Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
Gorman being the higher rated but higher risk prospect would come in handy for the Cardinals in that situation, but with Devers at third, Gorman is limited to first only, which diminishes his value to them.
Flaherty's recent turnaround probably makes him their most untouchable asset, because he's pitching like an ace, then it's Carlson, then Gorman.
I just hope that fans realize that 2018 was a massive outlier, and that Betts is probably a 6 win player and not an 8-10 level Trout-type guy.
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Yeah, 2018 isn't happening for him again. That wasn't
quite an historically great season, but it wasn't far removed.
But lets take 2016 as a baseline and then improve on it a bit because he's clearly taken a step forward since then with his plate discipline. Yeah, that's a 6-7 win player - which is pretty damn elite in its own right. It's not Trout - nobody's Trout. But it's 'top 5-8 player in MLB' good.
I also think he'll age a little better than many because he combines good 'old man skills' in his plate discipline and functional power with plus athleticism. It's damn near impossible to trust anything from the steroid era but Steve Finley kinda springs to mind. Maybe a rich man's Johnny Damon?
My concern is that I was also thinking "well Marquis Grissom played a lot like Betts in his prime and I remember him being awfully good in his later years..." but I forgot that he kinda sucked from 30-34 before he recaptured his form in his last couple of seasons. So there are obviously examples of guys like Betts who didn't age well.
I'm not giving Flaherty or Carlson for him, not when we have already set so much payroll on fire that we can't really build around his deal without those young guys. But if I could get one of these OFers moved for someone like Camargo to replace Carpenter at 3b and then deal Gorman with a couple of add-ins, I'd have to consider it.
Let's not act like the Bosox can ask the world for him - the market on guys like that just hasn't been terribly robust. And when a deal like Goldschmidt implodes as magnificently as that one did, it only makes those deals harder for teams to make.