A mighty fine St. Patrick’s Day to you all. Although I’ve got a good bit of Irish in my blood, it’s never been something I’ve connected to all that much. You can’t really force it, but I kinda want to force it. I do like Guinness, so there’s that!
And I sure do love the Chicago River tradition:
Fun fact on the back-to-back-to-back homers yesterday:
After his two homers yesterday, Seiya Suzuki is now hitting .440/.481/.920 on the spring, which leads all the Cubs’ regulars. Not that any of it matters in the least, but I figured you’d be curious. Other Cubs regulars/chance to make the team whose spring OPS is over 1.000: Patrick Wisdom, Christopher Morel, Dom Smith, Garrett Cooper.
As a fun aside, the highest OPS on the team (min. 10 PAs) is Brennen Davis’s 1.583.
Speaking of fun spring stats:
The Rays say their payroll this year is going to lead to “real losses,” which may or may not be true, but it’s pretty wild to even say it out loud when this is the payroll situation (MLBTR):
“(I)t’s easy to see that the club’s 2024 payroll is well outside of their typical range. RosterResource projects the club for a $99MM payroll in 2024, while Cot’s Baseball Contracts projects Tampa to open the season with a payroll of just under $91MM. Regardless of which figure you take into account, it would be a healthy increase to payroll for a club that opened the 2023 season with a $73MM payroll and has an all-time high of just under $84MM.”
A $95ish million payroll is (1) blowing away their previous highs, and (2) is so much that it’s going to lead to “real losses.” Obviously the Rays make it work every year, but it’s pretty extreme. Also worth noting that owner Stuart Sternberg suggested the team could take a step back in payroll after this year, which could mean a whole lot more trading (they have a ton of young players on the cusp of emerging in the big leagues, so it makes sense that other guys – who either make a little money or are entering arbitration – could be dealt).
Oof. Marlins potential ace Eury Perez has reported elbow pain and is going for imaging. Perez, who still isn’t even 21 yet, jumped from Double-A to the bigs last year, and more than held his own over his time in MLB. The future is extraordinarily bright thanks to his pitch quality, frame, velocity, and youth. But if he’s got some kind of elbow injury right now, obviously that throws a huge wrench into things for 2024, at a minimum. The Marlins are already without Sandy Alcántara for the year (Tommy John surgery), and are, for the moment, without Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera (shoulder issues, each hoping to miss little time). The margins to compete were already extremely thin for the Marlins, so this is not good.
Reds outfielder TJ Friedl has a sprained wrist, which he apparently hurt on a diving attempt in yesterday’s game. Friedl quietly hit .279/.352/.467/116 wRC+ last year for the Reds and was worth a whopping 4.4 WAR. He’s quite important to them, and in his absence, I think the Reds would have to go with fourth outfielder Jake Fraley in center – he can put up league average numbers or a tick better, but he’s likely to be solidly below average defensively. The Reds have a metric ton of coverage and versatility in the infield, but in the outfield, there’s a lot less depth (unless they move another guy out there besides Spencer Steer, and/or unless he can play center field, which seems very unlikely).
Speaking of unnecessarily hurting yourself in a Spring Training game, this is an incredible play by Matt Carpenter, but also there is no reason for a 38-year-old dude to be doing this in March:
While there is always something to be said for effort and skill, it is ALSO a very important part of a player’s job to know his surroundings, know the context, and adjust his body movements accordingly to maximize his performance for the team. Staying healthy in the spring would be an enormous part of that. I know that some guys only have one speed and can’t throttle it easily, but there’s value in being able to manage your effort as it relates to context and health.
At first I saw this and was like wtf dude, but there’s actually a pretty good explanation:
Basically, it’s two things at once: first, Stroman would have to alter his schedule with just 10-ish days to go before Opening Day, and that’s not idea. Second, the current setup had Stroman in line to pitch the HOME opener, which he really wants to do. So, yeah, I kinda get saying thanks, no thanks on the Opening Day assignment. Not sure I’d do the same, but I do get it.
It’d be unfair to expect anyone to be the next Paul Skenes immediately after Paul Skenes graduated, but it’s also impossible to ignore just how absurd Wake Forest’s Chase Burns has been:
And yet it’s possible Burns isn’t even the first pitcher drafted! Because Hagen Smith is also doing absurd things:
Part of Sammy’s return to Chicago:
It finally happened. At a personal level, I’m very sad. But I think this had to be done, even for a very modest return:
NEWSLETTER
