davell

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Steele goes 5.2 7 2 2 2 3.....103 pitches. That's got to be one of the highest pitch counts in our mi more this year.

EJM with his 7th HR, but only 2 doubles on the year and a .626 OPS. Hopefully he gets it together very quickly.

So, Preston Morrison evidently is on the DL for Tennessee now. Unless there's a place I'm just not aware of, its extremely hard to get up to date minor league roster moves.... So, who is his replacement? Do they go with bullpen games? I kind of doubt it, but I guess its possible with a rag arm like Pugliese on the roster.... Take a guy from Iowa? Nah, they're rotation is make shift enough, as it is. Activate either Erick Leal or Jake Stinnett? Makes sense. But have absolutely zero idea if either is remotely healthy. Since neither has been pitching in EXST, I'll say this is a super slim option. Raid MB? Likely. But who? Oscar is on the DL. Alzolay? Solid option, especially if teams are asking about him in trades. Hatch? My guess is they'd keep him there and give him more time to get comfortable in his first pro stop. Steele? Nah, he's not ready yet and he's showing a bit of success too. Kellogg? Very possible. Not that he really deserves it, but he's 23 already and the rest of that rotation is more important to the Cubs from a trade value standpoint. Doubt he's a guy they feel they need to protect from anything. And if he pitches well, it gives him a bit more value. Rucker? Sounds odd, but he's also 23. They could just move him to AA and give him his starts there.....Challenge him. Duncan Robinson? Makes sense to me. He's also 23, seems to be very advanced for where he's at currently. Worst case for him, is if a guy gets promoted from MB, he's their replacement. Tough call, but my guess is Kellogg, since they started on the same day last time through. With Robinson going to MB.

Mekkes goes 1.2 1 0 0 0 4.

Moreno goes 4 5 3 3 1 6, 4/0 GO/FO, on 70 pitches. He's definitely worth paying attention to, if the velo Arguello mentioned is real.

But, if there aren't many long term guys getting moved(Gray seems like the ONLY one that does to me), do you go after Yelich and Volquez? Or save up for the off season, to try again on whatever pitching is there?

Have seen a few rumblings over the last day the Fish may trade off Yelich, Ozuna, and/or Realmuto. With their impending sale, getting rid of salary supposedly is going to raise the franchise value. I guess I can see both sides of that, I'd rather keep the good, young players personally. But, that's not the point. The point is there may be some very solid players on the market with team control...... So, what can we try and grab from them, if they do this? I'm in love with trading for pick 36 in the draft that's less than two weeks away. I've brought it up before, they don't typically spend big money on draft/IFA's. If we could send them a package of minor leaguers, I'd love to do it. But, maybe they value the pick more, if they're going full rebuild. Stanton? Forget it. Stupid allocation of money. Volquez? 1/13 on his deal after this year. He's not IDEAL for our main pitching addition but he's a nice guy to have in tow for next year. Depending on cost, I'm interested. Dee Gordon? Pass. 3/37 up to 4/51 left on his deal. Don't see value. Ziegler? He's sucked this year and has 9 mill left next year too. AJ Ramos? He's not been good this year, but he's got a year of control left. I'd pass, I think. No need currently anyway. Ozuna? He's making 3.5 this year and has 2 years of control left.....Don't really see a fit though on a corner for us and he's bad in CF. Yelich? Yeah, I'm super intrigued. He's playing a pretty solid CF, he gets on base, has some pop, and is under contract for up to 5/58.25. Theo has kind of implied not to expect any offensive additions, but I doubt that comment was made, if he knew Yelich was out there..... Realmuto? Nice player, but no need for us. I'd guess the rest of their guys are too cheap for them to move, or not needed by us anyway. Still, any interest in Yelich, Volquez, or any of the rest of this group?

Same here. I was hung up on the 7 starts prior to that, where he went 28 innings, allowed 34 hits and walked 19 guys. He was K'ing guys too, but he was putting lots of guys on base and literally made it thru 5 innings once in those 7 starts(he'd only had one other start to that point). I thought the stuff wasn't quite ready for High A. Since he was laboring thru so many pitches to get the amount of outs he was getting. At any rate, he's straightened things out in a big way. Plus, his stuff seems to be better than what I was expecting out of him too. It won't surprise me if he gets a cup of coffee in Tennessee later this summer.

Haha, I posted that 2nd tweet earlier, but it the first one is better can you can hear McCarver..."that's all right it's worth it". How the horsefeathers is it worth it getting your guy picked off first base?? haha! Yeah, I've tried decoding that nugget. Maybe he thinks Lester is now forced to throw over more often? And will go to pieces under the pressure? Maybe, he looked at it as adding one to Lester's pitch count and was happy about that? In all likelihood, he's just an idiot who watched something blow up in his teams face and defended their red ass moron manager, because he blindly agrees with whatever they do.

No idea who we use as a lead piece, but Caratini, Candelario, Zagunis, and Burks should all be extremely solid complimentary guys in a big deal. My worry with Caratini is that he might be viewed as a 1B with low power. It's questionable if he can even be a back-up C. Feels like Vosler has worked his way into that complementary piece conversation as well. Caratini is probably an AL player. But, he's a guy that can get a full seasons worth of AB's between 1B, DH, and C. I think he's got pretty solid value. I think he's below average defensively, as a C. But, I don't think its so bad that some teams won't play him there fairly often, due to what he does with the bat. Personally, I think he's tailor-made for Oakland. Vosler has increased his stock, but I doubt its on the level of the other guys I listed. I think those guys are all top 200 prospects or so. To me, I'm going to guess Vosler is probably a top 500-600 type. That can change by the time the deadline rolls towards us. But, its probably the difference between getting a guy 5-8 in a decent system versus a guy in the 16-20 range. The second guy has value, just not as much as the first guy. Probably the difference in being a 2nd piece in a large deal, versus a 3rd or 4th piece.

In EXST, Javier Assad was excellent again. The game was Eugene vs Arizona, so we probably got a decent glance at who is on which team..... Assad started for Eugene, Marquez started for Arizona. Fauris Guerrero, a hard throwing reliever pitched for Eugene, while last years big Mexican League signing, Manuel Rodriguez(400k) pitched for Arizona. Notable names playing for Eugene, were Miguel Amaya at C, Aramis Ademan at SS, Jonathan Sierra in RF, and Gustavo Polanco at 1B(he's a C). Pleasantly surprised to see Sierra on Eugene, wasn't expecting that. Hope he sticks there. For Arizona, Rafael Narea was at SS, Kwangmin Kwon was in RF, Kevin Zamudio was DHing, and Yonothan Perlaza was at SS. A bit disappointing that Zamudio was still with Arizona. But, he wasn't great there last year. Still, he's a bit older, figured he'd be in Eugene. Kwon only played a handful of games last year, so its not horrible to see him there. He's kind of a project anyway.

No idea who we use as a lead piece, but Caratini, Candelario, Zagunis, and Burks should all be extremely solid complimentary guys in a big deal.

I told you Hatch wasn't being rushed to high-A! Yeah, I covfefied the hell out of that one.

Robinson finishes 7 4 1 1 1 9, on 86 pitches. 9/2 GO/FO.

Yeah, Toonster called that. The question is how? There's not a spot for him in MB, even with Oscar out. At least not if they give Rucker a shot at starting. Maybe bump him to AA for Morrison? Robinson is older, maybe worth trying that, just to see what you've got with him. Yeah, I was going to ask if that's the reason they haven't bumped him up. That might be a decent idea. Isn't Robinson 23? He's not a guy you need to coddle, either. Might be best to let him sink or swim. Or, instead of Morrison, who likely can't do anything, BUT start.....Maybe its time to throw Underwood in the pen and see if his stuff plays better that way.....I think starting is out for him. 3.2 12 9 9 1 5 tonight.....

Hatch has been awesome tonight. 6 3 0 0 0 4, 9/2 GO/FO on 73 pitches so far.

Yeah, Toonster called that. The question is how? There's not a spot for him in MB, even with Oscar out. At least not if they give Rucker a shot at starting. Maybe bump him to AA for Morrison? Robinson is older, maybe worth trying that, just to see what you've got with him. Yeah, I was going to ask if that's the reason they haven't bumped him up. That might be a decent idea. Isn't Robinson 23? He's not a guy you need to coddle, either. Might be best to let him sink or swim. Yeah, he is. And he's advanced to begin with. Good command, knows how to pitch, all that stuff. Probably just as ready for AA as any of the MB rotation, to be honest.

Yeah, Toonster called that. The question is how? There's not a spot for him in MB, even with Oscar out. At least not if they give Rucker a shot at starting. Maybe bump him to AA for Morrison? Robinson is older, maybe worth trying that, just to see what you've got with him.

https://twitter.com/TheBlogfines/status/871094785209245696 The Cardinal butt hurt. Still funny.

Big boned.

I would hope so. But, I don't know if I can give them that much credit. I'd punt Cruz into the stratosphere for him though.

Clifton goes 6 6 2 2 3 5.....Solid enough, but he needs to start limiting the walks. Burks winds up going 5-6, with a double and a steal. Surely, he's about to hit the prospect guys radar.

Vosler is actually becoming interesting. I figured it was a singular hot streak, but maybe not..... So glad to see Burks come back and still be hitting. Longenhagen had mentioned very early in the season that he didn't have bat control or strength. Gotta wonder if that's been put to rest at this stage.

Eloy HR