This is part 2 of my "How much WAR would ________ get?" series. You can find How much (negative) WAR would I accrue playing on a Major League team for a full season? here.

So yeah. I wasn't satisfied with just knowing how much negative WAR I would get. I needed to know how much WAR an inanimate object, say, a potato, would cost a Major League team. And more importantly, am I closer in value to said potato than I am to an actual big leaguer?
Once more there are assumptions. This is a magic potato. It has everyone convinced it is actually a competent center fielder. So no rearranging the fielders to compensate for having an inanimate object on your roster. But as soon as the play starts, all involved simultaneously say "oh fuck" as they realize they have been fooled into believing this tuber can play baseball.
We will go through the components as we did last time, rearranging the order a bit.

Positional Adjustment

Tate will be manning center for a full season. 162 games of CF is worth 2.5 runs. Looking good so far!

Batting

We can discuss whether a potato (or a carrot, for that matter) even with a human-sized strike zone would pick up a couple of walks (I think so, actually), but for the purposes of this exercise, we will assume Tate will go .000/.000/.000. Which brings us to the matter of plate appearances. As everyone knows, magic potatoes will fool people into believing they are decent lead-off men. So Tate will lead off 162 games. According to Baseball Reference's batting splits page, in 2019 there were 22824 PAs from the #1 spot in the lineup. This averages to ~761 per team. However, never making it on base will seriously diminish Tater's plate appearances. In 2019, leadoff hitters had an overall OBP of .335. This comes to a total of 255 on-base events for the average leadoff hitter. So I think 1 out of every 9 of those missing on base events will cost an individual player a PA. So we can subtract 28 PA from the 761 an average leadoff hitter would have, leaving Tate with 733.
From here we convert to wOBA. It's .000. That was easy.
We then determine wRAA ((.000^wOBA -.320^{lg wOBA} )/1.157^{wOBA Scale} )x733^PA = -202.7 wRAA
Well there goes the positive RAR we started with. -200.2 RAR

Baserunning

Here's the thing. If you don't get on base, you don't get (or lose) baserunning WAR.
WAIT! That's not true! By never hitting into a double play, Tate can actually come out positive in this component. In 2019, there were 32598 double play situations:

	1--, 0 out	12-, 0 out	1-3, 0 out	123, 0 out	1--, 1 out	12-, 1 out	1-3, 1 out	123, 1 out
Total 2019	9974	2574	798	664	12158	2923	1864	1643
Percent of total PA	.053	.014	.004	.004	.065	.016	.010	.009
In 733 PA	39	10	3	3	48	11	7	6
Total 2019 GIDP	996	248	53	65	1326	434	185	159
GIDP Percentage	.010	.096	.066	.098	.109	.148	.099	.097
In 733 PA	3.9	1	0.2	0.3	5.2	1.7	0.7	0.6
GIDP Value	.411	.565	.777	.961	.224	.429	.478	.752
Final Value	1.608	.551	.162	.245	1.167	.732	.348	.470

Let me explain. I took all double play situations found what percentage each one was of the total season PAs. I then multiplied them by 733 to determine how many of each situation Tate would face in a season. I then took the total of double plays in each situation to average determine the likelihood of a DP in each one. I then multiply that by the number of DP situations our hypothetical potato will be in. Knowing that Tate will never make contact, we know he will also never hit into a double play. Knowing this, every double play an average player hits will add value to Tater's WAR. To determine the negative impact of a DP, you take the run expectancy of the base-out state had the player made just a plain old out (if they don't make an out it gets incorporated in the batting section), and subtract the run expectancy of the base-out state after the double play. One I get those, I multiplied that by the number of double plays Tate hypothetically saved by never making contact. The last thing to do is just add up those values. This gets us to a 5.3 RAR for baserunning!
-194.9

Replacement Level

If Replacement Level Runs = (570 x (MLB Games/2,430)) x (Runs Per Win/lgPA) x PA then 733 PA will be (570x(2430/2430))x(10.296/186516)x733 giving Tater a boost of 23.1 RAR.
-171.8 RAR

Fielding

This last category is the most difficult to determine, and thusly the most controversial. For weeks I've been thinking about how I could capture the damage done to a team by replacing their center fielder with a potato. I tried understanding UZR and DRS, but that stuff is impenetrable. Alas, I came up with an idea. I would use brute force. I will go through every ball hit to center in a team's season, and mark down what I think the outcome would have been had the center fielder vanished as the ball hit the bat. If there's another fielder there to make the play, nothing changes. If there's one not too far away, maybe it changes a little. If there's nobody else in the vicinity, it would change a lot. But first, I needed a team. I settled on the Reds because their outfield was close to average by both UZR and DRS, in 2020 and also in the span of 2018-2020. In addition, the same holds true of their center fielders. I would never have been able to do this if it were not for two things. Firstly, Baseball Savant. The ability to filter for every play to your exact specifications and have video for each of those plays in the list was essential. The second is the 2020 season. There is no way in hell I would go through a full season's worth of balls to the outfield. But in 2020, Reds centerfielders only made 227 plays out there. Much more manageable. Now, I want to warn you as I was doing the list I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being too conservative with my estimates. It felt like I was marking too many would-be-triples as doubles and too many would-be-inside-the-park-home-runs as triples. I only ended up with like four homers which is probably way too little. I tried to compensate and make up for it by stretching it here and there, but I don't think that did much. I'll post the spreadsheet HERE and the Baseball Savant page it's based on HERE, and if anyone wished to re-do the list, I'll be happy to add it in an edit. So here's what I came up with. In 2020, 227 balls were fielded by Reds center fielders. 86 of them went for singles, 22 went for doubles, 3 went for triples. There were no inside-the-park home runs. There were 109 catches made, plus 7 sac flies. This gives opponents a .490 wOBA on balls hit to Reds center fielders. I didn't check it, but I'm going to assume that's close to average. After going through each play one by one, I determined that if there were a potato in center instead of a human, they'd end up with 52 outs, 4 sac flies, 28 singles, 96 doubles, 43 triples, and 4 inside-the-park home runs. If that seems like too little, you're probably right. But this is what I came out with and we're going to go with it. If this were to happen, opposing batters would end up with a .980 wOBA. From here, we treat it the same as we would treat a hitter's wOBA. We determine the amount of opportunities a center fielder would get in a full season. In 2019, center fielders made 20962 plays. That's about 700 per team over a full season. So we'll use the same formula we use to determine batting runs.
((.980^wOBA -.490^{lg wOBA} )/1.1857^{wOBA Scale} )x700^{Opportunities} = 289.3 runs
-461 RAR
Hoo boy. That's quite a number. If we convert it to wins we end up with close to -45 WAR. You'd need three of me to equal the damage this guy would do. If you had Tate in center, you could replace an average right fielder with 1923 Babe Ruth, left fielder with 2002 Bonds, and first baseman with 1927 Gehrig and still come out 5 WAR behind. -45 wins turns a 100 win team into a 55 win team. It turns a .500 team into a 36 win team. Before we even start counting WAR, we assume a 48 win replacement level. This guy knocks all that out on his own, making you start from scratch.
TL;DR -45 WAR. No, don't ever do this.

If you've ever been in San Francisco, you're familiar with BART -- Bay Area Rapid Transit, their rail/subway system. So it's fitting the San Francisco Giants have a player named Joey Bart. It would be like the Yankees having a guy named Frankie Subway! It was also pretty cool when Aaron and Austin Nola played for the New Orleans Zephyrs -- New Orleans, Louisiana, is abbreviated as "NOLA". And who can forget Marvin Eugene Throneberry -- M.E.T. -- the man they said was "born to be a Met."
Sometimes the baseball gods get it right... but sometimes they get it so very, very wrong.
Here's the All-Wrong Team Team!
Luis Angeles not only never played for neither the Dodgers nor the Angels... he was a prospect of the San Francisco Giants. Talk about being on the wrong team! The right-hander looked promising in Rookie ball in 2010, going 8-3 with a 1.85 ERA and 0.914 WHIP in 13 starts, but would post an ERA of 6.96 over the next two seasons and was released in 2012. Alas, Los Angeles did not sign Angeles.
Daryl Boston played for four teams in 11 years, but never for the Red Sox. Adding insult to injury, he ended his career in 1994 by getting 77 AB with the Yankees. A 1st Round pick (#7 overall) by the White Sox in 1981, he hit .249/.312/.410 in his career as a platoon outfielder.
Outfielder Angel Bravo was neither an Angel nor a Brave. The Venezuelan made his debut in 1969 with the Chicago White Sox; he'd also play for the Reds and Padres, hitting .248 in 218 career AB. The same goes for Angel Pagan, who never played for the Angels or, if there is a team with this name, the Pagans. He played 11 seasons, seeing time with the Cubs, Mets, and Giants; in 2012 he hit .288/.338/.440 with a league-leading 15 triples in 605 AB.
Of the six players with the last name Bird, not one played for the Orioles, Blue Jays, or Cardinals! Surely that can't be a coincidence. Doug Bird played for the Royals, Phillies, Yankees, Cubs, and Red Sox between 1973 and 1983; Frank Bird played for the St. Louis Browns in 1892; George Bird played for Rockford Forest Citys in 1871; former Yankee Greg Bird has been in the minors with the Rangers and the Phillies; and Kyle Bird was on the Rangers in 2019. But most shockingly of all was the pitcher named Red Bird who did not play for the Cardinals. (Or the Reds.) So many missed opportunities!
There have been nine players with the last name Brewer (and one Breuer) but not one has played for the Milwaukee Brewers! The only Brewer who is currently active in MLB is Colten Brewer, a 28-year-old right-handed reliever who has been in the minors with the Pirates and Yankees and in the majors with the Padres and Red Sox. Brewer has not only never pitched for the Brewers, he's also never pitched against the Brewers. Lift a glass in the hope this Brewer will make it to Milwaukee one day.
Ed Brooklyn was a left-handed pitcher in the Washington Senators farm system from 1949 to 1951. Alas, he never made it to the majors, let alone the Dodgers. We don't have a lot of stats for him, but we do know he went 22-14... but also that he walked 143 batters in 159 innings in 1950. I suppose that's why he never made it to the bigs.
Mike Busch was a third baseman for the Dodgers in the mid 1990s, getting 22 hits in 100 AB. At least he got to play in Busch Stadium, albeit as a visitor, picking up two singles (and three strikeouts) in six at-bats.
Conrad Cardinal pitched in six games for the Houston Colt .45s in 1963, giving up 14 runs (nine earned) on 15 hits and seven walks in 13.1 innings. The 1960s St. Louis Cardinals had better pitching options.
The second-best MLB player born in Saskatchewan is Reggie Cleveland. (Swift Current's Cleveland had 8.9 bWAR in his career, well behind Melville's Terry Puhl's 28.4, but comfortably ahead of the other seven Saskatchewanians to have played in the bigs.) He went 105-106 with a 4.01 ERA in a 13-year career that saw him wear four different MLB uniforms, but alas, never that of the Indians. Reggie's best season came for the Cardinals in 1973, when he went 14-10 with a 3.01 ERA and 1.214 WHIP in 224.0 IP.
Pitcher Alfredo Colorado is a minor league free agent formerly in the Cubs system; he was last seen with the A-ball Eugene Emeralds in 2019, giving up five runs in 5.2 innings. Hopefully Colorado signs Colorado.
Infielder John Dodge was just 19 years old when he made his MLB debut in 1912, but unfortunately, not for the Brooklyn Dodgers. (Were they the Dodgers then? Sort of. The "Trolley Dodgers" nickname was used in print as early as 1895, but it was only one of several informal nicknames used for the team, including the Atlantics, Bridegrooms, Grooms, Robins, Superbas, and Wonders, as the team's official name was simply "the Brooklyn Base Ball Club." The name "Dodgers" was used on and off by the team, including on a program in 1916, but it didn't appear on jerseys until 1932.) Dodge played for the Phillies and then the Reds in 1912 and 1913 before returning to the minors. In 1916, playing for the Mobile Sea Gulls in the Southern Association, Dodge was hit in the face with a fastball (thrown by a former teammate with whom he had remained friends) and died the next day, at the age of 23.
Neither of the two minor leaguers with the name Frisco ever made it to San Francisco. Frisco Roberts was in the St. Louis system in the 1940s, but was out of baseball before the Giants moved out west. Reliever Frisco Parotte was in the Yankees farm system in the 1990s, but never made it out of A-ball.
Tyler Houston played for six teams in eight seasons but never for the Houston Astros. A catcher, third baseman, and first baseman, Houston hit .265/.312/.423 in 1,805 AB between 1996 and 2003. There also was an infielder named Houston Jimenez in the 1980s, who played for the Twins, Pirates, and Indians, but never for the Astros.
Eight-time All-Star Indian Bob Johnson got his nickname because he was born on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. Bob was a firefighter, but when his big brother Roy made the Tigers, he decided to try to become a ballplayer: "I was always better than Roy," the self-confident Bob told reporters. "When he stuck with Detroit, I knew I was good enough for the big leagues." But at his try-out for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, he wore borrowed cleats that were too big for him, making him look awkward in the outfield. A local sportswriter described him as a "big-footed Swede." Being called big-footed didn't bother him as much as being called a Swede. “If I knew that writer’s house were burning, I would have let it burn," the former firefighter said. "Me, 'a big-footed Swede.' Me, through whose veins the blood of the Cherokee warriors flowed.” He would play for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1933 to 1942, for the Washington Senators in 1943, and the Boston Red Sox in 1944 and 1945, but Indian Bob never played for the Indians.
Jon Jay is a free agent, so there's still a chance Jay could play for the Jays! A second-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006, Jay has played for six teams in 11 seasons but never for Toronto. His best season was probably 2012 when he hit .305/.373/.400 in 443 AB.
Infielder Al Montreuil was a minor league journeyman with the Red Sox and Cubs in the 1960s and 1970s, but never got a chance with the Montreal Expos. A native of Louisiana, I'm sure he would have fit right in. But at least the Expos had two seasons of minor league outfielder Romel Canada!
First baseman Mike Oakland was in the Colorado Rockies organization from 1992 to 1995, never making it out of A-ball. Oakland missed their chance to sign Oakland.
Seunghwan Oh pitched for three MLB teams but never for the O's. A stand-out pitcher in both the Korean and Japanese leagues, Oh came to MLB at the age of 33 and had a tremendous rookie season with the Cardinals in 2016, recording 19 saves with a 1.92 ERA and 0.916 WHIP (18 BB, 103 K in 79.2 IP). He would also pitch for the Blue Jays and Rockies before returning to the KBO in 2020.
Another nice addition to Baltimore would have been outfielder Oriol Perez, a prospect in the Seattle Mariners organization in the 1980s. This Oriol's career got off to a soaring start (.281/.391/.552 with the Bellingham Mariners in 1983) but never took flight. He was released two years later and retired without the Baltimore Orioles ever bringing him into the nest.
There's never been a player with the name Pittsburgh, but Gaylen Pitts was a minor league journeyman with the Cardinals, A's, and Cubs -- but never with the Pirates! -- between 1964 and 1977. He finally got to the bigs at age 28 in 1974, going 10-for-41 for the A's; the next season he'd go 1-for-3 (with an RBI!) in another brief call-up. He would later be a minor league manager, coach, and scout with the A's, Cardinals, Brewers, and Yankees, but again, never with the Pirates.
The only player named Ranger in MLB history is... on the Phillies! What? Ranger Suarez went 6-1 with a 3.14 ERA in 37 relief appearances in 2019, but missed most of this season after testing positive for COVID-19. He only made three appearances in 2020, giving up nine runs on 10 hits and four walks in just four innings.
Robbie Ray could have fulfilled his destiny by joining Tampa Bay this off-season, but instead he re-signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. The left-handed starting pitcher has gone 49-51 with a 4.26 ERA in seven MLB seasons.
Dozens of players in baseball history have had the nickname Red, but not one of the three Hall of Famers with the nickname -- Red Faber, Red Schoendienst, or Red Ruffing -- played for the Cincinnati Reds. (Ruffing did play for the Red Sox, at least.) Another prominent Red was Red Rolfe, who spent his entire career with the Yankees. Recent MLB players Mike Redmond, Mark Redman, and Tim Redding never made it to the Reds either. The best Red by bWAR who did play for the Reds was 1920s and '30s pitcher Red Lucas, who went 157-135 with a 3.72 ERA (107 ERA+) in a 15-year career, eight of which he spent with the Reds.
Of the 16 players with the nickname Rocky, not one played for Colorado... including the four who were active while the Rockies were in existence: Rocky Biddle, Rocky Cherry, Rocky Coppinger, and currently, Rocky Gale, a 32-year-old catcher who was with the Padres from 2015-2017, with the Dodgers from 2018-2019, and with the Rays in 2019. He was on the Dodgers' "taxi squad" this summer but didn't see any playing time, and is now a minor league free agent. So there's a chance this Rocky will be on the Rockies!
Gary Royal was an infielder in the Mets minor league system in the 1970s. Alas, he never made it to the bigs... and never made it to the Kansas City Royals either. Gary hit an impressive .310/.375/.424 in the Rookie league in 1974 but was out of baseball by age 24.
Reliever Steve Shea made his pro baseball debut the same years as the New York Mets -- 1962 -- and was in A-Ball two years later when Shea Stadium opened. But he never got to pitch there as a member of the New York Mets. Shea, who started out in the Cubs farm system as a 19-year-old, would find his way to the majors in 1968 as a member of the Houston Astros. The next year he'd pitch in 10 games with the expansion Montreal Expos. He then returned to the minors and never came back, his pro career ending after going 3-6 with a 6.51 ERA in 105 innings for the Triple-A Winnipeg Whips. Shea pitched in two games at Shea Stadium, giving up no runs and striking out three batters in 3.2 innings.
None of the five MLB players with the nickname Snake ever played for the Snakes, but maybe free agent Jake Arrieta will sign with the Diamondbacks? There also was Scott "Snakeface" Downs, who didn't pitch for the D'backs either.
Four players in MLB history have had the nickname Socks, and none of them played for either the White Sox or the Red Sox. Hank "Socks" Perry played for the Tigers, Joe "Socks" Holen played for the Phillies, and Ralph "Socks" Seybold played for the Philadelphia Athletics. A decade later, 20-year-old Harry Seibold joined the Athletics. Philadelphia still had same manager (and owner), Connie Mack, who promptly dubbed the rookie Socks Seibold.
Henry Wrigley was a first baseman for the Rays and Rockies, but never made it to the bigs... and therefore never got to play at Wrigley Field. He hit .257/.297/.424 over eight minor league seasons before retiring in 2015.
Rudy York played 13 seasons, but never with a New York team. The seven-time All-Star played 10 years in Detroit before ending his career with the Red Sox, White Sox, and Athletics.
Bad Timing
These guys never got a chance to play for the "right" team because it wasn't in existence during their careers.
Cub Stricker played for seven teams in 11 years, but never for the Cubs... but as it happened, Chicago's team wasn't called the Cubs in the 19th century anyway. Chicago's National League team was founded in 1870 as the Chicago White Stockings, but by 1890 they were known as the Chicago Colts; when Cap "Pop" Anson left the team after 27 years as a player and manager, local newspapers started calling them the "Orphans" (because they'd lost their "Pop"). A newspaper dubbed them the Cubs in 1902, and the name would become official in 1907. This Cub played for the American Association version of the Philadelphia Athletics, three different Cleveland-based teams (Blues, Spiders, and Infants), the Boston Reds, and the National League versions of the Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Browns, and Washington Senators. I can't find a source on how he got the nickname Cub, but he wasn't a Bear: He was 5'3" and weighed 138 pounds!
Lenny Metz was a long-time minor leaguer who briefly played for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1920s, hitting .172 in 58 career AB as a middle infielder. Too bad he was about 40 years too early, because he would have been a perfect fit on the 1962 Mets!
A speedy outfielder born in Kansas City was a late-season rookie call-up in 1912. A teammate dubbed the newcomer "Kansas City", which was shortened to K.C., and eventually transformed into the name we know him by today: Casey Stengel. Alas, young K.C. never got a chance to play for K.C. as his playing career ended in 1925, which was 44 years before the Royals came into existence, though he was still managing when the Athletics were playing there.
Marlin Stuart played for three teams in his six-year career but never for the Marlins... probably because he was 74 years old when they played their first game. "Mott" made his pro debut in 1940, but then lost three years to World War II; he would later throw a perfect game for the Toledo Mud Hens in 1950. In 1954, The Sporting News asked the game's best hitters who was the toughest pitcher they'd faced, and Ted Williams said Mott Stuart. Stuart went 23-17 with a 4.65 ERA in 485.2 innings with the Tigers, Browns, Orioles, and Yankees.
Twink Twining played one game for the Cincinnati Reds in 1916, giving up three runs in two innings. Twining was 67 years old when the Minnesota Twins were founded in 1961, but he'd long switched careers from baseball to dermatology. Twining was the first graduate of Swarthmore College to reach the bigs.
There have been eight players with the last name Washington in MLB history, and not one of them played for either the Washington Senators or the Washington Nationals. The one who came closest was LaRue Washington, who was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1975... three years after the franchise had relocated from Washington, D.C. LaRue went 5-for-21 (.238) in his brief MLB career, though he would hit .286 in 2,555 minor league at-bats... including two seasons with the Double-A Denver Bears, then an affiliate of the Montreal Expos... who in 2001 would become the Washington Nationals!
Yank Robinson was a 19th century infielder who would have been an OBP favorite had he played today: He led the league in walks three times in his career, posting a career .376 OBP despite a .241 batting average. His best season came with the St. Louis Browns in 1887, when he hit .305/.445/.405 with 75 stolen bases in 125 games! It was probably while he was playing in Missouri that someone gave the Massachusetts resident the nickname Yank. He died at the age of 34 in 1894, nine years before New York City got an American League team and two decades before they would officially become known as the Yankees.
Honorable Mention
Don Aase actually pronounces it "Ah-see", but I always thought it was pronounced "A's". (Or should it be Ass'y?) In any event, Oakland was not one of the five teams he pitched for. Aase came up with the Red Sox, but was traded to the Angels in 1977 for Jerry Remy; he would later be a closer for the Baltimore Orioles.

Before I get to the 2020 Mets, let’s address the elephant in the room: The Mets are finally under new ownership. Extremely rich man Steve Cohen bought the team from the long-cursed Wilpons for $2.4 billion, finalizing the sale on November 6. Not only is he ludicrously wealthy - he once bought a bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti for about the same amount of money as Patrick Corbin’s contract - he’s a long-time Mets fan, revealing late in November that he owns the ball that Mookie Wilson hit through Bill Buckner’s legs in the 1986 World Series, and intends to move it into the Mets Museum at Citi Field.
Now, onto the actual baseball programming. The 2020 Mets were… kinda lousy, not going to lie. Noah Syndergaard underwent Tommy John surgery and Marcus Stroman opted out of the season, and the thinned-out pitching staff had the 12th-best ERA in the National League, at 4.98 (86 ERA+). The offense had the best batting average, second-best OBP, and fourth-best SLG in the NL, but thanks to an agonizingly unclutch first half, they wound up seventh in runs scored. They missed the expanded playoffs by three games and tied for last in the NL East.
But they still had their moments.
Opening Day, July 24: Jacob deGrom and three relievers combined on a 1-0 shutout of the Braves, with Yoenis Céspedes mashing a solo homer in his first major league game since 2018 to provide the only run of the game.The Mets’ Opening Day record improved to 39-20, the best winning percentage of any team - even more impressive when you consider the Mets lost their first eight Opening Days from 1962-1969.
August 28: On the same day that Steve Cohen entered exclusive negotiations to buy the Mets (bye-bye A-Rod and J-Lo), the Mets swept the Yankees in a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. In game one, a trio of late homers from Pete Alonso, Dom Smith, and Jake Marisnick gave the Mets a 6-4 victory. In game two, Amed Rosario hit a walk-off two-run homer off Aroldis Chapman, and may I repeat this happened at Yankee Stadium. Beautiful.
September 3: In the team’s first game after the passing of Mets legend Tom Seaver the team took the field to play the Yankees with dirt on their right knees to honor The Franchise. In the ninth inning, with the Mets trailing 7-6, J.D. Davis took Chapman deep to center field to tie it; in the tenth, Pete Alonso blasted a walk-off homer.
September 9: Trailing the Orioles in the late innings, Michael Conforto made an absurd catch to save three runs; Andrés Giménez popped an opposite-field homer to tie it, and Alonso gave the Mets the lead for good with a homer to center field.
Players:
Infield prospect Andrés Giménez finished seventh in Rookie of the Year voting, splitting his time between shortstop and second base and posting a 102 OPS+ to go along with solid defense and baserunning. Very enjoyable to watch. (update: see below)
Pitching prospect David Peterson posted a 3.44 ERA in 49.2 innings, flashing impressive poise and quality stuff in his first taste of the majors.
Jacob deGrom threw a 102-MPH fastball. By 2025 he’ll be throwing Mach 7. He also had another outstanding season, as he pitched to a 2.38 ERA, led the NL in strikeouts, and finished third in the Cy Young voting. On September 6, he induced 35 swinging strikes in a game against the Phillies, tying the most in a game since pitch tracking began in 2008.
Michael Conforto hit .322/.412/.515, the best numbers of his career to date. I can actually hear newyorkmets shouting EXTEND CONFORTO as I type this.
Edwin Díaz bounced back from his career-worst 2019 season to pitch to a 1.75 ERA/2.18 FIP, including a preposterous 45% strikeout rate (25.2 IP, 110 batters faced, 50 strikeouts). (Kindly do not ask about how his co-acquisition’s doing.)
Dominic Smith hit .316/.377/.616, with a whopping 32 extra-base hits (second in the NL behind Freddie Freeman’s 37, except in 63 fewer plate appearances). He finished fourth in the NL in OPS. That, combined with his blossoming as a leader in the wake of the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, earned him a 13th-place MVP finish and the hearts of the Mets fanbase.
Offseason:
As of this writing, the Mets have re-hired Sandy Alderson as president of baseball operations, hired Jared Porter Zack Fox as GM. They have also signed reliever Trevor May (2 years, $15.5 million), catcher James McCann (4 years, $40.6 million), and Marcus Stroman accepted the qualifying offer after opting out of the 2020 season.
AND THEN THEY TRADED FOR FRANCISCO LINDOR AND CARLOS CARRASCO HOLY $&@%-
(Going back to CLE: Andrés Giménez, Amed Rosario, Isaiah Greene, and Josh Wolf.)
So, the 2020 Mets. We said farewell to Tom Seaver, said hello to Steve Cohen AND FRANCISCO LINDOR, and chucked the Wilpons out the door. 2021, here we come.

This is part 3 of my "How much WAR would ________ get?" series. You can find How much (negative) WAR would I accrue playing on a Major League team for a full season? here and How much (negative) WAR would a potato accrue playing centerfield for a Major League team for a full season? here.

That's right, boys and girls. We're back with a new conundrum. Let me set the stage. Speedy McHitterson has been discovered to be a perfect leadoff hitter. He makes every play in center, he steals second at every opportunity, he has a perfect eye, and when he's thrown a strike, he gets a hit every time. However, he's incredibly shy and afraid to overstep his bounds. This means he'll never swing at a pitch outside the zone, even if he knows he can hit it. He also will never go past first base on a hit, so every his is a single. Speedy is afraid of stepping on teammates toes, literally and figuratively, so he won't make any plays in the field that weren't meant for him. He's also fearful of being perceived as too overconfident, so stealing third is out of the question, let alone stealing home. But for the things he does do, he has a 100% success rate.
To the categories!

Positional Adjustment

Speedy, like Tate, will be manning center for a full season. 162 games of CF is worth 2.5 runs.

Replacement Level

As previously established, the average leadoff hitter would have ~761 PA per 162 games. But Speedy is no average leadoff hitter. Speedy will have a 1.000 OBP. Meaning compared to the average 255 on-base events for an average leadoff man, Speedy will have 761, which is an extra 506. Following the logic from last time, getting on base an extra 506 times will result in another 56 PA (If one out of every nine extra on-base events result in an extra PA). Which, in turn, will result in an extra 4 PA (I think). So in the end of the day, Speedy will end up with 821 PA on the season.
So if Replacement Level Runs = (570 x (MLB Games/2,430)) x (Runs Per Win/lgPA) x PA then 821 PA will be (570x(2430/2430))x(10.296/186516)x821 coming out to 25.8 Runs.
28.3 Runs

Fielding

This one, it turns out, is quite simple. Similar to how we determined a potato's fielding runs, we compare this perfect player to the 2020 Cincinnati Reds centerfielders. To recap, in 2020, 227 balls were fielded by Reds center fielders. 86 of them went for singles, 22 went for doubles, 3 went for triples. There were no inside-the-park home runs. There were 109 catches made, plus 7 sac flies. This gives opponents a .490 wOBA on balls hit to Reds center fielders. Speedy, being perfect, would allow a 0 wOBA (his middle name is Fielder). Home run robberies are out of the question because, you know. So we'll compare them the same way we did last time, with the same formula we use to determine batting runs batting runs. First we determine the amount of opportunities a center fielder would get in a full season. In 2019, center fielders made 20962 plays. That's about 700 per team over a full season. So the calculation would go thusly:
((.000^wOBA -.490^{lg wOBA} )/1.1857^{wOBA Scale} )x700^{Opportunities} = 289.3 runs
I just realized something really cool. I actually calculated Tater to have this precise number of negative runs, because his wOBA allowed would be exactly double the average. This means if Speedy and Tate were to alternate games, they would average to a league average fielder.
317.6 Runs

Batting

We've already established a few facts. Speedy McHitterson will get about 821 PA in a season. He does not swing at balls outside the strikezone. He hits every ball in the strikezone for a single. This would result in a 1.000/1.000/1.000 slash line, but we would still need to determine how many walks and hits he'd get. So I put together a little table to figure that out.

Count	Frequency	Zone	Out of Zone	Strike odds	Ball odds	Strike overall odds	Ball overall odds
0-0	1.000	95745	89033	.518	.482	.518	.482
0-1	.518	39460	53598	.424	.576	.220	.298
0-2	.220	14985	33022	.312	.688	.069	.151
1-0	.482	37702	33833	.527	.473	.254	.228
1-1	.552	35402	38838	.477	.523	.263	.289
1-2	.415	25414	44600	.363	.637	.150	.264
2-0	.228	13872	10640	.566	.434	.129	.099
2-1	.418	21098	17739	.543	.457	.227	.191
2-2	.491	37457	33526	.528	.472	.259	.232
3-0	.099	4573	2930	.609	.391	.060	.039
3-1	.251	9652	6289	.605	.395	.152	.099
3-2	.384	21163	16146	.567	.433	.218	.166

So to explain: the "Frequency" column is the overall frequency of the count, assuming no swings (which is important, as I'll explain in a second). This was determined by the following columns. "Zone" is pitches in the strikezone on that count. "Out of zone" is pitches outside the strikezone on that count. The next two columns are the percentages of a ball/strike in each count. Knowing that, we can tell the frequency of each count, if the batter never swung. 0-1 is going to be the odds of a strike on 0-0. 0-2 is going to be the odds of a strike on 0-1, times the odds of 0-1 occurring in the first place. 1-1 is the overall odds of a ball on 0-1 plus the overall odds of a strike on 1-0. We can use this chart to work out the number of walks of Mr. McHitterson. If he swings at every ball in the zone, and they all go for hits, the only way for him to get walked is if he's thrown four straight balls. According to this chart, that only happens 3.9% of the time, which we can now use as his walk rate. A 3.9% walk rate with 821 PA comes out to 32 walks in a season. Which leaves him with 789 hits, all for singles. Let's plug that into our wOBA formula. (32^walks x.69^{walk constant} +789^singles x.870 ^{single constant} )/821^PA =.863 wOBA
And from wOBA to wRAA: ((.863^wOBA -.320^{lg wOBA} )/1.157^{wOBA Scale} )x821^PA = 385.3 wRAA
702.9 Runs

Baserunning

To start, we give Speedy the same boost we gave Tate for never hitting into a double play. Over 821 PA, that comes up to 5.9 Runs. But the real value will come from stealing bases. To refresh, Speedy will steal second every time it's available. Afraid of looking like he's showing off, he will never attempt a double steal or a steal of third or home. We'll make the assumption that overall, the situations he's on base (always) will look like the league averages of occupied bases. There were 55998 plate appearances with men on first in 2019. Of those, 34240 (61%) were just a man on first. 12347 (22%) were first and second. 5026 (9%) were first and third. 4385 (8%) were bases loaded. This means that in 70% of situations with a man on first, second base was open. With a SB rate of 100% of the 70% of times on base (which is identical to the number of PAs) McHitterson had, this puts him at 575 steals for the season (that would be a record, by the way). Fangraphs gives .2 Runs per SB. This adds 115 Runs to our count, which comes out to a total of 121.8 baserunning runs. 824.7 Runs

Conclusion

824.7 is a lot of runs. If we do the 10.296 Runs/Win conversion it comes out to 80.1 WAR. As I said, that's a loooooooot. [Speedy could split time with Tate and they'd still combine for 32.5 WAR. It would take over five Taters to cancel out a Speedy.] EDIT: In my excitement, I accidentally confused myself with a potato. I'm the one who'd combine for 32.5 WAR. I'm the one who would need to be cloned five times to cancel out a Speedy. Tate and Speedy would actually combine to have a 17.6 WAR, which is still better than the best single-season WAR of all time. Two Taters would more than cancel out a Speedy. If you put Speedy on a team that literally did nothing else, he'd still make them roughly a .500 team.
TL;DR 80.1 WAR - Holy Fuck
Coming soon.....If Shohei Ohtani were actually Superman, how much WAR would he get?

RedSox Toast and Roast
Introduction
The Boston Red Sox were a major league baseball team that played during the 2020 season. While it might be true that JD Martinez hit .213, that Andrew Benintendi played 14 games, and that we only had 1 pitcher start more than 10 games, we did also see some promising young talent put up respectable numbers in the face of what was often moderately intimidating pumped-in crowd noise.
Hitting

• Alex Verdugo was a ray of light for the Red Sox in 2020 and finished 12th in AL MVP voting. Coming over to the Sox in some trade that happened, Verdugo led the team in BA (.308), OBP (.367), and H (62). It's his 2nd full season in the majors, and all of his offensive numbers have been rising since he entered the league, and Sox fans hope for this trend to continue.
• Another solid season for Xander Bogaerts who led the team with a .867 OPS on what might be the most team-friendly contract in baseball.
• Christian Vasquez turned in another solid year both behind and at the plate, posting a respectable .801 OPS
• We said goodbye to fan favorite Mitchy 2-Bags, but not before his two HR game in August that ended with a walkoff!. Over 79 PA with Boston in 2020, Mitch Moreland posted a 1.177 OPS.

Pitching

• Called up in September, Tanner Houck went 3-0 and posted a 0.882 WHIP while striking out 21 over 17.0 IP. These wins include 5.0 IP 0 ER against the Marlins, 6.0 IP 0 ER against the Yankees, and 6.0 IP 1 ER against the Braves. Gerrit who?
• Umm…
• Nathan Eovaldi struck out 52 over 48.1 IP and won 4 of the 9 games he started which would be a pretty solid figure if it was someone’s batting average.
• Eduardo Rodriguez went 1-0 against Covid-19.
• Chris Sale did not allow a hit all season.

RedSox Highlights and Memes

• redsox found our new messiah
• John Krasinki and Big Papi found and honored some of Boston’s heroes who got to officially throw out the first pitch of 2020
• Jerry Remy found Wally’s hat
• Remy also found out that the windows were tinted at the Braves's Spring Training park

Conclusion / Looking Forward
Whoops, turns out that 2020 was not a particularly good year for the Red Sox.
You might compare the 2020 season to a possibly defective poncho that you just can't quite figure out how to put on during a rain delay.
While some fans tried to cope with whiskey and 2004 - 2007 - 2013 - 2018 highlights, others just couldn’t handle it and sadly, one fan even jumped off of the Green Monster.
Honestly the top highlight of the season was probably when the Red Sox set the 2020 MLB attendance record (1) after some crazy guy snuck into Fenway, stopped play, and started yelling about 9/11 - Jomboy’s breakdown.
In 2020, the Red Sox paid ~$6 million to David Price and $5 million to Pablo Sandoval, but at least it wasn’t $31 million and $19 million respectively like last year. The 2020 Red Sox also paid $2 million to Manny Ramirez which everyone agrees is actually hilarious.
For this season, we will be keeping our eyes peeled for FA signings (Odorizzi & Bauer pls), and we can’t wait to see what prospects like Casas, Downs, Mata, Dalbec, Houck and others might be able to contribute, either this year or next.
As Belichick would say, we’re onto 2021, and the Trust-In-Bloom era officially begins. We'd like to wish everyone a great Rule 3, and here comes the pizza.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/why-mlb-teams-might-start-changing-how-they-value-high-contact-hitters/
Is a high-average renaissance coming in baseball? By Matt Snyder
"Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" was published in 2003. Michael Lewis' book was then turned into a movie that was released in 2011. And yet, in 2021, there are still so many people out there with the misconception that playing "Moneyball" was about a specific stat ("Moneyball is on-base percentage!" the ignorant will cry out) or even some sort of "sabermetrics" revolution to make people hate the stats they long held near and dear in favor of "newfangled" stuff.
I'll pause for laughter.
No, it's actually about finding market inefficiencies. That is, what skillsets are other teams undervaluing and how can we acquire players -- mostly cheaply -- to exploit this for our gain. There have been several iterations since the initial movement from average to OBP and slugging. Defense is certainly up there, a combination of shifting/positioning and getting undervalued defensive players. Things have obviously been done on the pitching side, such as shortening the game with super bullpens and using openers, among other things.
In light of where things are headed right now in baseball, I'm wondering if we're coming full circle very soon with what type of hitter is undervalued.
That is to say, while the initial "Moneyball" movement set baseball on a path, where average was less important than the other two main rate stats (meaning more emphasis was put on drawing walks -- and, in related matters, working deep counts -- and hitting for power). In the process, we have seen a great shift toward the so-called Three True Outcomes (home runs, walks, strikeouts).
As a result, who got left a bit behind? The high-average, high-contact hitters, possibly with low power.
I said I'm wondering if we're about to come full circle because not only do I believe there's a chance at a market inefficiency in there, I also think the forces of the game are swinging toward this type of hitter being undervalued.
Strikeouts continue to rise. More and more, it seems like whichever team each game hits "the big home run" is the one that goes on to win. Here are the lowest batting averages in MLB since World War I:
1968: .237 1967: .242 1972: .244 2020: .245 If we're wondering about the small sample or want to blame the pandemic, the 2019 average was .252 and the league hit .248 in 2018.
If some of those years above jumped out, it's for good reason. After 1967-68, the pitcher's mound was lowered. After 1972, the American League added the DH.
Meanwhile, in 2020, strikeouts per team game actually dropped -- to the second-most all-time -- from 2019, but 2020 marked the first year it wasn't a new strikeouts per game record since 2007.
It's gotten to the point that it isn't just a small subset fans or curmudgeon broadcasters whining. Many baseball fans acknowledge the game needs more on-field action. At this point, pretty open-minded and even-keel people are discussing that something has to change. Home runs are great. Walks were far too long an underappreciated part of the game. Big strikeouts are excellent to watch. It's just that we should have more than those things along with groundballs and fly balls going right at nearly perfectly positioned defenders.
On one hand, the pitchers and defense are very good. On another, maybe the shift in philosophy left too many different types of hitters behind. Maybe things should tilt back a bit the other way?
After stepping down from his perch as Cubs president, Theo Epstein took a job with the commissioner's office and said something along these lines (emphasis mine).
"As the game evolves, we all have an interest in ensuring the changes we see on the field make the game as entertaining and action-packed as possible for the fans, while preserving all that makes baseball so special. I look forward to working with interested parties throughout the industry to help us collectively navigate toward the very best version of our game."
He had recently sort of lamented his own role in shaping the game, too. Via The Athletic:
"There are some threats to it because of the way the game is evolving," Epstein said. "I take some responsibility for that. Executives like me who have spent a lot of time using analytics and other measures to try to optimize individual and team performance have unwittingly had a negative impact on the aesthetic value of the game and the entertainment value of the game in some respects."
The hunch here is Epstein will have commissioner Rob Manfred's ear pretty strongly in the next few years. We've also already seen Manfred discussing things like either banning or limiting the shift along with something to curtail strikeouts, such as lowering and/or moving back the mound.
Zeroing in on the possibility of shifts going away, and low-strikeout guys become even more valuable. It doesn't take an Epstein-savvy front office member to figure out the chances of finding a hole without the defense perfectly crafted to a spray chart increase.
Further, after seeing so many strikeouts in huge spots with runners on base over the past several years, I can't help but think that even if a hitter that sits something like .230/.340/.500 can be valuable, evening that out with a high-average contact hitter to keep the line moving at times would be beneficial in creating a more well-rounded lineup.
The poster boy here is D.J. LeMahieu. Believe it or not, Epstein actually inherited him with the Cubs, but traded him away his first offseason with Tyler Colvin for Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers. Stewart looked like the high-walk, high-power guy teams coveted at the time (important update: He wasn't). Despite winning a batting title, winning three Gold Gloves and making two All-Star teams, LeMahieu only got a two-year, $24 million deal with the Yankees after the 2018 season as mostly an afterthought in a huge offseason. He went on to finish fourth in AL MVP voting. Then he finished third last season, leading the majors with a .364 average while also pacing the AL in OBP, OPS and OPS+.
Finally heavily sought after, LeMahieu got six years and $90 million to stay with the Yankees this offseason. Yes, he's developed his power, but he only struck out 90 times in 655 plate appearances in 2019 and 21 times in 195 plate appearances in 2020.
With everything conspiring in this direction anyway, I think LeMahieu is starting a wave.
Here are some others (in a non-exhaustive list) who could become increasingly valuable moving forward into the next decade of baseball evolution.
Tommy La Stella - A broken leg cost La Stella half the 2019 season in what looked like his career year. He already had 16 homers, yet had still only struck out 28 times in 321 plate appearances. Last year, he had the lowest strikeout percentage in baseball while hitting .281 with a .370 OBP.
Ketel Marte - Pay too much attention to the loss of power in just 45 games last year at your peril. He still hit .287 and was tough to strikeout. I'm not expecting a full bounce-back to MVP-caliber levels of 2019, but his bat-on-ball skills have pretty steadily improved for five years straight.
David Fletcher - He's improved all three years in all three rate stats and sports a career .292 average with just 123 strikeouts in 1,190 plate appearances. He also ranks near the very bottom of the league in stuff like barrel percentage, exit velocity and hard-hit percentage. Sending some conventional 2019 people running for the hills is a good trait for someone to have when looking for market inefficiency, right?
Jeff McNeil - Why pick between McNeil and a Pete Alonso type when you have both? McNeil in 248 career games is a .319 hitter with only 123 strikeouts in 1,024 plate appearances. Like Fletcher, his "batted ball profile" leaves a lot to be desired, too.
Trea Turner - We've seen former Turner teammates Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon strike it very rich in free agency while his current teammate Juan Soto rightfully will garner a ton more attention here in the short term. Just don't forget about Trea. His strikeout percentages aren't excessive -- remember, as a leadoff man he takes tons of plate appearances -- and he's a career .296 hitter. He makes consistent contact, has some power and can fly.
Kevin Newman - Newman had a dreadful 2020 season, but it was only 45 games in the middle of a pandemic. I'm not going to harp on that when we've got 130 games of a .308 hitter in 2019 who only struck out 62 times in 531 plate appearances. Don't sleep on him.
Jean Segura - Segura became a different hitter in 2020. His strikeout percentage jumped from 11.8 to 20.7. Along with it went his previously high average. But he walked a lot more and his OBP went up. It was weird. Regardless, keep in mind what a fluky season 2020 was. Segura was in the top five percent of toughest hitters to strikeout in 2018 and 2019 while topping a .300 average 2016-18. He's 30. I have faith in him being productive with a good average and lower strikeout rate in 2021. And hey, maybe he'll even keep walking. I never said it was bad.
Jake Cronenworth - As a rookie last year, Cronenworth put together a season in which he would've struck out around 90 times in a full year while hitting .285. His minor-league and amateur profile has long shown someone with good contact skills capable of a higher average. He was never a top-100 prospect in the minors, but he now heads into territory where he can have an impact simply by being differently valuable than the 2010s prototype.
To be clear, this premise isn't even remotely saying teams should load up on only these types of players. The best lineups are the most well-rounded. Get you a few of these types to pair with some big boppers and things would be looking pretty damn nice. The conditions are ripe for a bit of a sea change in how hitters are valued in these next few years. Watch LeMahieu, La Stella and company for a guide while someone like Cronenworth carries the torch to the next generation.

The 2020 Minnesota Twins were a 3 act play.
ACT 1: This is OUR year! Has to be
We had set the single season record for Bombas and had a squad of lovable heroes who, despite enduring the usual Yankee postseason beatdown, were ready to bring home a title for a state that hasn’t seen any championships in the Big 4 sports since George H. W. Bush was still in office.
Alot was riding on this season, we had gotten 2 big acquisitions with Josh Donaldson and Kenta Maeda (who would early on would endear us to their singing abilities). Garver and Arraez were looking to prove their 2019 season weren’t flukes with the latter aiming for a batting title and a .400 average in the 2020 season. Finally reigning AL manager of the year, Rocco Baldelli, had to prove he could lead this squad to not just a postseason birth, but postseason wins.
I would be remised if I didn’t also note the social impact this season carried in Minnesota. The Twins would become the first pro MN sports team to play since the Murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police and the protests which would gain worldwide attention.
Following the covid delay, Twins opening day was set for a road game against the White Sox who had become spooky over the offseason. Max Kepler came up to bat to face Giolito in what many expected to be a pitchers dual when Kepler decided to send a message very early on: A 1st pitch homerun on opening day. The Bomba Squad was here to stay.
The First half of the season was very much like the Second Half of 2019: Lotta Bombas and Lotta unfortunate injuries. Schrödinger’s player and wall pad tester Byron Buxton would be injured what seemed like every other week and Josh Donaldson’s time in MN would be off to a slow start with a calf injury that would bug him the entire season. Cruz would start off as an MVP-Favorite through his hatred of balls being inside the field.
In terms of pitching, Maeda would become our best pitcher almost instantly including recording 8 no-hit innings against the Brewers. Randy Dobnak would start off with solid outings that would put him in AL RoY talks. Our Bullpen would also look very un-Twinslike because for the fact they were very good. This transformation would be attributed to pitching coach Wes Johnson who would become as integral to the Twins success as Rocco. However, this is Minnesota so there were still pitching whoas. José Berríos would have a very sloppy start to the season dashing hope that he would become the Twins ace, Rich Hill and Homer Bailey would be placed on the Injury list early on with the latter never really clicking with the team and eventually being released, and reliable closer Taylor Rogers would go from feared by hitters to feared by Twins fans due to his very disappointing 2020 which could be summed up through him blowing Maeda’s 8 no-hit innings (Though he would make it up by gifting Maeda fancy rice)
The Twins had pulled ahead in the division and had a healthy lead which included a 6 game win streak which ended in a walk-off SINGLE by Byron “Literally Sonic the Hedgehog” Buxton. Things were looking up and surely it looked like nothing bad would happen to this team of Lovable Underdogs.
ACT 2: Bad things happen to the Lovable underdogs
Everything just felt sluggish. Injuries would plague the team especially at the catcher position.
The division lead would evaporate and the White Sox would pull out to a lead that felt insurmountable.
This demoralizing feeling would be summed up through 5 major events in September that I feel sum up the second half of the season:

1. Bert Byleven’s final game. Bert Blyleven had been the Twins color commentator for nearly 25 years and alongside the lovable Dick Bremer would bring the Twins through the Mauer-Gardy Era. His “circle me Bert” segment had become a staple of the Broadcast and he was loved by MN sports fans. However, Sinclair Broadcasting didn’t feel the love slowly pushing him out over the years replacing him with Justin Morneau who was bringing new life into the broadcast. This would lead to the sudden announcement that on September 2nd he would broadcast his final Twins game. The broadcast would be a loving tribute to the Minnesota Legend and there would not be a dry eye watching
   
2. Josh Donaldson’s ejection. Throughout the latter half of the season missed/wrong calls by umpires were piling up and were taking a toll.Following a very bad check swing call during a tied game at the rival White Sox which saw Donaldson chew out umpire Dan Bellino, Donaldson would hit a bomba that would break said tie. While rounding the bases he would kick dirt all over home plate and Bellino and be ejected immediately. This moment which was largely celebrated by Twins Fans and summed up the Twins relationship with the Umps in 2020
   
3. Brent Rooker’s injury. Brent Rooker was a Rookie (great start to a nursery rhyme) that was very hyped up by the organization and brought up to replace Kepler who was on the IR. In his first 7 games he looked solid and looked like a valuable player that would not just help us in the up coming years but in the up coming postseason.....sadly those 7 games would be his only 7 games. On Zach Plesac’s first HBP Rooker would suffer a fractured forearm ending his season
   
4. Nelson Cruz being unable to play for a week due to a sore knee. Cruz is more than a player on this team, he is the heart of the lineup. His absence would reverberate throughout the team which felt lost without him. However Nelson Cruz would come back on the 25th bringing out Bomba Robes (bought by Josh Donaldson for the postseason) and whoever hit a bomba/walk-off would get to wear his robe.
   
5. Buxton’s hit in the head. The same day Cruz would return Byron Buxton would get an injury from a pitch to the head from Reds reliever Lucas Sims. He would immediately fall to the ground in pain and showed concussion symptoms.
   

These 5 events sum up the September of the Minnesota Twins. Pain and agony. We were demoralized when the baseball gods in their infinite powers went “Lmao watch this.”
Somehow we won the division. The White Sox would drop 6 of their last 8 games and the Twins would win 5 of their last 8 putting us 1 win ahead of the Sox. We were also set to face the Astros who were bad and had obviously no chance, we even had Home Field advantage! Things were looking up Milhouse!
ACT 3: This is a Toast to the Minnesota Twins how else could this end?
18.
18 playoff loses in a row.
It’s funny. Laugh.
We dropped both our games to the Astros in a very sad fashion which included a lack of bombas and a surplus of errors. They weren’t memorable, at least thats what I tell my therapist.
We were supposed to be the Heroes, the ones who took down the trash bangers. But, no. Dread from it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives.
But that’s Minnesota sports dontcha know?
So here’s to the Minnesota Twins.
WERE GOMQ!
LEAGUE? Well you know.

source: https://n.news.naver.com/sports/kbaseball/article/469/0000566442?lfrom=twitter
translation:
The deadline for posting (private competitive bidding) by Ha-Sung Kim (25, Kiwoom) is approaching, but there is no news of the contract yet. The deadline is at 7am on January 2nd next year.
According to an official from Kim Ha-sung's side, the reason the contract, which was likely to be made right now, is delayed is because there is a difference in position in terms of terms rather than the amount. Whether or not the right to veto downgrade in minor leagues is inserted. The club wants a safety device, and Kim Ha-seong wants a complete major league guarantee contract.
From the club's perspective, 25-year-old Kim Ha-seong is obviously the most attractive player from all KBO league players, but the fact that he is an unproven rookie in the major leagues is an obstacle. There is also a precedent that the beasts from various KBO leagues so far have failed to meet expectations. On the other hand, from a player's point of view, it is natural that they want to be guaranteed enough opportunities to realize their dreams. Previously, among the beasts, Kim Hyun-soo (LG), who had advanced to Baltimore, had the right to veto minor league relegation in the terms of the contract and exercised it.
Ha-sung Kim is actively appealing his merits. In the 2020 season, he made a big success with a batting average of 0.306, 30 homers, 109 RBIs, and 23 steals. The baseball prediction system ZiPS (SZymborski Projection System) analyzed that "If Kim Ha-sung converts his 2020 KBO league performance into a major league performance, it will be'a batting average of 0.274, an on-base ratio of 0.345, a slugging ratio of 0.478, 24 homers, and 17 steals." A factor of evaluation is the consistency of batting 0.294, 133 homers, and 575 RBIs for 7 seasons in the KBO league without injury. Among this year's free agent (FA), there are many excellent infield resources such as Diddy Gregory, Andrelton Simmons, and Marcus Semieon, but Kim Ha-sung is the only player in his mid-20s with '5 tools'.
According to local media, Ryu Hyun-jin (33)'s Toronto and Choo Shin-soo's (38)'s former team Texas are among the top candidates. There is not much time left for Kim Ha-sung to draw the desired contract and receive a New Year's gift.

The Detroit Tigers finished the 2020 season with the third worst record in the majors, 23-35 (.397 %), and will hold the third overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. This was their third and final season under the leadership of Manager Ron Gardenhire who announced his retirement in September 2020 due to health concerns. This franchise continues to rebuild, and develop good young talent, some of whom were promoted to the major league team in 2020. The Tigers were actually watchable during this shortened season, and piqued our interest with a 16-16 record into September, before mounting injuries decimated the team. They ended up losing 19 of their last 25 games and finishing last in the AL Central for the fourth time in six years.
Facts

• 10 members of the Detroit Tigers organization made their major league debuts in 2020, including RHP Casey Mize, LHP Tarik Skubal, IF Isaac Paredes, OF Daz Cameron, IF Sergio Alcantara, and OF Derek Hill.
• After hitting a grand slam for his first major league home run, Isaac Paredes became the first Tiger to have at least six RBIs in his first four games since Pete Fox in 1933, and held a 10-game hitting streak from September 12th through September 24th. He was recently named Mexican Pacific League Batting Champion.
• In a slugfest on August 7th between the Tigers and Pirates, both teams finished with 16 hits, surprising since each club had four players in the starting lineup batting under .190.
• On September 11th, Daz Cameron collected his first career hit, 25 years after his dad Mike recorded his first hit at the exact same ballpark, more info here.
• The Tigers August 21st win was the Tigers’ first over the Indians since April 10, 2019, ending the longest winning streak by one team over another since the Orioles’ 23-game winning streak over the expansion Royals from 1969-70.
• Miguel Cabrera’s 450’ home run on September 24th was his longest home run in more than a year according to MLB Statcast.
• Speaking of Statcast, the good people over at MotorCity Bengals assembled a fun list of Statcast offensive and pitching notables specific to the 2020 Tigers season. Fun with numbers!
• Jeimer Candelario was named one of MLB Network’s 25 biggest breakout stars of 2020 after hitting .297/.369/.503 this past season, with a hard-hit rate (47.1%) and barrel rate (10.3%) reaching career-high levels.
• Willi Castro lead this Tigers team in batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, and wOBA with a slash line of .346/.381/.550, for an OPS of .931, a wOBA of .393. (In this shortened season, he ranked second in the AL in each of those categories among shortstops with at least 100 plate appearances.)

Games highlighted in this recap video

• August 29th, 2020 Victor Reyes makes an incredible catch at the center-field wall to rob Miguel Sanó of a solo home run to end the top of the 4th.
• August 2nd, 2020 Tyler Alexander strikes out the first nine batters faced in the first game of a doubleheader vs the Cincinnati Reds, tying the AL record for consecutive strikeouts in a game and setting the Major League record for a reliever.
• August 30th, 2020 Miguel Cabrera records his 2000th career hit as a Detroit Tiger, eighth player in Tigers history to record 2,000 hits with the club, second active player to have 2,000 hits with one team, joining Albert Pujols, who had 2,073 hits with the Cardinals. (On a side note, Miggy is 134 hits away from his 3000th career hit, something to look forward to in 2021!)
• August 21st, 2020 Isaac Paredes hits a grand slam in the top of the fourth for his first Major League career home run, first Tiger in a decade to hit a grand slam for his first big league home run since Brennan Boesch on April 30th, 2010.
• July 25th, 2020 JaCoby Jones hits a two-run home run off Reds closer Raisel Iglesias in the top of the ninth, breaking the tie and giving the Tigers the lead 6-4. He had previously fouled off two failed sacrifice bunt efforts earlier in the AB, and later told manager Ron Gardenhire: “I got back in the dugout and I told Gardy, 'Screw bunting. We're in Cincinnati. Let me hit,'” Jones said after the Tigers’ 6-4 win Saturday. “He started laughing.”

Not featured in this recap video: Casey Mize pitches a no-hitter into the sixth inning on September 11th vs the White Sox, JaCoby Jones hits a stand-up inside the park home run on August 10th vs the White Sox, C.J. Cron hits a two-run go-ahead home run in the top of the 9th inning on July 26th vs the Reds, and the Tigers outlast the Pirates 17-13 in a slugfest in extra innings on August 7th featuring a five RBI game for Niko Goodrum.
So, what else happened to the Tigers during the 2020 season?:

• With the first overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, the Tigers selected INF Spencer Torkelson, first time in franchise history to use the top overall pick to draft an infielder. Torkelson was also the first college corner infielder in 22 years to go first overall.
• Mr. Tiger, Tigers legend and Hall of Famer Al Kaline, passes away at age 85 on April 6th.
• The Tigers, along with the teams in the majors, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues the weekend of August 14th through 16th.
• On October 30th, the Tigers announced that they had hired A.J. Hinch as the new manager of the Tigers.
• We would certainly be remiss if we did not acknowledge the very serious impact of COVID-19 on the Tigers, Daz Cameron in particular who had asthma as a child, developed all of the symptoms of COVID-19, and contracted pneumonia after testing positive for COVID-19 in early July. (If you have a subscription, the article in The Athletic is worth reading.)
• Presenting the official Tigers account best tweets of 2020 season:
  • Congratulations to #Tigers 2014 37th-round pick Patrick Mahomes on winning MVP of his football game.
  • Bro, I'm straight up NOT having a good time
  • The best of Miggy being Miggy
  • Always in our hearts #RIPMrTiger
  • There have been 23 perfect games in MLB history. ⓘ 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴
  • Ladies and gentlemen, we drafted him first.
  • The Detroit Tigers today named A.J. Hinch as the 39th manager in franchise history, agreeing to terms on a multi-year contract.
  • Looks like a couple of Ann Arbor residents are joining us tonight.
  • Retweet if Catcher Cam should be a thing
  • Welcome to the Show! The #Tigers today announced that three top prospects are scheduled to make their debuts this week: No. 2 RHP Casey Mize, No. 5 LHP Tarik Skubal and No. 6 INF Isaac Paredes
• Cameron Maybin was traded at the August 31st trade deadline to the Cubs for INF prospect Zack Short
• In September, the Tigers farm system was ranked second best overall by MLB Pipeline, the future is bright and we cannot wait to see what 2021 has in store for us fans of the organization.

And that has been your toast to the Tigers!

RedSox Toast and Roast
Introduction
The Boston Red Sox were a major league baseball team that played during the 2020 season. While it might be true that JD Martinez hit .213, that Andrew Benintendi played 14 games, and that we only had 1 pitcher start more than 10 games, we did also see some promising young talent put up respectable numbers in the face of what was often moderately intimidating pumped-in crowd noise.
Hitting

• Alex Verdugo was a ray of light for the Red Sox in 2020 and finished 12th in AL MVP voting. Coming over to the Sox in some trade that happened, Verdugo led the team in BA (.308), OBP (.367), and H (62). It's his 2nd full season in the majors, and all of his offensive numbers have been rising since he entered the league, and Sox fans hope for this trend to continue.
• Another solid season for Xander Bogaerts who led the team with a .867 OPS on what might be the most team-friendly contract in baseball.
• Christian Vasquez turned in another solid year both behind and at the plate, posting a respectable .801 OPS
• We said goodbye to fan favorite Mitchy 2-Bags, but not before his two HR game in August that ended with a walkoff!. Over 79 PA with Boston in 2020, Mitch Moreland posted a 1.177 OPS not even kidding

Pitching

• Called up in September, Tanner Houck went 3-0 and posted a 0.882 WHIP while striking out 21 over 17.0 IP. These wins include 5.0 IP 0 ER against the Marlins, 6.0 IP 0 ER against the Yankees, and 6.0 IP 1 ER against the Braves. Gerrit who?
• Umm…
• Nathan Eovaldi struck out 52 over 48.1 IP and won 4 of the 9 games he started which would be a pretty solid figure if it was someone’s batting average.
• Eduardo Rodriguez went 1-0 against Covid-19.
• Chris Sale did not allow a hit all season.

RedSox Highlights and Memes

• redsox found our new messiah
• John Krasinki and Big Papi found and honored some of Boston’s heroes who got to officially throw out the first pitch of 2020
• Jerry Remy found Wally’s hat
• Remy also found out that the windows were tinted at the Braves's Spring Training park

Conclusion / Looking Forward
Whoops, turns out that 2020 was not a particularly good year for the Red Sox, and therefore the world.
You might compare the 2020 season to a possibly defective poncho that you just can't quite figure out how to put on during a rain delay.
While some fans tried to cope with whiskey and 2004 - 2007 - 2013 - 2018 highlights, others just couldn’t handle it and sadly, one fan even jumped off of the Green Monster.
Honestly the top highlight of the season was probably when the Red Sox set the 2020 MLB attendance record (1) after some crazy guy snuck into Fenway, stopped play, and started yelling about 9/11 - Jomboy’s breakdown.
In 2020, the Red Sox paid ~$6 million to David Price and $5 million to Pablo Sandoval, but at least it wasn’t $31 million and $19 million respectively like last year. The 2020 Red Sox also paid $2 million to Manny Ramirez which everyone agrees is actually hilarious.
For this season, we will be keeping our eyes peeled for FA signings (Odorizzi & Bauer pls), and we can’t wait to see what prospects like Casas, Downs, Mata, Dalbec, Houck and others might be able to contribute, either this year or next.
As Belichick would say, we’re onto 2021, and the Trust-In-Bloom era officially begins. We'd like to wish everyone a great Rule 3, and here comes the pizza.

Sup. You might be wondering what this is. In short, the Hall of Fame ballot doesn't include everyone who qualifies for it. Some dudes cut off names they don't like or remember to make it shorter. This is where I talk about the guys who got cut. I've done this 13 other times if you couldn't tell by the number and they're at the bottom if you want to read them after this one. Now to this one.

Randy Wolf

Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 6
Career bWAR (16 years): 22.8 (19.5 w/o batting)
Stats: 133-125, 4.24 ERA, 99 ERA+, 379 GS, 2328.1 IP, 831 BB, 1814 K, 1.349 WHIP
League Leading Stats: Games Started (34, 2009)
Awards: All-Star (2003)
Teams Played For: Phillies (1999-2006), Dodgers (2007, 2009), Padres (2008), Astros (2008), Brewers (2010-12), Orioles (2012), Marlins (2014), Tigers (2015)
Famed poet Lucille Clifton once wrote, "There is a girl inside. She is randy as a wolf. She will not walk away and leave these bones to an old woman." Seemed as good an opening as any to talk about the person that poem was clearly referencing, Randy Asa Wolf. (Please ignore the part where his middle name is actually Christopher) Wolf was a left-handed starting pitcher for 16 years, played on several teams, did pretty well sometimes, not so well some other times, and retired. Generally, pitchers like him are remembered in the hearts and minds of fans of the teams he pitched for, but not by an appearance on the ballot. Players like Steve Trachsel, Kevin Tapani, and Ismael Valdez suffered a similar fate. And so it was for Randy. All the same, he did a fair amount during his career. Certainly didn't walk away and leave those bones to an old woman.
When Randy Wolf was but a Randy Pup, he was drafted in the 25th round of the 1994 draft out of high school. He went to Pepperdine instead, and did so well that in 1997, the Phillies chose him with their 2nd round pick. He'd end up being their highest signed draft choice because J.D. Drew elected not to sign with them after being selected second overall. Much like wolf pups acclimate to the outside world in just a couple months, it didn't take very long for Randy to get used to the baseball world. His 5-0 record and 1.80 ERA in seven lower-A starts showed he was 100% worth the Phillies' high pick. The next year, before he'd even turned 22, Randy was starting games at the triple-A level, and doing very well. In roughly the same time it takes a wolf to reach full maturity, two years after he was drafted, Randy Canis Lupus was on a Major League roster. For his first appearance, he'd be starting a game versus the Toronto Blue Jays. A Blue Jays team whose heart of the lineup was Shawn Green, Carlos Delgado, and Tony Fernandez was held to only six hits and one run in 5.2 innings from Randy Wolf. After he'd captured a win in 5 of his first 7 starts, his spot in the rotation became permanent. Especially noteworthy considering he had competition like Chad Ogea and Carlton Loewer, who are recognized in several circles as "Who Now" and "Should I Know Him." Wolf's year ended on a sour note, both as a pitcher and a member of the Phillies. After that 5-0 start, Wolf would start 14 more games, and go 1-9 in them with a 6.90 ERA throughout. Likewise, Philadelphia, who were 67-59 a week before September started, went 1-16 over their next 17 games, and limped into the offseason at 77-85. While Wolf's 6-9, 5.55 ERA year was definitely worse than he'd wanted, it was still worth 0.3 bWAR. After all, this was the late 90s, and balanced breakfasts of testosterone and HGH were all the rage. He also struck out 116 so that helped too. The positives of his time starting games, coupled with the fact he was only 23 at season's end, all but glued his name to a rotation spot for the next year.
Much in the way that wolves stick together, Randy Wolf would remain a fixture in the Phillies rotation for the next seven years. He'd start 169 games, going 63-51 with a 4.06 ERA, 855 strikeouts, 367 walks, a 1.303 WHIP, and a 105 ERA+. He had his share of highs and lows with the team. And there were many highs, and many lows.

• In 2000, he held the Brewers at bay with a quality start in early July, and gave the 38-44 Phillies a glimmer of hope that they could turn the season around. Then he watched the team trade staff ace Curt Schilling three weeks later, and despite Wolf’s 11-9 record and 3.0 bWAR, Philadelphia ended up losing 97 games.
  
• In 2001, he had the best start of the Phillies' year in late September: a 1H, 1BB, 8K shutout of the Cincinnati Reds. He faced only 28 batters, and almost singlehandedly kept the team in the playoff hunt that day. Then Philadelphia finished at 86-76, losing the division race to the Braves with just three games left. 10-11 and a 3.70 ERA with 152 strikeouts in 25 starts was all Wolf could give, but it wasn't quite enough.
  
• In 2002, Wolf took his turn as the staff ace, putting up the lowest ERA, the lowest WHIP, and the most strikeouts of any regular Phillies pitcher that year. Over a four-start stretch between August 16th and September 5th, Wolf pitched three complete games and 35 total innings, allowed only one run, struck out 30, and sent the Wolf Pack, his special cheering section, into a frenzy. He pitched those games, and another 8-inning 1-hit 2-walk no-run 11-strikeout masterpiece a week later, in memory of a member of that cheering section who tragically lost his life earlier that year. He also only got the Phillies just above .500 with those games, at a time when the wild card was all but out of reach. They'd finish at 80-81, 21.5 games behind the Braves, and 15 games behind the wild-card Giants.
  
• In 2003, Kevin Millwood was acquired in the offseason, meaning Wolf, thankfully, would no longer be expected to be the staff ace. Nevertheless, after his first 17 starts, he was 9-3 with 100 third strikes. On the back of his record, and the unexpected success of the Phillies who were in a wild card spot at that point, he was voted into the All-Star game for the first time in his career. He slowed down toward the end of September, but was still good, finishing at 16-10 with a 4.23 ERA and a career best 177 strikeouts. The Phillies were within a game of the wild card with just five games left in the season. A three-game sweep by the team ahead of them, the Florida Marlins, ended their playoff hopes prematurely, with Wolf allowing four runs in four innings to lose the last of the series, and the wild card clincher, in Miami.
  
• From 2004 to 2006 Wolf went 15-12 over the three-year stretch. His team would go from 86-76 to 88-74 to 85-77 over that time. He'd strike out 198 in his 48 starts, and while his 4.58 ERA was just good enough for a 99 ERA+, the Wolf Pack wouldn't let up. He even hit two home runs when he was facing the Rockies. Game was in Philadelphia, if you can believe it. And yet, he had injury problems that caused him to miss the majority of both June and September in 2004. Then after he hadn’t missed a start in 2005, he was diagnosed with a torn UCL right before the All-Star break and would require Tommy John surgery, shutting him down until the last week of July, 2006. His team was good during that time, but would also miss the playoffs all three years, and even if they hadn't, Wolf wouldn't have been able to pitch in any of them.
  

Finally, after the season when he turned 30 ended with a 5.56 ERA, the Phillies thanked him for his contributions, and made him a lone Wolf. Where might a pitcher find work having just started his fourth decade of life?
Not a month into free agency, as they often do, the lone Wolf found new territory far away from his previous home. Randy signed a 1-year, $7.5 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. This was a pack that had gone to the playoffs the previous year after some serious retooling, particularly in the pitching department. 36-year-old Aaron Sele and 40-year-old Greg Maddux had made serious impacts despite their AARP cards. Knowing that wasn't sustainable, the Dodgers' plan for Wolf was to inject some comparative youth into the rotation, try him out for one year, and leave the door open with a second-year option. He did okay to start out, with 6 of his first 11 Dodgers starts being Quality Starts, including a particularly good 7 innings of no-run 4-hit 11-strikeout stuff against the Cincinnati Reds. He finished May at 6-3 with a 3.41 ERA and 71 strikeouts. June wasn't as good, as he emerged at the end of the month with a 9-6 record and a 4.33 ERA after allowing at least 3 runs in each of his 6 starts. Then on July 3rd, after a particularly bad 3-inning 6-run outing, the Wolf began to hobble. His throwing shoulder was bothering him, and after electing to have surgery on it, his season was over. So was his time as a member of the Dodgers, who turned him loose that offseason. The Wolf found temporary shelter in a monastery as the Padres gave him a 1-year $5 million contract. In just his third start, against the Rockies, Randy was close to making that contract monumentally good. He had thrown 6 shutout, no-hit innings, which is generally not super noteworthy, but the San Diego Padres had never had a no-hitter in their history. Alas, it would stay that way, as person-who-dislikes-fun Brad Hawpe singled in the 7th, and Wolf was pulled after he finished the inning. It seemed to throw off his game as well, as after only allowing three runs through his first three starts combined for an ERA of 1.42, by mid-July, Randy had caused it to rise to 4.74. Pair that with a 6-10 record and a trend toward his worst career ERA+, and things weren't looking good. San Diego, who had already lost 60 games by that point, decided to save some money, and traded Wolf's $5 million to the Houston Astros for the league minimum of 26-year-old Chad Reineke. Apparently the Astros knew what they were doing, because, much like the constellation 9Lupus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupus_(constellation\)), when Wolf joined the stars, he shined. In 12 starts, he went 6-2, lowered his ERA on the season to 4.30, and struck out 57. Houston, who was 8 games below .500 when they acquired him, got as close as 2 games out of the Wild Card spot before finishing the year 86-75, an admirable turnaround. The next season would provide intrigue into whether they could keep that up. They would have to do it without Randy Wolf, who was once again granted permission to the pastures of free agency. At 32 years old, was there any chance this old dog still had some new tricks?
Despite being named the 27th best free agent available by MLB Trade Rumors and being one of the catalysts for a rather successful team down the stretch, Wolf swam the rivers of free agency for a good three months before finally being offered a contract to come back to the Dodgers. Yet another 1-year, $5 million contract, but it was far better than being left to fend for himself in that harsh wilderness. Unlike the 2007 Dodgers he was familiar with, who would go on to miss the playoffs after Wolf injured himself, the 2009 Dodgers were coming off a run to the NLCS. A recent foreign signing that paid off in Hiroki Kuroda, a proven young arm in Chad Billingsley, and a 21-year-old wild card named Clayton Kershaw were all ready to anchor a starting rotation. Wolf was brought on for his experience, and maybe if he could pitch here and there that'd be nice too. Well, he did that and more. At the age of 32, Randy Wolf had his best season in seven years. His record of 11-7 was his best since the year he was an All-Star. His 3.23 ERA was his best since the year he was the Phillies' ace. His 1.101 WHIP was his lowest in his career. He started 34 games, the first time he'd ever hit that high a number in a single season. Same goes for his 214.1 innings pitched. While Clayton Kershaw doubtless had the better mechanics, clearly exhibited in his lower peripherals in almost every pitcher vs. hitter metric, people who didn't care about all that stathead mumbo-jumbo saw Randy Wolf return to the mantle of staff ace. To top it all off, the Dodgers offense was exemplary. The outfield had a collective OPS above .825, and only two regular starters, Russell Martin the catcher and Rafael Furcal the shortstop, put up an OPS+ below 100. All that, plus a great bullpen, added up to a 95-67 record, and their second straight NL West division crown. Their quick dispatch of the Cardinals in an NLDS sweep was kicked off by Game 1 starter Randy Wolf, who earned a no-decision that day. He showed up again as the starter of Game 4 of the NLCS played against his old team in Philadelphia. Game 4 would end with Jonathan Broxton allowing a walkoff two-run double to Jimmy Rollins, who was teammates with Randy for six years. The Dodgers lost Game 4, then the decisive Game 5, and ended up watching the Phillies lose the World Series to the Yankees. Randy Wolf, on the other hand, was set to hunt for a team in the wooded country of free agency another time. Would this hunt fare any better?
Randy Wolf had the good fortune of being among a particularly lean crop of free agents, and having just had a year where he could be argued as the staff ace of a 95-win team, his value was as high as it ever had been. MLB Trade Rumors, therefore, rated him as the 5th best free agent available. The four names ahead of him, Matt Holliday, John Lackey, Jason Bay, and Chone Figgins, show just how weak this class was. Perfect prey for a wolf to pounce upon to gain ground. Monetarily, of course. And that he did, signing a 3-year, $29.75 million dollar contract with the Milwaukee Brewers. This contract was roughly equivalent to double what he'd earned over the past three years. It pays to be aggressive when it matters, whether you are prowling for food in the forest or prowling for a contract in the MLB. While Randy Wolf was certainly still crafty, the Brewers were giving a three-year contract with seven zeroes on it to a pitcher not named Randy Johnson or Nolan Ryan who would be 36 before it was over. Would the risk pay off? Well, old dogs can often still go in for the kill. In his first two years, Wolf went 26-22 in 67 starts. His 3.93 ERA and ERA+ of 101 was commendable, his total of 276 strikeouts was above average, and his 1839 batters faced were the most he'd ever endured over any two-year stretch of his career. Randy was even privy to some playoff action in 2011, when he allowed seven runs in a possible NLDS series-clincher against Arizona, but made up for it with a Quality Start and eventual Win in Game 4 of the NLCS. The Brewers won the series where he sucked, and lost the series where he was good. Wolf may have taken the wrong idea, because the next year he began sucking a lot more. By mid-August, he was 3-10 with a 5.69 ERA, but contrary to the previous experiment, Milwaukee was not doing well, and by this time was all but out of the playoff picture. On August 22, 2012, Randy Wolf was released by Milwaukee on what just so happened to be his 36th birthday. Told you his contract wouldn't end before then. A pity deal from the Baltimore Orioles led to two more starts and three more appearances, but didn't translate into an appearance on their playoff roster on account of another UCL tear that meant he would miss an entire year, this time not sandwiched between two seasons of play, but for the whole calendar year of 2013. Some might think that a 37-year-old coming off of his second Tommy John surgery would decide it was time to hang up his cleats and retire. Randy Wolf, not one to settle for easy meat, did not do that.
On Febraury 13th, 2014, after completing his rehab, Wolf signed a minor league contract with the Seattle Mariners. Then he got released after refusing to sign a waiver. Long story. A couple weeks later, he signed another minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Despite a 5-1 record over 6 AAA starts, the Snakes didn't want to keep him, and he was released again. That same day, he was picked up by the Marlins on another minor league contract. One month and 25.2 MLB innings of 5.26 ERA ball and a 1-3 record later, he was released again, only to be scooped up five days later on another minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles. Four lackluster weeks of triple-A baseball later, Wolf was released again only for two weeks to pass before he was offered another minor league contract from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. ARE YOU STILL WITH ME?!? Good. The Angels kept him on their AAA squad for the remainder of the year. His previous season, he'd gone 6-2 with a 4.57 ERA in 19 triple-A games spread across three different organizations, and that sluggish performance in Miami was the only time he put on an MLB jersey during the regular season. Remember kids, someday signing a waiver might mean you don’t have to move house four times in one year. Anyway, the next spring training, Wolf signed a minor league contract with the Blue Jays OH NO IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN. Except this time, the Blue Jays kept him on their triple-A squad for four months of the regular season. He went 9-2 with a 2.58 ERA in 23 starts. The Detroit Tigers saw that, said "what's the worst that could happen?" and in mid-August, traded their up-and-coming prospect Cash Considerations for Randy Wolf. He thanked them by going 0-5 in 7 starts, allowing 24 earned runs in 34.2 innings for a 6.23 ERA, and getting released that offseason. At long last, the Wolf saw that his final days were upon him, and signed a one-day contract with the Phillies to retire as a member of his original Wolf Pack. Is this the part where he cries to the blue corn moon?
To say Randy Wolf's career was one-of-a-kind would be a stretch. There are plenty of other lefties that have gone on to have similar careers, Floyd Bannister for one. Did Randy deserve to be on the ballot? That's a question that doesn't have an easy answer. Sure, he pitched for a long time, won more games than he lost, and was relatively good over a fairly lengthy stretch. He even places 116th on the all-time strikeouts list with 1814, right ahead of Hall-of-Famer and 350-game winner Pud Galvin. Heck, Ron Darling had similar stats across the board, and he even showed up on a ballot. And yet, to me there's just something about him that just says "he didn't belong there." Perhaps it's the fact that he was only the definitive staff ace on one team that only won 80 games. Perhaps it's the fact he only had four full seasons with an ERA below 4.00. It might even be the fact that after he came back despite the odds, he didn't do very well, and that's poisoning my thoughts on him. I don't know. I do know he wasn't on the ballot, and that's that. [Put another stupid wolf thing here]
Randy Wolf would visit the Hall of Fame in a Phillies cap for his 69-60 record, 971 strikeouts, and one All-Star selection with the club. While there he would let out a quiet but distinct howl when passing by Greg "Mad Dog" Maddux's plaque.
RIP Tommy Lasorda
#1: Randy Choate
#2: Kevin Gregg
#3: Dan Uggla
#4: Josh Hamilton
#5: Delmon Young
#6: Willie Bloomquist
#7: Grady Sizemore
#8: Kevin Correia
#9: David DeJesus
#10: Rafael Betancourt
#11: Clint Barmes
#12: Adam LaRoche
#13: Grant Balfour

Catch up: Initial Setup, 2020 Season Report, 2021 Season Report, 2022 Season Report, 2023 Season Report, 2024 Season Report, 2025 Season Report
Let's take a look at the award winners from 2025 to wrap that year up and then get into the moves made and the season recap for 2026!

2025 Offseason News

League News:

• The NL RPotY is Javy Guerra of the Padres, while the Yankees' Trevor Gott wins in the AL.
• SS Luke Leto wins the AL RotY while 3B Pedro Martinez puts up 7.6 WAR and wins a SS on his way to NL RotY for the Cubs.
• Mackenzie Gore wins the NL CYA to no surprise following his unbelievable season. In the AL, Detroit's Kumar Rocker is named the AL Cy Young! Casey Mize and Matt Manning finished 2nd and 3rd.
• Vlad Guerrero Jr. wins his 2nd MVP (back to back) and in the NL, Juan Soto unseats Cody Bellinger to win his 1st MVP. Soto/Bellinger voting finishes 367/350.

Detroit Achievements:

• C Christian Vazquez wins his 2nd GG
• 2B Willi Castro wins his 1st SS
• RF Yaya Chentouf wins his 2nd SS
• Brett de Geus & Levi Kelly receives RPotY votes
• DET's Varitek wins 2nd MotY
• SP Kumar Rocker wins his 1st CYA
• Casey Mize finishes 2nd in CYA, Matt Manning finishes 3rd in CYA
• Yaya Chentouf finishes 3rd in MVP, Willi Castro finishes 5th in MVP
• Kumar Rocker, Ryan Mountcastle & Evan White receive MVP consideration

Offseason Transactions

Owner gave us a $12,000,000 budget increase.
League News:

• SP Freddy Peralta extends with Milwaukee for $151M/6
• SP Corbin Burns extends with Milwaukee for $109M/5
• SP Casey Mize signs with Boston for $275M/7
• RF Mookie Betts signs with New York (Mets) for $155M/5
• SS Fernando Tatis Jr. signs with Philadelphia for $409M/8
• LF Joey Gallo returns to Texas for $106M/6
• C Willson Contreras signs with Washington for $35M/2
• C Tomoya Mori, from NPB, signs with Portland for $116M/7
• SP Dylan Cease signs with Kansas City for $66M/7
• RP Edwin Diaz signs with Milwaukee for $17M/2
• SP Michel Baez signs with Washington for $91M/4
• RF Kyle Tucker signs with Portland for $151M/5
• SP Andrew Heaney signs with Washington for $91M/4
• 3B Eugenio Saurez signs with Atlanta for $71M/4
• SP Eduardo Rodriguez signs with Chicago (Cubs) for $68M/4
• SP Luke Weaver returns to Colorado for $78M/5
• SP Luis Patino signs with Portland for $254M/7
• SS Xander Bogaerts signs with Arizona for $53M/4
• RP Emmanuel Clase signs with Milwaukee for $18M/2
• SP Kyle Wright signs with Minnesota for $24M/2
• LF Eloy Jimenez signs with Chicago (Cubs) for $144M/5
• SP Max Fried signs with Houston for $70M/4
• SP Masahiro Tanaka signs with Atlanta for $35M/2
• 1B Ryan McMahon signs with Arizona for $35M/2
• SP Trevor Baeur signs with Boston for $52M/4
• SP Shoto Imanaga, from NPB, signs with Portland for 68M/5
• Albert Pujols (98.8) and Miguel Cabrera (96.7) are inducted to the HOF on their 1st ballot

Detroit Departures:

• RP Jorge Alcala
• SP/RP Sandy Alcantara
• SP Luke Weaver
• SP Casey Mize - I just couldn't afford him and had to let him head into free agency. If I can get him back for a reasonable cost, I will, but I'm not too hopeful. Boston signed him for 40M/yr over the next 7 years. There is no way this ends well for them (I hope, for my sake).

Detroit Trades:
Trade #1
Detroit receives: LF Nick Pena, RP Joe Clark, $1M
San Diego receives: RP Jack Little, RP Jonathan Bowlan
I move two RPs that weren't useful to me and take a chance on some prospects. Easy.
Trade #2
Detroit receives: LF Freddy Valdez, $10M
New York receives: RP Connor Jones, SP Ridge Chapman
Chapman is useless to me, was filler for my A- staff. Jones is a great reliever, but didn't perform like I wanted. Valdez I'm taking a flier on, looks like he can hit a little. The real prize is the cash. The Mets have 121M in budget space, so they're willing to part with it and I need it.
Trade #3
Detroit receives: RP Jared Johnson, $5.5M
Atlanta receives: CF Kyle Isbel, SP Daniele Di Monte
Di Monte I think is a career minor leaguer. Isbel might be great for Atlanta, but I've seen enough of him in Detroit. Johnson will go to AAA for me and the cash is needed greatly.
Trade #4
Detroit receives: 2B Connor Norby, $3M
Cincinnati receives: RP Gerson Moreno
Moreno just wasn't used enough in his specialist role and I don't see him going back to a larger role for me, so grabbing some cash and a potential power bat is nice enough for me.
Trade #5
Detroit receives: CF Christian Pache (ATL retains 60%)
Atlanta receives: LF Riley Greene, 3B Jordan Diaz, 2B Fernando Hernandez, C Joe Dunse
Dunse hasn't had it in my minors. Hernandez has a horrible personality profile. Diaz might end up being a really solid player for the Braves, but I have some options as backup infielders and a couple of targets that I might grab in the Rule 5 to replace his role, so he felt expendable. Greene is going to continue to be good, but my issue is that I have a plethora of good corner outfielders and I've never had a capable CF. Pache fixes that issue right away. He's a stellar defender and a capable bat. I couldn't be happier to bring him in.
Trade #6
Detroit receives: C Ali Sanchez (MIL retains 60%)
Milwaukee receives: CF Parker Meadows, SP Thomas Hart
Milwaukee made us an offer that was actually intriguing. Hart isn't an important piece for me and Meadows hasn't cut it in the majors and is fragile. Sanchez is a third catcher for Milwaukee, so I guess this is win-win. Sanchez will replace Romo as the backup/possible starter against lefties. I noticed that Vazquez's catcher ability slipped just a hair, so Sanchez is as good as both he and Romo - so the bat upgrade makes sense.
Trade #7
Detroit receives: SP Kerry Wright, RP Starlyn Castillo, SP Kevin Bruce, $3,000,000
Cincinnati receives: RP Kyle Dohy
Cincy was high on Dohy, who was a lockdown reliever for me not that long ago, but struggled in brief outings last season. He may return to form and be worth it, but I'll always take the chance on three prospects and cash for a nearly 30 year-old reliever.
Trade #8
Detroit receives: SS Bobby Leighton
El Paso receives: 1B Bryant Packard
Packard is a DH only on my team, and isn't good enough to crack our lineup. I think he'll hit well for someone else. Leighton hasn't exactly torn it up in the minors, but looks like a great defender, great runner and has an interesting hitting profile that needs some discipline but could work.
Detroit Additions:
SP Matt Manning - I extended Matt for $39M/3 years.
SP German Marquez - Marquez was considerably cheaper than the comparable talents in free agency due to missing some time with injury the last two seasons. My scout loves him though and I was willing to take the chance that he bounces back. It's a two-year deal for about 28M, but the 2nd year is a team option for us.
SS Rikelvin De Castro - He's only played in AA, but he looks like he could be serviceable at the plate already. More importantly, his defense is solid enough to play everywhere in the infield and be a much better utility player than Jordan Diaz was.
SS Izaac Pacheco - Another utility option, he's never played high minor league ball, but the bat looks like it could be there soon anyway. He's also a capable fielder, and I think he might make a great future Mountcastle replacement.

Spring Training

We have $5M available for the season, $12,000,000 for the draft and $5,500,000 for international amateurs. We're spending the maximum allowed on development.
2B Addison Barger visited the guru. He's probably not going to last.

Regular Season

First Half
They project we'll win 100 games and the division. I'd be fine with that. Into May we go 22-12, losing Genesis Cabrera for the season in the process. We have a two game lead on the Twins.
Into June we sit at 38-25, now 4 games ahead of the Twins and Indians. We allow the least runs, but our starter's ERA is 6th. Our bullpen is 1st and out staff as a whole leads in FIP, WAR and Strikeouts. We have a great hitting team, but we produce the 4th most runs. The staff is led by German Marquez and Jackson Phipps right now, with Rocker a close third. Offensively, Isaac Paredes and Hayes aren't hitting that well, nor is Pache but his defense has been solid.
We hit the all-star break at 45-29, still holding onto 1st place and playing pretty well, though it could be better.
Second Half
The team plays well throughout July and into August. We lead the division slightly. However, major news happens on August 9th. In an announcement that stuns Angels fans and Major League Baseball as a whole, Mike Trout, who tore a back muscle early in the season, has a setback that forces him to retire from professional baseball. At 35 and before the injury Trout was still one of the best players in the league, having been named a Silver Slugger in 2025. It's a huge loss for professional baseball and cuts short a Hall of Fame career.
On September 5th, we dropped a game to the Athletics while the Twins won a matchup that moved them into a tie for the division with us. The fight is now on. On September 13th, we clinch a playoff spot - so do the Twins. The Indians are still in the fight as well, holding the 2nd wild card spot over the Rangers/Rays/Red Sox/Yankees. We match up with Cleveland and take two from them, knocking them down a rung. We drop two to the Astros to find ourselves back in a tie on September 19th. We win the final game of the season but so do the Twins - so we're playing a game to decide the division!
We drop 5 on the Twins in the first and end up winning the game 6-3, taking the division for the second year in a row. The Twins and Rangers clinch Wild Card spots, meaning the Indians miss the playoffs! Everything is looking good.

Playoffs

The Twins take the Wild Card game, so they'll be our first opponent.
Division Series
The Twins were a very good team this year, leading the AL in runs scored, but their weakness was pitching, where they rank in the bottom 5 of the AL in most categories. Hopefully we can take advantage of that. Their staff is anchored by Charlie Barnes, Justus Sheffield and Kyle Wright. Royce Lewis is the clear star on offense, posting an 8.9 WAR with a .312 batting average, 34 homeruns and 117 RBI. Luis Arraez's .342 average led the AL.
Game 1 - Tigers defeat Twins, 7-4
We jumped on them early and often and Marquez led the way on the mound. Ryan Hagenow gave up some runs, we'll want to limit his appearances.
Game 2 - Tigers defeat Twins, 7-4
Deja vu? Rocker was solid through six and then the bullpen kept us in charge heading to the final. Yaya drove in a pair of runs and Morel brought home three.
Game 3 - Twins defeat Tigers, 5-4
A sweep would've been nice, but we just dropped this one in the 7th. We've got Manning scheduled for game four, so I'm feeling good about it.
Game 4 - Tigers defeat Twins, 6-5
Well, it was closer than I wanted and required extras, but a win is a win. Isaac Paredes' solo shot ends up being the deciding run. Manning wasn't good, but the bullpen was awesome, which we needed. We're moving on to face the Mariners.
Ryan Mountcastle was named series MVP.
League Championship Series
The Mariners have the 2nd best pitching staff and the 9th most runs scored in the AL. They're led by Dawson Merryman, Jose Corniell and Jake Andrey in the rotation, while Jarred Kelenic and Julio Rodriguez lead the way on offense.
Game 1 - Tigers defeat Mariners, 7-6
It's a close game that wasn't as close as it looked, as the bullpen gave up four runs in the 9th. Marquez was solid and Merryman wasn't.
Game 2 - Tigers defeat Mariners, 7-6
Deja vu again? This is weird, except this time we had to battle back and get four in the 8th. Willi Castro drove in three for us, Rocker wasn't the best and the bullpen was serviceable. This series is close.
Game 3 - Tigers defeat Mariners, 6-5
Wow this series is a nail-biter that looks like a blowout. We're up 3-0 and have won by a combined 3 runs. This one we take in extras with a Castro RBI. Phipps was bad, bullpen was good. I can live with that.
Game 4 - Mariners defeat Tigers, 8-0
Oof! The Mariners beat up Manning and Sirit in this one, with the catcher, Bailey, driving in four runs. Jack Leiter was lights out. We need to not let them take momentum.
Game 5 - Mariners defeat Tigers, 6-2
Marquez stayed in too long, giving up five. Kelenic got us, which was expected. Let's not let them come back...
Game 6 - Tigers defeat Mariners, 6-1
Rocker was awesome, closing it out for us. We got on Corniell and Gilbert and never looked back. We're going back to the World Series!
Yaya Chentouf was Series MVP.
World Series
The San Diego Padres eliminated the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series - again. The Padres were the 3rd best pitching staff and 7th most scoring offense in the NL. CJ Abrams put up 7.9 WAR for them this season. Gore gave them 6 WAR. The Padres lost Luis Patino and Fernando Tatis Jr. and still made the World Series. They're looking to repeat, I'm looking for my first. Let's go!
Game 1 - Padres defeat Tigers, 5-2
Gore is just too good, he shut us down. Marquez got chased early. We need to battle back.
Game 2 - Padres defeat Tigers, 3-2
We've gotta have these games. Phipps wasn't bad, Lawson was better, but we just couldn't get the offense going. We have to have runs.
Game 3 - Tigers defeat Padres, 2-1
Well, we didn't score much, but Rocker was awesome and Kelly slammed the door shut out of the pen. We need that if the offense is going to play like this.
Game 4 - Tigers defeat Padres, 5-2
Finally got some offense, all in one inning, which was enough to hold them off. It's a brand new series! Manning gave us what we needed and the bullpen was great once more. If we hand it to them with a lead I feel good about our odds.
Game 5 - Padres defeat Tigers, 8-2
What can we do? Mackenzie Gore is unstoppable on the mound and the Padres continue to blow up German Marquez who was one of the AL's best all season. This is what got us here and it isn't helping us now. We're on the ropes.
Game 6 - Padres defeat Tigers, 5-0
Well, this hurts once again. Shutout to go home. We survived an extra game this year, but the Padres really have our number. They're a damn good team and it shows. They jumped on Phipps and we never stood a chance.
Full Playoffs
Detroit Achievements

• RP Brett de Geus, 2B Willi Castro and RF Yaya Chentouf are named to the MLB All-Star Game
• SP Justin Powell, C Dale Burton and RF Ronnie Ruth are named to the Prospects All-Star Game
• RF Ronnie Ruth is the MVP of the Prospects All-Star Game
• SP German Marquez is named Pitcher of the Month for June
• RP Brett de Gues is named Pitcher of the Month for August
• SP Jackson Phipps is named Pitcher of the Month for September

Season Recap

Back to back division wins and World Series trips. Back to back World Series losses. It feels good to make it, but damn if it doesn't hurt to lose it. We need to get it done when it matters.

Hitters

Starting Lineup
C Christian Vazquez
Vazquez had a decent year once more, actually hitting a bit better for me again. While he's still a solid defensive option, his catcher ability fell off by 10 points this season and he'll be let go. We'll look for better defense, but Christian was awesome in that department for us for six seasons.
1B Ryan Mountcastle
Not only was it back down to Earth for Mountcastle, it was his worst season as a pro for us. The bat fell off to slightly below league average and as a first baseman his defense isn't going to save him. With an arbitration estimate of 9M, and my finances being in the hole, I believe it's the end of the road for Mountcastle.
2B Willi Castro
For the first time as GM of this team, Willi Castro didn't improve upon his previous season. It was a tough ask with his 8.2 WAR last year, but he was a solid player once again. He was above average at the plate by a good margin and played good enough defense. He has four more years on his deal and I'm still happy to be paying it as of right now.
3B Isaac Paredes
I thought that Paredes was on the up trend the last couple of seasons, but he didn't come back from the injury playing as he had been before it. He's not old, but he's approaching 30 and doesn't have a good personality set. With an arbitration estimate of over 10M, I might see what cheaper options are in play for his position as well.
SS Ke'Bryan Hayes
Hayes' BABIP dropped back down to more reasonable levels and with it went his WAR and production. He was an above average defender and gave us 2.6 WAR. His estimate in arbitration is nearly 9M so he may also be on the chopping block due to the financial situation. With all of my early players nearing 30, I'm hitting a time where I may be fielding a largely new team next season.
LF Evan White
My dude Evan White returned to reasonable BABIP levels as well, but was still a really great player for us. He put up over 4 WAR with solid defense (granted, at left field) and was good at the plate. We'll pay him about 6.5M next season, so he's still a great value. It remains to be seen if he will stay in LF or if he'll move back to 1B if Mountcastle isn't on the team.
CF Christian Pache
I actually failed my owner goal of upgrading at CF with Pache. I did not expect that. His hitting fell off quite a bit, which is manageable, but I didn't expect his defense to not be nearly as good either. I'm hopeful that it's just a result of being in a new place - we'll see if he bounces back next season.
RF Yaya Chentouf
While Castro's streak is over, Yaya continues his - improving his WAR once more. He was our best hitter, led the league in walks and was solid in right field once more. It was his best season at the plate yet. He finally enters arbitration and it's going to cost us - he's estimated at 13M, but I can't bear to let him depart just yet. He'll be far more expensive, but he's been the most cost efficient star in the league up until this point, so it's only fair.
Bench/Replacements
C Ali Sanchez
Sanchez was pretty decent at the plate and gave us serviceable defense as well. Like Vazquez, his defensive ability also dropped off some this season and I won't be giving him his arbitration estimate. I'll look at other options in the system and in free agency.
IF Izaac Pacheco
Pacheco was a great defensive first baseman in limited opportunities, which isn't that valuable, but when you also compare his hitting to Mountcastle's, he had a case as our better first baseman. He's much cheaper as well, so he may be in-line for the starting job next season. If not, he will learn some more positions and be even more of a utility fielder. The hit tool may develop further as well and I love that he's a captain.
IF Rikelvin de Castro
He only played about half a season's worth of games, but he was a +8 ZR at shortstop and held his own at the plate. That helped him get 2.1 WAR in limited appearances. He should be starting next season at one of the positions that I don't extend a starter at, I just don't know which one yet. He had a phenomenal development year.
3B Christopher Morel
Morel came up and was decidedly "okay" at 3B/DH in limited time. He was solid in AAA and earned the shot, even if it was highly BABIP driven. I'm not sure if he'll be sticking around longer or not, he may be a AAAA guy.
CF Jairo Pomares
Pomares has been a criminally underused 4th or 5th outfielder for us. He probably deserves more, but we haven't had the room and he isn't that great of a defender. The bat, in limited appearances, had been good though. He should feature more next season.
RF Luis Matos
I don't know what I have with Matos. It looks like I've got a solid hitter and yet he continues to not come through at the plate - but his BABIP has been wildly inconsistent. He doesn't mind being a bench player though and he's a better fielder than Pomares, so maybe he stays as a fourth outfielder - but I need the bat to perform like my scout thinks it should.
DH Joseph Kalafut
Kalafut was serviceable in limited time despite a super low .229 BABIP. I think he might be able to hit in the bigs, but he can't play anything besides DH. Lucky for him, I may need a DH, so he might finally get a real shot. He's hit at every level.

Pitchers

Rotation
SP German Marquez
Marquez stayed healthy after the long injury and was worth every penny. He was actually an improvement over Casey Mize (for about 1/4 the price Boston paid). He didn't really see any ratings dip this season and was my best starter - he'll likely contend for the Cy Young - so I think I'll execute his option year and run it back with him.
SP Kumar Rocker
Rocker was 0.1 WAR better than his Cy Young campaign from last season and was overshadowed on the team by Marquez. He was better this year than last, but was a bit more unlucky this season. He's still a key piece.
SP Matt Manning
He didn't replicate the 4.5 WAR season, but he got close and is now a third SP, so that's perfect for me. He was basically as good as he was last season, threw one less game and led the league in wins. His contract is still friendly for us.
SP Jackson Phipps
Phipps was much better in his second shot in our rotation and kept the spot all year, putting up 3.2 WAR and being a more than serviceable fourth starter. He's cheap and will return.
SP Ryan Hagenow
Hagenow was incredibly unlucky, posting a 4.63 FIP and 93 FIP- but a 86 ERA+ with his 5.76 ERA. He ended up moving to the bullpen later in the season due to this, but was a 1.5 WAR player as a 5th SP and reliever. He'll get another shot next season.
Bullpen
RP Justin Dunn
Dunn is who replaced Hagenow in the rotation and he was serviceable as well. He was better in the bullpen than he was in the rotation, but he was better in the rotation that Hagenow in limited appearances. He's still cheap and still a solid arm, so he'll be back as a 5th/6th starter or LR.
RP Brett de Geus
Brett led the league in appearances again, wasn't nearly as productive as last year, but was still an awesome reliever. He put up 1.3 WAR and was reliable most of the time he was out there. He's due to make about 2M, but I think he's worth it.
RP Levi Kelly
Kelly, like Brett, wasn't quite as good but was still great. He gave us 2 WAR and led the league in holds. He was solid and will return.
RP Isaiah Magwood
I needed more arms with some injuries and Magwood wanted to be up. He deserved to be, giving us nearly 2 WAR as a rookie and being a relied upon arm. He'll be back.
RP Rolando Sirit
Sirit was another above-average reliever for us and is cheap. He'll return. There is a possibility he competes for that 5th rotation spot.
RP Bryant Salgado
Salgado was called up for a bit and was solid in 16 appearances, he'll likely get more looks next season.
RP Ricky Tibbett
Ricky was average in his limited call-up, but was great in AAA. He'll probably get more chances soon.
RP Stephen Gonsalves
Gonsalves came up at the end of the year and got very limited looks. He's a 32 year-old that is fragile and has been in AAA since 2019. He might get some more looks next year, because he's been good in the minors but I've just never had room for him.
RP Kerry Wright
Wright came up and was bad, but was solid in AAA. He might get more chances next season.
RP Austin Bergner
Bergner's FIP- is decent, FIP leaves some to be desired and in 26 appearances didn't produce much WAR. He got sent down and might be back and forth all of his career.
RP Michael Bienlien
Short note: he was bad and went back to AAA.
RP Antoine Jean
Was serviceable in short appearances, could see looks next year.

Prospect Watch

SP Justin Powell - I didn't like the offers I had for him, so I decided to wait a year. He's the 2nd ranked prospect and dominated A-. He'll go up to at least A+, if not right to AA. Don't get me wrong, the Fragile injury proneness and low work ethic scare the heck out of me, but he continues to be so damn good. I'll try moving him again this next season.
RF Ronnie Ruth - Ronnie Ruth is starting to be pretty exciting. He looks like he could hit in the majors right now. He'll go to AA next year, but he may not even need AAA, who knows. He can't field at all, and he also doesn't have the best personality profile, but he looks like he will be able to tear the cover off of the ball. He'll probably just slot in at left field for me in the long run.
SP Zach Stephens - Last year's 1st round pick was good again and will go up again. He's got four pitches and if the changeup comes along that's even better. I hope he pans out and is a solid starter for us down the line.
2B Connor Norby - He looks like he can hit some longballs. He had a terrible BABIP and was still a positive hitter in AAA. He's another one that can't field, but might fight for some DH time.
3B Alex Santa Cruz - It looks like I somehow missed moving him up this season, which is unfortunate, but he killed it and will move up now. He looks like a solid IFA signing.
CF Petey Halpin - He was rough in super limited major league time, but killed AAA. He deserves a shot somehow.
RP Mel Rodrigues - Mel is probably in the bullpen for the Tigers next year, he was awesome in AA.
LF Cole Wagner - I gave up on the two-way dream, but Wagner looks like a decent hitter.

Future Outlook

We're getting another slight budget bump, but our salaries are trending upward. I think we're going to be moving on from a lot of familiar faces this season, but giving a lot of our youth some bigger chances. It should be an interesting transition in the team's history and I hope it pans out.

If you'd like to catch up on previous installments, you can do so here: Initial Setup, 2020 Season Report, 2021 Season Report, 2022 Season Report, 2023 Season Report
Let's take a look at the award winners from 2023 to wrap that year up and then get into the moves made and the season recap for 2024!

2023 Offseason News

League News:

• Scott Oberg wins the AL Reliever of the Year award, Detroit's Drew Carlton received votes. In the NL, Miami's Thomas Burrows wins the award.
• 1B Diego Maicon powers his way to the AL Rookie of the Year with 43 homeruns while SS Nasim Nunez's 30 stolen bases helps him take the NL trophy.
• Detroit's Casey Mize takes home the AL Cy Young Award, receiving all 32 first place votes. San Diego's Luis Patino was the NL's best offering and wins the award.
• Houston's Kyle Tucker unseats Mike Trout as the AL MVP with a stellar season for the Astros. In the NL, Cody Bellinger wins his third straight MVP and 4th in the last 5 years.

Detroit Achievements:

• Ke'Bryan Hayes wins his first Gold Glove at 2B.
• SP Casey Mize wins the AL Cy Young Award!

Offseason Transactions

Owner gave us a $4,000,000 budget increase, but we have some solid players coming off of minimums, so our scouting and development budgets will be going down from their max.
League News:

• 1B Matt Olson signs with the San Francisco Giants for $212,600,000 over 7 years.
• Reliever of the Year Scott Oberg, along with SP Carmen Mlodzinksi and $2,000,000 in cash are dealt to the Rockies for CF Garret Mitchell.
• The Chicago Cubs and White Sox complete a cross-town deal with RF Nomar Mazara going to the Cubs and SP Will Mercer and 2B Ryan Bliss going to the White Sox.
• Chicago Cubs sign SP Jose Quintana for $72,000,000 over 4 years.
• SP Luke Weaver is sent to the Rockies for a package of 3 prospects.
• Chicago Cubs sign SP Kyle Hendricks for $82,000,000 over 5 years.
• NPB star SS Hayato Sakamoto signs with the Texas Rangers for 4 years, $52,400,000.
• SP Noah Syndergaard is sent to the Cincinnati Reds for a package of 3 prospects.
• SP Blake Snell nets $18,800,000 a year for the next 5 seasons with the Boston Red Sox.
• 1B Max Muncy gets $82,000,000 over 4 years to head cross-town to the Angels.
• 3B Miguel Andujar signs with the Marlins for $10,000,000 a year for 4 years.
• The Giants pay SP Carlos Martinez $16,500,000 a year for the next 4 seasons.
• Kyle Schwarber nets $19,142,857 a year for the next 7 years with the Houston Astros.
• Cleveland Indians sign SP Dinelson Lamet to a 2 year deal worth $53,400,000.
• Max Kepler is signed by the Washington Nationals for 5 years at $92,900,000.
• No one is elected to the Hall of Fame. Gary Sheffield (40.1%/10th year) is removed from the ballot.

Detroit Departures:

• RP Bryan Garcia
• CF Albert Almora Jr.

Detroit Trades:
Trade #1 Detroit receives: 2B Marcus Chiu, RP Jack Little Los Angeles receives: RP Junior Fernandez, RP Brendan White
Fernandez didn't seem like he was going to make it back to the majors and was available as an auto-renew for 1M+, so I moved him for another reliever that I can take a chance on and a 2B prospect that looks ready for AAA and gives me some infield depth.
Trade #2 Detroit receives: RF Ismael Mena, 2B Jordy Barley, $750,000 San Diego receives: SS Vidal Brujan
Brujan wasn't very good for us last year and was super pissed about not being an everyday starter. I can't offer him that, but the Padres were willing to part with a decent middle infielder who will play in AAA and a RF prospect that I'm really excited to be adding to the team in Mena, with great personality traits.
Trade #3 Detroit receives: 3B Jordan Diaz Oakland receives: RP Blake Taylor
Taylor wasn't going to stick with the team after a down season and some regression, but Diaz looks like a solid piece for the future. He's 23, cost-controlled and already has a nice hitting profile. He'll start in AAA likely.
Detroit Additions:
OF Jairo Pomares - He was on the waiver wire to end the season and looks like a more than capable hitter. He's young and on a minimum, so I figured I'd take a flier on him.

Spring Training

We have $17,600,000 available for free agents/trades for the season, $12,000,000 set aside for the draft and $5,400,000 set aside for international amateurs. We're spending the maximum allowed on development again this year.
We used the spring to have Castro play 2B and Gold Glover Ke'Bryan Hayes play SS.
Detroits News:

• SP Matt Manning tore a back muscle and will miss four months.
• RP David McKay tears his rotator cuff and will miss 6 months.

Regular Season

First Half
We take an Opening Day win behind a nice outing from Casey Mize and hope to continue that momentum. We're projected to win 99 games and have three top pitchers, but I have my doubts - especially with Manning missing significant time. I normally don't note much about the second game, but it was Kumar Rocker's first start and he was stellar - 8 and a third innings, 1 run and 7 strikeouts - a good look for the rookie.
As we roll into May we sit at 18-14, five games back of the unstoppable Cleveland Indians. We started 5-0, but we've had some down stops as well. At 32-28 on June 1st, the team is now seven games back of the Indians and three games back of the wild card. We need some help. Sandy Alcantara goes back into the rotation, replacing a struggling Justin Dunn, while bullpen roles get shifted as well. Ke'Bryan Hayes has been incredibly unlucky at the plate with a .222 BABIP, resulting in a .187 batting average. We'll give him another month to sort it out, but we move Evan White to CF and bring Riley Greene into the starting lineup to spell a struggling Parker Meadows. We bring up Jonathan Bowlan and David Parkinson, sending down Alex Lange and Drew Carlton to AAA.
2024 Draft
Another low pick for us, this year we spend the 27th on SP Doug Wade in the 1st round. We double-down on pitching in the 2nd with Kevin Abbs. We grab a SS that looks like a future gold glover in the third in Jeff Allemand. Left fielder Mike Gode is next on the merit of his bat. In the fifth it's center fielder Jim Longchamps with a stellar combo of speed and defense. We like the next picks of SS Ben Barilla, CF Mike Voytko and CF Kevin Devaney as well.
We limped into the All-Star break with a record of 38-37. Matt Manning returns from injury though, and hopefully it's a much-needed shot in the arm. It seems to work as the team goes on a winning streak to finish June, landing 1st in the Wild Card at 46-40 (yet still 9 back of the surging Indians).
July would prove to be a turning point for us as we secured series wins against the Mariners, Rays (swept), White Sox (swept), Rangers, Blue Jays (swept) and Angels en route to a showdown with the Indians to close the month. That showing put us 3 games up on the wild card, but still 7 back of Cleveland. We take one from them, but they prove to be too much, winning two to end the month.
Second Half
August is a new month though, and we kick it off with series wins against the Athletics and Twins, but then get swept by the Yankees. We sweep the Royals and win a series against the Steelhounds to sandwich a series loss to the Orioles and head into roster expansion. We send down David Parkinson and bring up RP Ethan DeCaster, CF Jairo Pomares and 1B Bryant Packard.
We roll into September, securing wins against a number of top teams. On September 14th we lose RP Jack Little for four months, but also clinch a playoff spot. We sit three games back of Cleveland with a chance at a division title and a series against them. We take game one handily, but draw their ace in game two against our back-half and fall by one. Mize carries us to a 2-1 win in game three though to win the series and put us just two games back three games left, giving us an outside shot. We take a game against the Athletics and the Indians drop one to the Angels to move us one game back. Another huge win against the Athletics, coupled with a Cleveland loss and we sit tied heading into game 162. We control our destiny and can force a tiebreaker!
Unfortunately, there are no last game heroics - the Athletics steal one from us and the Indians prevail, we'll take the top wild card spot.

Playoffs

We've secured a wild card berth one again, this time against the Athletics - who put us there with a win in Game 162. We have Casey Mize on the mound and it's a game we should win - we were probably the third best team in the AL, but the Indians control our division.
Wild Card - Game 1 - Tigers defeat Athletics, 9-5 We've finally advanced past the wild card round in my tenure! Mize gets hit later in the game, but we pretty much control this one wire to wire and now must face the Rays, a team we were 8-4 against during the regular season.
Division Series - Game 1 - Rays defeat Tigers, 7-6 We jump to a 6-0 lead and then crumble the rest of the way. The bullpen really didn't do too bad, just couldn't get another run on offense. If we score six, we should be winning.
Division Series - Game 2 - Tigers defeat Rays, 6-5 So I guess we're having only close games. This time it's us that had to battle back throughout the game to score, but we did it. We need better outings from the rotation.
Division Series - Game 3 - Rays defeat Tigers, 7-4 Well, we aren't getting good outings from our good pitching staff, which is irritating. The Rays blast us for 7 runs in the first three innings and we can't recover. We're on the ropes now, let's see what we're made of.
Division Series - Game 4 - Tigers defeat Rays, 4-1 Finally we get an elite performance. Mize showed up, holding them to one run over nearly 8 innings and the bullpen shut the door for us. We've got Rocker on the mound in Game 5 against Glasnow, their ace, so it'll be a high pressure situation for the rookie.
Division Series - Game 5 - Tigers defeat Rays, 6-4 We pulled it off! Rocker gave us 6 innings of quality work, only allowing 2 runs. Zach Hess got rocked in relief, but De Geus and Short shut it down after that. We got on Glasnow early and chased him before he could complete 5 innings and maintained he lead all the way! Willy Adames of the Rays was named series MVP.
The bad news for us is that the Indians swept the Angels in their series and they'll be our opponent in the League Championship Series. We were 5-7 against them during the season. Their lineup is strong, particularly the Lindor-Ramirez-Aquino-Casas gauntlet that sits from #2-#5 in the order. Their pitching is even better though, with the league's lowest FIP and best bullpen ERA, which helped them to the second fewest runs against. Shane Bieber had a down year, but he's still Shane Bieber - but Daniel Espino and Dinelson Lamet give them a fearsome three-headed monster. This will be tough to unseat the defending champs.
League Championship Series - Game 1 - Tigers defeat Indians, 3-2 A HUGE road win against Bieber off of Castro's two-run dinger in the 8th inning. Bieber was stellar, but we happened to get ahold of Edwin Diaz, which is also surprising. Manning was decent and our bullpen was stellar. I'm pumped to steal one in Cleveland.
League Championship Series - Game 2 - Indians defeat Tigers, 6-5 This was about as close as it can get throughout - we kept answering each other at the plate until we finally failed to do so. It's a shame to chase Espino so early and still lose with Mize on the mound, but I'm still glad to have one win already.
League Championship Series - Game 3 - Indians defeat Tigers, 4-1 Yeah, Lamet held us in check and their bullpen was stellar. Skubal was unfortunate, giving up three runs with only one of them being earned. It particularly hurts because the error was by Ke'Bryan Hayes, last season's gold glove winner. We need to bounce back in Game 4.
League Championship Series - Game 4 - Indians defeat Tigers, 7-6 (13) Well, that hurts. We got a serviceable outing from Rocker and got on Plesac early - we got some runs on Edwin Diaz again too, but the rest of their bullpen was untouchable. Ours, on the other hand, all gave up runs except for Zach Hess. Tough. We battled, but this road is now an incredibly uphill one.
League Championship Series - Game 5 - Indians defeat Tigers, 4-2 Manning got blown up and Bieber continues having a strong postseason - he seems to have caught fire at the right time for them. We have a lot to take from this series and feel good about going forward, but I'm starting to really dislike Cleveland. Their reign needs to end.
World Series Well, the Giants draw the appearance for the National League and get off to a 3-0 start. But Cleveland, they aren't killable are they? No, no they are not. They came back. They won the dang thing. The Cleveland Indians repeat as MLB Champions.
Detroit Achievements

• SP Casey Mize is named an All-Star
• 2B Willi Castro is named an All-Star starter
• 3B Isaac Paredes is named an All-Star
• RF Yaya Chentouf is named an All-Star
• SP Justin Powell, C Dale Burton and SS Trevor Haskins are named to the All-Prospects Game - Haskins wins MVP.

Season Recap

My division nemesis wins the World Series after sending us home. I dislike this. We had a great season though with our best win total of my tenure and had he most cost efficient team per wins, runs scored and WAR in the league. We became a top 10 team in attendance and our player's popularity is growing. Our owner wants us to upgrade at short stop - so I guess he doesn't like the Castro/Hayes swap - so we make take a look at that once again. Spoiler alert - we got a budget increase, so maybe we'll spend it. Who knows.

Hitters

Starting Lineup
CF Parker Meadows
Meadows ended up going to the bench instead of an everyday starter as his bat just wasn't there like it was last year. He's a quality fielder and baserunner and makes the minimum, so he'll be back - but he may not have a clear role on the team in the future.
DH Kyle Isbel
Isbel ended up much lower in the order during the season and his bat just wasn't good enough for a DH role. My scout thinks he should be better than he is, but I have two seasons of data that say he isn't. He's also listed as fragile, which I'm not sure if I just missed that before or if it's new, but I may try to move him this offseason.
2B Willi Castro
Willi just keeps getting better. He was a 2.5 WAR player as a rookie, gave me two seasons of 5 WAR and now nearly 8 this season - the move to 2B seems to have worked well for him and he was a plus defender. He led the league in runs, had his best season yet at the plate and was a 20/20 player. His arbitration estimate is $15,000,000 - which is a lot, but I don't see how I can let him walk while I have contract control. He's given me four full seasons without any injury issues, is a fan favorite and one of my best players. I'd love to sign him longer term if it's reasonable.
RF Yaya Chentouf
Yaya made his first all-star team, led the league in walks and was a dominant hitter for us this season. He's come a long way since he was a struggling reliever in my minors, now giving us nearly 6 WAR in RF. He's on a minimum deal and was incredible, he's obviously returning. His jump from 25 to 51 homeruns helped us accomplish our goal of improving on our homerun total that our owner set as well. Yaya has also become extremely popular at a national level - he's quickly become one of my favorites.
1B Ryan Mountcastle
Mountcastle continues to be a steady performer for me - he's not an all-star and he's not going to win any awards, but he's reliable and dependable. He bounced back from his 1.4 WAR season to give us nearly 3 this year, hit well and played good defense. His arbitration estimate is cheap, so he'll return.
LF Evan White
White was a bit disappointing again. He was the hottest player on the team two years ago and gave us 5 WAR, now he's struggling to hit 2. The bat has cooled off considerably, though, much like Isbel, my scout thinks he should be better than he has been. He doesn't appear to be having any bad BABIP luck either, so maybe he's just not as good as I had hoped, but still serviceable. He's still locked up long-term with Seattle footing 40% of the bill, so that's good. Defensively, I prefer him in left than center, but center field continues to elude me. It might be worth considering if I need both him and Mountcastle, or if I should move White to 1B or move him out.
3B Isaac Paredes
Well now, here is a pleasant surprise. Paredes wasn't someone who had a big BABIP jump, but his bat was much improved this year - going from below league average to one of the best in the league. He gave us 4.3 WAR despite missing a few weeks with injury as well, so a solid season all-around. His arbitration estimate isn't too bad, so I'll definitely be keeping him around. His personality concerns me, but if he keeps up the performance from this season he'll be hard to move on from.
SS Ke'Bryan Hayes
I had hopes that swapping Hayes and Castro would empower them both to have better seasons defensively and thus provide more value. While Hayes was a plus defender at short, it wasn't by much and I've seen four seasons of his bat not being that good. Yes, he was unlucky this season, but I'm not sure he's going to give me much even if he wasn't. If I can find a better defensive option, I may just do that.
C Christian Vazquez
My catcher position has never been one worth going crazy about. Vazquez continues to be a bad hitter for me, despite that one great season, but his defensive value is so hard to gauge. Our pitching staff was the league's best and it's tough to not credit Christian with a lot of that. I'm going to let him hit free agency and try to get him cheaper there.
Bench/Replacements
C Jake Rogers
Rogers was a better backup this year than last year, despite less appearances. I'll probably bring him back, but I might give more time to Drew Romo next year and see what he brings. Rogers looks like a solid backup with no real intentions of being a starter.
3B Jordan Diaz
Diaz was brought in to maybe replace Paredes if he struggled and I think he pushed Isaac to a career year. Diaz was decent enough as a bench player and he'll either be back with us or in AAA next year to see if he fills out some more.
RF Riley Greene
Greene pretty quickly became the everyday starter in left field, forcing my hand with his play as a fourth outfielder. Well, he was pretty dang good as a rookie, giving us 3.4 WAR in 118 starts. He was a great hitter and brought some extra pop to the lineup as well. My scout thinks his discipline will come along as well, and I hope it does because he'll be deadly if so.
OF Jairo Pomares
Pomares was tearing it up in AAA, came up at the end of the year and had a decent, albeit brief, appearance. He may be a full-time fourth outfielder next year.

Pitchers

Rotation
SP Casey Mize
Mize casually came out and improved upon his Cy Young campaign from last season, giving us a league leading 6.2 WAR and a 61 FIP-. He was pretty solid I'd say, obviously. All of that was despite a higher BABIP against him, so I like what Mize gave us. Will he repeat as Cy Young? I'm not sure, but he should be in contention.
SP Kumar Rocker
What can you expect from a rookie starting pitcher? Well, how about 4.2 WAR, a 130 ERA+ and a 73 FIP-? I will take that every single day of the week. Wow. Rocker was outstanding and my scout says this guy might get better - that is exciting. He struck out a lot of players, kept walks reasonable and overall was deserving of the #2 role in my rotation with Manning out.
SP Franklin Perez
"Fragile" Franklin finally gets his shot - and, well, he was... okay? He had four different injuries, big surprise, and was kind of rough as a starter. However, when I moved him to the bullpen, he was pretty good when healthy. I may try to capitalize on some team thinking he can be a full-time starter and move him out, but I've been saying that for awhile.
SP Justin Dunn
Dunn was worse in the rotation this year then he was last year, so he ended up being sent back to AAA to clear room for other arms. Similar to Perez, maybe I should try to move him - he has yet to perform in the majors.
SP Tarik Skubal
Tarik surprised me. He was decent enough the last two seasons, but was demoted to the pen last year. I didn't think he'd be in the rotation, but injuries said otherwise and his performance said it was a good call. He gave us 2.5 WAR as our fifth starter, which I'll definitely take. His arbitration estimate is 3M, which is probably doable.
Bullpen
SP Matt Manning
Matt missed four months with injury, which is alarming - but he came back strong and gave us 1.4 WAR in 19 starts. I suppose it was his worst stretch since his rookie year, but he was still an above average arm. The arbitration estimate is just over five million, so he'll likely be back.
RP Brett De Geus
My bullpen has yet to have a consistent leader. This year it was Brett de Geus, who gave us 2.1 WAR in 81 IP in his 63 appearances. He was downright dominant with a 58 FIP-, striking out 32% of the opposition. He'll be back on a minimum.
RP Gerson Moreno
Moreno was another new face who was surprisingly solid for us. He gave us almost 1 WAR over his league-leading 71 games and 24 holds. He was pretty solid and will be back on a minimum.
RP Zack Hess
Hess was as productive as Moreno in half as many appearances, so he was pretty great for us. He'll get more opportunities next year in the pen.
RP Kyle Dohy
Dohy was another 1 WAR reliever who was better than league average. He's also on a minimum and will be back - the high stuff, no control guys do well with Vazquez. He struck out nearly 40% of the opposition.
RP Jack Little
Little was decent enough before he got injured and missed the playoffs. He logged a lot of innings for us and gave us a solid 1 WAR. However, I think we have better arms and he won't be as relied upon next year.
RP Genesis Cabrera
Genesis was far better in the bullpen role this year than he was last year - giving us 1 WAR and a solid 149 ERA+ and 79 FIP-. He filled in for a recovering Alcantara at the end of the year too in the rotation. His estimate is less than a million, so he should return.
RP Drew Carlton
Here is the reason I was complaining about bullpen volatility - Carlton gave us 2 WAR last year and was so bad this year that I sent him down after 19 games and never looked back. I will not be picking up his arbitration.
RP Sandy Alcantara
Sandy was better than I expected despite his ratings falling a bit. He was mostly used in the pen, filled in as a starter later on, and was good at both. However, he wants eight million dollars to extend soooo good luck elsewhere!
RP Jonathan Bowlan
Jonathan got called up a couple of times, was serviceable when he was up, but will be back in AAA or gone next season.
RP Alex Lange
Keeping it short - Lange wasn't good when he was up and got sent down, where he'll stay.
RP David Parkinson
Even shorter - he was awful.

Prospect Watch

SP Justin Powell - Powell wasn't even listed last year because he struggled in rookie ball. I let him repeat, which I normally don't do, because he had just been drafted. Well, he had quite the development tour this year and is now ranked as not only my top prospect, but as the 2nd best prospect in baseball. The bad news is that he wasn't good in rookie ball again, but he'll go to A-.
SP Doug Wade - Wade was our top pick this year and was good enough in A- to go to A, where I hope he'll improve.
SS Trevor Haskins - Haskins was solid in A and will go to AA. I like his defensive profile and he's a solid baserunner. The bat tool needs some work still but I have high hopes.
C Dale Burton - Burton is, of course, still fragile, which isn't great. He was fine enough in A- to go to A though, but I don't know if he's a long-term option.
CF Petey Halpin - Petey will go to AAA next year. Maybe he's the future CF option, I don't know. Maybe he's just a fourth outfielder.
RF Ismael Mena - Mena was great in AA and will go to AAA. If he fills out the hitting tool, he doesn't have a weakness. He's a phenomenal runner and solid in the outfield. Hopefully he keeps progressing.
C Drew Romo - Romo's hitting never developed, not like it looked like it would way back in 2020. But, the defense is there and he might be the Vazquez replacement due to that alone. It's not like Vazquez has hit either.

Future Outlook

Arbitration is going to hit hard for some folks this year. Willi Castro and Casey Mize in particular. We're going to have to be more financially selective moving forward as we start to lose the cheap and controlled deals we've been accustomed to.