Tony-OH

Nice to see Coulombe getting to face the righty instead of Tate!

I'll take that wide strike! lol

Holy crap, can't believe Siri dropped that. He always seems to make those catches! We needed that.

Now that was a hell of a take by Westburg.

We really need this run if Tate is coming in the 8th. uggh

Damn you jinx....

Thanks.

Has Coloumbe ever explained his blue glove?

Having to bring in Tate in a 1-0 game goes to show us that the bullpen is short.

Yikes, that one scared me.

Now let's gets some runs for Bradish!

I don't know Bradish might be able to do everything. What an amazing start for him. Just living on the edge of strike zone and getting guys to chase.

Really bad non-send there. With two outs you have to push that.

Who's hot and who's not among prospects over the last ten days.

Well he's only seen 31 pitches in that zone so not a big sample size.

444 ft bomb. He's certainly starting to heat up with the weather and as he gets comfortable in AA. That walk rate is going to start going up as pitchers are not going to want to pitch to him. If they start challenging him that could be a reason to move him up. I still think they will put him on the Mayo plan and wait until late August to move him, but he may have something to say about that.

Unless Basallo is not challenged at all in AA, I think they will keep him there for most of the season. Partly because of the reason you stated with wanting see Hunt/Handley but also because they may just want to give him that solid AA season of at bats. Now, do I think Hunt/Handley block Basallo if they think he's no longer being challenged at AA, nope, they bring him up.

If a guy can hit breaking balls at his ankles for home runs, I don't know if that's a bad thing. I get what you are saying, but some guys have incredible plate coverage to include out of the zone. Those guys are scary because they can hurt you even on good pitches or pitches out of the zone. Now if his damage rate swinging at those is not good, then he needs to tighten that up, but there's nothing wrong with a guy who can crush balls out of the zone.

If Jeff Bagwell is in the HoF, then they really need to open it up to all of the steroid players. Can't allow one in just because he never admitted to it or got caught. Raffy was a sweet swinging left first baseman who issues with the Cubs was he just didn't hit for power. A few magic syringes later, Raffy became a 30 then a 40 home run hitter. Now I won't turn this into a steroid conversation, but I do agree with the folks that think the steroid guys belong in. I never would have said that in the past, but in the end, almost everyone great was doing steroids during the era including the pitchers. All of them got power and velocity jumps do to the 'roids and anyone that suggests they didn't have an effect are not looking at the obvious statistical gains. Maybe part of it is knowing very good players like Harold Baines are in the hall. Is there a team that would have preferred Baines over Palmeiro in their prime. Nope. Maybe just create a Steroids era wing or have a mention somewhere of the steroid era timeframe and let the people decide if they think the players did them or not. At the end of the day, Palmeiro and all of the steroid era stars provided a lot of fun to the fans. And as others have stated, players have been cheating for years to include greenies and performance enhancing drugs. Guys like Palmeiro and Bagwell, along with several others, SUDDENLY became power hitters and started putting up video game power numbers. But why is Bagwell in the hall and Palmeiro is not. The finger wag? I've been against the steroids guys getting in but I've changed my mind on the situation. If MLB is going to add in Negro Leagues as a major league for records, and allow other players into the hall that certainly should be questioned based on sudden power surges during the steroid era, then let them all into the hall. Well I guess I did turn this into a steroid post afterall. lol Back to Palmeiro, I liked him, but felt he came up small too often in high leverage situations with the Orioles. I remember him as a guy who seemed to hit a lot of home runs when the team was up or down a lot, but when I go back and look at his leverage numbers that was actually not true. It's funny how my memory of him and how I felt about him at the time was probably based off a few times that he didn't do well in key situations, but without having baseball reference or Baseball savant, my memory was burned in with that bias. Either way, count me in the camp that Palmeiro and his 500+ home runs and 3000+ hits belongs in the HoF.

See, no matter what @RZNJ says about you, you can learn! There's also something called "Favorites" and a favorite bar where you can keep these sites available for quick reference! Back to Westburg, part of the reason he's hit 5 of his homer to RF is that he allows the ball to travel well, but also because they pitch him away a lot. Clearly pitchers think they can get him out pitching down and away. In theory, they are right as his wOBAs are the lowest down and up away. But you better not go middle away because that's his happy oppo homer zone.

Right, like Holliday can learn to play center field!

Players do improve as well, and Cowser clearly developed better jumps and routes. I rarely undershoot a player's abilities, but I'm happy to see that Cowser has improved to the point that he's over achieved my evaluation. Though I never said he couldn't play CF, just that he'd be much better in the corners and he doesn't have the elite foot speed that teams typically want in CF.

Wait is this an attack on my post earlier this week, because I said no such thing. This is a gross mis-interpretation of my discussion post. Besides poster's like Webbrick, who is trashing the organization like its 2016? I'll wait.

I didn't think he was good fit there and may not be long term if he slows down, but he's made a believer out of me that he can play there now and in the near future.

Honestly, I'm glad he's gone. Sure, the guy throws hard, but all of his statcast data shows a lack of movement and we know he has a lack of not just command, but control.