moonslav59

It's only 5 games, and I get the feeling, if we had just flipped one loss to a win and were 3-2, the mood would be much different. That being said, starting off with the O's and Pirates was a gift we squandered. I think our rotation will settle down, but we can't be digging a hole, right now.

We had 2, last year, and both were in a 3 game stretch.

I guess we decided to let Reynolds beat us, by himself.

Top pitchers selected in drafts since 2012 (top 20 picks listed only): 2012: 4 Gausman 5 Kyle Zimmer 7 Max Fried 8 Mark Appel 14 Nick Travieso 16 Lucas Giolito 19 Wacha 20 Chris Stratton 2021: 1 Appel 3 Jon Gray 4 Kohl Stewart 7 Trey Ball 10 Phil Bickford 15 Braden Shipley 18 Chris Anderson 19 Marco Gonzales 20 Jonathon Crawford 2014: 1 Brady Aiken 2 Tyler Kolek 7 Aaron Nola 8 Kyle Freeland 9 Jeff Hoffman 12 Kodi Medeiros 14 Tyler Beeded 15 Sean Newcomb 16 Touki Toussaint 17 Brandon Finnegan 18 Erick Fedde 19 Nick Howard 2015: 3 Dillon Tate 6 Tyler Jay 8 Carson Fulmer 14 Kolby Allard 16 J Kaprielian 17 B Aiken 18 Bickford 2016: 3 Ian Anderson 4 Riley Pint 6 AJ Puk 7 B Garrett 8 C Quantrill 9 M Manning 12 Jason Groome 17 F Whitley 19 J Dunn 2017: 2 H Greene 3 M Gore 4 B McKay 12 S Baz 13 T Rogers 15 Bukauskas 16 C Schmidt 18 A Faedo 20 D Peterson 2018: 1. Casey Mize 7 Ryan Weathers 8 Carter Stewart 11 Grayson Rodriguez 14 Logan Gilbert 15 C Winn 16 Liberatore 18 B Singer 2019: 7 N Lodolo 11 Manoah 17 J Rutledge 18 Q Priester 19 Z Thompson 20 G Kirby 2020: 3 Max Meyer 4 Asa Lacy 6 Emerson Hancock 19 Reid Detmers 11 G Crochet 15 M Abel 18 B Jarvis 2021: 2 Leiter 3 J Jobe 7 Mozzicato 9 Bachman 10 Rocker 13 Painter 14 Bednar 18 McGreevy 19 Hoglund

...and word is Whitlock will get one more start at AAA (Thursday) and then be ready to join the team, presumably for his next start.

meant wonderment.

I've asked this before. Wonerment.

There are many hits and misses among pitching draftees, even the highest of the high, but the point remains, our team has really sucked finding and developing young pitchers for over a decade. We may soon be closing in on being closer to 2 decades than 1.

We still have a ways to go, but I think the three young pitchers we have now: Whitlock, Houck and Bello look to be the best 3 we've had in a long time. Somebody can (and will) correct me, if I'm wrong, but is this the best 3 since... 2008: Buch, Masterson & Bard 2006: Lester, Buch and Papelbon 2005: Lester, Anibal Sanchez and Papelbon I realize Whitlock is not "homegrown," but he did have his rookie season with us.

A 102 OPS+ from 2020-2022 is not bad for a 2Bman. Arroyo's is a career +9 DRS 2Bman in 923 innings with a +5.7 UZR/150. Injuries have been Arroyo's downfall. He seems "good enough:" just not healthy enough.

Or, he'd have moved him to another position.

Cora does seem to like to play everyone on the 26, doesn't he? 1. Dugo 2. Devers 3. Turner 4. Yoshida 5. Duvall 6. Casas 7. Kike 8. McGuire 9. Chang

Many did feel he should be at 2B, and we should have signed or traded for a SS. (Andrus was mentioned, a lot, but he's playing 2B, this year.) I'm not sure many were saying he will play 2B, but maybe some felt he would.

Let's hope some players turn things around, mostly our starting pitchers. In defense of Kike, he does also have a .375 OBP, thanks to 2 BBs in 4 games, so he is doing a little more than homering. His D has looked pretty good at SS, too, although he somehow already has a -3 DRS. Casas walked a lot, last fall and in the minors. He's walked a couple times, this year, and IMO, he needs to walk a lot and hit 25+ bombs to be a help, this season. It's interesting to see our early RBI Leaders: 9 Duvall 5 Casas 4 Dugo 3 Kike 2 Arroyo Runs 7 Duvall 5 Turner, Devers, Yoshida 4 Dugo 3 Kike OBP .650 Duvall .450 Devers, Turner, Dugo .400 Yoshida .375 Kike

That would have gotten closer to a playoff slot, for sure.

If Arroyo is healthy and doing well, moving Kike to CF makes sense, but that would bench someone from Turner (Yoshida to DH), Casas (Turner to 1B), Duvall, Dugo or Yoshida. This does not seem like a good idea, so maybe Kike moves to 2B, or we just keep Kike at SS and play Story at 2B, and Arroyo becomes the utility guy. I doubt Mondesi has a say in anything.

Pivetta needs to stop the run-gushing rotation wound.

20-20 hindsight, what pitchers could we have signed instead of Story, last winter? Instead of Yoshida, this past winter?

It's easy to get an idea. The numbers are readily available. Some of the option buy outs and bonuses get tricky, I can see how anyone can say we are within $2-3M of the tax line, if the bonuses count and the Turner option is counted differently. 25.6 Sale (cots and spotrac agree) 23.3 Story (agree) 18.0 Yoshida (agree) 17.5 Devers (rock solid number) 16.0 Jansen (rock) 10.0 Kike (rock) 10.0 Kluber (agree) 10.9 Turner (agree) 7.5 Martin (Spotrac has $6.8M) 7.0 Duvall (rock) 6.3 Dugo (rock) 5.4 Pivetta (rock) 4.7 Whitlock (rock) 4.0 Paxton (agree) 3.0 Bleier (agree) 3.0 Mondesi (agree) 2.0 Arroyo (rock) 2.0 Brasier (rock) 2.0 JRod (rock) 1.2 McGuire (rock) 1.2 Ref (rock) +5.6 Barnes payment (Spotrac has $4.89M & Hosmer $1.8M) +1.7 0-3 bonus pool (agree) +2.3 Forty Man (Spotrac agrees) +16.5 Player Benefits (agree) Total $215.1 cots/$213.7 spotrac There is $2M for Alfaro on a minor league deal. Bonuses listed on cots: $500K Kluber for 20 GS, $750 for 25 and nother for 30 GS. $200K Turner for each PA milestone: 480, 500, 520, 540, 560 and a $6.7M buyout on an $8.3M 2023 contract, which looks like $15M guaranteed, so this could add $3-4M, if counted differently. $500K Duval for each PA milestone: 350, 400, 450, 500 and $1M for 550. $200M Paxton for starting 20, 22, 24 or 26 games. Maybe some add up all the bonuses and count them, but that looks like just $6-7M tops. Add$2M for Alfaro and $4M more for Turner and we still look to be within $2-3M. The bonuses and Turner contract might be the biggest factor.

My guess is 2B, but one poster seems sure it will be SS.

I'm sure some are ready to pounce.

Astros pitchers did a little better with Maldando and Castro than Vaz, but it takes time to get adjusted.

Add to this, the IFA signing bonuses: $M 2023: 1.4 Cespedes SS .525 Arias SS .500 Ruiz SS .175 Salazar C .130 Garcia P .125 Garcia SS 2022: 1.2 De Leon SS 1.1 Encarnacion SS .850 Garcia C .600 Santana SS .400 Yuten CF .265 Paniagua SS .125 Colmenares P 2021: 1.5 Bleis CF .850 Lira C .545 Ravelo SS .450 Liendo 2B .450 Paez P .300 Mejias P .195 Reyes P .150 Sierra OF, Castillo SS, A Lopez P .140 Castro OF .125 Burnet P

I will say, I do think Henry's pattern, if we want to attribute it to him and not his GMs, is to wait until we look close to being highly competitive for a ring, and then spend big on an ace type pitcher via free agency or by trade. Pedro came before Henry, but the Schilling trade put us over the top and made us a top 2-3 contender. When things dipped a little, we traded HRam and A Sanchez for Beckett (and salary dump Mike Lowell.) When things dipped again, we signed Lackey to pair with Lester. A couple last place finishes led to the Price signing and to some extent the Porcello trade (Cespedes via Lester trade.) When this did not seem like enough, we traded for Sale before the 2017 season. I'm not sure Henry has felt like we have been "close enough" to splurge on a top pitcher since 2018, and in all honesty, I do not think we have been an ace away from being a top contender since '18. Is the idea to build up a supporting cast, and then pounce? Who knows?

I think the Wacha and Hill signings were good, especially for the money spent on them. It clearly was not enough to improve the rotation to plus status. I'm not sure what more I need to say. I'm not disagreeing on Bloom not building a strong rotation. It seems like he has focused on building up everything else, first, with the pen being his most recent area of major inputs. bWAR has Wacha way higher ranked than fWAR does, but they have Hill lower ranked. You pointed out Wacha and Hill exceeded their fWAR/Value numbers, and my point was only about winter rotation moves. To me, Bloom's 2022 winter rotation moves were the bext of his 4 winters, here, including this year's solo move with the Kluber addition. Again, doing better than s***** can still be pretty bad or "not enough."