Hays to 10 day IL; McKenna up; Sulser optioned for Armstrong

[Bahama O's Fan]

The bigger question is who sits for Hays? The obvious choice is Stewart, but I like what I'm seeing from his bat. Does Santander need a break? Should Mountcastle and Mancini sit a bit? Even Mullins a game here or there? 

[Sports Guy]

35 minutes ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

The bigger question is who sits for Hays? The obvious choice is Stewart, but I like what I'm seeing from his bat. Does Santander need a break? Should Mountcastle and Mancini sit a bit? Even Mullins a game here or there? 

WC mentioned a month or so ago a rotation type thing between several players.  I think he’s right about that.

None of these guys have a long history of success and/or a healthy past.  There are issues for all of them, so any one of these guys sitting a day or 2 a week isn’t a big Deal.

With Diaz on the taxi squad, you have to think he will enter the picture soon enough as well.

[Philip]

Poor Ryan McKenna. He’s had his cup of coffee...

[jamalshw]

40 minutes ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

The bigger question is who sits for Hays? The obvious choice is Stewart, but I like what I'm seeing from his bat. Does Santander need a break? Should Mountcastle and Mancini sit a bit? Even Mullins a game here or there? 

My preference is keeping the same basic alignment with Stewart, Mullins, Santander left to right with Mancini and Mountcastle splitting 1B and DH and then allowing Hays to basically rotate through giving each a day off giving all six players a day off every five games or so. Eventually, Stewart gets replaced by Diaz (if Stewart starts to look shakier) and maybe Hays and Mullins switch spots if Mullins cools off. There are plenty of ABs to be had for six guys sharing five spots in the order. It does, however, pinch most ABs away from McKenna. 

[Philip]

15 minutes ago, jamalshw said:

My preference is keeping the same basic alignment with Stewart, Mullins, Santander left to right with Mancini and Mountcastle splitting 1B and DH and then allowing Hays to basically rotate through giving each a day off giving all six players a day off every five games or so. Eventually, Stewart gets replaced by Diaz (if Stewart starts to look shakier) and maybe Hays and Mullins switch spots if Mullins cools off. There are plenty of ABs to be had for six guys sharing five spots in the order. It does, however, pinch most ABs away from McKenna. 

Of course. I’ve been screaming about this alignment for a long time. Mountcastle is no kind of leftfielder and everybody knows it except the people who make the decisions.

Stewart is doing quite well, so no need to make any changes at this time, so rotate Mancini in Mountcastle at first and designated hitter And you’ve got multiple options for a good outfield.

[bobmc]

18 minutes ago, Philip said:

Poor Ryan McKenna. He’s had his cup of coffee...

LOL and as you are wont to say, " He's now set for life with health insurance".

[SteveA]

1 hour ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

The bigger question is who sits for Hays? The obvious choice is Stewart, but I like what I'm seeing from his bat. Does Santander need a break? Should Mountcastle and Mancini sit a bit? Even Mullins a game here or there? 

All of the above.   We will have Mancini, Mountcastle, Hays, Mullins, Santander, Stewart for OF + DH + 1B.  That's 6 guys for 5 positions.   No big deal, you play about 6 games per week.   So each guy averages sitting about 1 day per week.   Play will determine who sits more often and who sits less, a hot player probably won't sit unless he needs a rest.

It is certainly not a problem.

[Philip]

14 minutes ago, bobmc said:

LOL and as you are wont to say, " He's now set for life with health insurance".

Yup... “and a couple bucks for your trouble.” 

[Frobby]

6 minutes ago, Philip said:

Yup... “and a couple bucks for your trouble.” 

Roughly $40,000 for two weeks of work.  

[Sports Guy]

I know Sisco is the official whipping boy on here and I agree his defense is less than stellar but I still feel he needs a chance (no pun intended).  First of all, we suck and winning doesn’t matter, so see as many young guys as possible.

Secondly, he just turned 26.  Not young but not old.  He has a total of 545 ML PA.  That is spaced out over 5 years, so it’s not like the sample size is large or that he has had a big opportunity in any given season.  2018 and 2019 were his best chances and he got under 200 PA in each year...and his OpS was 729 in 2018 and 741 in 2019.  He was 23 and 24 years old in those seasons.   He had very good OBP in both years but his BA and slugging weren’t good.

In the minors, he was a career 305 hitter and had an 816 OPS.  The issue for him was always, would he show enough power that teams couldn’t just challenge him.  He hasn’t done that.  At this point, it’s more likely he is nothing than even a bench piece...but I see no reason why you don’t keep giving him at bats and I think he should get more than Severino.  

[interloper]

9 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I know Sisco is the official whipping boy on here and I agree his defense is less than stellar but I still feel he needs a chance (no pun intended).  First of all, we suck and winning doesn’t matter, so see as many young guys as possible.

Secondly, he just turned 26.  Not young but not old.  He has a total of 545 ML PA.  That is spaced out over 5 years, so it’s not like the sample size is large or that he has had a big opportunity in any given season.  2018 and 2019 were his best chances and he got under 200 PA in each year...and his OpS was 729 in 2018 and 741 in 2019.  He was 23 and 24 years old in those seasons.   He had very good OBP in both years but his BA and slugging weren’t good.

In the minors, he was a career 305 hitter and had an 816 OPS.  The issue for him was always, would he show enough power that teams couldn’t just challenge him.  He hasn’t done that.  At this point, it’s more likely he is nothing than even a bench piece...but I see no reason why you don’t keep giving him at bats and I think he should get more than Severino.  

I'm down on Sisco right now, but I actually agree that if you're going to keep him on the roster, he should just play every day to officially see what you have. If they don't want to do that, though, why is he here? Opt for someone who makes the team better as the backup catcher. But if you're not worried about the team being better, make Sisco the starter and he'll either fail miserably or improve, and then you know. 

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, interloper said:

I'm down on Sisco right now, but I actually agree that if you're going to keep him on the roster, he should just play every day to officially see what you have. If they don't want to do that, though, why is he here? Opt for someone who makes the team better as the backup catcher. But if you're not worried about the team being better, make Sisco the starter and he'll either fail miserably or improve, and then you know. 

I think that’s a great question...if you aren’t giving him at bats, why do you have him here?

Don’t get me wrong..he strikes out too much and isn’t hitting for power or average yet.  But is that going to get better playing sparingly?  Of course it’s not.  So, you either play him or you bring in a better catcher.

[Philip]

22 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I think that’s a great question...if you aren’t giving him at bats, why do you have him here?

Don’t get me wrong..he strikes out too much and isn’t hitting for power or average yet.  But is that going to get better playing sparingly?  Of course it’s not.  So, you either play him or you bring in a better catcher.

The biggest difference between AAA and the Bigs is the quality of pitching. It is far more common than not for a guy to hit well in the minors and then hit a brick wall in the majors, especially after the opposition gets a book on him. They have access to Baseball Savant too, you know.

I don’t know what things improve with time, but Sisco’s virtues seem to be in decline. Perhaps an argument can be made to keep him, because we’re not trying to win(although I’ve often said I think we ARE trying to win, albeit inexpensively) but there’s no reason to keep him, because he’s shown his limits, and they haven’t gotten better, and having better defensive catchers will improve the team. So yes, dump him and bring in a better catcher. Severino too, for that matter.

[Sports Guy]

8 minutes ago, Philip said:

The biggest difference between AAA and the Bigs is the quality of pitching. It is far more common than not for a guy to hit well in the minors and then hit a brick wall in the majors, especially after the opposition gets a book on him. They have access to Baseball Savant too, you know.

I don’t know what things improve with time, but Sisco’s virtues seem to be in decline. Perhaps an argument can be made to keep him, because we’re not trying to win(although I’ve often said I think we ARE trying to win, albeit inexpensively) but there’s no reason to keep him, because he’s shown his limits, and they haven’t gotten better, and having better defensive catchers will improve the team. So yes, dump him and bring in a better catcher. Severino too, for that matter.

We have a better catcher.  They aren’t going to go out and get someone else.  This narrative needs to stop.  It’s just pointless.

All they will go is re-arrange the deck chairs until Adley is here.

[Philip]

14 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

We have a better catcher.  They aren’t going to go out and get someone else.  This narrative needs to stop.  It’s just pointless.

All they will go is re-arrange the deck chairs until Adley is here.

AR isn’t ready yet. I’m not advocating bringing him up, and never have been. Our catchers are terrible. They’ve never been not-terrible. 

if the guys we have are 3 on a scale of 1-100, and the potential replacements offer 3.5, it’s worthwhile to make the change, especially after you’re confident, the 3 guys are never going to be any better than they currently are.