moonslav59

I generally hate bunt sacs. I guess, if you have a super weak hitter, who knows how to bunt, and the tying runner at 1B with no outs, maybe.

We have just about the same pen as last year, but we have Brasier instead of Abad. Last year, we had a 7.0 pen WAR (4th in MLB). 2017 to 2018 combined: 17.4 NYY 12.4 HOU 11.3 BOS 9.8 LAD 9.5 TBR 9.3 MIL 9.1 COL 8.3 PHI 7.7 TOR & CLE

I don't have a lot of confidence in our pen at this moment, but if our numbers show we're a top 6 pen, I'm not sure I have any more faith in other elite teams' pens either, if they have done worse than ours all year long. Even the Yankee pen is not unbeatable. 2018 Team Pen WAR Leaders 8.2 NYY 6.7 Astros 6.5 Padres 4.9 Rays 4.5 Brewers 4.4 A's 4.3 Sox 4.2 Giants 4.0 Mariners We might end up facing the best two in MLB in the playoffs, but we're only 2-4 behind each, which if you look at 162 games it's just 1 out of 80 or 1 out of 40 difference in games won by the pen. We are better in other areas than those teams.

Yes, the runner moved to third might not have scored from second on Holt's triple. I hate sac bunts 99.9% of the time.

...and no walks that I remember. 11 runs in an inning with no BBs. Maybe a first?

That's about 100 points of gravy. He's at .782 since May 12th, when his OPS was at .510. That's about 14-15 weeks of, more or less, steady hitting. Let's hop he can stay near .780 consistently going forward. That would be almost 200 points of gravy. He's also been getting some key late inning hits- something we didn't see much of earlier this year.

I'm really looking forward to ERod's start.

He only starts vs lefties, so the sample size is small and scattered. I expect him to rebound.

Wright? Velazquez? Price? Haley?

Isn't it Porcello's normal day start? He pitched Saturday. Eovaldi should pitch game 2. Maybe Wright or ERod will be ready by game 3.

Betts passes JD in OPS (1.066 to 1.061) Good to see... JBJ up over .700 (.703). Holt up to .720. Nunez on a steady rise to .680. He was at .651 seven games ago. Swihart nearing .585. He's been at .749 since JUN 26 (not counting tonight).

Agreed. He's our #3 catcher, despite his higher offensive upside.

How often does that happen?

We needed all 3 this year. Why push our luck?

They did all this year, until Vaz went on the DL. Besides, Swihart can play other positions and might learn another one this winter.

Didn't we just have 3 hits before this inning started?

We just signed Vaz. Leon is our best catcher right now. My guess is we have all 3 on the opening day roster next year.

Yes, I remember now. I went back to look: ERA/OPS against/IP (Time frame) 2015 9.00/.956/10IP (4/18-5/25) 2016 6.43/.784/ 7 IP (4/11- 4/24) 8.31/.854/ 8.2 IP (6/20-8/9) 2018 5.56/.836/ 11.1 IP (7/23-8/28) Each of these rough patches were followed by great stretches.

Yes, all with no no movement whatsoever.

They are #2 in WAR since the start of 2017. Maybe people think other pens are much better than ours, because they don't watch them implode. (Although, we watched several implode in our late inning crooked number innings.

..and maybe having 17 RP'ers on the 40 man roster played into the choice made.

lmao!

We currently have 39 players on the 40 man roster plus 3 players on the 60 day DL (Pedey, M Hernandez & Maddox). That makes 42 on the roster. 6 Free Agents to be: Kimbrel Kelly Pomeranz Pearce Eovaldi Kinsler We may only replace 2-3 of these guys from outside the system. 42-6=36 and add 2-3 free agents means we'd be at 38-39 before rule 5. Bubble roster players (might be DFA'd, non-tendered or traded for a prospect not needing to be on the 40 mman roster next season): Tony Renda Justin Haley C. Shepherd C Smith (arb) W Cuevas Travis Poyner Walden M Hernandez R Scott A Maddox Rule 5 this December Victor Acosta Christopher Acosta Yoan Aybar Roldani Baldwin Trey Ball Juan Barriento Edilson Batista Eduard Bazardo Danny Bethea Jordan Betts Marino Campana Rusney Castillo Michael Chavis Luis Colmenares Eduard Conde Harrison Cooney Jake Cosart Ricardo Cubillan Enmanuel De Jesus Chad De La Guerra Jhonathan Diaz Jerry Downs Nick Duron Junior Espinoza Willis Figueroa Devon Fisher Austin Glorius Daniel Gonzalez Juan Hernandez Darwinzon Hernandez Oscar Hernandez Tyler Hill Dedgar Jimenez Trevor Kelley Trenton Kemp Matt Kent Travis Lakins Marcos Lantigua Adam Lau Deiner Lopez Isaias Lucena Chris Madera Danny Mars Algenis Martinez Tate Matheny Kevin McAvoy Daniel McGrath Samuel Miranda Joseph Monge Mark Montgomery Jhon Nunez Josh Ockimey Angel Padron Yorvin Pantoja Yankory Pimentel Roniel Raudes Austin Rei Hildemaro Requena Denyi Reyes Eddy Reynoso Jeremy Rivera Jake Romanski Teddy Stankiewicz Kevin Steen Cole Sturgeon Josh Taylor Luke Tendler Josh Tobias Carlos Tovar Kyri Washington Jantzen Witte We may want to add Feltman, if he's ML ready.

Yes, but there is no sign it is injury related. Has he ever had this type of stretch in his career before now?

Agreed. I don't think it's an injury. His velocity is still there. I hope it's not his contract year getting inside his head.