moonslav59

OMG! Say it ain't so!

Mine is Gretel.

A real nail-biter!

Can Bobby Dee get a lil lovin'?

yes!!!

Bobby Dee or bust...

It's franchise time!

Vaz has been Mr. Clutch, recently. I was hoping it was a repeatable skill.

You answered your own question. It's the 6th and he only has a couple of quality arms rested and ready. We need another Q arm or more.

I'd have guessed "The Onion."

TOR, TBR & CLE have lost. Get the Win, tonight! One game at a time!

It amazes me how such a slow bat can get so many hits and occasional HR.

Not Wacha's night. I guess he was due for a bad night, but maybe we can find a way to salvage this game.

I played back the JD HR on my DVR. If you zoom in, you can read his lips. He says, "This one is for you, Max" right before going yard!

Good to see CLE & TOR lose.

75:7 Walter 53:6 Pannone 55:8 Van Belle 71:19 Drohan 84:24 Bello 43:8 Winckowski 54:13 Padron-Artilles 50:14 Uberstine 71:19 Drohan 84:24 Bello 75:25 Murphy 25:2 DiValerio (25.1 IP) 31:4 Bracho (25.1 IP) 35:7 Politi (24 IP) 27:7 German (17.1 IP)

I seriously doubt he ever pays more than $8-10M for a RP'er, and I think I agree with that strategy. I realize the pen is becoming more and more central to team building, and you need to spend to get value, but I think the philosophy is to spend larger and longer at other positions.

We could also stash Duran in LF and trade Verdugo, since they don't seem to want him in CF or RF, and his arbs will start becoming more costly.

Yes, I know, but he's supposed to be one of baseball's best defensive catchers and "pitcher whisperer." Oakland is loaded with young catchers. I'd love to see us trade for Montas & Langeliers, but I doubt they agree to these BTV approved trades: 37.0 Montas (1.6 yrs) 27.9 Langeliers (6 yrs) -5.0 Picotty (0.6 yrs) salary dump/RH'd OF'er (59.9 Total) for 48.8 Casas 6.8 Downs 4.6 Winckowski (60.4 Total) or 37.7 Yorke 14.5 Duran 6.6 Gonzalez 1.1 Ward (59.9 Total)

I think Cora will use Houck and Strahm as traditional closers, with Houck maybe going 1.1 to 2 inijngs every so often. Schreiber looks to be the 8th inning guy, for now. We could use another solid 8th inning guy, but our pen has been doing okay, recently.

I'm not sure we spend a big chunk of our winter spending budget on a catcher. (I think we'll trade for one- like we tried to do on Stallings.) Contreras turns 31, next season. Most catchers do not age well, but enough do. Hard to know if Contreras is in the age well category.

It's not a perfect methodology, but yes, I think 5 IP allowing 1 ER is doing okay to well. The ghost runner ******** is not the pen's fault. Sure, they could have done better, but the starter let bup 3 ER in 5 IP. Are you saying that was better? I did this study to show that the pen has done okay or better more often than not, even if you add the pen game as "worse" than the starters. Granted, the starters go longer innings and don't come in with 1-2 outs, like some RP'ers do, but overall the pen has a better OPS against than the starters. This isn't me trying to say our starters are a bigger weakness than our pen, because I don't believe that. My point is to show that maybe the pen has not been as awful as some here seem to think it has been. If going 5 IP allowing 1 ER, but 2 stupid ghost runners score is bad, then we can agree to disagree. The pen kept us in that game, and they blew it at the end by allowing a man placed on second to score, twice. How many runs would our starters have allowed, if a man was placed on 2B in some of their innings?

The pen is starting to be more helpful than not, of late. Here is my update... Starters IP/ER vs Relievers IP/ER SP- RP L 5.0/3 - 5.0/1 (2 ghost runs allowed) L 5.2/4 - 2.1/0 W 3.1/3 - 5.2/1 L 4.1/1 - 3.2/2 W 4.1/3 - 4.2/0 W 5.0/2 - 4.0/5 L 2.0/5 - 7.0/4 W 5.2/0 - 3.1/0 W 5.0/0 - 4.0/1 L 4.2/4 - 4.1/4 W 4.2/1 - 4.1/1 L 4.0/5 - 5.0/1 L 5.0/2 - 4.0/1 W 5.0/2- 4.0/0 L 4.0/0- 5.2/3 L 4.0/ 0- 4.0/5 L 7.0/2- 1.0/4 L 4.2/2- 5.0/3 (plus 1 ghost runner) W 6.0/1- 3.0/0 L 3.0/0- 5.0/0 W 4.0/0- 5.0/1 L 7.0/0- 2.0+/1 (+ ghost runner scored) L 4.1/3- 3.2/6 W 5.2/0- 3.2/0 L 5.0/2- 5.0/7 L 5.0/0- 4.0/8 L 5.0/3- 4.0/1 L 6.0/0-4.0/2 L 2.2/3- 6.1/0 W 3.0/3- 6.0/1 L 6.1/3- 2.3/2 W 7.0/1- 2.0/0 W 6.0/2- 3.0/0 L *pen game* W 5.0/2- 4.0/1 L 1.2/6- 7.1/3 W 9.0/1- n/a (Pivetta CG) W 2.0/4- 7.0/2 W 4.2/2- 4.1/0 W 3.0/5- 6.0/0 W 6.2/2-3.1/1 W 6.0/3-3.0/0 L 5.0/2- 3.0/0 W 4.1/5- 4.2/2 L 6.0/2- 3.0/9 W 9.0/2- n/a L 3.0/4- 6.0/0 W 6.0/1- 3.0/1 L 4.0/6- 5.0/4 L 5.2/0- 3.1/0 W 6.0/0- 3.0/0 W 7.0/0-2.0/0 W 6.0/1-3.0/1 W 9.0/0- N/A (Wacha CG) W 4.0/4-6.0/1 W 5.0/0-4.0/0 L 5.0/4-3.0-1 W 4.1/2- 4.2/1 The pen has done better in 27 games. The starters have done better in 22, counting 2 CG's where pen did not pitch.. They did about the same in 9 games. The pen as done okay to well in 40 games. The starters have done okay to well in 38 games. I did not count the "pen game" 7-1 loss to the Rangers.

Maybe he's just more of a warm weather batter.

Half are still throwing 4 out of 8.