casimir

In fairness to Cron, that "season" in Detroit was COVID 2020 and he only played 13 games. You look at his stats, and that is the outlier "season" for him, but its just a short sample size. Someone like Cron would be great this offseason if they could find one that plays OF and/or 3B.

Nobody ever points the finger at Ball Park Franks and how they plumped when they were cooked, but I think 1957 and beyond is suspect. Hell, Gates Brown was caught red handed and mustard yellow shirted in the middle of a game.

That's interesting. This brings up the probability of cross country travel in earlier rounds, but there's also the possibility of Portland vs New Orleans or Memphis in the first round, and that ain't exactly a quick trip either. I would like to see reracking of the playoff bracket. Best team remaining faces worst team remaining. If 1 beats 8, 2 beats 7, 6 beats 3, and 4 beats 5, next round would be 1 vs 6 and 2 vs 4 rather than 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 6.

Spot on. ISO is down, but that kind of parallels HR%. Essentially he's hitting more ground balls than in the past, he's getting the ball off of the bat as soundly as he has in the past.

Might be able to going forward.

So, Wilmer Flores the 3Bdude was chatted about here as a possible 3B option for next season. He resigned with the Giants. I wonder what involvement Harris had with that? Couldn't he give him a wink and a nod before finalizing that deal?

Nah, that title has been taken. He drove the snakes out of Poland and we drink good beer every March 4th.

Yes, further back and higher don't seem to jive.

Maybe Harris brings Avila back as GM? They have that common vision of the strike zone.

The wall out there looks odd, but I think Detroit has been the beneficiary of it a few times already this series.

That's gonna sound weird in the middle of Idaho.

I really like what Harris said about the importance of the strike zone and all of the possible effects. Leverage & strategy by pitch counts, workloads on pitchers by game/series, the degree of contact off of the bat. I think its something that is understood to those that follow the game. But its nice to hear it from a top level executive as simply and concisely as he put it.

Teddy Castro is 0 for his last 17? Hey, we got a slapped groundball past the SS.

Cameron and Short might want to start networking for next season.

So does CJ Cron. A better hitter over the same time frame and at the cost of one season of Cabrera.

It seems like the Scherzer deal was more about a clash of egos. Just from what I remember, reading through the tea leaves, there was some back and forth discussion about an extension and then an absolute about face that nearly included name calling from both sides. It just seemed like a negotiation that never went anywhere and someone walked away from the table and that was that. Verlander was just an awful trade that didn't need to be made. But, bad GM did bad GM things, and here we are. I don't think Cabrera's contract factored in either case. That's not to say Cabrera's contract extension wasn't bad. The extension started in what, 2016? I estimated OPS+ for the time period, weighted by season OPS+ & season PAs, but it should be a reasonable guesstimate. Maybe its just me, but that 162 game average is unimpressive for the contract that he has.

Indeed. I think most folks, and I'm as guilty as anyone else, look at free agency as the way to bring in different MLB ready talent. I'm interested to see what they do on the trade front this offseason.

I kind'of wish I was day drinking, too.

I can see a durable middle rotation SP, a RHH OF, and an IF as likely targets this offseason. I also wouldn't be surprised if they just go SP and RHH OF. There's not much available on the IF front in FA.

I agree, that doesn't pass the sniff test.

I didn't think Shepard was that bad with the interview. Morris, on the other hand, ... ugh. I don't recall the exact ridiculous question Morris asked, but it was obvious Shepard tried to clean it up and save face for the broadcast crew while lining up another question for Harris. Honestly, given dancing around the uncertainty of how a baseball inning goes, and it obviously clear to either side whether it was due to go one half inning or one full inning, I would think that's not the easiest interview to pull off. Add in the fact that this is the first time these guys have talked to each other, so its not like the interview with Tyler Alexander where there is some already existent familiarity among the group. And kudos to Harris for playing along with Morris. Again, I don't remember the exact question, and it might not have even been a question but rather Drunk Uncle Jack rambling on and he finished up with "I can't wait to pick your brain" to Harris. Harris offered the same line back to Morris when he could have just brushed it off. It seems like Harris does place some weight into different perspectives and data points, and (OK, kids, here is where you make sure you aren't driving or operating heavy machinery) maybe Morris might something to offer every once in a while. Or maybe, and probably moreso, Harris was just smart enough to play nice.

I'd add in that the pixy dust being used on some of the pitching needs to continue as well as continued growth from Torkelson and Greene. One thing that I liked about the presser was the emphasis on getting into the work to continuously improve rather than structure goals around a 3 to 5 year plan to improve. They have players to reasonably build around (there's some risk with younger players, but I think Torkelson & Greene are cornerstones to bank on offensively & defensively), they have the capacity to add players (as you mention with the $45M below average), and they have some bench filler pieces to work with. It just seems like with Avila, it was sit back and tank, rely on the odds of higher draft slots working out in the long term. Well, that might work in the long run, but its not a guarantee. And along the way, there's still the major league product to worry about. That's the reason the organization exists and it can't be ignore for season after season after season.

Its not that difficult of a concept to understand. The math might lose folks. But the theory is really pretty simple.

Well, but remember that there are only 2 extra slots to use in September vs the rest of the year. Its possible that Pittsburgh (or anyone else) shuffles its active roster a bit more on a daily basis at the very end of the year to keep arms fresh.

The only defense to it is that it did take two almost perfect relays from the outfielder and the cutoff to get Candelario at home on a very close play. But as you alluded to, given the situation, why chance it?