ashbury

Like the legendary Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx, do we have a Seth Stohs jinx brewing?

Maybe he needs to be shut down. Season is almost over anyway, though.

Command is the problem, not stuff, in my book for Gonsalves. His fastball is good enough if he's careful, and his other stuff plays, I think, but he can't put it where the catcher places the mitt, pitch after pitch. It needs to be a high percentage of the time, not here and there, now and then. That doesn't make him unique, by a long shot, but then there's plenty of guys who never make it. I didn't get around to asking, during last night's game thread, whether you'd prefer a guy with great stuff but questionable command, or great command but questionable stuff. I think I'd go for the latter. I'm not quite sure Gonsalves's stuff is "great" enough to make up for his command, which is kind of why I didn't bother asking the question.

What did you think of his demeanor in his fifth inning? Chewing his lip, rolling his eyes, I don't remember exactly what. As I said in the game thread, I don't usually go much for mind-reading, but I thought he was throwing a "Skip, come and get me" vibe right around then.

Game of inches.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was too old to take the role of an athlete, even a first baseman, at that point in his career.

Anyone on the roster shouldn't play "never". On page 8 of a thread still nominally about Paul Molitor, I'm fine with this degree of accord reached.

In conjunction with the other answers provided, let me offer this approach. I think I did something similar with LoMo, a while back. J.D. Martinez and Khris Davis lead the majors in RBI as of this morning with 110 and 103 respectively. Let's break it down to playing time, opportunity by team mates, and home runs: Martinez: 534 plate appearances Davis: 518 PA Mauer: 412 PA So Mauer hasn't played as much, in aggregate. That's going to cut into the RBI. Next, here's how those PA break down, as to whether men are on base or not: Martinez: 279 PA bases empty, 255 PA with someone on Davis: 258 PA and 260 PA, respectively Mauer: 256 and 156, respectively So Mauer's team mates are not setting the table for him the way the other gentlemen's comrades do. Next, Mauer's less of a power hitter than them: when the bases are empty, the only way to get an RBI is with a homer, and he's a poor candidate. Martinez: 313 BA, .621 SLG, 20 RBI bases empty Davis: .247 BA, .562 SLG, 20 RBI bases empty Mauer: .238 BA, .322 SLG, 2 RBI bases empty So, with nearly equal opportunity, RBI are as expected - and you can knock Mauer for that, but you can also imply poor RBI skills about most hitters in this regard, when you compare them to league HR leaders Martinez and Davis. Finally, how do these three guys perform comparatively, bases occupied? Martinez: .363 BA, .693 SLG, 35 BB, 18 HR, 90 RBI (again, 279 PA) Davis: .271 BA, 574 SLG, 24 BB, 19 HR, 83 RBI (260 PA) Mauer: .344 BA, .472 SLG, 26 BB, 3 HR, 37 RBI (156 PA) When talking about RBI, a lot of what we think of as "driving in baserunners" is "driving oneself in with a homer". It's no accident that the leaders in HR this year lead in RBI. I know there is a tendency to equate low RBI with failure of will (and I don't think that was your point here). Mauer does better with men on base than empty, as do the other two, as do the leagues in general. But mostly it's the home runs, and opportunity. Everything else (Mauer walking a little much) is close to noise, by comparison.

Players have ups and downs during a season. If Grossman wants to be useful, the highs need to be higher and/or more numerous, or else the lows less low. He's not a big cog in the machine but his first three months, while the team was burying itself for post-season relevance, contributed.

Moderator's note: I've had to remove other posts in this thread for being overly personal, dismissive, or disputatious. Please stick to actual discussion, not sniping at fellow members.

The fact someone would take it seriously speaks volumes about the middle infield pipeline, even though from some perspectives it's a strength.

Mauer also trails Sam Rice, Clyde Milan, and Joe Judge, but alas the franchise record omits mention of time served with the old Senators. Coincidentally, 2086 is also Killebrew's career total, only a tiny portion of which was not with this franchise.

I likewise am hoping for your continued good health, Craig.

Yes, and I'll go farther. If your starter is of a caliber where third-time through is a concern (and it is indeed, for probably a majority of starters), then it's a certainty there will be relievers. Those relievers may or may not be "better", but they will be in the game, one way or another, and one of them will perforce be facing the top of the opposing lineup at some point, or probably two or even three. The manager might as well pick his spots in this way. I'm a big believer in the concept of starting with a short-man, preferably one with a different style (and opposite arm) of the nominal starter, to give the other guys a totally different look to think about.

Someone with that kind of profile at a corner position can carve out a few extra years if he's willing to move around the league a bit, particuarly to teams in a down cycle. Someone who wants to play for just one team is at the mercy of where that team happens to be in their own cycle. I just don't see the fit anymore, personally. We need high production along with that defense.

Lewis? He was drafted in '17. Yesterday's news. I want Larnach.

On that throw-out by Rosario, what if Matt Olson wasn't deked by Garver and that actually is his top speed?

(Bet he and Morrison are plenty tired of this reference.) Rarely swings. Home runs. Ended. Got it. It's enjoyable to watch one of our players do well, but he's not part of the future and probably will be part of our past soon enough.

Is Nick Anderson the only reliever being tried out in this "Opener" role? I can't recall anyone else yet. Not sure if this represents an actual strategy on the part of the organization, or just something unique about this pitcher's repertoire that suggests him for such a role.

Just lift the runner's leg off of the base with your glove hand. He was off-balance, anyone could see that.

https://baseball.theater/ often has video of the plays we want to discuss, sometimes within minutes. You can watch the Garver tragi-comedy unfold here: https://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/mp4/2018/08/22/2415138283/1534970063990/asset_1800K.mp4 The pitcher Magill hustled down right away and was covering. (For that matter, all three outfielders were on their way in, although maybe not all at full speed - there was the potential for a throw to any base.) I'd be uneasy about a throw to second followed by a throw home, but you have to be willing to make the right play. Maybe a throw to Polanco now covering third was indicated, sooner, but there was a lot of traffic around the bag and a throw could easily have gone haywire. After his throw, where should Sano be? He was backing his way up to the bag, unaware that Polanco was there. He was part of the clutter that maybe caused Garver to hold off and just chase the runner back. The umpire and (especially?) the base coach also were contributing to the clutter. The rule about coaches staying in their box is always ignored. In this case maybe you can see a reason for the rule. Eye heart Baseball Theater. I don't think there were two men on third by the time Garver reached the base. No one to tag out.

My question to Garver:

No. There were some waiver-claim shenanigans between the Reds and Twins when we tried to remove him from the 40 back in March, but ultimately that's what happened.

If you go back through popular baseball publications over the past 130 years or so, two themes never change: 1) there's not enough pitching, and 2) the new selfish players of today are in it only for the money.

Having a different pitcher start an inning adds essentially no extra time to the game. It's the mid-inning reliever trotting in and then getting his allotment of warmup pitches that bogs the game down. If anything, not trying to wring 6 or more innings out of your starter reduces the chance of needing a mid-inning phone call to the bullpen.