HairDozier

There is possibly no pitcher I am more excited to see this year than Berrios. The kid looks 100% legit and has no glaring flaws that I perceive. One thing that I don't hear much about but wonder if it could happen is him starting the year (or 13 days in) in the bullpen. In my opinion it would solve many of our problems. He could face the best hitters in the world, ease the logjam, and be a late inning shutdown guy. If or when poor performance or injury open a door you have a much better idea of what he can do and Berrios will have more experience and confidence in his stuff. I realize that this puts the team at a disadvantage while he stretches out but it wouldn't take that long to do. This is essentially what we did with both Johan and Frankie; I believe it could help in this instance as well!

Interesting takes. Would it be possible to get some major league comparisons for both boom and busts for each player?

Mauer basically did that with the bilateral leg weakness fiasco. He stated he wasn't healthy enough to play, because he wasn't, and still gets ripped for being "soft". Should he have said "I'm in the best shape of my life." play through it, risk chronic injury, and put up numbers that replacement players could replicate?

To be fair, every athlete ever says that every single preseason. What else are they really supposed to say? I'm not really in the best shape because I got dizzy doing sit ups? I feel like a player is going to get ripped either way.

I think one thing that people often forget in regards to how old Joe has looked is how the concussion has affected his offseason preparation. Take this quote from the article for instance, “Some of the exercises we tried to do last year, I’d come up and be like, ‘Whoa.’ Now it’s gradually getting better,” he said. From what I gather, it sounds like off season prep was hindered no matter how good he said it was going at the time. It's not like the concussion only affected when he was at the plate. Prep also took a hit, which I believe explains some of the "aging" that we saw.