owbc

Sunk cost on a contract with frontloaded production. He isn’t going anywhere, what I’m saying is that they can ride him in the leadoff spot a little longer but he’ll lose playing time if this continues.

The Yelich situation is like the Rengifo one. We have the luxury of being patient because we are winning but everyone knows the clock is ticking.

Overall the offense gets high marks today for running a good starter out after 5. I didn’t think Sproat was that bad today. Wild and inefficient, yes, but he mostly kept the ball away from the barrel and we have a good shot at winning the game. Would I trust him in the postseason? Absolutely not.

I’m watching this game on a plane, it started at 9 am and is giving me something to do. Landing soon so will miss the end.

In addition to creating competition it seems like these young rookies come up into the bigs with less pressure when they have the full confidence of the organization and have their future secured.

What are the odds that Lara/Pratt/Frelick hit 3 XBH in a row again? Ever?

And they have the sword slashing move to go with it

Despite Sproat’s control issues that inning is still a zero most of the time. And now we’re back to even!

There’s some truth to it — our OPS+ is only 101. But our strategy isn’t to lead the league in OPS, it’s to score runs.

The Angels are notorious for this. They scheduled a game last year against Pittsburgh with a 6:29 start which is the latest they are legally allowed to start under the CBA. All the AL West opponents hate them because the flights home are all under 2.5 hours so they always schedule night games on weekday getaways. Even when they are forced to do a day game they will often start at 4. Since the STL to PIT flight for us is under the limit, the Cards can get away with a night game.

If we're going to fork out that many prospects I'd rather just make a run at Skubal. They have like 4-5 other arms that could be available but a few of them are fly ball pitchers who are benefitting from Petco. And Adam is unfortunately injured. Morejon would be my top target, a truly elite bullpen arm who would be the primary closer on about 25 other MLB teams. Bonus that he's a lefty and has favorable splits against LHB. He pitches a bit more to contact than some high leverage relievers but is 99th percentile in ground ball rate. He would thrive with our infield defense. He won't come cheap for a rental but I prefer him over being stuck with 40-year-old Aroldis Chapman in 2027.

I wouldn't touch Ray with a 50ft pole. His home/away splits are brutal. Plus the Dodgers lit him up in his one appearance against them.

I'm feeling greedy and want a "ball don't lie" 5-0 sweep. Make them pay for moving that game to July.

I don't think Turang has the arm strength for 3B. Arraez doesn't fit the batting profile of a guy we would target. If you're going to be slow and have a poor walk rate, you better hit for power. And he doesn't at all. We have enough guys who can slap the ball around already. The guy is having a heck of a year though, he's a true enigma in the 3TO era that we live in.

I agree that batters are almost always sitting on one pitch. In the AB that got Lara his first hit, he looked like he was initially sitting breaking pitch so it was seeing them well and confidently tracking the misses. To me he looked like Juan Soto in the way he confidently let those pitches go. Then on the actual hit I think he was guessing fastball and was out in front/over it, but managed to adapt enough to get it through the hole on the right side. Yelich is older and has lost bat speed so I don't think he can adapt as well as he used to.