JotCast | Trade Rumors Front Office Chat With Anthony Franco

Trade Rumors Front Office Chat With Anthony Franco

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Anthony Franco

12:53

I don't see the Angels biting. Hiura's older and his swing-and-miss issues are even more pronounced than Adell's

Joe

12:53

Baltimore: "Can't rebuild forever" - challenge accepted!

Anthony Franco

12:53

Lol

Joe

12:53

Montas looking good so far this year... as your top SP trade target from the recent article, is he at the point where he's almost too expensive, especially with a lot of the top teams being fairly low on minors talent?

Anthony Franco

12:54

He's only got a year and a half left and the A's aren't going to extend him. They could keep him for 2023 and try to contend next year -- I don't think it's a complete rebuild situation -- but it feels likelier than someone will get desperate and pony up at the deadline

Joe

12:54

Think the AL Central gets a wild card team this year?

Anthony Franco

12:55

I had the Twins as a Wild Card team preseason, and I'll stick with that for now (White Sox as division champs)

12:56

The Angels have been better than I anticipated so far, though, so they very well could steal a spot from one of Minnesota or Chicago

Will

12:56

Do you have any sense of who got the better part of the Kimbrel for Pollack trade?

Anthony Franco

12:57

I preferred the White Sox's end of it, but I'll say that in the limited time I've seen Pollock this year, he has looked really bad

12:58

I'm not as concerned about the offense; it's been 12 games. But it doesn't seem like he's moving particularly well defensively right now, and I think there's some chance the injuries and age have just caught up to him

Joe

12:58

Hendricks... interesting, but not sure we need *another* slowball pitcher. What about Stroman for someone... Sheets?

Anthony Franco

12:58

Tim mentioned this in his post earlier, but it's hard for me to see the Cubs trading Stro four months into a three-year deal

Orioles

12:59

How much of the improvement their rotation has made do you think is due to the change of the left field wall?

Anthony Franco

1:00

That plus the overall anemic league offense accounts for pretty much all of it IMO. They're still not striking anybody out, home runs are just down

They've gotten a few more ground-balls, so maybe that's not entirely fair to them. Let's chalk up 90% of it to stuff beyond the pitchers

regarding Jake Meyers

1:01

Can't find any news about how much longer he'll be out. Closest thing to a timeline I saw was an article that said 'early June.' Got anything on him? Thanks!

Anthony Franco

1:01

Yeah I have no idea. Last update was James Click saying on Opening Day there's no timetable

1:02

Mid-June would be my guess. I'm guessing he'll eventually go on the 60-day IL, given the lack of updates to this point

Kevin

1:02

How much effect does a manager make on if a team wins or loses games every day? For example, take the Mets, last season they stunk. Now they are winning a lot. Is that because of the in game decisions the manager makes?

Anthony Franco

1:03

I don't think it's so much in-game decisions as behind-the-scenes personality management that matters

Surrounding yourself with quality coaches who can help guys make adjustments to their approach or mechanics -- incredibly useful

1:04

But I think the "should he have made this pitching change or pinch-hit here" stuff, while fun for fans to litigate, mostly comes out in the wash at the end

Strike Out Machine

1:04

Watching the Mariners really makes me feel that they have a player development issue above AAA. So many top hitting prospects come to the majors and fail. The newest is Jarred Kelenic. I agree some young players need more time, but we see so many young players come up and hold their own. Kelenic is not one of those players. In 408 ABs so far, he looks over matched, unable to adapt during in an at bat, and strikes out at an astonishing rate. He is currently striking out at 42% pace and hitting .127 this year. So many of his ABs seem like waisted ABs and now he is even being pinched hit for. At what point should M's fans be panicking with him, and is it time for the organization to send him down?

Anthony Franco

1:05

He's still just 22 and mashed when they optioned him back to Triple-A last year, so I'm not abandoning hope. There'll be guys who get drafted high this year who aren't too much younger than Kelenic

1:06

He's absolutely been disappointing so far. I anticipated better, and he's just swinging and missing way too often, as you mentioned. But I still have faith he'll eventually figure things out

baby shark do-do-do

1:06

when are the Cardinals bringing up Gorman?

Anthony Franco

1:06

Within the next two weeks, probably

mmddyyyy

1:06

At this point are there any problems a team could solve with just money?

Anthony Franco

1:06

At this point in the season? No

1:07

During the offseason, absolutely

Andruw Jones Ghost

1:07

Any chance a real center fielder becomes available so the Braves can push Duvall to a corner and perhaps a platoon. I know he's been okay defensively so far, and the whole league can't spit and hit the ground, but Duvall is significantly overrated as a threat at the plate.

Anthony Franco

1:08

I'm sure we'll get another round of Mullins/Reynolds speculation around the deadline, but there's not a whole lot else out there. The center field market this past offseason was awful aside from Starling Marte

1:09

It forced the Braves to rely on Duvall, the Phillies to start Odúbel Herrera/Matt Vierling, the Marlins to sign Avi García to possibly play there. Just not enough good center fielders to go around right now

EWitkows

1:09

Are you buying Eric Lauer's massive improvement?

Anthony Franco

1:10

I don't think he's an ace but he's much better than he was two years and probably a mid-rotation guy now

1:11

Believe Steve's going to do a full post on Lauer's repertoire adjustment and breakout fairly soon. I know he was looking into that as a topic recently

mmddyyyy

1:11

Do we know the trade deadline this year?

Anthony Franco

1:11

Yep, August 2 at 6:00 pm EST

Question

1:11

What happens to MILB teams in big markets, with nice stadiums if MLB awards those cities with a pro team? I.e Las Vegas, Nashville, Charlotte?

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