ThisIsBirdland

Ugh

Ok that’s funny.

Glad they’re gonna let Holliday face a lefty. Will be ironic if it’s his first hit.

Ok let’s pull for a wild pitch, two passed balls and catcher’s interference this inning.

He’s a pretty silly guy. I think he’ll lean into that type of schtick over his career. I personally enjoy it; thinks he keeps the clubhouse loose.

COWser.

This game is really rough on some of yall

Ha all good!

?

O’Hearn continuing with the professional at bats.

It is interesting. We're two games into this apparent change in approach but it feels like a pretty significant philosophical change if it is in fact legitimate. Curious if there's an interesting backstory of a disagreement over how much positional movement was occurring or how much potential over-analysis may have been going into preparing the lineup. I don't necessarily think that's the case, but curious none-the-less.

Mayo consensus is a little broader than just @Tony-OH. Pretty much all minor league outlets view him as a top-30 prospect I believe. He may serve as our primary DH if Westburg establishes himself at 3B and Mountcastle proves too invaluable to move before the end of his arb years. RF would be interesting too.

Great interview. Couple takeaways for me: Allow limited tack - even the batters feel safer knowing the pitchers have better control If this gives pitchers too much of an advantage, maybe it would be offset by the assumed benefits to hitters from the introduction of the automated strike zone? Can MLB build in allowable time-outs for pitchers that don't count against the three step-offs with baserunners?

Agreed on Westburg over Mayo. Could Westburg lock down 3B this year much like Gunnar locked down SS last year? Mayo will have a place on the team later this year and moving forward, but Westburg may make the 3B defense discussion moot if his arm and range play well enough over there. They certainly look like they're going to give him the opportunity to do so. I don't think they're moving off of O'Hearn this year. Kjerstad looks great and is a big part of the future, but I don't think Hyde will want to take out the veteran bat, especially given the quality at-bats O'Hearn has been putting up thus far this year. If it plays out like this I could see Kjerstad and Mayo ultimately replacing Santander and O'Hearn's roles in 2025, or earlier if there's an injury. Mayo comes up sometime this summer to get his bat in the lineup, and Kjerstad comes up when rosters expand.

Good call by @Going Underground in the Means thread.

There really are some unique complaints about this woman on this forum sometimes.

Smallest of sample sizes.

I also stop watching late sometimes, but that's part of what's so exciting with this lineup. It can be easy to turn it off in the 7th or later when Urias-Mateo-Kemp are due up and they're facing a pretty legitimate deficit. Cowser-Westburg-Holliday is just such an exciting 7-8-9 combination.

I definitely noticed it last night, Holliday was stacked right on top of Irvin with the 0-2 count. Your logic makes sense on the defensive nature of the at-bat at that point.

Going off loose memory here, but it seemed like the command improved significantly after the 2nd inning last night? I was pretty concerned up until that point even though he gave up no runs in those two innings, but I actually thought he was locating better in the 3rd-5th despite giving up the runs. The bloop single was what it was. The two run base hit on the 0-2 count looked like just a good hit on a low and away pitch. And then I think he was a little shook after the ump blew the call before the Casas home run. McDonald even warned about it right before it happened.

Teams we've played are 26-11 in all other games, all over .500. We all thought the April schedule looked like a cakewalk but these teams (especially PIT and KC) have been feisty.

I don't think anyone is going to offer anything for Austin Hays unless/until he settles back in as a reliable bat, and even then I don't think he'd command much. If/when that happens, we'll want his RHB in the outfield at the very least splitting time. David Bednar is one of the best RP in baseball and he's under team control through 2026. He missed spring training with an injury. He'll be fine.

Watch the video. He's jogging for the last five steps once Holliday waves him off. Had he been in a sprint I think he'd have gotten to it (for a really nice catch).