moonslav59

You know when you take a piece of bread and put it in the toaster? What comes out? That is Yoshida. And, there isn't even any butter.

Abreu is an aside? He's a better hitter vs R than Yoshida, and Duran, Rafaela and Anthony. He's a better defender than Duran, Refsnyder, Yoshida & Anthony.

Max, why does the last 6 games matter for the pitching staff but not for Toro?

I think that was the root of his being offended they moved him to DH. Even if he was good, he could not have possibly thought he was Bregman good, could he?

Winning low scoring games does not mean our O is good. I think the kids will improve, too, but the loss of Devers leaves a whole of 25% of our offense to plug. I like our D: they just have not played up to their level on paper, yet. I am more pessimistic about our pitching, despite the last 6 games.

The guy actually convinced himself he was a good defensive 3Bman.

I'm not on the Gio bandwagon, yet.

I think you assume batter continue hitting like they have so far. Toro is already coming down to earth (2 for last 17) and it's a long way to Bregman's return. Maybe Toro still deserves the 1B platoon by then, but maybe not. The way Campbell is playing now, I agree, but Toro is not doing well, either. Don't look, now: most of our O is not doing well. It's hard to project who will be deserving in August.

Maybe I was right about the Yanks not being much better that the rest of the AL. The Astros are tied with them, while missing more than half their rotation. Right now, they are 1.5 better than the Rays and 2.0 better than the Jays. Sure, they are 4 better than us, but they are swinging downwards,

Game ovah! Yanks lost.

I forgot to mention infielder time at DH. Right now, it looks like the OF'ers will cover DH until Breg's return, but afterwards, maybe it will be wide open. The Toro-Romy experiment may be over by then, too, so Campbell could play 1B.

Now that KC, Mayer and Anthony are with the Red Sox, the WOO and POR line-ups look rather thin. We see a few promising players, but more dead end and AAAA types. The GRE club has been the fun team to watch, this season, and now it's like the only team to watch. Taking away the players now in the bigs, here are the OPS leaders at each level (non pitchers): AAA: .928 Jh Garcia (up to 100 PAs in AAA- the one true AAA everyday promise) .913 Hickey (I'm still not sold, but good to see him making a move.) .858 Jordan (not at 60 PAs w Woo, yet/ .928 w POR) .798 Thompson (AAAA profile) .742 Sogard (not sure he can ever be more than utility) .719 Grissom (has some interest and chances) .714 Sabol (AAAA catcher) AA .792 Romero (The only guy with real promise) .770 Ehrhard .768 Castro A+ .817 Arias (GG defense, too) .790 Bleis (on the rise) .759 N Taylor .716 Brannon A- .928 Encarnacion .924 Anderson (100 PAs, now) .856 Ju Gonzales .804 Azocar .804 Arias (promoted) .727 Yuten .721 Mussett .700 Nunez .698 Cespedes

Houck went 1 IP: 2 hits, 1BB, 0 Ks and 1 ER.

I want to see Devers playing 2B in our series.

Was he in the clubhouse? I doubt any current player would speak out against Devers. The fact that none have come out to say glowing things about Devers may or may not telling.

Let it be known: we CAN beat good pitching and good teams.

I don't think we keep any of our 3 prospects on the big club, if the plan is to start them under 50-60% of the games. Maybe even under 70-75%. I like Bregman at 3B, Mayer at SS and Story at 2B, but Story has looked better on D, of late, so maybe Mayer at 2B works, too. Campbell could play 2B vs LHPs and maybe some CF vs RHPs, but I think Cora really loves Rafaela in CF FT, and I can't blame him. Duran should not be benched vs RHPs, so the only other place for Campbell to get 60-75% playing time would be 2B vs LHPs and some 1B vs RHPs. I'm not sure we try that, unless Toro struggles between now and Bregman's call-up, which is possible. Currently, he's 2 for his last 17, so maybe the decline has begun.

Houck pitched one inning for Woo, today: 1 hits, 1 run, 1BB, 0 Ks

I'm not so sure we will be sellers. I suppose we could be both sellers and buyers, and Buehler might be traded.

He already must be, but Austin Wells is doing just fine, too.

If I had strong feeling our pitching can hold up, like this, I might be as optimistic, but we are talking about Gio, here. We have our hopes pinned on Dobbins and a couple senior citizen pen guys. I actually have more hope in Sandoval and maybe Crawford or Houck than I do in Gio, Buehler and Fitts. It's nice to have more than one or two guys to pin our hopes on, but I can't call it anything more than just "hopes." (I don't have a ton of confidence in our staff, based on 6 games.)

Fair enough. I'm not bragging, but I had high expectations on his defense and brought up the fact that he had decent farm numbers on offense (high OBP and 15-20 HR power if a FT player.) That being said, he blasted my expectations for year one. The guy just might win ROY.

It's painful, isn't it. Verdugo for Betts. We get Story, then lose Bogey. We get Bregman, then lose Devers. We lose Sale, Nate and Erod and get Kluber, Richards and Gio- now Buehler. We couldn't even replace Porcello's lost contract, and he sucked at the end.

Roman AnthonyMarcelo MayerFranklin AriasJhostynxon GarciaYoeilin CespedesLuis PeralesConnelly EarlyMiguel BleisPayton TolleBrandon ClarkeMikey RomeroJohanfran GarciaHunter DobbinsJuan ValeraJustin GonzalesYophery RodriguezDorian SotoRichard FittsDavid SandlinDalvinson Reyes

We can't afford to miss one more winter on our big FA signings. Yes, Bregman was a hit, not a miss, but he's also on the IL for 60 days or so, so even our hit has an asterisk. The Crochet deal was great. I wish we had thrown in someone else besides Meidroth, but I'm thrilled with the trade results and we also did what I said was essential in making the deal an overall plus: we extended Crochet until his peak prime years are over or near over. Yes, bring Bregman back is task one. But, we just have to strike gold on our two biggest signings or trades to more than make up for the loss of Devers. It's gotta be two steps up and one step back and not the Bruce Springsteen song.