Mr. Brooks
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Everything posted by Mr. Brooks
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I think it was just precautionary, as Sands had suffered a few minor injuries late in his 2018 FSU season.
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That 40 man spot already went to DeJong.
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Amen to that. Some of the defensive configurations during the later years of Gardy were awful.
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Sure. It's also possible that, at age 38, he might perform significantly worse than that, even with fresh legs. If they work him into a game or two or a few out there I won't complain. I'm just happy that they aren't trying to force him out there everytime we don't have a DH, as I feel Gardy or Molitor would have.
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I suppose a magic 8 ball might work as well.
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I'd argue that it's much more likely the Mariners only gave him 9 starts in the field over 2 years because he's terrible out there, not because they were trying to keep his legs fresh.
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Having been DFA'd before, Austin can refuse an outright assignment. Of course, he could accept it. But given we have to clear both those hurdles to keep him in the organization, I'm tentatively presuming that the odds are very high that he won't be back. I just can't imagine that there isn't a team with no hope of competing this year that won't take a free asset like Austin.
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Yeah, perhaps with a crystal ball the manager could predict when an otherwise far superior fielder is going to have a poor game, and he could swap in Cruz that day. Without that crystal ball you can only go off their actual overall ability.
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Nelson Cruz would make Grossman look like Buxton if he were allowed to bring a glove out there, IMO. I mean, the guy is 38 years old, and was not a good outfielder in his prime. I'm a fan of utilizing players strengths to the max, and minimizing their weaknesses to the max. I think the way you do that with Cruz is by letting him carry a bat to the plate as many times as possible, without giving him a glove.
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I don't agree that it's too close to call. I think the defensive drop from any of our outfielders to Cruz is massively bigger than the offensive drop from Cruz to them. It's not like Rosario, Kepler or Cave are carrying a Butera-esque bat. But, that's my personal opinion. I can't prove it. I think your post was great, despite my slight disagreement of the last sentence.
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My point isn't to try to determine if any of these guys should go down instead of Austin. My point is that they have plenty of other reasonable options, so this was likely the plan from the start. It just surprises me is all. I'd like to see better mid and long term planning from them. Finding a way to keep him around for 5 plate appearances was pointless.
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There are also position players that have options. I have no idea if it will or won't be a season altering decision, but I think Austin has a fair amount of potential and wish they would have kept him around until an injury gave him a chance at everyday at bats.
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What if Cruz or Cron go down next week? Or the week after that? Or next month? I think the odds of him both passing waivers AND accepting an outright are slim enough to practically discard. They didn't have to DFA him. They could have sent down someone with options and called up a pitcher on the 40 man. This tells me this was the plan the first time they needed a pitcher, which I don't get.
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I'm surprised as well, I guess I was conditioned over the years by Gardy and Molitor, both of whom seemed to place very little value on defense. Though for me, it's a pleasant surprise. And yes, totally fine to agree to disagree. I fully expect I'll be in the minority on this issue.
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If this was the plan, it makes rostering him to start the season an odd decision. They had to know it wasn't going to take long before a short start was going to deplete the bullpen for a day.
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I guess I don't understand what would allow him to play acceptable defense in NL parks, but not in a full time role. He's either passable as an outfielder, or he's not. If he is, that's awesome, that makes him even more valuable than we bargained for. But, I don't believe he is. I believe his position is DH, and DH only.
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Because he could give it all back and more in the field. I know many don't agree that defense is just as important as offense, that's fine. I'm glad the FO and manager does though. ST performance means very little to me. If Cruz could play passable outfield, why hasn't he the last few years? His bat would have had even more value there than DH. If his bat+defense is better than our other outfielders bat+defense, then he should be an everyday outfielder, not just in NL parks.
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I'm glad this regime values defense. I love Cruz's bat, but he'd be a disaster in the outfield, at this point in his career.
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I actually didn't even notice that it was Doogie "reporting" the initial call up. I would have waited for a second source had I noticed.
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- jordan balazovic
- brusdar graterol
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From my post above yours, you can see I have no problem with Littell getting the call- as long as it's a one and done shuttle- but I think Stewart would be a fair argument as well. Unless he's unavailable and I missed it.
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They played pretty sloppy against KC as well. The wins absolutely count, but against a good team that series, they might be 2-4 right now.
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Every team needs AAAA starters that can be shuttled until such time as a legit prospect is ready for a full time role. I don't think Littel has much upside at all (a few posters disagree), but he's not so awful that he can't be useful as a AAAA shuttle guy.
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Sure, but he's not starting in AAA, he's relieving. That tells me he's been converted to reliever because that's what the FO has decided he is, not as some short term sacrifice to help the big club compete, as I interpreted Seth to be saying.
- 45 replies
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- brusdar graterol
- jhoan duran
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Too bad we don't get to play awful KC and the Cleveland MASH unit every day. Was excited to see how we matched up against a good team. Not so good, I guess.
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At some point they don't want to put their milb staffs in a judgement call situation. Everywhere in life has these arbitrary lines, everywhere. Is someone who is 17 years and 364 days old less competent to vote than someone a day older? Of course not. But what is the alternative? Every polling station makes their best judgment call on who looks mature enough to vote? Is 55 mph safe, while 56 is reckless? Are 10 items few enough to breeze through the express checkout, but 11 would grind it to a halt? Obviously not, but it's more efficient than telling every cashier to just pick and choose who can use that checkout. The FO can't be in constant contact with every milb staff during every inning of every game. In general, they don't want pitchers throwing too many pitches in one stressful inning. Of course 35 pitches has little significant difference from 34 or 36, but the alternative, trying to be involved in a judgment call every time across multiple levels all playing games every day would be just as silly. I guess I don't understand what the controversy is. What would your policy be if you were in charge of the organization?
- 34 replies
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- lewin diaz
- ryan eades
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