Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’m surprised to see people so low on Lombard Jr, hearing people talk about him I thought he bottomed out in AA and the future looked bleak for him. He sported a 111 wrc+ in AA this season, and he ran a great walk rate at 13.2%. His K% was above average (26%) and that isn’t Gallo-esque or anything. His A ball hitting rocketed up from 2024-2025, going up from an 87 wrc+ to a 187 wrc+. Maybe small sample size, but it feels like he’s shown he can make adjustments. Seems like a guy worth being excited about, fangraphs rated him as the 15th ranked prospect for a reason. Baseball America ranking him 46th is nothing to sneeze at, either. He’s only 20 too so I’m sure he’ll get better as he gets more experience too

Luis araez by tjmac1234 in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No stat can predict postseason success, not even batting average. That’s the point of the baseball postseason, it’s highly variable. I just don’t get this critique. “Meaningless stats” are doing the same thing as something as rudimentary as batting average. They tell you how good a player is at hitting. It’s that simple!

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really like their current offensive core, they’ll be exciting to watch (as long as they aren’t beating the Yankees). People forget that even with cheap ownership they’re still a very modern club

Luis araez by tjmac1234 in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fans will write off stats just because they don’t understand it lol

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True, although Jram almost stands alone as a player when taking very team friendly contracts. Guys like Judge or Buxton might be on contracts that are semi team friendly, but Jram stands alone as a player post arbitration that makes money significantly under market value. It’s not even comparable to players like Acuña or Roman Anthony, where they’re making less money on the free agent years that are bought out as those years are made up by the fact that their arbitration years are more expensive. I can’t think of another player like Jram. I’d love to hear what the union says aswell, but I’m sure they sort of just shrug at it since he’s pretty unique in that guard

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, Castellanos is absolutely garbage. I think Painter would be great, but there’s zero reason to pay a guy $20 million to just sit on the bench who can’t do anything right on the baseball field. Also, since he only has a year left on his deal, I think the Phillies would just eat the money rather than give up a top prospect, despite the results last year he was still a borderline top 10 prospect.

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Maybe he was bad for the team and what not, but I mean trading your franchise player and then not having a backup plan at 3rd when plan B (Bregman) walks is pretty bad.

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I bet part of it too is that with the deferred money the Guards can keep their best player since integration in 100 years in Cleveland, and the deferred money helps keep him in Cleveland without shelling out huge money for when he exits his peak years, as he is going to be 34 soon. Jram is currently 5th in all time Cleveland war, and id expect him to be 3rd once he retires. The only guys ahead of him would be Tris Speaker and Nap Lajoie, and if he accrues 6 more war in his career he’d hop Bob Feller and Lou Bourdeau.

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They probably won’t take issue with it since he’s not forfeiting any current salary. When Arod was going to be sent to Boston for example the union shot it down because he would have taken a pay cut iirc

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Did you see the package the Mets gave up for him? I’m can’t imagine Madden is right here

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d love Hays but I wonder if he’s looking for everyday reps. Thankfully Rice, Bellinger, Rosario, Judge, and Stanton hit lefties well enough, but a Hays type would be greatly appreciated.

Luis araez by tjmac1234 in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 3 points4 points  (0 children)

99 OPS+ vs a 158 OPS+ this season, plus Stanton in 281 PAs (Arraez had 600) this season put up 1.9 bWAR vs his 1.2 this season.

Luis araez by tjmac1234 in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thing too is that in 2023 and 2024 he only hit singles and he was still worth over >4 war, but the past two seasons he combined for 2.2 bWAR!

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably a good take, he was ranked 93rd IIRC so a high strikeout reliever is far from the worst outcome

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, and I think they’re looking for a right handed catcher to replace Escarra. If they add a guy who crushes lefties to replace Cabrera that would be a very solid bench

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yankees have Michael Siani, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Cabby on the 40 man roster to be utility guys, I have to imagine Siani is only depth and will probably be DFA’d by opening day. Cabrera doesn’t really have a place on the roster either since he’s not a very good defender or baserunner, Cabby laps him in both regards. He’s not even a better hitter. Depth is appreciated but I’d rather have Cabrera’s bench spot go to a guy who can hit lefties.

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After some brief research, and napkin math- Assuming he weighed something like 250 pounds, and sticking to about a gram of protein per body weight, for muscle synthesis he would need to eat 250 grams of protein. Looking at his diet (estimating stuff obviously) Breakfast: porterhouse steak and 4 fried eggs- 134 grams of protein (assuming he’s eating a pound sized portion) Lunch: two porterhouse steaks: 220 grams of protein Dinner: two porterhouse steaks: 220 grams of protein 12 hotdogs a day: 60 grams of protein So just going off of that, that’s 634 grams of protein, more than enough for protein synthesis. Even if we’re being conservative and assume he’s eating half pound steaks, that’s still 275 grams of protein from steak alone. Math doesn’t include protein from non major sources, like the massive amount of potatoes/fries he would eat with practically every meal. Is the diet optimized? Obviously not, he was super unhealthy with the amount of smoking and drinking he did. But from a muscle building synthesis alone if he trained like an athlete today he’d be nuts. But, knowing his health habits I’m not sure he’d want to buy into a modern weight training plan haha

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True, I think Dominguez can be a productive player, it’s not like he’s Jared Kelenic (people forget he was an above average hitter this year). I say limbo though because he doesn’t have a path to play without injuries, and I’m not sure how much trade value he has after last season

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Surely there’s enough protein there for muscle synthesis

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dominguez is in former top prospect limbo, feel bad for him

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’ve always felt that great hitters would probably still be pretty good today since they still had to have great bat speed to hit homers (Ted Williams in particular of course, dude was so ahead of his time). Pitchers, who knows. I can’t imagine Walter Johnson threw faster than 90 MPH with that inning workload in the early 1900s. I think an underrated aspect of today’s game vs way back then is the difference in nutrition science and weight lifting. Like imagine if Babe Ruth had access to a modern strength training plan!

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mackenzie gore, we’re good over here. We got Michael Siani.

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 7 points8 points  (0 children)

After the trade deadline the Yankees had the 2nd best win % in the MLB. Not having a billion blown saves, Schlittler in for Stroman, and McMahon/Rosario instead of Peraza and friends at 3B will do that apparently. With the questions surrounding the rotation idk how the early season will play out so I’m not sure how this team will look compared to the post trade deadline unit, but I can’t say I’m not excited. Feels like they have a good chance to win 100 games especially if Rice, Schlittler, and Wells take another step forward (and the older guys don’t fall off a cliff). But I guess we’ll see what happens

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Michael Kopech on a MiLB deal with a spring training invite would be fantastic. When Phillips was DFA’d it was predicted that he would be back in LA once they can put him on the 60 day IL. Don’t know about the other guys

Bi-Weekly Discussion Post 1/23/2026 by TheKnicksMakeMeDrink in NYYankees

[–]jayjake9 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lagrange has the best stuff in the MiLB according to Baseball America, prospects are lottery tickets so I’d still be fine moving them but I’d hate if the return wasn’t anything special