Indians. Nationals. Dodgers. Astros.

Degrom is amazing, Thor is quite good when healthy. Beyond that they’re fine, nothing more. Matz is very inconsistent and I doubt Wheeler repeats his 2018.

The Mets rotation is their strength but they have question marks at 1B, SS -‘d holes in CF, the bullpen and #5 starter. As of now they plan on rolling out Vargas every fifth day.

This is an average team who needs a lot to go right to make the playoffs.

The Indians may be close. Walker Buehler vs. Syndegaard? Patrick Corbin or Strasburg? The Astros aren't even in the conversation, Verlander is 50, Cole is good but not better than the Mets guys.

Indians and Nats seem like the only clear answers.

The Mariners signed Tim Beckham to a 1 year deal. Curious, since they acquired JP Crawford. I mean, Beckham is probably better than JP in 2019, but still odd.

The reasoning behind it is Dipoto would go crazy if he went a week without making a deal.

The more I look at that Caesars thing, Brewers at 83.5 just seems too good to pass up.

I think you’re vastly overeating Wheeler.
Thor is great but misses too much time.
DeGrom elite but no way he matches last season.

Look it’s obv a huge strength but this team just isn’t that good. The amazing rotation covered up a lot of issues in 2015 and 2016, and they’ll need that again
this coming season.

Wheeler is the wheel deal

LeMaheueieu to the Yanks.

Not sure I've seen it posted, but seems like Harper is going to Phil's. Done deal, but waited to announce until Saturday because he is on the cover of MLB the Show video game.

Phillies website no longer allowing custom "34 Harper" jerseys and Phillies placed an unusually large order with the company that makes official jerseys.

The @Phillies submitted an unusually LARGE order with official merch manufacturer Majestic Athletic today. Take that as you will. #MLBHotStove

Nor sure how to link tweets, but this from Jess Evan's. Phillies beat reporter

I was really hoping he'd end up in Chicago. Pretty sure Machado will end up there.

I still considered myself a Machado fan even into summer of this year. He cranked up the douche pretty hard, but I'll still take him. Please play 3rd base.

per espn chalk it's been bet up to 86 already

Awesome relievers, especially overworked ones, don't hold up year-to-year, which is part of what made them great. 86 is a number that would give me a little more pause. Ozuna and Kris Bryant will blow up big this year, but still not much pitching in the Central.

No. They want someone to play SS if Crawford needs more seasoning.

source? MLBTR and the usual suspects on twitter (Rosenthal, Heyman, Cotillo, etc.) don't provide anything of that notion.

My favorite bet on that board is under for the cards

I want to bet a hefty amount on Phils over 83. However I dont wish to escrow a large amount for 9 months. Im pretty sure Id bet damn close to all the money I have if the result was available tomorrow.

Russell Martins return to the Dodgers lead me to looking up Paul Lo Duca. He now works as a broadcast horse racing analyst!

God bless fangraphs. I went looking for answers to the Lowrie signing, and boom huge article. Well, for one, Lowrie is a former BVW client. Look at this table.


Don't worry I'm about to plug my phone in.

Compare that with the Mets OF depth chart, and you’ll get why I don’t like the signing (pre Cano would have been fine).

The Phillies changed their logo, so I wouldn’t read anything into it.

Could be. The thing that I thought most interesting was the mlb the show cover stuff. Thought I saw somewhere the reveal was supposed to be Saturday but can't find it now.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/...y-machado.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.12u...-with-phillies

Cross-posting a thought from the Kyler Murray discussion in another thread. It’s probably obvious to a lot but is worth saying out loud:

The Oakland A’s being historically cheap in terms of retaining their own players once they hit free agency is a huge positive for Kyler Murray to want to play there. A’s historically have played their top prospects in the majors as early as possible, especially because they’re less likely to retain the incumbent when they enter free agency or trade for a high cost veteran, whereas win-now teams like the Cubs and Red Sox are so stacked on the main rosters that their young prospects are often blocked.

Getting to the majors as fast as possible should be a top priority if you were a highly rated prospect who could select your team, as there’s really no money in MLB until you hit your arbitration and free agency years (which are tied to when your service time in the majors starts).

The similarly cheap (poor) Rays are known for keeping their prospects in the minors for very long to delay their service time clock and have them in the show for their age 23-30 seasons instead of the 20-27 seasons. Not sure if the As handle it the same but right now as a prospect, I'd rather be on the Red Sox who have to plug in cheap talent to keep payroll from approaching 300 million while keeping their championsh window open than Oakland who don't seem to believe in windows. If I'm not a RF, that is.

Yeah, I'm not super familiar with how the A's handle their prospects, but the fact that they can't pay them after arbitration should if anything make them want to hold them back longer to get more of their prime years, unless they think they're ready to win now.