moonslav59

Greg Maddux was 6-0 170.

By the end of the season, we should know if we trust Duran to be the FT CF'er, allowing us to let Kike ($10M) and Duvall ($7M) go without replacing them via free agency. Passing on Kluber's option seems a cinch, as of now. Mondesi will likely be gone, too. I've talked about Bloom's first duty being to repair and rebuild the 40 man roster depth and beyond (to the farm,) and he has largely done that, even at the expense of all the tireless 1 year patch signings and not addressing the top of the rotation, but one can ask, "Why add an ace 2-3 years before the team is ready to go for it all?? What I like about our 2024 (and beyond) roster look is that most of the positions, except the rotation, has more than one hopeful candidate as well as long term hopes. (The OF is a bit weak on ML ready depth.) C: Wong & McGuire (Hickey) 1B: Casas & Turner, plus a less hopeful Dalbec (Jordan/Kavadas) 2B: [story?] EValdez & Arroyo (Yorke & Bonaci) SS: [story] Chang & Reyes (Hamilton & Mayer/Romero) 3B: Devers Forevers should be all we need (Koss & Paulino) LF: Yoshida (Rosier) CF: Duran (Rafaela & Bleis) RF: Verdugo & Abreu DH: Turner The pen looks fine, despite having some aging RP'ers in the key closer and set-up roles. Short: Jansen & Martin Schreiber & Joely (Mills & Fernandez) Mid/Long: Houck, Whitlock (SP?) & Pivetta (SP?) Wink & Crawford (Mata, Walter & Murphy) The big gaps- the rotation: 1. _____ 2. Sale 3. _____ 4. Bello 5. _____ maybe Whitlock or Pivetta (Drohan & ______) 3. ____

Something will happen, this year that gives Crawford another chance at starting. I once had hopes that just one from Mata, Walter and Murphy could fill a 4 or 5 slot, well, but those hopes have taken a severe hit. Drohan brightens that hope up, some, but you are right, we need to bolster the rotation, and to put it bluntly, I'm pissed off we keep building at the 3-4 slots in hopes we find a #2. At some point we need to shoot for a number 1 and maybe end up with a 2. Maybe it is part of "the plan," but the idea is to wait until the rest of the roster is in place that makes it a team that is an ace away from being a top contender. I don't think any of us have felt we have been that close since 2018 or pre 2019. Your graphic shows the rest of the team is taking shape, so maybe next winter, or this deadline will be the time we make that serious move.

We were 52-34, last year outside our division. That's a 98 win team projected over 162 games. I know some posters don't want to hear about that, and it's true, we need to beat teams in our division, and pass at least 1 to make the playoffs, but a losing record? Just the schedule change alone gets us to .500 or better.

Playing way less ALE games was a big part of my belief we'd win much more, this year. We did very well, last year vs non ALE teams, and we got better, on paper. It seemed simple, to me, but the season is far from over, and I could be proven wrong, again.

I'm not sure we ever take the big plunge on a trade for an ace, again. Bloom might have to be handcuffed. I have mixed feelings about making a big trade. We've been pretty lucky with our returns, but any trade is a gamble. We just seem to do better with trades than FAs.

Diaz had a 1.933 OPS! (Okay- just 3 ABs)

Hard to identify it as being a lack of instincts or skills. It seemed to me, and maybe others, that Duran lacked instincts and could not "be fixed" on D, since "you can't teach/learn instincts." Ellsbury was abe to turn it around, but not overnight- like Duran seemingly just did.

Trying to come up with a package that does not include Mayer, Bleis or Drohan is just about impossible. I doubt larger packages that would have to include some combination of these gets it done.... Rafaela Yorke Romero Anthony E R-C Walter Mata

The Brewers will not extend all their SP'ers, so even as a contender, they may move to move Burnes or Woodruff. The Guardians don't seem to want to spend big, and they may fall out of contention by the end of July. Hard to know what the Twins ever think.

The Bleier DFA just may never happen.

It might take a while to find his stride, and of course, we can't expect what he gave us those first 2 weeks.

It's hard to know who might be available and most would take an extension, at a reasonable cost, to be worth trading several top prospects to get. 3.5 B Singer 2.5 yrs Gallen Cease Keller 1.5 yrs Bieber Burnes Woodruff (Alex Cobb) 0.5 Giolito S Gray Montgomery Snell

Kinda what I'm getting at. It's hard to know.

Is this really a better homegrown/acquired before MLB experience pitching system than recent years? 2023 Bello Whitlock (Rule 5) Houck Crawford Winckowski (Trade) Perales E R-C Mata Walter Wikelman Murphy Guerrero Fernandez Ort (MiLB Rule 5) Kelly (MiLB FA) 2018 ERod (Trade) Beeks Houck Barnes Workman Walden H Velazquez B Johnson Poyner Groome Mata DHern Cuevas Lakins Shawaryn Feltman Scherff 2013 Lester Buchholz D Bard Alex Wilson Workman Webster and de la Rosa (Trade) Owens Ranaudo 2007 Lester Papelbon Buchholz Dice-K (IFA) Masterson Bard Okajima (IFA) Delcarmen Gabbard Hagadone 2004 Lowe Lester Papelbon DiNardo A Alvarez

.413 OPS Against in 34 starts is off-the-charts. His 36:9 K:BB is pretty impressive, too.

Great news! Despite Wikelman's unremarkable start to 2023, could he be boosted to AA?

In system: Bello Houck Crawford (Mata, Walter, Murphy) All DD pitchers. Wink came in the Beni trade.

How do you personally spot "instinct?" What does it look like?

3 to PIT, too. It seems we played them at the wrong time of their season.

I think our best chance at passing someone ahead of us is BAL. TOR might be second. Maybe TEX imploses, despite all the top talent they added, recently. NYY has a putrid offense and is almost always injury prone. HOU is too good to realistically hope we can pass. The Rays are in a class by themselves. For those who call us TB North, I wish!

Perhaps what I, and perhaps others, have always thought of as "instincts" was not really so.

It's hard to think out rotation can't or won't improve over the first quarter's results. Possible? Yes. Probably? No. In a way, that is not optimism but something that should be expected. How much it improves will be the key. The offense should be strong. If some surprise players fall off, others that are underperforming (Casas, Kike, Arroyo & Devers) and returning players (Story & Duvall) should take up the slack or even improve the offense. Pens are always tough to project. We improved it, on paper, and that is really all a GM can do. Now, we have to just hope the expectations are met.

Just don't call it "realism."

Too bad there aren't 4 WC teams, because whoever finishes last in the vaunted ALE will miss out, no matter how much better they might be over another division winner or two. In this sense, all ALE teams were helped, equally by the changes made, but it will help us beat out any non ALE team threatening to squeeze out an ALE team for a WC slot. Right now, TEX and HOU are looking pretty good and should win a WC slot, so the ALE 4th and 5th place teams may miss out.