Bellhorn04

It's my belief there are a whole range of factors that can affect a player's performance in one game or even one at-bat. Some of those factors may be physiological or psychological - the hitter just feels good, he's confident, alert, he's 'seeing the ball well', as the expression goes. Some of the factors may be mental or strategic - the hitter has studied this pitcher and has a good idea what he throws in certain situations. Some of the factors are luck and randomness - the hitter guesses right on the pitch, or he hits the ball through a hole in the infield, when he was basically just trying to make good contact. When you've got so much stuff going on it's virtually impossible to say exactly why the hitter succeeded that time. As we all know even the best hitters only hit .300. And even the best clutch hitters can't keep coming up with big hits on a consistent basis because the odds are stacked against them. With all that said I do consider Ortiz and Schilling to have been clutch performers in the postseason.

Poor JF gets no respect...even when we're winning all these late inning thrillers with fire and desire.

It matters to me. Getting swept by the Guardians last year didn't bother me nearly as much as getting swept by the Evil Ones would have. It's a double whammy - the two things I hate worst are us losing and the Yanks winning.

"What ifs" only have weight in an alternate universe. If you really want to evaluate Price vs. Quintana, of course, there are a pile of "what ifs" yet to unfold.

Not sure I'd want the 2017 Cueto or what's left of his contract either. He did have a fine season in 2016, no question.

I think you can make a pretty solid case that Dombrowski had very little choice but to do what he did, or to do something pretty close to what he did, for this team to have any shot in 2016 or 2017. The pitching staff left to him by Ben shaped up as horrendous, and there wasn't a lot of payroll room to work with either. What else can you do but trade for pitching? Dombrowski did try to make use of one of the few 'semi-proven' pitchers left to him by exercising the option on Buchholz, and Buch naturally bombed, necessitating the trade for Pomeranz.

Quintana wasn't traded until 1.6 seasons after we acquired Price.

Quite a night for the Killer B's!

Probably hunting.

Well, it's a $22 million assignment for DD and JF to figure this one out.

Good question.

Are you sure that's the way it works if you release him? Didn't the Giants basically just sign Pablo to a whole new contract at minimum wage?

If you read Peter Abraham's Twitter feed from yesterday, he had some comments about the use of E-Rod in the 6th yesterday. He was surprised that E-Rod came out, then he said he had to assume E-Rod's last hitter would be the lefty Miller and Maddox would come in to face Sucre. Didn't you just know, though, that a guy named Jesus Sucre was going to be trouble?

I think it has become obvious they need to keep Hanley's option from vesting, even if it means just flat out releasing him like Pablo. You can't be on the hook for another year paying $22 million to a DH with a sub-.750 OPS and a negative WAR.

Yanks lose, praise the Lord.

Beckham with a 3 run shot off Gray, 5-1 Birds in 4th.

How about if they had their 2017 seasons in 2015? Good old hypotheticals.

He certainly earned his money in 2016.

Here is the pitching staff Ben left behind and their 2015 numbers: Starters Miley 4.46 ERA 193 IP Porcello 4.92 ERA 172 IP Kelly 4.82 ERA 134 IP E-Rod 3.85 ERA 121 IP Buch 3.26 ERA 113 IP Bullpen Koji 2.23 ERA 40 IP Ross 3.86 ERA 60 IP Tazawa 4.14 ERA 58 IP Wright 4.09 ERA 72 IP Barnes 5.44 ERA 43 IP Hembree 3.55 ERA 25 IP Top starter prospects MLB ready or near Owens and Johnson Pretty scary.

But even if you thought our rotation without Sale was fine, his acquisition could be considered necessary to offset the loss of Papi. We knew we'd be scoring less runs so we had to give up correspondingly less. Because they didn't have the money under the tax threshold to sign Encarnacion. I don't think Sale was a luxury when you factor all those things in.

Good points about the Dodgers.

I think you can pick whichever scenario you like on that one. The extension was announced before Porcello pitched his first regular season game for us, and it was probably agreed to before that, with the announcement delayed because of AAV considerations.

Not unless you'd rather play Cleveland.

Houston is still very much in the running for that top spot though. They're only 1 back in the loss column and they've won 3 in a row.

I agree with most of that. But it appears that even LAD and NYY have had enough of just paying whatever it takes to keep the big name talent. You guys let Cano walk and the Dodgers let Greinke walk. Times are changing.