moonslav59

Woo won 3-1. Bear Claw pitched well: 6.2IP, 2H, 1ER, 2BB, 11K Only 3 hits: EValdez 2-3 w HR (.907) Abreu 1-4 (.911) Dalbec 0-2 w BB (.977) POR is down 7-4, late. Coffey pitched poorly. Jordan 2-4 Meidroth 1-3 w BB GRE tied 1-1 in 8th Penrod: 5IP, 5H, 0ER, 4BB, 2K Castro 2-4 w HR Anthony 1-3 w BB Teel 0-3 w BB SAL down 7-0, late. Nunez was rocked Salazar 2-4 w 2B

It's a good thing to be facing the teams we need to beat. This way we don't need to rely on others to beat them. Just take care of business. There are a lot of games left. We could catch these teams in just a 6-7 game stretch, like the next 6: -7 Sox: 3-0 vs NYY/ 3-1 vs HOU TOR: 1-2 v CIN/0-3 vs BAL SEA: 1-2 v HOU/2-1 v CWS HOU: 2-1 v SEA/1-3 v BOS Records after the next 2 series: 73-56 HOU WC2 69-58 SEA WC3 69-59 BOS -0.5 68-60 TOR -0.5 That is what can happen in just one week. (If CWS take 2 of 3 from SEA, we could be in the WC3 slot in 1 week.)

The next two series: BOS: @NYY, @HOU SEA: @HOU, @CWS TOR: @CIN, @BAL HOU: SEA, BOS TBR: @LAA, COL TEX: MIL, @AZ

I'd save him.

We also swept TOR twice. All these teams have weaknesses, too. We just get to see ours up close and personal, every game.

3 games out. Hou is playing Sea, so there will be 3 losses shared, there. Tor is at Cin for the weekend. The standing might look much better in just 3 days. Key word; 'might."

What a difference this middle infield is on D, now.

Plus, Turner has been a nice back-up at 1B and 3B. Lots of key hits, too.

Yuppers!

Thanks to some nice additions from the DD and Bloom regimes, our young core of players sure looks a lot better than it did in 2020. 27 or younger Devers Casas Bello Duran Wong Crawford Houck Whitlock Winckowski Verdugo Urias Murphy, Walter, Robertson EValdez, DHam 28-29 Yoshida Schreiber McGuire Reyes Kelly Top Farm Mayer, Anthony, Teel, Rafaela, Bleis Cespedes, Wikelman, Zanetello, Perales, Yorke Joh Garcia, Romero, Meidroth, Hickey, Abreu 2020: 27 or Younger Bogey Devers Beni Verdugo Chavis, Dalbec JTaylor 28-29 Vaz Plawecki Farm Casas Bello Houck Duran Dalbec Wong Murphy Mata Downs, Chatham DHern, Groome, Song, Ward

This would be a nice time to start ripping the baseball[ to shreds.

For those who think free agency is the solution to adding an ace or solid #2 to our staff, take a look at the list of the highest paid pitchers from the FA market and extensions, ever: $M/yrs 324/10 Cole 245/7 Strasburg 217/7 Price 215/7 Kershaw 210/7 Scherzer ('15-'21) 207/6 Greinke ('16-'21) 185/5 deGrom ('23-'27) 180/7 Verlander 162/6 Rodon 161/7 CC Sab ('09-'15) 155/7 Tanaka 155/6 Lester 147/6 Greinke ('13-'18) 145/5 Sale 144/6 Hamels 140/6 Corbin 138/6 J Santana 138/5 deGrom ('19-'23) 131/7 Berrios 130/6 Cueto 130/3 Scherzer ('22-'24) 128/6 M Cain 126/7 Zito 126/6 Darvish 122/5 CC Sab ('12-'16) 120/5 C Lee 118/5 Wheeler 115/5 R Ray 110/5 Zimmerman 110/5 Gausman 108/5 L Castillo (extension) 108/6 Darvish ('23-'28) 105/7 K Brown (back in the Stone Age) 102/5 Bauer 100/5 Musgrove How many from this list of 35 were clear winning deals for the team? How many were good deals or better? How many were okay or better? Yes, some are still pending. How many were clear stinkers or look to be?

Why are you acting like there is just 2 choices?

Totally different debate, and I agree with you on this. However, every team should do this, and then what happens to salaries?

Not really, and certainly not for his last 4 years of the deal, and when he was on the IL for half his second year of the deal. $210M for 2.5 decent seasons. 10 Kluber+ 10 Richards + 7 Perez + 6 Perez + 7 Wacha + 5 Hill= $45M for about one decent season. If you want to count Nate...

Well, we know the TOR series will be a sweep by one team, and ask MVP to explain why that would be a 6 game "swing."

We should plan on him as SP depth, not as a 1-5 slot pitcher.

Agreed.

None of us have that answer.

I'm fine with saying that was the biggest mistake. I wanted Betts to stay. I do think that if our budgets stayed the same as they were in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, we'd be in the same boat with or without Betts.

I never thought we'd sign him after he left. I did say we could sign him, if he he became a FA like he emphatically said that's what he wanted to do.

Yup. Losing to them, now, will "hurt like hell," too.

I did say "I'm not sure," but at this point in the season, we had to win a game like this one, and the way we lost hurt like hell. Of course, "hurt" is a personal thing.

Of course any team rich enough can trade for Sale. It's funny how the Dodgers have a long history of doing just that.

What does that have to do with the point you made about there being no justification for trading him? Some fans did think we could trade him and then sign him, the following winter, but as long as the fact remained that we were not going to pay him, there was always justification for trading him. One could argue it was mandatory we do.