The Joe Kelly Show

[jacksonianmarch]

Harper is a special talent for sure, but I doubt the NY will go for him. Our offense is nails right now. We have power and patience up and down the lineup and while we will have an opening after this year with Gardner all but guaranteed to have his option turned down, we have his ready made replacement in the minors who is absolutely killing baseballs. Frazier is only 23 yrs old and his triple slash is .330/.404/.619 with 5HR, 7 doubles, 3 triples, and 4 steals in 24 games. He was rushed a bit to AAA when we first got him. He was good last yr in AAA before having a middling debut. He has been dominant this year and if we lose any OFers for a significant amount of time, he will ascend.

Also, I doubt we do another long term contract with Stanton on the books (and I expect Stanton to rebound eventually, he is too good not to). We got a sweet deal on Stanton's contract. $22 mil AAV counting to the lux tax through all of Stanton's prime is pretty damn good, assuming he doesn't opt out. Harper is staring at a stupid contract. Something along the lines of $30-$35 mil AAV with a front loaded contract and an opt out. While we will have money to burn, I wonder if we are better off going for pitching. Sevy is an ace, but his days of being cheap are soon to be in the past. Tanaka has been up and down, but he will likely be fine. Gray has to turn a corner here, but we only have him for one more season. After him, we have Montgomery who might get TJS and German, who is by no means a lock to hang. We have a ton of kids, but all of them have taken a slight step back this year and nobody is ready to ascend like Frazier appears to be on the offensive side. I wonder if the prudent move is to keep the offense as is, promote from within and go after a guy like Keuchel, Morton or Corbin.

[Station 13]

Our OF is more than solid. No need to blow 250M on Harper whenn Betts is about to get a deal like that. We need 2B, 1B, SS in the long run.

[jacksonianmarch]

$250 mil is light for Harper

[Station 13]

$250 mil is light for Harper

Somebody can pay him. Preferably the Yankees. Your shiny new toy Stanton is already getting old quick.

[Spudboy]

$250 mil is light for Harper

I would never give ANYONE that kind of money. It's obscene. Regardless of age.

I hope the Yankees do sign him to a 10/400 deal and he blows out a knee in his first year.

I can't stand that punk-ass.

[Kimmi]

Somebody can pay him. Preferably the Yankees. Your shiny new toy Stanton is already getting old quick.

JD Martinez > Stanton

[Kimmi]

I would never give ANYONE that kind of money. It's obscene. Regardless of age.

I hope the Yankees do sign him to a 10/400 deal and he blows out a knee in his first year.

I can't stand that punk-ass.

!!!

[Station 13]

Could Kelly close? Does anybody wants that?
Feltman might move quickly and we get a set up man.

[Station 13]

$250 mil is light for Harper

I'm starting to think 150M now is an overpay for Harper. His numbers are not consistent.

[mvp 78]

Could Kelly close? Does anybody wants that?
Feltman might move quickly and we get a set up man.

Ideally, a closer needs to have 2 good pitches (unless you are Mariano Rivera). Kelly has a straight 100 mph FB and not much else. Kimbrel works so well because he can throw nasty offspeed stuff. Kelly doesn't have that.

[Kimmi]

Ideally, a closer needs to have 2 good pitches (unless you are Mariano Rivera). Kelly has a straight 100 mph FB and not much else. Kimbrel works so well because he can throw nasty offspeed stuff. Kelly doesn't have that.

Is there really that much difference between being a set up man and a closer when it comes to stuff?

Kelly often has to face the tougher part of the line up than Kimbrel does.

[notin]

Ideally, a closer needs to have 2 good pitches (unless you are Mariano Rivera). Kelly has a straight 100 mph FB and not much else. Kimbrel works so well because he can throw nasty offspeed stuff. Kelly doesn't have that.

Sort of like Aroldis Chapman?

[FredLynn]

Somebody can pay him. Preferably the Yankees. Your shiny new toy Stanton is already getting old quick.

So happy to see that Stanton is failing in NY, or at least not living up to the hype:

BA: .244
OPS: .795
OPS+: 112 (166 last year)
K%: 35.6 of ABs

On the other hand, JD Martinez has exceeded expectations:
BA: .317
OPS: 1.039
OPS+: 173
K%: 26.5%

While its possible that the huge gap between the two could close, I could not be happier that we got the right guy.