moonslav59

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not saying I'm against calling someone up to replace at least one of these guys, but there is a chance one of these guys could regain their best stuff, again. They have already shown they can be good, at the ML level, for extended times. They just haven't shown it, recently, and we all know how most RP'ers are up and down. I'm not defending giving these guys endless chances, but I think that's what the continuous recycling of our botton 6-8 guys is all about- hoping one or two can turn things around and become the pitchers they were when they were pretty good. Expecting Seabold, Crawford or Winckowski to do well, just because they have "upside" is an unlikely gamble, too. To me, German and maybe Bello are in a separate category, but they may be deemed not ML ready, at this moment.

I'm not advocating keeping any of these guys, unless they have options. I'm just saying they all have shown something to stick in the bigs, this long, and all have have shown decent stuff as recently as last year, except Brasier. My other point is that many of the farm names thrown around are not really known for having nasty stuff, except maybe German, who was just recently promoted.

They won't rush him, even if he's mashing, but 2024 would be fantastic.

Sounds about right. There may be several promotions around that time. Some of these guys are doing so well, they deserve a bigger challenge. Some are aging out of their levels, and it's time to see what they can do at the next level, deserving or not. Maybe a few prospects being traded at the deadline will open up some room for promotions, as well.

I'd seriously consider keeping Refsnyder or bringing up Duran, when Kike returns. Trade or DFA Arroyo. I've been a fairly big supporter of Arroyo, in the past, and as a back-up IF'er he's not the worst utility guy in MLB, but as an OF'er, I agree. That experiment needs to end, and now. With Bogey's status for 2023 unknown, maybe they want to keep Arroyo around, but it's not hard to replace a guy like him, next winter, for a low cost.

Other managers have done the same sort of thing in the playoffs, but risk is often thrown out the window, when a title is on the line. Look at the Bill Walton example.

No, not at all, but let's not be so sure they have nasty stuff that is clearly better than the current RP'ers who are underperforming or, maybe, just plain suck. We all know RP'ers are a fickle bunch. The vast majority are very hard to project production and vary wildly from year-to- year or month-to-month. That may be one reason why managers and GM stick with struggling RP'ers for much longer than many of us would have done. (Another reason might be that the manager has no better options.) I'm not defending our RP'ers, who have sucked so far, this year, or saying that calling up a German, Seabold or someone else isn't a good idea. I'm just saying some of these guys might turn tings around, and some have some nasty stuff and have been pretty good, as recently as last year. Sometimes sticking with a player for a long time fails miserably- sometimes it doesn't. Will Barnes ever come close to what he was even before the first half of 2021? Can Robles pitch like he did at the end of 2021? Was Brasier ever as good as he looked in 2018, or was that just a mirage? (It was a long time ago, but he does seem to throw some good stuff, every so often.) What seems to be the biggest issue with our pen is not so much about them giving up too many hits, walks and homers, it's their timing. We've used 14 pitchers in relief roles, and looking at the numbers I see a few surprising facts: 1) Our pen has a .650 OPS Against, whereas our starters have a .282 OPSA. (Note: this is not to say I think they have done a better job, but only to say they've done okay- just not when it counts most.) 2) This is the shocker, IMO, out of the 14 RP'ers used this year, only 4 have an OPS Against below the team average of .650. .742 Diekman .784 Barnes .871 Brasier .908 Crawford (yesterday's hero) 3) The Cora bashers will love this one; one main reason our team OPSA is .650 with only 4 of 14 pitchers over .650, is how much those 4 have b een used: Most PAs Against (in relief ONLY): 104 Houck 100 Diekman 97 Davis 90 Brasier 88 Danish 81 Barnes 80 Sawamura 80 Robles 4 of the top 8 76 Strahm 71 Schreiber 55 Crawford 53 Valdez 35 Whitlock 4 Plawecki Granted, some of these PAs Against were in mop up roles, and some of our better RP'ers do not go multiple innings, so some context is needed, but some of these PAs have been high leverage or Late & Close by our worst RP'ers, and this is where Cora's choices come into question. Late & Close PAs Against (Note: some may be as a SP'er): 70 Robles (.590 OPSA) I'd have thought it would be much worse than .590. 58 Strahm (.722) I'd have thought his numbers would be better than Robles, here. 51 Diekman (.717) Not really a horrible number. 39 Schreiber (.427) The unsung hero. 27 Davis (.738) 25 Houck (.670) Should see more use in this role going forward 24 Barnes (1.010) 23 Brasier (.998) 18 Whitlock (.278) 14 Danish (1.095) Clearly a 6th or 7th inning guy) 10 Crawford (.800) 7 Sawamura (.629) Cora must not trust him 4) Maybe Houck can nail down the closer role. Strahm and Schreiber can be decent back-up closers or solid set-up men, but a winning pen needs to be deeper than 3 pitchers, and none of these 3 have long histories of being very good for full seasons in these roles. It seems obvious we need new blood, either b y trade or by giving some prospect a chance. The question is when?

Devers is truly a wonder.

They have a day they throw, but not at the level of a game, and coming into a game involves warming up and stepping out of their normal routine. Baseball is very much into routines and patterns- for good or bad.

Maybe before.

Duran went 3 for 4 with his 5th dinger. Downs hit his 10th and went 1-2 w a BB Hamilton, Rafaela and Castellanos all went 2 for 5- the last 2 had 2Bs. Greenville hit 4 HRs, including McDonough who went 2-4, Scott 2-5, Binelas 1-5 & Davis 2-4. Flores went 2-2 w 2 BB. Northcut actually had a non HR hit and 2 BBs! Mayer went 2-4 with his 4th HR & 15th 2B. Jordan had a 2B.

Vote.

I'm all for giving these guys a shot, and we have tried Winckowski and Crawford, but most of our farm guys are projected as back end starters, at best, so I'm not so sure they clearly have "better stuff." Some of our RP'ers doing very poorly have some pretty good stuff. Some have been getting most of the batters out and have have low OPS Against, but they have just failed at the worst possible moments. I'd like to see German get a shot. I trust Bloom to know when the right time is, but mistakes can be made with these choices.

Hip injury- day to day

Huge game for Crawford and the pen! Spring board this- one game at a time!

Let’s hope this solidifies Houck as the closer! We still need more pen help, but this could be a big step forward. What took Cora so long?

A Campusano trade would most likely be made next winter, unless other useful players are included. Now, if SD really wanted Duran for the OF, now, maybe they'd be more likely to make the trade, soon.

Says the man who continually uses fals facts and never corrects them. Like every publication gave Bloom a failing grade on the Betts trade, and you can't even produce one link that gives him an F. Like saying Story's rbi lead is based on 1 week of red hot hitting, while not taking away everyone else's best week. I could go on and on. I made a horrible mistake by trusting the thread started by Thunder. If that's the worst you can find on me, have at it. This is like the 3rd time you've brought it up. Repeating it does not improve your silly actions.

How is saying the pen sucks ignoring they suck? What you ignore is the fact that traditional closers don't come into tie games very often. You think a solid closer would have pitched in every situation where a RP'er gave up the lead or turned a lead into a tie. 26-3 (now 30-3) when leading going into the 9th is not an illusion. It's the 1-6 record when tied going into the 9th, or where we took the lead in the 9th, like last night, but lost it that weighs heavily on our pen. I have never denied or tried to hide those numbers, either. I've posted them several times, along with the 2-7 record in extra innings. NEVER have I denied or minimized the fact that our pen has allowed the opponents to win games that were winnable going into the 9th, 10th or 11th. Our pen has sucked at finishing the job. How many more ways do I need to say it. Your claim that a solid closer would have won many more games is likely true, but how many is up for debate, since a solid closer would not have b een on the mound in many of those key games, and we don't know how perfect they'd have done. Then, would the wins they created outweighed the wins Story, Wacha or others have given us that would be taken away by the either.or choice. Did Tony Mass discuss that? Using your classic statement, "He ignores it."

Before last night's game, the ALE held 4 of the top 6 records in the AL.

The difference is, I admit when I mess up or miss something important. I'm also talking about keeping up with what is being discussed, like talking about last year NOT who is the closer. Like pretending other posters are defending Story or the pen, when they clearly are not. I opened the thread and saw Houck was starting. Shoot me for assuming the usually dependable Thunder missed the starter. I'd rather make a mistake like that than totally misrepresent another posters' views over and over and over and forever change the criteria being used to judge players based on who you like and don't like.

ERA for RP'ers is not very telling. Many RP'ers come into games with 1 or 2 outs, already, so there is a much less chance their own runner might score. That's not to say Davis has not been one of our best RP'ers, but here are some other numbers as RP'ers only: OPS Against .384 Whitlock .428 Schreiber .554 Valdez .572 Sawamura .586 Houck .604 Strahm .634 Danish .635 Davis .650 Robles .742 Diekman .784 Barnes .902 Brasier .908 Crawford WHIP 0.62 Whitlock 0.75 Scheiber 0.97 Danish 0.97 Valdez 1.03 Sawamura 1.12 Robles & Houck 1.17 Strahm 1.32 Davis 1.38 Brasier 1.52 Diekman 1.71 Barnes 2.16 Crawford K:BB 7 Danish & Brasier 6 Whitlock 5 Strahm & Schreiber 3 Houck, Sawamura & Valdez 2 Davis, Robles, Crawford & Diekman 1 Barnes ERA as RP'er ONLY 0.93 Whitlock 1.04 Schreiber 1.64 Davis 2.88 Houck 3.10 Sawamura 3.20 Robles 3.22 Diekman 3.32 Danish 4.00 Strahm 5.75 Brasier 5.84 Valdez 7.94 Barnes 8.44 Crawford

Our pen sucks. I've never denied it. Acting like I have denied it is being like a silly clown, and it's very predictable, because it's all yo act like. At the risk of being accused of defendin g our horrible pen, these are some stats, too: OPS Against .657 Pen (which includes 7 IBB) .687 SP (no IBB) ERA 3.61 SP 3.75 Pen BA .223 Pen .234 SP HRs Allowed 26 in 1001 PAs Pen 41 in 1228 PAs SP XBHs 60 in 1001 PAs Pen 100 in 1228 PA SP Again, I am not presenting these stats to say I think the pen has done well or b etter than our starters. Other factors are involved in doing a comp like this, but some stats show the pen has done well at a lot of things, except saving games and keeping ghost runners from scoring.

Do you try to appear to be an idiot? My point was about you saying "last year was last year and means nothing now." It's not about the closer. It's about you bring up last year when it suits you but bashing others when they do it. It's call hypocrisy. You bring up Renfroe so many times, I lost count. That was last year. RF not closer. I'd say please try to keep up, but I know that's all but impossible with you.

I've always wanted to live on your big corner. You must feel so blessed.