drewski6

I mean you have to have surgical precision backdooring that 85 mph cutter

And to me, yes , Harrison is last. I do not trust 91mph 4 seems and 85 mph cutters. This dude was a prize?

He (sandoval) goes in a category with Dobbins, Kutter Craw, Criswell, Weisert, Fitts, Harrison in the competing for a 4 or 5 SP I would rate Tolle and Early slightly higher in the "one is prob going to make the rotation" category. I guess Sandoval could go in either. Maybe this In this category, if healthy will be in the rotation Crochet Bello In this category, 1-2 pitchers should make MLB rotation Early, Tolle, Sandoval In this category, may make the rotation, depending on who we resign/acquire/injuries but theyll have to earn it Kutter Craw, Dobbins, Criswell, Wissert, Fitts, Harrison *Not advocating for no pitching acquisitions, would love to see them bring Gio back. In which case, Early, Sandoval, Tolle most likely to round at rotation, with next group behind them and some of the "did not make it into the rotation" will go to minors and some to pen

Its hard to say, but I lean towards its not a function of we overrating our own because the national rankings and such also have our prospects/pieces quite high. I think its either that while our pieces are ranked highly, they werent specifically what would-be partners were seeking, or Breslow is talking nonsense and the real reasons he didnt want to state (e.g. trying to "win" the deal, or not believing in the 2025 team enough to do something in the short term, simply running out of time)

No, I think you are adding to it. Per Brez, he was willing to go there. He just said tell me a name that will make it work and they said a name of a guy on another team.

This happened. They (he) said no, they were not buyers. Because "other teams have to want your players" According to Brez , didnt have the chips other GMs wanted. He said it wasnt about trying to get fair value, or protect players he really liked either. He said he even made offers that he didnt think he would make, offering players that would shock the media/fans. He said just no bites.

Im not sure why this doesnt get spoken of, but Chris Sale has made 0 playoff starts for the Braves. Yes, he won the cy young and had a great year last year, helping the Braves reach the playoffs. But he was unavailable in the playoffs because of an injury. Granted they were sent home quick, and had they got through a round without him, he *might* have made a start in teh second round. This year, he did like 115 innings, got hurt again, and the braves will miss the playoffs. I suspect that had he had the same 2 years here, we would have been frustrated having to plan our playoff rotation without him last year, and having him miss a large chunk of time this year. He hasnt been available to the braves when theyve needed him the most.

dumping your best hitter for salary relief is not trying to win.

now its salary dump races

Not getting a real bat that you have to pay for all season is not trying to win. Im talking about at the roster construction level. I know on the field they are trying to win. This is ongoing. Verdugo should have been replaced 2 years before he was. Its too much settling for average players. Whatever happened to arms races?

The AL is so disgustingly weak that teams are selling off and still winning divisions lol. SO when it comes to the sox , i just will not accept "yeah but we had an injury to a rookie who was playing better than we thought and we lost him, so that excuses us" Again , we're losing to bad teams. You shouldnt need a rookie to pull you ahead of teams selling off at the deadline.

I had left off the mets, but ill give you 4. BUt note how 3 are in the nl.

over the last 2-3 months how many all-stars (total appearances not players) have been a) injured over the last 2-3 months and b) ended last year healthy. Unforeseen injuries to established players. How many total all-stars appearances do we have on the shelf right now whose injuries were unforeseen? I think its 0. I think Houck made it last year, but Houck was hurt when last year ended.

I get that its fun trying to use what you got. Trying to win with a disadvantage of limited resources. Trying to get the most out of player x, trying to coach up player y. Trying to see something in a player that nobody else saw and now hes contributing and you got yourself a bargain. Trying to be like I think we can be fine at 1b with a bunch of "ifs" and "justifications" but without a 1b. Its fun in video games to take the worse team and build them up without signing the best fa's. Its a challenge and its fun. But its also egotistical and provides cover to cheapskate billionaires and gun-shy GMs

its the mlb that sucks right now, not us.

My issue right now is not that we have gone over a half decade without being truly competitive. My issue is that we have gone over a half decade without being truly competitive in a painfully weak MLB, where teams are selling off and still finding their way into the playoffs. Its one thing to get got by a tiger when the tiger is chasing you and 5 runners. Its another thing entirely to get got by the tiger when it is chasing you and 5 fatties. You couldnt outrun the fatties?

Im not saying that injuries didnt impact. Im saying every team in teh MLB except for 3 are trying to just be good enough, adn we arent one of the three. There is a huge complacency problem in mLB right now, thats how teams are selling off and still making the playoffs. Thats absurd and this isnt some 1 yr fluke. It was detroit last year, guardians this year. We are competing against teams like KC. The whole freaking AL is full of teams like KC. The truth is we arent trying hard enough, but really neither is anybody. This isnt the nineties where stacked teams are losing out to more stacked teams. That i understand. This is a race to the bottom. Teams are trying to just do enough, and im at the point where i kinda hope the dodgers win 10 world series in a row. Cuz im sick of cheapskate billionaires selling us a mediocre product. The red sox had a chance this year, and appears to have blown it. With complacency in the offseason, with complacency during the season. Not trying to actually fix holes. Just getting DFA guys and calling up rookies. Our biggest get on paper was May , a guy who had lost his job. Nate Lowe also is here because he lost his job elsewhere. Maybe go get guys who didnt get fired? The injuries may have turned us from the 4th best team in a disgustingly weak landscape to the 6th best. Maybe that is the diff between playoffs and not. Maybe they were the straw that broke the camels back. But Ive seen worse. Idont care what fangraphs says, the yankess injuries were worse. Imagine losing Crochet for the entire season in spring training. THe injuries dont excuse yet another mediocre team failing to seperate itself in a disgustingly weak AL. Not because every team has injuries. Not because all injuries are the same. NOt because we had a chance to fix our injuries and didnt. Because your fangraphs thing is misleading and our injuries were bad but not that bad. You should never point to injuries to rookies to disrupt your season unless you are like an nba team who had the first pick in the draft or maybe an nfl team with a tip-top qb coming in.

Thats just not how it works in sports. They were relying on rookies because they were complacent or didnt want to spend. Teams that want to win dont think our rookies are gonna bring us there. Even MJ didnt win anything until he was in the NBA for years. Rookies are just not going to get you there. ANd what you are saying, is that this team didnt expect to go anywhere this year....But thats because they were relying on rookies. Its chicken vs egg. If this organization was aggressive they would have not gone into the season with so many question marks.

Correct. If you have a rookie making an impact, you add because you have a pleasant surprise and your window has opened sooner than you expected. So time to fortify. You dont go , well yay, a couple of people doing better than we thought. TIme to take the foot off the gas

Hey look at all the noodlebats on a team that sold off on the deadline, but is still better than the rest of the absolute dog-crap AL somehow. Maybe we can sneak in this year or next with noodle-bats also? Why even try to win? You see teams trying to lose (selling-off) and sneaking in. *This isnt directed at you , this is directed at MLB If we cant win, go Dodgers! I will not root for GMs selling off and cheap owners.

Right, you two are agreeing. This team did not choke. This team was not deep enough with the bats to enter the season. THen they traded Devers without replacing him and thought the rookies would carry us and that usually doesnt go well. Choke implies playing down. I think this team is who they are, at present. Too many noodle-bats, carried by some better than expected stretches. I wouldnt say this is a choke job. I would say this is water finding its level (mediocre)

No we're saying the roster on the hole should have been stronger. The injuries - Ive seen worse years. 2 rookies a few pitchers who we knew were likely to get hurt coming into the year, sure bregmans injury hurt, but thats one dude.

And if you are in a position where you are relying on a 21 yr old rookie, you already failed.

Hes just not following the guardians closely.

I feel the pain of everyone, yet I feel nothing