casimir

JC gettin' deep today.

Just not at 3B, please.

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Drat.

It was Manning’s foot.

Failed starter, failed geography.

We also heard the rumor of Leyland playing a guy or two more than he should have to prove a point to Dombrowski. So, I’m not sure how much I buy into the current situation. Or maybe it’s a slick move by salty managers.

Well, it’s baseball, so yes.

Stanton has a few seasons where his extra base hits are about the same number as his singles.

Same here.

It seems there are a lot of position players to sort through, but its still debatable what the lineup could be heading out of Lakeland. Further maturation of the Carpenter/Greene/Torkelson bats would be helpful. I'm just not sure that's enough stability in house to be competitive enough. Baez is just so questionable anymore. Everyone else returning just doesn't have the floor/ceiling and/or are too young to count on giving the offense enough of a boost. Pitching is going to need some help. The rotation, in particular, doesn't seem to have the adequate 40 man depth heading into next season. Personally I wouldn't count on Turnbull or Rodriguez returning. Mize is still in recovery/rehab mode, so what are the reasonable expectations out of him next season? Skubal, Manning, Olson, and Mize seems rather thin to start with. They're going to need help here.

Part of the risk for anyone trading for him was the lack of innings pitched/season heading into this season. The Tigers traded him at 105 2/3 IP. He hasn't pitched over 100 at the MLB level since 2015. Stamina for August/September was going to be questionable even if he does keep himself in good shape.

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I felt confident you weren’t steering me wrong way there.

I like that the date and address of the invite use Roman numerals. It’s a nice touch.

It’s possible. It’s also possible that this is their low point of the season and they rebound and find themselves in their respective conference championships. We just don’t for certainty who’s who and what’s what for this season. This is especially true for a team like Colorado that turned over so much of its roster.

I originally agreed with this, but I've changed my mind. I think there's ample room for at least one of Malloy/Keith in Detroit right now. With Greene on the IL, that's going to impact Vierling's time at 3B as he'll be needed more for the OF. Nevin & Ibanez have no future in Detroit and Harris had mentioned before about earmarking playing time for younger players.

I'll add this: Way back when, Harris mentioned earmarking playing time for younger players. Yet, there are lockers for Nevin & Ibanez in Detroit while Malloy & Keith are still in Toledo.

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I think part of it is due to still being mired in a long stretch of mediocrity at the MLB level. It’s not reasonable to expect a division title right away heading into this season. As it turns out, it might have been more achievable than thought. Maybe the division winner being only a games above .500 is part of the angst, I don’t know.

I’d rather see these kinds of matchups as opposed to playing Crappensburg State.

Short and sweet, Harris had a lot of tasks ahead of him. He hasn’t been perfect and there’s still a lot more to do. Overall I think he has the organization going in the right direction, but time will tell. I think this off-season needs to be a bit different than last season. I think last year was about raising the floor of the 40 man depth chart. I think this off-season is more about plugging holes at the major league level.

I got nothing rational to explain for Nevin over Malloy aside from it must be a combination of Malloy’s defense not being ready enough in their evaluation and not being on the 40 man. I think the other thing to keep in mind is that teams have only 2 extra roster spots to play with these days. It’s different from before when teams could fill up the dugout and roster with whomever was on the 40. So, it wasn’t uncommon for teams to have differing number of players in any given September matchup. It was quite an odd arrangement if you take a step back from it and look at it. It was kind of as odd as the NFL 3rd QB rule where the first two QBs had to be knocked out before the 3rd could come into a game, and I think that was restricted to the 2nd half, too. I’m probably in the minority, but I think limiting the roster expansion makes sense. It doesn’t make sense to play one month of the season with a significantly different number of available players than the rest of the season. Plus, the minor leagues go longer into the year now. Before the roster rule change, AAA regular season stopped at Labor Day. Now it goes into late September. So, the prospects that would have normally gotten called up at Labor Day with no other playing option get a few more weeks of playing time in the minors.

Personally, I define it as “I’m done with the Andy Ibanez experience, please call someone up on his place”.

Man, I’ve been awful lately.