IndianaTwin

In the interest of brevity, I didn't add him as an option in my previous response. I'm kinda scared to go that route, but there were a couple guys who made the transition. They got off to decent starts, but I'm not sure how they held up. I don't like messing with success, but with the numbers he put up this year, it's also tempting to try getting more innings out of him.

My statement wasn't reflective of my "hope for," but a reflection of what I think is likelihood. As Western SD notes, they have money in Paddack (and it's hard to imagine another team taking on the contract). I don't know if the front office has made any actual statements on expected payroll, but folks seem to think it will be similar to this year. With the increase for Lopez and arbitration for others balancing the money coming off the books, it's hard to imagine taking on anything more than a Bundy-level flyer (if that). The other option is they can pull off an Arraez-for-Lopez-type trade, which was basically a salary wash before they extended Lopez. But I'm not sure who they have to trade that would draw interest. At one point, it seemed Castro might bring something, but with the way he tailed off, I doubt it. With all that, we're looking at people currently in the system. Additionally, they have shown an unwillingness to start with two complete youngsters in the Opening Day rotation, which is what they'd have if they don't use Paddack and have to go with two of SWR (99 ERA+), Matthews (73 ERA+ and falling), Festa (85) and others. On a second TJS: https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/pitcher-results-after-2nd-tommy-john-surgery/. His summary statement is, "Overall, pitchers seem to return from their second Tommy John surgery and throw comparable to when they did before the operation." If you look at his game log, there are actually a bunch of good games and some real clunkers, which is also common in the first year following a TJS. He also has the advantage of being younger than the typical two-time TJS pitcher. The average age for them is 29 at the second surgery, whereas he will be 29 on Opening Day. I know there are folks who would like to see Paddack transition to the bullpen full-time. I wouldn't be opposed to that, but with the money they have in Paddack, I think they will keep him as a starter for as long as they can.

Concur. If they are able to start the season with Lopez-Ober-Ryan-Paddack-SWR, the experience Festa and Matthews have gotten as they head back to St. Paul could be invaluable.

Wasn't sure I was going to be able to join the Game Thread tonight. I got abducted by aliens. They made me eat my vegetables and clean up after myself. Apparently I was on the mothership.

I thought it was Near Mint on my baseball cards.

As noted above, they are eliminated, but yesterday's move to the 60-day IL eliminates the possibility of being activated, since he played on Sept. 1. I like Kepler a lot and have often tossed out comments about his stats being the best ever for a person born in Germany, but given the current tenor of things, I think the best (and most likely) show of appreciation for Kepler will be a video tribute and nice ovation when he returns to Target Field as a member of an opposing team next season (or 2026 if he's in the NL).

How many No. 4 pitchers end up with 2.5 bWAR, a 3.65 FIP, a 1.192 WHIP and 198 strikeouts over 185.1 innings?

Bizarre as it sounds, it may not have been that bad of a play. It's almost always a bad idea to try advancing in that situation, but that was about as routine of a ground ball as it could be. Either way the Orioles are likely to get an out, but there's probably a greater chance of Baltimore screwing up a rundown (or getting called for interference) than there is that they would throw the ball away at first.

And last night, they managed to play the full 60 minutes without a running clock for the second time in six games (35 point margin). I mean, they still lost 36-7 to a team that is now 1-5, but progress...

The local eleven has been outscored 283-44 on the year. Two weeks ago, they opened the game with an onside kick, “marched” down the field for a field goal and went into halftime down 35-3.

Given that he was a priest, he’s probably more likely for the Padres.

Braves sweeping the Royals is probably a smidge more likely than the White Sox sweeping the Tigers (or even Toledo, for that matter).

Thanks. I don’t get many chances to watch, and I hadn’t caught that.

His options were: a) let Jax finish the inning and not be available tonight; b) use Tonkin or Blewitt, who had each thrown 20+ pitches the night before; c) use Topa, who had just come up; or d) use Duran, Keep in mind that he was also going to need one of those options for the ninth. If he chooses b or c in the eighth, there's a greater likelihood of giving up a run or two and needing Duran for an actual save situation. By using Duran in the eighth, he only needed to get two outs instead of three, plus they had the opportunity to extend the lead in the bottom of the eighth, making the ninth even lower-leverage for Topa than it was. The ideal would have been for SWR to go significantly longer. That didn't happen. Beyond that, it seems like he navigated things pretty well. I think Varland is the only one that's truly not available for tonight.

I mean, really. How good can Cleveland be? They lost five times to what could be the worst team in modern baseball history! They even got swept by the White Sox. They lost to Chicago more than the Twins, Royals and Detroit did combined. I never put that much stock in the records vs. winning or losing teams. By definition, most teams are going to have a losing record against teams above .500 and a winning record against those below.

Relegated to a corner OF next spring? By which, Larnach or Wallner? Because those are your starting corner OFs right now. They are not going to hand the job to Rodriguez on 30 plate appearances at St. Paul. And it seems quite unlikely they spend any money on a starting CF. Playing at DH? The experiment of last year and the desire for roster flexibility makes that unlikely. See previous paragraph when it comes to filling CF. In another uniform? He's got a no-trade contract. In 2026 or 2027 or later, maybe. But as of now, if he is healthy at the end of spring training, it's about a 99.98 percent change he's the opening day CF.

Extra day for our bullpen, but extra day for theirs as well. I’ll take Pablo and a depleted bullpen over Crawford and a depleted bullpen.

Go Hawks. -Indiana (but Iowa native) Twin

Kepler’s $10 million is needed to cover most of Pablo’s $13.5 million raise.

This makes them 4-7 in extra innings and 22-19 in one-run games. They have 37 comeback wins and this was their 32nd blown lead.

Consider becoming a caretaker. It’s worth the five bucks per month to avoid the ads.

Can he sustain his hitting for a long while? No, but neither was he likely to sustain the struggles of the first half. We shouldn’t be surprised that a guy with an 88 career OPS+ has an OPS+ this year of, let’s see, 90.

But separately from the question of whether he comes back, each time I look at his career stats, I’m reminded that he’s going to end up with some pretty decent numbers. Nowhere close to HOF worthy, but he’s got 323 homers, 392 doubles, 1076 RBIs and 1270 walks. He’s the active leader in walks by more than 150 and is ahead of third place by more than 200. With any luck at all, he’ll blow past 400 doubles, 1100 RBIs and 1300 walks, and he still has a shot at 350 homers.

With one additional tidbit. If Irvin had come out for the next inning, the end-of-inning rule goes away and he would have had to pitch to two batters to get to the minimum three.

Correa has a no-trade clause, which typically requires an agreement on an extension for the player, and that’s not going to happen anywhere. I can’t see a situation where they trade Lopez. So finding a partner for Vazquez, Castro or Jeffers or some combination thereof would be the next options. I agree — I don’t see how it can realistically happen.