Jim French Stepstool

I've been around enough fan boards to see pretty much all the various types. His schtick is typical, it gets a little tedious, but the content, the fact that he appears to believe some of what he says, and the predictability of when he does & doesn't show up is actually kind of funny. I suspect he's on ignore for a lot of posters, but for others it's comic relief.

In all fairness, SF has had a lot of base hits in this series on ABs that weren't nearly as good as the one Winker put up in the ninth. Of course, when you aren't playing well it seems like the baseball gods take a healthy dump on you at the same time. Winkers' been lousy but he deserved much better there. Turangs' AB in the 9th was very good too. Nothing much before that except we're trying to get a running game going, which we probably should've been doing all along.

I would imagine he's here until Urias rejoins or Adames is ready, whichever comes first. Guys of his ilk are added all the time to rosters when there's a sudden IL stint.

We've all seen examples over the years of Counsell digging in & sticking with a struggling veteran in the midst of ctiticism, so this shouldn't be surprising re Winker. But even the way the guy carries himself at the plate, the whole body-language thing......I watched him closely last night. At one point, a ball dribbled about 8-10 feet away to the opposite batters' box during his AB. He walks across the plate over to the ball, and swats it away with his bat like you would in a pickup game. How do you even do that if you're focused on the opposing pitcher & trying to get a good pitch to hit? Above & beyond his struggles, he's just looked.......really curious.

Well, we got Winker out of the #2 hole, anyway.

Well, we got Winker out of the #2 hole, anyway.

Thanks. I was scouring & didn't see anything. Yeah, Monasterio has played a lot of SS.

Right now I'm concerned about the mental state of this team. Last night I harkened back to how poorly they played in the handful of games after the Hader trade. Yes, this is a very different situation. But the common thread is that something bad happened (or in the case of the trade something they perceived as bad). Compared to how bad it could've been, their hearts & minds should be relieved at his response in the hospital, that there were no breaks & that it sounds like he'll be released today (concussion IL). Other than that, you wonder if this expedites Urias' return. I believe he's eligible Tuesday. Obviously Turang moves over in the interim. Backup? Brosseau has played SS four times in the bigs. Owen Miller once. Abraham Toro has never played there.

First off, good luck to Adames & his diagnosis. That being said, I really hated the way that Anderson & Schroeder leaned all over the incident. "It's just one game, flush it, it's easier to get past than a 2-1 loss".............all those things are true. But for whatever reason, mentioning how the game was "secondary" really bugged me. Because it was a rout made it sound more like an excuse to me. This is a close-knit group, and it obviously affected them. Understandable, but to this extent, not a good look from a major league team. I doubt Urias is replacing Wiemer on the roster. They aren't scoring a lot of runs these days. If Anderson gets pulled from 3B permanently to play the OF, Miller has to play everyday due to his bat, AND Wiemer is taken out of CF, well, if you think they need to score more runs now, that need will only get worse. Peralta isn't going anywhere re his rotation spot. However todays' performance leads me to say the same thing I said after his outing vs TB (which he won)----the man has a lot of growing up to do. Strange thing about Small tonite, his most effective pitch was the inside fastball to LH hitters. He actually jammed guys 5 or 6 times. Not exactly his MO. Of course vs RHH it was batting practice. People expecting a yard sale will be disappointed--that's my guess. But like all prospective deals, it depends on the return. They were in a playoff chase last year & dealt Hader. The old standard--also-rans trade vets for prospects, contenders do the opposite--isn't always followed. Just don't expect any adherence to the "They should sell, because it's a crappy division & they won't get to the WS even if they win it" philosophy (thank goodness).

Is CC concerned that we might score a few runs so he can't use Brosseau for the 9th?

Do you have that on auto-insert?

IMO that would necessitate selling the team to James Earl Jones, which would at least make for better in-game interviews.

I would say not having any more major injuries would be more like regressing to the mean than fortunate, given what they've gone through so far. I'm as unsure as you are as to how the offense will perform down the road. That's why the run prevention aspect is so important & always will be. It's why Anderson having to play a lot of RF as opposed to 3B is disappointing to me (although I understand it). You hope you can get 2 or 3 putting up good ABs at the same time. With Wiemer, Turang, maybe Frelick IMO it's a question of when, not if. "Adjusting to the adjustments" is a process. Next month or two? Next year? Stay tuned. You hope for continued good ABs from Ruf. Yeah, he appeared to be toast & was released. Guys like that get 2nd winds with a change of scenery. It happens. I think Adames will climb out of this & get hot. I also believe he'll follow that up with yet another stretch where he'll make himself look like a clown with the poor ABs. Agree re Contreras. I think Caratini will be important in that regard. I'm looking forward to the question marks being answered, the process playing out. I always do.

I think what's keeping them afloat is that they're 27-23 through 50 games, despite the injuries. The offense certainly is flawed. Too much reliance on the HR ball, way too much guessing at the plate, and very little ability to fight off/take a pitch when guessing wrong. I don't have grandiose expectations as to their ceiling as hitters, but if you think everyone on the roster is performing as well as they can we'll just have to disagree. The last 112 will tell more of a tale than the first 50 have. "Playoffs" certainly has taken on a whole different meaning today than in the late 70s-80s, no doubt about that.

Very smooth. Everything seems to come out of the same slot. Repeatable-looking delivery. Likey.

I just went through the entire thread & am shocked that Counsell hasn't gotten any criticism for PHing Winker for Ruf in the 4th. Bullpen day for Frisco. They had LHs to use. I don't know why you'd burn off Ruf so early in the game. I was a Winker defender when he first started receiving criticism here. His first handful of games he was swinging OK, then the illness & injury back-to-back. The further he's gotten away from the health issues.......I won't say the worse he's become, but he certainly isn't showing any semblance of the guy from the first couple weeks. If they insist on a LH bat for that roster spot he may have until Frelick is deemed ready.

Good timing. I was about to ask if anyone knew what was going on with Cam. During the off-season I thought he could conceivably pitch his way to Milwaukee by seasons' end. Since the demotion to AA he's actually gotten worse, which is no small feat. Sorta brings to mind Taylor Floyd, who was climbing the ladder, impressing and then WHAM!!!!

They have a couple guys who can do that now, but CC likes to spread out the workload & have someone available for a 2nd or 3rd day in a row, as opposed to extending someone, even if it's only to 30-35 pitches, and saving the next guy. It's just his philosophy. I was never a huge Suter fan but that was a nice feature to his game, that he could do pretty much anything asked of him. Bryce Wilson seems to be the closest to that right now.

Smalls' command seems to be getting better. Better than it was, anyway. Of course it needs to continue to go northward for him to have a chance to be a viable option given the avg-at-best fastball. At best he's Brent Suter with a little more velocity. Not what you want from a first-rounder, but there's a role for that.

We sold our house (in Brookfield) a couple months ago. During the 2-day open house, I had to stop by briefly to grab something and the outside was almost like one of those '80s movies where the parents are gone & there's a teen party--cars parked & double-parked, people congregating outside, coming & going through the front door. It's gotten to the point where you're disappointed if you don't get multiple offers & a bidding war ensues. And we wrapped up the deal on the condo we purchased w/o any competition. We're blessed 😇😁.

The same thing ran through my head at the time--what if it was a 3 or 4 run lead? I'm guessing that unless it's a Woodruff or Burnes you see the same move. And like I said, you can't argue with the results. Big picture though, I just feel this rotation (when healthy) should give you more outings into the 7th inning than you usually see, which would help the pen once the dog days emerge.

He followed up a good start......with another good start. I think that's significant. Kinda frustrating to me that he can deal into the sixth, yet he's still gone after 70-some pitches and you once again need to get 11 outs from the pen. You can't argue with CC's BP decisions & usage because the results speak for themselves, Still it would be nice if you didn't have to spend every trade deadline needing to add BP arms due to the high usage.

I've been beating the drum for awhile now that Anderson should be entrenched at 3B, but with Urias inching his way back & Miller performing at a high level that isn't in the cards.

Since he's still only 26, left-handed & a former 1st-round pick, no we really can't. That doesn't mean you aren't right.

Absolutely, you don't use TT to run for Winker because you want to move him out to RF & bring Anderson in to play 3B. I'm sure he would've done that even if Tellez didn't reach base. But he still could've gotten a little more juice running Brosseau for Winker.