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Stratos

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Everything posted by Stratos

  1. They've been playing sloppy much of the year so far. I think maybe all the little injuries, the guys haven't caught their groove yet. They need to tighten up. Not going to blame Counsell, guys getting picked off aren't really his fault. Ross seemed pretty good at the running game in terms of when to out guys in motion. Former catcher I guess.
  2. Yeah. We lack reliable arms. If we can't hold leads vs the Pirates that's an issue. A good outing by Hendricks vs the Pirates doesn't exactly prove very much either. He was mostly hitting his spots though, besides the Cruz HR. On the positive, Neris at least seemed to have better command today. Pen now is: Neris, Leiter, Alzolay, Thompson, Brewer, Lovelady, Brown and I think Cuas in for the injured Almonte now? Not very good, Stat-wise our biggest pen problem are the walks, which can be improved in theory (e.g. Neris), and guys like Little no longer on the roster. But guys like Cuas and Almonte are probably going to walk a fair bit of hitters. Pen-wise our K/9 is 8th in MLB and and HR/9 is 14th, but BB/9 is 25th. The only hope I see beyond a trade is some miracle turnaround and/or overachieiving on some guys plus Merryweather gets healthy, or our SP get healthier and Hendricks pitches ok so Wesneski and/or Assad can head to the pen, which are all not particularly likely. Hoyer isn't the type to panic on small samples of relievers but if things don't start improving by start of June they need to look at a trade.
  3. Over the last month (since April 13, so 25 games) he has 101 PA, a 39.6 K%, 6.9 BB%, hitting .231 BA/.287 OBP/.429 SLG, 101 wRC+. Also .198 ISO, .347 BABIP. For context he's hitting better than Morel and Happ over that time, so it could just be a slump in a short sample. Pitchers may have adjusted a bit and he needs to make adjustments back, who knows. No need to panic.
  4. I checked, he has no options left. At minimum he can't pitch in modest leads.
  5. Frustrating loss for sure. Some of it is on Steele for letting a bad hitting team tee off on him. The bullpen is performing garbage. One of the best SP so far, and one of the worst pens in terms of ERA. So we're going to have a bunch of come from behind losses and it won't stop until the pen settles down. The talent in the pen is average at best and performing worse than that.
  6. What's the intent of not wanting megathreads? Having to sift through 8 different threads in the offseason is so much more work and confusion than 1 megathread and a few other threads.
  7. Right. Bat speed doesn't directly correlate to power for instance. Bat mass also matters. Maybe someone like Nico might have the fastest bat speed but lacks power. I wish they published bat specs of players
  8. Good question. Even Brown might get bounced to keep him stretched. Nobody on the bubble has been bad.
  9. Cubs relievers are having issues with walks and Tanner Scott has serious problems throwing strikes in both MLB and minors career. Has career 5.2 BB/9 and more walks than IP so far this year,
  10. They've definitely been bad, but not too worried about it. Morel has been getting better, Swanson should come around, Happ is typically good for a LF and has an accurate arm. We'll see if Busch can improve the picks and Amaya gets better at catching base-stealers. Been impressed with Busch fielding hard-hit balls. I'd rather see Tauchman in RF than Seiya though. Tauchman can seemingly catch anything he can get to, and Seiya's strong arm isn't worth much given how inaccurate he often is with it.
  11. Hitters batting 0.42 with 62% whiffs on Leiter's splitter. 5th highest whiff% of any pitch so far in MLB. Further ball Madrigal has hit this year is 316 ft.
  12. Still say if Almonte can give up an average amount of walks he can be pretty good. I like him in the 2-inning role until he shows better command, gives him longer to get comfortable during an appearance and find his release point.
  13. That would be nice. With all our SP plus Horton probably up by the end of the year Luzardo might even be overkill. I'd be fine with one of their good relievers including Puk. For Luzardo give them Arias and anyone else outside our 10 top, plus throw in Hendricks plus 10m for his salary. That probably isn't enough though which is why i'd just target a reliever. May be a little too early in the year for them to think about a trade though, they don't quite know what they have yet, small samples for relievers at this point. Steele comes back tomorrow, moves someone (Brown likely) to the pen.
  14. He looked great the first inning of his last appearance too. Lost some gas in the 2nd inning last time.
  15. Seems to be what everyone is mostly doing lol.
  16. Mervis has been terrible. Some of it is definitely mental, he never looks relaxed. I still like the physical tools. But even his swings during this callup have been awful. He looked fine in ST.
  17. Can't catch, can't throw, can't hit, and runs like my sister. I'm sure he'll turn things around but FFS i'm getting hired of watching this. He looks like spring training Morel in the field.
  18. Fangraphs has PCA with a .292 BA and .280 OBP. Can anyone clue me in on how this is possible? Also, can someone send Mervis some edibles?
  19. Steele gets the start on Monday. Brown should be headed to the pen. If Hendricks gets back then one of Assad/Wesneski is added to the pen also. Good news is Wicks has been cleared to play catch so both could be there eventually if all goes well. Smyly is recovering also. I don't expect everyone on the staff healthy all at once but a couple of solid arms added in the pen will help a lot.
  20. Above was from a ST game. He was throwing it again a lot today and getting lots of whiffs, it looks like a power curve as JD mentioned, but it seems like it's just a different angle of the sweeper, and doing well against the LHB with it. This is a good trend. Now a 3-pitch guy rather than 2-pitch guy with problems vs LHB. Now let's hope he doesn't get hammered on the FB like last year.
  21. Can't wait until the trade deadline when we don't trade for a good reliever again. The reliever we did trade for is in Iowa LOL. Leiter's gonna have a torn rotator cuff by July if this dumpster fire of a pen continues.
  22. Yeah. Every lead after the SP leaves is an adventure. I'm hoping Alzolay and Neris get right over the next month. Steele getting back will stick Brown in the pen likely which will help. Most of the pen is looking like JAG city right now. Our bats really need to start to get going on the road more also.
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