Yea he can't even be a platoon guy anymore - 124 wRC+ against lefties in 2024 but then 87 wRC+ in 200 PAs against lefties last year (not that a platoon gives you an advantage since Herrera is also right handed).
Herrera is not going to be the everyday catcher. He will DH 90% of the time. Pages will be everyday catcher and is a righty, so the problem you're trying to fix doesn't even exist. 5 left, 4 right, with plenty of right handed hitting on the bench (Saggese, Pozo, Fermin).
www.mlb.com
AI sez:
Thanks. Yeah, that’s what I’ve been seeing, but no one seems all that confident in him. That Stavson (sp?) the article mentioned is really highly regarded. But man that starting rotation does not look good.
In a two-three year rebuild do you have much confidence in most of the players? Some have potential but they still need to prove it. The BP is probably the area that has the greatest need to prove themselves. That's why they are projected to be a 70-75 win team.
They're going to want to market Jojo has a high leverage reliever at the deadline, so I'd bet he gets the lion share of the closing duties (with audibles to others when the inning would feature a leftie masher).
I'm going to go Svanson. Maybe not to start, but that is my guess as to who they will look towards.
Don't think they're abandoning him as a starter forever, just they're not going to push him into that role now as he has had injury problems that have not allowed him to pitch many innings. There is still hope they can build up his innings tolerance to eventually be a starter, though that hope seems a lot dimmer now than it did a year ago. I agree, in all likelihood he comes to the majors as a relief pitcher and ends up there, but I don't think they've given up on him starting (at least I really hope they haven't).
I’m thinking of drafting O’Brien with my next pick for my third reliever in fantasy and then depending how rest of my draft goes, picking Svanson as a handcuff late.
I don’t think having Romero close really helps his trade value. He already has a good reputation as high leverage RP, and not likely that team trading for him at deadline is going to use him as a closer anyway. Might be better to boost O’Brien’s value by having him close (assuming he does OK or better).
As much as it makes it easier for me to have Cards on my team, I’m staying away, especially relievers. I see 64-75 wins, a save or two a week won’t do much. IMO.
Ended up not taking O’Brien; guy with next pick took him.
Simmons > Porter
I was really mad when Whitey traded away Templeton. I thought it was the most ridiculous move ever. I wrote a complaint letter to the editor. I think it was to The Sporting News. Loaded with all the facts and stats for the players. I was upset when it wasn't published. I had been very analytical in my assessment. It didn't take very long for me to change my mind. I was glad it was trash canned. I'm sure they would have had a field day printing all the complaint letters at the end of the season.
Looking back on their stats, I can 100% see why you felt that way at the time. I didn't realize that, even though Templeton had been playing longer he was actually younger than Ozzie. He also had a better track record at the time they were traded. I'm sure the Padres felt pretty good about the trade at the time. I'm guessing nobody predicted that Templeton's offense would regress while Ozzie's bat would drastically improve after the trade, to the point where Ozzie was better both as a batter and fielder, which is what makes the deal a stroke of genius in retrospect. And Templeton wasn't a bad defender either before the trade. He actually had more dWAR in 1981 than Ozzie.
The Wizard was teachable.
