Every so often, Sean and Max have a running text conversation and post it on Off The Bench. Today’s text talk was about all the doings at the Winter Meetings this week. Lots of baseball news and slow days at our respective jobs made for the perfect discussion opportunity.
What follows are extemporaneous thoughts originally expressed in informal text messages. They are filled with spelling mistakes, capitalization errors and the like. Deal with it. Also, enjoy.
Sean Morash:
i am prepared to discuss all things winter meetings. My door is closed, I’ve made an imaginary meeting on my work schedule titled “Writing Critique” and i have my mouse hovering over the refresh button on Twitter. How’s your day going?
Max Frankel:
Well I’m not nearly as prepared but I’m ready too. Though I’m going to be interrupted by someone in s few minutes. She wants to discuss some press release I didn’t write that’s apparently bad
Sean Morash:
Speaking of apparently bad, if Billy Beane were a stomach, I would think he had food poisoning.
Max Frankel:
I love how everyone’s reaction is ‘I don’t know what he’s doing but I must just not understand it.’ What is that? Does anyone else get the benefit of the doubt like that? He’s hasn’t even won
Sean Morash:
Is it possible that his motives or intentions are a matter of national security and therefore cannot be released to the press?
I completely agree. It’s 2014 and football announcers are constantly proclaiming stupid shit all the time. Why are baseball writers so scared to mock Beane? This is like PEDs; zero accountability.
Max Frankel:
Well usually he is right though. He just had three great seasons riding nobody. He gets better everytime he trades all stars. And I actually think Brandon moss is way over rated
But yeah there’ve been some serious head scratchers
Sean Morash:
I wrote a whole post in the summer of 2013 about how good Brandon Moss had become. I stand by that.
Max Frankel:
.234 last season. Less than .180 in the second half
.180 is baaaad
Sean Morash:
To put another way though, Beane’s acquired 2-3 guys who are going to start games on the hill for him and his shortstop and second baseman.
Moss was hurt and not at 100%. He’s averaged 33 homers/162 over the last three years.
Max Frankel:
No. You can’t put it that way. Addison Russell is better than Marcus Semien and this Joe whatever guy couldn’t hit in AA.
Sean Morash:
I think you have to reevaluate at the natural points. So you can’t look at it as trading Addison Russell for Marcus Semien, but rather look at (and make trades from) how your team currently stands.
Take the Braves-Tex deal. They made the moves that they thought they needed to in the time that they made them. The deal turned out to be Casey Kotchman for Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, and Matt Harrison. Just because the same player is involved does not mean that his value is the same, or that the given organization has not extracted the value that they wanted
With that, let’s talk about Texas. They apparently want Wade Miley
Max Frankel:
That’s fair. I think that at some point though, Beane stops hitting the right buttons and the A’s finally play down to their talent level.
I like Wade Miley. No idea why Arizona would trade a starter after adding Yasmani Thomas and seemingly retooling. Again.
I can never root for the Dbacks though. Too ‘scrappy’ for my tastes. Is Kirk Gibson still the manager?
Sean Morash:
Yeah, it’s a shame too because they have great uniforms.
Miley is a great trade candidate because he’s secretly not great, but is the type of player that gives the D’Backs plenty of return to make it worthwhile
He’s like a Chipotle burrito.
Max Frankel:
Great analogy.
Who would pitch for Arizona though? And what are they doing with Trumbo, Thomas etc. guys who can’t field. Do they think they’re in the AL?
Sean Morash:
They still have Josh Collmenter and Bronson Arroyo. #scrappy
holy…. Trevor is Cahill BAD – 5.61 ERA in 110 innings last year and still owed $12 M next year
Max Frankel:
scrappy. Read white and racist. We should talk about that more as a society.
Sean Morash:
Maybe Billy Beane knows what he’s doing
Max Frankel:
That time yeah.
Sean Morash:
Racism? I think there’s a pretty big effort underway right now to make inherent racism part of the national conversation.
Max Frankel:
The dbacks specifically
Anyway. How about Jon Lester?
Sean Morash:
I agreed with everything Ari wrote and it’s looking like my drunken position from this time last year that the Cubs would make the 2015 playoffs will come true
Max Frankel:
Sorry for my delayed response. I went down to the work building holiday party #freefood #2plates
The Cubs still need another pitching though. Any thoughts on who that could be?
Sean Morash:
James Shields
Max Frankel:
Eh
Actually. Maybe I like shields
Sean Morash:
I’m not convinced that they need to add another mediocre name. They’ve already got Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks who are good and depth beyond them, including Dan Straily, Jacob Turner, Edwin Jackson, and Jason Hammel
Max Frankel:
He seems like he could fit well as a 2a/ 3 starter. He’s not the ace he’s been billed as though
Sean Morash:
If they add another pitcher, he needs to be a top of the line guy (a true No. 2)
Max Frankel:
Too many question marks. I agree that a front line guy is necessary. Jon neise? He’s better than he gets credit for. What about Kris Medlen or Brandon Beachy?
wily peralta?
Miley?
Sean Morash:
I’m of the opinion that all of those question marks will lead to a period. Three lefts make a right type of deal
Beachy/Medlen make sense given that they could be he front line guys but don’t necessarily HAVE to be
Max Frankel:
They need another piece. You don’t want all the young guys to be playing well on offense and it’s June and your scrambling for a starter to stay relevant
I like medlen for the cubs
I’d like medlen for the white sox too. They need depth bad. Like I wrote about yesterday
Sean Morash:
I like it. Tell me about the Yankees. The Steinbrenner move is to get Scherzer
Max Frankel:
No!
I do not want scherzer
Last thing we need is another decade long $200 mil contract
It doesn’t look great for the bombers right now though. If everybody hits they’ll be good but everybody is like 35 and hurt. Or a rod
Sean Morash:
Who hits for this team? McCann, Tex, and Ellsbury?
Max Frankel:
Yeah. And Beltran and Gardner.
Sean Morash:
How’d that same squad do last year?
Max Frankel:
Not so hot. But everybody got hurt. I’m not really worried about the offense though. Mostly because there’s nothing that can be done. It’s the starting staff that’s the biggest issue
Sean Morash:
So what’s the fix? McCarthy?
Max Frankel:
I really don’t know. Cc learning how to pitch again? McCarthy would help though.
You hear about this Porcello for Cespedes rumor?
Sean Morash:
Yeah. I like it, both equally overrated
Max Frankel:
Boston needs help. Their pitching staff is a wreck. They can’t win every game 10-8
Sean Morash:
I missed this. Was waiting on you. I really don’t have faith in Boston to figure it out either. I know there’s lots of pitching out there but they seem like they’re about to bungle this
Max Frankel:
Yeah. The whole lester debacle doesn’t instill a lot of faith. But at least their rational, which is more than I can say for Rueben Amaro. I heard the Sox didn’t even call Philly when Lester signed. Hilarious. If I was a Phillies fan id be looking into putting a hit out just to get a new gm
Sean Morash:
Why is Amaro so safe when everyone in the industry thinks he’s an idiot?
Max Frankel:
I honestly have no idea
Sean Morash:
They’ve got to move Hamels and Ryan Howard together and just start over. Marlon Byrd was a good sign last year and he should go too
Think we could cover how to fix the phils in 140 characters?
Max Frankel:
They need to move everything that isn’t nailed down. Papelbon first
Yes. Trade everyone. For anything.
There. With characters to spare
Sean Morash:
So you’re not a Dom Brown fan?
Max Frankel:
Maybe off the bench. The problem is all the big money for nothing. They might have the least talent in the league. They are beyond a mess
Sean Morash:
Let’s move on. The Braves seem to have a plan and that’s exciting. J-up for another young starter and then be mediocre and boring in 2015
Max Frankel:
How did they fall so far so fast?
Sean Morash:
Medlen and Beachy turned from Top performers to non-tenders in about 18 months
Max Frankel:
Yeah that helps.
I think they chose wrong on heyward by the way. I would have dealt justin and extended Jason to have a simmons, upton, freeman core. Trade everything else for pitching
I feel like I’ve been down on everybody today. I love what Toronto is doing. Yay Blue Jays
Sean Morash:
They’re gonna be good, though I think the Martin contract turns out bad
He’ll provide leadership to that pitching staff. How do you think one says knuckleball in French?
Max Frankel:
Le knuck? If dickey and buhrle are good they will be too. The offense is for real. Saunders was a steal and a half for them.
Not as high on stroman as a starter as others though
Sean Morash:
Well you should be. He had a great second half. I don’t think he’ll have a long half life but he’s going to be good for the next few years. They the early pick to win the NL East?
Max Frankel:
Maybe. But we do this every year, crown somebody in that division and then watch them crumble. I’m picking Tampa because nobody’s talking about them and why not.
Sean Morash:
I like it. They lost their leadership though at a critical time in their franchise. No more Price means they’ve got to come up with an identity and do it fast
Max Frankel:
Report!: as of 38 seconds ago the Dodgers want Jimmy Rollins
Sean Morash:
I love it. Absolutely perfect fit.
Max Frankel:
Agreed. Jimmy’s got a no trade but enough Dodger Dogs would convince him to waive it.
What are your thoughts on all this Kemp business?
Sean Morash:
I just saw the greatest drinking game of all times and out readers would appreciate it: place a Santa hat on the corner of a TV and whenever it looks like someone is wearing it, you drink
Kemp is great and whoever gets him will be very happy. I think the Padres make sense and should do everything they can to get that kind of talent
We keep agreeing. Say something inflamatory
Max Frankel:
Agreed. That’s the kind of move they need to make. I wrote a lot about them earlier this offseason. Or whenever they hired Preller as gm.
So. I think Scherzer and Boras are in trouble. It’s not that he’s not worth the big bucks. I just don’t know who’s going that high to give it to him. If the tigers give him $200 mil they’re screwing themselves
Report: Rockies interested in Dillon Gee. Add this to the ever growing list of things I got exactly, 100% right
Sean Morash:
When did you get that right?
Max Frankel:
July! I wrote this whole post about mets Rockies trades and how the mets should leverage their pitching at the deadline
Sean Morash:
As always, we’re the smartest. Let’s get this thing posted before it becomes old news. Miley to the Red Sox the latest possibility
Max Frankel:
Probably a good idea. On both things
