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squally1313

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Everything posted by squally1313

  1. Generally agreed. The sample sizes are so small for a short reliever that it's tough to like, map out a path to reliability. It's not like he's a starter who can go face 40 AAA hitters in a week. Edit: This is where you have to hope the pitching brain trust can identify the flaw and be able to track improvement outside of the outcomes of actual ABs. They clearly haven't figured out how to get swings and misses yet. A soft reset is probably the next attempt at a solution.
  2. I think you got to give Counsell a little more credit than that. He's not the type to rigidly stick to defined roles like that, and even if he was, A. it's not good practice for someone as important as your Closer to pitch 2 innings in 2 weeks, and B. as mentioned earlier, why did Hodge get the 9th against the middle of the lineup and not Pressly? Because it wasn't a save opp? And if so, then why did he pitch the 10th?
  3. In the last two weeks, Keller, Palencia, Hodge, Merryweather, and Thielbar all have 5 appearances. Pomeranz has 4. Pressly has 2.
  4. a. I dont know! b. Pitching better, if not 'well' in low leverage spots is a good sign?
  5. 'Was this a bad pickup' and 'should we cut/banish him forever' are two different conversations. He's here, and we can either hide him (which we've been doing pretty successfully) or lose him. In my mind, the other options aren't better.
  6. Well you're in luck, because we're playing at a 96 win pace with the rest of schedule being significantly easier than what we've been through so far. So it follows that at least a large portion of the team is acting that way. In the last 2 weeks, nine relievers have pitched more innings than Ryan Pressly. There's an argument he's at the bottom of the pecking order right now (or, at most, he's the 6th guy out of the pen tonight). Yes, it would be wonderful to have 8 shut down relievers that all throw 98. But over here in reality, the bottom of the pen is ideally filled with guys who you hope could turn into reliable contributors at some point later on in the season. So the question becomes, who is more likely to do that, the guy who's been a sub-4.00 ERA guy for essentially ever, or....Gavin Hallowell?
  7. Since March until tonight, 10 innings, zero earned runs, one unearned run, 6 hits (1 in his prior 6 innings), 3 walks, 0.00 ERA, 3.16 FIP, 4.30 xFIP. And, in my opinion, clearly not considered the closer or even a top option. Like, sure, we can dump him, be on the hook for his salary, and continue forward with two spots being filled by the Roberts/Hollowell/Flexen/whatever group of nothing instead of just one spot. Or we can phantom IL him, give him a few minor league innings, let him pitch in non-competitive spots for a while (like he has been) and see if there's anything left.
  8. I mean, he's pitched twice in the last two weeks and was the 6th guy out of the pen today. There are signs he's out of the circle of trust.
  9. The PCA AB was against a very tough LHP and we should temper our expectations in that situation regardless a microcosm of the voiced concerns about PCA being in the 'I'm god and can hit everything' part of the cycle, which usually is the first stage of the slump
  10. This is always dangerous but if you're PCA you kinda have to assume the game plan here is to not throw any pitches in the strike zone.
  11. I can't remember if Nico can bunt, and I generally hate it, but....maybe.
  12. I'm guessing the players are probably fine with it too, so doubt you ever see it going away at this point. Just wish they would have gone full Fake Baseball and started the innings with the bases loaded. Full variability, more fun, less likely to end the inning in a tie, etc. You don't even have to consider all the runs the actual score, just make it Losing Team X, Winning Team X+1.
  13. to be clear, it is a good thing that it's not in place in the postseason.
  14. I just wanted to get to Happ. Turner gets minimal credit for hitting a ground ball in the right direction.
  15. Verlander first pitched in Wrigley in 2006, if you want to feel really old.
  16. .351 wOBA, 126 wRC after that home run. Dude is a metronome.
  17. Teams with a less than 10% chance of making the playoffs and their good, potentially attainable starting pitchers: White Sox - No one Angels - No one Nats - Mackenzie Gore (two more years of arbitration, would cost a lot, would be another lefty, is very good at pitching), Trevor Williams (historically more of an innings eater, but 3.35/3.26/3.91 in 102 innings in 2024 and 2025, $7m this year and next) Marlins - Sandy Alcantara (has been BAD this year, and not in an unlucky way, but an elite pitcher the three eyars before this, $11m this year and next year with a club option for 2027) Pirates - Andrew Heaney (saw him last week, another lefty, wouldn't classify him as anything better than a #3 but cheap and not signed past this year), Mitch Keller (generally good in a Jameson Taillon type way, but trending in the wrong direction and owed $15m a year for the next three years) Rockies - Getting bored of this but...Marquez hasn't been good since 2021, so unless he's been mailing it in for the last 240 IPs and it's still in there, pass. Freeland is probably actually bad and not just Coors Field bad, but his type plays up in front of our defense I guess?
  18. I don't want to nitpick because I think we're all coming to the same conclusion (which is: go get a good starter, immediately), but the version of Shota we've seen most of the year was not likely to continue giving us the results we'd gotten out of him so far. Ks were down, walks were up, fly balls were up...all pretty significantly in the wrong direction metrically from his 2024 season where he generated 0.5 wins per month. He had 174 Ks and 28 walks last year, this year he had 34 Ks and 14 walks. Is it better than Chris Flexen? Almost assuredly. Is it a noticeable difference over a duration of 8-10 starts? No. It's baseball, and baseball is dumb in ways like 'the Cubs were undefeated in games started by Gage Workman'.
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