Terminator

Doesn't seem like the underlying numbers are improving. He's barreling the ball more in a small sample but the Ks have exploded. Even in May and June they are way up compared to '19 and '20 while the walks are down (though the latter has been better in 16 ABs in June). But even if he keeps this up and barrels the ball more he's got to get his Ks down because his numbers are worse than ever. In 2019 he was legit good but 2020 (when they deadened the ball) is when the cracks started to show. His batted ball data tanked but because of the short season along with a career high BABIP and career low K rate, he was able to put up a mirage that tracked his 2019 season. But even if we give him that half season, it's been 1.5 seasons of good play and 2+ and counting of garbage. He's similar to Didi Gregorious. He and Biggio run launch angles similar to Aaron Judge but they have poor exit velos. That can work with a live ball (or a high exit velo) but it won't work with a dead one.

That seems to happen to Gausman a few times every year. He's basically a two pitch starter so when the team finds some way to lay off the splitter he can get rocked.

Yeah Bautista actually changed his approach to an extreme pull hitter mid career and that made him a HoF talent for the latter half of his career. 59 homers from age 23-28 and 285 homers from age 29 on. If he had that approach his entire career he probably would be in the HoF as a 3B/OF.

Yeah he's definitely warranting consideration at this point but he needs ABs as he's turned himself into a real prospect at this point. Otherwise it would make sense to swamp out Lukes for him since he never plays anyway. But we don't want him rotting on the bench. We all know how I feel about Biggio but he's been playing better since the start of May and I don't think we can give up on Espinal who has basically established himself as a 2 WAR a year player over the past 4 seasons now. The team might want to see if they can get either of them going.

This is just who he is. A great defensive player and a good but not great hitter. He was never going to be able to keep up that hot start.

9th in runs is a lot higher than I thought we were. If we break out of this slump soon we could make a move toward the Top 5 or so and that would be pretty good considering we made a concerted effort to focus on defense and baserunning in the offseason. We also have a fair amount of guys who am I fine with not pulling the ball. Bo obviously. Kirk, Merrifield, KK and Espinal as well. Seems like the other guys pull the ball like they should. Everyone other than Vlad, that is. He could hit oppo homers all day so it's not like he needs to strictly pull the ball. But his very good hit tool seemingly precludes him from tapping into his power fully. I think the answer is better pitch selection which is extremely hard to change. Lay off the borderline strikes and look for your pitch. It's amazing how many times Judge will get a meatball. Pitchers will do it eventually, and he just never misses them. Vlad just doesn't look for his pitch like this. I wonder if Vlad would benefit with two different approaches like Bo. First two strikes look to pull the ball (Bo doesn't look to pull the ball he looks to drive it but same theory). Then with two strikes Vlad can use his plate coverage and hit tool to try and just put good wood on the ball to get a hit.

How much longer do you think it will take for him to blossom? He's 28 years old and we are in year 5.

It doesn't carry over to the next game lol

The Bisons are having a big day at the plate today. Jansen went 3 for 5 and looks ready to return. Davis Schneider went 4 for 5 with 2 bombs and a walk today. He's up to a .958 OPS in AAA now. Otto Lopez and Horwitz had nice games as well.

Always liked this Biggio kid!

I don’t understand

Yeah my mistake, I didn't realize it was the 8th. I thought it was the 7th when the implosion happened. I suppose they thought Cimber would be better than Francis against the middle of the lineup the second time through. I think before the game it was fair to make that assessment and that's probably what they based it off of. But Francis was dealing and was up to 98 on the gun. That's where some old school management would have come in handy instead of relying on the pre-game analytics.

Well none of the A-team pitched today and should be available tomorrow. Pearson, Romano, Swanson, etc. Definitely needs to eat some innings though as Richards and Francis aren't available and a lot of others could use a day off. Though we do have an off day on Monday.

A few thoughts on today's bullpen usage: Cimber just hasn't been right as he's dealt with an injury. He needs to be low man on the totem pole and I think he is for the most part. But Swanson was used 3 out of the 4 prior games, Pearson threw 27 pitches yesterday, and Garcia had pitched the previous two days in a row. And then Richards and Mayza were already used. I would have kept going with Francis but they were going to have to use Cimber at some point today regardless. I hate to even bring it up but maybe optioning Cimber and keeping Tony Carp around would have been more wise. What they need to do is get Gausman in between Kikuchi and these new Richards/Francis games. Having back to back games where relievers are going to be relied on to pitch 12+ innings every single time through the rotation is a recipe for disaster and we saw it today. We had a slim lead but we couldn't use our normal setup men. They are also going to have to take the training wheels off of Francis. It's fine to use an opener but Francis has got to be allowed to pitch 4+ innings. I think homers are going to be an issue for him as he's an extreme flyball pitcher but if he can limit the walks he should be able to eat innings. He seems to have a decent fastball-slider-curve repertoire with good velocity and control. Treat him like a #5 SP, not a 2 or 3 inning bottom of the barrel long man. I didn't watch the last few innings, but Mitch White's underlying numbers weren't a total disaster despite the poor results. Velo was pretty good and he had a solid CSW%. Regardless, he needs to start being an effective longman and if not he's got to go. The Frasso trade will look horrible but we are in a dogfight for a Wild Card spot and can't afford to have someone who can't pitch when we are currently doing bullpen games every 5th start.

Lol because he didn't make the play of the year?

Lmao

Richards is dominating. This is so much better than watching Manoah labor through early innings.

Espinal has had way too much recent success to say he sucks after just 83 ABs this year. With Biggio we know he sucks.

What's his wRC+ over the past two year and a half years?

Biggio isn't a good option against anyone. Espinal was good last year and is only 90 ABs into this year. I'd be playing him over Biggio every time.

That was such a smart trade. 4D Chess.

Well, Kirk isn't even off to a good start this season but is still outplaying Moreno and is likely do so moving forward. It's kind of crazy but he's only a year older than Moreno. For whatever reason, people just take Kirk for granted. Gurriel is on a heater but he's only got one year of control left. Varsho is playing like crap but is still adding value which shows you high is floor is. Moving Gurriel also freed up some money/space to sign Belt and KK, both of whom are doing well. So we'll see how it plays out but I wouldn't be calling this a win for the D-Bags any time soon.

I agree that Bass has been regaining his form. You wouldn't normally cut a guy like that and he's been pretty nails since the beginning of May. But what else do they do baseball wise? They really only had 3 options. -Cut bait on White already? He's got a lot of control left. -Option the 32 year old Cimber who is marching his way toward a modest pay day in FA? He's been nuts the past two years. That'd be doing him pretty dirty and he's better than Bass anyway. -Cut Yimi? His underlying numbers are better than the results and they have a player option next year. Makes sense to keep him and see how he does the rest of the year. He and Bass are fairly similar talents though. Or, baseball wise, do you just cut Bass? He's been pretty mediocre in his career. While he seems to have had a nice resurgence late in his career he's 36 and gone at the end of the year anyway. Plus, he's a distraction which like Atkins says is playing a tiny part. Tie goes to the distraction.

His underlying numbers were better than the results but the injuries are just stacking up too much. Hard to count on at all at this point.

Sale was sent to the 60 day IL.