Shinzaki Posted July 26 Posted July 26 The has never been a more appropriately named baseball playercthan James Outman Quote
Sports_Freak Posted July 26 Posted July 26 1 hour ago, 1984Echoes said: I would prefer the Randy Johnson return when he was a pending free agent. The Mariners received: Freddy Garcia Carlos Gillen John Halama Yeah, I kinda trust Harris will ask for a big haul for Skubal. Either that or he'll keep him. But there are a few teams that may decide to go all in. I heard Ohtani may have had a setback in a bullpen session. That may trigger the Dodgers. Quote
monkeytargets39 Posted July 26 Posted July 26 13 minutes ago, Shinzaki said: The has never been a more appropriately named baseball playercthan James Outman The pitcher named Grant Balfour? 1 Quote
casimir Posted July 26 Author Posted July 26 2 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said: They're done. They only have these little series wins against the Cubs just to tease us that maybe, just maybe and then they show what they really are - a bunch of stiffs with Mr. Tinkers the Manager. It's over. No playoffs in 2026, No baseball in 2027, Who knows in 2028. I’m not interested in participating in writing them off right now. They’re still in the playoff race even after 2 losses to the Royals. 1 1 Quote
casimir Posted July 26 Author Posted July 26 2 hours ago, chasfh said: I have to defend McKinstry's base running overall here. While it's true he is one for five in SBs and has been picked off three times, stealing bases is not the end all-be all of base running. There is also the art of reading defenses and taking the extra base, and coming into the game today, McKinstry was at 56% versus league average of 42%, which puts him in the 86th percentile. So by that measure, he is actually a pretty good baserunner. Of course, his attempt to take third on a single to left field down one to end the eighth doesn't help the case I am making for him here ... 😏 He’s not the worst baserunners in baseball. Stats will back me up here. But I don’t think that was a good send. I don’t know if that’s on the base coach or McKinstry or both. It was a bang bang play, but, if memory serves me correctly, it wasn’t the best of throws/relays to get him. It was on the bag, but I don’t think it was particularly strong. Now in defense of sending up, the bottom of the order was up, so tough to assume a single to score him from 2B. Quote
casimir Posted July 26 Author Posted July 26 2 hours ago, chasfh said: Well, look, yesterday and today were tough losses, there's no denying that. We needed at least three of four from one of the worst teams in the game who are without their best two players, and we didn't get that done. Now to get that 7-3 homestand we wanted, we have to take five of six from the O's and the A's. Tall order. The series vs ATH is a roady, the beginning of 3 series out west. Check your pocket schedule. Quote
1984Echoes Posted July 27 Posted July 27 54 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said: Yeah, I kinda trust Harris will ask for a big haul for Skubal. Either that or he'll keep him. But there are a few teams that may decide to go all in. I heard Ohtani may have had a setback in a bullpen session. That may trigger the Dodgers. I think the one KEY event that would trigger the Dodgers is... The Brewers deciding to chase Skubal to pair up with Miz. The biggest potential "Dodgers-Killers" in 2026? Pairing up Misiorowski-Skubal as a 1-2 punch. And they have the farm system to match, or nearly match, what the Yankees could offer. They've done this before with CC Sabathia. Would they do it again? With Skubal? The Dodgers are HELL-BENT on trying to win three straight Championships this year. The ONE thought that would scare the beJEEBers out of them? Facing the Brewers and a 1-2 Skubal-Miz punch. THAT would drive them to go after Skubal and outbid everyone else. They want a guarantee, or as close to one as they can get. IMO. To be honest, I believe that is the ONE, and... possibly... the ONLY scenario that would get Harris the return package that he wants. The Brewers and the Dodgers fighting over Skubal. Every other team/ scenario, my guess is they would drop out of the picture early. Methinks. Therefore... I want the Brewers and the Dodgers fighting over Skubal. 1 Quote
IdahoBert Posted July 27 Posted July 27 43 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said: I think the one KEY event that would trigger the Dodgers is... The Brewers deciding to chase Skubal to pair up with Miz. The biggest potential "Dodgers-Killers" in 2026? Pairing up Misiorowski-Skubal as a 1-2 punch. And they have the farm system to match, or nearly match, what the Yankees could offer. They've done this before with CC Sabathia. Would they do it again? With Skubal? The Dodgers are HELL-BENT on trying to win three straight Championships this year. The ONE thought that would scare the beJEEBers out of them? Facing the Brewers and a 1-2 Skubal-Miz punch. THAT would drive them to go after Skubal and outbid everyone else. They want a guarantee, or as close to one as they can get. IMO. To be honest, I believe that is the ONE, and... possibly... the ONLY scenario that would get Harris the return package that he wants. The Brewers and the Dodgers fighting over Skubal. Every other team/ scenario, my guess is they would drop out of the picture early. Methinks. Therefore... I want the Brewers and the Dodgers fighting over Skubal. That makes a lot of sense. Thx. 1 Quote
monkeytargets39 Posted July 27 Posted July 27 (edited) The problem is that there’s no tried and true way to fix a bullpen. I don’t really think it’s fair to say Harris is any better or worse at this than any other GM. Look at some of these other pens around the league. The amount of blown leads that we have had is obviously a problem. Going into this year, I think we all felt that the combo of Holton/Hurter/Finnegan/Vest/Jansen/Anderson would be at least serviceable. It’s not something I want to see us spend a ton of money or assets on because there are so few relievers who are generally consistently good for long stretches of time. Spending lots of money on pitching has seemingly been a disaster for the last 30 years. Almost every noteworthy pitcher we’ve had in the last 30 years has been someone we either acquired via trade/DFA or drafted ourselves. If they’re free agents, you have to wonder why their previous team didn’t keep them considering how valuable good pen arms are. I’d rather see us take starters in the system and convert them to relievers and build up a bullpen that way—and then we can send them down/stretch them back out if needed. Madden has been pretty solid in the pen and Montero has been fantastic. A lot of relievers are “failed” starters anyway, so why not just lean into that and make it generally a systemic path to the majors for a lot of these guys and then give them shots at the rotation as they become available if they’re performing? Go into the fall/offseason and spring looking at guys like Reese Olson, Jake Miller, Ty Madden, and Troy Watson as legitimate pen options instead of starter depth in the minors. You figure Valdez, Melton, Jobe and Montero can easily be 4/5 SP options and then whomever else we sign or acquire. Whichever of the guys above don’t win that other spot can all be pen options. I’d rather do that than keep relying on these guys who are all about one pitch and if they don’t have it working then they have no idea how to manage at bats and get weak contact. Have your absolute top SP prospects like Sears continue to start, but who really cares if most other minor league games are “bullpen days”? Edited July 27 by monkeytargets39 Quote
romad1 Posted July 27 Posted July 27 10 hours ago, casimir said: I’m not interested in participating in writing them off right now. They’re still in the playoff race even after 2 losses to the Royals. Yes and... Yes and I'm frustrated as a fan by their inability to make a move this year to expand on their good runs of the past two years. Yes and last year's offensive swoon really still seems just below the surface. Yes and I'm sick as a fan of a proud franchise in a city that deserves a championship (save the ones that U-Mich has) hasn't had a championship in a decade that this does not appear to be the year. and this is the really biggest part Yes, and I'm sick to death of fans of the elite franchises thinking they have some right to our best player. 1 Quote
monkeytargets39 Posted July 27 Posted July 27 (edited) 1 hour ago, romad1 said: Yes and... Yes and I'm frustrated as a fan by their inability to make a move this year to expand on their good runs of the past two years. Yes and last year's offensive swoon really still seems just below the surface. Yes and I'm sick as a fan of a proud franchise in a city that deserves a championship (save the ones that U-Mich has) hasn't had a championship in a decade that this does not appear to be the year. and this is the really biggest part Yes, and I'm sick to death of fans of the elite franchises thinking they have some right to our best player. They do until we improve our franchise competitiveness and payroll willingness to keep them…..We didn’t have a problem with that from 2006-2014. Players wanted to come here in free agency because we were a contender and we paid them. The prospect pipeline has to continually be getting replenished and the hit rate on them has to be solid. We’ve done well with that since the late Avila years through now—but the cupboard is lacking depth at certain positions, namely pitching. Trading away someone to keep that replenishment line going is worth it if you have the right scouting. After this cluster of Clark/Anderson/etc., there really isn’t another wave of guys who appear to be primed to help for another couple of seasons until we get into Briceno/Rainer/Sears/etc. That said….signing Skubal to an expensive long term deal isn’t worth it anyway. Pitcher health is just too volatile—you can probably name the number of huge pitcher contracts that paid off for the duration of the deal on one hand without missed seasons or a complete breakdown of effectiveness for at least some lengthy stretch. Edited July 27 by monkeytargets39 Quote
chasfh Posted July 27 Posted July 27 14 hours ago, gehringer_2 said: If RHH hunt 'hanging' sliders from RHP, what do you call it when a LHH gets a low slider from a LHP with no depth, and that isn't breaking left to right enough to either buckle him off the plate inside or make him miss outside? I guess you call it a HOME RUN. Yeah, perfect pitches placed perfectly are very hard to throw consistently. Those who can are All-Stars. Those who can only occasionally are bullpen guys. Quote
chasfh Posted July 27 Posted July 27 1 hour ago, romad1 said: Yes, and I'm sick to death of fans of the elite franchises thinking they have some right to our best player. And stoked by the national media that call their teams’ markets home. Quote
Nate7474 Posted July 27 Posted July 27 1 hour ago, monkeytargets39 said: They do until we improve our franchise competitiveness and payroll willingness to keep them…..We didn’t have a problem with that from 2006-2014. Players wanted to come here in free agency because we were a contender and we paid them. The prospect pipeline has to continually be getting replenished and the hit rate on them has to be solid. We’ve done well with that since the late Avila years through now—but the cupboard is lacking depth at certain positions, namely pitching. Trading away someone to keep that replenishment line going is worth it if you have the right scouting. After this cluster of Clark/Anderson/etc., there really isn’t another wave of guys who appear to be primed to help for another couple of seasons until we get into Briceno/Rainer/Sears/etc. That said….signing Skubal to an expensive long term deal isn’t worth it anyway. Pitcher health is just too volatile—you can probably name the number of huge pitcher contracts that paid off for the duration of the deal on one hand without missed seasons or a complete breakdown of effectiveness for at least some lengthy stretch. Paying pitchers to me is like pay running backs in the NFL you really only do it for the truly elite ones and even then you try to do the shortest time period you can. I would much rather pay position players and rotate cheaper pitching even if it means that I never truly have an amazing pitching staff. Quote
chasfh Posted July 27 Posted July 27 3 minutes ago, Nate7474 said: Paying pitchers to me is like pay running backs in the NFL you really only do it for the truly elite ones and even then you try to do the shortest time period you can. I would much rather pay position players and rotate cheaper pitching even if it means that I never truly have an amazing pitching staff. I could probably name 30 or so GMs who agree with you. But the market is what it is. If you need a 2x Cy Young Award winner to help you maximize your window for the next four years and another team is willing to give him seven years to sign with them, then you either have to cough up eight years to win him over, or punt on maximizing your window and then explain to your fan base why you didn't sign Cy Young guy. So there's a good chance you'll give him the eight years. Figuring out what to do with Cy Young guy during the back half of the deal is for Future You to worry about, because Present You needs to win today. 1 Quote
gehringer_2 Posted July 27 Posted July 27 1 hour ago, chasfh said: Yeah, perfect pitches placed perfectly are very hard to throw consistently. Those who can are All-Stars. Those who can only occasionally are bullpen guys. Sommers' slider is so horizontal I'm almost surprised he's been pretty good against LHB. But it seems for a lot of guys they can get away with more missing with the slider up/down than left/right. Leave it in the middle horizontally, and even if it's down, it's trouble. I've think I've seen Casey Mize get hurt a lot on sliders that were down right at the bottom edge but too much in the middle. You'd think that's a decent pitch being on the bottom rail, but often not. Quote
kdog Posted July 27 Posted July 27 This team doesn't have the offense to win a lot of high margin games...they are reliant on homers and slugging to score. But they don't have the bullpen or defense to win the high leverage game. It's a tough mix. Quote
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