First, thanks to those of you who took the time to read and write comments. Always appreciated.
As far as the construction of my proposed roster here was some of my thinking.
I like Steve Kwan, I really do. But looking at how ML pitchers ate up and spit out Ka'ai Tom, it reinforces to me that you have to show one major tool and the rest average to a little above average tools to have a chance at success in the majors. I see Kwan being Tom Part Deux.
Regarding Andruw Monasterio, he will be a 6-year free agent this winter and we could lose him that way. That being said, I just don't see any flash in him. His upside is as a utility infielder with some pop and we have plenty of guys where that is their FLOOR. Again, I risk losing him even if it is to minor league free agency.
Regarding some of the names on my roster. Every roster should have guys who are placeholders who you would keep if someone better doesn't present themselves. We don't have any of that. The next level is guys who a team is intrigued by and don't want to lose for essentially nothing. However, if something better comes along, that team would swallow hard and, if possible, try to get those guys through waivers AFTER the Rule 5 draft. We have a number of guys like that: Logan Allen, Juan Hillman, Anthony Gose and Bradley Zimmer. I could even been persuaded to put JC Mejia in this group even though I think he has more potential than any of the other 4.
So, in the optimal situation we either go into ST with our current 40 man roster or we trade/DFA some or all of the 5 guys above. Either way I am fine with it, assuming the new guys who are placed on the roster are significant short AND long-term upgrades over the guys they are replacing on the 40 man.
Regarding the 40-man roster, I and others have suggested that we make some trades before our roster is finalized this fall. I think an under-the-radar guy who could help with that is Juan Mota. I think packaging Mota with Hillman and Kwan miight get us a talented player back. For me that would be a 2020 or 2021 draftee. I would not be looking for major league help in this trade, just some roster relief and some long-term asset(s)
One last point: If Antonnetti and Chernoff are not running thousands of trade scenarios turning their roster excess into future assets that absolutely would NOT help this year, they should be fired. You have assets that you have to protect which leaves some major leaguers who will lose their roster spots and some minor leaguers you can't protect. Make the most of these situations. Do it stating Monday.
Art here...appreciate your responses about comments. I see a major difference between Tom and Kwan though, if you look at their BB/K rates and their AB/K rates you'll see that they are significantly different, Kwan has much better contact skills. This has translated to far more consistency in his batting average, as Tom had bounced around in the minors between good and bad batting averages. Kwan has consistently stayed good, and as his power has increased his batting average and contact skills have stayed very good.
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