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Front Office Chat: 3/22/24
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Anthony Franco
3:22
I guess give me the Angels. I have no idea
Rogers Cenntre Renos
3:22
on the non-baseball side, the Jays did a stellar job with the stadium renos last year and it's looking like the same for the infield. Did you get to see the OF redesign last year?
Anthony Franco
3:23
Haven't been to the Rogers Centre in a few years, no. Might try to get back there this summer. It's always a good time
Bob
3:23
I’m always preaching for shorter, higher AAV max contracts like the NBA uses even though I know it’s a pipe dream.  But would that not help the “middle class” problem?  It would prevent owners from using “albatross contract” as an excuse not to spend and increase demand for solid players.  Obviously the salary cap would have to be raised
Anthony Franco
3:25
Skeptical that it makes a difference for the mid-tier free agent. I think the bigger issue for them is that teams feel they can approximate like 75% of those players' production for essentially the league minimum
Even as the top Boras guys moved to the short-term, high-AAV deals this spring, the unsigned players at the lower tiers did horribly
Clement
3:25
Can Ernie Clement be a regular in the jays lineup?
Anthony Franco
3:27
Utility guy for me based on the complete dearth of power, but the opportunity is there for him if he outperforms that. I don't think Biggio or IKF are regulars either
Jordan Montgomery
3:27
Montgomery to the Cubs for more depth?
Anthony Franco
3:28
Don't know that ownership would do it and push deep into CBT territory, but I'd like the fit a lot from a roster perspective
3:29
More so than the Angels or Red Sox, who are fringe playoff shots even with Monty. Cubs are right in that border area where adding a mid-rotation starter could legitimately be the difference between winning the division or not
Baseball fan
3:29
Hey Anthony, Thank for the chat! I am so ready for opening day on Thursday next week. What are some of the marquee match ups you are looking forward to on Thursday?
Anthony Franco
3:31
Wheeler/Strider feels like the obvious one, but that's for a reason. Giants going into San Diego with Melvin as their manager is fun
catchers
3:31
What's the deal with KC catchers. Why do they have both Fermin and Nola?
Anthony Franco
3:32
Carrying three would allow them to use Salvy at DH a little more frequently, but they could also send Nola to Omaha and stick with Perez/Fermín
WS hangover
3:32
How real do you think the WS hangover will be this year?  Is it actually a consistent phenomenon?
Anthony Franco
3:33
I don't think it's a huge deal. Obviously those teams had a little less offseason to work with than others but it doesn't change how I feel about either Texas or Arizona
3:34
Rangers have some lingering injury stuff, so I guess you could argue that's related, but the lineup should still be awesome. As long as the rotation holds up for the first couple months, they'll be fine
Rizzo
3:34
At what point should we open the checkbook? Our kids look fantastic! If we can give a taste of the majors to Wood, Crews, House this season to go with Abrams, Ruiz, Gore and Gray, should we go in next year with Corbin's contract off the books? Or will it take another year?
Anthony Franco
3:34
(Nationals)
3:35
Depends on how things progress this year, but ideally, they'll be in a position where they can attack starting pitching next winter and see themselves as a potential Wild Card team
3:36
Payroll opens up more once Corbin expires, as you mentioned, although they're stuck with the Strasburg money and still feeling the effects of the Scherzer/Corbin deferrals
3:38
But you can kind of see the position player group coming into place. They're still pretty light on starting pitching, so that's where they'll need to add in free agency or trade at some point. Gore and Gray are solid and Cavalli should be back, but it's not a deep group
Guest
3:38
There seems to be a huge disparity among teams with regard to drafting and developing young players? What are the good ones doing that the others aren't?
Anthony Franco
3:39
Ha, if this were easy to spot, the bad teams would start doing it
3:41
There are some teams (Guardians, Mariners) that are really good at developing velocity. They take pitchers with good athleticism and feel out of college for pitching and have a strong hit rate at adding another two or three ticks to the stuff
Guest
3:41
Hey Anthony! What do you think of my predictions of division winners an playoff teams. NL West Dodgers NL Central Cubs NL East Braves #1 seed Dodgers #2 seed Braves #3 seed Cubs #4 seed Phillies #5 seed Reds #6 seed D'Backs
Anthony Franco
3:42
Not exactly what I had -- believe Tim will send our staff predictions out in the next few days -- but everything you picked seems plausible
Duran vs Munoz
3:42
Given Jhoan Duran's current iffy health status, and Andres Muñoz iffy past health status, who's the safer bet for saves this year?
Anthony Franco
3:44
Not worried about Duran's spring numbers at all. I like Munoz a little more as a pitcher but if we're talking specifically about saves, I'd go with Duran
3:45
Seattle has been kind of resistant to settling on a specific closer. They'll probably start with Munoz in the ninth early in the season but I could see them moving him back into roving high-leverage work as the year goes along
Guest
3:45
Marlins SP depth and Reds infield depth
Anthony Franco
3:45
Love a good dueling Spiderman meme
Ryan Redleg
3:46
The Reds defense has taken a big hit with the loss of Mcclain and Friedl. I'm concerned about their defense. I could live with Steer and Benson playing LF and RF with Friedl playing center and being able to cover so much ground. Who is available via free agency or trade that would be an upgrade over who they have  in-house?
Anthony Franco
3:48
I don't think there is an upgrade available right now. There's certainly not a better CF than Benson/Fairchild available in free agency at this point. They could take a flier on a Jake Marisnick type if they want a glove-only option off the bench, but he shouldn't be playing over the Benson/Fairchild platoon regularly
3:49
Tough timing for Friedl to go down, for sure. They'd be in a lot better spot if they'd listened to your push to sign MAT all offseason haha
Question Mark
3:49
Lots of pitching injuries. Is this the long term affects of speeding up the time in between pitches?
Anthony Franco
3:50
I don't think it's a pitch clock thing. It feels like every spring that a ton of pitchers get hurt and we wonder if it's abnormal or just par for the course at this point
3:51
Keith Meister, who's a medical professional and much better equipped to answer this kind of thing than I am, talked to The Athletic about this a couple weeks ago:
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