moonslav59

I agree. His whole "end the Babying thing" immediately is just not how things are or should be done. I think we handled Whitlock and Houck just right. If one is to start, next year, we shouldn't expect more than 140-150 IP, depending on how well and efficient they are pitching. It's more about pitches thrown than IP. There was talk early on, how we were overusing Barnes, as he was heading towards a record season of IP'd, but if you looked at his pitch counts, he was near norm or below it. (Maybe that wasn't a good example, since he imploded, but certainly babying him was not what caused that.) He said the same about Sale. Take the gloves off.

They should have moved the time to 7 pm, once the Sox-Rays slot went away.

Yaz started his first, and he started the Official ALDS thread, so I think we should differ to his thread.

Had he made many more pitches, he likely wouldn't have gone 2 innings.

Some of the players still have time to add value, but it sure looks like most of the highly-touted prospects under-achieved. That doesn't mean the next ones traded will, too. Kopech seems like he'll be alright. Not all the guys DD added did well, either, but no doubt, several were difference makers. Are you for trading Duran & Casas?

It's debatable on what the cost was to get Rizzo, but I think everyone would agree they paid way more than we did for KS. The Yanks gave away a lot of farm depth. Jacko will claim they were all duplicate values or also-rans, but I beg to differ. MLBTR wrote this... Alcantara and Vizcaino makes for a solid return on-paper, since Rizzo will hit free agency at the end of the season. The Cubs seem to have done well in adding Alcantara and Vizcaino, both of whom ranked among the top 15 minor league talents in the organization on Baseball America’s midseason update. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs also ranked the duo highly, slotting Alcantara as the sport’s #120 overall prospect entering the year. Alcantara, 19, draws praise for his projectable frame and chance to grow into big power. A center fielder now, he might grow out of the position, but he’s a high-upside addition to the lower levels of the Cubs’ farm system. Alcantara’s playing in the rookie level Arizona Complex League, so he’s years from the majors — similar to the group of players Chicago picked up from the Padres in last winter’s Yu Darvish trade. Vizcaino’s a nearer-term addition. He’s topped out at High-A, but the changeup specialist is already 24 years old and was selected to the 40-man roster last offseason. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining after this season. Longenhagen suggests his delivery likely points to a bullpen future, but he’s been a starting pitcher to this point in his career. Vizcaino hasn’t pitched much this season due to injury, but he tossed 115 innings of 4.38 ERA ball across two levels of A-ball back in 2019.

Improving the D was the mantra- not getting to great defense overnight. I can't see us paying Schwarber and JD $35M to DH and close our eyes when they take the field. You don't pay $16M a year for Schwarber with the idea he can DH in a year. You just wait until next year to pay for a DH, or you trade JD. We are not bringing back Richards, Perez, Ottavino, Marwin, Andriese and Santana, so this will not be "the same team." The ERod question might make a big dent, too. (JD will likely be back, unless traded.) We have a wonderful chance to improve on the players we lose, add 40 man roster depth with our Rule 5 protectees, and maybe make a trade or two. The winter after this is way more problematic, despite losing Price's contract money. We have Bogey, JD, Eovaldi, Kike, Vaz (assuming we take his $7M option and don't trade him) and others. These guys will be much harder to replace at the same cost.

I'd love to see Iggy back on the cheap. With Arroyo's health status, he could play a lot. I could see him being the only "major" non pitcher addition, this winter. We might lose Schwarber and not replace him. The focus could be 95% on pitching.

You don't have to convince me. At times, I felt like I was the only one defending ERod. BTW, that 73% K number was awesome, and it was helped by that 13 foul off AB.

A point also needs to be made about the impact of our younger players on the 2021 season, and how that should be viewed as a sign of a brighter future. .793 Age 25 and under .767 Ages 26-30 .789 Ages 31-35 Age Player OPS 24 Devers .890 (Best on team and not yet at prime years) 25 Verdugo .777 26 Dalbec .792 26 Arroyo .769 28 Bogey .863 (Peak of prime in '22) 29 Renfroe .816 & Kike .786 (in peak prime) Pitching: ERA/OPS Against Age 3.10/.659 25 and under 4.73/.763 26-30 4.18/.761 31-35 24 DHern 3.38 (40 IP) 25 Whitlock 1.96 (73) 25 Houck 3.52 (69) 28 Pivetta 4.53 (155) 28 Davis, Rios, Taylor

If they aren't, they may not get a shot to have a negative impact- like say Duran did, this season.

We spent about $20M on Richards, Perez, Marwin, Andriese and Santana. We could replace all of these players from within the system, so anything we spend to fill one or more of their slots could represent a "major addition," especially if spent on just 1-2 FAs. Replacing Schwarber, Ottavino, Iggy, Shaw and maybe ERod won't be as easy, but they weren't cheap, last year, either. There's no reason to think we can't at least break even on these 4-5 players.

Schwarber was a lot cheaper than Rizzo and better. Rizzo was at .775 from 2020 on. He was not worth what it would have taken to get him. Yes, his defense is much better than Bobby Dee's. To me, it wasn't about Schwarber being an afterthought. We kicked the tires in Rizzo, and the cost was too high. We didn't just get Schwarber as 1B insurance either. JD was not the same old JD (.682 in previous 69 PAs), and Verdugo was struggling at .749 on trade day (.622 in his previous 138 PAs). Of course the deals look better in hindsight than foresight, but I think you are thinking Rizzo was the Rizzo from pre-2020 and are discounting just what a force Schwraber was becoming in 2021 as he reached peak prime years.

Rizzo's numbers (about .775 from 2020-2021) on July 30th were barely better than Dalbec's (.722 from 2020-July 30, 2021.) Rizzo was not free, either. The move worked in hindsight with Dalbec, but Schwarber was obatined with 1B in mind, too. I'm not sure why you call him an "after thought." The guy was a stud before we got him. The 2 week wait was known ahead of time, and we did suffer those two weeks, but even had Rizzo hit his OPS before the trade, he was not worth it. Foresight and hindsight. IMO, of course. Schwarber was beyond meteoric, so yes, I exaggerated by understating his accomplishments before coming to us. Thank you for correcting me. 1.383 OPS in 88 PAs before going on the IL. (1.061 in 164 PAs before IL) .957 after coming off the IL in 168 PAs) What a let down, he was.

17 pitches Sunday. 15 pitches Monday. He was not overused. (IP'd can be deceiving.) One could also look at ERod pitch count and proclaim, "He was nibbling, again," but that 15 pitch AB with like 9 foul-offs in a row was behind those numbers.

For some reason, he was not on MLB's list, until I clicked all players.

Playoff ERA Leaders with 6.1+ IP: 0.00 Logan Webb SFG 0.00 L McCullers HOU 1.59 Scherzer LAD 2.57 Houck 2.61 Eovaldi 3.12 Pivetta

Playoff OPS Leaders (11+ ABs): 1.266 Kike 1.250 Tucker 1.200 JD 1.167 Posey 1.158 Franco (eliminated) 1.100 L Roberts 1.085 Bogey 1.074 Arozarena (eliminated) 1.041 Schwarber 1.017 Devers (one-handed) .954 Bregman .946 W Smith .933 Anderson .917 Abreu .917 Riley .913 Verdugo .882 Vazquez

You did notice Vaz was benched when Eovaldi pitched, right? Nothing to do with CERA-related issues, though, right? Just sheer random choices by Cora.

I didn't make it sound like Dalbec was raking. We all know he wasn't. The point is, we didn't need a 1Bman. Dalbec came through. While Schwarber muffed a bunch at 1B, his bat more than made up for it, so even if Dalbec didn't turn it around, Schwarber was a better pick than Rizzo, and not just in hidsight. Rizzo has been in decline, while Schwarber has been on a meteoric rise.

Yes. I realized my mistake by forgetting Pivetta.

It won't be easy. Look at 2019. My point is that we should be able to vastly improve on the players we are losing (Richards, Perez, Ottavino, Marwin & Santana.) Replacing Schwarber and Iggy might not be easy. The ERod situation is tough to call. I don't see any reason to think Bloom will make bad choices, this winter. I'm going to assume he keeps doing what he always does: make more good moves than bad. Any Rule 5 guys you might want to hand to us, this year?

We will be replacing Perez, Richards, Ottavino, Marwin & Santana with something that almost can't be worse. They don't need to be "major additions," just better than those clowns. We may have more injuries, but Sale, Houck, Kike and Arroyo for the full season may make up for them. Plus, we likely won't have a COVID catastrophe, next year. You can keep calling this an over-achieve and the Yanks an under-achieve all you want, but repetition does not make it any more true. This "career year," and it's good to see you now added "on par years" is just not true. This is not like 2013. Since when is having an "on par" season in the meat of your prime years something unexpected? Career Years: Eovaldi Renfroe Kike (very close to 2018 season, but I'll give you this one) Arroyo (out so much, it barely mattered) On Par: Bogey (Better in 2019) in the middle of peak prime Devers (Better in 2019) entering meat of prime JD (one could argue he did below a normal age curve projection) Pivetta (Close to career year) Schwarber Plawecki Taylor DHern Barnes Perez Down or below expectations: ERod (in a big way) Vazquez (150 points below '19-'20 OPS) Verdugo (50 points below '19-'20 OPS) Marwin (150 points below his career OPS) Richards Ottavino Sale Santana Cordero Chavis Too early to know: Whitlock, Houck (better in '20), Dalbec, Duran Even if you put Pivetta in the over achieve category, I'm not seeing anything close to what you are.

Robles was the Adirondack of all deck chairs for quite some time.

With RP'ers and to a lesser extent SP'ers, the recency effect pulls a lot of weight. Look at Brasier and Robles. No way anyone thought they'd be go- to guys in the playoffs. Look at Pivetta and now ERod. Who knows? Maybe, Sale turns things around, just in time.