Bertz

Jefferson Rojas has played 17 games at AA. The first 8 he got his ass kicked, the latter 9 he's hitting .242/.390/.364 with more walks than K's. Because of the dire straits around offense in the Southern League that's a 133 wRC+. He's the 5th youngest player in AA this year.

Since June 1st: .250/.335/.410, 109 wRC+ From a guy who was considered the best defensive catcher in last year's draft. The ceiling probably isn't super high, something like Yan Gomes, but I think he's a thing.

Ariel Armas on base 3 more times tonight (and it's only the 5th). I think he's a back of the top 30 guy for me. If he hits at all he's a big leaguer and he's been hitting for a few months now.

Sure, that feels like a lot of extra effort to get a worse hitter more at bats?

Carson Kelly is a much better hitter against lefties than Ian Happ. And if you have a Turner/Kelly/Swanson/Shaw bottom of the order it's pretty easy to neutralize in the late innings with righty relievers.

Assad's second start with Iowa is I believe lined up for tomorrow as well. I think it's reasonable to expect both guys back as early as the Pittsburgh series next weekend. And then Amaya got a bunch of at bats last week but hasn't caught a 9 inning game yet. So he probably joins the team in STL this weekend?

Love it. If he does well at South Bend he's still at a pretty age appropriate level going forward despite being a senior sign.

Cubs offered more by TVM to both

They also tried to sign both Scott and Bregman through at least '27 last winter.

Yeah I suspect the plan is to start using Brown in bulk relief, and maybe Assad too. That's a good way to mitigate the innings limitations with so much of the current rotation. It'd be a really good day for the offense to flex its muscles and let Brown have a soft landing into long relief.

https://www.fangraphs.com/projections?type=zips&stats=rel&pos=all&team=0&players=0&lg=all&z=1754295716&sortcol=14&sortdir=asc&pageitems=30&statgroup=dashboard&fantasypreset=dashboard 3.35 ERA according to ZiPS, and a bunch of the guys around him are second tier closers like Kirby Yates and Trevor Megill

Pressly still projected very well coming into the year

Do they? They haven't run a huge payroll since Dombrowski left, they chickened out of paying Mookie Betts, and they more or less reneged on paying Devers at the first opportunity.

Curious what kind of power the team thinks Southisene can grow into. Is it Nick Madrigal power like he's displayed to this point? Because as a shortstop who steals a ton of bases that probably is playable. Or can he end up in the JP Crawford or Bryson Stott neighbordhood?

Yeah Happ's not going anywhere, and the small chance he does go somewhere is contingent on Tucker being re-signed.

Even if we say that the team has no intention of holding onto Tucker (which whatever, I have no interest in arguing that) there's really not room for all four of the Iowa bats who are currently pounding on the door. After this season you're replacing Tucker and Turner, who will combine for 800-900 PAs this season. So that's two kids playing not quite full time. Maybe you keep a third for injury and redundancy? That still leaves a guy who you have no room for on next year's squad. More room opens up after next season, but there's not a realistic way to hold out for that. At least three of those guys are MLB ready *right now*, and the fourth isn't super far off. You can't just hold their development in stasis and wait 20 months to give them their first extended shot at the big leagues. This week was the perfect time to deal at least one. It's not the end of the world to make a deal this winter, but it comes at the expense of not improving a team that has a decent argument for being the best in the NL.

Much in the same way that we dodged a bullet in not getting Logan O'Hoppe, I'm hoping that one of Brown/Wicks/Birdsell gets some innings that they otherwise wouldn't have and force their way into 2026 opening day plans. That said, I think we need to the Brewers to collapse for the team to get enough wiggle room for Craig to feel comfortable giving sufficient innings to the kids.

I don't have the record but I think it's actually really good. The vibes around here get rancid, like when we swept the Rockies but apparently not hard enough. But I think the actual results are good. It's been when the wind has been blowing out where things have gone more poorly, like that Mariners series.

As far as SP matchups go, this is probably the toughest one this weekend. Rogers isn't nearly as good as his ERA but he is good. That said the O's bullpen should be in shambles this weekend, and the bottom half of their lineup likely a mess. We're probably getting them at about as opportune time as possible.

There's an episode of Scrubs that always stuck with me. Elizabeth Banks plays a star surgeon, I don't remember what kind exactly. JD's got a patient that needs her type of surgery, but she refuses to take on the operation because the patient has a bunch of factors that make it risky. Turns out Banks' character has a history of dodging these tough patients in order to keep her stats up and look better for fellowships, etc. Anyway Jed made four good trades and but refused to engage with the most glaring hole on the roster for the second transaction period in a row. I gave him a D.

Yeah his average fastball last year was 95.0, and he pretty regularly hit 97. Last night it was 93.6 and he topped out at 95.3. I'm not worried, it's basically the equivalent of late early April for him, but he's just a little further away from being an MLB option than he was late last year IMO.

I suspect Berti goes for Amaya. I think Castro ultimately made both Brujan and Berti redundant. Team carries three catchers for a month and then a kid gets the last bench spot in September. On the pitching front, I suspect one of Brown/Horton for one and Pomeranz for the other, barring an injury making the decision for them.

Birdsell's velo was down a good bit tonight. Good night overall but I don't think he's quite back to where he left off last September.

Things I Like - I love Willi Castro for this team. Love love love. I would have taken him over any non-Cease rental arm. Pitching clearly didn't work out like I wanted but this was Plan A by a mile for me on the position player side - I suspect the team added a lot of quality innings. Probably not impact innings, but quality innings - There is a certain extent to which it's nice to push the Caissie/Alcantara decision until after the Tucker situation is resolved - I prefer the second reliever addition to an Adrian Houser type rotation arm - Probably grasping at straws, but is the lack of another SP a signal that we've all been overestimating Horton's innings restrictions? If the team thinks it can get closer to 150 innings out of him while we've been earmarking 120, it changes the calculus quite a bit - I am glad the team did not sell low on Brown or Wicks Things I don't Like - Jameson Taillon’s our 3rd starter in the playoffs...cool - The reason I accepted not making another SP move last winter was an expectation that powder was being kept dry for this summer. Well that powder's still bone dry, so how many more times are we going to kick this can down the road? - Owen Caissie's going to enter the winter with ~1100 AAA plate appearances. Ballesteros around 800. Alcantara's last option year is next year. What's the endgame here? - If SP prices were too exhorbitant, the team should have aimed higher on the RP front. I would have gladly done the deals the Yankees did for Bednar or Doval for instance - If the division was comfortably in hand, I would like taking a lighter touch on SP additions in order to give runway to Brown/Wicks. But the division VERY MUCH IS NOT in hand

I have not followed the Blue Jays closely this season but I see no reason they can't just use Barger full time at 3B instead of splitting between 3B and RF.