Solaxys

As if Trent can find the strikezone either lol

Of course its not going to happen, he's getting paid 16M a f***ing year. But my sentiment still stands.

Kikuchi needs to be DFA-d.

Springer all sorts of struggling lately. Bo all sorts of struggling lately.

If this idiot could stop walking people by trying to finesse the outside/away (because the ump has not been given that to either pitchers), he'd be fine. f*** dude, use your head.

Yusei my dude, he is not giving you that outside pitch - stop starting the batter with that. ffs.

Thank god but please stop walking people Kikuchi

Their pitcher is getting hit hard. Kikuchi just has to keep us in the game.

Sigh. So much for As having the worst offense in the game - three competitive ABs. Literally, stop walking people and half this nonsense just stops.

bruh lol. Can we have our pitchers not walk people? No matter who comes in, they have to walk someone. Like come on.

Pirates up by 3 against Yankees through 5. Quintana might go one more inning.

I don't think Bednar is going to be traded tbh (I might be wrong 'cause Pirates LOVE giving pitchers to AL East), but ya it's going to take someone in the top 100 + a mid-level arm at the least.

Vladdy day off is cool and all, but would love to see Biggio in the 2nd spot. 422 OBP not table-setting for Kirk is a crime.

A-rod with the excellent analysis. The chance Judge signs with Yankees? 50/50. He signs or he doesn't. What a statistician.

I see the bad with the FO, but I am focusing on the good and the potential great that I see from the development in our minors, especially stories like Tiedemann and Frasso. Generates some hope and its not all doom and gloom, which is the better, sane recipe for non-bandwagon fandom. There is no point in bashing the FO every time the coaches/players that are playing the game are doing badly - Romano, Richards, Bo, Berrios, Kikuchi - or getting injured - Ryu, Merryweather, Pearson etc.

What are you even talking about? Where did I say "we have comparable pitching development" to Yankees/Astros/Rays? We are definitely trying based on what I am seeing in the minors, its just not at AAA yet (and thus ready to make an impact at majors). My opinion is simple - stop comparing FOs when we are dealing with different markets. Especially considering, you have no public domain data available as to how these different markets affect getting assets. It is fair to say our FO hasn't done it all, but just as well, they have done some pretty f***ing relevant things. Every FO has their issues, and feel free to go ask why the Rays fanbase hate their FO since you drool of their pitching development here every day. I am not pro-Atkins, but I definitely haven't given up on this FO yet. Considering what AA left Atkins with and that they had to invest money in infrastructure over the last few years, I think they deserve more time. Furthermore, what do you exactly want by orating the same s*** every single day, on the clock, every time we lose? If you are so hellbent on Atkins being terrible, then lets go dude - get a f***ing riot going at Rogers Centre to get him fired.

That was rude. You are not adding any valuable discussion with this seven-year rhetoric when you repeat it verbatim every day. You are looking for confirmation bias and so aggressively so that its scary. While the results haven't been as great (yet), you are comparing different FOs that bring different strengths and weaknesses. We are trying to get there and that's Atkins' goal - to have a robust pipeline, and yes I agree he hasn't achieved that, but you can't also say that "oh he just doesn't care, just a baddie, sitting on his laurels getting paid to do nothing." We built a pitching facility to develop pitchers - Frasso, Tiedemann, Zulueta are all looking impressive. We have some expectations to build Van Eyk, Robberse, Kloff, Danner. We have some studs since 2016 in Castillo, Hernandez. Took some risks in Lawrence and Gage, that are paying off. Banda is a risk too but have you checked his savant, dude has some elite metrics. Some with very interesting peripherals in Dallas, Palmer, Murray, Juenger that need tapping into. There is so much impact potential in our A/A+/AA. Just cause its not apparent depth that can be brought up to the majors right this very moment doesn't mean we are doing nothing. Yankees FO, despite being perennial contenders and for all the money they spent, haven't won WS in 13 years. They waste exorbitant amount of money on contracts (including pitchers) that smart scouting would net for less, in every area especially pitching - just look at Chapman, look at Cole Opting for high-injury candidates in every slot whose kit can allow them to abuse their stadium Going into this season, no one thought their starting roster was going to be this good having career years from three pitchers - it was actually their biggest issue, internally (not projections/odds) - it was their biggest point of uncertainty. They spend money and expect money to win the games. Its only sustained because their market sustains it. Their FO would never be able to function in a mid market. Astros FO have developed good starting pitching, sure, and they have one more in Brown coming and that's it. Their organizational depth is shot, their farm is one of the worst in the game. They tanked 100-loss seasons to draft a lot of bonafide talent (readymade) and after this competitive window wraps up, they have nothing left. They are spending as much as the Jays in payroll, and they can't sustain buying all the FAs to replace their all-star bats soon enough. Rays FO have great, probably unparalleled scouting - and they need it considering they have one of the lowest payrolls available with their terrible market. They shoot for high-risk, high-injury targets and you are looking at the evidence this year of what happens when it crumbles. They are not that good this year - hell, when their catching depth starts and ends at f***ing Zunino, what are you even doing. We don't have the depth for 5-games in 4-days, but in a 5-game postseason series, they are not that scary - all their starting pitchers are hittable except McClanahan. Their offensive depth is horrible, they have no scouting there, they have no legit prospects there, and when some of these arb hearings rack up for them, they'll have to shed salary leaving them vulnerable. If you like the Rays pitching pipeline so much, you should consider being a fan of the Rays. But they have a s*** ton of issues that you can ask their fanbase that they hate.

It just got built last year lol - they spent 100M dollars, and it took 2 yrs to build (so thing has been in plans since Atkins came into play).

Right? lol. Anyway: https://www.mlb.com/all-star/ballot?affiliateId=asb-mediawall-mlb-2022 VOTE FOOLS.

In any case, this better be the last god damn year we use Trent as a high-leverage reliever. Tried it for two years, while he isn't as bad this year, he still doesn't have the command to not offer up meatballs. Stripling's contract is done after this year and Trent will basically take his spot as a long-man relief and/or low-leverage inning eater.

Considering we started rebuilding in 2018-2019 off-season, our pitching depth is as expected We were still trying to make playoffs in 2017/2018 and so didn't really go after prospect depth Then for w.e reason, we held on to Stroman & JD in 2019 instead of trading for prospect capital (maybe we didn't get anything good, so held on to them for one more year) We have interesting pitching prospects in A/A+/AA, just not in AAA (aside from Hernandez who was injured). We are doing exactly the same things Rays have been doing by signing risk pitchers to MilB (Lawrence, Gage) and you can see some semblance of depth in Castillo (who was an international signing in 2016). I am not sure if there is an organization that completely developed robust organizational depth after their previous FO zeroed it with trades for postseason pushes, within 3-4 yrs. What was it, we traded like 11 arms from minors for the 2015 push? Our farm was also lacking after we promoted Vlad/Bo/Teo/Gurriel (it was ranked 21st I believe). --- There also seems to be players in/from our organization (minors) that have signed elsewhere during/after 2020 season if they didn't play. Wonder how much the pandemic rules forced Atkins to give up assets.

First half, 81 games --- all the stats below are from these first 81 games: 43 - 38 record in 2021; RDiff of 57 44 - 37 record in 2022; RDiff of 20 Starting Pitching Starter 1: Ray 2021 had 3.36 ERA, 3.22 FIP, 1.3 WAR across 16 games (93.2 IP) Gausman 2022 has 2.86 ERA, 1.68 FIP, 3.7 WAR across 16 games (88 IP - the 2nd inning exit against the Rays didn't help; would be closer to Ray otherwise) Like without a doubt, Gausman has completely earned his contract and then some. Starter 2: Ryu 2021 had 3.65 ERA, 4.21 FIP, 1.1 WAR across 16 games (93.2 IP) Manoah 2022 has 2.33 ERA, 3.83 FIP, 2.1 WAR across 16 games (100.1 IP) Manoah has been infinitely better Starter 3: Matz 2021 had 4.60 ERA, 3.89 FIP, 1.2 WAR across 14 games (72.1 IP) Berrios 2022 has 5.72 ERA, 5.16 FIP, -0.1 WAR across 16 games (83.1 IP) Matz wins here and this is the most surprising thing considering what Berrios has done over multiple years before coming to Toronto. Starter 4: Stripling 2021 had 4.50 ERA, 4.69 FIP, 0.6 WAR across 13 games (64 IP) Stripling 2022 has 3.16 ERA, 3.05 FIP, 1.2 WAR across 11 games (51.1 IP) He has gotten much better this year Starter 5: Manoah + Kay + Zeuch 2021 had 4.01 ERA, 5.13 FIP, 0.5 WAR across 15 games (67.3 IP) Kikuchi 2022 has 4.74 ERA, 5.57 FIP, -0.4 WAR across 15 games (62.2 IP) Eh. Meh. If we removed Manoah from the equation and added all the spot starts we gave like 5 other people (including 3 to Thornton), Kikuchi would look better lol Relief Pitching 2021: 3.92 ERA, 4.12 FIP, 1.9 WAR in the first half (310 IP); ranked 14th in MLB 2022: 4.34 ERA, 4.17 FIP, 0.6 WAR in the first 81 games (302.2 IP); ranked 23rd in MLB Thornton has the most IP in both years and posted similar numbers (mid 4 ERA, FIP, -0.1 WAR) - I am 100% sure he's done after this year. Romano has seriously regressed and we are using Richards instead of Payamps (and that's where the majority of issue lies) Mayza doing better this year Garcia/Cimber/Phelps doing better than Chatwood/Dolis/Castro Offense OF: Hernandez 2021: 115 wRC+, 11 HR, 47 RBI Hernandez 2022: 108 wRC+, 8 HR, 31 RBI Pretty close considering the time missed (40 PA difference + timing issues once coming back from injury); walking the same but striking out 3% more Gurriel 2021: 81 wRC+, 9 HR, 33 RBI, 2.7% Walk, 20.5% K Rate Gurriel 2022: 122 wRC+, 5 HR, 34 RBI, 6.3% Walk, 17.5% K Rate Most developed player; the stance change led to HR power going down a bit but his peripherals shot way up and his SLG got slightly better (more doubles) Whether this is his hot streak or whether its a stable change for the better, we'll find out Grichuk 2021: 95 wRC+, 15 HR, 55 RBI Springer 2022: 129 wRC+, 15 HR, 47 RBI Springer has been an upgrade; his BB/K ratio significantly better than Grichuk even though Springer has been pretty meh of late C: Jansen + McGuire 2021: 72 wRC+, 4 HR, 14 RBI Kirk 2022: 159 wRC+, 10 HR, 33 RBI I mean... lol SS: Bo 2021: 119 wRC+, 15 HR, 54 RBI, 6.3% BB, 21.6% K, 0.819 OPS Bo 2022: 102 wRC+, 12 HR, 43 RBI, 5.8% BB, 24.2% K, 0.722 OPS - his OBP dropped nearly 40 points and SLG down 50 points. Bo has not been the same, maybe because of the tough April but after a torrid May, he basically is back at these values since June to now. 3B/2B: Espinal + Biggio 2021: 100 wRC+, 7 HR, 30 RBI, 11% Walk rate, 25% K rate Espinal + Biggio 2022: 116 wRC+, 8 HR, 49 RBI, 12% Walk Rate, 22.4% K rate Much better! Semien 2021: 137 wRC+, 21 HR, 54 RBI, 9% Walk rate, 24% K rate, 0.891 OPS (349/542) Chapman 2022: 90 wRC+, 11 HR, 37 RBI, 9% Walk rate, 25% K Rate, 0.677 OPS (287/390) Yup. 1B: Vlad 2021 had a 192 wRC+ through the first 81 games played (lol) - 27 HR, 69 RBI, 14.4% Walk, 17.2% K Rate, literally doing what JRam has been doing this year He hasn't come close to posting that but still having a decent year of 137 wRC+, 19 HR, 53 RBI, 10.7% Walk, 18.2% K Rate He is basically Semien's numbers from last year. --- TL;DR Pitching We have improved our starting pitching dramatically by adding Gausman. If we had Ray this year, it wouldn't come close to what Gausman has been giving us. Atkins should not be blamed really for Berrios being worse than Matz, considering who woulda thunk Berrios would forget how to pitch. Kikuchi is basically all your random starters from last year put together into one package, with an upside. He is obviously more expensive though and has posted less IP cause of the three egregious starts. I think if Verlander signed, Kikuchi would not have been signed. I think they would've gotten Verlander for the 25M and Gaus for 20M (which might have been why they wanted to save 5M from Grichuk). Our relief corps actually got better statistically on paper pre-season but again Romano regressing and Richards posting the worst pitching of his career with us... shrugs. Atkins should've gotten elite pitching, sure, but Garcia signing was the best he could do given what was available. Payamps 2.70 ERA v. Richards 6.30 ERA is literally the difference maker lol. Offense Teo is the same, Gurriel got better, Springer > Grichuk Kirk >>>>> Jansen + McGuire combo of last year Espinal + Biggio combo got better, with Biggio having a better year than any of his previous years. If we say Vlad is having Semien's first half, the offensive output difference is basically Chapman not having a Vlad 2021 first half and Bo being ~17% worse than he was last first-half. This is being somewhat compensated by Kirk having an offensive outburst but def not enough. --- We basically added 6M in payroll from last year (so 3M for the first half) while - Losing the first half of a MVP-caliber player season - Losing consistent table-setting from Bo (for the first half) - Getting regression from Romano and Richards - Getting the weirdest performance issues from Berrios (like how do you forget to pitch after doing it for 6 yrs straight?!) - Doing this weird DH rotation where we are giving two negative WAR players playtime, one of whom getting a LOT of playtime - Going against even a stronger AL East cause of the horseshoe-up-their-arse Yankees and yet we are 1-game up with only 37 Run Differential difference between the two first-halfs in a f***ing deadball year This year has definitely been BY LARGE much better because we are finding stability in a lot of players + improving players that aren't your superstars. Like I said before, we were just setup with some dumb expectations from the media and Vegas-projections, that we are basically getting disappointed by the way baseball should roll. This is not a roster you go all-in with but come on, it has been the best since 2016. We need to clean up our coaching staff, get two elite relief arms, develop some pipeline for starters/depth relief, flip some of our streaky hitters who love those non-competitive ABs with players who are smart (LHH por favor), and BOOM. We're there. It'll take a year, maybe two - and we'll be contenders in both, but will be also be frustrating af.

There's big pieces and all but DBacks have been quiet and they have two of the best relievers this year. Joe Mantiply - 1.13 ERA (1.72 xERA), 1.74 WHIP (2.26 xFIP); crafty sinker/slider pitcher. He has some erratic past but over the last two years in Arizona, he has been excellent and this year - straight up elite Lefty. He's still pre-arb, control through 2026 (fits our window). Arizona could use 2B/3B prospects - decent fit.

Good news: Every team except Yankees have frustrating games/stretches just like ours. That's baseball. Every other contending team has 40 some wins to 30 some losses, just like us (Astros/Mets/Dodgers slightly better). This isn't specific to us. I think we got super led on by Vegas-contender Odds/Projections and put up some serious expectations which aren't being met, so every loss feels a crushing disappointment. Barring a monumental collapse, we still have a very straight and simple road to playoffs. Bad news: As each day does by, we are seemingly looking like just the same as last year (90 win ball club). We are being kept afloat by our n+1 wins from early in the season, as we have been playing .500 ball for the last 60 or so games. Don't think we hold a competitive edge to the big 4. We might get lucky and pull a Braves or Nationals but if that's what we are banking on, no need to burn the farm for massive upgrades - just stopgaps.

I don't think much is available in terms of blockbuster trades for offense. Bell being the only possibility of low K-rate, high-walk rate with power kind of guy (i.e. competitive ABs) - but where we gonna put him with Kirk/Vlad/Springer needing regular DH rotation. The coaching staff should 100% be held accountable for not having an evolving gameplan on how to tackle a pitcher. Softy lefties are our bane because everyone wants to swing that soft offering to the fences and then some - its a 90 mph FB, 85 mph slider, 80 mph changeup from a advantageous release point after all, and that in itself causes the issue that if the pitcher is smart and plays to that, he'll elicit swing/miss or weak contact for days. Coaching has to step in and literally stop that nonsense. We also are fielding 5 starters with below average BB% and of those 5, three have above average K% (this is specific to across the month of June to now with 100 PAs) - Teo (149 wRC+), Bo (105 wRC+), Chapman (104 wRC+). Gurriel's new stance might be helping him of late to identify more pitches to drive as his K% is down from previous years (league average atm) but he also walks well below league average, so he's on the fringe. Add your bench in Jansen, Tapia, Zimmer, Collins to that list as well, and we have a yikes.