Warfarin

I don't really know enough about Autry to comment on him in particular. I just know why people don't like Moreno - he is not a baseball executive, and he is doing his organization a tremendous disservice by telling those who he has employed to run his operations which players to trade for, sign, when to reject a deal, etc. Arte's role in this is to set the budget and tell his GM how much money he has to spend in various areas (MLB payroll, player devo, etc), and in turn let the GM he has hired make the personnel decisions. The reason Arte is disliked is he has (apparently) overstepped that boundary in many instances, which has led to Rendon being signed, trades being nixed due to taking too long, etc.

Catchers are valuable prospects. Just because you have a good one doesn't make a catching prospect any less valuable. If you have a valuable commodity, you don't just give it away for a minimal return.

Right. Good teams look at improving on the margins, and while these are very mediocre hitters, they are a step above the guys we were going to have to use (Padlo, Cabbage). We need every win we can get, which means that we need guys to help us win over the next 1-2 weeks while players are (hopefully?) gradually returning.

Heh, I doubt it. I think the ones that can/will hurt the most are Quero and Madden. I think Albright probably projects as more of a backend SP, which is fairly replaceable, and the same holds for Bush. I am still really puzzled at trading Quero, but my guess is maybe the FO feels he won't really hold up as a legitimate defensive catcher. If he can't, then that makes him a 1B, and his offensive projection is rather pedestrian then if that's the case. Madden - I'm not sure. There's potential there, but significant control issues. I think that Madden is probably the most variable one of those who were traded.

Perry is likely not calling the direction of the moves we are seeing. Maybe in other organizations, where the owner takes more of a backseat role, the GM/PBO would be permitted to make these kinds of decisions. I do not think that is the case here, and likely Perry was told to acquire whoever he can to help fuel a playoff run. I think losing Quero will hurt significantly. The others - maybe not quite as much.

I am assuming he will start the majority of next year as our 1B. They will likely hold off promoting him for the first weeks, as they did with Neto, for years of service purposes, but he's going to be our 1B for the next 7 years.

Well, no, but they need him to agree to re-sign with the team. They are clearly going "all in" in Ohtani's walk year, despite rather poor odds, likely to show him they will do what it takes to win. The team has not really been in a winning position ever since he's been here. This team badly needs Ohtani to stay. They could have traded him and gotten a fairly good (but likely not commensurate) prospect return for him, but they did not, and they are going "all in" to the degree possible. Even if it is a failed playoff run that ensues, if this is what convinces Ohtani to stay, then it is obviously worth whatever prospects they just gave up.

I mean .. I guess? I appreciate that Minasian is doing what he can to win. Likely his boss is telling him to win by any means necessary - hence, the prospect cost, Arte agreeing to go over the luxury tax, etc. In terms of the long-term organizational health, well, it comes down to one thing really right? Even if we don't make the playoffs, if this somehow impresses Ohtani and shows him that this organization will do whatever it can to win and he signs long-term, then you can say it was definitely worth the prospect cost. If he leaves, and we just traded a number of prospects (including a very promising catcher) for nothing, well .. ouch. Here is hoping this all leads to Ohtani staying and/or winning the World Series this year.

Well, that's certainly a way for a relatively new GM to overhaul the organization quickly, eh? lol.

LOL, nice connection, but I don't think anything is linking us to Goldschmidt. Given we just drafted one of the best hitters in the draft, who plays 1B, with our top pick, I highly doubt we pursue one who is signed to a long-term deal via trade, much in the same way I seriously doubted we'd pursue a SS after we had just drafted Neto with our top pick.

We'll have to see. But we could, alternatively, have the closing duties rotate with the portion of the lineup that is due up (i.e. LHH or RHH), given we have two dominant relievers to close out games. I would opt to err on the side of acquiring shutdown talent and let things get figured out thereafter.

I'm not terribly concerned about farm rankings. The Braves have seemingly been near the bottom for the last few years, but that hasn't stopped them from pumping out amazing young talent. Rankings don't mean much. Moniak came over with little fanfare and was considered a flamed out prospect, and he's suddenly our second best hitter (albeit SSS). As long as the FO and player devo department can continue to find ways to generate MLB players as they have so far, that should be good enough.

I am not sure what he would cost, but I agree that Hader would be a prime target. He'd probably be my #1 option at this point. So, let's say target a trade for Hader and Candelario. Backend of the BP becomes Estevez, Hader, Lopez, Moore. Soriano, Webb, and Loup would essentially occupy the middle innings. Barria serves in the long relief role. With Candelario, they'd roll with him at 3B and Moose at 1B vs RHP. Moose sits vs LHP and some combination of Drury and Rengifo can play 1B/2B. I'd like Bellinger, but with Moniak raking and Trout hopefully coming back in the upcoming weeks, his services may be less needed than the above options.

Yep. Basically, if we are in competition for the wild card and it was coming down to tiebreakers, likely both teams (Angels, Blue Jays) would have won a good chunk of their remaining games, which means we'd likely gain the tiebreaker edge. So basically - we have to take 2 of 3 this weekend. A sweep would be great, but 2 of 3 would basically almost essentially guarantee that we'd win the tiebreaker.

It was rather clear that Davidson was basically the last guy in the pen. I think they took a flyer on him at the deadline last year, hoping to see if they could eke more out of him than Atlanta could. Still has some potential, but given that he has no options, it makes it awfully hard to give him the reps necessary to improve. He would be best stashed in the minors somewhere, instead of languishing at the end of the bullpen. Barria, presumably, now takes over his role instead.

Probably wishful thinking. If he wanted to sell the team for max value, probably should have sold while Ohtani is still on the team. If Ohtani does leave as a FA, that does negatively impact the team value, I would imagine.

The other part of it is even when he was squaring up pitches and hitting it hard, it was not carrying. He had clearly lost power after his surgery. Really sucks, but the team has moved on. Best of luck to him, hope he latches on somewhere and gets another shot.

Feel bad for Walsh, but that is the nature of the business. I would not be surprised if Schanubel is fast-tracked in a similar way that Neto was, such that he is our starting 1B sometime within the first two months of next year. Moose will occupy that role for this year, and we have various options (including Cabbage?) to hold that spot next year until our first rounder is ready.

I'd keep Silseth. His last start was promising - he made some adjustments to his pitches and he had a fantastic start. Time will tell if he can continue to build upon that, but that's a promising development. As for the next move - another LHH bat, whether Candelario or Bollinger, sounds good to me. I have no idea if Rendon will be out for the year or not, but given he has been thoroughly mediocre for years now, I would say it would make sense to target 3B as a place to upgrade. Moose is more of a 1B than a 3B now, and while Rengifo has been hot of late, he's still much more effective as a RHH than a LHH, so I think someone like Canedlario would be a solid get. And FWIW, I'd look to get another reliever, too. I think we can safely move on from Davidson at this point, and instead keep Barria as the designated long-reliever.

We would have to trade prospects, not players who are not good and/or nobody else wants

Would assume that Redfield went to hi-A instead of A because Rada is patrolling CF with IE. Otherwise, I would figure he would have joined the other top prospects in IE. With Rada getting daily reps in CF, though, I am assuming they opted to put Redfield in TC so he can play CF daily.

I'd keep Silseth. He looked fantastic in his last start and made a significant pitch adjustment. Maybe that is part of why they decided they could part with Bush, too. If Silseth is viewed as a SP option, to go along with what we have currently in the rotation, we are really solid in terms of SP depth. Go get Hader from the Padres. Now THAT would be a shutdown pen - Hader, Estevez, Lopez, Moore.

Yep. Candelario would be a solid get. I'd love to see Bellinger, given Trout will be out, but I think either of the two would help a lot. I am going to assuming Rendon will be out for the rest of the year, but even if not, he's been as mediocre as can be, so an upgrade would be helpful regardless.

I think it ultimately depends. I'm fine with giving up Bush - think he projects as more of a backend SP, and our rotation is fairly filled out, along with some other good prospects that we have. I think the larger concern would be to give up potentially a very good catching prospect for rental players. There are not many good catching prospects in this sport in general. That said, there have been questions about whether Quero can remain behind the plate - so I will go ahead and trust the FO that they have insight, and maybe they felt he wasn't going to be a good defensive catcher. His offense, if he were moved off catcher and instead moved to 1B, would be a lot more mediocre comparatively. I DO love the rest of the picture - making a big trade and "going for it," showing Ohtani that our owner will do whatever it takes (lol) to win, and so on. I really hope this move is a signal that Arte will give Ohtani the keys to the franchise this offseason and say "stay here, here's a blank check, we want to build a winner with you and Trout." Arte is old, and maybe, just maybe, he will open the payroll further to win a title in his old age.