Well my guess is Valbuena pops up. Gomez swings at the first pitch and taps it to second for a double play. Rasmus strikes out. Gattis hits another weak liner to shortstop. Carter can always pinch hit and work the count 3-2 before taking strike three.
Pssh... you must have missed yesterday's required replay challenges (I believe there were 3 of them). Guys feet were touching bases before the balls were anywhere near gloves. Replay has simply showed how bad the human eye can be... either that or umps got worse. Either way, its becoming more and more necessary (and becoming better, with more camera angles/higher definition cameras... and eventually they'll be able to get those sensors that will indicate when the ball did hit the glove vs. the foot on the bag). The human eye/ears have also become terrible at seeing/hearing when the ball actually hits the glove... hence the "guess" comment earlier.
Again, this is just pissing me off. Rays BP has been overworked so working Archer should have been a priority. Instead, we are swinging at anything and everything.
they're not great, but they're not garbage either. Middle of the pack offensively overall (in the AL). Which means yeah, pitchers have to be really good to make the playoffs. But it's not often that you have both pitching and hitting at the top.
A big problem is lack of real hitting talent throughout the lineup but the troubling thing is the approaches of a lot of the hitters is just horrible. No real discipline at the plate whatsoever. Is the hitting coach doing anything or are they just ignoring him? This team offensively is a bore to watch at this point. The team is pressing it appears as well so that doesn't help when you can't hit to begin with.
Dude... Look at the middle of their lineup. Rasmus/Gomez/Valbuena/Castro Basically you have 1 stud (Correa) 1very good hitter (Altuve) 2 average hitters (Tucker & Marwin) 5 sacks of absolute garbage. It is inexcusable that Valbuena and Carter play so often and Lowrie sits.
Nolan speaking of Hamilton said he never saw Hank Aaron give away an at bat. We give away at bats every inning.
A big portion of their runs have come from the all or nothing approach. Overall this is not a good lineup and dependable offense. I fear if the team does make the playoffs they will be thoroughly embarrassed by other teams plus pitchers.
Another spectacular outing from McHugh, now if we can just scratch out our typical late runs to win at home.
All I said was the only guy that actually knows is the guy on the base catching the ball. I don't really care one way or the other, though I am a traditionalist.
with springer back pushing either gomez or rasmus to the bench (or tucker if he's not getting it done), and lowrie/marwin at the corners on the IF...this lineup could be totally fine in the playoffs. It still won't be "dependable", but it'll be a lot closer to that
I suspect the lineup will be noticeably better with Lowrie and Springer... They don't just add two legitimate bats, they all some of the garbage to sit out (Valbuena and Rasmus), but they also put the existing garbage (Gattis) to the bottom of the lineup. Altuve Marwin Correa Springer Lowrie Gomez Tucker Gatis Castro
