It's disappointing that Pena hasn't taken the next step as a hitter to this point. However when you look past that, he's been very consistent. He's on his way to another 3-4 WAR season with an over .700 OPS. It's not his fault the 2 premier offensive positions are giving the team nothing.
I keep looking at the upcoming series against the Orioles and Phillies on the road. Got a tough stretch coming up once we got done with the White sox.
Would you rather have in a 7 game set?: A. Brown, Framber, Kikuchi, Blanco, and Arrighetti or B. Verlander, McCullers, Garcia, Urquidy, and Javier (all healthy)?
B and it’s really not close if McCullers is healthy McCullers. Let’s not have recency bias here.. Garcia and Javier were FILTHY in the postseason when healthy. Didn’t even get to Verlander. So yeah… BUT asking for a healthy Lance is like asking for a blizzard in August.
According to the league conversations reported by Rogers, the starter could be removed from the game before reaching his six-inning minimum if … He throws 100 pitches He gives up four or more earned runs He gets injured (with a required IL stint) Wowza. Those carveouts definitely make a six-inning minimum easier to digest, but I have to imagine the four earned runs would happen a whole lot more than the 100 pitches or injuries. And, indeed, I’m sure that’s exactly what the league hopes would happen – more offense. I am not sure how I feel about it either, but I do think MLB is trying to fix something that aint broke. Would eliminate the "opener" role altogether.
I think the conditions reduce the problems with it but it still feels unnecessary. MLB: "Let's just make new rules just to make new rules." Due to the injury concerns, I would expect them to go the exact opposite way: put a max pitch limit instead of minimum. This feels like it's an attack on TB for competing too successfully vs NYY and Bos.
Hello, record-setting injuries. MLBPA shouldn't allow this. Can't believe I once sympathized with the owners.
Really hoping Chas's bat isn't gone for good. He's had a couple of decent stretches the past couoke months, but keeps having bad very bad stretches that outweigh the good.
