Jocko87

This was also Falvey's pattern in Cleveland for the most part.

Very good summation. I posted a while back that they are on the cusp of the good luck/good work multiplier and coming on something really good. They have made a lot of the situations for the good luck as well with the patterns you described.

Exactly this. They also had to have a good idea that he was extendable prior to the trade which makes me wonder how they were able to keep a straight face asking the Marlins to throw in a couple prospects. Love it!

And now a Pablo extension, what a week! 😁

Double ughhhhhhhhh

I'll take 4 out of 7 against the Astros and Yankees all day. Especially in New York. If they keep pitching the lineup will come around. There are too many talented hitters with more on the way. I have to think we have to be getting close to Buxton in CF. I know he has stated he doesn't like DHing, specifically that if he wasn't hitting he could always contribute with the glove. It could very well be messing with his mind. To me, when Polonco and Kiriloff come back the lineups get really weird with Taylor instead of one of those two. Polanco at least, feels like he would be on a similar plan when he comes back as Buxton was to start the season. I could even see him DH full time for a few weeks. Also Kiriloff has been in the outfield more than I expected in rehab. Like that he is still flexible to play anywhere although I'm not sure I would have Gallo at first with Kiriloff in the outfield. Good news everywhere, even where there are issues the depth is coming through.

Solid play by Julien there.

Shoot, didn't see that. What is it for?

I was listening to them during the blow out game one. They didn't have any chance to make any of the goofy calls, which are quite annoying unless you are a Yankee fan. They were very good though when listening to a larger sample. The obviously do their research on the opponents and it showed when they had to fill time in a blowout. It was an enjoyable listen.

I don't know much about him but its not a bad situation. He's 22 and with Trout, Ohtani and Rendon he should be able to hit low in the order and just play out of the spotlight. Pretty good vets to ask about breaking into the league young too. He was also raking in the minors.

Taylor will play into this later in the year when he's more of a bench weapon. I believe they will steal but they want to stack the deck in their favor and be crucial situations. Taylor and Lewis coming off the bench can be inserted situationally. The personnel is not there yet and the situations aren't crucial enough. I haven't heard this from anyone official but I believe they view the stolen base as an incredibly high injury risk play and not worth the risk in April.

I wouldn't read too much into comping Neto and Lee, the Angels have nothing at SS holding him back and are in win now mode trying to get Ohtani to believe in the future. Urshela already has 6 starts platooning with David Fletcher at SS and they can't win that way. If Lee was in the Angles org he might have broke camp with them.

I would be more neutral with Lee. After being very aggressive last year it would have been extremely aggressive to all but skip AA. If he was ready to skip AA he would have been in the breaking camp discussion. They were able to be aggressive last year because he produced, that has to come first. He's right where he should be and if he keeps playing well he will be moving quickly again. I'm quite interested in Prielipp, both from seeing the individual player develop and as a gauge of how aggressive they are willing to be. If they are willing to be aggressive with a pitcher coming off an injury like this there would seeem to be a bit of front office mindset change. If he pitches well, I would not be surprised to see him in Wichita this year, along with E-Rod.

Don't read too much into Soularie’s home run, check the flags in the replay. It was a nasty, nasty weather day in Wichita yesterday. Good for him but it was blowing 25-30 across and out to right.

We spend tons of time talking about who the 26 will be but the reality is that the 40 man is a continual rotation of injured going back and forth. Depth lets us ride the wave. The next wave coming back is Kepler and Gallo most likely followed by Kiriloff and Polanco. We are going to have to send players down that we don't like to send, saving further injury. Somewhere, later in the season, Gordon is going to feel the crunch. We will lose a player we really like somewhere this year. Love to have these problems, even when they are uncomfortable. Its also why I'm not really in favor of going after an ace in the open market. It's easier to do when we have this kind of depth but generally its just too much invested into one roster spot. I'm a huge fan of what they have done with this roster and somewhat glad we are exercising it all now. Obviously, if it keeps on this path we will eventually run out of options. As the designated optimist, I'm looking toward July with everyone healthy and productive. We can dream, right?

Another thing to think about is we don't yet have a good way to see what the ump sees. Go figure that after have this discussion I had a 14u team tonight that all stood on the plate like Rizzo. All legal, as we have the plate side line to judge with but taking as much space as they could. Of course, 4 HBP in the first two innings. All legal, all trying to get out of the way. The other team couldn't throw strikes on the inside half so they had no weapon to back them off. Inevitably, there is a play with a runner going where the dugout was screaming for hitter interference. Batter was already on the plate, but legal, and completing his swing he was still in the box. I didn't call it as it is not interference if he does not step out of the box. He looks to be interfering but has no requirement to get out of the way if he stays in the box. Its tough but it looks completely different from my vantage point vs the dugout. It is very visible but where umps can get in trouble is that there can be a million things to watch at once. Rizzo is very odd because he can somehow cover that ball on the inside while standing that close. The first home run he hit in game one was just silly. Very few can keep that fair if they can even put good contact on it. This allows MLB etc to regulate standing to close to the plate by pounding the inside of the zone. Very few hitters can handle it and they have to give room. Most MLB hitters could move as much as a foot closer to the plate legally. I believe tonight's coaches were hard on the interference angle because they knew they couldn't do anything about standing on the plate. When we talk about these things as being regulated by the players its about a lot more than just drilling people. Effective on the inner half is about throwing good strikes on the inside edge and it sets everything up for pitchers. Unfortunately we get HBP like Farmer occasionally. Glad to hear he is doing well.

If I'da asked ya last week if you would take a split what would you have said? Yup, 10 times over. Now gravy available with good pitchers taking the ball. Love it.

This is what I’m worried about. I know they had talked about pushing everyone back but never skipping someone. Hopefully it’s only fatigue but that can mean many things. The whole roster is going to be very interesting this weekend. Kepler imminent and Gallo on rehab, now this. Somebody gonna have to squeak through waivers maybe. Who’s nursing an owwie that needs a few days? Seems like an IL for Maeda would help a lot but there must be a simpler solution in mind.

I had thought they were giving everyone a day, not skipping someone. Not excited to hear Maeda is having an issue.

I’m just here for the back in my day, complete game discussion.

I’m listening to the Yankees radio call, which is quite good by the way, and they’ve reached the filling time stage already. Sterling-if this was a WBC game we could wrap it up early 🤣 Also “Julien pops one up to right field”. They know it’s a bandbox too.

Good examples of the difference between the written rule and implementation. We can certainly see and interpret all of these things, including check swings but actually calling them if more about norms than anything. Like I said, batter gets benefit of the doubt for his movements. I would agree that it could be called much more often.

I shouldn’t have been hyperbolic in a rules discussion, everything has happened at least once. One of the things I really love about baseball is that we are still seeing things never before seen. As for what the human eye can process behind the plate it actually feels pretty slow. I’ve never umped 100mph, not many have, but that hitters can still hit it tells you the brain can process it. For the batter box it’s a got a line on the plate side as well. They blur the line because the rule is that the foot must be completely outside of the box when contact is made to be an infraction. Rule is just about the feet. I don’t know specifically when MLB stopped drawing the plate side line but it is on every youth field I work. Fun sometimes to ask a fan that’s chirping how wide the strike zone is. Instant stumper. Using this diagram it’s pretty easy to see how Rizzo can be that close.

So much for easing Julien into lead off. Nothing like the first AB of the game in Yankee stadium. This is where Correa in his ear on the on deck circle is very valuable. Speaking of, the whole lineup flows so much better with Correa and Buck in it. All the things we’ve been worrying about kinda fade away.