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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    Winder for the 8th and 9th?
  2. ashbury
    It's not nice to make fun of Vazquez's stature. Gaedel was not that much taller.
  3. ashbury
    Bummer. Trips down memory lane are supposed to be fun. Best wishes to the family.
  4. ashbury
    We're not talking about most prospects. The article specifically is talking about making it onto a top-100 list. And most top-100 prospects do make it to the MLB. Have a look at such a list from 10 years ago. You might recognize a lot of names, even in the bottom half. https://www.mlb.com/news/2014-top-100-mlb-prospects-list-c301609478 I'm sure you'll wish to respond that you meant "become big stars" or something similar. Save it. Big stars are genuinely rare. The constant refrain that no one can predict anything about prospects is just factually wrong. Pinpoint precision, no, but scouts these days are pretty good.
  5. ashbury
    Thank you Offense! You have taken a lot of pressure off of Zebby tomorrow. (Not to mention yourselves. That doesn't mean to let up though.)
  6. ashbury
    Just going by OPS as the quick and dirty overall measure, April and May Jeffers was as hot as Vazquez was putrid. In each of June, July, and so far in August, Vazquez has the better OPS between the two. I even tried to cherry pick a little, to pinpoint Vazquez at his best, but basically when the calendar flipped over to July, he started hitting. From the July 3 game to now, his OPS is 1.008 (!) across 63 PA. That's small sample size, and guess what, his BABIP is high at .364. But not monstrously so - a few seeing-eye singles or an extra gapper for extra bases, nothing extraordinary. One contributing factor is that he's not striking out very much; 10 Ks in that stretch. All in all, enjoy the show, it may or may not last but the staff's confidence (or inability to find a trading partner, same diff when you ask them) is paying off now.
  7. ashbury
    Blewitt needs to go to the county courthouse and have his last name legally changed. This is as bad a name for a pitcher as Bob Walk, Eric Plunk, Homer Bailey, Grant Balfour, or Tommy John.
  8. ashbury
    Tuesday should be Vazquez's turn to start, so it lines up well. Just listen to your catcher, Kid. He'll keep it to the basics for you. Shake him off a couple of times to confuse the opposition, but then go right back to what he called, LOL.
  9. ashbury
    Rocco Baldelli, Bullpen Whisperer, didn't have quite the same luck today as on Friday night with Sands and Thielbar. 😀
  10. ashbury
    It looks like the Twins weren't offered very much for Polanco at all, and they took this package in order to get anything. A couple of prospects they could point to at the time, who aren't panning out particularly well so far although there are reasons they could still turn out (for some reason they are sticking with Bowen as a starter, although his future may be in the bullpen, and GG is still very young), an established MLB starter with serious concerns about injury (that proved true), and a flash in the pan reliever who has turned out to suffer the injury bug this season too. Meanwhile, the other GMs who apparently declined to offer much for Polanco are being proved right, that he was about to enter a decline phase, which the Mariners have suffered through (a good July at bat is being negated quickly by a poor August so far). Polanco was on the verge of being cut, due to the need for the Twins to make room for better prospects. It was necessary to get something for him if they could. Jorge's one of my favorites, and I appreciated his gameness to try 3B in the post-season last year., but I was concerned about signs of decline. I wouldn't characterize anyone as "winning" this trade, nor "losing" either. Both teams made logical judgments on five players of varying degrees of low trade value, and so far both teams are looking like they accurately evaluated what they had and tried their best with what they got in return. Competent professional front offices who made a trade that is destined to be inconsequential, more than likely.
  11. ashbury
    Whale of an interesting game to watch in person. A three-run homer, and three other runs scored in very unusual ways. Had a lot of fun, including crossing paths with USAFChief for a few innings. Recommend highly, Would Watch Again.
  12. ashbury
  13. ashbury
    Can the Manuel Margot Experience please be over? The first Sox run looked like one that could have been prevented by Max Kepler or anyone with good speed on defense.
  14. ashbury
    Yes, we could also explore the fresh new topic of Josh Donaldson. You're right - back on topic is the way to go.
  15. ashbury
    The smiley on my post meant not to take it too seriously as a jumping off point for discussion. 😀 If they wouldn't pay market price for a player or three of actual talent, then they would need to remind me, "why are we even doing this, again?" I'm not sure I'd include Vazquez and Gallo in a discussion about having nice things, either. No one else would have tried to snitch either item from their shopping cart, at the price on the sticker. I play my fair share of the Out of the Park game, and after a few seasons using randomized players my roster and farm system resemble what we desire here, with a lot of Royce Lewises and Brooks Lees and Matt Wallners and Edouard Juliens playing at peak performance (because I can hire superior scouts and talent evaluators) for major league minimum, allowing me to snag the occasional Correa type with my budget. I'm not sure FalVine or other GMs have access to the cheat codes that one can figure out in a game, though.
  16. ashbury
    Prolly a lot of backwards K's at the plate, too, now that you mention it. I'll stick with Max. Meanwhile Edouard Julien might want to look into this crazy sport of chess; he might excel.
  17. ashbury
    At which point, the analogy breaks down. 😀 / PS, thanks for the link to a paywall, those are always fun
  18. ashbury
    Um. Yay?
  19. ashbury
    If chess is Right Field, Magnus Carlsen would, um, be really good at the game, I bet.
  20. ashbury
    Ha ha ha ha ha. Did I say I was harmed? I did not. I was not. I was basically unaffected by the first one, I benefited so greatly from the second that I could look forward to retiring before I turned 60, and I did retire after the third merger because I didn't like the outcome and I could. But, please, do, feel free to operate on your own assumptions. I watched these mergers with keen interest and I see parallels to now. Your ad hominem condescension was almost overlooked, because I have you on Ignore at this site, but someone quoted you where you mentioned me. Carry on, HTH, HAND.
  21. ashbury
    Humorous exaggeration aside, we all know that Rocco likes to platoon. But a 13-man squad puts a limit on that tactic - sometimes you have to leave your lefty hitter in, or run out of substitutes. Kepler leads all the lefty batters in PA against lefty pitchers this season, and it's not close - more PA than the other 5, in fact. If Kepler is gone, they have no heir apparent, no Plan B. Trading away Duran, a rumor for a little while there, is by contrast a whole lot more plausible as there does exist someone we could anticipate taking the reins as closer. I agree Max hasn't got much trade value.
  22. ashbury
    If they planned to trade Kepler, then they needed to get his replacement up to speed sooner than this. They have shown no confidence in either Larnach or Wallner against lefties. Kepler by contrast is not a platoon bat. I didn't buy any talk of trading Kepler unless it was a "wave the white flag" move. "3 Factors" or not, they didn't make any moves at the deadline. They had a roster very much in the mix for a post-season berth, maybe a good run in the post-season - and made no moves. That's their professional judgement and I'm fine with that - it's what they're paid for. But once the offseason starts, it's how they'll be judged. To not even make a significant move is "a bold move, Cotton." Three factors are what they can explain at an interview for their next job.
  23. ashbury
    Still burned into my retinas is the flyball hit by Chapman against our Shutdown Reliever of the Future in the top of the sixth in game 1 of the Wild Card Series against Toronto, two run lead, two men on. Maybe you remember the play. MAT ranged to his left and bailed him out big time. He got a pat on the butt when he came back to the dugout, and he earned a Hold for that performance, LOL Two pitches and I was done with him (any other ballplayers you'd like a scouting report on?) and apparently so was Rocco since Thielbar took over in the seventh. He's pigeonholed for me as a Try Real Hard guy we all like to root for - he's got guts and moxie and a fastball the good hitters can turn on. I'm fickle like that when I attend a ballgame in person. I remain unsold on his future, but he can try the bullpen if he or they want - I hope he can succeed, I hope he makes me eat my words.
  24. ashbury
    Trevor Richards. Erm, well, anyway, we have him.
  25. ashbury
    / obligatory
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