both of them to work together, but I'm still faaaaaaar from satisfied.
I think they can. Only their egos would get in the way. From a practical standpoint, one's a righty and the other's a lefty, so that's an easy lefty/righty matchup right there depending on who's coming up. If they both can do ~70 innings and pitch as phenomenally as they've always been, they'll both see large $$$$$$ in their future, regardless of total number of saves. Andrew Miller and now O'Day got mega deals without being closers.
Ugh, reports of Chapman's alleged domestic violence incident in October resurfacing... Supposedly the reason why the trade is temporarily halted. I wouldn't put it past Friedman to leak the info to the media in order to get a better trade value out of the Reds.
