JoeBrady

Alex, I'll take ex-RS GMs that the fans wanted out. In all fairness, BC has had the overall 1/7, 1/1, 1/4, 1/1 and 1/9 picks. And correspondingly high 2nd rounders. Sooner or later, you are bound to hit some guys.

Always interesting to see a batter challenge a called ball. Fortunately the umpire questioned Abreu's logic.

Hard to believe the ump called Anthony safe.

While there is no such things as sure wins, this is the type of game we have to win if we are going to compete. At home with a huge pitching advantage.

Not for nothing, but the ball person down the LF line is moving in slow-motion. You're supposed to at least jog after the foul balls.

11-64 with one HR over the past 7 days for Story, Anthony, and Duran. On the bright side, maybe the days off will give the entitled Story a chance to meet the president of the company to discuss long-term strategy. Instead, you know, just doing his fracking job.

Yet very few want to focus in on the real problem.

One would have to cherry-pick the heck out of the universe of available players to do better than Suarez + Durbin + Contreras. Suarez and Contreras are out-performing. Durbin has not, but has done much better over his 17 games.

His scouting report was an okay CF destined to be a corner. I can't believe how ploddy he looks so far.

Last 7 games? Name AB HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS Willson Contreras 22 3 8 2 6 0.364 0.444 0.818 1.263 Andruw Monasterio 13 1 5 0 0 0.308 0.308 0.692 1 Ceddanne Rafaela 20 0 2 1 6 0.35 0.381 0.6 0.981 Isiah Kiner-Falefa 7 0 1 0 1 0.429 0.429 0.429 0.857 Caleb Durbin 21 1 4 2 3 0.286 0.348 0.476 0.824 Marcelo Mayer 16 0 2 1 1 0.375 0.412 0.375 0.787 Wilyer Abreu 23 0 1 4 2 0.304 0.407 0.348 0.755 Masataka Yoshida 3 0 0 0 1 0.333 0.333 0.333 0.667 Carlos Narváez 9 1 1 1 3 0.111 0.2 0.444 0.644 Roman Anthony 20 0 1 2 7 0.25 0.318 0.3 0.618 Trevor Story 21 0 0 1 5 0.238 0.273 0.286 0.558 Connor Wong 10 0 3 3 0 0.1 0.308 0.2 0.508 Jarren Duran 23 1 3 1 5 0.087 0.125 0.217 0.342 Team Total 208 7 31 18 40 0.269 0.332 0.433 0.765 Even over just the last 7 days, the main offenders continue to be Anthony, Story & Duran. But the 7 HRs and the 40/18 K/W look more sustainable.

DH Jarren Duran L 1B W. Contreras R LF R. Anthony L RF Wilyer Abreu L SS Trevor Story R 2B M. Mayer L CF C. Rafaela R C Connor Wong R 3B Caleb Durbin R Not sure why Duran played LF last night while Anthony DH'd, and today it is just the opposite. My preference is to have Duran in LF. But same lineup as last night, and this is my preferred lineup.

It's about being right or being wrong. Would you prefer Bregman, or would you prefer Suarez + Durbin?

The ratio is the key. 2.66 is very good for rookies.

His dominance has been that good that it’s been tough to stretch him out. He has an 11/3 K/W in all of 10 innings. As a 35 year old pitching to young kids, that's not really dominating. Rivera has a 11/0 in 6 IPs.

It's easy to overlook, but he is 10 for his last 41 with an 11/5 K/W. That's not much, but epically better than he had been doing.

If both Cro and Gray are back, Bello goes down. If only one is back, I'd probably still go with Bennett, but I'm not sure any ML team has gone with 5 LH SPs.

Suarez-Early-Tolle-Bello-Bennett.

Because he is unlikely to outplay them over the course of the season.

We don't have enough SPs for that.

I hope he's on the phone with his agent yelling at him. I'm never sure how these things work, but even without the injury, I see no way he gets any more service time this year, and maybe not next year. And I am not sure how seriously he takes this.

Nice AB by Narvaez. That was about 5 minutes of fouling off pitches. Hopefully, that HR gets Duran off the schneid. No one in the history of the world has figured out how slumps turn around. And good play on the DP by Contreras. After stepping on the bag, I thought for sure he was going to throw to 2nd and allow the runner back to 1st. And finally Ceddanne made a tough catch look easy. His fielding has been off this year.

IMO, they recognize that the idea of rotating everyone, is helping no one. I think the idea of leading off Duran, every day, is the best l/t solution.

I'm okay with some small variance. But as I've posted before, if Story, Duran and Duran had their 2025 OPS, then we'd be tied for 8th in OPS. Those three, plus Crochet & Bello, is where 90% of the problem is. FWIW, you can do the same exercise with Crochet & Bello. If we substitute their 2025 ERAs for their 2026 ERAs, our new ERA would be 3.32, good for 4th in MLB. And I know that some guys will always go sideways, but I see no reason to pretend that this isn't the problem, or to pretend that Bichette and Alfonso is the solution.

Only if you have 2026 in mind. Philly has already spent $236M in 2027, and we spent $180M. And they spent $172M in 2030 (mostly for 37 year old players) while we have only a $110M obligation. These things matter.

Only if one thinks Duran won't have positive regression.