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Front Office Chat: 2/27/26
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Anthony Franco
3:43
One injury opens the door but otherwise also having a tough time seeing it. Only one he could really push off if everyone's healthy is Davis Schneider. Jiménez can play shortstop but I don't know that they need that when they have Clement on the roster and Schneider has a power element they'd be lacking off the bench if they option him
Hmm
3:43
Although I like the ABS challenge system I don't want it to Ever take the human element out of baseball.I still want the home plate umpire to make calls. What is your stance on this?
Anthony Franco
3:44
I suspect we'll get to a point where we go full ABS and it's broadly supported but have come around on starting with the challenge system and seeing if that works first
3:45
My thought on this has been that they tried a challenge system in tennis when they started moving from linespeople making in/out calls to using Hawkeye
3:46
And there was still enough controversy when they missed a call and the player didn't challenge that eventually they moved to letting Hawkeye call everything, and most people agree that's just the better system
3:48
Tennis didn't have the "what about receiving catchers you're putting out of a job aspect," so fair enough, but if a team runs out of challenges and an umpire misses a call in a crucial spot, it'll be easy to question if we're not better off letting the system just call everything
Longsuffering Nats Fan
3:48
Who loses more games this season: the Nats, the Rockies, or the Whire Sox?
Anthony Franco
3:48
Still think it's Colorado but the gap between them and the Nats has closed a little
Brewers Fan
3:48
Thanks for the response! Was just genuinely curious, not being passive aggressive about the Brewers not being out yet lol.
Anthony Franco
3:49
Ha no offense taken! I assumed it was genuine
LFGM
3:49
Follow up to the offseason review question, besides Tim with the Chicago area teams, do each of you take a specific group of teams? Or is that also random?
Anthony Franco
3:50
Basically random. We have a few that we tend to circle back to (Steve usually gets the Twins, I tend to like writing about the NL West teams for no particular reason) but we just claim teams and fill in a Google sheet as we go
Panic at the Atkins
3:51
Was the trade for Jesus Sanchez a class overreact to the Santander injury?
Anthony Franco
3:52
I'm not a huge Sánchez fan but Loperfido's probably just a bench bat so I don't mind taking a flier on the much more toolsy player to see if you get stumble on something
Anita
3:52
Could the Jays trade for Daniel Schneemann from Guardians for Nathan Luke's or prospect to replace Leo Jimenez?
Anthony Franco
3:53
Yeah I think Cleveland would do that but Lukes > Schneemann for me
Brew Crewzing
3:53
Brewers seem to several 'Vibrant' young arms.  (With minor league options   available as well).  Over/Under on Brewer pitchers with 100 MLB innings logged this season?  4.5? (Woodruff, Priester, Mis, and several maybes?) What would you set the over/under at?
Anthony Franco
3:55
Hmm yeah 4.5 seems right. They only had four do it last year (not Woodruff but including Freddy/Quintana). I'd guess four again but more comfortably take the over on 3.5 than the under on 4.5 if that makes sense
3:56
Agree with the first three you mentioned as the likeliest (Preister probably most likely given Woody's injury history) followed by Patrick and Henderson
M’s Fan
3:57
The M’s have a top 5 pitching staff when healthy but injuries are always a concern. What’s stopping the M’s from signing a legit 6 starter like Giolito and at least starting the season with a 6 man crew?
Anthony Franco
3:58
Money probably but Steve's working on a post looking at teams that are limited from a roster flexibility based on a lack of players with options and the Mariners are in there as well
4:00
Doubt they want to have Miller open the season in Tacoma. If they run a six-man rotation, they're down to seven in a bullpen that's already tight enough that Legumina's probably not making it. Feels like this squeezes Criswell out as well and leaves them with a lot of single-inning relievers
BhamBrave
4:00
Three-way deal: Mitch Keller to the Braves, Jurickson Profar to Houston, Paredes to Pittsburgh, with money going from Pittsburgh to Houston to even things out. Who says no?
Anthony Franco
4:01
Don't think Pittsburgh can afford to give up Keller at this point
4:03
Excited as I am for Chandler/Ashcraft to get full rotation roles, that's asking a lot of those guys and Jared Jones post-surgery if Skenes is their only proven starter to open the season
GBS42
4:03
Roster Resource lists the Cards' Opening Day rotation as Liberatore, D. May, Pallante, McGreevy, Leahy, with Gorman, Walker, and Scott in the lineup. Is there any reason for St. Louis fans to be anything but depressed about the 2026 season?
Anthony Franco
4:04
Scott's kind of fun! I'm intrigued by the Leahy experiment, still like Libby as a decent mid-rotation guy
4:06
Wetherholt will be up before long. Herrera/Burleson can hit, Winn's a hell of a player. It's not going to be a good team but this is more interesting than the usual complete rebuild team
Ao
4:06
Time to jump ship on lawlar or is there still hope?
Anthony Franco
4:07
I still have hope on the bat, no idea if he'll be playable defensively anywhere
Mike
4:07
Spencer Jones, Anthony Volpe, Will Warren and maybe a pitching prospect for Cj Abrams or Zach Neto? Is that enough for one of those 2?
Anthony Franco
4:08
Nah, needs a clearer headliner. Stuff to like about all three guys you mentioned but clear red flags with all three: strikeouts for Jones, regression/shoulder for Volpe, home run rate for Warren. It's too much of a spare parts thing for Abrams
Angels aren't trading Neto
School of balls and sticks
4:09
With all the Konnor Griffin hype, and the fact he was drafted 8th overall with only college players going before him, I was curious as to how many high school prospects become superstars compared to college prospects. For the highest average WAR/162 games for active position players, a whopping 9 players out of the top 10 were drafted out of HS/internationally (Trout, Betts, Soto, Freeman, Ramirez, Machado, Harper, Goldschmidt, Seager). Judge was the only college player on the list. For pitchers it's kind of the opposite; 6/top 10 pitchers by annual WAR were selected out of college. Should teams be focused on this trend, i.e. prioritize young position players but more developed/college arms?
Anthony Franco
4:14
I think you're correct about the college vs. high school pitching element, teams already do this. Still get some top high school pitchers drafted highly (Jackson Jobe, MacKenzie Gore, Seth Hernandez) but they basically have to be the ideal pitching prospect to overcome the demographic risk. Clubs prefer the Seattle/Cleveland route of loading up on college pitchers with polish rather than using top picks on the Riley Pint or Tyler Kolek types who throw 100 in high school but have nothing else
4:15
There's a "chicken or the egg" element to the hitter one though. That's tougher to parse
4:16
Most of the highest-ceiling domestic amateur players are going to sign out of high school. These are the Griffin/Trout/Bobby Witt Jr./Byron Buxton types who have ridiculous physical tools. They're more likely than an Andrew Benintendi/Dansby Swanson type of college draftee to become a superstar
4:18
The drawback is there's less confidence in whether they'll make enough contact to translate those physical tools when they haven't faced as much high-quality pitching as the college guys do. So you can swing for the fences but there's also a chance you get an Austin Beck or Benny Montgomery who has all the power/athleticism in the world but you find out too late that they just can't hit
Dick Allen is a Hall of Famer
4:18
Any chance the Sox eat Yoshida's deal (sunk damn cost).
Anthony Franco
4:20
Have a tough time seeing it despite the limited path to playing time because Cora still seems legitimately bullish on him as a hitter
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