moonslav59

On the 30 HRs per 600 PAs for Mostakas, I clearly stated was about the last 3 years only. Hosmer has barely averaged over 20 per 600 the last 3 years. And yes, our biggest weakness is lack of an HR hitter for our 2018 clean-up slot. I'm not a huge Moustakis fan, but he's better than Hosmer, and I'd like to avoid having to trade for a clean-up hitter. I'd much rather have Machado, but I'm not sure waiting a year is a real choice here.

Sure beats finding a turd in the fairway. (like Masterson, Aaron Cook, Penny, Smoltz and on and on...)

Agreed, but that article we both liked about Bannister sure made things look at least a little bit better.

It really seems like the fix is in.

Do the rules allow for a pitcher hitting and using the DH for your 2Bman?

Post of the day

Yes, you have questioned Chili, but I think the buck stops with JF. 1. Lack of fundamentals. 2. Massive under performance by just about all our returning everyday players. 3. Lack of simple understanding of the rules. 4. Not maximizing the efficiency of the line-up (despite how little it really matters) The pluses: 1. Maximized the effectiveness of our depleted pen. 2. Productivity of rotation despite the injuries to Price & Wright. Overall, he's a great pitching coach who is clueless in other areas of the game.

Well, the Smith trade was not really prospects traded. I liked the Thornburg trade too, because I thought Shaw was toast. I loved the Sale trade. It was the type of trade I've wanted for a long time. The type of trade I wanted with the players we traded for Kimbrel & Pom. We've seen Quintana and Gray traded recently. I wish we had held onto some of our prospects, so we could have gotten one of them, but what do I know? Pom & Kimbrel have carried us this year.

The age is a huge concern, but what worries me most about this idea, is that we'd have to open up several holes in our system to trade for him. That's why I think acquiring Moustakas or Machado is way better than Hosmer or Votto. On looking at Moustakas, his numbers over the last 3 years dwarf his early career numbers, so calling him a .252 hitter is not really doing a service to him. He's been a .278 hitter since 2015 with an OPS of .835. He's hitting about 30 HRs per 600 PAs, too. We don't need a 15-20 HR 1Bman like Hosmer.

Had we won 9-4, I doubt many would have much of an issue with Porcello's performance.

Apparently, the reason Devers wasn't called up earlier was because they feared his defense was not developed enough. He has a weird habit of holding onto the ball too long before throwing. He has also made some wild throws, but I do like his range. He's so damn young that I firmly believe he will improve enough to be a plus defender. I keep saying that the idea of moving Devers to 1B is not out of a belief that he cannot become a plus defender, and no I do not feel he is a plus right now (-5.1 UZR/150), it's about Moustakas and Machado being better at 3B than Devers, and both being better off season choices than Hosmer and other FA 1Bmen. I'm not going into the off season thinking we need to move Devers to 1B. Far from it. I just like Moustakas as our 2018 clean-up hitter a heck of a lot more than Hosmer. That's the "drum I'm banging" not the we must move Devers off 3B drum. Get me Votto without opening big holes, and I'll take Devers at 3B for 10 more years!

I just read this after posting my very similar reply. I agree completely with what you said.

As a boy, my first favorite player was a guy named Tommy Harper. He was a great base stealer, but he did it without having great speed. He took a 5 step lead off 1B that often rattled pitchers to death. (BTW, when the Brewers traded him to Boston, at the same time my family moved from Milwaukee to Portland, Maine, I became a Sox fan.) I love aggressive base running. I abhor mental mistakes on the base paths and on defense. I'm not talking over aggressiveness. I'm talking boneheadedness.

Just like any skill or repeatable action, the more you practice- the better you do. I'm not sure how much time JF spent on reinforcing fundamentals this spring or during the year, but I'm guessing it wasn't nearly enough. Sure, the players should know all this stuff anyways, and some players seem to have it ingrained in their mind, body and soul, but refresher courses are needed for many. I was a teacher and volunteer for many years. Every fall, we have to go through the same exact training on harassment, safety, rules and guidelines. It all seems like common sense and something that should only be needed to be told once in a lifetime, but every year someone messes up.

Not just Mookie seeing a major decline in OPS... (115+ PAs) -211 .845 Leon .634 -208 .705 Holt .497 -135 .850 Young .715 -117 .897 Betts .780 -109 .866 HRam .757 -79 .835 JBJ .756 -75 .802 Bogey .727 -45 .835 Beni .790 -34 .825 Pedey .791 +154 .585 Vaz .739 Then there's this... 1.021 Papi >> .767 Moreland .726 Shaw >> .896 Devers/ .885 Nunez (Pablo & Co earlier) 5 of our top returning players by most PAs have declined by more than 100 points (2 by over 200) 7 out of 10 have declined by 75 or more points! 9 out of 10 have declined by 34 or more points!

Maybe $150M, and what will that buy in 2021? 5 or 6 good players? That leaves a lot of gaps. I don't see us finishing last in 2021 or 2022, but I doubt we'll be competitive for a ring. And by the way, we're getting pretty darn good at predicting hurricane paths and power. Not perfect, but pretty close.

True. Most likely, we'll try and find the next Fister.

Hard to know anything these days, but my gut says, I'd rather face the 'Stros, despite them adding Verlander.

Thanks for the info, harmony. I'm wondering, if he will start throwing the slider more often as he reaches full recovery level.

Just about everyone hits worse than their overall numbers when they are placed in the 4 or 5 slot. Call is strange or unfortunate, or whatever you wish, but this is a big reason our run production has been so low. 4 Slot OPS vs overall OPS (which includes 4 slot PAs) (Listed in order of most PAs at this slot.) .757 HRam .757 .689 More .767 .722 Beni .790 .762 Betts .780 1.567 Young .715 To me, this was JF's major line-up mistake. He should not have left Moreland batting 4th for so long. Yes, he was hot early. Yes, nobody else looked like a 4 hitter (except Betts), but still, just about everyonee lse has done better than him in this slot. He has the second most PAs in the 4 slot and has 60 more PAs than everyone else not named HRam combined (201 to 139). Moreland batting 5th did much better (see below). Personally, I'd have had Betts batting 4th just about all year, realizing we'd then be weaker in the one slot. 5 Slot OPS (much worse than 4 slot) .738 More .767 .740 HRam .757 .480 JBJ .756 .540 Young .715 .699 Devers .896 .735 Beni .790 .468 Bogey.727 Although HRam and Morelan's 5 slot numbers are not very good, they blow others away. Ideally, Moreland and HRam would be decent 6-7 slot hitters. Ideally, we maybe could have used Bogey in the one or two slot when he was hot (early) and JBJ batting 3-4-5 when he was hot, but whenever JF moved these guys into these slots, they failed, so it's hard to know what was the right thing to do. It's clear we have no clean-up hitter on this team. Even guys like Devers and Nunez do not fit the bill and have not done well in very limited time in the 3-5 slots.

Just about every trade DD has made has looked good to great, so far, except Smith & Thornburg. You mentioned not really missing Shaw now that we have Devers, but Shaw is actually an excellent defensive 1Bman who still has a very high OPS this year. We could use him right now. We also could have used the money we spent on Moreland somewhere else. I'm not complaining. DD's trades have worked. They have built a formidable window for success.

Houston gets swept by the A's in a double header 11-1 and 11-4. Maybe the last series of the season will mean something.

Machado has won 2 GGs at 3B. There's no way we sign him and move him to SS or anywhere else, unless he gets hurt and has to DH. He has played some SS (like 50 games career), but why move a vet GG 3Bman for a shaky rookie?

Here's a look at our top players by PAs and the slots they have hit in mostly: 641 Betts .780 (1st 390, 3rd 151, 2nd 67 581 Beni .790 (2nd 272, 3rd 126, 4th 80, 5th 54, 6th 39) 545 Bogey .727 (3rd 272, 6th 169, 5th 38, 1st 39, 4th 30, 7th 20) 513 HRam .757 (4th 299, 5th 148, 6th 35, 7th 23) 508 More .767 (4th 201, 5th 149, 6th 76, 7th 63) 466 J B J .756 (7th 145, 6th 114, 9th 86, 5th 68, 8th 42) 409 Pedey .790 (2nd 232, 1st 82, 3rd 64, 6th 20) 288 Vazq .737 (8th 167, 9th 65, 7th 54) 272 Leon .634 (8th 156, 9th 61, 7th 47) 251 Young .715 (5th 63, 6th 54, 7th 48, 8th 37, 2nd 18, 4th 18) 171 Nunez .798 (1st 113, 2nd 32, 3rd 20, 4th 4) 170 DMarr .582 (9th 134, 8th 23) 160 Devers .896 (5th 62, 6th 41, 7th 24, 9th 19) 125 B Holt .497 (9th 47, 8th 27, 1st 29, 2nd 12) Numbers in Red are one I think are higher than they should have been,

6 players with 2 or more hits. Just what we needed to break some slumps.