moonslav59

I think there's a strong enough relationship between the two subjects, since many felt making JD happy by trading JBJ made the trade worth it, especially when factoring in what we might have gotten back for JBJ (improved pitching/2B/depth). I like JD where he is. Keep him healthy. Keep our OF intact for as long as possible. It killed me when we traded Lynn.

Let's see how we do on the road against a team fighting to make the playoffs. It's not a must win series, but I'd like to see start to turn things around, soon.

I just want him to start the playoff opener and be as sharp as he was the last time he came off the DL.

I had him there before his last outing. I really feel his knee issues were what was keeping him down for years. As long as the knee is okay, he's an awesome pitcher. Nothing against Porcello. I'd be happy with him as our #3, too, but I like ERod more. Plus, we win with ERod. We're 17-3 in his starts (5.9 run support). We're 18-10 in Porcello's starts (5.91 run support). (Not that this is all I look at.)

I feel the same, and I doubt JD feels that way or would make those sort of demands. I also think a ring might make him want to stay and like the idea of extending his career by DH'ing most of the time. To be frank, it was one thing that worried me most about the negotiations with him and his agent.

For argument's sake, let's say JD says he won't opt out, if we assure he'll play the OF in 80%+of his games played?

I'm very optimistic about playoff rotation of Sale, Price, ERod and, if needed, Porcello.

No, Nunez is who we were talking about, but also Holt could get some action, too. (When Devers plays 3B, Nunez could play some at 2B or be on the bench.

Leon should get plenty of September rest, but remember, we also get 5 days off between game 162 and playoff game #1.

They should have planned it vs a lefty.

Johnson still has time to earn a playoff slot. It's not like other bubble pitchers have been doing themselves any favors recently.

I don't see Kinsler as an everyday player, but I do like him playing 2nd 70-80% of the games.

Did he look uncomfortable hitting better in the 6th slot?

Yes, it apparently proves Cora doesn't care.

Cora needs to improve his velocity and location.

Before today's game... Johnson's ERA with each catcher: .683 w Leon (105 PAs) .843 w Vaz (128) .731 w Swihart (144) Leon is slightly better than Swihart. Sample sizes all close to even. I'm not blaming Johnson's poor outing on Swihart, but I do wonder how well he'd have done with Leon catching him. If Leon would have done better, it begs the question.... Does Swihart's 1 for 1 outweigh 5 runs given up?

Nunez will likely get some time at 2B, too. I think there will be enough ABs for everyone.

I wasn't on this site for the Iggy trade. How long did the Iggy trade thread last?

He's gotta keep Nunez feeling good about himself. I think it is much more about that than about sending Devers any message.

Great game! Being a domer, I'm with you on this one.

For argument's sake, let's say the numbers I posted are good predictors of what is to come (not true, of course), but for those who want Swihart to catch, instead of Vaz or Leon, think about this: Swihart may get up to bat 3-5 times a game. Let's assume he will out hit both of the other catchers by 200 OPS points (.800 to.600 or whatever). That's just 3-5 PAs with a ,200 better OPS. Now, think of a starting pitcher, who is usually involved in 18-24 PAs a game vs the opponents. See where I'm going with this? Is it more important to have Swihart hit 200 points better for 3-5 PAs per game or to have our pitchers hold our opponents to 50-200 points lower over 18-24 PAs? I don't think anyone needs to be a math major to figure this one out. Porcello: Nobody else has caught him. I don't want to mess with that. Leon. Sale: Swihart has not caught him all year. Sale does better 75 points better with Leon. I'd go with Leon here, but would be okay with Vaz- NOT Swihart. Leon (Vaz OK) Price: Leon does 182 points better with Leon. Swihart has not caught him this year. Leon in a landslide. ERod: He has been almost totally caught by Vaz, and while Leon did much better over just 43 PAs, I'm fine with sticking with Vaz, especially after last night's game. Certainly, I would not start using Swihart with ERod at this point in the season. Leon or Vaz So, with our best 4 starters, there's no way Swihart should ever start. Let's go further... Johnson: He has been caught pretty evenly by all catchers. He's the first one where CERA can really be used most effectively due to the sample size comps. Leon is 48 points better than Swihart and 160 points better than Vaz. Leon is the clear choice here, too. Velazquez: He has pretty even sample sizes, too. Vaz is just 23 points better than Leon, but he is 80 points better than Swihart. Vaz or Leon. Eovaldi: He has only been caught by Leon. He's struggled lately, so maybe a switch in catcher could work. Leon or anyone? Now, once the starter is removed, it looks to be okay to PH for a catcher (or two) as our RP'ers seem to be scattered on who they do better with. It makes more sense to bring Swihart in later in a game than to start him at catcher. Kimbrel is pretty even with all (Swihart sample size is too small) Barnes does better with Vaz and way better tahn Swihart. Hembree does better with Leon, then Swihart. Brasier has never been caught by Vaz. Workman does way worse with Leon. Thornburg way better with Leon. Pom does way better with Swihart. I can't help but think it would be absurd to think Swihart should be our starting catcher, and some want to boot Vaz or Leon out by next year. A 200 point gain on offense, which is certainly not a given, since his OPS is .582 this year is NOT enough to offset the expected loss we'd have with our pitchers.

.673 in 421 PAs with Vaz-- not much of a nudge with so many total PAs on the season.

12ks out of 17 outs for ERod. Better than ever! Hope he keeps it up. This wasn't an injury related to the knee that bothered him for years. Now, on to Sale and his return!

Merli is a show set in Barcelona. It has subtitles, which I usually hate. The language is Catalan, so even if you know Spanish, it's very hard to understand. Yes, it's on Netflix. It's about a high school philosophy professor, yes philosophy in high school. It's very funny, great acting and some great plots. Try it. (If you are a teacher, you'll like it even more.)

There is a massive difference between bWAR and fWAR on JBJ. I guess that further confirms my belief that fWAR is better. It certainly raises questions about why there is so much of a disparity, especially with JBJ. Obviously both use different methods to determine their WAR values, but that doesn't bother me all that much. I still respect both methodologies (fWAR more so), and will continue to use WAR as one tool in my evaluations of players I rarely see play. JBJ Career bWAR: 12.8 (dWAR 6.1/ oWAR 8.0) fWAR: 11.8 (dWAR 42.0/ oWAR -7.1) To me, the area I think is almost as wrong is fWAR's offense number for JBJ. It's close to being as wrong as bWAR's dWAR for JBJ.