Per Fangraphs AL West Position players: fWAR Starting 9 / bench = top13 players Astros: 28.4 / 2.5 = 30.9 Rangers: 25.1 / 0.7 = 25.8 Mariners: 19.6 / 0.9 = 20.5 Pitching: Top 5 SP / Top 4 RP / top 13 pitchers Astros: 11.6 / 2.9 / 16.0 Rangers: 10.8 / 1.9 / 13.7 Mariners: 12.6 / 3.3 / 16.0 26 roster total Astros: 46.9 Rangers: 39.5 Mariners: 36 5
https://dodgersnation.com/shohei-oh...-over-los-angeles-dodgers-sources/2023/12/08/ The wait is over: Shohei Ohtani is signing with the Toronto Blue Jays. According to multiple sources who spoke with Dodgers Nation on Friday, the two-way superstar has ended the suspense of the most lucrative free-agent pursuit in baseball history. A formal announcement is expected as early as tonight.
At this point, its looking like we need to hope one of Garcia, Lance or Whitley come up big this year. Two of them wouldnt hurt either All three of them and we as good as anyone
I would agree that without them the chances of winning a WS takes a hit. This team is going to open the season with a very shallow pitching staff. Verlander and Framber will be fine (pending season long health - never a given with a pitcher) so the team will have 2 of the needed 4 post season SP Javier and Brown both have top notch ability and have had stretches where they were exceptional. If either or both can take that next step the team is much better. France and Urquidy are both just bottom of the rotation innings eaters. Very useful and necessary in the regular season but risky to use in the playoffs. Pressly and Abreu are both top notch leveragevl relievers who should continue to excel. Montero and Graveman have the stuff to be elite. Relief pitchers in general are very inconsistent. If one or both of these guys can manage to stay on the good side of that it helps this team. Whitley is among about a dozen guys who will compete for the remaining 3-4 bullpen spots and likely end up going back and forth between Houston and Sugar Land all season. Most of them have small chance of hitting a high ceiling and one or two doing so would really improve World Series chances. McCullers has TOR stuff and if he gets healthy by August or September would be a huge benefit to a post season staff. Garcia is a borderline playoff pitcher who still has some upside and could become an unquestioned top 8-9 member of a staff. There are lots of questions for this pitching staff, especially for the first half, but there are also lots if options that can become answers.
The Braves are acquiring catcher Max Stassi and infielder David Fletcher from the Angels for first baseman Evan White and reliever Tyler Thomas.
That deal is unbelievable. Especially considering his current ability to pitch. They’re gonna be spending $70M/yr on a DH if he can’t return as an effective pitcher or suffers some future pitching injury?
