moonslav59

First 71 games vs Second 71 games and fWAR 3.3/0.6 Houck 3.9 Total 1.9/0.0 Crawford 1.9 0.5/1.2 Bello 1.7 0.7/0.8 Pivetta 1.5 0.8/ 0.3 Criswell 1.1 Everyday 2.7/4.0 Duran 6.7 Total 2.2/2.0 Devers 4.2 1.6/1.3 Abreu 2.9 0.9/1.6 O'Neill 2.5 1.1/0.5 Hamilton 1.6 -0.1/1.2 Rafaela 1.1 0.8/0.1 Ref 0.9 0.0/0.7 Yoshida 1.0/-0.3 Wong 0.7 0.0/0.5 Romy 0.5 0.3/0.1 Casas 0.4

RHP Bello broke that mold. (Pivetta, too.)

...and that was what I liked the most about him, before this season.

I really like this article. I am most impressed by how quickly he jumped into the top 3, which was a very impressive top 3. I have him at #2, ahead of Mayer and Teel. WOW!

I'd rather talk Refsnyder into not retiring and platoon him with Abreu at DH. I also think we will see Anthony in RF on opening day, or the day after he is set to have an extra year of team control. (Anybody know what that date might be?)

FWAR since June 29... 3.0 Sale 2.5 Skubal 2.4 F Valdez 2.2 Snell 2.0 Gilbert, Steele & H Brown 16. Miller 1.6 (tied w Nate & Lugo) 30. Bello 1.2 50. Pivetta 0.9 110. Criswell, Houck & Crawford 0.2

Okay, I get the context, now. I agree that Houck has better stuff than Miller and has been more "useful" with it. I do think Miller would be a great addition and be close to Houck by age 26 (2025,) perhaps becoming better, as Houck seems to have slipped, recently.

I think the righty bat is a need, but we will hope Story & Campbell fill that role. Plus, Rafaela in CF forces a lefty bat to the bench or a trade-away. I'm not sure what our budget or trade plans will be, but to me, it has to be 100% pitching, pitching, pitching. We have to roll the dice on Story (or Mayer) and hope Anthony and Campbell can be positive influences on any everyday player shortcomings. 100% of the winter spending budget should go to pitching. All trades should be for improving the pitching, even if the package involves a pitcher or pitching prospect. I'm just as pessimistic about what we spend, this winter as anyone else- maybe more than some think, but I can't imagine the winter budget being less than $25-30M AAV. That, in itself, would be yet another major slash to an already reduced budget. With just $30M and a significant trade or two, we should be able to improve on 2024's staff, despite losing Jansen, Martin and Pivetta. As notin points out often, we are essentially adding Gio, Hendriks and Fulmer (plus Whitlock,) so our additions need not be one-to-one upgrades over who we are losing. We can focus all available resource on 2-3 major additions and not spread the resources over 5-6 mediocre additions. I underlined CAN, because I know we may not. To me, it would take several major restrictions placed on Brez to disallow Brez the chance at improving our staff. I also fully realize Brez could swing and miss, again, and it could all be for not. I think we can; I think we CAN, I THINK WE CAN!!! (I don't expect we will.)

We very well may not spend big on the pen, and I could easily see them handing the closer role to Hendriks the day after this season ends. I can also see them viewing Fulmer as having a significant role in 2025, but I have to believe they do not think Hendriks and Fulmer are as good as Jansen & martin have been for us, over the last 2 seasons. Returning those two with the "bulk of the 2024 pen" will be another failing pen. I think we find a way to add a couple decent pen arms, over the winter, even if it is via trades of everyday players or prospects. I realize I could be wrong (again) and they view Weissert, I Campbell and Guerrero as giving more than we saw in 2024, and that could be enough. Plus, a full season from Slaten and moving Whitlock to the pen, FT should rightfully be viewed as upgrades. They may just go status quo and roll the dice, again. Personally, I don't think they have much faith in the "returning bulk." I know I don't.

I'm not sure what that has to do with your "stuff" and "useful" comment. Weren't you implying maybe his stuff was or may not be useful?

It was very nice seeing Story at SS, last night. To me, he is a big key to 2025. I know that seems almost as scary as counting on Chris Sale coming back in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, but he really is the one guy who sets in motion several upgrades at maybe 3 other positions. 2B: DHam, Romy, Grissom and maybe Campbell can fight for one position, not two. All are better at 2B than SS. CF: Putting Rafaela in CF, full time, give a huge boost to the defense and adds RHB to the all lefty OF, when he is at SS. LF: Duran being FT in LF gives us one of MLB's best defensive and offensive LF. That being said, we need to have a better plan in place, in case he gets hurt, again. We should not count on Rafaela, DHam and Romy as our 2025 SS.

You implied his "stuff" may not be "useful."

I know you do not view Burnes and being equal to Crawford in your 2025 projections.

I've said I seriously doubt it happens. My point was that even with a limited budget, if we make one impactful trade, and another moderate on, we can add a #1 and #2 SP'er plus a decent RP'er or two. I'm not expecting a major increase in spending or even any increase. I have no idea what the winter spending budget will be, but I know this: 1. We can get by without adding anything to the everyday 13 player roster. 2. We can afford to trade from our everyday roster and prospect list, where bottlenecked. 3. We can spend whatever budget we have 100% on pitching. There would have to be several major limitations placed on Brez for him not to be able to vastly improve our staff. Of course, that could happen. I've given up expecting significant spending, but we can do a lot without major spending. This is what gives me some hope. IMO, we will probably go way lower than what I hope we do (and can do.) At minimum, we probably trade Abreu for a #4, and hand RF to Anthony. We sign a #3 or a couple decent set up men and maybe some better pitching depth. 1. Houck, 2. Gio, 3. Bello, 4. __trade__, 5. Crawford (Criswell, __FA__, Priester, Fitts) Closer: Hendriks, __FA__, Slaten, __FA__, Whitlock, Kelly, Fulmer, Winckowski (Bernardino, Booser, Weissert, ICampbel, Guerrero) You think we end up worse than this, on paper?

Hasn't Miller pitched very well in his his nearly 300 MLB IP? 3.82 FIP 1.05 WHIP by age 25 He is a useful pitcher, right now. He is improving. He may improve even more. He's good, because his "stuff" has been useful.

No. You are suggesting we add no pitcher, at all, and go with Priester. You are suggesting JH & Co. and we forget Crawford's second half of the season. You are suggesting the "bulk of the pen returning with Hendriks and Fulmer" is something positive. We don't know when Giolito will be back, and when he is, how long will it take for him to find the stride he lost in 2023? We mentioned we'd prefer Houck be the #3, but fully realize he is likely to be slotted 1 or 2 for 2025. To me, he is the one SP'er we have that has very few questions about 2025. Bello looks like a decent 4/5, but still has questions. Assuming Gio is okay and just misses a handful of starts in April, that's 3 SP'er. No way am I counting on Crawford as a SP'er. I know JH & Co. might, but I'm not expecting him to be good in 2025, as a SP. Okay, that's the "4" you mentioned, and it could very well happen that JH limits Brez so much, that all he can do is sign a 3/4 slot SP'er and we go with this: 1. Houck, 2. Gio (Criswell in April) 3. __add__, 4. Bello, 5. Crawford- This is a losing rotation all the way. Can it happen? YES! Suggesting we can do better with so much money available below the tax line, and enough trade capital to add one or two decent SP'ers without spending a penny, make me wonder why anyone would suggest we add just 1 mediocre SP'er and plan of the bulk of the pen plus two more question marks in Hendriks & Fulmer returning as being okay. I have no idea what JH is going to lay down for a budget. Whatever it is, even if it's another slash, I can't imagine Brez doing as little as you suggest. If the spending budget is just $25-30M, which is $30M under the line, he can add a #2 SP and a decent pen arm. Now, maybe JH also demands he not trade away any of the top 4-5 prospects, as well. Then, Brez could trade Abreu + DHam for a decent #3/4 SP or a couple decent RP'ers plus spending 100% of his winter budget on pitching. Even this worse case scenario should produce a better pitching staff than you suggest we might have. (I doubt this scenario would produce a playoff team, but the pitching staff should be better than 2024's.)

I totally agree. As bad as ND looks, this year, compared to other recent ND teams, they are better than No. Illinois. This is on the coach and QB, IMO. It sucks that the season looks like a total bummer, after just 2 games. Such is college football.

That was god-awful. I thought Leonard looked shaky in the first game. I don't see him leading us anywhere but downhill. We finally have a season, where we have a relatively "easy" schedule, and it looks like it's the worst team we've had in years. Sad day for domers.

We are 4 behind MIN and play a 3 game series vs them, later. Do the math.

Alvarez had 3 jacks for Woo, tonight. Westbrook & Bobby Dee had one, each. Meidroth went 1-3 w 2BB (.867.) Campbell went 0-5 w 3Ks, trade him! Grissom walked 4 times. POR won 7-1, as Jh Garcia and Jordan went 2-4. Romero homered (.883.) GRE won 7-4. Monegro 5 IP, 2H, 2ER, 3BB, 7Ks. Salem's loss was the only one in the whole system. Judice got lit up. Arias went 2-5 w 2B.

Are you JH?

I agree but think we'll be lucky if we add a 1/2 and a 3/4 slot pitcher. That forces Houck to #2, but also adds depth to the pen.

Why? We can spend $55M and still be the same as this year. Trade bats for one pitcher and get 3 more for $50-55M. This would not hurt the 2026 and beyond team, either, if we spend wisely.

I do think not trading Sale might have been the final straw on Bloom's firing, but we may never know for sure. I also think if Bloom stayed, Sale and Dugo would have been traded. It's not a 100% sure, but I think JH wanted them gone. I'm pretty sure JH & Co. had to okay the Gio signing, and they did based on the idea that theyw ere fed up with injury risk pitchers- like Sale, Kluber, Richards, Wacha, Hill, Paxton and others, but then again, bringing back Paxton and Hill, this summer kinda counters that theory. The worst part is Gio got hurt, while Sale is already at his most IP since 2017. Then, the youngster Slaten gets hurt after being one of our best pen arms for the first half of 2024. Martin implodes and others predictably lose steam as they pass their career highs in IP. We need to plan on pitcher injuries, while continuing to try and add durable and skilled pitchers and hope they will not be the next Gio.

I still think pitching is our #1, #2, #3 and #4 priority and maybe even a tie with RHB at #5. I think we just need to count on Story to improve the D at SS, CF (Rafaela to CF FT) and LF (Duran plays more LF.) I've mentioned trading Abreu for a RHB clone, but I cannot think of one or know that his team wants or needs a LHP more. Adding Campbell to the 2B mix might fix the RHB issue, too. Anthony, Mayer and Teel may not fix it, but they might hit LHPs better than Abreu, DHam and Wong. It's going to be about pitching in 2025, IMHO. Thanks for the compliment. I enjoy your posts, always, even if we disagree, at times.