drewski6

Its close, uncomfortably close.

But we put too many eggs in the Duran basket by not having enough good hitters

What if it replaced Narvaez (Contreras to Catcher), Masa to 1b

Boy would this be great if it were true.

Build your team around your bats and you will have much more consistent success.

Im not sure exactly what this is adding on to...But if its me saying not having elite hitters and you saying yes and having the best hitters on your team struggle, I agree :)

Because you are more fun to talk to than Breslow the stiff.

The top 4 hitting teams all made the playoffs last year. Pitching and defense is for nerds.

When I said Paredes isnt the leader or the starpower, I simply meant hes not good enough. Im not crying over Paredes because he's a C+ overall player, and all he really does it fix us positionally. But I dont think a positional problem is a problem in 2026. I think the whole league has gone mix and match and when I post articles saying this I get responses that are like "I dont trust that source because everything that goes contrary to what I want to believe is fake news" The problem of this team is not too many outfielders Had we traded this 81 overall outfielder for a 77 overall 3rd baseman, we'd be very close to where we are. We did not need to optimize our lineup positionally, we needed more A+ hitters. Like I said all along, we need elite hitters and I care not where they play. WE need redundancy and depth. A lot of people overlook that depth is NOT having starting caliber players on your bench (IKF is not btw) its having 9 very good hitters, so if 3 get hurt, you still got 6. You all wanted 9 starting pitchers but were fine with 4 quality hitters. I think we focused too much on positions as it is and thats why we didnt get Schwarber. We needed to get the 2 very best hitters we could, even if one was a DH and the other was a corner outfielder. Dont care. But like IVe been saying everyone wants to take a victory lap. And the people who are like "I think we should have clear batting order and same positional group every day and now , this bad start proves me right" .... But literally no team is doing that in 2026. Moving guys around is not the problem. Juggling too many players is not the problem. The problem is not having enough blue chip , elite hitters. We have 0.

Between Contreras and Story , I would have thought they would have had enough ....But Im hearing that they dont , and its hard to argue considering what we see on the field. But we'll see if they win agian tonight.

Paredes doesnt fix the lack of leadership and the lack of star power.

How dare you! Just his elbow

Im not there yet, but if Narvaez keeps struggling , I do think that Contreras to C becomes an option. At least occasionally in 2026 when Wall St Journal is posting articles about how the set lineup is dead.

Thats prob for the best.

not the biggest question but a question.

The average number of different lineups used by MLB managers over the course of a season is like 100. The everyday lineup is extinct. https://www.wsj.com/articles/baseballs-lineup-shuffle-1459443463

And Masa first base. ANd Contreras Catcher.

I would have had Cedanne work at SS all offseason.

Never underestimate the amount of mental gymnastics every single one of us will do to take a victory lap.

Yes, like Ive said. Everyone thinks the reason the team is struggling is because the team didnt do what that poster specifically wanted. Had we flipped Duran for prospects like youve been screaming to do, Im not sure that we would go from 2026 zero to hero.

I saw it in the Olympics for hockey too. Guys coming back and struggling. NOt all but some. People are individuals. I just find it more likely that Duran and Roman are not struggling becasue theyve have 2 extra days off each than they would have had if Masa had not been on teh roster.

There were plenty, and I do many plenty of ways we could have further bolstered the infield while leaving the strength of the outfield intact.

I feel confident the problem of this team isnt that we have too many hitters.

I think they are struggling from a WBC hangover more than getting ample rest. Rest days are up across all teams. I dont rule out the swapping and getting everybody in may be preventing a few guys from getting into a groove but I dont think its the main driver of it. I think its the WBC hangover.

Agree that a good bench is not a bad problem and not why we are struggling. I disagree that Cora being unable to play players consistently is driving our struggles. All managers are working in benches more and playing matchup more vs same guys every night. I think that 99.99% of the time when your team underperforms , its more likely to be not enough talent than too much.