moonslav59

Well, a .386 FIP since 2018 is a full "half-throttle." (115 ERA+) To be honest, I'll be shocked, if we spend as much or more on any FA SP'er for what Flaherty gets, this winter.

I'm not getting my hopes up, but signing Burnes would take the heat off trading a top prospect for an ace. I'd still think we need another SP'er, but we could then look at trading Abreu and another mid-level prospect or two for a solid #2/3 types to go with Burnes and the returning Gio. Mid levels might include selling low on Bleis, Cespedes, Arias, Meidroth, Fitts or Sandlin. I'm not sure what sort of SP'er we could get for say... Abreu, Cespedes and Fitts, but I'd think he'd be good enough to slot here: 1. Burnes 2. Houck 3. Gio/___ 4. ____/Gio 5. Bello

4 years of Casas (plus others) for 3-4 years of an ace is crazy talk? I'm all for the idea of signing Burnes, but if JH keeps his wallet closed, how else do we get an ace? I'm fine with the opinion of keeping Casas, but who would you tarde instead as the centerpiece for an ace with 3+ years of control? Anthony? Mayer? Teel? Campbell? We aren't getting an ace without at least one of those 4 going to the other team. Also, counting on Gio as even a #3 is pushing it, and I'm not even counting injury issues.

They also have us listed as one of the 3 teams for Flaherty.

We've played 77.77% of the season and have some pretty awesome offensive numbers up and down the line-up and bench: OPS Leaders (ABs) .951 Devers (435) 6th in MLB among qualifiers .875 O'Neill (313) .873 Casas (101) .867 Duran (525) 14th in MLB qualifiers .843 Refsnyder (235) .831 Abreu (306) .814 Yoshida (276) .795 D Janden (35) .766 Wong (350) .760 Romy (127) .723 DHam (277) .707 Rafaela (447) (.707 Smith 249) RBI+Runs-HRs 135 Duran 130 Devers 111 Rafaela 86 Abreu 84 O'Neill 82 Wong SB (CS) 32 DHam (4) 32 Duran (4) 17 Rafaela (8) 7 Abreu (2) 7 Romy (2) OBP .375 Refsnyder .372 Devers .372 Yoshida .353 Duran .351 O'Neill .340 Wong SLG .579 Devers .524 O'Neill .514 Duran .500 ABreu .468 Refsnyder .442 Yoshida TB 270 Duran 252 Devers 184 Rafaela 164 O'Neill 153 Abreu 149 Wong 122 Yoshida 114 DHam 110 Refsnyder

September Call-UP Day is not that far away. Each team is required to call up two and only two players and keep their ML roster at 28, everyday in the month. Who might the two be? One could be Hendriks or Slaten. (If both are ready, we could call both up and demote someone- maybe Kelly, Bernardino or Weissert. I doubt we add any other pitcher, unless these two are not ML ready. If both are not ready, maybe Horn or Priester gets the call. Longshot: Guerrero. Out of everyday players, maybe Meidroth gets a look, but maybe we'll see EValdez, Sogard or Westbrook, again. Longshot: Anthony, Teel or Campbell.

Story still has 3 years of control and Mayer 6 years. Unless we trade one or have one of the 3 play 3B, we will be bottle-necked. (The way Story and Mayer get hurt, maybe 3 are needed to get 162 games x 2.

It's nice to see DHam have some pop in his bat. He's on pace for about 17-18 Hrs per 650, which isn't great, but when you add that with a pace of 40 2B+3B over 650 and close to 70 SBs, this guy might be a keeper. Those 70 SBs would turn 70 singles into 2Bs, but without the rbis that come with 2Bs not singles.

You are slipping.

Agreed. The only reason Rafaela is at SS is that DHam sucks there, and has been okay at 2B. Romy and Sogard are horrible at SS D. I can see the reasoning in an emergency situation, but I hope they plan on Rafaela playing zero innings at SS, next year. That means doing more than counting on Story and Mayer to play a ton of innings: it means slotting someone else behind those two at SS and having DHam as the #2 2Bman behind whoever does not play SS out of Mayer & Story. If there is another injury, they better have someone in the system or get one ASAP.

How is playing a sub par defensive SS at SS and perhaps the best defensive CF'er at SS not CF not unpardonable?

Of course, but we don't and we might not again, soon, so we look for other options to improve our staff. We aren't trading DHam, Ref and Crawford for an ace. Nobody wants to trade Anthony. Nobody wants to trade Teel. Nobody wants to trade Casas. Only MVP wants to trade Mayer. Now, nobody wants to trade Campbell. We can wish our lives away that JH "should just spend more," but he isn't. It does little good to be 2-3 deep at just about all of our everyday positions, while our staff rots on the vine.

I'm not "advocating" Grissom. I prefer DHam-Romy at 2B to end the season. I only am arguing that it made sense to want to try and upgrade 2B- our very worst position since 2018: worse than SP1, SP2, SP3, SP4, SP5, RP1-8 and every other position. Tell me, why that does not make sense? Now, clearly the pitching, as a whole, was our biggest weakness, but that does not mean it makes zero sense to try and upgrade 2B, and I think their belief was Gio would start 29-33 games, while Sale would start 5-20 games, AND we'd be better at 2B. The idea made sense. The results did not work. I'm not sidestepping anything. I know who we got for Sale has sucked. I know Sale is having the best season of any SP'er in 2024. I know Gio has started zero games in 2024. Nobody is disputing we failed on all three levels. That does not change the fact that the attempts made SOME sense, at the time. Easily, one or two of the 3 things I listed might have been different, and this whole debate would never have happened. To me, the biggest shocker of the 3 was the 34 year Sale about to win the Cy Young after 5 straight seasons of let-downs. The Gio zero starts was an easy 2nd. Grissom's poor 2024 is a distant 3rd. I'll also add that if DHam and Romy had not shocked the hell out of all of us and replaced the Valdez-Reyes middle infield utility crew, we would be talking about how 2B has been a big reason we are 10 GB the WC race, right now, because we might have been that far back, now. I'm not gonna blame Brez for not knowing DHam was going to do this, either. I mean what was he, our 4th string middle infielder in March?

Okay, I should have said 2B has been worst or near worst since 2018 NOT 2019. Just because we can win with a horrible 2Bman, does not mean 2B is not important. We sucked at 2B and tried to improve. That is not a bad idea. It just did not work as we expected.

I don't know, but I think given time, Grissom will be better. With DHam's speed, I wonder if they ever considered moving him to OF. Some tiny sample sizes, here, but... OAA at 2B in '24 +2 DHam (220 innings) 0 Westbrook (102) 0 Sogard (78) -2 Grissom (186) -2 Romy (69) -7 Valdez (396) DRS 7 DHam 0 Westbrook -2 Sogard -2 Romy -6 Valdez UZR/150 -0.6 Valdez -3.1 Romy -4.0 Grisson -7.1 DHam

We need really good pitchers, and everytime someone suggest a trade candidate, a poster says, "NOT HIM!" I will say, we have very little depth at corner IF, unless you count Story or mayer as a possible 3Bman, so we can move Devers to 1B. A couple moves like that improves the D at 3B and 1B, and our weakness is not LHBs, like casas is.

The SBs vs CS is a big plus, too. It's too bad his defense is lacking. (He's also below .560 v LHPs, but with a utility guy, you gotta like the .750+OPS v RHPs.)

Huge win, if we are to have any chance. BAL lost. CLE plays NYY. MIN is at SDP. KCR hosts LAA before their tough stretch.

DHam DA MAN!

Yup, forget all I said about there being no "clutch skillset." Rafaela has proved me wrong.

Two interesting notes on Enmanuel: 1. He still leads the team in PAs as a 2Bman in 2024 with 175. DHam is a distant 2nd at 100 as a 2Bman. 2. He has a .946 OPS in his last 90 PAs (June 1>) He might be back as a LF'er/DH/

He had one really bad start his first game back from the IL on July 12th, then went 7 IP w 0ERs allowed at COL, before going to the pen for 10 IP and 9 ERS. (8 of those ERs were in his last 2 games: 4 IP 8 ER) Maybe, they should have kept him starting.

ERA as SP 1.96 Whitlock (4GS18.1 IP) .616 OPS Against 2.42 Winckowski (6/22) .721 OPSA 3.01 Houck (25/152.2) .616 OPSA 3.91 Criswell (14 /66.2 after 4 IP, today) 4.09 Paxton (3/11) .741 OPSA 4.25 Crawford (25/142) .704 OPSA 4.70 Pivetta (20/105.1) .750 OPA 4.80 Bello (23/123.2) .771 OPSA Team Record in Starts 16-7 Bello 9-4 Criswell 11-9 Pivetta 13-12 Houck 9-16 Crawford I Hope this quiets the all about wins crowd.

I do think of all these players listed, Grissom might have the best chance at being a FT 2Bman, someday. It's a close call between he and DHam, IMO. Valdez looks like a platoon DH,a nd how many of them are around?

Man, that rafaela kid is CLUTCH! (LOL)