Looking at the standings, things look like there getting kinda desperate for Minny in regards to the playoffs. They are 4 gms back for the last wildcard. They would need to pass Baltimore and one of Tampa, Toronto or Seattle. They could circumvent all the above by winning their division though. 3 gms back from Cleveland at the moment. Seems the easier path, but IMO, they are just as likely to slip to 3rd, falling behind CWS also, as they are to win the division. https://www.espn.com/mlb/standings/_/view/wild-card
I'd guess Garcia or Javier. Garcia has been the worst pitcher lately among the starters. Javier has never been a high endurance guy, and I worry that the team will send him to the pen to limit his innings.
There are a lot of days off coming up. Even with a 5 man guys are gonna be getting extra rest. I don't really see a reason why it has to be so black and white about who "goes to the pen" like they are being banished. Verlander and Framber are clearly starters, and they are trying to get LMJ back up to speed. Javier,Garcia and Urquidy should all be flexible about how they are used over the next month. You may make a start, you may be used in a tandem, you may just make a relief appearance. Frankly it will be good postseason prep on top of work limiting for all of our pitchers.
I actually think they should do scheduled tag team rotations now. Javier and Garcia or Uquidy and Garcia. It's like a scheduled start but not actually start. 5 innings and 4 innings for each. This would give the bull pen a rest.
I would absolutely love this. I will say it is really hard to do for more than a few games, and usually requires manager (in game decisions), FO (planning), pitching coach (in game decisions/planning) and trainers (in game/planning) all to work together so that the team doesn't end up with dead arms.
This is where Click and his laptop really need to get down to business... master-plan the **** out of this thing, using every metric you have access to. Game the system.
Could definitely be a cheat code like they did in the '17 ALCS, '17 World Series, and '20 Wild Card Series.
Let Click and his laptop solve getting a batter with a good OBP (or at least average) in the second spot of the lineup first.
All the glory to Christ last night for the win. Thanks to my boy Mattress Mack for the free tickets. They were nosebleeds, but still had a great time. Verlander is so fun to watch. He makes it look effortless. Offense did JUST enough to win, and the bullpen has been dicey yet again. Still, a win is a win.
Yuli seems to be passing the eye test as of late as far as squaring stuff up. But not sure they have a better in house candidate unless they put Bregman there.
Yuli has had .716 OPS and .323 OBP since the beginning of June. He is not as bad as everyone thinks he is.
Since the beginning of June, Chas has a 0.358 OBP. I don't think Chas should bat 2nd, either. Altuve, Tucker, Bregman, and Alvarez should bat in some order 1-4 with Brantley out.
I never said Yuli should bat 2nd. I just said he is not as bad as everyone makes him out to be. I also think Chas deserves to be our everyday centerfielder unless he goes into a slump again.
