90% catch probability on that catch per statcast. Frelick's jumps this year have been very poor. His average jump is 1.1 feet below average. He has been fine in RF by the numbers but he's definitely been making plays look much tougher than they actually are with his poor jumps.
I'll be honest I'm really concerned about Priester. Topping out at 92.0mph with command like this does not seem like a guy who will be ready any time soon.
No you need 5 years of service time to reject an option. At 3 years you can reject an outright assignment to the minors but Zerpa has an option year left so he wouldn’t qualify for that.
I think the big mistake was using Uribe in the 9th inning against 7-8-9 in the order. Burning him there left you with no ideal pitcher against the top of the order in the 10th. Could have sent Ashby out for another inning or used Anderson/Megill in the 9th to avoid that situation. Using Uribe there was the type of rigid bullpen use I thought we were getting rid of.
I'm sorry but a 5 year old could have anticipated Pittsburgh pinch hitting Ozuna for Lowe in that spot. If our manager couldn't see that coming it's a huge red flag. The point is you cannot keep using Zerpa in leverage spots when he's incapable of getting RHH out. He either needs to be in a low to mid leverage LOOGY type role or he needs to be in AAA.
He's an absolute disaster right now and is costing us games. Has giving up a run or allowed an inherited runner to score in 7 of his 9 outings in April.
Drohan is in the pen. 3 LHP should be plenty. Zerpa can't get RHH out. Needs to go to AAA until he's back on track because tossing him out there right now if it isn't against a stretch of 3-4 LHH is basically asking to give up runs.
Murphy continuing to trot Zerpa out there as a leverage arm when RHH are hitting him like they are prime Barry Bonds on double the steroids is extremely annoying.
Braylon Payne with yet another HR. Line drive screamer to RF off a LHP. 2-4 day with a hustle double on a hard hit liner and the HR. Just an absurd start to the season for the kid.
This is his third year in the US. He played in the draft league and Appy league in 2024. How do you know the bat speed is there? Do you have his bat speed numbers? Do you have his EV numbers? Maybe you're right. Could very well be. As someone who knows nothing about him though it doesn't feel like a very convincing argument. If he was flashing bat speed or EV of an 80 raw power guy, I think there would be a lot more draft hype on him even with his more solid to good than good to great production.
Sanchez isn't in the lineup. Your options in the lineup are Black, Rengifo, Mitchell (39% K-rate), Frelick, Lockridge, and Hamilton. Is it really insane to have Black hitting cleanup out of those options?
What I've read on him, a 4th to 7th seems way more on point than where someone like Burke who was a significantly better college player went. Why do you think he should be picked where Burke did?