Hot Stove 2023-2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMMhOX7vJhY

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2023/12/12/d-backs-introduce-lefty-eduardo-rodriguez-unfazed-by-nl-west-rival-dodgers-adding-ohtani/71897601007/

Dbacks owner Ken Kendricks got that post-WS confidence!
referring to Ohtani:
“I think it's good for us that we get to compete against him,” Kendrick said. "Last time I looked, he's one of nine. Last I also looked, he's the designated hitter. He's a great player. Is he the second coming? I would suggest not."
"“They're playing by the rules,” Kendrick said. “They got a great player, who is going to be an addition that makes them more competitive. But the economics are not so tilted in a way that puts them at an incredible advantage over the rest of us.”

I do see the giants/dbacks/pad's keeping things competitive this year, especially with deals still to be made. Looks like a great pick up for SF, had a fantastic ops in the KBO

🫡 man knows ball (though I prefer to imagine you with a big notebook of player injuries alphabetically. ANKLES:
POSEY, Buster (2011)

OBLIQUES

and so on.)

Grienke looking to pitch this season, he's at 2979 strikeouts. Could work for the dodgers as a lance lynn 2.0. Bloke can eat innings, pitched more of them than any Dodger did last year

Rowdy Tellez to Pirates. @ByRobertMurray 1st

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 13, 2023

https://x.com/extrabaggs/status/1734726437876474082?s=20

Ohtani camp presented Giants the exact deal that Ohtani ended up finalizing with LA. "We were agreeable to it," Zaidi said. Then Giants were told it was in Ohtani's hands. Obviously, Shohei picked Dodgers.

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) December 13, 2023

Superstar in Korea:

Some of Jung-Hoo Lee's KBO accomplishments (7 seasons)

.340/.407/.491 line
9.7% BB rate
7.7% K rate
.151 ISO
2017 ROY
2022 MVP
5x KBO Gold Glove Award winner#SFGiants

— Jeff Young (@BaseballJeff1) December 12, 2023

silver lining: Looks like the giants are trying to open their purse. Saw a tweet that they're in on belli too

The Dodgers are discussing a trade in which they would get RHP Tyler Glasnow and OF Manuel Margot from the Rays for RHP Ryan Pepiot and OF Jonny Deluca, sources tell @TheAthletic. Deal not complete. Changes possible. Financial exchange likely. On it: @Bnicklaus7, @AzoulayHaron

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 13, 2023

i honestly wouldn't want to give up anything of value for Glasnow. he's obviously quite good (a little inconsistent) - but he's always hurt. the Dodgers would be lucky to get 1/2 season out of the guy imho

He’s been in the big leagues 8 years and pitched just over 500 innings. That’s crazy. I know he had TJS & there was the short covid season but that’s not great. Filthy stuff when he’s healthy but I agree with what you said. And Pepiot has potentially plenty of upside & tons of team control.

morel is an interesting player, feels like he's either hitting 5 homers in a week or in a 5/49 slump

I love him. That k rate is his biggest issue but he’s exactly as you say. Supposedly extremely popular in Chicago as well (The Athletic):

Christopher Morel has been one of their most exciting players to watch, so much so that you can't even go get a Chicago dog behind home plate in between innings if he's due up.

for better or worse, morel feels like javy baez pt. 2 (without the flashy defense)

(i do not have high hopes for him)

I feel like the key determinant of Baez at the plate is how much shit outside the zone he swings at. Have you seen the shit Baez was swinging at this year? Morel is in the 43rd percentile for chase rate, Baez is in the 1st. The highest Baez has ever got in his career is 6th. Morel also hits hard and has pretty decent barrelling numbers; Baez looks like a noodle bat.

Morel:
https://i.postimg.cc/MHGkQKHm/IMG-2970.jpg

Baez:
https://i.postimg.cc/SR1B7FzF/IMG-2971.jpg

Morel walks at a better rate than Javy, but he doesn't have Javy's considerable base running and defensive value. I'm a little wary of his long-term prospects. But he's still young and I still would definitely not give him up for Glasnow. Aka Mr. Glassnow.

Rowdy Tellez to Pirates. @ByRobertMurray 1st
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 13, 2023

Going to see him in April I guess!
― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Tuesday, December 12, 2023 6:51 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

are they gonna use him as a hitter or pitcher?

i meant more young baez than current baez. also more of an impression than a firm 1:1 comparison.

Fair enough, though Baez at the same age and career stage as Morel (first full season) didn’t profile much different as a hitter. Elite glove obviously.

And I do see now that Morel is currently in the DR playing winter ball, no doubt to work on his glove.

Unusual clause in Ohtani contract

Contract also states, “If specific change in Dodger personnel, player may opt out of contract at end of season the change occurs.” Not known at present who this refers to.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 13, 2023

Mike Trout

95% chance that’s about this interpreter, maybe like 5% Mookie Betts?

Saw a tweet that they're in on belli too

God I hope not. He’s got boondoggle written all over him.

He had an incredibly high ceiling. Big power, and even when he was below average in his offence for the dodgers he still put up positive war with his elite defence. He proved he still had his mojo with the cubs imo, think he’d be a great pick up for any team. I’d back the dodgers going after him again

His k rate dropped by about 12% in 2023. I’m really curious if he’s figured something out, or if that’s just some amazing fluke

over 600+ plate appearances? kinda stretches the definition of "fluke". It reverted back to his end of 2020 pre-shoulder injury form. I don't know if he gets any better than 2023, but barring serious injuries, I don't see him getting significantly worse, besides the normal drop of age. 27 though? I think any team is going to get a great outfielder for the next five years minimum

What I'm interested in is his drop in hr's. I didn't watch much belli last year so don't have the eye test. Looking at the stats, his average and k% were both at 2019 mvp cody form. Also wtf a 300+ average for a 2023 player known historically as a power hitter???? It's just the slug that dropped, and the walks along with it (I see those as connected). He hit more singles this season than any other, probably connected to the new shift rule? The shift worked against him more than any other dodger player while he was there.

But really what happened to the power? Was the 2019 juiced ball really responsible for Cody's monstrous 2019 .629 slug? His 2023 .525 slug is still elite, just weird to see that as the only thing that dropped for a 27yo player

whoever gets belli is going to be a better team in 2024 because of him

22nd lowest k%
13th highest wrc+ for 2023
12th highest ops
9th highest slug
6th highest average (this is the craziest to me, had a pretty stock babip too, just slightly higher than average)

Andrew Friedman just got himself 10 years of job security

https://apnews.com/article/shohei-otani-dodgers-3fe44e39efc42674f75b5233cc01b149

"Ohtani... would be allowed to terminate his deal if Mark Walter no longer is controlling owner or president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman no longer is with the team, the person said."

Joe Kelly re: giving up his uniform number.
“I wasn’t going to give it up to just anybody,” Kelly said. “If Shohei keeps performing, he’ll be a future Hall of Famer and I’ll be able to have my number retired. That’s the closest I’ll get to the Hall of Fame.”

Asked what Ohtani was giving him in return, Kelly said, “Oh, there’s a list, but no comment.”

Everything about this deal is just wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVCgggECm_g

I miss him so much 🥹

Also sorry read the stats wrong, belli had 556 pa's this year, but point still stands

Ya. It’s not the sort of thing that fluctuates wildly one year to the next. It’s also a really hard thing to cut down by that much.

Totally. He's has 2 bad years directly attributable to an injury, and 5 great years all up. I think he proved he's still great, and the bad ones have a justifiable reason.

he did drop his k rate by 7% 2018-2019 though, but can probably attribute that to it being very early in his playing career and having to adjust to pitchers figuring him out. 12% drop is just wild

h p who do you support in the battle for the CLAXTON SHIELD

Bandits all the way baby

Who previously employed Randy Johnson (no not that one)

And are currently managed by the first Australian MLB all-star, Dave Nilsson (whose birthday is today!!!)

Bellinger appears to have shortened his swing on 2-strike counts and traded power for contact, which is fair enough. But this has also reduced his ability to hit the fastball. He's very average when facing 95mph+ pitches. So it'll be interesting to see how the league adjusts. Sheehan notes that on xBA and xSLG and xWOBA he's an almost perfect comp for... Alex Verdugo, or 2017 Eric Hosmer

Yeah I was reading this article after posting that which references those points. See what happens
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/is-cody-bellingers-two-strike-approach-sustainable/

Active thread, and related to the off-season in general, so I'll post this here:

https://www.mlb.com/news/most-stunning-offseason-mlb-trades-in-history-c300892424

Surely the writer misses what would be my pick (bias noted) for the most stunning offseason trade of the past 40 years: the Alomar and Carter for McGriff and Fernandez trade in December, 1990. I was even going to ask one day if that was the last trade to involve two HOF'ers. (Plus: Carter was considered to be on a HOF track for part of his career, until analytics took over, and Fernandez had a great career.)

None of the trades they list involves two HOF'ers, not really even close, unless there's someone unknown from the past couple of years who steps forward. A-Rod for Soriano was huge at the time, yes, and looked to involve one HOF'er for sure and potentially a second one down the road.

Not off-season, but Scherzer and Trea Turner was a HOF and HO-very-very-very-good trade. In recent history, don’t know if any other trade has had two players (combined) better

This guy just signed with the Rangers for two years…seems good but often injured

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mahlety01.shtml

Ohtani streaming live now if anyone wants to hate watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtEL78f7ZCI

DOG NAME REVEAL:

dekoping, American name Decoy