Giants' Mac Williamson finally out of the darkness

Very nicely written piece.

Hi Texpope,

Can you point to the story about his concussion. I didn't know that, and it is a serious business. Not only for us punters, but for his life.

Thanks.

Obs, I'm a fan. I say buy no matter what, everyone is down on him, but playing time is an issue that isn't going away. And his lack of walks and an obvious position could cut into it. But that's a reason to bet on him, when everyone else is playing it safe. Could be a sleeper alert, I guess.

Here's the trick. He's not a sure thing, but given his price he could be a big thing. Buy him cheap.

HOLY COW indeed, Howard. Go Pads!

PCL - I've exchanged email with Joel (jschri) ... and I will add him to a new reply to the email thread we have going about the date of our 2019 auction.

WSOHL???

https://twitter.com/markasaxon/status/1097982818523799552?s=19

Machado ... Mejia ... Urias ... Tatis, Jr ... Reyes

A nice core of latino players in a county that's 35% hispanic ...

The Top-100 Prospect list I use has nine Padres on it. I'm thinking that at least 3-to-4 of that group are going to be solid everyday players, with a couple having star potential. I definitely think we see Tatis Jr. by no later than the break this year.

When is the auction?

The Patton & Co League (PCL, NL-only 5x5) has an opening for the upcoming 2019 season ... we started in 2011 ... our rules are what I'd call near-standard ... we do our auction and weekly transactions via the OnRoto.com web site ...

Let me know if you're interested or have any questions about the details ... send email to imhl58 at hotmail dot com ... and post something here if you don't get a quick reply (ie. I check here more often than I check email :-).

Unless "over-hyped prospects" is redundant, they can't *all* be over-hyped ... right?

And Franchy Cordero and Franmil Reyes have not been over-hyped ... have they? 

Or maybe it's just the pitching prospects who will fail to live up to expectations ... still lots of a "if's", "and's", and "but's" ... and the weight of Padres history, I s'pose ...

More likely the Padres end up looking to dump Machado's contract in a year or two after all of the over-hyped prospects fail to live up to their expectations.

It's a good move.  Nobody else would put up legitimate cash.  The Padres are on the verge of good things in the next 3-4 years.  It's not just Tatis Jr., Luis Urias, and Francisco Mejia who will be up this year. MacKenzie Gore will be up in 2021 (pitcher caveats).  All are top 25 prospects.  Chris Paddack is on the border of the top 25 and he's coming up this year too.  Logan Allen is top 100.  They have a few other pitchers in the top 100 who are on Gore's timetable.  

If the prospects don't pan out, Machado can look to go to a contender in 5 years after making the bulk of the money in the deal (if there's a signing bonus to make it more front end loaded).  

But, if these prospects do pan out, he will be the veteran on the team when they are in years 3-6 and making their run at the WS.  Plus, it's the most money.  And, he goes back to 3B, where he is significantly more valuable.  

HOLY COW!!!

I sure hope he does better than .273/.338/.487 ...

And I hope he's OK playing 3B ... if so, he's a GREAT FIT!

If he's all in, I'm all in :-)

You know Spring is right around the corner when you see "The Monkey" is back up and running! http://closermonkey.com/

Now to the Padres on a 10-year-deal, with a 5-year opt-out.

I'm looking at Voit's FRAA at BP... 1.4. Not bad, especially considering the playing time.

Maybe Voit plays first and Andujar is the DH. Or Andujar plays left and Stanton DHes.

However it plays, the Yankees jumped on LeMahieu because the numbers nerds in the front office and Aaron Boone saw the same thing: infield D was a weakness last year. The big lineup weakness was strikeouts, which LeMahieu also addresses. 

I would also add that the Phillies are still going to give Scott Kingery regular at bats, especially early on.  Shortstop is now spoken for, Hernandez has a pretty firm grip on 2B and the corner OF spots are now crowded with the addition of Cutch.  That means Kingery will cut into Franco's at bats until one of them shakes the other off.

Oh...and if the Phillies do sign Machado...

Arizona

If LeMahieu's offense doesn't take a post-Coors nose dive, I see him getting more ABs than are being projected, because his defense is that good.

Is said to be by all the metrics -- I haven't actually seen him play very much. 

When Didi returns I see an infield of Didi at short, LeMahieu at second, Gleyber at third and Andujar at first. Voit, if he has kept hitting, is the DH and Stanton is in left. Hicks is in center, Judge is in right.

A tough lineup. An airtight infield defense.