Royals (Cameron) vs Blue Jays (Scherzer): 8/2/25, 3:07pm

[Masterbather]

Easy peasy.

[G-Snarls]

Great win 

[G-Snarls]

Dreaming of a playoff rotation of 

 

Bieber 

Scherzer 

Gausman 

 

If they're somehow all well and right at the time I love it 

[Grant77]

Just now, G-Snarls said:

Dreaming of a playoff rotation of 

 

Bieber 

Scherzer 

Gausman 

 

If they're somehow all well and right at the time I love it 

We now know that Max still has it. If he's healthy then he's an easy choice for a playoff start.

[HomeRunHomer]

Jays win!

 

[Masterbather]

2 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

Dreaming of a playoff rotation of 

 

Bieber 

Scherzer 

Gausman 

 

If they're somehow all well and right at the time I love it 

Bieber, Manoah, Scherzer, Laurer

That's my dream.

[hanton]

9 minutes ago, dancingmachine said:

That would be true if he had power which he doesn't 

Yea young players/prospects that can mash but have zero foot speed or are big bodied (Vogel...etc) end up at first or DH.  But this is an established but aging major leaguer - he is what he is.

Should he be on the team?  that's a different conversation

[G-Snarls]

Just now, Masterbather said:

Bieber, Manoah, Scherzer, Laurer

That's my dream.

I don't think there's much chance Manoah gets any starts this season though. 

Next year 

[Masterbather]

Just now, G-Snarls said:

I don't think there's much chance Manoah gets any starts this season though. 

Next year 

That depends on how he's pitching. 

I don't know why everyone just automatically assumes he's not pitching this year, unless he struggles in the minors he is going to pitch in the major leagues.

[Jonn]

Manoah making his way back to the roster this year alone would be no small feat.

At best he could pitch out of the Bullpen. But will see if they realistically would even want that. I don’t see any purpose of building him up right now though.

[Stangstag]

Hoffman suuuuxxxx

[G-Snarls]

52 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

That depends on how he's pitching. 

I don't know why everyone just automatically assumes he's not pitching this year, unless he struggles in the minors he is going to pitch in the major leagues.

It's more that:

1. He'll be on a pitch limit

2. It's late in the season to have enough time to build him up that much

3. Barring injuries or a Bieber setback we are soon to have 6 starters now even without him

 

He could be a good out of the pen this year and stretched out to start again in spring training 

We're lucky to get anything out of him this September 

[Masterbather]

Just now, G-Snarls said:

It's more that

1. He'll be on a pitch limit

2. It's a bit late in the season to build him up that much

3. Barring injuries or a Bieber setback we have 6 starters now even without him

 

He could be a great power arm out of the pen this year and stretched out to start again in sprint training 

Bieber and Manoah are basically on a similar timeline. Bieber a little bit ahead, but both are being built back up. If it's too late for him it should be too late for Bieber. It wasn't too late for Stroman in 2015.

Six starters doesn't mean six studs. 

Quite frankly not a single one of the five guys we have in our rotation right now is a sure bet.

Scherzer is still a wait and see and he's 41 years old and his health can go at any moment.

Gausman, Bassitt and Berrios are all up and down and have been for a couple of years.

Laurer has been a great story but, let's be honest here, we don't know how real it all is yet. 

I don't see Zito, Mulder and Hudson here.

You do not pass on the opportunity to see one of your best stuff arms this year if you're trying to win a World Series.

[G-Snarls]

4 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

Bieber and Manoah are basically on a similar timeline. Bieber a little bit ahead, but both are being built back up. If it's too late for him it should be too late for Bieber. It wasn't too late for Stroman in 2015.

Six starters doesn't mean six studs. 

Quite frankly not a single one of the five guys we have in our rotation right now is a sure bet.

Scherzer is still a wait and see and he's 41 years old and his health can go at any moment.

Gausman, Bassitt and Berrios are all up and down and have been for a couple of years.

Laurer has been a great story but, let's be honest here, we don't know how real it all is yet. 

I don't see Zito, Mulder and Hudson here.

You do not pass on the opportunity to see one of your best stuff arms this year if you're trying to win a World Series.

Bieber threw 57 pitches and looked great in his last rehab start 

Manoah threw 28 and then next time around just a simulated game 

They feel about a month apart in terms of timeline and there are only 50 regular season games left 

I hear what you're saying but I just can't see the team pushing to have Manoah be ready to start this season. I COULD see him piggyback games with Lauer. That would be kinda awesome actually. 

[Masterbather]

Just now, G-Snarls said:

Bieber threw 57 pitches and looked great in his last rehab start 

 

I know, he's looked great. I'm not arguing anything against Bieber, I've never seen a fan base so determined to not want to improve its rotation with one of its best arms almost ready to go. 

Manoah is Jekyll and Hyde, we don't know which version is coming back but if it's Jekyll you mean to tell me the Manoah of a couple years ago wouldn't be in your playoff rotation over these other donkeys?

[G-Snarls]

Just now, Masterbather said:

I know, he's looked great. I'm not arguing anything against Bieber, I've never seen a fan base so determined to not want to improve its rotation with one of its best arms almost ready to go. 

Manoah is Jekyll and Hyde, we don't know which version is coming back but if it's Jekyll you mean to tell me the Manoah of a couple years ago wouldn't be in your playoff rotation over these other donkeys?

At his best Manoah is definitely better than Current versions of Berrios and Bassitt, yes. 

[glory]

Bieber, Scherzer, Pray.

Playoff rotation.

 

[Masterbather]

3 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

At his best Manoah is definitely better than Current versions of Berrios and Bassitt, yes. 

Might be better than present day Gausman too.

I mean it might be close between the two but remember Manoah is in his physical prime, TJ surgery or not, Gausman isn't.

[G-Snarls]

2 minutes ago, glory said:

Bieber, Scherzer, Pray.

Playoff rotation.

 

One guy 41 years old

One guy coming off Tommy John surgery

Both Cy Young award capable 

The risk reward here is off the F'n charts LOL

[Masterbather]

1 minute ago, glory said:

Bieber, Scherzer, Pray.

Playoff rotation.

 

Finally somebody that agrees with me, I've been saying pray for Manoah for a couple of months 😄

[G-Snarls]

I'd really like at least one of Berrios Bassitt or Gausman to settle the f*** down this next month and make us feel good about being used the post season for starts 

[abola2121]

2 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

I'd really like at least one of Berrios Bassitt or Gausman to settle the f*** down this next month and make us feel good about being used the post season for starts 

The 6 man rotation should help with that.

[metafour]

14 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

Might be better than present day Gausman too.

I mean it might be close between the two but remember Manoah is in his physical prime, TJ surgery or not, Gausman isn't.

LMAO.

You talk as if Manoah is throwing high 90's and is a sure-fire dominant arm.

He is sitting ~93 in his rehab outings; and while this is in line with his MLB average, he benefitted a TON from luck and/or new pitcher shine in his two good MLB seasons. Once hitters figured him out, his performance fell like a rock, and he was also bad in his 5 starts last year prior to injury (yes I'm aware that he had a 3.70 ERA, but look at his underlying data  - he was not pitching well at all).

Take a look at his Stuff+ and Pitching+ metrics in the MLB:

2021: 99/95

2022: 98/94

2023: 91/80

2024: 87/79

These are not good readings at all, even in his two seasons where he actually had success. In both of those seasons his ERA well out-paced his FIP.

Gausman is at 100/102 this season. So basically better than any of Manoah's individual MLB seasons, and way above his last two seasons wherein he was getting rocked.

Alek Manoah is a back-end starter at best until he proves otherwise. And the idea that a likely rusty back-end starter is going to come in at the end of the season and steal a starting spot is HIGHLY unlikely.

[Masterbather]

6 minutes ago, metafour said:

LMAO.

You talk as if Manoah is throwing high 90's and is a sure-fire dominant arm.

He is sitting ~93 in his rehab outings; and while this is in line with his MLB average, he benefitted a TON from luck and/or new pitcher shine in his two good MLB seasons. Once hitters figured him out, his performance fell like a rock, and he was also bad in his 5 starts last year prior to injury (yes I'm aware that he had a 3.70 ERA, but look at his underlying data  - he was not pitching well at all).

Take a look at his Stuff+ and Pitching+ metrics in the MLB:

2021: 99/95

2022: 98/94

2023: 91/80

2024: 87/79

These are not good readings at all, even in his two seasons where he actually had success. In both of those seasons his ERA well out-paced his FIP.

Gausman is at 100/102 this season. So basically better than any of Manoah's individual MLB seasons, and way above his last two seasons wherein he was getting rocked.

Alek Manoah is a back-end starter at best until he proves otherwise. And the idea that a likely rusty back-end starter is going to come in at the end of the season and steal a starting spot is HIGHLY unlikely.

All that yakety yak and still haven't told me one good reason why we shouldn't at least take a look at him if he pitches well in his rehab starts. 

The bottom line is our rotation is not that good, it's actually quite mediocre, so if there's someone who has a chance to be better than mediocre you take a look at him. 

There's nothing to lose here, nothing at all. I don't act as if he's going to be that guy I've made it clear I don't expect it to happen, I wouldn't bet money that he's going to come back as a frontline guy, I just don't get the objection to taking a look and seeing.

[bronson44]

Boston about to pass the Yankees in the standings

[Masterbather]

17 minutes ago, bronson44 said:

Boston about to pass the Yankees in the standings

I'd rather they both lose. 

[G-Snarls]

The Yankees making all those frantic  "additions" at the deadline (more quantity than quality) and falling out of playoff contention anyway would be wonderful to watch 

[Masterbather]

1 minute ago, G-Snarls said:

The Yankees making all those "additions" at the deadline and falling out if playoff contention anyway would be wonderful to watch 

It would be but it's not reasonable to expect, especially with Gil back, assuming Judge isn't a bigger problem than it looks. They have fixed their major issues. Stanton has come back strong. They will likely go on some sort of extended run at some point.

[G-Snarls]

2 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

It would be but it's not reasonable to expect, especially with Gil back, assuming Judge isn't a bigger problem than it looks. They have fixed their major issues. Stanton has come back strong. They will likely go on some sort of extended run at some point.

They have a bit of an easy schedule too so yeah they likely hang in barring bad luck with Judge or others 

[mphenhef]

39 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

All that yakety yak and still haven't told me one good reason why we shouldn't at least take a look at him if he pitches well in his rehab starts. 

The bottom line is our rotation is not that good, it's actually quite mediocre, so if there's someone who has a chance to be better than mediocre you take a look at him. 

There's nothing to lose here, nothing at all. I don't act as if he's going to be that guy I've made it clear I don't expect it to happen, I wouldn't bet money that he's going to come back as a frontline guy, I just don't get the objection to taking a look and seeing.

1 hour ago, Masterbather said:

I know, he's looked great. I'm not arguing anything against Bieber, I've never seen a fan base so determined to not want to improve its rotation with one of its best arms almost ready to go. 

Manoah is Jekyll and Hyde, we don't know which version is coming back but if it's Jekyll you mean to tell me the Manoah of a couple years ago wouldn't be in your playoff rotation over these other donkeys?

I could be wrong on this but I get the impression Manoah could disrupt the clubhouse if he is with the team and feeling like he isn’t getting his due even if he is struggling as a starter.   The team might just want to avoid that.