Tenacious D

Baez v Garrett will be interesting, this inning or next.

I like him. Rushed to the majors, he’s made some nice adjustments and really bailed out this pitching staff. Hope his upside is close to a Doug Fister-type.

Agree. Barring an injury or two, I’d expect that they cut him loose after the AS break.

Nothing—if he were waived, he’d clear. No one would pick up his contract. I could see a team taking a chance on him for the minimum.

Stay away from sports talk radio. It will have an adverse effect on your IQ.

I’d rather see Reyes there, which is saying a lot.

Can still do one of those things. The signing does look disastrous. However, you can’t punt on the next 6 years of it.

Does make you wonder how much the Red Sox tried to retain him? He also signed a very team friendly contract for the first two years of the deal—does he have remorse?

Thought he quit for religious reasons (mission work)?

I would certainly temper expectations for this year, but I think it's a bit rough to suggest he can't return to what he has been in the past. I don't hold injuries against a player's performance--I think a reset for next season is what's best. I'd count on him to be a contributor in 2023-24, while still under contract. Looking ahead to 2023, I'd count on the following position players only: 1B Torkelson, 2B Baez (has to move off SS), CF Greene and RF Meadows. None of these guys have warranted this status, but will be given it, based on their prospect pedigree or contract situation. Question marks, including C Jake Rogers, UT Jonathan Schoop and Eric Haase, OF Akil Baddoo, Daz Cameron and Derek Hill might be in play. Miggy, given his contract situation, will be in some capacity. Everyone else is either suspect (Candelario, the Castro brothers, Barnhart, Reyes) or too young to be counted on (Keith, Pacheco, Wenceel Perez). Kind of bleak considering that our owner has deemed the rebuild over.

Barnhart is a bust. 6 extra base hits and a sub .300 SLG? His defense isn’t good enough to make up for that—I’d rather have Garneau up right now. I also have to take issue with Baez’ defense—he has the athleticism to play SS, but his arm sucks. Torkelson has bailed him out numerous times this year by digging crappy throws out of the dirt. The sooner we can find a SS to move him to 2B, the better. Also, I think Pineda has pitched the way I expected. His only issue was his injury. He was signed a a 5th starter.

Probably organizational innings eater.

His teammates aren’t stupid—if he does not have a legitimate reason to be away from the team, he will likely not get much sympathy or be held in very high regard, especially with all of the injuries to our starting pitching this season. Again, though, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt until we learn otherwise.

Who’s sleeping 🤣 (he was called up a while ago). Has scuffled a bit in Erie since his recall. Was en fuego in WM, though.

Somebody on the Tweeter proposed trading Skubal for a big haul, given the dearth of available good starting pitching. Would be an easier decision to make if you thought ERod was coming back. I’m OK with punting on this season. Call up Fister, Porcello and Milt Wilcox and see if anyone wants to pitch some innings. Or move Harold to the rotation and bring up Zach Short to pitch the garbage innings.

I think he’s already previously said he would retire after this contract.

I thought I read somewhere that Clemens doesn’t have the arm to play 3B. If he can, that would be ideal. Wish Kreidler didn’t have his setback—would be nice to get him some reps there.

Personally, I’m not interested in W-L anymore this season. There’s no moral victory getting within 10 games of .500. Or achieving .500 record. I want to see if our hitters can get it together in the 2nd half. We will likely see regression from our young starting pitchers as well as stricter pitch/innings limits. We should also look to move a reliever or two if we can upgrade elsewhere. Dump Grossman and reduce playing time for Schoop and Candy. More AB’s for Clemens, Baddoo, Cameron, etc. Let them take their lumps. Hopefully there is a Turnbull and Jake Rogers sighting before the end of the season. Reset for 2023 and pray for an Avila dismissal.

Would prefer to see Lange pitch the 9th tonight. Fulmer is my 2nd choice.

In Chicago this weekend and watched the postgame show last night—they made it seem like it was impossible for the White Sox to lose that game. Really took it hard.

No idea what this means

We’re gonna learn he’s hurt.

The All-Star write up in the Athletic today was brutal—Javy listed as the LeastVP in the AL, with damning evidence.

I think our all-star obligated rep will be either Fulmer or Soto. Or, if the AL team gets lucky, Miggy will satisfy representation from the Tigers.