Pancake Bear

@Dollar Bill always retweets that troll, too. Gotta support the company man, even if he everything he says is garbage. The LA Times can go f itself.

2002 FTW, baby!

I keep seeing people talk about having Trout DH more. Is no one else aware that Trout is like replacement level as a hitter when he DH's? His career numbers at DH are really mediocre to bad (a .207 avg and a at best okay 110 wRC+). His career pinch hitting numbers are about the same. I can't remember ever seeing him have a good game at the plate as a DH. Dude just doesn't hit well when he's not in the rest of the game. Sitting on the bench makes him worse. Are the sample sizes small? Relatively, sure, but the fact remains that in a dozen years, you'd expect that sample to start to even out and...it just doesn't.

I know you're only like 16 or whatever, but Bo Porter used to be a manager, and he pretty much sucked at it. Case in point:

Oof.

Seriously? Dude is one of the dumbest people in the game. Why in the world would anyone want him as a coach?

Agree that bringing an infielder doesn't mean a trade is coming. People said the same thing last season when we brought in Urshela and Drury. It's called depth. People get injured. We have two rookies who could regress Where I disagree is that Schanuel should be sent down when we grab another infielder (which it's pretty obvious Perry intends to do). He was as good at the plate as any of our infielders. Again, he could regress, and we should be prepared for that possibility, but nothing in his numbers screams regression is likely, unlike (e.g.) Moniak.

That's a super shallow infield that relies on no one regressing or getting injured. Absolutely need another player who is an everyday starter.

They need an infielder. Arguably a corner infielder, although since Drury has played a lot of 3B in the past, a 2B could work also. E.g. Someone like Merrifield might not be bad. They also need an outfielder. DH will either be a mix of whoever is not playing the field that day or Ohtani if they somehow manage to get him back. Need at least one starter. Sandoval, Detmers, and Anderson are set. Canning is probably a lock as well. Bullpen...I have no idea after Estevez. I also have no idea how much money we have to spend. Would assume we need at least one high leverage reliever, though.

Not really keen on Chili as hitting coach. He was a good hitter, but hasn't he been mostly crap as a coach?

Having two guys catch most of their games last season who aren't really experts at leading a pitching staff in calling games with Thaiss and Wallach certainly did our pitching no favors. Stassi, meh as he is with a bat, is almost certainly a lot better at working with pitchers than those guys. Ditto, O'Hoppe. Team defense last season, especially with the shift getting the can, was probably also not doing our pitching any favors. That isn't to say they're all going to be all stars now with better catchers and a manager who is noted for his work on team defense should push us in a more positive direction. Obviously, who we get as a pitching coach will be consequential as well.

The Rangers agree.

Wish they could find some way to lure Mike Maddux away from the Rangers, but I doubt that happens.

So, apparently, per Boob, the coaching staff list is not official, just people they're discussing. In any case, Torii feels like a great fit for the staff. I would think he'd be a great asset for the clubhouse and probably coaches the outfield. Would set him up as a potential future manager if he does well. Would give him some coaching experience.

I feel like a lot of stuff the manager does is irrelevant since the front office is behind most of the strategy and decisions made. I think he has the kind of personality and knowledge and ability to teach that makes for a standout manager. That said, I don't know much about him, obviously. I know @VictorRojas29 said on the pod that Wash was his top choice but he didn't really get into much of his reasoning. Would love to hear more specifics from him since he has more direct knowledge of Washington as a manager than any of us do as to why he is a good choice.

Recent history suggests the Dodgers won't go 10 years and are more likely to offer a shorter term deal for more money aav.

I said this when the Arte interview came out: I'm getting the impression that Arte knows how much Shohei is asking for and isn't planning on meeting the ask and now is doing preemptive damage control. I hope I'm wrong. This is the single most amazing player of all time. Letting him go would be like trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Any owner who would do that should be run out of the league.

I'll settle for my preseason prediction of 96 wins. Only need 92 more.

I want to wait and see a bit, but on paper this is a much stronger team than last year. That's not to say they were playing way over their heads, but simply that they didn't have the depth to sustain it. We have enough really good players, but to be a really good team you also have to have the depth to cover rough patches, and I think we do this year.

Not getting excited yet. 3/4 games vs one of the worst teams in baseball. I want to see a few weeks of this before I get excited.

Detmers was good, although not amazing, but the offense and bullpen carried it, and we smacked George Kirby around, so it was a nice night.

If they could get Randazzo for every game, I'd be cool with that. O'Neal was lame, and Vasgersian just won't commit to enough games. Wish they'd brought Victor back, but apparently that wasn't happening. I'm cool with Randazzo, though. He's my favorite of the post-Rojas PBP guys.

DiGi, Sarah, and Bill all retweet him, though. Is it in their contract?

Lol Carpino. I hear Trent Rush and Patrick O'Neal are available.