I’m just not sure I can buy the minor league stuff. Mainly because I feel like we’ve heard this before. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad they are happening, and you are informing on them. But it’s just hard to get that excited about it right now. I’ve come to the conclusion, after this series in which the team actively trying to lose…beats you two out of three and I couldn’t tell which team was which, that I can’t even get upset with you not taking the gloves off after this year because they aren’t a year or two away. All these guys in AA or A we will talk about, wait for them to move up, make an impact next year, it will take a year to find footing. It’s not next year, I’m not sure on 25….but I know they aren’t going to go get a top starter. It will be some version of the same message and I’m frankly tired of it. Would Lopez (I know, I know he wasn’t really available but as an example) make a difference on this team? No, but I’d rather watch someone who can actually pitch and keep me interested every fifth day instead of what this is. The fact is, they can’t even start to dream on things until they find some starters.
Nice call, David. So far it appears that you were totally right about Maikel Garcia. I really like what I've seen from that guy. We need a lot more similarly good news from others, especially pitchers.
Saturday night: losing a game by one run while leaving 15 runners on base is about as frustrating as a meaningless ballgame can be. The fact that it was their 2nd straight loss to the putrid A's just rubbed salt into the wound. What a godawful way to "honor" Lorenzo Cain. He deserved better. So do we.
The Keller disaster on Friday was unfortunately less a matter of "if" but of "when." Having a K/BB of 1.00 (and now he has a BB/K ratio, lol) and an ERA in the mid-3s are never compatible for long. Hopefully he can figure it out, but hope is all it is, and maybe for no other reason than I would not like to see him embarrass himself on the bump, though admittedly he has a LOT of company in that regard.
And forgive my ignorance on the release point for Singer, but is it just the fact that the release later in the delivery changes his mechanics in and of itself, or does the later release truncate his follow-through and take some of the steam out of his "stuff?" I can only relate it to throwing a dart: if you wait too long to release it, it loses a lot of its momentum and generally will miss your target or hit it very weakly and may not even stay in the board.
Good to know. Thanks for that! Obviously something else has gone seriously wrong with him. I hope that all the greatest pitching coaches in the history of the universe can figure it out and fix it.
I’m with you on the schedule and that in baseball games, “things happen.” And we have been competitive in almost every game since Anaheim with a few stinkers in Minnesota. That being said, I did the thought exercise of looking at our MiL and just don’t know what the heck we have been doing since 2015. AAA is old and outside of Lynch, Waters, and Samad it’s Blech. AA is more interesting but. Cross looks lost at QC. And who knows with A.
Isn't it about time we had a pro/con discussion on the merits of tanking? Sometimes the difference between the #1 draft pick and #3 or #4 can be enormous, but you have to be willing to endure a whole lot of crap in order to get there, and it certainly won't do much for the "culture" of the team if you're concerned with such matters.
It's sad that we're only barely 20% of the way through the season and that conversation seems appropriate. But that's where we are.
That's part of the discussion as I see it: is it worth running a AAA team out there night after night for months just to increase your chances of getting the draft pick you covet? When there are no longer any guarantees of that?
I hope I didn't give the impression that I think I know the answer either because I definitely don't! I think the key variable may be how many "can't miss" guys are at the top of the draft, plus the question of how many of them actually will miss anyway.
It seems to me that there are valid arguments on both sides! I understand the difference between intentional tanking and just being a really bad team, but when draft time comes around few people make that distinction.
David, curious your thoughts on BWJ's play at SS through the early part of the season? I admittedly don't spend much time crunching defensive metrics, but he has seemed solid to me, and at times appears to be above average, and much more settled and consistent than last season. The guys on the Kaufman Corner podcast recorded last night still talk like he doesn't have a future at short and should be moved to CF. Do you have a take on that from your perspective?
Good stuff, David. It's pathetic that we lost to the A's, but I suppose someone has to do it. Actually, even though we won one of three, the games were a bit more entertaining.
Going into Monday night's game, MJ was averaging fewer than one HR per every 10 games. I know that the power potential is there but one of these days we need to start seeing the power reality asserting itself.
I also wish he'd quit fielding ground balls off to his left side. It's only a matter of time before another one gets under his glove as happened earlier this year. If he would position himself in front of those balls the chances of that happening would be much smaller.
David -- I don’t have the experience with the game that you have, and that clearly a lot of commenters have! So I really appreciate the depth you go into. I’m watching the Monday night game and enjoying the return of “frenzied style hitting!”
😸 Naturally about an hour after I posted that he put one in the fountains! I'm sure you'll be overjoyed to know that won't stop me from expressing further opinions, no matter how ridiculous they turn out to be.
And you're damn good at it too! You've already pulled me back from the brink (i.e., corrected my overstatements) several times in the past few weeks. Thank you for that!
I’m just not sure I can buy the minor league stuff. Mainly because I feel like we’ve heard this before. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad they are happening, and you are informing on them. But it’s just hard to get that excited about it right now. I’ve come to the conclusion, after this series in which the team actively trying to lose…beats you two out of three and I couldn’t tell which team was which, that I can’t even get upset with you not taking the gloves off after this year because they aren’t a year or two away. All these guys in AA or A we will talk about, wait for them to move up, make an impact next year, it will take a year to find footing. It’s not next year, I’m not sure on 25….but I know they aren’t going to go get a top starter. It will be some version of the same message and I’m frankly tired of it. Would Lopez (I know, I know he wasn’t really available but as an example) make a difference on this team? No, but I’d rather watch someone who can actually pitch and keep me interested every fifth day instead of what this is. The fact is, they can’t even start to dream on things until they find some starters.
Nice call, David. So far it appears that you were totally right about Maikel Garcia. I really like what I've seen from that guy. We need a lot more similarly good news from others, especially pitchers.
Saturday night: losing a game by one run while leaving 15 runners on base is about as frustrating as a meaningless ballgame can be. The fact that it was their 2nd straight loss to the putrid A's just rubbed salt into the wound. What a godawful way to "honor" Lorenzo Cain. He deserved better. So do we.
The Keller disaster on Friday was unfortunately less a matter of "if" but of "when." Having a K/BB of 1.00 (and now he has a BB/K ratio, lol) and an ERA in the mid-3s are never compatible for long. Hopefully he can figure it out, but hope is all it is, and maybe for no other reason than I would not like to see him embarrass himself on the bump, though admittedly he has a LOT of company in that regard.
And forgive my ignorance on the release point for Singer, but is it just the fact that the release later in the delivery changes his mechanics in and of itself, or does the later release truncate his follow-through and take some of the steam out of his "stuff?" I can only relate it to throwing a dart: if you wait too long to release it, it loses a lot of its momentum and generally will miss your target or hit it very weakly and may not even stay in the board.
Good to know. Thanks for that! Obviously something else has gone seriously wrong with him. I hope that all the greatest pitching coaches in the history of the universe can figure it out and fix it.
I’m with you on the schedule and that in baseball games, “things happen.” And we have been competitive in almost every game since Anaheim with a few stinkers in Minnesota. That being said, I did the thought exercise of looking at our MiL and just don’t know what the heck we have been doing since 2015. AAA is old and outside of Lynch, Waters, and Samad it’s Blech. AA is more interesting but. Cross looks lost at QC. And who knows with A.
Isn't it about time we had a pro/con discussion on the merits of tanking? Sometimes the difference between the #1 draft pick and #3 or #4 can be enormous, but you have to be willing to endure a whole lot of crap in order to get there, and it certainly won't do much for the "culture" of the team if you're concerned with such matters.
It's sad that we're only barely 20% of the way through the season and that conversation seems appropriate. But that's where we are.
That's part of the discussion as I see it: is it worth running a AAA team out there night after night for months just to increase your chances of getting the draft pick you covet? When there are no longer any guarantees of that?
I hope I didn't give the impression that I think I know the answer either because I definitely don't! I think the key variable may be how many "can't miss" guys are at the top of the draft, plus the question of how many of them actually will miss anyway.
It seems to me that there are valid arguments on both sides! I understand the difference between intentional tanking and just being a really bad team, but when draft time comes around few people make that distinction.
David, curious your thoughts on BWJ's play at SS through the early part of the season? I admittedly don't spend much time crunching defensive metrics, but he has seemed solid to me, and at times appears to be above average, and much more settled and consistent than last season. The guys on the Kaufman Corner podcast recorded last night still talk like he doesn't have a future at short and should be moved to CF. Do you have a take on that from your perspective?
Good stuff, David. It's pathetic that we lost to the A's, but I suppose someone has to do it. Actually, even though we won one of three, the games were a bit more entertaining.
Going into Monday night's game, MJ was averaging fewer than one HR per every 10 games. I know that the power potential is there but one of these days we need to start seeing the power reality asserting itself.
I also wish he'd quit fielding ground balls off to his left side. It's only a matter of time before another one gets under his glove as happened earlier this year. If he would position himself in front of those balls the chances of that happening would be much smaller.
David -- I don’t have the experience with the game that you have, and that clearly a lot of commenters have! So I really appreciate the depth you go into. I’m watching the Monday night game and enjoying the return of “frenzied style hitting!”
😸 Naturally about an hour after I posted that he put one in the fountains! I'm sure you'll be overjoyed to know that won't stop me from expressing further opinions, no matter how ridiculous they turn out to be.
And you're damn good at it too! You've already pulled me back from the brink (i.e., corrected my overstatements) several times in the past few weeks. Thank you for that!