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Trade Rumors Front Office Chat With Anthony Franco
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Anthony Franco
2:00
Hey everyone, welcome to another chat!
Hits Like Rays
2:01
Why are people so opposed to the ghost runner in extra innings? They prefer to keep watching a game for 14 innings to scratch a run across while bench players pitch 50 mph, everyone has increased injury risk, and we get to watch a AAA pitching staff the next day? If fans demand to keep the best players on the MLB field (which is their argument against service-time manipulation), then they should support the ghost runner too!
Anthony Franco
2:02
I think you're overstating the frequency of the marathon games. Having a couple games a year that go 15+ as a novelty is fun to watch, even if it's not great for the teams involved
2:03
I also think there's a better medium with the ghost-runner than we have right now. I'm cool with it by the 12th. Starting in the 10th? Too early for me
Baseball fan
2:03
Do you agree with Steven Sousa that about half the teams cheated like Houston
Anthony Franco
2:04
I don't think anyone was doing anything as elaborate as Houston was, but I'd be shocked if they were the only team doing something illicit behind the scenes with regards to signs
Braves Fan
2:04
We don’t need to worry about Charlie Morton, do we? Please tell me it’s because of the shortened Spring.
Anthony Franco
2:06
I'm not concerned. He's still throwing hard, breaking ball looks more or less the same. I just think he had a rough start. It happens
IL Timed
2:06
Byron Buxton. AJ Pollock. Eloy Jimenez. Fernando Tatís.  How do these athletically talented guys get hurt so often?
Anthony Franco
2:08
They're all very different cases. Tatís got hurt in a motorcycle, Buxton's gotten injured a couple times by pitches, Pollock fractured his elbow diving into home plate a few years ago
2:09
I think it's generally bad luck, but there are going to be some whose hamstrings just don't hold up as well as others'. I don't know there's a real way to predict that in advance (I'm also not a doctor, obviously) but it's unfortunate for those players
I love baseball
2:09
Don’t ban the shift. Did you see what joe rizzo did against Toronto. He dropped a perfectly placed bunt down third base against Toronto. More players are doing that
Anthony Franco
2:09
I also wouldn't ban the shift. I think bunting against it is a lot harder than many people give it credit for, though
2:10
I'm like 90% confident they'll ban the shift by 2023. Our feelings aren't quite as impactful as Rob Manfred's
Joe madden
2:11
Should I be worried about Otani. He was hit hard the other day in texas
Anthony Franco
2:12
Also not even a little concerned. He's throwing gas and has a 14% swinging strike rate, so it's not like he forgot how to miss bats
2:14
Guys have bad weeks all the time. If Ohtani, Morton or anyone else like that got rocked twice in a row on June 4 and 9, most people wouldn't even notice. It's tempting to place a ton of stock into the first couple weeks because there are outlier stats that stand out when you see players' lines, but the first week is no more inherently meaningful than any other week of the season
Dan O of Coquitlam
2:14
Hi Anthony, just wondering if you think the Rays -- an organization I despise -- might be a sleeper candidate in the Frankie Montas trade race? They have the MLB ready prospects (Brujan, Patino) and farther down the road prospects (like Williams, Mead or Gaston) that should tempt Oakland if TB is serious. I think starting pitching appears to be their only weak link, and Montas could be traded at next year's deadline if an extension couldn't be ironed out...
Anthony Franco
2:15
Yeah I think they're a perfectly viable fit for Montas. I'm not sure I'd even consider them a "sleeper" candidate. For all the reasons you laid out, it makes a ton of sense and I'd probably put them among the 5-7 likeliest landing spots for him
sgrossman
2:15
Does "small ball" look like its making a comeback or does it just seem so because there is more talk this year about bunting and beating the shift by hitting to all fields?
Anthony Franco
2:16
I don't think small ball's coming back unless the league finds some way to drastically roll back the strikeout rate by diminishing the quality of pitchers' stuff. The foreign substance crackdown was vaguely helpful but not enough that I think teams are going to start playing for singles and one-run innings early in games again
2:17
Stringing together three hits is just really hard when the league's striking out 23% of the time and hitting .244
J.M.
2:18
What is wrong with Eddie Rosario?  When do we expect Acuña back?
Anthony Franco
2:18
On Rosario, it's been seven games. He's an inconsistent hitter anyways
2:19
Acuna is expected back in like early May as a possible DH option
Hits Like Rays
2:19
Do you have any numbers for the frequency of marathon games in the 2010s and the effect that the ghost runner had on them in 2021?
Anthony Franco
2:21
I've dropped this note in a couple posts I've written on the ghost runner because it really stuck out to me when I saw it last year
There was only one MLB game that exceeded thirteen innings in either of the past two seasons; there were 23 such games in 2019 alone.
So there's no question the ghost runner killed the marathon game. That Dodgers - Padres 16-inning one last season was the only completely bizarre exception
2:22
But I also don't think that having a game go 14 innings once a week in MLB -- which was basically the standard in 2019 -- is that big a concern
IL Timed
2:23
Thoughts on this week's SF "controversies"? Unwritten rules in blowouts and connotations of "that motherf**ker"/getting ejected.  Also, what do think of Gabe Kepler as a manager?  He seemed bad/disliked in Philly, but he's succeeding so far in SF.
Anthony Franco
2:24
I can't really speak to the latter. I'm in support of Richardson saying his piece on that, and he and Shildt talked that through the following day. I don't have anything to add there
2:25
The other one is a complete non-issue for me. You're in the major leagues, you can deal with a guy bunting for a hit without getting your feelings hurt
Don't fall behind 12-2 if you don't want to be embarrassed
Dov
2:25
Why are the billionaire owners of the Red Sox so darn cheap in offering their best players pennies on the dollar. Jon Lester, Mookie Betts, and now Bogaerts, and possibly Devers next season.
Anthony Franco
2:27
The Bogaerts offer Jon Heyman reported (essentially adding 1/$30M to get him to forego his opt-out this season) was bad. I don't know why they even bothered
2:28
That said, I don't think it's as simple as "John Henry's cheap." Boston has the fourth-highest CBT payroll in the league this year. They just signed Trevor Story to a six-year deal, and Nick Yorke's one of the best second base prospects in the game
Maybe they just don't want Boagerts around long-term and would prefer to spend the money on somebody else. That's fine
2:29
Again, if that's the case, I don't see the point in offering him something laughably below market value. Just let him opt out and sign elsewhere, because this is why you signed Story in the first place
J.M.
2:29
has there been any word on when Soroka could start his comeback, and is it realistic to think he could help the Braves this year?
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