moonslav59

Sure there is. Why get nothing for a departing player? It’s better to get less than you hoped for than nothing. Comp pick cases are different, but in those instances, all you need in return is a value greater than the comp pick to make the deal worthy.

Your first sentence needs editing.

Golden opportunity to gain on everyone slips away. Our pen has been great and even miraculous in its depth.

This is his first MLB season. In his first 10 games, he had 2 bad ones, before tonight. He had one kinda bad game with 2 unearned runs. He may turn out to be a stinker, but 3 bad games in 11 is not a horrific start to a career.

SDP 9-1 TOR FINAL LAD 10-3 BAL in 8th TEX 2-1 TBR in 7th LAA 2-0 NYY in 2nd COL 4-3 HOU in 6th

They did offer him just about the same as he took from LAD, so I'm not sure the thing about him "not being the kind of player they'd pay..." is a bit harsh. I do wish we'd have signed him.

Ref has been a top 10 batter v LHPs from 2022 to 2023. It's no slight on Duvall, but your point is still valid. We aren't sitting Duran, despite his issues v LHPs. Same with Dugo. Yoshida can DH, but we ain't sittin' Turner or Casas to make that happen. I've been saying for weeks, I think we trade Duvall... maybe a three way deal with others added that gets us a good starting pitcher.

Agreed, especially since we already passed the Yanks. We need to pass one more. I put them in this order: 1. TOR (one more sweep and we've caught them) 2. TEX (I think they will have some issues, soon.) 3. HOU (Many injuries give us hope, here.) 4. TBR/BAL tied (I'm not convinced they have clinched.)

Yes, and the salary is pro-rated as part of the value. They just updated their values as you can see with Duran's big boost. BTV is not perfect, but their values have been proven to be pretty accurate.

Abreu and Rafaela homered in Woo's loss. POR is losing in the 9th. Rehabbing Reyes is at 2-4 w a 2B (1.044 in AAA) Meidroth 2-4 Sikes 2-3 w HR & BB Mayer 2-5 GRE losing in 9th 2-5 Anthony (1.270) 2-5 Castro w 2B 3-5 B Gonz w 2B 1-3 Paulino w 2 BB SAL lost with nothing to report.

We may have a chance at gaining on some ALE teams, tonight. LAD 5- BAL 1 in 4th SDP 4- TOR 1 in 4th TBR @ TEX (One has to lose.) NYY @ LAA (Yanks in a tailspin) (HOU is at COL and should win.) GO SOX!!!!

Maybe- maybe not. It depends who plays who in the first round or two, and who wins. The way things are going, the O's might win the division and the best AL record.

Houck and Whitlock have been great in the pen. Just because they have not done, well as starters doesn't mean we should trade them. Plus, why trade them when their stock has fallen, a little. Sale should not be traded. I'm with you on never counting on him to pitch, again, but he did prove to me, that he can still pitch very well, when he DOES pitch. I wasn't so sure about that aspect in March. That is why I do not pay to see him pitch for another team. Pivetta has not proven he can do what he has done from the pen, as a SP'er, this year. He's had spurts of doing well in 2021 and 2022, some 12-16 games long, but he's not been great as a SP'er. He has to prove he can start for me to start thinking of trading Houck and Whitlock. Numbers as SP'ers: 2023 5.05 Houck (.695 OPSA) 5.23 Whitlock (.841) 6.30 Pivetta (.885) 2022 4.15 Whitlock (.723) 4.32 Houck (.663) 4.56 Pivetta (.753) 2021 3.68 Houck (.627) n/a Whitlock 4.56 Pivetta (.735) I've been a big Pivetta supporter over the last 3 years and wanted to let him try starting again, a few weeks ago, but he has yet to prove he can do it better than Houck and Whitlock. Crawford has started to show he belongs in the rotation, for good, but he needs a few more good starts to win a slot, outright, once everyone returns (assuming they all do at some point together.) I'd start Pivetta in 5 days- no doubts. If he sucks, no doubt some will claim we ruined him by breaking something that didn't need fixing. IMO, Houck, Whitlock, Pivetta and Crawford would be better from the pen (in long roles,) but we need 3 starters (2 if Sale returns.) It's not an easy call on who should start. It's no slight on one guy by picking another. They all look better in the pen.

2 month rentals don't get the returns they used to get. Look at the BTV values for the rentals: 9.7 Giolito CWS 8.8 Montgomery STL 8.5 Snell SDP 6.1 Stroman CHC 5.7 ERod DET 2.1 W Miley MIL Now look at some of our player values: 9 Alcantara & Romero 6 Paulino 5 Drohan 4 Perales, Wikelman, EValdez & Walter 3 Meidroth & E R-C 2.5 Hickey & Brannon 2.4 Abreu, DHam, Cespedes, Jordan & Monegro 2.2 Bastrado, Mata & Murphy 2.1 Encarnacion 2.0 Guerrero, Castro, Bonaci, Fernandez, Blalock & Lugo These might be some trades the other teams might make: Giolito or Montgomery for Romero or Perales & Paulino Snell for Drohan & Walter or Perales & Wikelman Stroman or ERod for Paulino or Walter & Jordan Miley for Bonaci or Lugo

BTV has these values: 2 month Rentals 9.7 Giolito CWS 8.8 Montgomery STL 8.5 Snell SDP 6.1 Stroman CHC 5.7 ERod DET 2.1 W Miley MIL Longer Term (Years) 56.0 Keller (2.3) PIT 51.4 Cease (2.3) CWS 40.7 Burnes (1.3) MIL 36.8 Musgrove (4.3) SDP 35.1 Sandoval (3.3) LAA 27.4 Senga (1.3) NYM 26.6 S Gray (4.3) WSH 24.1 Canning (2.3) LAA 22.4 Sears (5.3) OAK 21.9 Lynch (4.3) KCR 20.0 Singer (3.3) KCR 10.7 Blackburn (2.3) OAK 4.4 S Lugo (1.3) SDP 2.7 Houser (1.3) MIL -34.5 Verlander (2.3) NYM Sox Values 63 Mayer 51 Duran 49 Bello 42 Casas 35 Devers 32 Houck 28 Bleis & Anthony 20 Crawford & Yoshida 19 Yorke & Verdugo 17 Whitlock 13 Rafaela 9 Alcantara, Schreiber & Romero 6 Paxton & Paulino 5 Drohan 4 Wong, Perales, Wikelman, EValdez & Walter 3 Meidroth, Pivetta & E R-C 2.5 Hickey & Brannon 2.4 Abreu, DHam, Cespedes, Jordan, Wink & Monegro 2.2 Bastrado, Mata & Murphy 2.1 Encarnacion 2.0 Guerrero, Castro, Refsnyder, Bonaci, Fernandez, Blalock & Lugo

I’ve mentioned a few times how almost all the other teams in contention have serious issues, too. Some are being exposed, now. Ours were exposed, earlier and may show up again, but I’m confident our returning IL players will help us avoid anymore prolonged funks.

I was hoping we'd jump the gun on adding a SP'er, so we could lessen these pen games. We can't count on last night's example to keep repeating itself.

The only plus run diff in the NLC!

Being more aggressive has helped him enormously.

Agreed. Maybe some hot hitting team might have managed a couple bloop hits and maybe a hard hit, but his location and pitch movement were fantastic, last night. He's put together a couple 2 month or more stretches with us in the past 2 years. Maybe this one will be his third and longest.

I’m not a believer in the whole playoff/crapshoot thing, but we are on the move, and good players are soon to be returning from the IL. I’m starting to feel like I did two games before the end of the 2021 season!

Rear view mirror! I love the sound of that!

That’s always a worry, for us and the other teams, too. Funks have run rampant, this year. Hell, the O’s have almost caught the Rays! I might be blinded by our recent success, but this team looks like a winning team. I know it sounds hypocritical, as I blasted those who said, “This is who we are- a .500 team,” after a couple of our funks. Winning like this with just 2 legit SPers makes me start to think the sky might be the limit, if we ever get healthy or trade for a legit starter. Call me biased, if you wish. I won’t deny it.

The Rays are not the same Rays. The O’s look tougher. I’m beginning to think if 2 out Whit, Houck and Sale return, and we add a guy like Stroman, our pen could be a massive plus, maybe enough to make us a top 3-4 contender in the AL. Is that enough to move us into the strong contender category? I’m not sure, but I’m moving in that direction.

It seemed like others were making more defensive mistakes, before. (I don’t want to use the word “error” anymore, because so many mistakes are not called errors.)