tntoriole

He has no pitch to get this guy out

God .. the nibbling

Strikes .. cause they know we can’t hit

And I would not have pitched him tonight .. too much stress

See .. 1st pitch strikes .. not only out hit us they have outpitched us

You still have to best them

Kremer is fooling absolutely no one

We are going to get blown out

He crushed that pitch .. our pitchers scare nobody

Our team’s fortunes aside, i do believe the current playoff structure still reduces the historic value of a 162 game season marathon to determine league champions in short series of games. But this is not going to go backwards due to the money and beliefs that playoffs engage communities more in baseball fanship, which are both true. No weighting formula will correct this. Either you have league champions by 162 game performance or you have league champions by playoff performance over several weeks. The two ways are fundamentally incompatible with each other.

I agree with that .. but if Santander had hit that ball in the corner in the eighth in Game 1 and Grod had gone 6 strong .. I be feeling different about it lol

His plan perhaps could be to do that as a better return this winter and thought the pen with Bautista and the additions of Webb and Fuji might suffice (he caught dumpster magic with Coulombe and Cano) .. turns out not but I trust his ability. All speculation of course .. I wanted Hader at the deadline but that wasn’t happening lol

My belief is Elias knew all that and much more but obviously ended up valuing our prospects more than what was available at that point in time.

I read where Sig Mejdal is verrry much of a prospect hoarding type. Could be .. depends.. i just think he was surprised a bit by this happening this year and he didn’t appropriately plan for a Bautista injury scenario. But I think he might say..there is a line I won’t cross as to value vs cost because it will hinder the future. And he didn’t pull the trigger obviously. We will never know cause we don’t know what the details were. Still .. if Santander pulls the ball past Jung in the eighth, then we win game 1 and the flaw is compensated for.. or if Grod got more than 5 outs, or if Means had not turned up sore then one of Kremer or Gibson come in with Baker not on the roster . ..Lots of variables, most of them not predictable.

No doubt Elias could tell us exactly about any name available and what went down and I believe he just did not think the value matched the price. Of course, that was all pre Bautista injury.

Same thing they did in May when he got crushed .. and same approach that sent him to the minors .. sometimes you have to go with your strengths, not what you think plays better to the other team. It is just so strange they went away from his mix of the very successful run he had. And even in game .. they could not touch his changeup.. 7 whiffs on 11 pitches ..

That one yesterday will serve as a driver for him to keep working harder. And he will. Many big time pitchers have had a bad start in postseason. It happens. The really great ones take from it what they can and then go back to working harder. His fastball percentage was really high compared to all his starts since he came back. He only used that changeup 11 times and had 7 whiffs. Early in the year, he would get hit, get rattled and then get away from throwing offspeed. He had much better mix in good starts since then. Some of that is on Adley a bit too to try to keep his mix better.

Exactly..

I think the 2023 success did really catch Elias a bit off guard and i think the original plan for trading was and is this offseason And it takes two partners to trade and maybe the market was just too rich in his judgement.. don’t know what was offered or turned down, etc

Particularly down 2 games in ALDS…our keen collective wisdom is manifest across the OH realm … Oh that Elias and his minions .. if thou had but listened to me!!

Of course, Elias certainly knew he needed bullpen help and knew it better than us on a board .. he assesed the market for it thoroughly and felt whatever was out there was not worth the prospects required. From what I have read Sig is even more of a hoarding prospect advocate..will try to locate that article I was a Hader trade advocate at the deadline but agree it wasn’t and isn’t likely. The Bautista injury burned the Elias strategy of hoarding as we may have gotten through .. on the flip side, some of those prospects saved may be what creates a run for the next 4 years

I agree with you .. I was a Hader advocate here .. but obviously Elias disagrees lol

I too agree with the strategy of offseason or trade enhancement.. but in fairness to Elias .. offseason 2022 ..Dillon Tate was money and nobody expected him to give nothing in 2023, Givens was signed and expected to be something and was nothing , Coulombe and Cano were nothings who gave us a lot .. Webb gave us something at first then imploded, Fuji was all over .. Baker was money last year and sucked this year It is a real crapshoot in bullpens out there for GMs .. on boards we get it right all the time lol. And right or wrong I think Elias said .. I am holding my prospects as per plan for 2024 and beyond and not going to disrupt it even if it means we can get no stellar reliever for 2023 run and lose. Now if he had known Bautista would go down? Different outcome at trade deadline.

Baker was required to face 3 guys..hard to start warming a guy in the pen as soon he started the inning and also got the first guy .. unless you just expect the then THREE walks .. because Webb pitched yesterday i think he was the only righty able to get ready fast enough right then. But all of this is Grod .. only five outs from him sealed all the rest of the moves required.

And then Means going down kept one of Kremer or Gibson from definitively being in the bullpen