moonslav59

Yes, #2 doo doos.

No doubt players adjust or try to adjust many times over their career. Sometimes it works, while other times it doesn't work. Players are often asked or "suggested" to make adjustments or changes to their approach, stance, swing or other areas of their batting. We've seen Duran change his approach, stance and other aspects of batting several times at the MLB level, and word was he adjusted many times in the minors, too. His muscle mass also underwent a significant change. We can assume one or more adjustments and or the increased strength have worked. There are examples where hitting coaches were blamed for players' declines in production. I certainly think this scenario could happen: 1. The team asks Rafaela to change his approach and attempt to be more selective, or he decides to try it himself. 2. He makes some sort of adjustment to swing less at balls outside the K zone of maybe just swing less, overall. 3. The change in approach messes up his swing or confidence, or he stops swinging at balls he should have swung at and sees his production drop. 4. Then, he wonders how long he should give the adjustment a chance and if he returns to his old way, can he get back to the level he was before trying to "improve." Now, he's got issues in his head to deal with, when before he was successful, because he was more or less carefree about is approach and that worked for him, at least well enough to be above the league OPS.

Well, I assume if we give Criswell or Harrison a start, we'll have to bench one, first. (Maybe the other on the next scheduled start, but I'm pretty sure May gets another look or two (or three.)

Arias, yes. Jh Garcia- maybe not. OPS at Woo in '25 .951 Jh Garcia (He was .748 at POR in less games) .913 Anthony .818 Mayer .816 Campbell You said you felt Gonzales was upper tier, but not Jh G: why? He's at .758 at 2-3 levels below Password. Arias is probably already a ML ready plus-plus defensive SS. Jh Garcia is a good corner OF'er and may be okay in CF, too.

Early pitched well for Woo, tonight. 5IP, 3H, 2ER, 1BB, 7K. It's good to see less BBs from him, recently. Burdi may be back in BOS, soon. He pitched 1 inning and K'd two. Sogard has 3 hit through 6 innings. Alcantara homered for POR. Clarke & Aita are struggling in the GRE game.

I don't see prospects losing a ton of value over a few games at the big league level that exposed his awful defense at one position. I can't imagine he's any worse at 1B than Casas, and could probably be better than Toro at 1B by next season. He should be okay in LF, once he learns the ball hit angles better. (CF is taken.) He is a clear level one prospect, if not considered graduated, already. Why isn't JH Garcia a top tier prospect, since he's top 100 and hitting better, recently? He's also a plus fielder.

I've been asking how short Buehler's leash is for several weeks. He has rarely pitched well enough in a game to think he's lengthened the leash. I feel like I'm done with expecting another start from him, but he does have a pretty good history of being a damn good pitcher, so it's hard to let go of the chance he can pitch like last October for us. If we didn't have Criswell, who just pitched a nice game, last time out and Harrison, who seems to have pitched well enough, recently in AAA to get another chance in the bigs, I'd say ride it out with Buehler, but maybe those two guys should start, soon. I will say, I'd rather have Buehler pitch than May, so the thread should be about May.

If we traded Abreu, we'd still have Duran in LF, Rafaela in CF and Anthony in RF with Jh Garcia & Campbell above Tibbs on the depth chart and Yoshida & Refsnyder still on the 40 as emergency or occasional (shorter) corner OFs. We also have Castro, Taylor, Bleis and maybe even Cespedes as OF'ers and then Justin Gonzales poised to move up quickly.

He had no options, and that is why he wasn't just demoted, earlier.

I think MLB pitchers pitch nearer the K zone than minor league pitchers do, as a whole. For someone who swings at balls outside the K zone, facing MLB pitching might help their numbers.

Very well said. My point was about the "how," too. What adjustments are being made or asked to be made, and how any adjustments or attempts to adjust might affect other aspects of batting. There have been a few relatively "free swingers" who hit pretty damn well. Maybe the never had a 10 to 1 K BB rate, as pretty much nobody has, but Rafaela's K:BB and K% rates are not the worst in MLB, anymore, and the whole league seems to be moving towards more Ks. In theory, we can wish away that Rafaela can swing at less balls out of the K zone and not mess up anything else, but I'm not sure it's that simple.

I'd say Romero and maybe Bleis & Cespedes are level 2. Taylor looks level 2 with #1 potential. Soto is too far away to know much. Godbout should give us better read in the coming few weeks.

Arias& Garcia are both a top 100 prospect in the nation. Do you disagree? Granted Arias did slump for a bit, but seems to be waking up, again. JH Garcia is only getting better by the week.

Jh Garcia is supposed to be a plus defender, so it seems like a waste to move him or any of our fine defensive OF'ers to another position, including our best defender, Rafaela, to 2B. I think the obvious solution will be to maximize player value by trading a LHB Of'er this winter (Duran or Abreu) and promote JH Garcia as the platoon/4th OF'er who can also DH, some. LF Duran/Garcia CF Rafaela/Garcia RF Anthony/Garcia DH (1B?) Garcia/ Campbell/Romy (Yoshida) or LF Anthony/Garcia CF Rafaela/Garcia RF Abreu/Garcia platoon DH (1B?) Garcia/ Campbell/Romy (Yoshida) With the trade we make a massive upgrade to our rotation by packaging some prospects with the OF'er chosen to trade. (We could also trade JH Garcia, but we won't get the same return.)

The new CBA, assuming there is one... LOL, could throw a wrench in the whole calculation of these sorts of signings. I'm glad we have so many of our key young players locked up through pre and peak prime. None go beyond peak prime.

I've seen enough of Narvaez to lock him up for 8 years. I'd roll the dice with Mayer, too- injury issues and all. (The injury issues will also keep his "sign no" cost down.) Tolle, Whitherspoon? Seems too early, to me. Duran turns 29, very soon. He'll be turning 32 at the end of his last season, here. We have him under control for his prime years. If he'd agree to a 1-2 year "extra years," maybe.

How long is Buehler's leash? Has Criswell earned another start (or two?) What about Harrison?

On another team, Abreu would not be platooned, just for his defense, alone. If we did not have Refsnyder, and now Anthony on the 26, he'd have been FT. If Rafaela is no longer needed at 2B and Ref retires, maybe Duran and Abreu alternate days off vs LHPs, and Anthony DHs vs RHPs.

No brainer- yes.

You said it better than I. Trying to realize earlier and doing so, may affect how a batter performs, and it might not all be good. Tinker with something that is working may mess it up for some batters. The theory looks good, on paper.

What did I do?

What was Alcala's projection?

Big Road trip for a team not doing all that well in this split. 14 of our next 19 games are on the road! 3 @ SDP 3 @ HOU off 3 v MIA 2 v BAL off 4 @ NYY 4 @ BAL Those two days off should hep our starters get some extra rest, as well as our pen. How we look after these 19 games will be very telling.

You crack me up. I try to be balanced and truthful. Fred is right, pretty often. Because I say it is not enabling him to continue being negative. He's been like that long before my first reply to his posts.

No, but they knew who was good and bad as hitters.