Jim French Stepstool

For my money, the three run first was more the fault of Ashby dropping the ball in the Tucker AB, than a failed strategy by Murphy. Walking the LHH caused Ashby to have little to no margin in the Suzuki AB. So now, it appears that we come out of that game not only with Priester (and Quintana if needed) still in the holster, but a more solid & resolute Misiorowski moving forward. Great stuff.

Let's not forget the crowd reaction from medium-to-deep fly ball outs, too. Although it's much easier to mitigate those.

Probably. But I'm guessing there are a lot of BP options they'd rather go to if looking for one inning. If a typical outing for him in the post season is what we saw Monday, then I don't see him working in either game in Chicago.

I know top of the 1st inning didn't go well, but I thought the decision to go with Ashby was master class, and I didn't see it coming. What uglied it up was the walk to Tucker L on L, that can't happen. Ashby throws strikes there & gets to two outs w/a man on, I'm not so sure Suzuki gets anything he can hit out of the park. As it was, the team seems to be sitting pretty w/Priester & Quintana yet to be used & you can assume the pen fully loaded going into Wednesday save for Misiorowski.

From what I heard, not until Saturday morning.

After grabbing the 1-0 lead in game one, SD had runner on 3rd w/no one out & didn't score. An inning or two later they had runners at the corners w/one out & didn't score. If they convert on those two opportunities I suspect SD would be in Milwaukee this weekend.

Not to mention an imposing handshake line. Juwan Howard got canned just in time.

I meant on this board, a few people have brought up JL. And the only chance of it going anywhere beyond that is if Mac was jettisoned. Yeah, some well-heeled people---many of them---would have to have a lot of disdain for Fickell for him to be in his last year. I also don't see that happening. And in that case, it would be futile to put together any kind of serious candidate list at this time. But if the unlikely occurred, Kotelnicki & Campbell would currently be my favorites. I've been a Leipold fan for awhile now, but he'll be 62 next spring.

It IS a big loss. He & the missus have four kids & I believe they're all relatively young. I also recall reading that he has business interests in NZ, so perhaps coaching in the US was never in the cards for him long-term. Along with what he contributed as a coach, I'm sure he was a catalyst in opening up the NZ-Aussie area leading to them signing Hayden Jones, Jackson Ball & Austin Rapp. Hopefully that trio has success here, which could lead to a pipeline. Davison has been playing in Europe. Given his makeup & some prior comments it's not surprising that he'd jump at a chance to coach, especially at his alma mater.

As I mentioned, Chryst appears to be one of those guys who should've just stayed an OC---and while I'm sure he didn't know it at the time, would've been happier had he done so. NIL makes this almost a necessity, but you've wound up with a number of what are supposed to be key players being from elsewhere. Bad football is bad football no matter where the kids are from, but the new coach & staff and the early Longo-driven hype COMBINED with the makeup of the roster gives (I think) a mercenary-type feel to the whole thing & contributes to the propensity to boo if unsuccessful. Barry took the high road. Knowing his willingness to straight shoot, it probably wasn't easy for him. Leonhard is once again on a few peoples' lips. I don't know if that'll ever be revisited, but there would need to be a different AD for it to happen.

So be it. With the off days, I think they'd be fine with eleven. I guess that means Lockridge OR Hoskins, as that minimizes the 3rd catcher theory.

He's been really far off everyones' radar since being added. But yeah, he mostly throws strikes & has been through the wars and that's the sort of stuff Murphy appreciates. Ya never know.

Just a few random thoughts: I was among those who considered Hoskins a lock but that obviously has appeared to have changed. If they're looking at Jansen as a possible PH bat then you'd need a 3rd guy who can catch if need be. I question whether that would be Seigler. It might be Quero---I know that would be a real reach, the guy has never appeared in a big league game much less a post-season one. But I think in a potential 5 game series w/off days baked in you can go with eleven pitchers. That means you would have a six-man bench. Adding Quero would definitely be a huge surprise but if needed I'd much rather see him behind the plate than Seigler. Plus, Seigler might make it anyway. Black has been.....let's say better, in his final weeks in Nashville. And I believe he's drawn five walks to one K in his short time here. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes it as a bench bat. Again, one of these candidates gets aced out if they DO decide on 12 pitchers. I agree with those who believe Brandon is a Lock(ridge). Whoever is on the staff, I feel a key to this series might be the guys who are earmarked to work the 5th-6th type innings---Myers, Patrick, maybe Hall. Also, whatever workouts/scrimmage situations they set up this week, IMO Rodriguez & McGee are just here to absorb innings they don't want others covering & aren't viable roster options.

Both Bauers & Vaughn are putting up some of the teams' better ABs recently, which is the issue. Recent games, as well as the next few, might be used to answer whether they want Bauers in LF, or Yelich. Collins appears to be an odd man out right now but can be very valuable as a PH who can hit from either side.

I don't want to dump on Chad Patrick. He's been pretty valuable for us, especially in the early months of the season, and has pitched better than some of the numbers might suggest. But early in Wednesdays' game I heard him say Patrick's been "unbelievable" this season. I guess if he maintained that it was something that needed to be said I'd tell him "Didn't have to be".

Yep. Or the opener of the SD series. Peralta stumbles & balks in a run. In the 7th inning Mears looks very solid, then with 2 outs & none on walks Iglesias, who had homered but overall is having a very similar season to Joey Ortiz offensively. That cost him a run. Koenig & Uribe followed up with scoreless & fairly efficient frames. A series that left a bad taste in some mouths could've easily been a 2-1 series win.

I was ready to say a few games ago that he was looking better at the plate, but he promptly proceeded to put up some ugly ABs. Watching him, I really think he needs to find that fine line where he's keeping the shoulders & hips tucked in & trying to drive the ball to RF, while at the same time laying off pitches that are TOO FAR outside. That isn't easy. If he can lock into that then he might get balls to pull, like the GS he hit vs the Mets that seemed like it was about a century ago.

For whatever reason, when this is brought up I think of the 2018 WS, when we fell short by one game. LA & Boston were the participants. LA had Logan Forsythe & a 39-yr-old Chase Utley sharing 2B, and the Dodgers would've been happy had either approached Ortiz' current offensive numbers. When necessary, they would be PH for.. I don't recall the names, but Boston had two guys share the C job, and both were weak offensively. My point is, sure it would be great if Ortiz was hitting .280 for the year, or Cooper Pratt was playing well beyond his years & could come up here & be productive, but teams can have someone with an exceptional glove swinging a sub-par bat & still be successful. The teams I mentioned had a pretty good collection of hitters to offset a weak link, sure. But I'm pretty certain we aren't going to come anywhere close to approximating that by replacing Ortiz' bat with Monasterios, not to mention the defensive downgrade. As long as he's healthy I expect Ortiz to be the guy throughout the post-season, and I agree with that. They'll PH for him if it's a later inning & they're trailing.

I think the offense has been better in recent games than given credit for. Obviously the RISP needs to be better. That aspect of the team has been lousy, good enough, or very good, depending on which segment of the season you're talking about. I mean, we're talking about getting to/winning a WS, right? OK, then the level we played at from the ASG through August needs to be closer to the norm for that to happen. But you can say that about pretty much everyone. For that to happen, IMO we need to get back to grinding out the ABs, fouling off tough pitches, not chasing, drawing walks, etc. The announcers have gotten on this 'woodpecker' schtick & talk as if it's a constant. It isn't. Re-discover it. Other than that, let's hope for some better fortune afa pitching health. It sounds like things might be trending well for Megill; that would be huge. Whether he goes back to closing or not, you'd be adding him to Uribe, you have two LH throwing well out of the pen, and while I'm sure he's taken some heat after the SD series it looks to me like Mears is throwing the ball well. His biggest sin was when he got two quick outs Monday & then decided to start walking people, which he seldom does. Let's see what transpires w/Megill, Hall, Henderson, Quintana et al & find out who's available to work. And of course you can't have Chourio turning in the ABs he has lately. And Both 1B need to stay on the course they're on. We can be happy about the offensive production of both of our 1B options, and neither of them are named Rhys Hoskins. Who predicted that on opening day?

Almost all of them. Except there was this one guy named Bruisedtiger...........

Well, Ohtani leads off, so........😛. I'm sure there's something behind it, I'd just like to know what. Your RBI leader is leading off, and the guy who I thought was looking comfortable in the LO spot is hitting 5th. And it has nothing to do with splitting up LHH because you were able to do that either way. Odd.

In Websters', next to the phrase 'trying to do too much' there's a picture of Jackson Chourio. Looks totally lost. I'm sure he's known since age ten that standing there with the bat on your shoulder is uncompetitive. He needs to figure out that chasing is just as bad, and if diagnosed by your opponent can be even worse.

Agree 100%. There are examples that can support doom & gloom. And examples of this having nothing to do with how they perform in ten or twelve days. This is a great day for the former because they haven't looked this dead at the plate in a long time. To the above list I'd add getting back to the pain-in-the-ass ABs----going deep in the count, fouling off tough pitches, finding ways to once again draw walks. They drew eight yesterday, but I think you throw that game out since balls & strikes were called as if the HP umpire was on drugs.

He was never on it. His starting tonite had to do with Preister getting an extra day & not wanting to have a bullpen game, nothing more.

I'm not concerned with the lack of timely hitting right now---obviously tonite (thru seven innings) the offense has been a snoozefest though---but I brought up this very thing recently. I thought they settled into Frelick leading off, Yelich 3rd & Turang 5th, which I liked. Rather than rant about it, I'd really love to hear an explanation from Murphy as to why he's lining it up this way because it makes little sense to me.