ashbury

Concur. I posted this elsewhere in a Mahle thread, but a week ago I watched the Reds in Oakland and they played Steer at first base, and even there he looked stiff and failed a couple of times to do what he intended. He probably has a major league bat but if you start profiling as a DH even that bar is very high, and unless he steps it up a lot in some dimension of his game he's not going to be a big loss to us.

Yes, but so far he's contributed about 1/8 of a season's worth of offense (Total Bases as just one measure).

When Castro came up he was the one on the bubble. I'm not sure he's done so much to increase his stock, as Miranda's has plummeted. If it's up to me I send Miranda down for some emergency remedial work on all facets of his game.

Bah. Losses will happen. I don't like for them to look bad doing it.

(Sorry, I thought this was in the game thread.)

That is such an anomaly. Almost makes me want to ask the b-r.com folks to look at that.

Last 10 days: Castro: 10 PA, .786 OPS Miranda: 30 PA, .769 OPS Solano: 14 PA, .436 OPS Man, I thought this would clarify something, but it still comes down to cutting a guy you'd probably prefer to not give up on, versus two guys who can be sent down freely but maybe you don't want to. I say Castro when Farmer is activated, but it's a tough one for Rocco to break the news to him about. "This is the part of my job I hate the most, Willi, but ..."

He's just a baby but it's great to have him in the system and follow his progress.

I'm actually with you on this. We are watching players trying their best, with the opposing team trying their best to stop them. Once in a while a ground ball hits a pebble that no one could have foreseen, otherwise I try to avoid that word. I wouldn't personally have picked that particular headline for this article, unless I slipped up. But I do believe some patterns of results are unsustainable. Pete Rose hitting .300 year after year? Sustainable, and you pretty much knew it once he really got going. Nick Gordon putting together a career that looks like 2022? Possibly not sustainable. But the string of poor results Gordon has shown early in 2023? Probably not sustainable in that direction either.

Thanks for the research I was too lazy to provide. Memo to Thad Levine: you're on the clock now, make something good happen between now and the trading deadline. (Not gonna get much from a team looking for a 4th outfielder though.)

I can't see Kepler being of interest to a team with no post-season aspirations. So can we come up with another team besides the Yankees who have a need for an average player in a non-key defensive spot, and who see getting him as the difference between success and failure? Because if not, the Yanks will offer a lottery-ticket player and say "take it or leave it, we're doing enough by taking the remainder of his salary off your books. We'll give you a little more for one of your young guys, though." And if we keep him, can we envision him being the guy who gets hot and helps carry the team to a playoff series win, a la Eddie Rosario? He's barely worth discussing, almost. And I don't hate him.

Shutdown bullpen today!

This article aged well.

One hell of an extra-innings game.

I missed, who comes up with xBA and what stats is it based on?

Then don't OPS under .700 as a corner outfielder, Trevor. Now go OPS above .800 at AAA, kthxbye. (I think he can do it, but this has been like Waiting for Godot.)

Pretty sure the opposing coaches are developing plans against each of our batters, at the same time, using these same tools. I'm not happy with current hitting results either, but it's not as simple as you make it out.

Getting older is mandatory. Maturing is optional. Just ask Mrs Ash. As for the topic of this thread, I am fine with Kirilloff spending time at AAA. As has been pointed out, he played 3 consecutive games for the first time; I didn't see anyone mention that his very SSS batting results these 3 games were an emptyish .250 BA. I don;'t want him simply knocking at the major league door, I want him to kick it down, and he's not there yet.

Yes and no. 71 PA vs RHP, 10 PA vs LHP - Vazquez 29 PA vs RHP, 18 PA vs LHP - Jeffers Vazquez has borne the brunt more against righties, but as Stringer said, they just haven't faced that many lefties in all. Jeffers has faced more RHP than LHP, just not quite as extreme. But Vazquez hasn't done well against either handed pitcher (OPS .610 and .400 respectively), while Jeffers has exhibited good results so far against righties (OPS .918 and .600). Jeffers has capitalized. Vazquez has not. These are all small numbers to analyze, though.

Based on the things you looked at I wondered if he was requiring too many pitches per batter faced, but at 3.93 he's running just about a league average this year, much as he's done in 2021-22. I think the manager is just being ultra cautious with his workload..

The two bolded items tie in together, making me especially eager to agree with going back to normal rules for the 10th and 11th. If the offenses are inept, the extra innings might go even faster without the runner on second that starts things off. And if one of the offenses manages to scratch out a winning run by the regular rules, it just seems more organic.

Remember, I was merely tapping the brakes on the subheading, "Bullpen is lights-out". An IBB to begin the 10th inning or later may be sound strategy. The Twins did that only 1 time in the 3 extra innings they played. The other four IBB remain black marks, in my book. Three innings in a row, starting in the 8th, the bullpen found itself with a runner on third, and the Twins issued an IBB to try to preserve the tie. Self-inflicted - a couple of leadoff walks and a couple of wild pitches were in the mix there. Without the runner on third, the IBB is unlikely in each case. Pagan's 11th inning was the closest to a clean inning, but Rocco apparently didn't think he was lights-out and had him walk Benintendi (again!) with two outs, to face the weaker bat in Hamilton, even (as the visiting team) knowing that if it worked (it did!) then Hamilton would be guaranteed to start on second base the next inning and we'd face the top of the lineup instead of getting a free out with Hamilton coming up to bat. I'm sure Rocco was thinking an inning ahead, and still felt this was the best move with Pagan. There was no way at the time to know the Twins would explode for 5 runs and make Hamilton irrelevant. The bullpen was in no way lights-out this game. Indeed, three innings in a row, the bullpen did well to not be walked-off (in good measure due to the Twins' quiet bats until the 12th). And that's all I'm saying. So kudos to those pitchers for keeping their cool and battling their tails off. Ultimately, they were good enough.

The bullpen was NOT lights-out. Only Moran in the 12th didn't walk anybody, and a baserunner reached 3rd four out of five innings. This was a tightwire act, not a shutdown exhibition, and they were extremely fortunate to not get burned even once when the game was for the taking.

I've never had high expectations, and every time I start to believe, he looks pretty hittable. Maybe he can take one further step to improve consistency from game to game, and thereby achieve his ceiling. Until then, I think of him as just another guy in the bullpen, nowhere close to a top gun or elite arm.