moonslav59

I'm thinking the 1B/RF'er we get plays 1B, mostly, as Kike plays CF or RF. He might play RF, when we rest an OF'er. I'm also not convinced Duran will still be hitting very well by the deadline, but certainly, if he is, he keeps playing FT. I also agree that RP'er is our highest need area.

About time!

His .332 OBP is not bad, and he has 16 SBs (4 CS).

The fact that we are still slotted in the #1 WC position with 80% of our rotation hurt says something about the depth this team has added over the last 2-3 years. It's also a bit surprising to see Duran and Refsnyder ahead of Bogey and JD in OPS and RBI's per PA, but with all these sample sizes are rather small.

I doubt Bogey will be back, but JD might not be offered a ton by another GM, so he may be back. I see an issue arising, for the first time in 2-3 years, we will be facing some tough calls on protecting Rule 5 Prospects, thanks to the farm being built up both in quality and quantity. Yes, we have a lot of contracts coming off the books, including Price's, but several cannot be replaced, cheaply. I'm not one of those who think Bloom is stuck in the Ray's Way mode, but I do think he prefers to go with shorter term, moderate salary contracts over large and long ones, but if he spends to where we are, today, he will have to sign 10-15 players, if there are not LnL contracts given out. (Maybe he extends Devers?) I think he almost has to give out a LnL contract or 2, or he has to give 3-4 deals in the $14-19M/yr range. There will not be room for 12-15 FAs, unless we make some 3 for 1 deals. How may this relate to this deadline? I have a theory: maybe we look at the prospects and protected players and determine who won't make the cut, next year, but has trade value, this summer, and those are the guys we trade (2 for 1's or 3 for 1's.) This helps us now, and may easy the congestion, this coming winter. .

Yes. I will copy & Paste.

We are 45-36 (9 games over .500) We have a 79% chance of making the playoffs (3.6% to win the WS.) OPS Leaders .962 Devers .908 Duran .887 Refsnyder .872 JD .856 Bogey .756 Vaz .731 Cordero .725 Story .695 Verdugo .662 Arroyo .613 Kike .610 Dalbec .572 JBJ .478 Plawecki RBI (PAs w RISP) 54 Story (92) 46 Devers (79) 43 Verdugo (100) 34 Bogey (100) 33 JD (99) 31 Vaz (74) 25 JBJ (76) 24 Kike (61) 22 Cordero (47) 18 Dalbec (75) 13 Arroyo (36) 10 Refsnyder (15) 6 Duran (17) 5 Plawecki (22) BA Leaders .329 Duran (80 PAs) .327 Devers (347) .318 Bogey (327) .312 JD (311) .308 Refsnyder (62) .290 Vaz (235) .264 Verdugo (313) .255 Cordero (183) .229 Arroyo (120) .224 Story (316) .211 JBJ (236) .209 Kike (238) .208 Dalbec (221) .151 Plawecki (86) IP (ERA) 100 Pivetta 3.68 71 Hill 4.20 IL 70 Wacha 2.69 to IL? 68 Eovaldi 3.16 IL 49 Houck 3.47 49 Whitlock 3.51 31 Davis 2.30 30 Brasier 4.15 29 Sawamura 2.45 29 Danish 3.99 29 Diekman 2.83 27 Schreiber 0.66 26 Winckowski 3.12 25 Crawford 5.04 25 Strahm 4.01 25 Robles 5.84 (16 pitchers with 24.2 IP+) 17 Barnes 7.94 IL 13 Valdez 5.40 9 Seabold 8.31 1 Plawecki 0.00 (20 pitchers with 1+ IP) Out of our 16 top IP pitchers, only 3 have an ERA+ below 101 72 Robles 84 Crawford 99 Hill Top ERA+ 639 Schreiber 183 Davis 171 Sawamura 155 Wacha 149 Diekman 135 Wink 132 Nate 121 Houck 119 Whitlock 113 Pivetta 105 Danish 105 Strahm 101 Brasier OPS Against (.679 Staff) .392 Schreiber .570 Sawamura .573 Valdez .621 Wacha .622 Davis .626 Houck .632 Danish .651 Pivetta .660 Strahm .663 Whitlock .707 Winckowski .709 Diekman .725 Eovaldi .727 Crawford .753 Hill .758 Brasier .784 Barnes .831 Robales 1.132 Seabold

We missed a chance to gain on several teams, last night, but we are still sitting in the #1 WC slot. 45-36 BOS +1.5 44-37 TBR +0.5 44-38 TOR -0.0 40-39 CLE -2.5

Like Robles & Davis, last year. Highly probable. Schwarber was a surprise, too.

Astros are in the west.

Casas is on the IL and will not be ready, this year.

Did you or did you not tell me to "pump the brakes a little?" Pump the brakes on what? Does that have some unknown special meaning only to you? I hesitate to use the word "clarification."

I don't have my foot on the gas. I just stated what he's done in a small sample size and said, if he continues doing well, he'll stay in the rotation. Why is hitting the brakes needed on anything I said or implied? (Rhetorical question- don't answer.)

You don't need to be a big thing to be worth more than 3 months of Beni.

I get why we lost those 2, but we still had a very good chance to win at least 1 of those 2. I'm not saying the Cubs deserved to lose, but their loss in game 3 had as many what ifs as our 2 losses.

Hopefully, he recovers quickly and fully.

I hope they keep Wink in the rotation, assuming he continues doing well, until the IL starters return. His sample size is only 26 IP, but he was tearing it up in AAA, too (.532 OPS Against) Wink has a 134 ERA+, so far, and after his shaky first start, he has these numbers his last 4 starts: 3-1 1.96 (.623 OPS Against) 15 K 4 BB 23 Hits 23 IP (2.33 FIP) Anyone still miss a leftfield only Beni?

Bobby Dee may still have a hot streak or two left in him, but I'm not sure how much longer he will have to show it. The trade deadline is about 4 weeks away.

I don't care for the "opener" strategy, either, but if you have to go with a pen game, it makes sense to line it up like Cora did, with the long man going second.

We lost 6-5 and 3-1. We had chances to win both, just as the Cubs had chances to win the one they lost. BTW, the Cubs scored some runs on errors, too, including in their 3-1 win in game 2. We outhit the Cubs 11-6 in game one. I think we could say we could have won that one.

I suspect Bloom will demote Crawford, Seabold, Bello and Winckowski once pitchers start coming off the IL, but I'd like to see us keep at least 1-2 as pen depth. DFA Robles and maybe demote Danish. Davis is out of options, as are most of the rest of our pen, except Sawamura, who I doubt will be demoted.

We were somewhat lucky to get that one win vs the Cubs, but we easily could have won 2.

The thing is, those "flickerings" are about as extended as his slumps, and some are blinding, white heat flickers. 2020 .436 in first 19 PAs 1.105 in last 73 PAs (much longer than the slump) 2021 .507 in first 92 PAs 1.103 next 41 PAs .622 next 177 PAs 1.110 last 143 PAs Or, .507 in first 92 PAs and .866 the last 331 PAs. (.000 OPS in 12 playoff PAs) 2022 .482 first 121 PAs .867 next 66 PAs .564 last 30 PAs

I'm not sure, if he's had nasty stuff like this before, but he's not having a season like this on smoke & mirrors. His stuff looks legit. (So did Barnes', last spring.)