ChuckS

Burns, Bradish, Means, Kremer, Irvin. I’m not sure how you pull any of these guys if Grayson is able to come back in a week or two. You would think these things end up working themselves out with injuries and whatnot, but it will be interesting to see how they handle the rotation with everyone dealing.

They will be cautious with Holliday now. I am sure they would hate to have to send him down a second time. I'm thinking mid-season for Holliday if all goes well in Norfolk. If he struggles down there, which isn't out of the realm of possibility, it could be delayed further. Mayo is destroying the ball and should get the call next. There is a spot for him at third with Westburg moving to second.

Well, if they don't trust him to put a glove on and catch the ball, he probably should be traded ASAP so that this severe deficiency isn't exposed. I don't think it's that simple. I think he's highly regarded by the team, but at the same time they are extremely risk averse to breaking prospects in who aren't named Rutschman, Henderson, or Holliday.

It seems it will take Santander struggling severely and Kjerstad simultaneously performing really well under limited opportunities to really effect a change in his playing time. Similar to what happened with Hays/Cowser. Possibly scenario, but unlikely. An injury to a one of our outfielders or Mountcastle/O'Hearn is a more likely path to playing time for him. They like to run the same guys out there every day. There should be more of a rotation of off days going on to get a top young prospect like Kjerstad playing time, but they don't like to do that for whatever reason.

Is Kimbrel hurt? Velocity way down? Never knew the IL was an option to stash a player after a couple bad outings.

Yep. I think Wells will be moved to the bullpen upon his return and Suarez may as well if they have to move someone out of the rotation for Bradish.

Seems like the recipe for a high floor guy who can be a starter in this league for a long time.

I'm not quite there, but I'm close. If he can't start getting it together in the next week there is too much upside (and not enough downside) not to send him down for a reset.

I don’t think Means can be anything more than a fifth starter caliber pitcher throwing 89-92. The fastball doesn’t get any whiffs at that velocity. He needs to be 92-94 and his bread and butter (the change) plays up much more.

Does he have to play that one position every day? I'm taking the guy who is +10 on offense, in hopes of finding a position that he won't kill me at whether that's 1B, DH, corner OF, or a combination of the three. There are also always late inning defensive replacements. My second pick would be the guy who is average in offense and defense and last pick would be Jorge Mateo.

Not definitively. But I can provide other examples of it. Jonathan Schoop was promoted to the big leagues after less than half a season in Triple A where he put up middling numbers as a 21-year-old. He was TERRIBLE in his first full season in Baltimore, posting a sub-600 OPS. Do I think he was rushed and would have benefited from another 300-500 at bats in Norfolk? Absolutely. But I'm sure you will have a different take on it.

Okay. You must have a different definition of what it would mean to rush someone in this context. Not going to argue semantics with an absolutist.

I think there are numerous examples of players coming up and struggling, then getting sent back to Triple A to work on things and coming up different players. Whether you want call that something other than rushed, "not ready" or "in need of more development", I won't argue semantics Now maybe they need that to experience that failure in the majors sometimes to know what they need to go back down and work on. That could be a valid point to make. But saying that there is no such thing as rushed takes the possibility for additional development that could have occurred in the minor leagues, out of the equation.

Who is talking about high school players going straight to the big leagues? I think we all know that doesn't happen. You don't think players are ever called up to the majors, struggle, sent down, then come back up to different results because they needed additional development time?

Of course there is such thing as rushed. If there wasn't, then there would be no such thing as development. These guys would be coming into the system as finished products, and thus wouldn't benefit by any time spent playing in the minor leagues.