I never had a class with Choo, but I imagine he fidgeted a lot.
He’s never truly satisfied with the group of players he has.
One moment he has the greatest grouping of starters man has ever seen, the next, those starters are scattered about the JLB galaxy.
Moments later, he has the youngest outfield that will grow up to be superstars together, the next, two of the three are off playing for another team.
Now, he arguably has one of the — if not the — best foursome of bats in the JLB, but the question has to be: For how long?
No one ever knows with the great Choo. In fact, if one deal would have gone another way this offseason, he would have Mookie, Story or Arenado.
How crazy is that?
FOUR-STAR CHOOTEL
Mookie Betts, Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and Ronald Acuna Jr. That is quite the offensive quartet. All have and can play at an MVP caliber level. The balance isn’t complete on this team, but these four guys will certainly win Choo batting categories weekly.
The really scary thing would be if any of the other guys put it together. Like Gary Sanchez who had an awful season in 2018 or Ozzie Albies who was a superstar for two months before fading.
With one or two other breakouts, the Fantastic Four will combine with them to make a very formidable matchup offensively week in and week out.
Pitching, however, is another story.
BLUE DRESS OR GOLD DRESS?
Choo’s pitching is like that awful dress that went viral years ago. One person saw blue, another saw gold, and the world fought over it.
Looking at Choo’s starting pitching, it looks no good. There are a bunch of ifs and maybes, so at first glance and when you add up the projections, this is a blue dress.
However, there’s a chance for gold here. Four rookies, Shane Bieber and first-round pick Julio Teheran could surprise us.
Even if they all have a combination of breakout years and strong campaigns, Choo will fall short of the two pitching juggernauts in his division.
That’s why he truly needs efficiency from his pitchers. He’ll have to play the matchups and pitch to post the best ERA, WHIP and least amount of losses.
He legion of closers will help with that, too.
But who are we kidding? In two months, those closers and Mookie Betts will all be traded for a bunch of frame-throwing starters.
It’s the circle of Choo. Acuna-matata.
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