moonslav59

I'm not really giving Pablo the benefit of doubt in any way, but let's wait and see for ourselves either this winter or next spring. If he truly has already lost a significant amount, then there is time to lose even more, if he is committed as he needs to be to regain a large fraction of his early skill level. I'm hoping he does well, because I have such little faith in Shaw, and Moncada looks like he needs more time learning 3B...maybe much more time.

Agreed. It's close though, in my mind.

I'm not against trading top prospects, especially those that appear to be blocked. However, I did not like the idea of trading Espi for Pomeranz and 3 good prospects for a highly paid closer (Kimbrel). With that, I'm not sure I trust DD on choosing who to trade for (maybe more than choosing who to trade).

I agree, but I'd rather get a 3Bman long term than a DH long term. We could then try Moncada in LF (or, gulp, DH) or dare to use Moncada, Beni or Devers in a trade.

I realize we're talking small sample sizes here, and last night's game bloated Kimbrel's numbers, but here are the second half numbers for our pen: ERA/WHIP 0.00/ 0.486 Uehara 12.1 IP 0.00/ 1.125 R Scott 5.1 IP 1.15/ 1.149 J Kelly 15.2 IP 1.33/ 1.148 Ziegler 27.0 IP 1.42/ 1.066 R Ross 25.1 IP 3.00/ 1.056 Kimbrel 18.0 IP (actually better than the whole season numbers) 3.38/ 1.425 Hembree 13.1 IP RP innings only- full season: 0.00/1.125 Scott 5 IP 1.15/1.149 Kelly 16 1.29/1.107 Ziegler 28 2.37/1.318 Hembree 49 3.17/1.185 R Ross 54 3.35/1.078 Kimbrel 51 (was 3.00/1.000 before yesterday) 3.52/0.935 Uehara 46 3.57/1.103 Buch 22 3.77/1.430 Layne 29 4.13/1.393 Barnes 65 4.25/1.233 Tazawa 49 6.39/1.658 Abad 13 6.39/1.895 Ramirez 13 OPS against in relief (2nd half overall in parenthesis): .541 Kimbrel (.486) .555 Ziegler (.571) .563 Scott (.563) .571 Buch (.612) .594 Ross (.563) .613 Kelly (.613) .650 Uehara (.325) Uehara over the last 41 PAs: 1 BB 1 HBP 5H (only 1 2B) 15 K .128 BA .171 OBP .154 SLG 6 tOPS+ -10 OPS+ A strong case can be made to let Koji close. Some pretty impressive numbers here!

This is DD's toughest choice this winter. If he acquires a solid 3Bman under team control for more than a year, he may.... 1) block Moncada and maybe even Devers if signed for 2 or more years. 2) make a similar mistake as the Pablo acquisition and find another stiff. 3) squeeze a roster spot away from someone like Shaw, Pablo, Hernandez, Rutledge or even a 1Bman's job like Sam Travis who might have ended up surprising us with better play than the guy he gets. I could see us trying to pry Robertson and Frazier away from the CWS. Maybe they'd take Shaw, Owens and (gulp) Swihart for 2 years of Robertson and 1 year of Toss Frazier, who I view as about the same as Shaw but with twice the HRs and 25% more RBIs.

True, but the sample size was small, so I do think .380 is not a stretch.

I have to chuckle over the multiple posters who were willing to DFA Buch earlier this year... not even trade him- just cut his ass! Buch is a prime example of why you don't judge players over their most recent small sample size. (This also means we should not think this recent Buch will be next year's Buch.)

Getting players to make outs instead of getting on base is what pitching is all about. When players do get on base, limiting them to fewer XBHs is also important. K's look great. They do show a pitcher's ability to totally dominate batters. Of course there is a correlation between Ks and good pitching (other data), but it is an out just as equal as a pop up or ground out. I get the fact that making a fielder assist in getting the out makes measuring the effectiveness of one pitcher over another more difficult, because now you have to factor in team defense differentials, park dimensions and other aspects. However, just because it's harder to measure, doesn't mean we should diminish the fact that pitcher A gets batters out and allows less XBHs or costly hits than pitcher B, who happens to K more batters. It does not always work out that because K's normally relate to better pitching that Ks should be a major indicator of a greater performance level.

Ride the hot hand. Buch has had some of the most dominating stretches in the last 45 years of MLB. When he's "on" he's the best on the staff. Maybe if we "dis" Price, he'll take opt out in 2 years.

I was firmly against the Kimbrel trade, but not because I thought Kimbrel was outside the top 5 closers in MLB, so imagine how I feel now about the trade now!

...I bet Kimbrel is in the top percentage of closers in the league.... Well, before tonight's horrendous figures are added in Kimbrel placed tied for 23rd in RP'er WAR (with Ziegler). He's also tied for 23rd in RP'er WHIP at 1.00 (before tonight). 21st in RP'er xFIP- 31st in RP'er ERA-

I might want him 2nd behind Porcello.

...and people are saying we don't need to build up the pen much this winter.

To think we gave up 3 decent prospects for the right to pay him FA market money. No RP'er has ever been worth that much on both ends- prospects and salary.

Not long ago Pablo was a decent fielder. HanRam has never been a decent fielder. Pablo may or may not be obese by the spring. I'm not predicting anything positive from Pablo, but I'm not writing him off either.

Increase the ML roster to 30 players. The players and union would love that. Bring back doubleheaders, and shorten the season's days but not the number of games. Find a way to limit the amount of pitching changes you can make in a game. That's what is dragging these game out. Mandate a certain percentage of seats that are $10 or less for 50% of the games.

Some people were talking about HanRam the same way last winter. I'm not writing off Pablo yet.

Come on Max. We win 11 in a row and lose one, and you call it "rediscovering losing"? Man, this is a harsh world.

Ziegler is not likely coming back. I'm thankful for what Uehara and Tazawa did for us, but I'm thinking it's time to move on. I agree that no closer is coming here, unless through a trade. I doubt that happens. I read on MLBTR that if the CWS trade Quintana and/or Sale, then they should trade Robertson as well. I'd kick the tires there. Maybe we could offer the world of long-away prospects for Quintana, Robertson and Todd Frazier (one year 3B stop-gap). There isn't much on the FA list, in terms of non-closers. I guess Melancon counts as a closer, but I'd kick the tires there. I think trading for some 2 pen arms is maybe the best way to build up our pen, and taking RP'ers with higher salaries might lessen what we need to give up.

So what? They are giggling?

I'm open to being persuaded, but how is bWAR better than ERA-?

Never pan out? Wow!

Yes, and Porcello's in nearly twice as good as Kluber's.

I'm not "missing the point". I understand how K's lessen the need for a fielder to help with making an out, and in general, that is likely to lead to more hits, more errors, and eventually more runs, but just because these factors normally lead to more hits, shouldn't the fact that they did not with Porcello have some sort of significance as well? By the way, Kluber and Porcello have nearly identical BABip numbers: Kluber .271 Porcello .265 One also has to look at BBs. They are fielder independent as well. If you count a BB as a single, then Kluber's OBP against is much higher than Porcello's, and we all know how OBP correlates to runs scored. I'd like to see another stat posted: SLG on balls in play. BTW, I've never been a big K rate fan, even when Pedro was winning and losing Cy Youngs. Pedro's K/BB rate was astoundingly great anyways.