moonslav59

Our pen was way better than theirs, despite their Bednar addition vs our Matz addition. (We also got Slaten back.)

Agreed. Winning the first two would be nice. We better be "all in" this winter, especially in light of the quiet trade deadline, and some clear needs going into 2026, as well as some clear logjams of talent. We have a lot of pre-arb and early arb players on the roster, as well as low cost, up front, young players locked up for many years. Even our one big eyesore contract (Masa) kinda improved his value in September. Hicks is overpaid, but not a huge contract. In my opinion, we should concentrate of getting fewer high quality players over one or two more players at lower quality. We could accomplish this by making 1-2 big trades and 1-2 big singings, totally 3-4 major additions. I'm not against adding some low cost depth players we'd stash in AAA, like Eaton, Toro and others like this year, but no more adding 5-6 barely better than average outlook additions. If I had to add 3: 1. Big RHB (3B, 1B, 2B, DH) Bregman does not count as a big bat, but he could be #3. 2. Solid #2 SP'er 3. 3B, 2B, 1B (see #1 and get another position from his) If I got 4: 1. BIG RHB (3B, 1B) 2. Solid #2 SP'er 3. 2B 4. 1B or 3B (see #1)

That's a big spike. It was an exciting team to watch. Lots of drama and more happy endings helps.

Crochet might need to allow no runs.

I might take Mr. BB, Murphy, over Kelly, but no big deal. Neither will pitch unless it's a blowout.

One major plus for taking pitchers a couple decades ago was to max out the pitch count on SP'ers and get to the pen ASAP. especially the middle RP'ers, who were mostly failed SP'ers. Now, with the increased specialization of pens, that is not such an advantage anymore, but it still does not mean taking a lot of pitches and focing BBs is a negative thing. I like the Casas approach. I just don't like that he is a fragile China doll. To me, if Casas is healthy, he's our top HR threat and maybea top 3 OBP guy on the team. He sucks on D, but what else do you want from a DH? 30 HRs and .350 OBP. The 'assuming health" is the big issue.

LOL. Imagine Cris Sale climbing rocks!

We have a one-two punch, as well, and our first 3-4 guys out of the pen look pretty damn good, too!

I think the pressure is on Bregman, and he will come through.

One good thing about our top RHP set up guys is that the get lefties out. Career OPS AGainst splits: Slaten: .542 v L/ .606 v R Whitlock: .648 v L/ .668 v R Having 3 LH's RP'ers is nice, too: Chapman, Matz & Wilson (Early, Murphy & Tolle, too)

Surprised the troll made an appearance. Not surprised at what he said.

When was the last time Ole Miss was the highest ranked SEC team? (#4) No Alabama, Georgia or LSU in the top 9! (TX A&M is #6 and Texas is #9.) I'd love to see Vandy knock off ALA, this weekend.

I know. I jinxed it.

Perhaps the longest lasting criticisms of Cora, especially on the game threads was how he handled the pen. Nobody here felt great or even good about our pen, last winter and into the start of the season, but it ended up being one of, if not our biggest strength. This on top of losing Hendriks and Wink, all year, and Slaten for a big chunk of it. All the "extra SP"ers" we had on our winter depth chart, who were supposed to :help out in the pen" gave is close to nada.

Rafaela ended up catching Duran for the team fWAR leader among everyday players: 3.8 Rafaela & Duran (ranked about 40th in MLB) 3.5 Bregman (T50th) 3.0 Story (T75th) 2.7 Anthony & Narvaez (T95th) 2.4 Abreu (T110th) Pitchers: 5.8 Crochet (4th) 2.6 Chapman (T37th) 2.2 Whitlock (T56th) 2.0 Giolito (70th) 1.9 Bello (T75th) ___________________ bWAR 6.3 Crochet 4.8 Rafaela 4.6 Duran 3.8 Story 3.5 Bregman & Chapman 3.2 Abreu 3.1 Anthony 2.8 Narvaez 2.4 Whitlock & Bello 2.1 Giolito 2.0 Pomy

So, Cora's boss trades away the team's best hitter, he loses his young, up and coming stars, Anthony and Mayer, to season ending injuries, and loses over 160 possible games started by his top 8-10 starting pitchers on the depth chart, including his 2024 ace (Houck) and IP leader (Crawford.) Add to that losing a 1Bman averaging 30 HRs per 650 PAs (Casas) and a guy (Hendriks) that some considered a 50-50 bet on becoming our closer. A few months here and there, lost by Bregman, Abreu, Dobbins, Fitts and others, and we still make the playoffs. Yup: can Cora! LMAO!

Hail BREZ!!!!

And there I was thinking, "Gio is still pitching and Sale is not..."

We should have kept him under 140 IP.

I think Early would start game 3 and Harrison might get 2-3 IP, depending on how many IP we can get from Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Weissert & Wilson. Do or die game: all hands on deck.

I was one for 7 on my hot takes on '25. I said Narvaez would win the FT catcher job.

Okay, hoes this? He's hit 30 bombs per 650 PA? He had a .473 SLG from '22-'24. (.480 '23-'24- that's top 30.) His .225 ISO from '23-'24 is top 30, too.

I'm hopeful Dobbins makes it back earlier, but August might be pushing it. (One year after surgery) I'm not counting on 1 IP from Houck. Casas is the tough call. His surgery was May 5, 2025, so one year is about what you said. With the Sox, add 1-2 months.

I think Abreu is still rusty, so we may/should go with Yoshida at DH and Ref in the short RF in NY.

CLE had the worst wRC+ in the AL, this year at 87. The other 5 teams were in the top 6. 119 NYY 113 SEA 112 TOR (105 ATH) 103 BOS & DET