Jim French Stepstool

He actually should be thanking us for sticking with him through a subpar 2023. But yeah, I didn't expect this kind of bounceback from him.

And boy oh boy will that ever set off Pavlovs' dog.😄

I think he was looking ahead to Chapman in the 9th, and the 5-6-7 all LHH looming. So if you ran Capra & PH Hoskins in the 8th, you're looking at Chourio (for Frelick) due up either 3rd or 4th in the 9th (It turned out to be 3rd since Turang drew the walk). Then you're looking at Capra hitting after him w/no real alternatives unless you hit Haase for him & wind up with no serious defensive options if you don't win it right there. Your way in the 8th might very well have worked. But it had better, because you're pretty much shooting your whole wad.

He's never laid one down in his MLB career. He's done it successfully 21 times in the minor leagues, and I believe a few times overseas. And I think he's bunted for a hit a time or two with Milwaukee. That's what we get for listening to Brian Anderson.

In this day & age you're right, it isn't a simple thing. But the way I look at it his trying to lay one down results in a much better chance of a successful AB (I consider moving the runners up successful) than letting him swing away. A guarantee? No. He addressed the Frelick AB in the presser. Chapman has apparently walked a ton vs LHH, and Frelick has been swinging the bat well. He had Hoskins on deck. Originally it was a head scratcher for me too. Still questionable, but there was at least a thought process there.

I think the biggest key to this one was not being able to sustain the quality of ABs we did in the 2nd & 3rd innings. Had a chance to wave bye bye to Skenes after 5 or 6 innings. Of course he had a lot to do with our not being able to do that. His command, his pitch mix, his knowledge of when to attack---he could've averaged 95-96 on the FB and been just as effective. I already railed about the lousy approaches in the 7th. Repeat in the 9th. Chapman has AVERAGED about a walk per inning. Yelich set the tone, the tone apparently being that we thought it was Dennis Eckersley out there. I can just imagine some of the howling about the eighth. Monasterio failed, period. Anderson and/or Schroeder mentioned that he had never laid down a sac bunt in MLB. That's true. It's also true that he's bunted successfully twenty-one times in his professional career. He can do it. Today, he failed & it cost us. I was a little surprised Chourio or Hoskins weren't used for Perkins despite the L-R thing, but Holderman has huge splits. Murphy put more weight on that, then on Perkins looking poor at the plate all day. Didn't work out. Why Frelick hit in the 9th, I got nothin'. EDIT: In postgame he mentioned Chapman being wild vs LHH this year & Frelick being someone that could extract the walk. Hoskins would've hit next. We lose the battle but win the war if this is what we're getting out of Civale going forward.

Apparently we're all about breaking up the no-hitter, over winning the game. Just an embarrassing 7th.

Brian Anderson: "The goal right now is to get into the Pirates bullpen". He says this immediately after Yelich swings at a 2-0 pitch leading off the inning, followed by a 1st-pitch swing from Adames, both of which he says absolutely nothing about.

Are you saying we will rock him? Skenes is only walking about 1 batter per 5 innings. Considering how hard he throws, at this stage of his career that's just as impressive as the K totals.

Nice to see Juan Baez back out on the field (ACL rehab). It's been too long. And, gotta throw some love toward Eric Brown Jr who is 8 for his last 19. That has to feel good for him during what I'm sure has been a frustrating year at the dish.

I can see it (even though I didn't)---That's the pitch last season he either swings & misses, with his head pointing somewhere toward left-center field post swing, or if it clips the edge of the zone it's a rollover ground ball to the left side. Maybe our boy is growing up before our very eyes.

I've felt this way about the ASG for awhile now. I guess I'm a little less bothered by it since it's five days & they have time to get off their feet after the dog-and-pony show early in the week. All I have to hear now from Sophia is that Contreras has been given some time off lately to rest up FOR the ASG. Someone would have to die.

I think Willy is always going to run hot-cold, and the cold stretches are always going to last longer than we think they should. He struck out twice last night, and his double was to the pull side. That in itself doesn't give me a lot of hope that he's coming out of it because his turnarounds usually seem to come when he starts driving the ball to the right side (I think he did that a little in LA). He'll come out of it at some point. Then you just hope the good stretch lasts as long as possible. I think the key to moving him down in the order rests with breaking up the Turang-Contreras-Yelich trio at the top. I'd prefer (when he returns) Ortiz 2nd w/Contreras 4th. Chourio is doing much better in recent weeks hitting in the bottom third; IMO leave him there at this stage of his career. What I THINK will happen is Adames will stay in the cleanup spot & they'll ride it out. On one of the top half-dozen or so lineups in MLB he'd hit around 7th & be just fine there.

I don't think it's imminent, but certainly a possibility at some point & something that I believe is on their radar. It'll take some 40-man roster mumbo-jumbo.

I agree, but they both acquitted themselves well on Sunday. Murph took an extra trip to the Capra/Haase well & it bit him. It's a little curious b/c Monasterio was swinging it a little better recently. But despite tonite, Capra is IMO a better glove man & they always are going to emphasize that.

Exactly. Capra is a fairly solid infielder w/versatility. One up hop (the play was changed to a hit later) doesn't change that. He actually defended 3B well in LA. Today he didn't get it done. On this day, join the club.

Nowadays they have all kinds of dumb intricate stats in baseball regarding weird stuff & the last time it happened. I'm wondering about the last time a team walked three times & stole two bases in an inning & didn't score. I know there are "running out of gas" comments regarding the pitching. With regards to the starters I don't think there have been enough innings for that to happen, save for maybe Myers at some point. Rea has exceeded all expectations; he had a clunker today. Still don't want to see us spend prospect capital on BP arms like we have in previous years. There are options under contract with the organization if it comes to that, options I'd much rather explore than what we'd trade for. Some decent vibes re Capra & Haase after Sunday. Back to earth a little today. It's still early for him, and I know it wasn't exactly an important AB, but Mitchell swinging three times through 93-95 like it was the varsity scrimmaging the freshmen was a pretty ugly look.

I think whatever talent it would take to Acquire Soderstrom, they feel would be much better served elsewhere (pitching). That's much higher on their priority list than picking up another catcher, or wanting to jettison Bauers.

OK, I didn't realize that. Seems he's played 57 games in the OF. AFA how well he plays out there, I guess whether he wears a helmet in the OF would be a clue.😁

IMO, A or C. If C is too costly, go defense first which would be Navarreto. Or D----"Gee Gary, the calf can be a tricky thing. I think we need to take about 8 weeks to strengthen it."

Along with the low BA against & ERA, Moreno with a WHIP just below one. With the level of defense & lack of experienced catching at the DSL level that's no joke. One of the many things to love about Made is thirteen XBH overall in (IIRC) 22 or 23 games, From someone who was still 16 this spring, that's impressive at any level.

Heck, if you'd do that just see what you'd have to add to get Skubal. You'd probably have to replace Henderson with Misiorowski, and then..........

It's tempting to go into full prospect hugger mode. Like you said, you build depth at a spot, then trade from it. And we all have our opinions as to who should be ahead of who. To me this was the perfect situation--you have someone that an organization covets, yet he isn't at the top of your organizational list at that position. Agree re Pratt. Bitonti has some swing-and-miss that concerns me a little, but I wouldn't like the idea of trading him, certainly not for Civale. Also hope none of the top 10-12 ACL or DSL guys go anywhere at this point.

There's no reason to get vulgar.😁 You're correct, as long as they stay with the same top 3 in the order then you're pretty much having to live through the ugly stretches Adames puts up unless Hoskins gets more consistent. Even thinking about Hiura again makes my brain hurt. My short answer is he might be an acceptable hitter in the bigs, but to do so he needs to consistently lay off the FB in the upper reaches of the strike zone or above. And he's never been able to do that.

When talking about the offense, "Blake Perkins improving as a right-handed hitter" might be under the radar, but could be extremely significant if that continues over the weeks to come. That, and Ortiz' neck issue not proving to be a chronic thing. Hopefully he's a starter & a very good one in the future, but for the remainder of this year I see Hall as more of a LH version of Wilson or Junis out of the pen.