Dojji

It's a concern. Like I said, if he winds up needing surgery I'll join the hatefest against Padres management with a will. But we don't know that yet, and worrying about it is borrowing trouble right now.

Caught redhanded abusing PED's only 2 years after he left Boston. Sad end to a great career.

Is this a good time to reiterate that I'm still pretty satisfied with what we got out of Pomeranz? We needed a #4 starter, and we got a #4 starter. He gave us 100 ERA+ -- literally average, which for a 3-4 starter is almost exactly right. Unless he winds up needing surgery, people are overreacting a little IMHO. If he does wind up needing surgery I'll light my torch and join the mob, until then, considering both average production in 2016 and reasonable chances to improve on it in 17 and 18, I'm not upset with the Pomeranz acquisition at all.

That, or even with this potential for injury, he still has a very high opinion of Pomeranz.

Plenty of time to panic later if it turns out he needs TJ. Right now all we know is that there is pain.

Yeah that's the news I was responding to. Oh hell naw, there's no reason to rescind that trade. Maybe force the Padres to take a lesser price and reclaim Espinosa. Maybe. But Pomeranz is a good bet to be a valuable SP in 17 and 18, no reason to rescind the trade.

You surely can't count run support AGAINST Porcello. If you take Wins out of the picture, that's exactly what you're doing.

With three otherwise very close candidates, I honestly think Wins is as good a tiebreaker as you need. If any one of them could win and be deserving, the one whose pitching has led to the most number of positive decisions is just as reasonable a determinant as any other.

Very probably is. This guy is several dozen innings above his former peak. If I had to guess, I'd say they were always going to shut him down the first time they had any serious warning signs, and knew going in that it was a possibility. The goal here is to maximize Pomeranz in 17 and 18, nd get as much as they could in the meantime in 16 without mortgaging that future. (I still think DD is targeting at least a 3 year window and isn't focused all that heavily on this season)

I would love to throw money at Kenley Jansen. He's a better pitcher than Chapman. Better than almost anyone. If there's any way he could be happy with a setup role, I'd give him all the money.

I wouldn't mind if we brought in a lower-impact option. Say a 1 year rental of Kendrys Morales from the Royals. After a tough year I imagine KC will do some selling so he's likely available, and I think they'll pick up Morales' option in order to trade it. He'd be a decent fit here I think, as well, although obviously not anwhere near Papi's caliber. You're not going to replace Ortiz with another Ortiz, so just get a pretty good DH for a reasonable price and move on, find new value in other positions. I'd like to see them spend again on the pitching, that's really the area where you can't spend too much money.

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/8879974/v1178570683/92016-fernandez-blanks-the-nats-in-10-win Just gonna leave this here.

Did you do that on purpose to see who was paying attention? It seems so ironic to see "of" instead of "off" right after that other post.

I think they carried Joey Gathright one year too. If I was looking for a rookie pinch runner I'd go with Marrero, not Moncada.

Yeah no, he's not ready yet. They gave him a chance to surprise them and he didn't. That's what the callup was about. Give it a year or so and try him again. A kid like Moncada could be a long development project, we're going to have to be patient.

In division trades are less likely than trades of other sort. The Rays are not going to trade franchise centerpieces to a divisional rival for any price we would accept.

What failure? What exactly do you believe to have failed?

Yeah, Archer is a very good talent, he could pitch for my team anyday. I mean, look what he just did to the best offense in baseball. The only guy that got through him is one of the best clutch hitters of all time.

I see Kluber's strikeouts and raise with Porcello's league leading WHIP, which is a much more fundamentally important number.

I consider the season a success with a division pennant. We haven't won very many of those, even in the last few years. For me this is all gravy.

If you want a pinch runner, bring Marrero, not Moncada. At least Marrero can also fill in on one side of the ball with a little confidence right now.

Yeah, the short term callup can almost be seen as a reward for an excellent minor league campaign. Kid gets a taste, learns a bit about what it will take to stay up -- if it's any kind of stumbling pit for a kid to get a taste of the majors at that point in an otherwise excellent season, then the kid was doomed to fail at the outset so STILL no harm was really done. (I can't help but think that we're re-hashing the Middlebrooks argument in the guise of the Moncada argument)

I don't see any particular issue with giving Shaw another chance next year. Lest we forget, he's a 2.7 overall bWAR player this year -- that's not only not bad, it's bloody above average. The package is good here. Not mediocre, not OK, not "Yes, however." GOOD. Yeah, he teased us with that super streak he went on in the early months, and then settled to earth a bit, but the overall package is still very satisfactory for a third baseman. Let's not forget Shaw was not a big offensive prospect out of the minors, our expectations in April and May before the league had really seen him were simply too high. Just because a guy doesn't hit like an All-Star doesn't mean he's useless. In fact he's almost exactly where I predicted and expected he would be at the end of the season. And I do think Shaw will hit better in the future with more big league experience under his belt. He's going to be on the roster regardless, either starting or benching, so in the absence of any other incumbent worth naming (Flablo is definitely not the established incumbent at this time) there is no real reason not to give him a chance.

Yeah, not seeing what Hill brings when we already have Holt and Hernandez. Seems a little redundant. What I'd love to have is a good pinch RUNNER. Maybe Marrero? If he adds that dimension and no one else really stands out, he might crack his way onto the playoff roster.

If they use him like they were forced to use him this year, as a reservist who comes in when he's hot and takes a seat for a few turns when he starts to suck consistently, and they have the depth to manage that, I'm OK with putting up with another year of Buchholz. But IN. NO. FREAKING. WAY do I want to hear about them considering Buchholz as having a permanent spot in the rotation or counting him as one of the starting 5, or, and especially, failing to upgrade the rotation if it would mean taking Buchholz out of "his" spot. He doesn't have a spot. There is no "spot" as far as Buchholz is concerned. I want him unsettled. I want him humbled. I want him to feel like he has to fight for every pitch he GETS to throw on that mound for this team. That seems to be the only way to get his attention and they'd better use ALL the pressure they can on this guy to get him productive for his final year on this team because once this option is done, that's it, that's the last option year and once the option years are done he's no more singificant to this team at that point than any other FA and we can probably do better going elsewhere.