sabretooth

If they want to have any chance to have a winning record in the next two years, they are going to need to add one very good starting pitcher from the outside and another at least average SP.

The offense has some serious holes, but the real Achilles Heel of this team for the next couple of years is the starting rotation. After Manning and ERod, who are not currently reliable/above average, they have only replacement/recovery/AAAA guys for 2023 and 2024. Wentz looks promising but he has to get and stay healthy for once. They could fix the offense, continue to have a really good BP, and still be a losing team if they rely on the pitchers available from within the roster/system for 2023-2024. Madden, and Flores look like they could be good, but likely beyond 2024.

For what its worth I dont want them to trade Tork or Greene.

Well its not "people" that are saying this...one person.

He's cut down on his strike outs this year, which is nice, but he also has cut down on his power, which is not nice, and for whatever reason, he continues bafflingly to swing at this one terrible pitch.

Tork has arrived as a hitter

It's like catnip for him

Eduardo.....6.6% swinging strikes.....7 k/9.....91-92 MPH 4-seamer.....ineffective Changeup. If this is the new Eduardo our rotation is going from bad to near non-existent heading into 2023.

Again, the velocity on the 4-seamer is down in the 90-91 range and he's getting hit.

Dangit.....not a nice throw by Kriedler or pickup by Tork.

...and just like that his 4 seamer jumps to 92.6 to 93....nice

Eduardo looking sharp.....I would like to see him recover that 93 MPH average on the 4 seamer from previous seasons.

Javy, Haase, and Tork hit it hard. That's good to see.

Yay Miggy! Can't wait for another season of this.

Yeah baby

nah

Given the injuries I'm tempted to say that this is a lock for a loss....but it seems like with this team (coaches, players) and this scheme they overcome and adapt pretty quickly to injury losses. They win this game and its starting to feel like a special season.

Examples of guys who worked out: - In addition to being on the fail list above, its been said that Tork credits his time with Lloyd in Toledo for helping him get back on track. - Greene has credited AJ with short after-AB briefings, he has worked through a couple of slumps. - Carpenter has been with the team a relatively short time and perhaps hasnt been impacted by the MLB coaching yet. - Hasse seems to be the one MLB guy who made an adjustment and it paid off. I cant recall if that was recommended by Coolbaugh or what. For a team going through and historic blow out hitting wise that coolbaugh's name never seems to come up publicly in a positive light. I hope a change is made there, but I am not holding my breath.

They acquired or elevated better players in 2021 and 2022 just as the league was deadening the ball. Those particular players: - were a little too green (Tork) - were a little past their peak (Baez, and Schoop if we're including previous acquisitions) - were coming off one year "highs" (Grossman and Candy, who was also a previous acquisition and also had a nice partial 2020) - were about to experience unexpected injury(s) (Meadows, Greene) - had below average hitting talent to begin with (Reyes, Castros, Barnhart) - were too old to Rock and Roll (Miggy) Add to the deadened ball, and the incidental stuff listed above, some kind of bad coaching take (I suspect they were over/mis coached towards "giving into" the pitcher), and the results were catastrophic.

BB is a serious 3pt shooter and he also is a high pct shooter from everywhere else. Hes old and he reportedly plays poor D, but having a versatile sharpshooter is something I have wanted to see for a long time.

Keep this up and you'll be St. Casimir

Yeah, pretty brutal.

After a bad post-ASB run, Baez is now right back to his career norms except for Hrs. He has had almost exactly 1/10th of his career PAs since June 1st. Career: 3793 PAs, 186 2b, 23 3b, 163 Hr, 182 Bb, 1088 K, .203 ISO, .330 BABIP, 261/303/465/768, 102 wRC+ 6/1/2022 - 9/20/2022: 373 PAs, 18 2b, 4 3b, 11 Hr, 19 Bb, 95 K, .170 ISO, .327 BABIP, .261/303/431/734, 109 wRC+ Almost identical 1/10th on EVERY stat except Hrs. He's right back to his career norms, except for Hrs. As far as the Hrs, maybe it's the juiced ball, maybe it's CoPa? But otherwise it's almost perfectly identical after his first two month mega-slump/adjustment. More to the point, due to the overall slumping of offense across the league, he's picked up 7 points of OPS+ despite the drop in Hrs.

That's better than I thought. He's still WAR-wise in the bottom rung of regulars over that period.

1984....calm the eff down man.