BimboColesHair
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Yeah, I'm not fully understanding the poo-pooing over the offense or over the division as a whole.
The Twins, Royals, and Tigers pitching staffs did little to nothing to guarantee improvement this offseason and are relying on growth from younger and less experienced internal options who struggled last season, which according to this board and how it is treating Cleveland's offensive prospects as a team for the 2022 season they have no shot at improving this season.
If Eduardo Rodriguez, Chris Archer, Zack Grienke, and Sonny Gray are the "big adds" to the division from a SP aspect that saw Rodon, Berrios, Boyd, Duffy, and even Mike Minor leave in the recent past then the SP quality has gotten considerably worse in division on paper.
And that list highlights another aspect of the pitching within the division...almost all of the LH starting pitching left the division. Right now there are only 4 LH starters projected to be in the division at the start of the season; Keuchel, Rodriguez, Skubal, and Bubic. Last year there were 8. Team had a decent year vs LHP last year, but for an organization that traditionally leans heavy on LH hitters that is not a typical outcome year-to-year. Less LHPs in division the better for a lineup that is projecting to be LH heavy with it's unproven guys like Gimenez, Bradley, Naylor, and potentially Kwan.
I don't think Minnesota's lineup got better than last year by replacing Cruz, Donaldson, and Garver with Correa, Urshela, and Sanchez. Their season relies 100% on Buxton staying healthy, which has yet to happen at any point in his career.
KCs only add to their lineup is Bobby Witt Jr. Terrific prospect, but as seen with Kelenic last season, prospects are a crap shoot year 1. That's also a team starting to get long in the tooth with Salvy, Carlos, and Merrifield playing a predominant role in their total offensive production.
Detroit is the only team on paper in division I think is noticeably better than last season offensively. If they get anything from Torkelson and Greene plus the addition of Baez over Goodrum is a sizeable improvement. But that is the team that will lead the majors in Ks this year, calling that right now. That will make the group as a whole very hit or miss, which caps them.
And I will keep harping this. July 1st is when Straw played his 1st game in Cleveland, Franmil came back from a lengthy IL stint, and the offense was for the most part exactly what we are about to head into the 2022 season with (save for Naylor and his injury). From that day forward they had a league average offense while getting below replacement level production offensively from C, LF, RF, and 2B. Unless you think a potential Rosario/Kwan platoon in LF doesn't pan out, Naylor doesn't get better at the plate, Chang doesn't carry over any of his production from the end of last season and ST so far into the regular season, Miller doesn't get better at the plate, and Gimenez doesn't get any better at the plate then it is hard to imagine them not being able to replicate that fairly lengthy stretch and be an average offense in 2022.
The big concern about the offense, for me, isn't the hit or miss aspect of almost half the lineup. They had that same exact concern last year and still put up fairly average offensive numbers for the entire season as a team. The concern is any of the top 4 hitters getting hurt for any significant length of time. Straw, Rosario, Josey, Franmil...they need all of those guys to play 140, 150+ games. If one of them misses 2 months, like Franmil last season, they're in trouble. If 2 are out at the same time? Yikes.
That is where the lack of investment in improving the offense as a whole hurts. Playing with razor thin margins over 162 games is a dangerous game. They did that with the rotation last year and it bit them in the ass.
The Twins, Royals, and Tigers pitching staffs did little to nothing to guarantee improvement this offseason and are relying on growth from younger and less experienced internal options who struggled last season, which according to this board and how it is treating Cleveland's offensive prospects as a team for the 2022 season they have no shot at improving this season.
If Eduardo Rodriguez, Chris Archer, Zack Grienke, and Sonny Gray are the "big adds" to the division from a SP aspect that saw Rodon, Berrios, Boyd, Duffy, and even Mike Minor leave in the recent past then the SP quality has gotten considerably worse in division on paper.
And that list highlights another aspect of the pitching within the division...almost all of the LH starting pitching left the division. Right now there are only 4 LH starters projected to be in the division at the start of the season; Keuchel, Rodriguez, Skubal, and Bubic. Last year there were 8. Team had a decent year vs LHP last year, but for an organization that traditionally leans heavy on LH hitters that is not a typical outcome year-to-year. Less LHPs in division the better for a lineup that is projecting to be LH heavy with it's unproven guys like Gimenez, Bradley, Naylor, and potentially Kwan.
I don't think Minnesota's lineup got better than last year by replacing Cruz, Donaldson, and Garver with Correa, Urshela, and Sanchez. Their season relies 100% on Buxton staying healthy, which has yet to happen at any point in his career.
KCs only add to their lineup is Bobby Witt Jr. Terrific prospect, but as seen with Kelenic last season, prospects are a crap shoot year 1. That's also a team starting to get long in the tooth with Salvy, Carlos, and Merrifield playing a predominant role in their total offensive production.
Detroit is the only team on paper in division I think is noticeably better than last season offensively. If they get anything from Torkelson and Greene plus the addition of Baez over Goodrum is a sizeable improvement. But that is the team that will lead the majors in Ks this year, calling that right now. That will make the group as a whole very hit or miss, which caps them.
And I will keep harping this. July 1st is when Straw played his 1st game in Cleveland, Franmil came back from a lengthy IL stint, and the offense was for the most part exactly what we are about to head into the 2022 season with (save for Naylor and his injury). From that day forward they had a league average offense while getting below replacement level production offensively from C, LF, RF, and 2B. Unless you think a potential Rosario/Kwan platoon in LF doesn't pan out, Naylor doesn't get better at the plate, Chang doesn't carry over any of his production from the end of last season and ST so far into the regular season, Miller doesn't get better at the plate, and Gimenez doesn't get any better at the plate then it is hard to imagine them not being able to replicate that fairly lengthy stretch and be an average offense in 2022.
The big concern about the offense, for me, isn't the hit or miss aspect of almost half the lineup. They had that same exact concern last year and still put up fairly average offensive numbers for the entire season as a team. The concern is any of the top 4 hitters getting hurt for any significant length of time. Straw, Rosario, Josey, Franmil...they need all of those guys to play 140, 150+ games. If one of them misses 2 months, like Franmil last season, they're in trouble. If 2 are out at the same time? Yikes.
That is where the lack of investment in improving the offense as a whole hurts. Playing with razor thin margins over 162 games is a dangerous game. They did that with the rotation last year and it bit them in the ass.
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