Flash- bd

It is a reasonable question to ask, why we didn't go for Montgomery. 11th and 15th prospect in the Rangers system probably is pretty similar to the return we gave, maybe we'd have to upgrade Prieto to something more like Norby, who is still rather expendable. I wonder if there isn't something about Flaherty that we rather like.

Did you misread my post or are you just saying that an even stronger wording of "unlikely to miss" is needed?

Feels like people are seriously underestimating what it takes to acquire a good starting pitcher even for a rental. Prieto and Rom had little future here, I am totally pleased to acquire a genuine contributor to our postseason push / postseason for two players who it's quite unlikely we'll miss. This is nothing like when we traded top 10 prospects like Davies for Parra or Eduardo Rodríguez (top 5) for Andrew Miller (I know Miller was a good acquisition, but I wasn't a fan of that trade for a rental, still). We've traded a top 20 prospect and a borderline top 30. Approve of this trade and like it.

Yeah, this would be my response to those above. He needs to get right obviously but we've seen him as a high-leverage reliever before...his stuff plays up (probably mitigating a bit HR issues), and I'd trust him as a high-leverage reliever if he gets right. Between Canó, Fuji, Wells, Baumann + McDermott and Povich I think we have enough good arms to make the 6th/7th and 8th inning work if we can get Wells right and acquire a good SP. That doesn't solve our SP depth totally, as the likelihood is that at least one of our 4 current starters will wear out down the stretch (I guess there is the hope of Means...), but look, considering how we came into the season pitching-depth wise we can't really ask for a better situation than this.

To be fair, acquiring a starter and pushing Wells to the bullpen might be the best way of adding another high leverage reliever, no?

Explanation for those (yours truly!) who seem to be oblivious (and very bad at deciphering) to certain inside jokes?

Yeah that was really some kind of fleecing. Couldn't believe it at the time and still kinda can't tbh. Yeah. It's pretty hard to imagine that we got this level of arm for Lucas Easton...Elias is showing himself to be very effective in trades (as in pretty much everything else).

Yeah, that seems quite likely given the context...should've been able to guess that

What does CMD mean?

Amazing that we got this arm for Trey Mancini. Really brilliant work at the deadline last season. Fuji looks similarly astute.

Man, Cave is having the night of his life.

GTF INN Adleyy!!! Man that felt sweet.

I'm not saying pythag has to be exactly right (surely there are some things that allow you to consistently beat it to some extent: probably a mix of bullpen strength and a certain clubhouse attitude / self-fulfilling prophecy / positive feedback loop...Real Madrid in the Champions League is a good example of this in another sport, where I think it's hard to deny that that factor is relevant) but some regression to the mean is surely in order. You just don't outplay your pythag by this much over long samples. Last night's game was a good example, and as Hyde correctly noted, you just can't win every 1 run game and this kind of thing can happen and is really the norm.

Am I wrong in thinking those aren't particularly impressive numbers? (guessing they are their farthest hit HR?)

HR for Westburg, potential game winning RBI 2B for Cowser...could be a big game for the confidence of our young birds!

I would use Irvin in more high leverage situations, honestly. Means coming back for September or October would be big in terms of moving one of our starters into high leverage situations or having Means available for them himself.

I know, I get that, but I was responding to the point that even without being close to our full potential that we're only 3 games back of them. I agree with you on the full potential of the team. It's massive.

Tbf, we're well outplaying our pythag and will certainly see some regression to the mean in the long-term with our success in close ball games.

Absolutely, haha. I like wRCA+ and wRC+ a lot too, and feel like it's the best statistic to measure a hitter, and they don't show it on baseball reference, but I still end up using baseball reference 99% of the time just because fangraphs is impossible for me to look at.

Yeah, that's fair, I can see where you guys' argument comes from. I'm still taking a 79% GB percentage while still striking out 9.9/ 9. Just never seen that level of dominance myself. Félix is absolutely amazing, and probably never seen this level of K dominance, but I feel like there's been more nervousness or worry of blowing it, or times where it's actually been blown, than there was with Britton that season in 2016. With Britton in 2016 it felt pretty damn near automatic. (EDIT: he didn't blow a save in 2016, so it make sense I felt that way.)

What I mean is that if the results aren't better (and I don't know if anyone will ever have better results than Britton's 2016), then the intimidation (which as you say, should show up in the results) doesn't really mean anything no, it's just aesthetics / cognitive biases on our side, no? I can see arguments on longevity or multiple seasons worth of results. But Britton 2016, I'm not sure I'll ever see a closer that matches or beats that.

All that matters is the results though, no? I have a hard time seeing the statistical argument for Bautista > Britton. I have a hard time seeing any argument, if I'm honest. I think we're forgetting a bit just how dominant Britton was there. Probably the most dominant closer I've ever seen?

I kinda miss the "we're all dancing now!" thread. This season deserves that level of festivity. Not quite the same without Sc0tt and weams.

Oh yeah, totally agreed, I'm not saying that they drafted for need, I just meant that this is a pick where it seems like need and BPA aligned nicely.

A bit pessimistic, no? He seems like he's got more scope than that, ie best case a high leverage reliever, no?