Bertz

There was a 3 week IL stint mixed in there, but since the start of June Palencia has 49 Ks and 11 BBs in 35.1 IP He's probably about ready for Tenn once he's stretched back out

Kohl Franklin has given back the baby steps forward he was starting to make and then some. At least he's making one of the 40 man decisions easier

Oh that's great news. I was kind of assuming the worst and figured we'd see him again over the offseason.

he and Hodge have been skyrocketing up my list of potential pitchers all season long

Luis Devers with 5 Ks through the first two innings. He is so damn fun Less fun is Riley Thompson. We might be at the point of shifting him to short relief

I wonder what the org's thoughts are on Steele's velo. They've had pretty good success at coaxing more juice out of guys, and Steele is flat out dominant when he's living 92-95 instead of 90-93. Do they think there is a path to more of the former than the latter? Is it as simple as a different strength and conditioning plan over the winter?

Yeah I think unless something big changes you write Steele and Thompson into next year's rotation. If Iowa was as bereft of SP talent as it's been historically maybe you don't, but the org finally has a critical mass of young SP so let's lean on it. Having Alzolay in the 'pen and Kilian/Wesneski as major league arms at Iowa with MiLB options is legitimately enviable SP depth. I think how big to go with the one SP addition and whether to go the trade or FA route are the most interesting and difficult questions this winter. FA is basically Rodon and deGrom, each of whom's medicals are terrifying, or a whole host of good but flawed #3/#4 types. Do you throw 9 figures at a guy who even in year one has an over/under of something like 20 starts? Alternatively do you really want to lock into 4 years of a Mike Clevinger type? There are some good buy-low options (looking at you German Marquez!), but given all of the young pitching and Hendricks' struggles the team's going to be in a position where that variability seems disqualifying. The trade route is interesting. There are some big names going into their walk years who could possibly come available like Ohtani, Giolito, or Nola. There's some fun longer term pieces that could probably be had for a very steep price like Brady Singer or Pablo Lopez. The farm does have the depth to make a big move, but does Jed think the time is right? He kind of explicitly called out that part of the reason for adding all of the young pitching over the last month was to avoid having to pay market rates for impact starters.

That Brown ranking sure doesn't seem like it includes this year's performance. And that's a really weird way to make that list. I get why they'd do it like that but it doesn't really seem like it's a useful tool for someone to spend time on. Longenhagen is the lowest on both Wesneski and Brown for what I'd assume are purely geographic reasons. Eric lives in AZ and understandably weighs his in person views on guys heavily. So you have to take the good (he's usually the first national guy on most of our ultra-young prospects playing in the ACL or instructs) with the bad (he wasn't really on Kilian until the AFL, he seems similarly behind the industry on these two east coast arms).

They pretty much could not be any more difference, but the two I have my eye on are Michael Brantley and Joey Gallo. Brantley is going to give you zero defensive value, he can play LF part time but you have to go in with the intention that he's your primary DH. That means him and keeping Contreras are an either/or. However, even at 35 Brantley is your textbook "professional hitter" and could probably be had on a one or two year deal. I doubt Houston holds onto him given that he and Yordan don't compliment each other very well defensively. Gallo is going to give you that defensive versatility of being an option at 1B or any OF position. So while the bat is riskier certainly, he can work around any other personnel moves. The biggest problem with Gallo is that he got traded. So now if he rebounds these two months with the Dodgers everyone knows it was just a NYC thing and that gets prices into his FA salary. If he doesn't rebound then frankly the odds of a rebound next year drop precipitously. The good news though is with Happ sticking around a big LH bat is more a nice-to-have than an absolute necessity.

I wonder if we're getting close to Canario and Perlaza heading to Iowa and backfilling them at Tenn with Pinango and Caissie

Didn't expect the Bote move. He seems likely to be out of the org after this year.

That's a really good outing for Hughes. He hasn't had major platoon issues to this point, but anecdotally I think he's been spared from especially tough righties. Getting some confirmation that he's totally playable even against tough righties is the sort of thing these last two months should be for.

I was pretty sure Stroman was fine before he went on the IL, but it's nice that he's providing pretty definitively that the stuff in April was just something temporary like the weirdo spring training or the weather.

On the position player side, nothing too crazy IMO. - Wisdom and Higgins should own 1B, Schwindel probably shouldn't take another PA. Wisdom because he probably opens there as the everyday guy next year, and Higgins because we should try to learn how legit his bat is. He's a bad defensive catcher, but if he hits he's at least an option as the backup next year - Mckinstry and Madrigal need to play as much as possible. Nelly's not quite in the same boat, but I'd start protecting him less aggressively and give him more starts against RHP. Barring injury obviously, there should rarely be a lineup that doesn't feature two of Mckinstry/Madrigal/Nelly - It takes a backseat to the two above, but I'd like to see Darius Hill up and get some action. He's probably about the same as Ortega, but being 6 years younger and having minor league options, it'd be nice to know if that's a swap Jed can make over the offseason Pitching is a lot more complicated. But: - At this point Thompson and Steele have shown enough that I like them longer term. They're both getting wobbly lately but it's pretty clearly tied to fatigue. Make sure they get their full complement of innings as safely as possible - I'd like to get Kilian, Newcomb, and Wesneski as many MLB innings as possible as well. I'm not sure how many are available given there were no SP trades, but I'd like to lean here where possible - I'd like to really cycle through short relievers. There's a ton of 40 man issues to consider, but I'd like some of the live arms up, even if they on paper don't seem quite ready. Get at least the beginnings of some answers heading into the winter

Not 100% sure where the 40 is at at this point, but Dermody seems likely to have been called up because he's easily DFA-able.

So those stats were before Perlaza had a 4-hit game with 2 HRs and a double today. It's just a fun all around offensive profile. The swing and miss and the strikeouts are around average. The walks are elite. The power is good. He hits everything in the air BUT ALSO doesn't hit a bunch of popups. The speed seems average-ish. He's a switch hitter who's pretty comparable from both sides of the plate. Honestly if he was still an infielder I'd be letting my expectations get unreasonable. As is I think he settles in as a bat off the bench, but like our favorite bat off the bench.

You can't look at it day-by-day, but Canario's swinging strike rate is now roughly average, after being in the danger zone early on. He has fully leveled up at AA. I'm pretty sure even when Nelly went nuclear at AA last year he was still swinging and missing at a Gallo-esque pace.

I think Davis, Mervis, and Amaya are the biggies. If Davis excels upon returning, it's suddenly very realistic for him to win the CF job out of ST. Between that and Happ sticking around, the OF doesn't need any reinforcements at all this winter, which is great. With Mervis and Amaya, I don't know that there's enough time for them to get pencilled into next year's opening day lineup, but there is enough for them to influence how many resources need to be allocated to their respective positions. Like if Mervis is crushing it, I'm very comfortable just throwing Wisdom and Mervis at 1B and assuming things will work out fine. I don't think there's anything Amaya can do to make me "very comfortable" but I think I could be okay with it.

I think Brad is driving the Perlaza bandwagon and I'm riding shotgun

Curious what the plan is with Newcomb, and the Iowa SPs more broadly, now that neither rental SP got traded. Keegan is clearly gassed, and probably gets shifted to the pen after another couple starts, a la Alzolay last year. Steele seems to have more in the tank, but not a ton more. Hendricks is out for at least another month. Let's say between those three, there's ~15 more starts accounted for. Stroman, Smyly, and Miley presumably make all of their remaining starts as long as they stay healthy, so 25-30 starts. That leaves 15-20 starts for Sampson and the Iowa crew. I assume Kilian is front of the line there, but does Newcomb jump in ahead of Sampson? Does Wesneski have any shot at MLB starts this year?

I still doubt that Jed couldn't get more than the draft pick, but man the league does not like Willson, at least as a catcher.