moonslav59

Dobbins outperformed Campbell in 2025, unless KC comes back and gives us plus play down the stretch.

Max, ERA for RP'ers, especially those who often come in a game with 1-2 outs and just face a few batters is skewed. They can come in with 2 outs and bases loaded, walk 3 guys and get the last out and have a 1.00 ERA for that game. In those 10.2 IP you cited, he allowed 10 hits and 6 BBs. Of those 10 hits, 2 were Hrs and 3 were 2Bs! He had a 1.500 WHIP, which amazingly was his best month of the year. 1.765 April 1.556 May 1.778 June 1.500 July The guy is worse than a waiver wire pick-up. 1.650 WHIP for the season (1.846 last 2 weeks) .847 OPS Against for the season and 1.028 last 14 days. We have 5+ guys on our 40 man roster in AAA better than he is. One just pitched a gem of a game and was demoted. This is not THE TIME to keep as many options in the system. It's THE TIME to have your best pitchers on the 26, and when every pitcher you have on the 40 and not the 26 is better than Alcala, that equals DFA TIME!

I think I counted 18-20 open slots on the 40 after the 2020 season. (replaceable roster slots) After 2021, things looked better, but there were still 8-12 openings. It slowly got better as 40 man roster depth was built up to at least near mediocre levels. Last winter, we needed: SP (Pivetta>Buehler) SP (Criswell + Wink = 24 GS in '24 to within system + Sandoval) Closer (Jansen>Chapman) Set Up (Martin >Wilson) 3B w Devers to DH/1B (Bregman) 2B (Left to within system) OF (O'Neill to within system) C (Wong/McGuire>Jansen to Narvaez & Wong) 1B depth (Toro) That was 6-8 openings minimum. This winter, we could get by with 3-4 major additions and one could be by trade of an OF'er or midlevel prospects: 3B (hopefully Bregman, but E Suarez might work) Closer (hopefully Chapman of one of the top closers traded this deadline) SP2 (replace Buehler with M King, Cease, Valdez or vis trade) 1B (E Suarez or Alonso, or maybe roll the dice with Campbell) Maybe add 2B depth and another pitcher. Maybe replace Wong, but these 2-3 minor moves are not essential, unless we go weak on a few of the other 4 add-ons. 3 Major add-ons might be enough: Framber Valdez or Cease (M King?) Hesley, Diaz or Chapman Bregman or E Suarez (Alonso and play Mayer at 3B?) Can we pay just 3 of these guys and stay near the tax line?

I'd offer Chapman $12M/1 with team option for $10M year 2 with $2M buyout. Essentially, a $22M/2 or $14M/1 contract. Offer Bregman $150M/4 ($37.5M x 4) I doubt Casas brings back much, at all. I still think the guy can be an .850 batter, but should only DH and play emergency 1B. (That might lessen his injury chances.) Yoshida trading is difficult, unless we pay all but $3-6M of his deal or take back a sunken cost player in return, but just not a DH. We could also try to lessen the financial hit by tacking on a good player or prospect with Yoshida, but this idea would suck, if JH does not spend at leat to the tax line, going forward, and maybe over, once in a while, when a push is needed. Yoshida & Sandlin for Arenado? (Offer Guerrero, to?) Sonny Gray is owed $35M in 2026, which is about what Yoshida is owed for the next two years combined. What would we have to add to get Gray? STL might love to dump Arenado's contract by parting with Gray, but they'd want something good, if they took Yoshida. Yoshida, Fitts & Romero for Gray & Arenado? (Sub Dobbins for Fitts? Sandlin for Romero?) I kicked around a million ideas like this, last winter: none made sense to the other team. I think we'll be stuck with Masa and Casas with hopes they comeback and give us something plus.

The framework for 2026 looks like this: SP1 Crochet SP2: _____ SP3: Giolito SP4: Bello SP5: Sandoval, ____, Crawford, Dobbins, Harrison, Fitts, Criswell> Tolle, Early, Sandlin, Perales Closer: ______ RP2: Whitlock RP3: Slaten RP4: _____ RP5: Weissert RP6: Hicks RP7: Bernardino RP8: Murphy (SP converted) Wink, Burdi, Kelly, Guerrero Line-up: 1. Duran LF 2. Bregman 3B 3. Anthony DH/RF 4. Story SS 5, AbreuRF/ Refsnyder DH (Romy?) 6. Rafaela CF 7. Mayer 2B (Romy?) 8. Narvaez C 9. Campbell/Romy 1B or _____ Bench: Wong, KC or Romy, Abreu or Refsnyder, Jh Garcia

I was the worst on how Brez neglected the pen. Many of the guys I wanted him to sign have sucked. It's another example of how these guys know more than we do. Had we not lost 4 of our top 7 or 8 SP'ers (Crawford, Houck, Sandoval & Dobbins- 5 if you count trading away Priester) we'd have been able to use some in the pen and not even needed Matz. Brez has made some mistakes, most easier said in hindsight, but he's really done a nice job building up the team and farm. Keeping Cora and adding Bailey has worked well, too. This team is fun to watch, and the farm is still looking nice, despite many graduations (Anthony, Mayer, Narvaez, Campbell & Dobbins, plus Fitts & Guerrero.) That's quite a class of rookies. Last year, we graduated Rafaela, Abreu & Slaten! The rebuilding era is over, but we need not empty the farm to fill the few holes we will have, this winter. We'll have Devers & Buhler money plus more. We only need to add a SP, closer and maybe a 1Bman, if Campbell does not win the job by then. Maybe another SP and Wilson replacement would help. That's not much for the money we should have. (Assuming Bregman returns.)

He and others.

I messed up. They demoted Criswell and Bernardino for Matz and May. They moved Houck, Dobbins & Guerrero to the 60, recently. Burdi came off the 60, so 3 for 3, and no other moves are needed, That being said, I'd DFA Alcala, next. It's crunch time. The best pitchers need to stay on the 26.

Guerrero moved to 60 Day IL. Burdi reinstated and optioned to Woo. Kelly off the IL and sent to Woo. May is activated. (Bernardino was demoted for Matz.) MLB 13 man Staff: Crochet, Giolito, Bello, May, Buehler Chapman, Whitlock, Wilson, Weissert, Matz, Hicks, Murphy, Alcala ________________ Everyday 13: Narvaez, Wong Toro DHam, Romy Story Bregman Duran Rafaela Abreu, Anthony Yoshida, Refsnyder ________________ 15 Day IL: Mayer ________________ AAA: Harrison, Fitts, Early, Sandlin, Uberstine Bernardino, Burdi, Kelly, ICampbell, Moran, Mata, Hoppe, De Leon Zavala, Tromp Campbell Grissom Sogard Romero Rosier, McDonough Jh Garcia, Sikes Eaton, Thompson Hickey

Good point- and Brez, too.

POR won 4-1. Tolle 4 IP, 1H, 0ER 2BB 6K Clarke got lit up: 0.2 2H 3ER 3BB 1K. Taylor homered. SAL up 6-0, late. Fajardo is poised to jump in the rankings: 5.2 1H 0ER 0BB 8K. Ju Gonzales 3-4 w HR & 2B & BB.

Yes, his spreadsheet said all offers were net negatives.

Our pen pitched well, again, today. It is currently ranked 5th in fWAR, 2nd in ERA- and 5th in FIP. When the season began, just about all of us felt the pen was our weakest area. Many of us questioned signing an 80 year old closer and adding only Justin Wilson to help. Can we give some props to Cora for managing this pen to such a high level of production? PAs against (OPS Against) 210 Whitlock .540 195 Weissert .663 184 Bernardino .566 163 Chapman .423 143 Wilson .682 103 Kelly .788 (IL) 90 Slaten .465 (IL) 85 Newcomb .791 (IP as RP only) 72 Guerrero .530 (IL) 69 Alcala .719 68 Murphy .625 (coming off a long time off) 59 Hendriks .692 53 Criswell .828 as RP 52 Wink .622 (IL)

Of course. Bringing in Chapman was the right call, but Alcala forced the choice.

AL Records 65-47 DET & TOR 62-49 HOU -2.5 from best record 61-51 BOS -4.0 (1.4 behind HOU for #3 slot) 60-51 NYY -4.5 59-52 SEA -5.5 (Tied w TEX in 11th inning, right now) 57-54 TEX -7.5 (just 2.5games from being 9th) 56-54 CLE -8.0 55-56 KCR -9.5 55-57 TBR -10.0

5-1 v NYY 2-0 v HOU 2-1 v LAD, NYM & CIN 3-3 v ATL, SEA 1-2 v PHI, CHC, 3-4 v TEX 3-7 v TOR 0-3 v DET, MIL

Another sweet win! Can we now put to rest we "can't beat good teams" mantra?

MVP prefers demoting Murphy over DFA'ing Alcala.

I don't disagree, but I'm not sure that was a major factor in not replacing Toro on the 26. His spreadsheet told him all offers were negative.

Me may be DFA'd when we activate May.

Woulda been nice to save Chapman for tomorrow.

Actually, he commented on Rafaela's swing at a bad pitch. The kid is at .752 in August with no signs of declining. GG defense and plus baserunning.

Not counting today: records since June 7th: 30-16 BOS 30-18 TOR 28-19 TEX 27-20 HOU 27-22 SEA 25-23 BAL 24-24 LAA 24-23 ATH 22-24 DET & KCR 22-25 CLE 21-27 NYY 20-26 CWS 20-28 TBR 17-29 MIN

Check out these team OPS w Men on Base (before today.) 1.131 Romy .947 Anthony .923 Bregman .875 Duran .846 Ref (a hit today with man on) .814 Story (HR and 2B w man on, today) .798 Rafaela .771 Abreu .739 Narvaez (BB w man on)

So adding a good LHB at 1B and demoting Toro would have hurt the team's morale by more than a better bat would have helped? Adding someone better than Matz or May would have hurt morale, if no 26 man was included?