mvp 78

That's most likely the same with other teams though.

If this is the route they go to fill 1B, I'm fine with it. I don't see them sticking with Casas long term. Next year, is Refsnyder retired, Duran traded and Masa the 4th OFer?

Looks about right to me. I haven't seen enough of Taylor over the years to comment on his play.

It was so that the A's could get him before another team claimed him for free.

People said the same thing about JBJ.

This team feels like 78-84 to me. It just has that vibe.

I agree that a change won't make a difference. I think there is horrible communication between Cora and Breslow. They are either not on the same page or just not communicating effectively somewhere. We just don't have insight to know where the breakdown is.

He'll most certainly struggle at some point. However, there's no reason to hold him down at this point. They are floundering and don't look to be holding onto any playoff push. May as well play the kids and work on the future.

I don't believe he was necessarily "dominating." Before being called up in '22, he hadn't even reached 60 innings in AAA. His bb/9 was 3.68. He had a successful half of a season. The year before, he had a 3.87 ERA between A/AA. I think he was called up too early, under a bad pitching coach and wasn't quite ready to be the guy they wanted him to be. He went from a 12 k/9 in MiLB to 8 k/9 in MLB while keeping a high bb rate. He just never really learned how to pitch. Whenever he gets into a stressful situation, you can just stick a fork in him. At some point, it's no longer on the coaching, but on the pitchers themselves. Fitts, Dobbins and Buehler have all been more impressive than we thought they'd be, but I don't see many people jumping to give Bailey credit there. I'd say the same with Chapman, Weissert and Wilson. Maybe Bello stinks this year because he's just not as good as we thought he was going to be. Maybe he's just a #5? Maybe Houck is just the starting rotation/reliever question mark that we had him pegged for going into 2024 and not the All Star we saw last season? We're lucky Bailey was able to get that half of a season out of Houck. Coaches are fungible. Fire Cora, Bailey and Fatse if you really want. However, I don't think it'll change the direction of this team in any positive direction this season. It's almost always on the players and who picks the players. The coaches are just low hanging fruit IMO.

“You’re not going to find a bigger Bello guy than me. If Bello is struggling, it’s because of the pitch mix called by Bailey or Narvaez. Whoever is calling the pitches needs to go.” Awful take. Can’t Bello just be not very good? None of his pitches have a positive run value. He has no out pitch right now.

DFA Mayer

It's not the definitive valuation of anything. Yes, it's convenient to site for our purposes and that's all we use it for. Same with a lot of the other advanced stats. We know where generally how they are calculated and what they say about a player. It's just "what can we talk about more that our own personal eye tests and how could we back it up?" In the end, it doesn't really matter too much. Some people go over board with it. Some people hate it.

For example, it helps to quantify the differences in value between '24 Abreu and '24 O'Neill. Offensively, O'Neill is ahead, but Abreu had a much stronger defensive campaign. Which player provided more value to the Red Sox? How could you quantify it? Is it a perfect system? No, but I think it works well enough for our nonsense.

The problem is that they wait for a solution to present itself (i.e. Bregman gets hurt) rather than creatively finding a way to get the player on the roster.

A healthy Chris Murphy could be pretty huge as he can go multiple innings.

Newcomb traded to the A's for cash considerations.

Cora mentioned him as a backup to a backup at 3b.

It was 7 years ago that he played 2b for Lowell. I don't think he's going back to the IF. It must have been pretty ugly considering the defense they put up with now! I want to see the b roll from when they put Refsnyder at 1b in ST!

I think Duran was their best player last year. I just don't think he's been as good this year. He's just a step behind what he was. Maybe he'll start to heat up in June? 5/31/24 744 OPS June 2024 1063 OPS July 2024 902 OPS Aug 2024 966 OPS

Back in 2019, Abraham Toro was among the hottest prospects in baseball.

All that AND you get to see Zanetello's 43% k rate! Portland and Greenville both have very interesting rotations. Hard to pick which one I'd rather watch for a week. Greenville will also be getting Johanfran Garcia at some point this season. Will help make that the best roster in the org without a doubt.

Hard to say. I don't think the org really cares for him as a prospect. I think he's trade bait. Maybe keeping him in AAA helps his trade value? I have no idea. Hickey and Noda are already on the AAA roster.

He's not an option for a team that has aspirations of contending. I think we're beyond that now.

Yeah, I think it's Fitts. He went less than 40 pitches last time out. May only go about 55 today. Could use a guy like Newcomb! 🥸