owbc

Maybe I’m an exception but I have trouble caring about this controversy. Breaking news, FIFA is corrupt and everything looks like a red card in super slow motion. Shocking! Go beat Belgium!!!

Seattle just moved JP Crawford to 3B in the middle of the season. He hadn't put in any MLB time at 3B since 2018 and was last in MLB in most reliable defensive metrics at SS. He's looked fine and is passing the eye test. It's a good spot to put an older SS who has lost range but can still hit.

I'd been to some MLS games and didn't understand the appeal but I went to a Copa America game sometime in the mid-2010s and was like "oh, I get it now". Completely different game when you're watching the top talent vs. a league that barely cracks the top 10 globally. Many of the same people will turn around and call the NFL fast-paced and exciting. Right.

That's why I think Senzatela is a more likely target than a pure starter, just knowing how our organization thinks. If we do trade away top prospects, it's going to be someone that our trade partner values higher than we do.

Gausman is an interesting idea. 223 IP pitched last year including postseason. Seems to be getting a bit unlucky this year, his underlying numbers look similar to his better 2025 campaign. The Jays are only 3 games out of a crowded AL wild card, so they need to lose more games in July or else I have a feeling they will let it ride.

Vaughn would play every day on most teams. Bauers gives us the luxury of being able to deploy him in a platoon with the added bonus of knowing we are not completely giving up ABs when Vaughn faces righties.

Detmers would be a "buy high" trade. We haven't executed a buy high trade since sometime in the 2010s.

I turned it off after we didn’t score in the 10th and Anderson coming in. Fortunately I checked again before we rallied in the 11th. When they walked Yelich to face Chourio I audibly said “What are those morons doing?” One of those “burn the box score” type wins where we take the W and move on.

At least we didn't burn any high leverage relievers. If you're going to lose it's better to get it over with early.

Poor Pratt, that was such a great AB and could have easily been two bases.

It appears that the Reds had a game plan to swing at breaking pitches while the Brewers had a game plan to throw more breaking pitches.

Seems like one of those days where BABIP is not our friend.

No room for error in MLB these days. I wonder if he's tipping the breaking pitches.

Frelick needs to hit the gym and Mitchell needs to get his head in the game.

Ortiz is at +0.2 bWAR this year, he would be -0.2 without his glove. Frelick at -0.4 bWAR this year, he would be +0.3 without his glove. So Joey has vale over a replacement player, but not at a 2.0+ WAR pace that would be expected of a regular starter. I don't know if I fully trust the defensive numbers but they match the eye test.

I could see us going after Antonio Senzatela from Colorado as a middle relief depth option. He seems to fit the profile of a guy we would want. He's been terrible for years but added a cutter/2-seamer combo this year to go with a plus 4 seamer and has a career best 3.38 FIP. Averaging nearly 2 IP per start and has an Ashby-like 8-0 W/L record. He can also be a starter in August/September to help with load management. I also like that he's making $12 million this year so the cost to acquire should be pretty low compared with someone like JT Brubaker on SF or some of the starting pitching options we are looking at.

I'd argue that the current postseason format gives a huge reward to the 1-2 seed, so those regular season wins are worth more than they were prior to 2022 in terms of increasing our chances of having postseason success. I'd argue that our past postseason failures have mostly been a combination of bad starting pitching and bullpen meltdowns. Even looking at last year's pitching matchups vs. LA makes one want to poke their eyes out: Ashby/Priester vs. Snell Peralta vs Yamamoto Ashby/Miz vs. Glasnow Quintana vs. Ohtani

In the past few years I've done London, Amsterdam, and Stockholm with a 3-4 year old and they have all been fantastic. All of those European cities are extremely family friendly with an infinite variety of activities. We haven't ventured much into the countryside and have mostly stuck to doing stuff that is accessible via bus or metro.

It occasionally works out that way, but most of the time you're in a low-scoring pitchers' duel and the main thing you need to do is run up the pitch count of the opposing pitcher. That was their primary failure mode in games 1-2 against the Dodgers. Had they worked longer counts and gotten Snell/Yamamoto pulled after 6-7 innings, they would have gotten more looks at the Dodgers' bullpen arms earlier in the series and had a higher probability of getting lower leverage arms into the game later in the series. A solo HR or two wouldn't have turned the tide without the better at bats.

It was really 15-3 before the position players came in. Dansby Swanson is on some kind of heater right now.

Savant thinks that Pratt is getting unlucky. His xBA is .270 and xWOBA is .320 which is 70 points better than his actual performance. His average exit velocity is higher than Frelick. Small sample but if he can elevate the ball a bit more his numbers should improve. His ability to draw walks appears to be as advertised.

This was more of Rengifo/Joey losing their jobs rather than Pratt winning it. If you’re getting near-zero offensive production it makes sense to let the kid get his feet wet. I agree that he will be fine in the long run and the nice thing about his contract is that we haven’t started any clocks by bringing him up early.

17-9 This is the easiest monthly schedule I have ever seen. The best team on it is Miami. Time to rip off some wins.

I get that there is an hypothesis going around that you have to hit a large number of home runs to win in the postseason, with the argument being that you face mostly high leverage pitching so you can't string baserunners together and are better off just trying to hit mistakes out of the ballpark. I don't know that I buy it. By that logic we should have lost to the Cubs last year since they were 6th in regular season home runs and we were 22nd. The list of why we lost to the Dodgers has about 10 other things of equal importance on it. Out of the other LCS teams...2025 Toronto was maybe a beacon to aim for because they had a balanced offense with league-average home run hitting (191 HR vs. 188 league average). However, they have failed to replicate that success in 2026 and are now near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories. Seattle is another perhaps. They are generally a poor offensive team but are optimized for their home ballpark which favors home runs over singles and doubles. Again, they have failed to replicate their 2025 success and are near the bottom of the league in scoring (despite being #10 in HR). Seattle's first game against Skubal was perhaps an example of home run hitting winning a game, with Jorge Polanco getting 2 solo HR in a 3-2 win (ALDS game 2). However, in their second game against Skubal (ALDS game 5) they scored off him with a more Brewers-like double-stolen base-sac fly combo. In both cases it was ultimately their ability to work long ABs and drive up Skubal's pitch count that won them those games, with the winning hits in both coming off of bullpen arms.