Orgfiller

Who is this guy?

Aaron Sanchez just had more swinging strikes in that inning (6) than he's had in several of his starts this year.

His leg kick is wild. Great breaking ball there too.

If that's for Stroman, strong no.

Lol I was just about to say this. Tim McCarver makes Pat Tabler sound like an analytical mind.

Paul Goldschmidt has now homered in 6 straight games.

It's so hard to listen to this.

I was sure someone would. I acquired him from silvergun.

Can someone add Turnbull to my squad and drop Kendrick? The latter should also be added to BTS' team.

Yeah Teoscar!!!! What a game!

He has such easy power to the opposite field. If he could connect more often he could be so valuable.

Brandon Drury is an incredibly enticing player.

Dustin May exists.

Thanks for answering my question guys. Dominguez looks pretty intriguing, thanks for bringing my eye to him along with the other international guys that are starting to look good.

lol gruber

Diekman is one of the top strikeout pitchers in baseball, has an excellent FIP and xFIP suggesting his performance thus far has been much better than his ERA indicates, and projects to be very good. Daniel Hudson is pretty bad, he walks nearly as many as Diekman while striking out a third fewer batters, and as a result his projections are very much unfavourable. This is a steal for the A's even if they're only acquiring half a season of a good reliever.

To answer them in order: 1) It's certainly possible for guys to turn from a contact oriented approach to a strikeout/power oriented one, but the stuff has to be there, and the pitcher has to be willing to change his philosophy. It's pretty much all down to pitch usage: which pitches to use - generally fastball over sinker paired with a good breaking ball - and which locations to put them in - high/low for power pitchers; often bottom of the zone, side to side for contact ones. For examples of this just look at pretty much every pitcher on the Astros, with Gerritt Cole being the clearest example of a guy changing philosophies from how the Pirates approach pitching to how the Astros do. 2) Technically, becoming a strikeout pitcher doesn't necessarily mean you'll be less able to go deeper into games, I don't believe there's much of a correlation between strikeouts and pitches thrown in games - keep in mind contact oriented guys may allow more balls in play becoming hits, or many foul balls. Some of the top starters in the game - Scherzer, deGrom, Gerritt Cole, Verlander, Walker Buehler, prime Kershaw, Chris Sale - are all huge strikeout pitchers and routinely go deep into games. Guys like Stroman and Mike Soroka of the Braves are rare in being both top starters and guys that can go deeper into games, but that's because their stuff is also just that good. Until strikeouts for starters become a problem with regards to endurance, that's not going to be a problem that the MLB has. Their biggest problem is with the lack of balls in play due to elevated walk and strikeout rates. 3) While I can see bullpen games becoming far more prevalent in the future, it'll be a very long time before the traditional starter goes away. There's great value in having a good starter that goes 5-6 innings, and those guys are still being developed and coming up each year. An elite starter their third or fourth time through the order is still about as good as the reliever that would be replacing them, so you're getting more innings out of less roster spots. That's not gonna change unless injuries continue to zap us of promising arms and elite starters just simply don't exist anymore, and I just can't see that happening any time soon.

There you go Cavan! He's been in a bit of rusty so that's nice to see.

It's very fitting that Travis d'Arnaud would f*** us up and break out with the Rays.

Reese McGuire was called up, I imagine he'll get there at some point if he's not already in the clubhouse.

So a Cuban IFA signing from last year who appeared to be out of pro ball a few years (probably trying to gain MLB signing eligibility) and another IFA signing from a few years ago who seems to be forever away and is super raw. That is decidedly not a sexy package for a very good reliever.

I'd say every pitcher understands that limiting walks is incredibly important. With strikeouts it's definitely up to their philosophy and understanding of the game (for better or worse). There's definitely pitchers that emphasize strikeouts and just getting a swinging strike pretty much every time. You're starting to see a lot of that with all of the pitch tunneling guys, those that work with Driveline and other similar organizations in the offseason. I can almost guarantee there are some other guys that are on the opposite spectrum, their goal is to generate weak contact, keep their pitch count low, and go deep into games (not relevant for relievers). I can't say what the split would be like but I'd say the strikeouts guys outnumber the latter at this point, and they are climbing, but both likely have strong representation among players.

Great hit Randal, nice wheels Gurriel.

The A's love having a loaded BP over a good starting rotation.

Every team is just leaking fake info out there to try to gain leverage. We really shouldn't read anything into these rumours until one of the big names says a deal is done or close to it.