moonslav59

The Stros can't beat the Royals. The ALE is moving towards having the best 3 records in the AL. It's a very hard thing to do, but harmony will argue that because the ALW has a winning records vs the ALE and plays the NLW not the NLE, they are a better division. We'll see. (Even TOR is making a run at it.)

fangraphs has Renfroe at a +1.6 UZR/150 with his 2 errors keeping it lower than it might have been. They also have him at plus range and arm. JD is the clear winner between the two, but JD's bat has cooled off a bit, but remains steady after a great April.. 1.175 APR .801 MAY .788 JUN .806 JUL .826 AUG Hunter has yo-yo'd: .485 APR (posters wanted him demoted or DFA'd) .938 MAY .884 JUN .650 JUL .959 AUG

Today's games: BOS (Houck) v MIN (Jax) A's (Irvin) v SEA (Flexen) Day Game NYY (Heaney) @ ATL (Morton) TBR (Rasmussen) @ PHI (Suarez) CWS (Cease) @ TOR (Berrios)

The Jays gained ground on the A's as well.

The A's pen is giving away games, left and right. Last night, it was 3 in the ninth to lose 5-3 to the M's, who just may pass the A's, at some point. We are now up 1 for the WC2 slot. As good as the CWS have looked, we are one down from tying them.

Had we known Marwin and Andriese would be this bad, we could have signed Moreland, instead. Can't blame Bloom for not getting every addition right, especially at bargain basement levels.

I'm not sure anyone expected his defense. We were all talking about Verdugo in CF or RF. The offense has been just as surprising, to me. I too thought he'd platoon with Cordero in LF. He's been the type of diamond in the ruff I thought Ben would find, but I'd have never singled him out among all of the others. (BTW, 23 HRs, now and still an .800 OPS.)

Tales of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde OPS Against (Not counting today) Barnes .394 first 25 games .718 last 25 games (.778 last 6 games) Ottavino .577 in first 38 games (2.57) .791 in last 14 games (6.75) Richards .755 first 12 starts .945 last 13 games (.526 last 3 games/ 8 IP) Perez .711 first 12 starts (3.09 ERA) 1.019 last 16 games (.865 last 5 games) ERod .740 first 6 games (3.82 ERA) .903 next 8 games (7.94 ERA) .668 last 10 games (3.83 ERA) Eovaldi .647 first 6 games (3.63) .647 next 3 games (6.46) .695 next 8 games (2.27) .760 last 4 games (4.94) Not counting today

I'd say Dalbec is a step above Chavis. They both had an initial burst onto the scene, but Dalbec's low point is like 100-150+ better than Chavis's. His D still worries me, while Chavis seemed to do better than expected on D, even at 2B. I can see us getting a 1Bman to hit RHPs and keeping Dalbec on the 26, but certainly AAA is a good possibility.

Remaining schedules BOS--- NYY---OAK vMIN3-@ATL2--vSEA2 @CL3--@OAK4-vNYY4 @TR4-@LAA3-@DET3 vCLE3-vBAL3--@TOR3 vTBR3-vTOR4---vCWS @CWS3-@NYM3---vTEX3 @SEA3-MN1/@BAL3-@KCR3 vBAL3-v CLE3---@LAA3 vNYM2-vTEX3--vSEA4 vNYY3-@BOS3-vHOU3 @BAL3-@TOR3-@SEA3 @WSH3-vTBR3-@HOU3

Their hope in Dalbec seemed misplaced or premature... still not sure which one it is, yet.

Updated Team Leaders OBP .538 Schwarber (da man!) .375 Bogey (maybe he should bat 2nd- not Devers/Schwarber) .357 Wong (What's wong with Bloom demoting him?) .356 Plawecki (The fake news CERA leader) .353 JD (Did I miss something?) .350 Devers (Lock him up- long term!) .349 Verdugo (remember when he batted 2nd?) .343 Kike (How can our 8th best OBP batter be slotted first?) .325 Arroyo (Welcome back) .313 Renfroe (One area to improve- not bad only one) .304 Vaz (Hanging above .300) .281 Dalbec (Woulda been real nice as a BA) .236 Duran (Shoulda called him up before he was ready) .230 Santana (Keeping Shaw and others relevant) .200 Shaw (Did I say Shaw?) SLG .800 Shaw (Damn right I said Shaw!) .549 Devers (Lock him up! I can't say the enough!) .538 Wong (2 Wongs don't make a Wright.) .529 JD (Bring it up a notch, JD!) .526 Schwarber (Wait, has he done anything but walk?) .519 Bogey (Mr. Steady, despite the wrist injury) .487 Renfroe (Mr. Surprise) .462 Arroyo (Quiet power) .450 Kike (Not a fluke) .429 Bobby Dee (What happened to thee?) .429 Verdugo (Get back to worrying about OBP not SLG) .372 Duran (Better keep this to myself) .367 Plawecki (Solid back-up) .343 Vaz (Hoping they don't cut Santana) .324 Santana (Next Mr. DFA?) RBI 90 Devers 70 JD 72 Renfroe 69 Bogey 52 Dalbec (despite being 8th in PAs) 48 Kike 46 Verdugo 38 Vaz 25 Arroyo

It was also good seeing Eovaldi pitch well enough for 2 wins, although he got none. Kike got 3 BBs, nuff said about his OBP being too low for lead-off. Devers and Renfore with key hits. Verdugo coming to life. (There was a time he was being mentioned with our big 3 hitters.) Arroyo back in the fold. Whitlock being Whitlock, again. Now, we need some help from the Braves and the M's.

Out of the 72 1Bmen with over 50 PAs, this year, 37 have an OPS over .730, including the Yanks 1Bman, of late, Luke "IL Walker" Voit. 30 are over .760. We have #44 Dalbec at .712 #57 Shaw at .606 (before the blast) #64 Santana at .554 (Not even counting Marwin at .567)

The hard part is spending that dime, wisely. As much as I've dissed Moreland, that was one guy that kept pretty consistent, except he cost a quarter.

What? And, bench the hard-hitting Bobby Dee?

The worst part about today is that we now might keep Shaw on the roster. The best part about today was that Shaw was on the roster.

I don't think Henry would have mined paying a $M or $2M in taxes, this year. I think it was about thinking of going significantly over in 1-2 years and maybe even 3 and worrying about the multiplier factor and non financial penalties, too.

It makes it more frustrating when we all know how decent 1Bmen cost a dime a dozen, and our choice for back-up (Danny Santana) pooped out right out of the gate.

I don't disagree with anything, but one point I'd like to add. Bobby Dee has been making some very hard hit out's of late. 8/21 Deep 2B to CF (HR in some parks), K, Line out LF 8/20 HBP, K,Fly out deep R-CF (HR in some parks), BB 8/18 Line out short RF, Line out deep 2B, GO SS 8/17(2) PH lined off the P to 1B for an out 8/17(1) 1B (ground ball LF), K 8/15 GO SS/3B hole, K, K, GO 2B Before this was his red hot streak.

Go Braves and M's!!!

I'd offer him one, as of now, and not care one way or the other. Comp pick + $19M to spend = ERod at $19M/1.

It would have been nice to have Whitlock to piggyback off Houck, but one day at a time!

Honestly, I didn't mean to defend Barnes. He does not deserve it. However, needing to get 5-6 outs in an inning is a tall order for any pitcher, let alone a struggling one in need of some team support.

We're a half game up on the WC2 slot!