moonslav59

All I can say is, "Wow!" Fantastic win! (Okay, I said more...)

I really can't see blaming Cora for doing poorly with bad rosters from 2020 to 2024. The 2021 was unexpected and partially due to his good managing skills. I do think he tends to stick with certain players, too long, but some ended up coming through- like Story and Yoshida, this year and all the way back to Dalbec cin 2021. On playing guys like Toro and DHam, this year, we did not really have many other options, but I do share this concern with you.

Of course it never happened, but the point is just produce and who cares about K rates? I realize a high K rate probably means a player can't produce like this, but Casas has hit more than his hsare of HRs and walks more than most, so the Ks are okay by me. Can he keep it up? I don't know, but hit .820 with 30Hrs in 650 PAs, and I call him a keeper.

I'd have had Yoshida DH and Ref in RF.

Yup. Some blamed Cora for allowing the Devers situation to get out of control and his failure to demand Devers play where they needed him and to shut up and play. I will say, I have questions about this. Still, I really like Cora and Brez.

Apparently he had discomfort a while ago and kept pitching.

I still think I'm fine with a player having a 50% K rate, if he hits 30+ HRs and has an OBP over .350.

I would not take him over the guys you mentioned- only maybe Kelly. I guess they won't put Gio on the IL, so Murph's out for 15 days, I guess. No big deal. Kelly is about the same risk.

That is aggravating, but he produces. It's a by-product of having a high BB%, to some extent. He hits enough HRs for me to get over that.

Our pen was way better than theirs, despite their Bednar addition vs our Matz addition. (We also got Slaten back.)

Agreed. Winning the first two would be nice. We better be "all in" this winter, especially in light of the quiet trade deadline, and some clear needs going into 2026, as well as some clear logjams of talent. We have a lot of pre-arb and early arb players on the roster, as well as low cost, up front, young players locked up for many years. Even our one big eyesore contract (Masa) kinda improved his value in September. Hicks is overpaid, but not a huge contract. In my opinion, we should concentrate of getting fewer high quality players over one or two more players at lower quality. We could accomplish this by making 1-2 big trades and 1-2 big singings, totally 3-4 major additions. I'm not against adding some low cost depth players we'd stash in AAA, like Eaton, Toro and others like this year, but no more adding 5-6 barely better than average outlook additions. If I had to add 3: 1. Big RHB (3B, 1B, 2B, DH) Bregman does not count as a big bat, but he could be #3. 2. Solid #2 SP'er 3. 3B, 2B, 1B (see #1 and get another position from his) If I got 4: 1. BIG RHB (3B, 1B) 2. Solid #2 SP'er 3. 2B 4. 1B or 3B (see #1)

That's a big spike. It was an exciting team to watch. Lots of drama and more happy endings helps.

Crochet might need to allow no runs.

I might take Mr. BB, Murphy, over Kelly, but no big deal. Neither will pitch unless it's a blowout.

One major plus for taking pitchers a couple decades ago was to max out the pitch count on SP'ers and get to the pen ASAP. especially the middle RP'ers, who were mostly failed SP'ers. Now, with the increased specialization of pens, that is not such an advantage anymore, but it still does not mean taking a lot of pitches and focing BBs is a negative thing. I like the Casas approach. I just don't like that he is a fragile China doll. To me, if Casas is healthy, he's our top HR threat and maybea top 3 OBP guy on the team. He sucks on D, but what else do you want from a DH? 30 HRs and .350 OBP. The 'assuming health" is the big issue.

LOL. Imagine Cris Sale climbing rocks!

We have a one-two punch, as well, and our first 3-4 guys out of the pen look pretty damn good, too!

I think the pressure is on Bregman, and he will come through.

One good thing about our top RHP set up guys is that the get lefties out. Career OPS AGainst splits: Slaten: .542 v L/ .606 v R Whitlock: .648 v L/ .668 v R Having 3 LH's RP'ers is nice, too: Chapman, Matz & Wilson (Early, Murphy & Tolle, too)

Surprised the troll made an appearance. Not surprised at what he said.

When was the last time Ole Miss was the highest ranked SEC team? (#4) No Alabama, Georgia or LSU in the top 9! (TX A&M is #6 and Texas is #9.) I'd love to see Vandy knock off ALA, this weekend.

I know. I jinxed it.

Perhaps the longest lasting criticisms of Cora, especially on the game threads was how he handled the pen. Nobody here felt great or even good about our pen, last winter and into the start of the season, but it ended up being one of, if not our biggest strength. This on top of losing Hendriks and Wink, all year, and Slaten for a big chunk of it. All the "extra SP"ers" we had on our winter depth chart, who were supposed to :help out in the pen" gave is close to nada.

Rafaela ended up catching Duran for the team fWAR leader among everyday players: 3.8 Rafaela & Duran (ranked about 40th in MLB) 3.5 Bregman (T50th) 3.0 Story (T75th) 2.7 Anthony & Narvaez (T95th) 2.4 Abreu (T110th) Pitchers: 5.8 Crochet (4th) 2.6 Chapman (T37th) 2.2 Whitlock (T56th) 2.0 Giolito (70th) 1.9 Bello (T75th) ___________________ bWAR 6.3 Crochet 4.8 Rafaela 4.6 Duran 3.8 Story 3.5 Bregman & Chapman 3.2 Abreu 3.1 Anthony 2.8 Narvaez 2.4 Whitlock & Bello 2.1 Giolito 2.0 Pomy

So, Cora's boss trades away the team's best hitter, he loses his young, up and coming stars, Anthony and Mayer, to season ending injuries, and loses over 160 possible games started by his top 8-10 starting pitchers on the depth chart, including his 2024 ace (Houck) and IP leader (Crawford.) Add to that losing a 1Bman averaging 30 HRs per 650 PAs (Casas) and a guy (Hendriks) that some considered a 50-50 bet on becoming our closer. A few months here and there, lost by Bregman, Abreu, Dobbins, Fitts and others, and we still make the playoffs. Yup: can Cora! LMAO!