MLB 2013!!

[Fve Crathva]

Lind's been well above-average against RHP (120 wRC+ career), Davis has been above-average against LHP (108 wRC+ career). A 1B/DH platoon between the two with Encarnacion as the swingman (1B against LHP, DH against RHP) wouldn't be the worst plan. Or just entrench EE at 1B and platoon the DH--Lind's probably the better defender, but seems to have trouble staying healthy when fielding.

SP

[OzzyKP]

Miggy.

M-V-P! M-V-P!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Lind's been well above-average against RHP (120 wRC+ career), Davis has been above-average against LHP (108 wRC+ career). A 1B/DH platoon between the two with Encarnacion as the swingman (1B against LHP, DH against RHP) wouldn't be the worst plan. Or just entrench EE at 1B and platoon the DH--Lind's probably the better defender, but seems to have trouble staying healthy when fielding.

SP

Though if the wallet is open in Toronto, I figure they'd want a better option, especially since they play in the AL East.

[Fve Crathva]

For sure, but they'd get more value spending the cash on another starting pitcher. Their top 5 is decent but they have pretty much 0 depth.

SP

[Ben Kenobi]

Joe Mauer is STILL pretty darned good. Had a great 2012 - .319/.416/.446, for an OPS+ of 141. WAR of 4.1 (BR) / 5 (Fangraphs) - interestingly enough his fielding wasn't on par this season.

Didn't I post something on Mauer being MVP awhile back? He was right up there with Trout statistically and that's before Catcher adjustments.

[Fve Crathva]

SP

[Imran Siddiqui]

[snoopy369]

Assuming the TOR-MIA trade is approved, the next obvious move: Travis D'Arnaud or JP Arencibia for Gavin Floyd and some money (maybe throw in the rights to Dan Johnson for fun). TOR-CWS have a long trade/waiver claim history together, and they each have something the other wants (C and SP).

I'm probably undervaluing TOR's C prospects here some, though IIRC they've both dropped in value significantly in the last year relative to their positions last year. Either still looks like an upgrade from Tyler Flowers.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Assuming the TOR-MIA trade is approved, the next obvious move: Travis D'Arnaud or JP Arencibia for Gavin Floyd and some money (maybe throw in the rights to Dan Johnson for fun). TOR-CWS have a long trade/waiver claim history together, and they each have something the other wants (C and SP).

I'm probably undervaluing TOR's C prospects here some, though IIRC they've both dropped in value significantly in the last year relative to their positions last year. Either still looks like an upgrade from Tyler Flowers.

That makes too much sense, which likely means it won't happen .

Though if it does, Toronto's rotation looks like:

Brendan Morrow
Josh Johnson
Mark Buerhle
Gavin Floyd
With either Kyle Drabek or Drew Hutchinson as the #5

That's pretty nice.

[snoopy369]

I think it's unlikely, unfortunately, because d'Arnaud is probably too high a prospect to trade for Floyd (Floyd's reasonable, but not THAT cheap) and Arencibia is basically a weaker defensive version of Flowers (.233/.275/.435, vs Flowers' .212/.296/.412 for nearly identical OPS of .710 vs .708).

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, D'Arnaud was never really an option, but I was thinking Arencibia & stuff for Floyd. Arencibia was very highly rated himself at one time and his hitting is moving in the right direction.

[snoopy369]

2011 OBP: .282
2012 OBP: .275



I think I'd rather have Flowers and Floyd. Now, if the 'stuff' were of enough value (Adam Lind anyone?? Edwin Encarnacion??)

[Imran Siddiqui]

Arencibia's Runs Above Replacement level was higher in 2012 than 2011 and his offensive WAR was only 0.3 less though he had 100 less at bats.

[snoopy369]

... and? I don't think dropping 7 points off your OBP from an already criminally low .282 is offensive progress. He dropped 10 points off his OPS, had half the walks in 4/5 of the PA, and had a higher strike out percentage, while having only 0.1 higher HR rate. This is not offensive improvement from a growing player. I don't know or care why his WAR only dropped 0.3 (from 1.5 to 1.2, which is almost identical to the proportion of PA, nearly 5 to 4), but this is not positive player development.

I'm not sure Arencibia is going to continue to be a bad player, by any means - in fact, maybe a trade is exactly what he needs - but I'm just not sure I see more than Flowers. Flowers put up basically the same numbers ratio-wise - higher SO% but higher BB% also - in less than half the PAs, and a 0.6 WAR (which doubled would be 1.2, which would put him at the same WAR for fewer PAs). And on top of that, Flowers is a far superior defensive catcher (good lord, that sounds wrong given what I [and everyone else] said about him in 2009/10... good job on that one Flowers!). I'd take Arencibia if he were LHB, in a minute, to platoon him - and I admit that Flowers undoubtedly got a higher % of platoon advantage ABs given he was AJ's relief on Sundays and Nasty LHP days - but on the other hand, a lot of these ABs were against Nasty LHPs, which aren't necessarily any better than Average RHPs.

[Fve Crathva]

Arencibia (on Twitter) is pretty confident that he's staying put. My guess is they want to get rid of Buck's $6 million contract and give that money to whichever of Anibal Sanchez or Edwin Jackson will sign as soon as possible.

SP