JotCast | Trade Rumors Front Office Chat | 5/7/2021

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Steve Adams

2:05

Greetings all!

Sorry to be a few minutes late. Was getting something up on the site about the Roberto Perez surgery

Nicholas

2:06

Do the Mariners regret extending Evan White?

Steve Adams

2:07

I doubt it. They knew there'd be offensive struggles since he was making the jump from Double-A to the Majors. They didn't know -- how could they? -- that they wouldn't have the luxury of sending him to Triple-A if he needed more work at the plate.

It's been rough so far, but the glove, the power and the hard contact are all encouraging. He's cut his strikeout rate this year. And it's not like they're paying him anything in the contract's first couple years anyhow.

2:08

Maybe he needs an extended run in Triple-A to get right at the plate, but even if that's the case, it was a six-year extension with three options. Plenty of time to right the ship, and I'm sure they're still glad to control those three would-be free-agent seasons.

Ed

2:09

If you had one current player to build a franchise around, who would it be? Please exclude mega stars like Mike Trout. I mean the tier of players below him.

Steve Adams

2:11

I'm not sure where the line at "mega-star" ends, but Trea Turner comes to mind as someone who is outrageously good and never gets the star treatment because he's surrounded by so much star talent all the time (Harper, Soto, Rendon, Strasburg, Scherzer, etc.)

Byron Buxton, perhaps, though pretty dicey to build around someone who has had such durability concerns. But man has he been something to watch this year.

Dlucian

2:12

What's up with Mookie Betts? Although early in the season, he isn't putting up the numbers that you'd expect from him.

Steve Adams

2:12

He's missed time with a back injury already, so I have to wonder if he's fully healthy at the moment.

Ryan

2:13

If analytics was "finding the thing teams undervalue," do you think that some org will come back around to a World Series Royals/or 80s Cardinals speed/contact lineup and win?

Steve Adams

2:17

I disagree with that being the premise of analytics, which is a broad, umbrella term that is often misused. Teams use all sorts of data to find new ways to evaluate players and new things to improve their chances of marginal wins or squeezing a next level of performance out of a guy. You're talking more "Moneyball" style market inefficiencies, and I do think certain clubs will always begin to value less-popular assets they feel they can get more value from. And then others will copy, and the cycle repeats.

Kiley McDaniel just wrote a great piece on this at ESPN with a focus on the draft; specifically how teams used to kind of look over athletic starters with average stuff and good command. Clubs now are honing in on those guys after the Indians have repeatedly succeeded at improving the raw stuff (often with data), recognizing that the thing to focus on is more what you can't so easily teach (size, athleticism, command)

I probably just butchered some of that crude synopsis, but here's a link:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/31337762/the-new-moneyball...

2:18

Really good piece. Kiley is awesome.

Kid who only cares about the HOF

2:18

Best player that's not in the HOF? (NO CHEATERS)

Steve Adams

2:19

Most of the players in the Hall of Fame cheated in some capacity. People have been cheating forever and will continue to cheat forever. Amphetamines in the 70s. Doctoring the ball for god knows how many decades before that. Etc. etc.

2:20

Anyway, Fred McGriff is always my go-to "Should be a Hall of Famer" guy, but there are tons. I think the whole exclusivity of the Hall is silly. I am not a "small hall" guy, and I don't really care when people who I don't think are good enough to be in the Hall (Jack Morris, Andre Dawson, Harold Baines) end up going in.

Erik Neander

2:20

Are my targets RPs or bats this TD?

Steve Adams

2:21

We'll see what happens with the Rays healthwise between now and July, but I would say that with Anderson and Roe down, Fairbanks and Castillo already dealing with some shorter-term injuries, etc. -- bullpen help will for sure be on their radar. They won't box themselves in though, it's the Rays. They could have Realmuto and Willson Contreras as their two catchers or something and still go acquire a third one, then somehow come away looking brilliant for it.

Don Awalt

2:22

What's your take on Oriole John Means' start with the Orioles? Being a lefty can't hurt! Do you think his pitching performance is sustainable, has he taken it to another level or is this just a hot streak?

Steve Adams

2:23

I think there's legitimate improvement with him. I mean he's obviously not going to sustain a 1.30 ERA or whatever, but his swinging strikes are way up, he's getting ahead in the count more than nearly any starter in baseball, and he's giving up barely any hard contact.

2:24

I don't know that I buy him as some sort of bona fide, Cy Young-caliber ace, but this version of Means is legitimately better than previous ones; it's not just some small-sample, April hot streak.

Snowman

2:24

Do u have an all-time favorite player? Maybe someone a little under radar. Mine is JT Snow

Steve Adams

2:26

I grew up a Twins fan in the late 80s/early 90s (good timing!), so you can pick form a long list of those guys. I was always a Gary Gaetti diehard. He was my mom's favorite player and so she kind of passed that on to me.

Being a 90s child, I was obviously big on Jim Thome, Frank Thomas, Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., Greg Maddux.

Brad Radke was always a favorite, and for some inexplicable reason I'd always end up with Jose Guillen on my teams in various baseball video games, so I bought a Jose Guillen Nats shirsey at one point, haha.

Bartolo Colon

2:26

It was on this day in 2016 I hit a home run.

Steve Adams

2:27

We must all celebrate tonight

GBS42

2:27

I didn't ask this question well as part of Tim's MLB Mailbag earlier this week, so I'll try better here. How would you respond to those who say WAR is a "silly, made-up" stat? I'm in a couple of Facebook baseball groups, and many commenters are quite dismissive of WAR despite the all-time leader list clearly being the greatest inner-circle Hall of Fame-level players.

Steve Adams

2:27

I mean, all stats are "made up"

What the hell is a win? Try explaining that to someone now who doesn't follow baseball and they'll think you're on drugs, haha.

2:29

WAR doesn't have to be for everyone, but beyond the fact that the all-time leaders generally check out with who we think to be the best based on traditional numbers, it's used by every single front office around the game. Maybe not the B-Ref and FanGraphs versions that are publicly available to us (well, definitely not those versions), but every club has its own version of it.

The simple notion of trying to figure out approximately how many runs/wins better your team would be with a specific player over a readily available Triple-A journeyman shouldn't be alien or anything.

2:30

People tend to rail against anything that's not traditional, though, and most people who take such an anti-WAR stance seem to reject its validity because it's not something you can see or easily quantify. They want to watch baseball and evaluate it based on the basics that they see. I say that's fine; everyone should enjoy the game the way they prefer to enjoy it.

Will

2:30

With the release of Pujols, will the call-up of Marsh be accelerated? Or will he walls in AAA for a while?

Steve Adams

2:31

I would imagine Marsh or Adell will be up before too terribly long.

Wayneroo

2:31

What do you see Ty France shaking out as, longer-term? Maybe .260, 15 HR, decent OBP guy?

Steve Adams

2:32

I'm more bullish on him than that. I love the bat and think he can hit for a higher average with 20-homer pop and a nice OBP. Probably not tons of defensive value, but I like the swing, like the track record ... recent slump or not, I'm a believer.

Sean M.

2:32

What's the latest on Anibal Sanchez?

Steve Adams

2:33

Seems like his agent is just going to keep leaking updates about showcases until the world ends, haha. I don't know. He obviously wasn't happy about the offers he got this winter and is waiting for something better, a la Shane Greene. At this point, Anibal should be happy if he get a year and a prorated million bucks.

Let's Do The Time Warp Again...

2:33

Is there any way to access previous exclusive MLB chats?

Steve Adams

2:34

I think the links that go out in those emails should still bring up transcripts of past chats. Do they not? If not I'll see if I can't find a way to get transcript links sent out to subscribers.

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