Figured it might be good to have a thread for general in-season discussion so the game/series threads stay clean and the other threads stay on topic. If this is a bad idea feel free to delete or if there is already a thread for this please point me in the right direction. To start off, now that several players are reaching the 50 pa threshold some of the stats are starting to take on meaning (although of course they will carry more meaning as time goes on and they reach 200 and 600 pa). Here are things I’ve noticed: Gurriel is walking a TON. Lack of walks was a mark against him when he came over from Cuba and to see him walking as much as he is might be a sign of him evolving as a hitter. His BABIP isn’t sustainable but if he really is taking a step forward at pitch recognition then it would make sense that he would walk more, strike out less, and make better contact when he does swing (resulting in higher babip). Worth tracking but it looks like that extension might’ve been a great move. Brantley, Tucker, and Alvarez are not walking much at all. Like Gurriel, this may still be noise but it’s worth following especially in Tucker and Alvarez. Tuckers BABIP of .154 is not sustainable so I expect his numbers to improve. Straw’s bat will be unplayable if he doesn’t start making better contact. His performance so far is about what a pessimist would have predicted: he doesn’t strike out much and walks plenty, but his contact profile is still so bad he hits for zero power and doesn’t get on base often despite his speed. If he doesn’t show some improvement then I would expect them to do something at CF at mid season, whether that’s promote an internal option (Siri, Dawson, Leon) or make a trade (Gallo, Canha, Marte).
So what's going on with the pitching, I know hitting has its ups and down but it seems we are giving up 5+ runs every game.
Not too worried, yet. Greinke was great in his first start, had a bad outing the next. Same for McC. Odo had a bad outing but I'd expect he'll be better. Javier is getting stretched out in the minors and Framber will be back after several weeks. Urq is TBD for me...just need consistency. I think they'll be better than what they've shown this past week. They were much better the week prior...it should balance out by June. I hope.
Yeah I agree there’s not much we can determine about the pitching at this point. All 6 SP have question marks and a wide range of floor/ceiling. Really the only thing I am taking from the first 2 weeks is that it’s lookin more likely they will need to do something in CF.
I'm annoyed that McCormick is sitting on the bench with his .939 OPS and hasn't started a game in CF yet. No, I don't think he would be that kind of player, but I could see him having an OPS in the .700-.750 range which is far better than Straw.
I wouldn’t read much into Chas’ numbers. I’m skeptical of Straw being an everyday player but there don’t appear to be any clear internal upgrades. If they vacillate too much at CF they also risk failing to learn what they have with any of them. Hopefully Straw takes off or they’re able to make a trade.
I am totally on board with giving Straw 200 pa to see if he can improve. After that if he is still posting a wRC+ <90 I would hope they’d be beating the bushes for an upgrade. Parsing thru other teams CF depth chart here is the tiered list of somewhat realistic possibilities: Stars and borderline stars: Ketel Marte Ramon Laureano Starling Marte Whit Merrifield Joey Gallo Mike Yaz Decent everyday guys: Mark Canha Manuel Margot Ian Happ Shogo Akiyama Austin Slater Fringe players: Kevin Pillar Kevin Kiermaier Jake Marisnick Odubel Herrera Ender Inciarte
While the 5 game skid is obviously not ideal...it’s important to recognize that the world isn’t on fire/ no need to go into panic mode...LAA is 7-5, HOU 6-6...long season to go.
If Crane had placed the $300 million that Correa wants in Doge coin many months back, he'd be sitting on a $2 billion + profit today. #DogeToTheMoon
Been busy at work but hasn't Straw had most of runs/rbis during this losing streak? Feel like it's the regulars that have been letting us down.
I don’t think any of those guys is that well paid. Would be pretty easy to add prospects to get the other team to take on there remaining money.
I could certainly be wrong, but the other team including money on the deal doesn’t help with the tax number from what I understand? Maybe Nook would be able to clarify I think that has been, and will be, the toughest obstacle to adding in CF