jay87shot

I wouldn't say the depth is weak, take the 2,3, 5 hitter out of any lineup other than maybe LA and that teams lineup looks pretty weak. The rotation depth isn't really the issue it is that we can't get through 5 innings, I think the depth is fine it just is that all of our guys are young or injury prone and Murph is the type of manager who pulls a guy at 80 pitches with 1 out and 2 on in the 5th. I don't mind that strategy a bit early on but eventually those starters need to get out of innings on their own. I agree the lineup is going to look horrendous for a couple weeks at least. If I was managing I would probably be risky and put Sal 1 despite the slow start and move Turang to 3 in an attempt to fortify the middle of the order. 1) Sal 2) Contreras 3)Brice 4)Sanchez (DH) 5)Mitchell 6)Bauers 7) Lockridge/Perk/Jones 8)Hamilton/Rengifo 9)Joey

I really just mean whom ever is the hot ticket big name 2-3ish years down the road. I agree, Hurley as a coach is fine but he is a jerk or so it seems.

I was hoping for Lara just to see him play but Jones is probably the right move since we have enough OF depth. To bad Wilken or Adams weren't of to hot starts, they would fit the DH mold better for a week or two.

Agree, he is still an athletic big who can shoot and block shoots. We might have to take an iffy contract back but we should get a 1st. My proposal was Turner for Jonathan Isaac, Goga Bitzade/Anthony Black, and the Magic 2026 1st. We get young rotational piece in Goga/Black and a mid round 1st for Turner and taking the bad Isaac deal. The Magic get a perfect big to make an impressive lineup of Suggs, Bane, Wagner, Paolo, Turner and go for it 1 more year before possibly blowing it up,

Coaching plan... Hire Sam Cassell. This team isn't going to be good for a while and it will take 2-3 years to have the resources to even start fully rebuilding. Give Sam a couple years and hopefully in 3 years we have enough young talent to hire a top candidate like Hurley or something.

Great observation, couldn't agree more.

I will say I am still very positive, yes this has been a rough stretch but I think there have been enough bright spots to be able to turn this around. Offense- Injuries have hurt and clearly are leading to some inconsistencies (hopefully good Yeli news is incoming). For the most part there has been more good than bad, Contreras, Yeli, Bauers, Sanchez, Turang, and Mitchell are off to very good starts and Hamilton and Lockridge have been solid. Rengifo, Sal, Perk, and Joey have been rough but Sal is the only one that I would say is not expected and I think most of us have faith he will figure it out. Chourio is hopefully a week or two away which would leave the 3B/SS as the hopefully only hole in the lineup. Overall I will give it like a B- Defense- Somehow Turang and Sal are -1 DRS by baseball.reference which is strange to me. Overall I think the d has been solid even if there was a difficult play missed here or there. Rengifo and Hamilton have done a great job with the glove and there really aren't any defense weak spots unless Sanchez is playing 1st. Overall B+ Starting Pitching- For me this is a bit hard to judge, Misi, Woody, Harrison, and Patrick have all been solid but not really special (outside of Misi's K's). The staff hasn't soaked up a ton of innings and the 5th man/opener/spot starters Sproat/Drohan/Henderson/Ashby haven't been good at all. I have a lot of faith that the 4 guys will build upon a decent start and someone will claim the 5th spot however there is room to go. I think base on result I would give the starters a B- but because they have hurt the pen with lack of innings I will lower it to a C. Bullpen- I would have given this group the highest grade before the Nats series but it is hard to not be worried after Megill, Zerpa, Uribe, and Ashby to a lesser degree struggled so recently. I am mixed because this group is so talented and deep that there is potential to be one of the top bullpens in the league but also alot to worry about. I will give them a break based on overall workload and the start of the year C- grade. Team MVP- Turang (take out the 3-4 games around his injury and he has been specular. Top Pitcher- Ashby, 9 OF 15 games and 12 2/3 over that period has been nuts even if he has had a couple small blips.

Today will be game 16 of the year roughly 1/10th of the way through. Obviously it is early and after getting swept by the Nats vibes aren't great at the moment. Injuries have been rough but the season is young and I don't think anyone else in the Central has been amazing even with the Pirates and Cards being better than expected early. Where are each of you currently with expectations and overall thoughts about the team so far?

Anyone else worried by just how bad that Wilson team is right now? I understand how some players here and there throughout the system get of to bad starts however that entire team looks really rough right now (maybe a couple pitchers of to decent starts).

The Nats best hitters Wood, Abrams, Garcia, and Lile are lefties and at least in the last game hit 1, 2, 4,5. As long as Patrick is comfortable coming into the game in the middle of the 2nd or 3rd inning I like the strategy. Not only does it get us in positive matchups to start the game, it also likely allows Patrick to go 5 innings and only have to pitch to that entire group of lefties 1 time. Just because the Nats arent very good is a reason not to use the best strategy available. I would guess they will use the same things for Sproat with DL Hall (slight chance Ashby could open again if super efficient).

What if we traded like Henderson and Drohan for Shane McLanahan or Drew Ramussen (assuming health) in like June. I believe the Rays are going to struggle all year and likely would trade Diaz and the 2 pitchers. In this scenario we trade 2 arms for a proven pitcher with control through 2027.

Burke has some Yordan Alverez going on in his swing. I know it is too early for a call up but if he keeps this up for another week I would think he would force the issue.

I think the biggest concern is the starting pitching over 162. Right now we are at like 55 innnings in 12 starts by our starters. That is ok early but if we get to the middle of the season and only average 5 innings a game the pen will get eaten up fast. Right now Ashby is on a pace for like 90+ appearances and around 120 innings out of the bullpen, which just isn't sustainable. I will say our biggest weakness is still the end of our lineup even though they have been decent. Offense for 3B, SS, 1B (until Vaughn is back), CF (to a much lesser degree) is still I think the biggest potential hole that I would call a weakness. I have a lot more faith in finding 2 consistent starters to go along side Misi, Woody, Patrick, and probably Harrison to this point then I do in the bats of Rengifo Joey, Perk, and Bauers (starting to feel good about Hamilton, Lockridge, and Mitchell) and the AAA depth has been sketchy to start the year at SS/3B.

6'6" 200 Lefty out of Duke. He had a really rough year in 2025 7.29 ERA 42 innings 37 k's/18 walks. However he was much better in 2023 (2.32 era) and 2024 (3.76 era). Stuff has some potential especially at 6'6" with our pitching team.

I think the go ahead Garrett Mitchell single last night was an absolutely perfect representation of why the Brewers are so successful. 1st and 2nd, 2 outs, tie game. Mitchell scorched one to left. A ball that Turang should be out by 2 steps. He gets a great jump and forces Roman Anthony to rush and make a bad throw. For most teams, that is it, however our superstar Yelich is going 100% and scores from 1st by an inch. To add to that, the entire time Mitchell is going 100% and ends up on 3rd. Not only does our team see the most pitches which annoys pitchers. All the runners go 100%, annoying fielders, and our defense is one of the best in the league annoying hitters. Add to that 2 out hitting has been spectacular this year, annoying managers. PS... Misi should throw the 1st pitch to Contreras about 2 feet behind his back tonight (dont hit him). Really piss em off.

I would expect that Drohan (Woodford if a bigger lead one way or the other) works a couple innings today just help the bullpen recover today. Should be a good one, I watched a bit of the Red Sox broadcast after the game ended and slightly sadistic way loved how down the tone of the broadcaster was. If we could best Crochet today head might start flying in Boston soon.

The Sox are 2-7 and fans have been chanting for the owners to sell the team. I am excited to watch us sweep the Sox and have complete choas. I was thinking that it would seem like Koenig or Anderson might soon "develop" an injury and we will get some run from Crow or McGee or whomever.

I love Height as one of my favorite sleepers. With Bailey on that team he is easy to over-look, He is a little small but as a 3rd or probably late 2nd if we want him that can be over looked especially if we think he could play some off ball LB and edge.

I would think he would be in line for a huge payday to transfer out. That really stinks but I kind of predicted it. I would really go for Zens, if at least to build a bridge into getting favor in recruiting a Knuppel brother in the future. He does have good size and skills to be an old school Badgers power forward (Wilkenson) or new age 3 (Dekker).

I am sure if we need bullpen help McGee, Crow, Drohan, Yoho, Rob Z (when healthy) get the go 1st but who would you put at the top of the non 40-man relief tier. Holub, Childers, Fitz, Petey Strz? Honestly if anarchy happened and we needed Childers or Holub to pitch a bunch in the bigs this year I wouldn't be to worried with either (probably worried about the 5-8 injuries it would take).

I mean he is 5/23 in 5 games, if he goes 2/4 the next game that puts him like .260. He isn't setting the world on fire but he isn't playing bad. 3rd base defense has been pretty good unless I have missed a play here or there. I like the Hamilton/Ortiz/Rengifo 3 way split between SS and 3B for now. Hopefully in a couple months one of Pratt or Jett can get hot and push one of those 3 (probably Rengifo) out.

With so many teams already hurting for pitching is there a obvious trade partner in say like a month if Preister comes back healthy? I would think it would be easy to swap Preister for Sproat but with Gasser and Henderson in AAA it seems like we could capitalize on our depth with an early trade. Obviously this would mean everyone stays healthy up until that point. I like having as much depth as possible but with guys like Crow, Kuehner, and others I think we could capitalize on trading someone like Henderson (Sproat or Gasser) to a pitching desperate team. I though we gave up a lot last year for Preister (in hindsight prospect haven't done much) and someone like Henderson could have a decent amount more in terms of value. Maybe in a month there is a hole in the big league roster that could be fixed. However with the mlb offensive depth being ok for now I think it could be a good option to just get a handful of high potential younger prospects maybe similar to the Shane Baz return. I get that it wouldn't help the big league team this year but keeping to many mlb ready guys in AAA doesn't help either.

My goodness Blake Burke what a start.

1) Knicks get Giannis, Steven Adams, Andre Jackson (picks up option), Rockets get OG Onunoby, Spurs get Mikal Bridges and Miles McBride BUCKS get FVV, Keldon Johnson, Champangie, Dadiet, 2026 SA 1st (from ATL, currently #9), 2027 Houston 1st (swap with Brooklyn), 2026 NY 1st (currently #26), 2028 NY 1st We get a get a handful of interesting young players (no studs) and 4 1st rounders with 2 of them being likely lottery picks. The Knicks get Giannis and still have Brunson, KAT, and Hart, the Rockets get OG for older guys and a potential good pick, and the Spurs get a perfect upgrade around their core in Bridges. 2) Turner to the Magic for Johnathan Issac, Goga Bitzade, and 2026 1st (currently 14) The Magic upgrade at center and get out of the bad Issac contract (could switch Anthony Black for Bitzade depending on value). We get out of Turner for the bad contract and get a 1st. 3)AJ Green for Jarred Vandebilt and a 2nd (or 2) The Lakers could value his shooting around Luka and LeBron. Vandebilt is a try hard player and we get some seconds (I think 1 less year on Vandy than Green's deal) 4) Bobby Portis and NY 1st (2026) for Zaccarie Risacher The Hawks have a nice roster that needs someone like Bobby to do the dirty work. We get the upside of Risacher. 5) Kuzma for Jrue Holiday Yes Jrue is past his prime but as a leader the extra cash and year, is worth it to me (if this fits in the salary cap) 6)Fire Doc, Hire an assistant or younger college coach. I wouldn't mind give Sam Cassell a chance just based on bias. Guards= Rollins, FVV, Jrue Wings= Keldon Johnson, Risacher, Issac, Campangie, Dadiet Bigs=Bitzade, Vandebilt, (re-sign Nance) We would have 3 1st this year in the top 15 or so to add more youth. My guess is that one of Rollins, Johnson, Risacher, or others become a near all-star but we stink for a couple years but aren't a dumpster fire. Within like 2/3 the bad contracts we took back would be off the books and with some of hopeful young talent and salary available by 2029-2030 may be able to be a quality team again.

Brice Turang has a 0.8 WAR through 6 games. By my math that is over a 21 WAR season on the way.