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Let's talk about trading Jay Bruce, again

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 13 2018 04:28 PM

Joel Sherman aims high here but the sentiment is right on, Bruce could go for another team's problematic contract. https://nypost.com/2018/08/13/creative- ... -problems/

Ceetar Aug 13 2018 05:39 PM Re: Let's talk about trading Jay Bruce, again

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Joel Sherman aims high here but the sentiment is right on, Bruce could go for another team's problematic contract. https://nypost.com/2018/08/13/creative- ... -problems/ I mean, they never should've acquired Bruce, he's bad and a had a down year. But Should he come back healthy and bop in September I guess you can sorta sell that he's going to hit 30 HR or something next year. This is where we should be arguing that Bruce is the prime candidate to eat some dough and bring back someone useful. Not guys with big contracts that are bad. I don't think I want any of the garbage Sherman is peddling, most of which is "These are bad guys the Mets were linked to last year, maybe they'd rather sign these bad guys than the bad guys they did sign?" Like, Alex Cobb? I might still take Vargas. (I'd also pitch Matt Harvey a 2/25 type deal for that role) Or "Hey, THIS pitcher the Mets have didn't thrive under Callaway (small sample!) why not trade for another pitcher that previously did? I'd rather keep Swarzak than include him in a swap for Bryan Shaw. That's garbage all around. "Hey this guy's bad but he has 'closer pedigree'. No. Stay away from Mark Melancon. His K rate is plummeting, his walk rate is rising, he's not getting the ball down anymore. I'd rather try to teach Bruce to pitch. The real answer is sign a Machado or some other serious infield hitter. Hell, maybe trade Alonso at what might be the height of his value and roll with Flores/Smith/(even Bruce I guess) at first?

smg58 Aug 14 2018 11:56 AM Re: Let's talk about trading Jay Bruce, again

We could use quite a few things more than we could use a left-handed corner outfielder, which is why dealing Bruce for an equivalent contract at a position of more need makes sense. Cobb has been pitching much better lately, in one of the worst places in all of baseball to pitch (i.e., a hitter's park where you regularly face the Yankees and Red Sox). We certainly wouldn't rather have Vargas. Plus, I trust Callaway to handle starting pitchers. Anything more than one year and $5M for Harvey would be insanity. Melancon is recovering from an injury that shelved him for a full year. He's not all the way back. But 20 innings is far too small a sample size to write him off.

Ceetar Aug 14 2018 01:33 PM Re: Let's talk about trading Jay Bruce, again

smg58 wrote: We could use quite a few things more than we could use a left-handed corner outfielder, which is why dealing Bruce for an equivalent contract at a position of more need makes sense. Cobb has been pitching much better lately, in one of the worst places in all of baseball to pitch (i.e., a hitter's park where you regularly face the Yankees and Red Sox). We certainly wouldn't rather have Vargas. Plus, I trust Callaway to handle starting pitchers. Anything more than one year and $5M for Harvey would be insanity. Melancon is recovering from an injury that shelved him for a full year. He's not all the way back. But 20 innings is far too small a sample size to write him off. Sure, but even if you trade to someone that thinks Bruce will be his usual self, you're goingto get an average guy back? we don't need that. we need good players. Cobb is bad. He had a decent year last year and was above average, but he's a guy with a sinking K rate, and an above average groundball pitcher that still gives up above average home runs. I'm not convinced Vargas won't be better than him next year, as Vargas has like 10 years where he's been better than Cobb is this year. Vargas has only thrown 47.1 innings interrupted a lot of by injury and skipped starts and stuff. It's entirely possible you could get the meh 4.1 ERA out of him next year that actually keeps you in games. Gotta fix that walk rate. Neither of them throw hard though, so maybe go with the guy that gets strikeouts at least. implies better stuff? Probably on Harvey, but pitching is expensive. He's been average for the Reds and the velocity is coming back up. You might be able to leverage that into useful innings. (though he's still not really getting the strikeouts on it). But if you can buy that he's on a 'build up' track where his velocity might stay/go up for a year or two and he can get some outs that way, he might be worth it. This would instead of Vargas. Melancon also had 30 bad innings last year. There are a billion relievers that come out of nowhere to be good. Identify and groom those guys, don't just sign the guy that's maybe done it before a while ago. Wasn't this the knock on Gonzalez, who really only had 1 bad injury plagued year?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 14 2018 03:51 PM Re: Let's talk about trading Jay Bruce, again

Ceetar hates every idea. I only hate the idea of reacquiring Hovvey, that ship has sailed and is not coming back. Separate of the Bruce talk I like the idea of adding a really good veteran starter over the offseason, sort of the way Washington added Scherzer to the Strassburg-Gonzalez starting duo. So not Colon, not Vargas, not a "5th starter" but a 5th starter with a chance to be the 1st.

Ceetar Aug 14 2018 04:05 PM Re: Let's talk about trading Jay Bruce, again

Kershaw Corbin Keuchel ? Kershaw has been pitching well again which might get him to opt out. Corbin is having a career year, just turned 29, and most of his other years have been pretty good too? Where did that K rate come from? is it for real? Damn, that'd be nice. Keuchel has the pedigree and the awards, but is he a factor of the Astros, plus he's a groundball machine and the Mets haven't proven they've got the defense for that necessarily. But maybe you could steal a Corbin while everyone's focused on Keuchel and Kershaw? Or someone else? Drew Pomeranz? there's a guy with down year with Boston after multiple good ones. plummeting K rate. fluke? injury? (Seems to have lost velocity at the end of 2017, and that makes him suck.) Hyun-Jin Ryu? He's got a groin injury but he's coming back now. He's really good too. Maybe the injury history and a crowded class lowers his value.

smg58 Aug 14 2018 04:49 PM Re: Let's talk about trading Jay Bruce, again

Kershaw's case is interesting. He could get five or six years, but you'd be insane to offer him anything close to the $32M per year he's currently owed over the next two seasons at this stage of his career. Not sure which way he'll go. Corbin intrigues me a lot, but this might be a bit of an obstacle: [url]https://www.pinstripealley.com/2018/4/24/17273550/yakees-patrick-corbin-rumors-diamondbacks-free-agent-trade-pitching The defense is a concern if you go for Keuchel or Gio Gonzalez.

seawolf17 Aug 14 2018 05:25 PM Re: Let's talk about trading Jay Bruce, again

smg58 wrote: Kershaw's case is interesting. He could get five or six years, but you'd be insane to offer him anything close to the $32M per year he's currently owed over the next two seasons at this stage of his career. Not sure which way he'll go. The question for him is, do you want: * $65M over the next two, followed by the great unknown because he'll be 33 by Opening Day 2021 or * $130M over the next six or whatever, guaranteed Seems like a no-brainer to opt out, even if he winds up just signing with the Dodgers again. (Which he probably would.)