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Chat with MLBTR's Steve Adams: 3/26/24
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Scooter
2:00
Watching the Oakland A's during spring training is like watching AAA baseball.  Their opening day starter is Alex Wood, and it falls off from there.  They have essentially no solid offensive production in their lineup.  I wouldn't trade this roster for a sack of frozen burritos and a Prince greatest hits CD.  I'm actually hoping they go to Las Vegas so they can re-group and join MLB again!
Steve Adams
2:03
It's not good, sure. But the rotation has at least a handful of competent MLB-caliber arms, which is better than last year. Wood, Stripling, Blackburn and Sears have some track record (or, in Sears' case, a passable 2023 showing in his first full MLB season).

Zack Gelof can hit. J.D. Davis can hit. Ryan Noda can get on base. Brent Rooker and Seth Brown at least have power.

I don't think the A's will be good, to be clear, but the roster looks a little better than last year and I can at least see them finishing with "only" the second- or third-worst record in MLB. (I can also see them finishing with the worst, of course ... just saying that's not a foregone conclusion, at least not to me)
Garrett Cooper
2:03
Do the Cubs have until Opening Day to put him on the 40 man roster?  Seems obvious that Kilian will go to the 60 day in a corresponding move, but are the procedures/rules?
Steve Adams
2:04
Yeah they just need to get it done on or before Opening Day. Agree Kilian to 60-day is an obvious means of getting there.
CHICubs
2:05
Between our offseason additions and young talent, did we do enough to win the NL Central this year?
Steve Adams
2:05
I think they're a completely viable pick in the NLC, yeah. But that might be the game's most wide-open division.
Brooklyn
2:06
Who hits more home runs in 2024: Judge/Soto/Stanton or Mookie/Ohtani/Freeman?
Steve Adams
2:06
More homers in 2024?
Judge+Soto+Stanton (47.4% | 147 votes)
 
Betts+Ohtani+Freeman (52.6% | 163 votes)
 
Total Votes: 310
BREW CREW
2:07
The brewers can't seriously think that their rotation can compete right? Who would you sign?
Steve Adams
2:09
Yeah it's rough, though I like Jakob Junis probably more than the average reader here. As long as they can stay afloat until the deadline they can always add then. Of course, a Peralta injury would be disastrous for them.

Peralta + Miley (if he's back soon) + Junis + Gasser/Hall/Rea/Ross could be serviceable though. I tend to have more faith in the Brewers squeezing out value from some questionable guys than I do other clubs. They have some track record there and regularly overperform what one might expect just looking at the names on the roster.
Confused Twins Fan
2:10
Why wouldn't the Twins budge and grab an arm like Lorenzen for the price he signed for?  He could justifiably be their #4 or #5 starter.
Steve Adams
2:13
Not saying the Twins fall into this group, but there are MLB clubs that just don't think Lorenzen is a viable starting pitcher. And whether that's the Twins, or whether they just think Louie Varland is better (which is perfectly defensible), they clearly didn't want to use their limited funds on what they either didn't consider an upgrade or only considered a marginal one.

Should also point out, we don't know they didn't make a similar offer. We just know Lorenzen chose Texas.

But if the Twins were told by ownership that they've got like $5-8MM to work with for the rest of the year, trades included, it'd be pretty easy to justify not spending the bulk of it on someone you think is a modest upgrade over your No. 5 guy, right? That's speculative, but just saying ... it's not always as cut-and-dry as "He's better so they should sign him." That works in a vacuum, but context is key. How MUCH better? How much does the team have left to spend? Etc.
Chris
2:13
Should there be *any* panic from the Yanamoto start last week? Even if he is still an effective starter, may just not have the upside we thought he had.
Steve Adams
2:15
Every scout/evaluator who's talked to MLBTR has said Yamamoto is a legitimate ace-caliber pitcher. Ugly spring, ugly first start -- those are going to be footnotes over his entire body of MLB work. I'm not fretting over it. He could give up five runs in each of his next four starts and I still wouldn't be sitting here thinking "Well they clearly made a bad investment." We regularly see players start slowly when adjusting from NPB/KBO to MLB.
Status check
2:16
Status on Donovan Salono?
Steve Adams
2:18
Still out there for anyone who wants a hit/OBP-over-power utility guy that isn't a plus glove at any spot he plays.

That sounds derogatory, but it's not intended to be. Solano is a useful guy in the right role. I thought the Twins used him nicely last year. He can help a club. Yankees make some sense, even though he's not a viable option to back up Volpe at SS
Pitching vs Hitting
2:19
I am in minority when it comes to Angels fans. I feel that the Angels pitching will be more middle of the pack this season. Where the lineup will be bottom 5 this year in production. Too many all or nothing hitters in the lineup. Am I missing something?
Steve Adams
2:21
I can see their pitching being underrated. I was a big fan of 2022 Patrick Sandoval, but he took a step back in '23. If they get him/Detmers back on track and Canning continues from last year's pace, yeah, it could be decent. I doubt Tyler Anderson is as bad as he was in '23 either, though I've always been a bit skeptical of his ability to replicate that 2022 with the Dodgers.

With the lineup, more than the "all or nothing" guys, as you put it, I just worry about injuries and attrition. They have so many guys who seem to be on the IL multiple times every season, and the depth behind them isn't good.
Pip
2:21
The Baltimore boards are suggesting that holiday was sent down to avoid winning ROY on the grounds that the extra draft pick is not nearly as valuable as the lost year of service. What say you?
Steve Adams
2:23
In general, I think service time manipulation is down across the board. It'll be telling when Holliday is called up. If the O's wait until like, July, then OK, they don't want him finishing top two in ROY and wanted to keep his playing time down. If they call him up like May 10, that's still plenty of time to win or finish runner-up.

I don't really get the whole "let's sign Tony Kemp" thing, given the wealth of INF talent they have. But if you want to pitch to me that they want Holliday in AAA to refine his defense, acclimate to 2B, get more experience against upper-level pitching, etc. -- so they don't ever have to worry they might need to option him once he's up... I can buy it, sure.
I'd rather have seen him on the OD roster, but he's 20 and has barely played above A-ball. I don't think it's insane to send him to AAA for a month or so, even though again -- I just wanna watch the dude play in the majors every day
Grady Sizemore
2:25
Luis Robert is traded to a contender at the deadline, buy or sell?
Steve Adams
2:25
Just hard to imagine them getting an offer big enough to convince them to part with 3.5 affordable seasons of Robert
2:27
Ok, I've got to wrap up. Thanks for participating, as always!

If you want more opinions from the MLBTR team, you can learn more about our Trade Rumors Front Office package and sign up here. In addition to ad-free viewing, you'll get weekly email analysis/opinion columns from Anthony and myself, a weekly mailbag column with Tim Dierkes, weekly fantasy baseball advice from Nicklaus Gaut, a weekly subscriber-only chat with Anthony (where your odds of getting a question answered are much, much higher), extra insight from Darragh McDonald, access to MLBTR's Contract Tracker and Agency Database, and more. It starts at $2.99/month.

Thanks everyone, and enjoy the rest of your week! I'm on Twitter / X @Adams_Steve for more questions whenever you like. Take care.
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