monkeytargets39

I don’t want to see DeJesus in this organization after today.

Fantastic

If Keith hit that, it wouldn’t be a HR

Thanks Tork, that helps

He’s pretty clearly safe. Not sure wtf is happening

At least if Gage plays first he won’t have to make that many throws

Tork just playing his way out of town

Wow a pitcher that can field his position!

The problem with Tork waiting for his pitch is that even when he gets it he rarely barrels it

Gage “Chuck Knoblauch” Workman

I care waaaaay less about the Ks if he’s hitting in the .300s and OBPing .400s

3-run Homerun EnGAGEd

It pains me to say this because I had high hopes not that long ago…. We are getting dangerously close to the point where are going to have to break apart this core a bit. Not saying a full rebuild is needed or anything that dramatic—but it’s just obvious that some of these guys just don’t work together on the same roster. Offensively and defensively, you can easily build around McGonigle, Dingler and Riley Greene. Greenes defense isn’t great, but you can live with it if he’s going to hit like he is. He’s made adjustments from last year and has exceeded my expectations. Unless they all have huge second halves, I think we are going to have to choose to keep one of Tork, Carpenter and Keith after this year. My vote would be Keith, but then the plan has to be primary DH/backup 1B. Carp is fun but can’t stay healthy and has gotten worse overall as time has gone by aside from his occasional heroic moments. Tork just isn’t gonna figure it out here. Maybe another org can help him, but it’s just not clicking and there’s no reason to re-sign him in the future. We need to either look at Max Anderson as a 1B option next year or go find an everyday 1B somewhere. 2B needs to be McGonigles home every day next year. Nothing against Torres, but we can do a lot with that $22 million to fix other holes. We have one more year of Javy after this one—just stick him at SS and maybe platoon him with McKinstry. We are going to need a 3B. Keith ain’t it. Aside from Hao Yu Lee, I don’t know what we do here. There’s nothing coming open via Free Agency. We need someone who is above average defensively for this pitching staff. As for OF, Riley is locked in, and you’d have to assume Max Clark will be given every chance to take CF by next spring. Vierling can be the backup to all 3 spots. Jones needs to go. Perez is at the point now where he’s almost valueless because of his defense. You could run Carpenter in RF, but expect him to miss time, and then we run into the problem of having 3 LH outfielders again. You could probably shop Carpenter to a team with a short RF porch and get something good in return. Meadows needs to either make the team and perform or stay in AAA. If we end up not trying to retain Skubal, then maybe you throw a bunch of money at Seiya Suzuki. Dingler is at C. Rogers can stay until Briceno/Liranzo/etc are ready. The obvious key with the pitching staff is health, but a planned 2026 rotation of Valdez, Mize, Jobe, Melton, Montero should at least be competitive. Add in Olson as a wildcard plus there are actually plenty of decent mid-rotation free agents we could go after. If we can shore up the defense and catch a bit of a break health-wise, this unit can be acceptable. Bullpen needs a lot of work and hopefully the last year and a half has drilled that into Harris’ brain. Holton, Hurter, Vest and Finnegan are the only keepers. Brieske is a wildcard. Hanifee could be useful if we have a good infield defense. Otherwise, for the love of god get some guys with legit swing and miss and who can pound the strike zone effectively. No more bargain bin hunting. If the Diamondbacks fall out of the race this year, maybe look to try and do Carp/Tork for Arenado/prospects so we can have a competent glove at 3B next year. AZ needs an outfielder/DH and maybe Tork plays better if he’s closer to home. if you can run this out next year: C- Dingler/Rogers 1B- Anderson/Keith 2B- McGonigle/Anderson SS- Baez/McKinstry 3B- Arenado/McKinstry LF- Greene/Vierling CF- Clark/Meadows RF- Suzuki/Vierling DH- Keith I think you dramatically improve the defense both with a regular starting lineup as well as the bench. You have an even LH/RH amount in the lineup and can mix and match to play platoons if you really need to. No one on the roster has to absolutely be benched due to handedness except maybe Keith. Even if there are injuries, you have a bit more competent depth with Lee, Jung, Malgeri, Cruz all having youth, defensive versatility and slight offensive upside. SP- Valdez, Mize, Jobe, Melton/Olson/Montero RP- Vest, Hurter, Holton, Hanifee, Finnegan (whomever doesn’t make the rotation), plus 2 premium free agent signings. We just have to get more athletic, consistent and healthy. Unfortunately the players we need to start moving on from quickly are some of the ones fans are attached to. Harris has to make tough decisions this offseason if we can’t get this ship righted. A wildcard berth this year shouldn’t be celebrated as a win even with the injury issues. We spent a lot of money and need it to pay off.

Most of our current guys don’t have gloves to play their positions either

These guys stink

Well at least Paws won the great mascot race

I meant more that he stood there yapping with the ump a bit

We have two challenges Tork. JFC

What’s the point of McKinstry if his defense isn’t going to be good?

I expect almost nothing of Olson going forward. If he does come back and have an impact, I’d consider it a bonus. Jobe I’m still expecting a high probability of him being a top 1-3 starter. He has more time on his side and less mileage on the arm.

Side note— it’s kind of telling about the depth of the organization when we have Javy and Torres go down, and the two guys to replace them are Zach Short and Gage Workman—guys this organization had given up on years ago. If we need another outfielder soon are we going to trade for Derek Hill?

The more I actually sit and think about it, the more I’m a lot more understanding of Chris Illitch. He’s shown that he will spend—although it’s not as often as we want him to as fans….but look at it from the other side. Could he spend half a billion to lock up Skubal for the next 8-10 years? Sure….but the outlook on the team/org as a whole doesn’t support that. We have 2 guys on our offense that are complete players: McGonigle and Dingler. Maybe you could throw Torres in there if he can get fully healthy. Tork- occasional HR power in between looking lost and overmatched at the plate. Gets hot for a short stretch every 5-6 weeks to make it seem like he’s turned a corner when he really hasn’t. Riley- Best overall offensively weapon, but an absolute wet noodle of an arm. Is 25 and always needs days off in the field. Doesn’t run well for some reason. Carpenter- Sells out for power, doesn’t walk enough and can’t hit lefties much at all Keith- Borderline unplayable on defense at any position. Power has regressed sharply. Javy- Still swings at the low and away slider most of the time. Doesn’t walk, doesn’t hit for much power anymore. Meadows- Hasn’t shown he can hit with any consistency and can’t stay healthy—even though that’s not currently his fault this time, it still matters. Vierling- A 4th outfielder on a good team Jones- Can only hit lefties (allegedly) and is unplayable on defense McKinstry- Should be the 26th man on a good team, but we start him all the time because of platoon and defensive deficiencies with other players Rogers- Can’t hit. Perez- Below average defensively—and only really plays RF. Very inconsistent offensively. Then you’ve got the pitchers: Mize, Olson, SGL can’t make it half a season without ending up on the DL for extensive stints. Melton hopefully will come back strong, but it’s an unknown until then. Jobe is a complete unknown as far as what he will be when he’s back. Flaherty is completely washed. Framber was an excellent signing, but hasn’t paid off much at all to this point—and we have all of the pressure of carrying the pitching staff on him now. Keider Montero is one of the only players in the entire organization who is actually meeting and exceeding expectations. Vest, Holton, Hurter, Finnegan are all solid but unspectacular bullpen pieces Hanifee, Anderson, and Brieske are all inconsistent at best Jansen is at the finish line of his career and it’s showing and all the other arms shouldn’t arent good enough to be on major league rosters for any length of time or used in any important situations. Whats there to invest 400-500 million on for one or two players when that’s clearly not going to put us over the top until we clear the organization out from all the one-dimensional every day players?

They always have these things though. Year after year after year. Even when they purge half their roster every other season. So let’s look less at Hinch and more at Harris and our scouting/development team. Most of the players on our roster and even in the minors have MASSIVE flaws. That’s why Hinch has to manage the way he does with all the platooning, defensive versatility and bullpen chaos. If he had 9 guys he could throw in a lineup every day in the same position and get consistent results with—he’d do that. Granted, that takes time to build up in a system—but the lack of trades/solid signings and international signings are a major weakness and Harris has been here long enough now that we shouldn’t be seeing this much regression.

Rogers is a machine.