Inside Pitch

Fair enough (I like Gibson more than Miley) -- and while those guys would help, they really really need a Cole or someone better than an innings eater at the very top of the rotation. Hopefully Arte allows Billy to make it happen. Hey if he thinks those moves improve the team then it's not all bad right?

Percussionist (the entire dugout)

And yet they don't call the shots... Funny how that works, eh?

Does that include you?? Miley and Gibson gets them two innings eater's closer to your ideal four, right? I mean, they meet your criteria of guys who managed to start 29-33 games... Right?

You should CC Arte on this one -- people keep talking about Eppler but this is all on Arte.

How many of those posts also went on record that the pitching needs to be the first priority? You're picking and choosing what people have said.

Id have done 4/68 if we already had the pitching to be honest. Not like DH and 1B aren't options for him should he need to to spend less time behind the plate. But the reality is that three outcome guys like him have a history of falling off a cliff all at once. Grandal is basicaly an elite version of Chris Iannetta only, he can actually contribute defensively (which is a huge deal) But.. FWIW... Grandal career .vs Innetta first three years in Anaheim.. Grandal -- .241/.348/.446 -- .796 (115 OPS+) Iannetta -- .238/.357/.386 -- .743 (113 OPS+) So, while you're free to try to paint people as biased homers, the reality is they aren't being unreasonable and as good as Grandal's bat has been his last three seasons (age 28-30, 114 OPS+), they have been pretty much equal to age 29-31 Chris Iannetta (113 OPS+). Let that sink in a bit...

Do the players run the show in Houston?

Tank should have brought Victor's mom along to seal the deal.

Just another hour and I'm sure we will see the Dodgers have signed Harper....

I don't think MLB is willing to risk Taubman going rogue ala Canseco or writing a tell all book about the cheating and tanking and whatever other BS the Astros have been doing the last 5+ years.. That dude is gonna sing

Will be interesting to see how high they are willing to go on a pitcher -- that 73 mil they just gave Grandal is their biggest FA signing ever.

Sign a Wheeler, sign a Castellanos, promote Robert and Madrigal... Add a couple guys around the periphery and in that division they could be really good.

NP.. It's probably just a desire to keep it from getting too busy... They use the median number too, .vs the average.. which I totally get... But more often than not the actual figures come in closer to the average figure.

Thats' the crowdsource prediction, not their in house one. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2020-top-50-free-agents/ 6. Yasmani Grandal, C, Age 31 Contract Estimate Type Years AAV Total Kiley McDaniel 4 $17.5 M $70.0 M Median Crowdsource 3 $16.0 M $48.0 M Avg Crowdsource 3.46 $18.4 M $63.5 M 2020 Steamer Projections PA BB% K% AVG OBP SLG wOBA wRC+ Off Def WAR 580 14.6% 23.5% .244 .358 .460 .348 115 8.3 7.0 4.8 Kiley’s Take If you haven’t looked, you may not believe it: Grandal has posted five straight seasons of 4 or 5 WAR. In a catching landscape that increasingly looks like a Mad Max film, the backstop keeps performing, though I’m sure his fingers are crossed that robo umps are still a ways off given his +134 runs career framing figure. He reportedly turned down four years and $60 million from the Mets last offseason because a $15 million AAV wasn’t the precedent he wanted to set, then had to settle for one year and $18.25 million from Milwaukee (just above the qualifying offer he turned down). He seems likely to get at least the Mets’ offer again given his 5.2 WAR season, and I’m betting his deal comes in at a bit more. Player Notes Grandal was a top-10 free agent on our list last year, and a fat lot of good it did him, as he wound up inking just a one-year contract for barely more money than Los Angeles’ qualifying offer. Grandal declined his 2020 option with Milwaukee and hits the market again this winter in much the same place he was last year.