Flash- bd

Can't really see us being as aggressive with Jackson as people are expecting. I expect we'll see him in summer if he tears up AAA to start the season. Ortiz is a fantastic glove and I'm not so sure we're going to be trading him. I think more likely he takes Frazier and later Urías' spot. Mayo I think will be in the 1B/3B mix, but again, expecting more on the Jackson timeline, perhaps a bit earlier than Jackson. The way Elias talks about Westburg I get the feeling he's very much part of our long term plans. But perhaps I'm just reading too much into GM talk.

Don't have anything other than my own observations to back this up, but it feels like Adley has taken a lot of big swings this season where he's just not barrelled it up, especially foul balls. Interested to hear what those who know more about baseball (most of you) think about this. I wonder if it's more of a psychological thing, wherein he's aware his power numbers aren't quite where he is capable of being and when he's getting those pitches in those counts that he's looking for he's maybe even swinging too hard, instead of a more natural swing that is likely to produce more barrels and power.

Yeah, I say depending on how things develop because who knows, maybe Flaherty puts together a great last month and playoffs and we decide to re-sign him. He definitely has ability, but yeah, obviously as things stand he's not coming back next season.

Maybe got better movement / action on his 4 seemer than Bradish, though? I've got a very, very good feeling about McDermott, and your details on him aren't helping...I'd go into next season with Bradish, GRod, Kremer, Hall, and McDermott with Means, Flaherty, and Wells as other options depending on how things develop. Not sure we're really going to need to spend big on a pitcher with arms like Hall and McDermott (Povich and Johnson behind them, of course).

That was a pretty beautiful thing to watch.

Basically in the modern era we have the record. I wonder what the record is post, say, 1960 or 1970.

What's the record for games without being swept?

I was trying to have a bit of a go at you, but this is a fantastic link. Norm was a funny guy.

Hall, for me.

I dunno, my television set told me Tiger Woods is a top guy and a model husband, it rarely lies.

Times like these make me proud to call myself a frobbyite!

Good to see DL with his velocity back. Still feel like he's potentially a huge part of this franchise as a starter.

Bright start. ()

Maybe, but Colorado's guy is really Flexen his muscles tonight. (Who doesn't love a bad pun?!)

ERA down to 4.31, so we're probably talking about something like a 3.70 or so ERA since April. Maybe it's because he's a guy that it feels like people are overly down on or beat up on too much, or because he came through our system, or because he's what we salvaged out of the Machado trade, but I'm a big fan of his. It really feels to me like he comes up big when we really need a big start. I also feel like he's better than the upside of a 5th starter that people have him pegged to be...let's not forget that he had a 3.23 ERA and 3.80 FIP last season (albeit in 21 starts). I wouldn't be surprised to see him get under 4 this season, and at 27 he's still a guy who has room for growth. All in all he's someone I really count as part of our rotation for the next 3-4 years barring injury. And if we build enough quality in our rotation where he's our 4th/5th starter we'll be in good stead for a couple of WS runs.

A big overslot bonus? We gave him $440,000. For comparison we gave Maikol Hernández $1.2m. Every winter we give a number of Latin American talents $440,000 or more, you can name at least 10-20 in our system. They are lottery tickets. They have some value to the franchise in case one hits and also for the sake of trading lottery tickets to acquire other assets. Feels like critique just for the sake of critique, this.

Man, what a piece of hitting that was from Westburg.

It's true what Ben McDonald says that Grayson's FB seems to have a two-seem action to it, no?

Phew. Orioles Hangout meltdown averted.

Call me crazy, but I'm pretty interested in what our #2-5 prospect (as high as #14 in the country...) depending on how you rank them does back at AAA after his first cup of coffee where he struggled.

I think that's underrated a bit his contributions last season. Perhaps he's one of those guys who's better as a starter / opener but he definitely showed enough in his time last season to be given a chance again for a spot on the pitching staff.

Probably because of position played. That said, I'm not a particularly big fan of either and hope we can upgrade on both in the long-term. In the short-term Mountcastle has grown on me and I probably prefer him to Hays.

It's weird because I have the opposite impression of Kremer. It feels to me like every time we are in a bit of a slump as a team or pitching staff or close to getting swept he steps up. His bad games it feels like to me come when we're in a pretty good way. Most recently when we had used up the bullpen and badly needed innings from our SP and he gave us 7 strong (I think scoreless?). I'd gladly take him as our #5 starter for another 10 years. I do wonder why he throws the curve so little. As he was coming up that was viewed as one of his best pitches if I recall correctly. I trust our development and analytics teams, but still would be interested what the explanation is. It feels like it would be a way to eek a bit more productivity / potential out of him.

Imagine that! It's almost as if our FO has a clue.

Clear A for me. Gave up very little of note and got two important players for our stretch run. Grade will only be wrong if Flaherty isn't better with us than St. Louis but given our track record with acquisitions I am pretty confident we'll do the right thing to get good results.