moonslav59

Tonight, we still see Jaded Duran up first and Mr. Weak Grounder to 2B up 5th.

It puts a lot of pressure on the pitchers to not allow even 1-2 runs.

Not by enough, and with JH's limited budget, we'd be crippled for 5 years.

I'm not against the diea, as Anthony is not due back soon enough to bench Duran. Yoshida in LF does not float my boat- hell even at DH, he does not. We'd have to IL, trade or DFA IKF or trade/IL Duran. We'd have to add Ward to the 40, but that is simple- just move Crawford to the 60. DFA'ing Cheng, Gamboa, Anderson or Rivera is not too scary, either.

Many second year players improve, even ones that had good first years. Another thing to consider is that our 4 "second year players" only had these PAs in 2025: 136 Mayer 303 Anthony 446 Narvaez (granted, this is "FT" for catchers) 506 Durbin (just enough to "qualify.") We also fail to mention our "sophomore" pitchers: 1.99 Tolle (6th in GS) 3.21 Early (1st in IP & GS)

Hey if Gasper can shine, even briefly, maybe others can, too.

Of course Sogard can hit below .540, but Story's D can easily be improved upon.

Most PAs and OBP, yes. Worst OBP on team? .238 Duran (That's even a bad BA!) .244 Story .250 IKF (When he's better than Duran and Story, you gotta make some moves.) .252 Durbin The next guy is at .284 (Narvaez,) so it's really these 4 guys that have been horrific. What really drives this home is that Story is #3 in PAs (soon to change) Duran is #4 (soon to become #3) and Durbin is #6, comfortably above Mayer (.302 OBP) and more than double the PAs of Monasterio (.310 OBP) So, our three worst everyday player OBP guys are top 6 in PAs. It's not absurd to think some line-up changes and or benchings might help.

The leashes are about as tight as any can ever be allowed to stretch. The poor dogs are choking to death! Okay, Story to the IL- phantom or not- gets one leash unhooked, but how much longer on the others? IKF was never signed to hit, but we didn't expect .445 of even .545. Duran is at .528 and headed in the wrong direction. (I used the word "headed" on purpose. His head is in the wrong place- someplace dark and smelly.) He has a .278 OPS in his last 9 games. That's not even a good OBP. He's at .518 since game #8. Durbin has at least shown some signs of improvement, but he was so low, it's not a good thing. His D has been great. A .502 OPS is over 150 points lower than what's barely acceptable, these days. It's .568 since game 5 and .592 over his last 19 games. If that's the best I can do when cherry-picking sample sizes, I think the story has been told. Okay, it's 1.167 over the last 2 games... LMAO. Bat him first!!!! Narvaez at .629 and Wong at .674 is pretty bad, too, but Delay & Thaiss are not really better options. Gasper to catch? UGH!

While I said it was absurd to promote one of our worst batters to the one slot, I also said we have no clearly better options. The move clearly back-fired, but somehow I was still wrong for calling it absurd.

Coulombe had his first rehab game, last night and did okay. Whoopieeeee!

Make story rehab for the max time allowed and then decide what to do with him. Sogard can't be worse, but with the bar set so low, it's not saying anything positive.

I'd be okay with Monasterio at SS and leaving Mayer at 2B, so he can focus more on getting bat going. (If Red answers, he will only answer in questions and deflections, so you will be right on that one.)

Capra has a .442 OBP in AAA, this year! Career minors OPS .781 Ward .763 Capra Not much difference. I'm thinking infield, too. Even if we bench Duran, Anthony will be back.

Could the next call-up be Capra? He'd need to be added to the 40 (DFA Cheng?) but why not try a hot hand? AAA in May .959 Ward .952 Sogard .943 Seigler .847 Capra

Gotta wonder if this is a phantom IL type move to give him a chance to regroup while opening up a roster slot for Sogard. Funny, I had just mentioned promoting Sogard as yet another dice roll.

That certainly is a strong possibility, but there are likely other reasons. As much as hot streaks seem contagious, so do slumps. Of course, this can't be all to it, either, but it may contribute to the cluster you-know-what. It's never a great idea to put a lot of faith in rookie and two year players, but we did keep 4 OF'ers as insurance against a drop by Anthony, and the 2B position was apparently not handed to Mayer before ST'ing began. (The infield depth was not nearlt at the level as the OF, so it did look obvious that not many other options were too viable at 2B: IKF, KC, Monasterio, Seigler, Cheng, Sogard, Capra... Lots of name but not much hope.) The Catcher position was handed to Narvaez and running Wong back as the #2 seemed skeptical. The front office added a lot of minor league depth at the C position, even down to the lower levels, but Delay or Thaiss are not anyone you get excited about. To me, the killers go beyond big let-downs by vets like Story & Duran, but let's not minimize how much both have dragged this team down. Those two were the senior batters in the organization and they have flopped mightily. It's hard to be a leader when you suck, and if you were a leader by example, it's even worse. The younger players always have to be viewed with speculation, but it does seem unexpected that nearly all have failed to show any growth- Abreu & Rafaela as the only exceptions. (Their growth has been minimal and not earth-shattering.) Anthony, Mayer, Durbin and Narvaez could have expected second year struggles, but all four at once hurt us badly. Contreras has not declined as some thought he might due to his age, but he can't do it all. The in system options might have some nice numbers in AAA and AA, but most offer little hope. What Gasper has done in his short time should not be something we can expect to last or be duplicated by these guys being called up: AAA .957 Capra (infield) .871 Sogard (1B & infield) .853 Ward (OF) .822 Seigler (UT) .792 Delay (C) .725 Campbell (DH?) .710 Thaiss (C) ____________________________ AA 1.257 Brannon in just 51 ABs (1B/DH) 1.072 Arias (SS) .880 Ferguson (infield) ____________________________ A+ (No way we jumps these guys to MLB) .963 YRod (OF) .930 Godbout (2B) .885 Cespedes (DH) .880 Gonzales (OF) Of course making some splashy trade for someone like Paredes or even Yordan had gotten some talk, would that be enough? Even if we got both? And what do we give up to get them? It's gonna start with Tolle or Early & Arias or Mayer and maybe 3 of these 4.

Is this too absurd? Trade or DFA Story, Yoshida and IKF. Promote Ward, Sogard and Capra. Bench Duran. (Ward LF, Capra 2B and Mayer SS) Arias, Ferguson & Brannon from AA to AAA YRod, Cespedes & Godbout A+ to AA Maybe Nunes, Opata & Azocar to A+?

Remember how well the prospects at GRE were looking out of the gate? They are now 1-13 in their last 14 games. Valera going on the IL didn't help, but pitchers like Witherspoon (7.18) Phillips (8.44) Gartrell (6.45) and even Futrell at 2.95 have seen their ERAs nearly double. Eyanson was promoted. That's not really a bad thing, but it is for GRE. In all fairness, they do have several batters still doing well: .963 YRod .930 Godbout .885 Mason White .885 Cespedes .880 Gonzales (In small sample sizes: 1.241 Ronny Hernandez & .976 Hudson White.) Winnay & I Jackson have not been bad.

How long do we go on before a player is blamed and sent packing? If it does happen, who it the one? Story? Duran? Maybe start with a lesser piece like IKF?

That's the sad part. I guess we can point to the pitching a defense and think maybe the bats can just move towards their career norms and we might have a shot, but this offense has looked so pathetic and lifeless that it offers zero hope, right now. Anthony's return is not really a point of optimism. Rafaela's decent hitting seems tentative. Even Abreu & Contreras could do worse, and it wouldn't be unexpected. The whole idea of moving one our worst hitters back to the one slot was absurd. Keeping him there this long exposes the lack of any clearly better choice in the whole system. Durbin looks great on D, but that can't outweigh an OPS hovering between .450 and .500. Story is burnt toast on D and O. Maybe Narvaez can rebound, but it's just a hope. People say wait until the weather heats up, but it's heating up for all teams.

How about this? 1. Ward LF (.853 AAA) 2. Gasper C (.947 AAA) 3. Abreu RF 4. Contreras 1B 5. Capra 3B (.957 AAA) 6. Rafaela CF 7. Brannon DH (1.257 AA) 8. Mayer SS/ Arias SS (1.072 AA) 9. Sogard 2B (.871 AAA)/ Mayer 2B Traded/DFA'd: Story, IKF, Wong & Yoshida Bench: Durbin, Narvaez, Duran & infielder not starting

And many hit better in 2024 (before Bregman) than 2026, too. Bregman and Bichette were NOT the "BIG BATS" we needed.

The Braves are a good team, but this is just plain awful.

I'd promote Sogard.