Anthony Franco's NL Central comments

Discuss all things Cardinals Baseball
Post Reply
User avatar
mikechamp
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 10132
Joined: April 17 06, 5:05 pm
Location: Southwestern Illinois

Anthony Franco's NL Central comments

Post by mikechamp »

These comments came from a chat with MLB Trade Rumors' Anthony Franco that occurred on March 30. (You can find him on Twitter at @affranco10 if you really want to ask him something.)

Hardly any Cardinals or Cubs questions, but a lot about the other division teams. I included 2 bonus Q&As about length of season and rule change impacts.

The link to the entire chat can be found here: https://www.jotcast.com/chat/mlbtr-chat ... 12776.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Does the Urena signing maybe hint at an offensive upgrade trade involving Lauer/Houser/Ashby/Small or just depth?

Anthony Franco
Just depth, Stearns said they're probably going to use him as a reliever.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Any reason Yankees haven't traded for a number 2 starting pitcher yet. Sevy is way too high risk. Everyone else is 3 4 5. Both Oakland pitchers and Tyler Mahle would be upgrade.

Anthony Franco
The Reds aren't trading Mahle. I agree the Yankees make sense for either of the A's guys, Montas in particular.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Are the Pirates going to budge at all on the Bryan Reynolds asking price? Clearly they are trying to fleece Miami and they arent having it.

Anthony Franco
I don't think so. Reports going back to last summer's deadline have basically suggested the Pirates had no interest in trading Reynolds and wanted him to be a core piece coming out of the rebuild.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Who had the more frustrating offseason of the two: Guardians or Reds?

Anthony Franco
Those two and the A's would probably be the three teams I'd point to as having the toughest offseason. I guess I'd say the Guardians was a little worse than Cincinnati's since they at least pivoted back and did some stuff at the end.

But yeah, I thought they were both rough and don't see either as a playoff team this year.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Will Oniel Cruz be the every day SS once he is back in the show?

Anthony Franco
Yeah I think so. I honestly think they should move Ke'Bryan Hayes to shortstop this year and see what happens, but I don't expect them to.
The next best thing is just to let Cruz play there and see if he can handle it.

If he's bad there, who cares? The Pirates are going to be terrible either way. It's far more important to see if Cruz can be your shortstop of the future for when you're trying to get better in 2023-24.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Was the signing of Tommy Pham with the Reds surprising after the moves they made before?

Anthony Franco
I was a little surprised, yeah. I actually like Pham a lot as a bounceback candidate and think it was strong value for the Reds in a vacuum.

Strange in the broader context of the offseason, but they're trying to thread this really tight needle and contend despite trading a few of their better players.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Is there really any reason NOT to deal a starting pitcher if you're the Marlins? They're in peak demand, fungible in terms of injury, they have plenty of depth and they're a dark horse to contend in a packed NL East. Surely the Dodgers, Yankees, Twins, Cardinals, etc. will stretch and overpay a little now more so than later when other teams may also realize they're out and make guys available.

Anthony Franco
From an overhead view, I don't disagree. But I'm not sure which guy that is. Alcantara and Rogers are core pieces, López missed basically the entire second half with shoulder trouble.

Hernández is vaguely interesting but has huge home run troubles and was hurt most of last year. Luzardo's a bounce-back candidate. If teams were willing to give up a lot for López, I'd have considered moving him. But I'm not sure how concerned other clubs were about his shoulder.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You cannot be serious that the Dodgers rotation is a strength. This is the weakest group in recent memory. Almost nothing after Buehler, Urias, and Kershaw. This is all local sports talk radio talks about.

Anthony Franco
How many teams have a better fifth starter than Tony Gonsolin? Would having Montas make the Dodgers better? Absolutely, but I doubt there are too many teams that have an above-average pitcher as their #4/5 starters.
The Brewers do, maybe the Astros/Mets. Not too many more though.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do the Brewers stay with Rowdy Tellez and other current roster guys like Hiura or look for a regular everyday 1B?

Anthony Franco
Feels like it's Tellez/Hiura for now, although it's another situation where a deadline deal seems possible.
I thought Milwaukee was a good fit for basically any of the non-Freeman first basemen out there this winter: Olson, Rizzo, Voit

They sat it out, but I could see them trading for someone like Josh Bell in July if Hiura/Tellez aren't cutting it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hiura had always been slated as a possible elite contact guy. He has been strike out prone thus far in his career, but is he a bounce-back candidate based on his raw skill set?

Anthony Franco
I think he got out of whack mechanically. He was such a different player last year than he was at UCI.
Is it fixable? I don't know, but I get why they're giving him another crack at it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Any word on if Kevin Newman is on the move yet?? Rumors have been around that he could be available.

Anthony Franco
Eh, I don't see a whole lot of appeal there.

Andrelton Simmons was available in free agency and signed for $4MM. Newman's making $2MM this year and is probably a worse version of a similarly stylistic player.
If the Pirates are moving him, I don't think they're getting anything notable in return.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Should the season be reduced 10-12 games? It could result in longer playoffs.

Anthony Franco
If you wanted to go 154 games for the regular season, make the Division Series best of 7 and the World Series a best of 9, I'd be cool with it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Will the rule changes that are due to be implemented next season have a major impact on the way that teams are evaluating players?

Anthony Franco
I think restrictions on the shift will eventually bring back a few more power-hitting lefty bats. I'm more curious about the effect the automatic strike zone -- whenever it happens, might not be 2023 -- will have on roster construction.

Pitch framing becomes obsolete at that point. Do we just get teams throwing Evan Gattis bat-only types at catcher to squeeze more offense out, or do they still value ball-blocking and game calling enough that it remains a defense-first thing? I don't actually know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Tags:

Post Reply