Orgfiller

The big difference here is that Schneider literally could not touch the high fastball. Roden is just driving it into the ground, and he's demonstrated a much better hit tool that should allow him to make adjustments to these pitches.

I'm of the opinion that as much as Wagner and Roden have been swinging a pool noodle to date, it's far too early to give up on them. They're not being completely overpowered or the K/whiff rates would be bad. Roden in particularly hasn't been drawing as many walks as you would want, but he's a guy getting his first taste at the MLB level so he could be pressing, or just hasn't made the adjustments to make himself feel comfortable with taking more pitches. The projections for both these guys are what they are because their success at the upper minors was legit, despite merely okay power numbers. Not many Ks, good amount of walks, lots of line drives, that's been their profile. I don't think there's any good reason to send them to AAA just yet, this could just make things worse. Roden needs to fix his swing path, there's no question about this, to what extent the team believes this can be worked on at the MLB level versus a lower pressure environment will be the determining factor. He's providing value in other areas which has been a surprising development, so while he's not totally killing you, see if he can make adjustments on the fly.

Crochet struggling with his command and the M's broadcast is picking up every single F bomb he's dropping clear as day lol.

Not buying that at all just yet. His top end exit velos aren't that good, and he's overperforming his xWOBA pretty significantly. He's probably a true talent 15-20 HR bat unless he significantly alters his approach. His K/BB rates are pretty bad and I don't know if he has a Bichette hit tool or Javy Baez bat speed + power tool to make up for it.

Romano blows another one. Going for the 10th inning save, he allows a groundball to advance the runner, a deep double to score the tying run, IBB, strikeout, bloop single to lose the game. Bunch of hanging sliders. Fastball didn't even look bad but he hardly used it.

Barger is one of the stiffest dudes I can think of, so I think the infield dream for him is over. The arm is excellent but I just don't think he can move laterally very well, and I shudder remembering what he looked like at third last season.

It's weird that they continue to sit Barger, which makes me think he's the one heading down once Varsho returns to the team. I thought Lukes was a shoo-in for a demotion but his performance and the fact that he won't care whether he's playing or not might keep him on the roster for a bit longer.

Okay? We're just going to ignore projections now because the team is in a rough stretch?

Fangraphs has us projected at 40% odds to make the playoffs right now.

@Brock Beauchamp

I believe Will Wagner has officially graduated prospect eligibility. He's at 131 career ABs which means he has exceeded rookie status.

The Padres are kind of the posterboys of what a team with a bunch of potential/actual albatross contracts looks like. Cronenworth is signed until 2030 and he's been trending down since 2022. Relatively cheap at least. Yu Darvish is signed until 2028 for inexplicable reasons. He's 38, declining, and hasn't pitched since the first half of last season. $18M AAV Joe Musgrove has two more years after 2025 at $20M per. Pitched a combined 200 IP the first two seasons, recovering from TJS. Bogaerts signed for 8 more years at huge money as you mentioned. Machado, who is still pretty good, is signed until 2033. He's settled in as a ~3.5 WAR player which is good for now but is likely to decline in the coming years. $31.8M AAV

I agree with you, although even those guys at the end that you mentioned are unlikely to be anywhere near the worst contracts in the sport. Even if all of them are complete negatives, their total hit isn't even that bad. Combined they probably make less than Anthony Rendon's contract. Or Stephen Strasburg's. True horrendous contracts are guys that were paid star level contracts for their performance in their 20s, with the contract mostly in their early to late 30s - Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Xander Bogaerts. Or pitchers, the most likely to be albatrosses due to injury. Robbie Ray is in a 5/115 deal, he had one okay season in the first year of the contract, missed practically two straight years with TJS, and might suck now.

The Twins have the fifth worst offense in the majors thus far. This seems less like a vote of confidence and more that they desperately need some offense at the top.

I mean, the team is 8th in position player fWAR, and still a roughly average offense despite Bo and Vlad displaying no power and significantly underperforming their xStats and Santander being a black hole in the 3 spot. It's not like it hasn't been working thus far, and I don't think it's that they heavily value contact ability necessarily, or rather devalue power, but there's a problem in how they bring it out in some players. Popkins seems to be the type of guy to target damage and it hasn't really paid off obviously, hopefully we see results emerge as the season goes along. It's easy to say that their target as a team is to be the 2015 Royals and I just think they've been trying to find wins where they can get them. Gimenez and Varsho are guys who they might find undervalued, but it doesn't mean they think these prototypes for a player are the blueprint for a winning team.

I think you're underestimating how much power the top 3 can produce, and how badly we've been missing it. Santander still projects for 30 HR RoS and that's with him scuffling badly to begin the year. Bo, despite his relative lack of power, has a .526 xSLG compared to his true .390 SLG mark, he's been underperforming his expected stats pretty significantly, particularly in the power department. His Statcast page looks great. Vlad's in the same boat, almost exactly matching Bo's xSLG - SLG discrepancy, his xWOBA would make him a top 5 hitter.

Yesavage's delivery really invokes Mike Fiers to me: https://www.mlb.com/video/fiers-bassitt-blanks-the-rangers?q=Mike Fiers&cp=CMS_FIRST&qt=FREETEXT&p=1 (bonus random RP appearance from Chris Bassitt pumping 97) Now image Mike Fiers but he sits 94-95. We should see Yesavage climb the minor league ladder quickly, he's too advanced for this level. Same is true for Khal Stephen.

All jokes aside from the "must-win" trope, this is a game we gotta put on the books. Blanco has been struggling out of the gate, and this is a much different lineup than the one that faced him in Houston last season. As long as Bassitt continues his good stretch of pitching this is one that has to go our way.

Good AB by Roden, would’ve been nice to see him rewarded on that opposite field swing. Alas, Brown is too good and he took a close pitch.

98 from Gausman for the K is fantastic to see.

Springer looks incredible at the plate.

Yeah he looks electric.

The A's are promoting Nick Kurtz, the number 4 pick from last year's draft and a consensus top ~25-50 prospect. The interesting part is that as 1B only guy, this presents a weird positional logjam for them with Tyler Soderstrom starting off the year as a top 10 hitter in the league. Kurtz is 1B/DH only. Soderstrom is a former catcher who's rarely played there the last couple of seasons, and had been 1B only this year. Brent Rooker is Yordan Alvarez esque as a top of the order offensive force who ideally should not see the field as a defender, but now likely will? Shea Langeliers has generally graded as a rather poor if not awful defensive catcher with big pop. JJ Bleday and Lawrence Butler have emerged as legit outfielders, the latter being a player that they're committed to building around. The A's are going to have a pretty weird defense, but that lineup is going to rake.

Lucas optioned, Josh Walker recalled.

Is this your thing where you become insufferable for a week to prove a point about the other insufferable posters? The Jays just went 3-3 the last week, and one of those games could have easily gone their way with some more timely hitting. Let's not add to the pile of annoying posters that come with the gloom and doom as the team sits firmly in second place in the ALE.