BigCecil

Biggio is a good athlete. No doubt. Great play.

Nice to see some f***ing payback for that Castillo wild card game in ‘22 in front of a big amped up crowd!

He looks a bit like ‘22 Berrios. Lots of movement but ball leaking middle middle back over plate. Balls in play good things happen.

Castillo on the ropes. Go for the knock out boys.

Kirk. Gives us all a big sigh of relief right there.

We just bought a box suite 3 pack no problems. Was a bit surprised.

From starting last season in the 4 spot to sitting our home opener. Couple hard hit balls off Jose but no damage. Now let’s crush some baseballs!!! Let’s go!!!

I remember those starts for Gausman in 23. Not worried at this point. It was cold and pretty miserable in NY too. Looking deeper at Berrios 5 FIP and 6.7 expected ERA his first 2 starts he has been a bit lucky so far. Hoping he has it all going in Toronto.

Dr Andrew’s says the Tommy John ligament is not fully developed until age 26! So yes for certain on kids focussing on max V and spin rate early on is not helping pitchers stay healthy.

The eternal enigma...also known as Angel Hernandez.

Its disturbing bud. Kids and parents of those kids is a business factory. We had fun at the PG, and my son competed better than I thought he would, so that was good for him confidence wise, but its all driven by the dollar and the kid's arms are the expendable commodity, with a never ending international supply. I met parents there that talk about spin rates and V endlessly on 12 year old kids - who go from showcase to showcase. Its a bit twisted.

Not for a long time. Its huge business. My son was 13 and went to a "Perfect Game" training and evaluation weekend in Phoenix Jan of 23. At 12-13 they are tracking V and spin rate, and if you want to try out for a top travel team in the USA you have to send these stats in advance to even get a look on the field. Two kids were there from Team USA 13-14 and it was wild to see all the scouts and profile they got. Perfect Game is probably the most well known of these companies, but since Hud went, I probably get 5 emails a week from different orgs running similar things hyping the need to get noticed. I don't know how or if this will ever auto correct itself with an endless up and coming supply of new kids and parents. Big business.

All these pitchers having arm issues makes me think about how durable Berrios has been with over 1200 IP - now 29. He was bad in '22 for us and rebounded '23. This yr he has a 5 FIP and xERA 6.70 in 2 starts - but has kept us in those games. I would take the bet now that he does not opt out of his deal after '26 here.

Genesis Cabrera was crap for STL all of '22 and in '23 with a 5 FIP. He was better for us but its asking a lot of him in leverage Hopefully Mayza gets his game back at '23 levels. He has looked a bit better last couple outings. Francis just hasn't yet made the pitch he needs to in critical times. Its hard to pass any judgement after 2 starts, but the team may be forced to give Yariel a shot sooner than they wanted to, depending on how the next 2-3 go. They may also run Mitch White out. Manoah looks cooked at this point, so he is no option now.

What happened to TVP? https://fanarch.com/blogs/fan-arch/what-happened-to-todd-van-poppel

Yep. He will live and die with BABIP. Swings at everything.

I agree with this. It stings when we had a good shot @ .500 but if we rebound well at home its no big deal.

Not a bad comparison but he had lights out stuff and threw high V for the day. Manoah was never that. TVP got derailed more by injuries didn’t he?

How many spring training stories did we have to endure about Varshos new approach and chopping wood swing. He is nowhere near this bad. But Jesus it’s been rough so far. Francis looking pretty solid.

Been watching this team since the 80's through all it iterations. The MIA deal didn't work out. At the time, it made us Vegas WS favs before it imploded. Hindsight is always 20/20. He has always had balls and taken big swings. He was far from perfect and I dare say he has learned a lot from his time in TOR and elsewhere, like any exec should. The Tulo Reyes deal was a 2 way dump on bad deals with the Rockies. In terms of aging and bloated deals, its not that much diff than an aging Springer with 3/75 left, and Tulo was integral in the 15/16 runs. After watching for decades in the wasteland, the fan base got re-energized again. We had at that time the longest streak of any MLB team not being in a playoff game. Aside from Tulo I'm trying to think how many more aging players with bloated long term contracts he left. He also went all in on international money to sign Vlad and left that (which looked a lot more brilliant in '21 than '23 & '24 thus far lol) Martin was a FA AA signed who gave us a solid front end and 11 WAR on his 5/82 deal - 16M AAV. He was the first big name FA we signed in years, coming off a huge year in PITT. He signed extensions that got the best years of EE and Jose, under market, before they left. The JD trade was a heist. If Shatkins left today, they leave with us having the oldest line up and rotation in the AL East and our farm is ranked about 20th with Ricky still on it. Not one playoff series win and the window, arguably, is shrinking. (In an era where they have the benefit of MLB adding an extra wildcard- spot). And we will also have the back end legacy of some of our larger longer term FA deals. They have also over seen the renovation of of RC and upgraded our development facilities, and got the payroll up to a level where we can sign some big FA names more often again. Part of the reason this team even has the big payroll budget it does now to spend on buying a FA rotation is the legacy of the fan interest nation wide being re-kindled with the runs of 15/16 IMO. Its a mixed bag legacy at this time for both regimes I'd say.

You got your debbie downers, your sycophants & shills, and your realists & pragmatists with some crossover on the BLMB. Always been like that.

Ya, they did for sure. Team treated them all well. Shot of him. Hudson in the white. We missed Soroka's ST start as the boys were playing a game down there at that time, but he still gave them a lot of his time.

I agree. I would rather see Yariel built up more and given an MLB shot this year at some point. I know this is his only year with options and they want to work him slowly in the minors, but our window is not forever. Parsons was bad and we really don't know what Manoah and Francis are going to give us as SP this year.

8 games in after last season trying to keep perspective. Not easy they way we have hit aside from JT and Davis but: End of April 2023 - Belt wRC+ was 48 and he ended up at 138 End of April 2023 - Chappy wRC+ was 1,000,000 and ended up at 110 Win one of the next two and we come out of this brutal road trip .500 somehow and lots of time left to get the O going.

CHISOX sure missed their window. I caught a spring training game in AZ two + weeks ago. Mike Soroka gave my kids 18U team a personal tour of their ST facilities and introduced them to Moncada and some others. Then we went to the ChiSox vs A's ST game. They should have paid us to watch that. f*** they are both bad. Sit anywhere you want! Also caught an ASU game. That was awesome.