Riverbrian

And those guys drank until 6am before a 1PM start, they played through ring worm and still managed to hit 85 mph fastballs.

Does anyone remember a year that injuries were not a major story.

Agree that the jury is still out. It used to be Smith, Duffey, Thornburg and Pagan in high leverage. I hope the jury considers this when sequestered. ?

I'm not comparing Jorge Lopez to Josh Hader but Josh hasn't exactly been lights out for San Diego since the trade. We needed bullpen help badly and the front office went out and got bullpen help. We are better team with him. The rest is just the circumstances of having to face teams that are trying to beat you every at-bat.

Personally, I wouldn't let "Some guy on Twitter" fool you. But, that's just me. ?

You make a good point although, players like Gordon are like water. They fill in the low spots. Not many have played RF apart from Kepler. Urshela has been healthy and Miranda has been demanding AB's so 3B is pretty well covered. The low spots have been LF and CF because of health issues so that is where Gordon spends the majority of his time. However, Gordon has been performed well enough to ask the question... If LF and CF were healthy with Buxton and Kirilloff or whoever, Would you play Gordon over Kepler. Gordon is earning that consideration, while Kepler is earning the right to be challenged for it.

He wasn't a left fielder or centerfielder prior to becoming a left fielder and centerfielder. ?

If you had to choose between Gordon and Kepler. Who would you choose? Nick Gordon's performance has made this a legitimate question.

I wanted 3 arms... I got 3 arms. I would have like a power bat rental like Mancini or Bell. I'll be OK. Kudo's to the front office.

I understand why this is a conversation but I really don't understand why this should be a conversation. As long as the front office and Rocco are on the same page... He isn't going anywhere. Insubordination is the only thing that would cost him his job. If you have a complaint about Rocco's managing... Identify the proper target and that would be his immediate supervisors... the front office. They are not keeping a manager who isn't reading and executing from the same playbook. They are not going to hire a rogue manager... I'll bet with anyone that Rocco isn't rogue. Personally, I have no problems with the front office. This decision belongs to them.

Good Luck with your prediction... MR. Executive... whoever you are. There are 26 players on all 30 teams who are going to perform above and below expectation for periods of time during the next two months that will blow any prediction he may have OUT OF THE WATER. Now if this executive does indeed have the ability to foresee the up and down progressions for 26 players on all 30 teams in the next two months. This Executive is pretty amazing and it obviously means that his team is winning every single year. I

I understand the logic being used to justify trading Correa. At the same time... I am a million miles from understanding the logic being used to justify the trading Correa. Uff Da

If Sano gets that Sano type of hot... he will impact this roster. If Sano is that Sano type of .100 hitter that check swings on slider... he will impact this roster. Personally... I'm excited to watch him tonight. It's been a while.

In my opinion of course, Nobody goes into the "Haven't Been" column. Everybody has gotten significant playing time including Nick Gordon. The only real playing time casualties have been Garlick and Celestino when being utilized on the short side of the platoon. Celestino has gotten a lot of work against RH's due to injuries though. Sano joining the roster will move Kirilloff into more OF play to keep his bat in the lineup and get Sano some AB's. Miranda DH, 1B, 3B, Ushela 3B, DH, Kirilloff 1B, LF, RF, DH Sano 1B, DH combined produce plenty of combinations that keep everybody reasonably fed. Arraez is the guy that you got to feed as much as possible and he is available to get some playing time at DH, 1B, 3B and 2B. I think there will be plenty of playing time for all going forward, nobody will get splinters and that's good because we don't know who is going to get hurt next but whoever it is... we got a decent replacement for whoever it is and a replacement that won't be coming in cold. I love Depth.

Which starting caliber players are not playing regularly?

It's the terror of knowing what this bullpen's about. Watching some good friend scream "GET HIM OUT".

This is one of those areas where I let the front office do their job. How much future they can mortgage along with what the other teams are asking is the information they should have their arms around. I know that we don't. My expectation is simple: I expect the front office to support a contender that they built. I'd appreciate practicality with a side order of brave. I'll let them worry about the cost... but they better be buying.

The World Series is certainly a consideration when making these trade deadline decisions but I find it helpful to not skip a step in your considerations. We are currently fighting two teams to win the AL Central... We are fighting 7 teams for a wild card spot. The first step is to buy at the deadline to improve your team in the battle against the 7 teams trying to keep you out of the playoffs. There will be all of August and September yet to play, injuries can't be predicted other than predicting that they will indeed happen... September is usually an edge of the seat month for contenders with the clock ticking. The World Series ramifications of trade deadline decisions are the 2nd step only after the 1st step is achieved. Hopefully the players acquired at the trade deadline help you in both steps but skipping the first step to focus on the 2nd step in these discussions is skipping step one and that step is important in it's own glory.

I think it's important to point out that this discussion isn't just North and South Pole. There is an entire globe in between the extreme reactions. There are levels of improvement between acquiring Juan Soto and picking up help off the waiver wire. When I say buy... that doesn't mean I'm saying drain the farm to get it done. I'd love to have Soto... who wouldn't. However... that type of acquisition would almost require a farm system reset to get it done. There are other options that will improve this team with a lesser price tag. However, being a buyer always comes with a price tag.

In support of your point... I could also come up with examples (plural) of teams who bought at the deadline and went straight into the crapper short term after the purchasing and I could come up with examples of teams who sold at the deadline and became difficult to beat short term in August and September. There are no guarantees in baseball. We could pay the prospect price and acquire Castillo. Advocates of this deal see the Ace they long for. The Mind's Eye imagines Castillo matching up against Cole and now the Twins have a chance and they feel better. The mind's eye does not consider the possibility of Castillo getting lit up in the 1st inning... The mind's eye does not consider the possibility of Cole getting lit up in the 1st inning. Nobody in July thinks Yu Darvish will pitch like Yu Darvish did in October when they acquire Yu Darvish. There are no guarantees in baseball. However, there is balance on the other side of the ledger. There is a long list of acquired prospects who ended up just eating minor league food on the bus to Greenville. This team is in first place. It is in contention. You can't look at this bullpen and not attempt to make it better.

I'm really sorry that you feel that way. You got yourself all hung up in the past and that is never healthy when tomorrow can be better if you let it. The playoff losing streak started in 2004. I just did a quick check of the roster. There are no members of the current roster that were on that 2004 roster so 2022 has nothing to do with 2004. The last loss was in 2020 to the Astros. While we do have members of that squad on our current roster. When you look at the 13 most prominent position players and the 13 most prominent pitchers of 2020. 16 of them are no longer here and we gained one of the Astros who beat us with Carlos Correa. Yesterday doesn't apply to today. 162 games are always a roller-coaster. We are in first place heading into the trade deadline. Support your local team. You have to get into the playoffs to win the playoffs. ?

Le'ts look at the performance of the staffs since that is all that is needed to be done. No doubt... The Nationals had some great names like Strasburg, Scherzer and Corbin. In the 2019 Playoffs their pitching staff was 5th with a 3.47 ERA. The Astros team ERA was 6th in the playoffs. The Rays and Yankees were the best playoff pitching staffs. In 2019, that great pitching staff almost got Martinez fired as the manager... it took the Nats until June 29th to reach the .500 mark. When they reached the .500 mark they had the 7th best record in the National League.? @Nine of twelve The 2014 Giants had Madison Bumgarner. His performance was incredible. It would have to be considered one of the best post season performances of all time. He Threw 52 innings that post season. About 33% of all innings. The other starters for the Giants? Hudson was so-so with a 4.29 ERA while Peavy and Vogelson had ERA's over 6. The 2011 Cards had a playoff rotation of Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Edwin Jackson and Kyle Lohse and a playoff ERA of 4.05. They beat a Rangers team that produced a 4.32 team ERA. It was David Freese who cranked out 5 homers while hitting .397 over 63 Playoff AB's leading the Cardinals to victory. At the All-Star Break that year. The Cards were 49-43. The 2004 Red Sox had a playoff team ERA of 4.47. Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling were pretty impressive names but they had playoff ERA's of 4.00 and 3.57 respectively. 2003... Josh Beckett was fantastic. Brad Penny and Mark Redmen were the opposite. Carl Pavano showed up nicely in the two playoff games that he started. The Marlins team post-season ERA was 4.30. Dead last out of all the playoff teams. They beat the Yankees that year who had the best team ERA in the playoffs. The Marlins were in 4th place in the NL East at the all-star break with a record of 49-46. I'll say it again... If you had 8 ping pong balls and 2 of those ping pong balls were labelled wild card. You would have a 25% chance of pulling out a ball labelled wild card. In the past 20 years... 30% of the World Series titles were won by wild card teams. Each Wild Card team had varying degrees of talent that all played individually at varying degrees but regardless... a wild card team should not be favored to win it all. Yet... Wild Card Teams are beating the odds at a higher percentage then if there were no odds at all. Pitching is always important but it wasn't the reason it happened.

I assume you are ranking them 7th by record. If so... you would be correct. They do indeed have the 7th best record in the American League at the all -star break. However, they are just 2 games back of being ranked 3rd. As a matter of fact... if they would have gone 5-5 instead of 3-7 over the last 10 games going into the all-star break. They would be ranked 3rd. I'll take it another step... If one pitcher in the bullpen doesn't cough up 4 games by himself against Cleveland. It's a completely different story all together. So... Since you asked... ? Here is what I'm saying. I expect our front office to be aggressive trying to improve the bullpen... I expect the Twins to buy.

2019 Nationals reached the playoffs via wildcard 2014 Giants reached the playoffs via wildcard 2014 Royals reached the playoffs via wildcard (Woulda won it if wasn't for the other wild card team) 2011 Cardinals reached the playoffs via wildcard 2004 Red Sox reached the playoffs via wildcard 2003 Marlins reached the playoffs via wildcard 2002 Angels reached the playoffs via wildcard If All things were equal... 6 division winners and 2 wildcard teams (Not including the 1 game playoff that includes an extra wild card team to determine who the wild card representative is) The Wildcard team has a 25% chance of winning the world series based on two teams being wild card out of 8 participants. The Wild Card has produced 6 world series winners over 20 years for a 30% success ratio. I love ya... But I have no idea what you are talking about when you use the word "Favorites".

How often does the favorite win the World Series? Do teams have the same set of conditions (IE The Same Rosters) from one year to the next? Is there performance variance from year to year, week to week, game to game with the players that make up every roster?