moonslav59

That sucked, but it was a new injury that forced a delay in return, so all the blame can't be placed on Bloom.

I got roasted for pointing out the fact that Barnes needed to get 5-6 outs that inning. I wasn't trying to claim Barnes was blameless, but our D sucks, badly. They need to share in the blame. It bothers me, that when the game is on the line, we fell apart on the field. It was very awful-looking, and it kills a pitcher's psyche.

I happen to believe in team momentum. I do think a big spark like the win, yesterday, can give a team the added energy, confidence and focus needed to have a better chance the next game.

But then why wouldn't you believe some still handle pressure much better than others. Maybe some player who does not handle the pressure well makes it by because of having enormous talent. He does okay, until high pressure situations expose his weakness. I happen to not disagree, (I don't believe clutch or choke are skills or lack or skills), but it sounds like you are hedging your position.

This is not hindsight, and I'm not saying I know more than Cora, but I wanted to see Eovaldi come out for the 8th. I also am not writing off Richards as a valuable pen piece, but I'd avoid high leverage situations for a while, if possible.

The pen has been our rock, until the last few weeks. I don't see why they can't come back around, too. Fingers crossed!

Exactly, and with the CBA new rules coming, I think Henry decided to go into 2022 with a clean slate. It makes sense to anyone not locked into a "MUST WIN NOW AT ANY COST" mentality.

The weird part about our worsening defense is that 2 areas seemed to have improved: 3B: Although Devers has looked shaky the last week or two, he was awful in April and has looked pretty good, overall from May to now. CF: Playing Kike more in CF than we did earlier in the year and not playing Cordero, should have improved our overall OF defense. (Putting JD out there should not keep happening.) It boggles my mind Dalbec has not improved even one tiny bit.

I'd send Davis down as Robles is out of options. We don't need 14pitchers.

We're closer to the Yanks for WC1 than SEA and TOR are to us, unless you believe in all that Yankee momentum gibberish.

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.