Tenacious D

If I’m reading Fangraphs WAR properly, his was higher than a lot of guys in our lineup last season. I know—pretty low bar.

I think the one to watch as it pertains to Jung is Zach Neto, who went one pick after him.

Basically the same lineup coming back, so hopefully we’ll see improvements from Baez, Meadows and Schoop. Agree that better collective performance from the lineup will help them.

Saw a funny comment on Twitter that he was just going through his midlife crisis.

No, they were in the same ballparks. And neither delivered in them. Hopeful for this season, though.

Greene’s OPS was under .700—basically the equivalent of a backup infielder. If we give him the benefit of the doubt, we should extend that to Torkelson, too. For our sake, let’s call it growing pains for both and hope the new coaches in charge of player development can help make any necessary adjustments.

I don’t know why everyone piles on Tork, but Greene gets a free pass? Is it because he dives for balls? I would argue Tork was as important to the team defensively, routinely digging out shitty throws from Baez, who probably would have committed closer to 40 errors. I don’t think we should write off any of the guys I listed, but the returns have been underwhelming (so far) for players of their pedigree. (Mize and Faedo due to injuries that were out of their control). This team could easily turn around quickly if some combination of those guys can start to live up to the promise, and other youngsters like Keith, Perez, Flores, Olsen and/or Madden soon progress to the majors. But if these things happen, should Avila still be so reviled? I liked his offseason moves last year (as did everyone else), and the collective team performance was inexplicable. How does one team endure the number of pitching injuries they had and every hitter hitting significantly below expectations?

Complaining about last season is a waste of time, unless you enjoy dancing on Avila’s grave. More energy should be spent around the quality and lack of activity this offseason and whether or not we are starting a new rebuild. I know Harris has understandably avoided that term publicly, but it’s pretty clear that is where we’re at given the underwhelming return to-date from our #1’s (Manning, Faedo, Mize, Greene and Tork), along with the questions with Jung.

Again, moot. I have more regrets that we have wasted time discussing this than seeing the 4A guy go to LA. Next!

Hill might have already been gone from the org. But it sounds like you agree that Baddoo and Carpenter both should have been higher in the pecking order than Thompson. If anything, I could have been onboard with dumping Reyes for Thompson, exchanging one journeyman for another. Again—a moot point, given ML’s intel.

I would have been pissed if they had given AB’s to a career 4A player vs Hill, Baddoo, Cameron or Carpenter, each of which were considerably younger and are/were still prospects. Giving playing time to a career minor leaguer, who was basically organizational filler, in an effort to win 1-2 more games during a lost season would have been dumb. I’m still pissed that we wasted so many AB’s on Reyes and the Castros as it was.

Yes, but you can verify qualitatively and assign a value to it.

I don’t think this will happen this season, with Schoop and Miggy being the particular suspects. Harris has made it clear he wants the kids getting the playing time.

Speaking of Robbie, I think he’s still a free agent. Kind of surprised since Atlanta had so famously fixed him.

for everyone's sanity, I would not give any credence to any mock that shows us selecting a TE in the first round.

really don't understand this, but I did follow you on Twitter anyways.

SB gonna be Philly v Cincinnati

How about the Jaguars in it until the end vs the Chiefs, when we beat them 40-14? The way that the Lions were playing at the end (minus Carolina game), we might have been able to surprise some teams had we made the playoffs.

Yes. Hoping All-Star break. If he shows anything at Toledo, he’ll get the chance.

Deservedly so—he’s legit. Was only 22 at Erie last season.

Sorry, but Kevin Costner proved you wrong when he selected Vontae Mack (no matter what).

This has the potential to become the least interesting docuseries ever.

Isn’t the primary reason to draft a QB more of a developmental opportunity? Of course having a good backup QB in the event of an injury wouldn’t be awful either—if Goff had a serious injury, it would likely sabotage the season.

I wish those scamps could have been adopted together. At least they can FaceTime each other.