Socnorb11 wrote:I think some of you are going to be eating crow in 2019, when the team is REALLY good. I think they're playing their hand perfectly. People just aren't patient enough to sit through an 85-win season.
Our third 85'ish win season in a row. I think impatience is perfectly justified. When you're sitting in the 83-87 win territory, and we're probably at the higher end of that today, you don't really have to do all that much to push into the 90 win territory. Honestly, Addison Reed, as marginal an impact as he has on this club, pushes us from possibly in the playoffs to likely in the playoffs. 1-2 wins. Lance Lynn instead of Miles Mikolas probably pushes us another 1-2 wins, from likely in the playoffs to possibly challenging the Cubs for the division title. Those would have been simple, very doable signings (Lynn hasn't even signed yet... he might not even get Mikolas money at this point). There was obviously better talent out there, who signed for relatively reasonable deals.
None of those moves would have any real impact on 2019.
I also don't see where this incredible production is going to come from in 2019. Outside of Reyes, we don't have All-Star caliber talent hitting the major league roster next year. We're really stretching scouting reports if we think that Flaherty, Bader, O'Neil, Hudson, etc. are going to be impact players. Who on the current roster can take a real step forward? I'm not seeing it. Weaver, maybe, but on in terms of innings. Most likely, you'll see decline from AW, Molina, Fowler, Gregerson, and Carpenter due to age. DeJong, Pham, and Ozuna due to regression. Wong and Gyorkok aren't suddenly going to become MVP candidates. Wacha and Martinez are well proven commodities at this point, not likely to take a significant step up or back.
At the top of the farm, we have a lot of good talent and attractive talent because of their proximity to the majors, but Reyes is the only one who might be elite. And Reyes comes with a very high bust profile, imo.
