Orgfiller

Semien was by no means awful, his offensive output regressed somewhat to career numbers along with some short season small sample size mixed in, but he's still an elite defender so his contributions go beyond his offense. They also...have other players lol? Canha, Sean Murphy and Laureano are good. Grossman hits well and doesn't embarrass himself too much in the field, they acquired La Stella who has been good, Lamb has also rediscovered his power. They have an excellent bullpen headlined by the current best reliever in baseball, and three decent or better starters in Luzardo, Manaea and Bassit. It's not like they fluked their way past the White Sox, they were deservedly one of the best teams in baseball and still a contender even with Chapman out. It's not just the Rays who get a lot out of their players. Remember the A's are the original Moneyball team and are consistently one of the better performing teams in the league despite limited resources.

Rays for tomorrow as well.

What would people think of a Kris Bryant acquisition? Theo Epstein might be leaving the Cubs and Bryant/Boras are probably not on good terms with the organization with the whole service time manipulation thing. Also the Cubs are pretty mediocre and might want to do a retool so moving a guy like Bryant before he leaves in FA would make a lot of sense for them Pros: - Likely 3-5 WAR upgrade at 3B. Bryant was a 5 win player just last season - Bo doesn't have to move off SS/doesn't have to learn a new position with a SS acquisition - Get the upper hand on a contract extension. We saw how Mookie Betts moving to LA immediately gave them the opportunity to discuss and execute a contract extension prior to FA. Bryant is coming off a down year which we could use to leverage an early contract extension - Ryu was a Boras client so we've already shown that he isn't the bogeyman and the Jays are willing to spend for a top client of his - Bryant is a recognizable face of the MLB, fans will eat up an acquisition like that - At least one year where you don't dumpster dive for a 3B ala Brandon Drury and Travis Shaw - Vetrin presents. WINNER MENTALITY. Has been there before - Since he's coming off a down year and only has a year left before FA the price shouldn't be astronomical - Actually has defensive versatility if you'd like to use him for that, although given that 3B is easily our worst position I don't see why you would - Can you really put that much stock into a bad 150 PAs in a year like this? Could just be more of a slump than anything Cons: - Has battled injuries, may result in his true talent level having declined - Coming off a down year with red flags such as lowered power output, fewer walks, more Ks, lower % of barrels which was his calling card - Has never been a high EV or hard hit % guy, if his physical tools are diminished from the injuries this could really expose him - He's no defensive stalwart, although he never really has been and average defense at third is probably fine if he's hitting - Has only one year left and being a Boras client the extension cost might be unreasonable - What is the acquisition cost? Will likely require at least one of our top prospects, and if they want MLB position players back we might be s*** out of luck or don't want to part with some of our core players

Ross Atkins on Tim and Sid just confirmed that our internal metrics have Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Teoscar Hernandez as slightly above average defenders, but Grichuk was average in CF. - when given the choice, his priority was starting pitching but didn't want to diminish the pitching depth that we have acquired and developed - not worried about Vladdy, they're still impressed with his hitting given his age (obviously they know it's not the ideal hitting profile) - in an ideal scenario Vladdy comes in next season and he gets reps at 3B - raving about Biggio's versatility. Said he was average or above at all of his positions - committed to Bo at SS, but did not rule out acquiring an elite defensive SS. Feels very good about Bo being our SS going forward - thinks the team is in a very good position to get better (in the offseason) - Mark Shapiro fellatio session

And once again, we have confirmation that the Central divisions are a joke.

Kinsler is just dotting up sinkers on the outside corner to righties/inside corner to lefties and no one is swinging at them.

As much as I would like for this to slide, I picked the Reds over the Braves on day 1 (Wednesday). Given that the Reds won zero games against the Braves that puts me in the one loss group.

I mean yeah it helps being on the juggernaut Yankees from the beginning of your career. He wasn't exactly postseason Strasburg, just needed to not suck and could rack up those wins.

Are there any others ahead of him aside from Maddux and Glavine? Smoltz has more innings but fewer starts naturally.

Cardinals.

Wait until you learn about Kershaw's postseason ERA! Not my ace!

It's the Brewers offense but Kershaw has been a treat to watch tonight.

And Crochet is injured. Pitchers gonna pitcher.

Luis Robert just hit a mammoth homerun.

On the other hand, they bring in their draft pick from this season to strike out Matt Olson. The White Sox are throwing everything they have to win this game.

The White Sox are getting their rookie starter out of the game in the first inning with 2 outs and having thrown 15 pitches. That should be good for his confidence.

A draft where he was the third overall pick to boot lmao.

22 innings of shutout offense when the Reds had the clear (allegedly) starting pitching advantage. The Central divisions are a joke.

Luis Castillo's pitch tunneling is insane. The sinker and circle change are indistinguishable from one another and then he also has the nasty slider which starts along the same path and then breaks in the opposite direction. Disgusting pitch mix. Also helps that he'll run the sinker up to 98-99 with regular frequency.

The Reds squander yet another bases loaded opportunity.

By the time Rivelkin de Castro is in the cards for an MLB job (assuming he even gets that far) Vlad, Bo and Biggio will be in their 30s.

It's entirely possible, maybe even very likely, that Jonathan Davis can't hit RHP at all. He's probably a solid 4th OF/PR option that you can maybe get away with platooning, no more than that. There's a reason why he's 28 years old and has 150 MLB PAs.

Tellez is a big and slow guy who pulls the ball often and gets shifted. I don't think you can say he "only" had a .276 BABIP, if anything he probably hit well enough to sustain a BABIP in that range for a guy with his physical + hitting profile. David Ortiz, who was a hall of fame level hitter, had a career .300 BABIP with several good seasons in the .250 - .270 range and he was obviously significantly more skilled with the bat than Tellez is.

Every other playoff pick of mine has been terrible so I'll continue to double down with A's.

Silver lining, this is the best Nate Pearson has looked in the big leagues. Unhittable stuff that inning.