I have given a lot of media interviews and my favorites are when it is in a language I can understand but not speak well, so I get a translator. It gives me a lot of extra time to think of the response while “listening” to the translation which I already understand. I imagine it is similar for baseball players - the extra pause lessens chance of a bad response.
Dana has gone from I'm skeptical to I think if Crane gives him more autonomy he will do a good job IMHO. Hopefully he is allowed to make a couple of moves at the deadline that will allow the team to become WS favorites. I'm very impressed by what he's doing with the farm system.
Both of them are 4th OF or platoon type guys. But some here think Meyers is the 4th best player on the team. SMH. Add Vlad and split time with Chas, Cabbage and let's see what Meyers can do. I don't like how they have handled Loperfido.
Who was given a longer leash as an everyday player in the outfield. Meyers has clearly outplayed him this season. Last season and at the beginning of this season Meyers was the part timer behind Chas and even Dubon, he played his way into everyday time. I hated seeing Dubon in the outfield ahead of Chaz like everybody, but again he's outperformed him clearly so far and has been very consistent. He also has substantial positional versatility to keep himself playing regularly. Both Dubon and Meyers have been reduced to part time duty in the past. Chas had the everyday job this season at the start, he didn't hold onto it. He still has time to earn it back but he will have to do it as a part timer. His career track record against RHP is nothing special that he should play everyday ahead of 2 lefties with potential upside.
On Ronel Blanco, I hope we have 3 guys ahead of him by September. Hes been easily our best pitcher results wise, but his peripherals since the great start are pretty meh. Maybe he can rebound, but he looks more like a capable back of the rotation starter than a guy you hope starts 2 games of a series. Even establishing himself at that level is a huge development. I dont want to seem to down on him, even if he's had some BABIP luck, he's been the team MVP so far.
I'm fine if you want to say 155 PAs is enough to say how good a player is right now (well not really, but willing to compromise) and overlook career results except regarding hitting average against RHPs for his career, if we are willing to say 155 PAs of being better is enough to get his starting job back. I think Chas has looked mostly like his old self the past month even though he's in a slump right now.
He did have a few good looking weeks and I thought he was putting it together leading up to the 2 homer game. Only to immediately follow it up by looking worse than ever. Hard to say a guy is looking like his old self when he still sporting a sub 600 ops. He should still play everyday vs LHP, because the track record upside is worth the slump, not so much vs. RHP.
Chas can't erase the 1st 100 or so PAs this season. I just want a PA number to judge Chas by. If you think its hard to say a guy is looking like his old self, it shouldn't be hard to specify a number of PAs to judge when we should know he's back to his old self. I could be wrong, but I expect whatever he does going forward is going to get averaged with his bad slump at the start of the season while overlooking his past results before that (except when they are bad or merely average). I don't think results from before the past month have much bearing on how he looked over the past month. Let me retract to be objective. I should have said: He has an OPS of nearly 0.800 the past month despite currently being in a slump. Maybe this current slump is like the one earlier in the year that lasts about 100 PAs. I expect he'll go back and forth between hot streaks and cold streaks like most of his career and going forward will have an wRC+ exceeding 100 the rest of the year.
It's easy for us to say he hasn't done enough to help with the starting pitching but. . . Teams are (rightly) asking for the moon with limited sellers and still weeks until the deadline. Coming in to the spring, Framber, JV, Javier, Brown, Urquidy, and France were healthy and he is on record as REALLY believing in Blanco. That's 7 healthy starters to get through 1/2- 2/3 of the season until Garcia and McCullers were expected back. Arrighetti was talked about as ready for a try if needed. Guys like Gusto and Gordon were waiting in AAA for a chance and guys like Blubaugh and Bloss were rising quickly. I think not getting anyone preseason was understandable and it's been too expensive since.
His OPS the past month is .721 in 27 PAs Since 6/1/24 it's. 722 in 56 PAs Last 2 weeks: .368 in 14 PAs Since May 1st: .585 in 72 PAs For the season: .597 in 155 PAs He hasn't been .800 in any meaningful sample size since last year At what point do we decide he's a 4th OF who is a good RH bench bat, PR, and defensive replacement for Yordan in the 9th inning when Hader is coming in to pitch? And if that's not needed, or some team values him as a starter or platoon OF then he needs to be traded.
So you think 150 at bats and an injury is plenty of time to pigeonhole a players role or even career? I didn’t hear you saying these things about Jake Meyers when the team graciously let him suck for 2 full seasons. Wanting to banish Chas to an extremely limited role after less than a third of a season’s worth of at bats smacks of hate. Again, Jake is batting .246 and has never done what Chas did last year. Clearly this is a personal favorite thing for you. Chas has played less than a third of the season and missed time with an injury. That’s why this isnt a “back of the baseball card’ situation like Abreu or someone else. It’s not the same at all. Abreu was given a much longer look and is 8 years older than Chas. Chas is coming off a really good season and is in his peak prime years at barely 29. Again, 150 at bats and an injury.
I disagree about Meyers. I think he is absolutely a starting CF. He is just like Pena at SS- a gold glove defender at a premium position who also brings baserunning value but should never be one of your 6-7 best hitters. Just like Pena is a great starting SS if the team had: Altuve, Tucker, Bregman, Yordan, Springer, Diaz, with 2019 Yuli, and Brantley So Jake would be a great starter in CF if the team had Altuve, Tucker, Bregman, Correa, Yordan, Diaz, with 2019 Yuli and Brantley. The issue isn't that he isn't good enough to start. It's that he shouldn't be counted on to be one of the 5 or 6 best hitters.
120-125 starts at catcher 10-15 starts at DH. need to get away from Diaz being the 1st DH option when he doesn’t catch. 1- it weakens the OF defense. 2- it means having both catchers in the lineup at the same time. 3. Keep Diaz sharp. He needs real days off as catcher is a physically demanding and stressful position. I think 135 total starts with pinch hitting appearances in some other games is perfect. Maybe 140. No more than that.
Your OF'ers should be able to hit .260-270 and play a good CF. I consider Meyers to be a very good CF because of his range. His arm will always keep him from being an elite defensive CF. Because of this to be a net positive he needs to be able to hit in the.260-270 range IMHO. But I get where you're coming from, we just disagree.
Love your optimism. He should be platooned when Tucker gets back unless he proves otherwise in the meantime.
This bullpen somehow makes 8 run leads seem not enough. My thoughts are still hang tight and hope for health. Bloss, Verlander, and Garcia... or at least one of them returning should end the bullpen collectively occupying a spot in the rotation.... the team should start capping pitch counts for Arrighetti and Blanco though...
