I was surprised, with a deep as a pitching system that the Crew has, that there were only 5 mentions. No explanation of the lower level top guys?
Boy, O was up in the minors this year!
Aquino? That one caught me off guard. Not that I am remembering much (anything) from him in the past couple of months.
Is he rule 5 eligible this year? He never seemed to be a K guy, however seemed he could fill innings as a ground ball specialist.
Really interesting, Payne is the 2nd youngest on the roster, Mercedes the 3rd, and - I believe Bitonti the 4th.
Almost no one is in AA beyond a bunch of the Brewers (including the young Brewers). Gotta be all good signs, no?
Love the explanations and review, thanks Matthew!
I actually would have mentioned DL Hall with the 3 others at the end. The Crew's pen is really dialed in right now. Hopefully it is still in 4 weeks.
And Dustin May is a strong 4th. Plus possibly a game 7 tandem with Harrison. If the Crew can dodge injury & innings bugs in the next 7 weeks, I think they will feel very good about the state of their starting pitching against anyone else's in the playoffs.
I am of the thought also that the Strosnider draft capital was another factor in both OFs being expendable. Adamczewski. Payne. Lara. Strosnider. Perhaps Pena.
All would be ahead of Ragsdale for certain, and probably Frias for another year or two. This is why you deal out of that prospect depth.
Would love Soriano and he seems to make a lot of sense as a mid-rotation controllable guy. If Quero or Dinges plus Crow plus a lower level lottery ticket or two could be a real thing, that is dealing straight out of the system's depth in the way it should be utilized.
KLaw tends to give player upside & potential heavy weight, with age as a factor. Thinking that way, having Frias being mentioned this early says to me that Keith thinks his ceiling is really high.
That early season juiced ball they were testing whacks out overall numbers. It is a great stat to look at. I would wonder across other systems how they look this year for that start.