Western SD Fan

While I agree on the premise, organization already has their built in excuse of too many injuries to their starters to actually make any changes.

Can someone explain to me why we couldn’t claim these players off of waivers when we are in front of the Royals?

Can we bring back Willians Astudillo to pitch? That was always entertaining.

Get it all out of your system tonight. Here is where specialized bullpens burn us. We need an Oliver Perez type player that has a rubber arm and can burn innings. Now we are just going to expend our bullpen just to get through this game. When does Willi Castro get to pitch?

I know many of you are Vikings fans so you will understand this question. The Kirk Cousins conundrum: nobody liked Cousins as their QB, but who were you going to get that is better. I believe a similar question applies here with the FO. Who are you going to get that is better? Remember, your choices need to include the following: 1. Be prepared to work under the financial constraints that ownership may give. 2. An uncertain TV contract which may (likely) affect point #1 3. Be willing to move/live in MN. I know MN is a very nice place, but when your candidate likely has other choices and you factor home living, climate, taxes, etc, MN may not be at the top of potential replacement’s lists. 4. May need to work with Correa on potential personnel decisions. Seems like I remember an article about how Correa had a list of players he wanted FO to pursue. Also, where do you think they would/could go? NYY - Cashman will be there until he retires, or Dick Bremer retires. Detroit - only if they believe that ownership will spend money when it comes time, Seattle if DiPito is eventually fired this off-season, LAA - Moreno will spend money, but is too hands on for their comfort, NYM - I think they have their situation sorted out now. Maybe the Cubs would be a better situation, but that is the only one I see, but I could be wrong. My only change would be in manager. I think either Ron Washington or Kevin Cash would be improvements. Washington does have ties to MN.

This seems more like 2022 than 2023. In 2023, standing nearly pat and depending on our IL to come back and heal up worked out. Whereas in 2022, there were too many injuries to overcome and we sunk like a rock as we were sucking air and looking for bodies to fill out a roster. While I don’t think we are at 2022 yet, we are approaching quickly and the upcoming series with KC or Cleveland may put us out of our misery.

We needed that Miranda PH a couple innings ago…..Thanks Rocco

If only we had a hitter that was willing to make contact to move a runner…..

That was why Lewis getting the runner over was imperative for the rest of that inning. Adjusted how the other hitters had to adjust their AB

This is when you are in a slump, you get the runner over by any means necessary

The advanced metrics have created an organizational problem in not teaching things like choking up on the bat, hitting to all sides of the field, bunting, moving the runner over, or the sac fly. Just hit the 3 run homer, it’ll be fine.

2-0 you can get a quick rally and get back in the game. 4-0 is more of a process.

When you know things aren’t going well……

At least they made him throw a lot of pitches. Hopefully that helps later in the game.

Notice they have Alcalá warmed up just in case……

You haven’t watched the underbelly of our bullpen lately. No lead is safe….

Let me predict Rocco's pitching strategy: 6th - Okert will walk that man, but since he must face 3 batters, will give up a cookie before he can get replaced, but makes it out of the inning only giving up 3 runs. 6th - Richards - does alright in what is hopefully a still mop up position 7th - Theilbar - needs those lefties out, SD subs RH and since he has to face 3 men, gives up a couple runs before being replaced by Sands 8th - Jax - We are nervous about choking this one away and overuse Jax down 4 9th - Duran - See 8th inning strategy I really hope this doesn't come to fruition.........

Rocco has obviously not trusted Okert since he has hardly pitched in the last week. Was the bullpen that depleted that he had to run him out there?!

I don’t suggest this was part of Sunday’s game. But an umpire’s strike zone can lead to an implosion. We saw that with a more seasoned pitcher earlier (Yates) earlier in the series. He was potentially squeezed out of a couple pitches and that imploded into a crooked number for us. I’m not sure what you do there. Alcalá lost the lead in under 10 pitches. You just don’t anticipate that. But the team didn’t give up, Santana hits a 9th inning home run to still give us a chance. If you would have said going into the series that we would take 3 of 4, I would have been happy. It’s just the way the loss occurred that leaves the sour taste.

Dealers choice: a 6th inning of SWR or Theilbar

What dance is he doing? 🫣

Well, back below the Mendoza Line for Farmer…..

According to mlb transactions, Festa was sent down as well. Who is replacing him? I see Julien for Buck and Henriquez for Varland. https://www.mlb.com/transactions/2024/08/15

Tough loss, but I will take saving the bullpen as an outcome. We need those arms tomorrow and against KC next week

Probably the first time this season I get to defend Rocco and the coaching staff today. When Ryan goes down, you need someone who can get hot quickly. That may not be Sands, who may need longer. Yes, they do have as long as it takes to get warmed up on the game mound. But for those of you who watched the TV broadcast, LaTroy Hawkins discussed the difficulty and changes in routine of such an appearance and the pressure to be ready vs actually being ready to go. With 2 lefties, a switch hitter, and a righty, it would make sense to put in Richards as a short term solution to get through the inning and let Sands warm up as normal for the anticipation of pitching a multi inning outing to patch the game through. It didn’t go as planned obviously and Richards should have been replaced earlier when it was apparent he didn’t have control of one of his two pitches. But I still feel the decision to put Richards in at the moment was fine.