max silver

Atkins has directly stated that he has the ability to flex financial muscles at the trade deadline, so hopefully this can be utilized a bit to keep the prospect capital down a tad. I'm much happier with the state of the minor league system compared to pre-deadline a year ago, but at the same time I'm also a bit of a prospect hugger so bringing in any kind of impact is likely to be very painful.

DeGrom is technically an older starter but the stuff is still top notch. It's crazy that he appears to have dialed back the intensity a bit and is still averaging 97 MPH on the heater at age 37. He's managed to finally stay healthy as he's pitched nearly as many innings this season as the previous 3 years combined. The team has shown they are willing to roll the dice with older injury prone starters with the signing of Scherzer, so if DeGrom is made available I fully expect them to enter the sweepstakes. I'd hope that this incredibly spotty injury history would serve to lower the asking price a bit but aces are in short supply and this is especially true at the deadline.

I saw the same set of quotes. I do largely agree that this is likely a case of where it's prudent to avoid trying to fix something that isn't broken. Kirk has been flat out mashing over the last 2+ months of the season with the present approach as evidenced by a 142 wRC+ over his last 222 PA. The results are lagging behind the expected statistics to a large degree to be certain, so perhaps over time Popkins and the rest of the hitting staff can make a few tweaks to unlock a tad more over the fence power in time. With his best in MLB defense behind the plate he's amassed a team best 2.8 FWAR over this span which is a remarkable outcome. I was always hopeful that he could rediscover the form at the plate that he displayed during the career best 2022 season and combined with the tremendous improvements behind the plate in recent seasons we are enjoying peak Kirk right now. Thank goodness the front office got the extension done in spring training as it would costed a lot more money to do this now given the offensive resurgence. Laureano is an interesting trade candidate, but surprisingly he's running a sizeable reverse platoon split this season as evidenced by only 94 wRC+ vs LHP and 163 wRC+ vs RHP. This is more of a small sample size anomaly compared to the rest of his career as evidenced by a career 120 wRC+/107 wRC+ LHP/RHP split. He certainly fits the bill as a right handed outfield bat for the club and is almost certainly an upgrade on Davis Schneider, so I'll place a tentative thumbs up towards acquiring him based on potential acquisition cost. I looked up his advanced defensive metrics and he doesn't appear to be a realistic option to spend any time in center field but is likely passable in the corners. I had a look at Reynold's and there are aspects of his game to like. He's swinging the bat from both sides of the plate with the highest average speeds and fast swing rates since Statcast started tracking bat swing speed. The quality of contact metrics are all at career best rates as well which is also very encouraging. It appears as though he's been remarkably unlucky with batted ball results as the .360 xwOBA is very solid, but the results are poor at .295 wOBA. Perhaps this is something that could even out over time. One concern I have is that he appears to have lost all of his defensive ability to the point where he's a massive liability in the field. With the team already employing below average defenders in Springer and Santander acquiring Reynolds would likely force two of these guys into the corners in most games and that would weakness the outfield defense tremendously.

The bullpen has been dynomite this series. Today was another impressive performance as Burr looked like he was right back to his bat missing ways from a season ago, the stud version of Little showed up today as the command was largely much better than recent outings and Hoffman shut the door in the 9th.

There was a wave that arrived in 2019 but then it largely slowed down to more of a trickle.

Loperfido has managed to produce a .351 wOBA vs LHP in AAA this season, albeit with a .264 xwOBA which doesn't suggest it's particularly sustainable.

It's not automatically a full day off, he'll almost certainly get into the game later on if the situation warrants it. Since Barger was called up he's appeared in 65 of the 72 games so he is largely playing every day. Barger has pronounced platoon splits this season as well, so it's not the end of the world if he sits for a few PA to start the game when a lefty is on the mound. He is sitting at 78 wRC+ vs LHP as opposed to 141 wRC+ vs RHP. A large part of the reason why the team has enjoyed so much sustained offensive success is due to effective platooning to maximize all of the parts of the roster.

The Braves are on a remarkable downturn over the last few years. The 2023 squad featured one of the best offenses in MLB history, the 2024 group experienced a massive offensive dropoff similar to the 2022/2023 Blue Jays, and now similar to last year's Blue Jays squad are suffering a terrible year with a lot of injury issues largely to blame. They still have a lot of very solid pieces but AA will have his work cut out for him to return the team to being more competitive.

The opposition hitters haven't been swinging as much because he's not making competitive pitches. If he gets back to placing his pitches closer to the strike zone he'll generate more swings.

Little was a stud until recent weeks when he was struggling to command his pitches.

My favorite wacky injury was when Daulton Pompey suffered from a concussion by having some bats fall on his head from the top of a locker.

Apparently it happened when he slipped getting into the hot/cold recovery tubs. That's just peak irony for a guy to injure himself when undergoing injury prevention/recovery maintenance.

We shall see if any top shelf rotation arms are even moved at the deadline. If the Angels fall out of the race I'd really like to see the team take a run at reacquiring Kikuchi. He's firmly not in the ace tier but I believe he would likely slot in as the team's number 1 starter.

The farm system is positively stacked with high potential arms right now so I think the front office has plenty of trade ammunition. If you don't think the team has many assets to trade then it stands to reason that they aren't going to be able to trade for an ace level pitcher.

I don't think the club necessarily needs to add any position players but they could really use another leverage arm at minimum. Rotation depth at least would be a massive plus with a starter being capable of starting a playoff game being a huge addition to the team's playoff potential.

This team is amazing right now. Fisher is a goddamn boss and deserves full marks for the victory in this game. The bullpen was absolutely superb with only a single run allowed in 7 innings. Springer continued bashing home runs, Barger drove in the winning run and threw out a runner at the plate. I'm actually kind of warming to the bunts as both Clement and Lukes placed down perfect bunts the last few games to help set up the winning run.

This has been a fantastic debut outing for Estrada against a tough lineup.

Scherzer didn't go 5 innings so he won't qualify for the win.

That was a very nice debut. Estrada looked very poised for a rookie making his major league debut and the command was very impressive.

It's incredible how much he's improved in the field, particularly at third base as he was a bit of a butcher last season.

Vlad and Bo with the worm burners after the Springer dinger.

I was worried that Adell was going to rob Springer of a home run there. The reemergence of Springer is just such a massive occurrence. Thank goodness the Twins let Popkins go as I think he was just what this team needed.

Absolutely. His command has been off a little bit as well.

Max is featuring top shelf stuff today. Hopefully the thumb doesn't flare up and force him out of the game too before he reaches his available pitch count.

Barger is a stud in right field and at third base. It's a tough decision for the club to make long term if they want to largely settle on one position as the arm is an absolute weapon in both spots.