Elias expects hitting to be good and pitching to struggle

[Sports Guy]

One thing seems to be clear and that is we should see a lot of young players this year.

[interloper]

Well Odor isn't doing this offense any favors, so I hope he's not a part of it. Otherwise, hard to argue with what he's saying. 

[SteveA]

Last year at this time, at AAA & the majors, we had Felix Hernandez, Matt Harvey, Adam Plutko, Wade Leblanc, Spenser Watkins, Cesar Valdez, Chris Ellis, Fernando Abad, Mickey Jannis, Dusten Knight, Connor Wade, Jay Flaa, Thomas Eshelman, Eric Hanhold, Brooks Kriske, and Brandon Waddell.   All 27 or older, none considered  prospects, and all but King Felix wound up pitching for our team last year.

Looks like all but Ellis and Watkins are gone, and I don't think we have replaced the others with a bunch of 27+ non-prospects.   (We did sign Lyles, but he is a healthy, established major leaguer, which none of the names above were).

The results might not be any better, but at least the innings most of those guys had last year will be pitched by guys who still have some small sliver of potential to help us in the next few years.   

That's a good sign, IMO.   

[interloper]

1 minute ago, SteveA said:

Last year at this time, at AAA & the majors, we had Felix Hernandez, Matt Harvey, Adam Plutko, Wade Leblanc, Spenser Watkins, Cesar Valdez, Chris Ellis, Fernando Abad, Mickey Jannis, Dusten Knight, Connor Wade, Jay Flaa, Thomas Eshelman, Eric Hanhold, Brooks Kriske, and Brandon Waddell.   All 27 or older, none considered  prospects, and all but King Felix wound up pitching for our team last year.

Looks like all but Ellis and Watkins are gone, and I don't think we have replaced the others with a bunch of 27+ non-prospects.   (We did sign Lyles, but he is a healthy, established major leaguer, which none of the names above were).

The results might not be any better, but at least the innings most of those guys had last year will be pitched by guys who still have some small sliver of potential to help us in the next few years.   

That's a good sign, IMO.   

Agree. That list of names is rough to even read right now. It's kind of hard to not feel better about the pitching staff overall, honestly. Lot of guys that throw hard, a few guys in the rotation who won't be embarrassments. 

We will have to suffer Dean Kremer and Keegan Akin. And maybe Watkins. But ultimately guys like that are holding places for the new Big Three. 

[Sports Guy]

32 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Last year at this time, at AAA & the majors, we had Felix Hernandez, Matt Harvey, Adam Plutko, Wade Leblanc, Spenser Watkins, Cesar Valdez, Chris Ellis, Fernando Abad, Mickey Jannis, Dusten Knight, Connor Wade, Jay Flaa, Thomas Eshelman, Eric Hanhold, Brooks Kriske, and Brandon Waddell.   All 27 or older, none considered  prospects, and all but King Felix wound up pitching for our team last year.

Looks like all but Ellis and Watkins are gone, and I don't think we have replaced the others with a bunch of 27+ non-prospects.   (We did sign Lyles, but he is a healthy, established major leaguer, which none of the names above were).

The results might not be any better, but at least the innings most of those guys had last year will be pitched by guys who still have some small sliver of potential to help us in the next few years.   

That's a good sign, IMO.   

Yep..as much as I hate the idea of not trying to win this year, at least they seem to be mostly past the idea of sending out AAAA players with no upside.  They should have done more but the alternative to just go young is better than what they have done.

[Sports Guy]

 

[interloper]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

 

He ain't wrong. Pretty funny to hear him say it though. You get the impression that he might be just as disappointed in what those guys did last year as fans. It was not an ideal development year for any of those guys except Zimmermann. 

[Moose Milligan]

Elias is a regular Captain Obvious.

[Moose Milligan]

Jokes aside, I think the hitting should be alright, but I'd hesitate to call it good.  Although, to his credit, he is pointing towards graduating prospects which is important to note.

But on the surface it appears to be another low OBP group which is always prone to busting out one night for a bunch of runs and then going completely cold for the next two games.  

 

[NCRaven]

I like that Elias is telling these guys that they need to crap or get off the pot.  I'm sure that Hyde is delivering the same message.  Rodriguez, DL Hall and Bradish could all be making their debuts this year.  If Means sticks around for contention, someone from that group - and you can throw Alex Wells in, as well - has to "step up" if they're going to be part of this team.

[LTO's]

19 minutes ago, interloper said:

He ain't wrong. Pretty funny to hear him say it though. You get the impression that he might be just as disappointed in what those guys did last year as fans. It was not an ideal development year for any of those guys except Zimmermann. 

I’ve said it before and it seems hyperbolic but the situation that Elias and co. took over may have been the worst a new GM has inherited ever. Or at least as far as I can remember. Bare bones analytic dept, no amateur international pipeline, terrible ML team with bad contracts, owners completely unwilling to spend more on the ML roster and practically no good pitching prospects close to the majors. Oh, and the division is the best it’s possibly ever been too to bottom.

By the grace of God they found something with Means and his change up and Mullins could be an actual difference maker but besides that there was nothing near the ML level to help this team. The frustration makes sense to me in the sense that these are all guys that the previous regime traded for or were just generally very high on and they are just flat out terrible pitchers. I don’t know how many times under DD I heard reporters quote people in the org saying how good Akin was going to be. Just an absolute dumpster fire of a front office.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, SteveA said:

Last year at this time, at AAA & the majors, we had Felix Hernandez, Matt Harvey, Adam Plutko, Wade Leblanc, Spenser Watkins, Cesar Valdez, Chris Ellis, Fernando Abad, Mickey Jannis, Dusten Knight, Connor Wade, Jay Flaa, Thomas Eshelman, Eric Hanhold, Brooks Kriske, and Brandon Waddell.   All 27 or older, none considered  prospects, and all but King Felix wound up pitching for our team last year.

Looks like all but Ellis and Watkins are gone, and I don't think we have replaced the others with a bunch of 27+ non-prospects.   (We did sign Lyles, but he is a healthy, established major leaguer, which none of the names above were).

The results might not be any better, but at least the innings most of those guys had last year will be pitched by guys who still have some small sliver of potential to help us in the next few years.   

That's a good sign, IMO.   

Great comment. The difference in the guys that should be picking up innings this vs last year should allow the team to be better. 

[Can_of_corn]

39 minutes ago, interloper said:

He ain't wrong. Pretty funny to hear him say it though. You get the impression that he might be just as disappointed in what those guys did last year as fans. It was not an ideal development year for any of those guys except Zimmermann. 

Whose fault is that?  The players?

[SteveA]

7 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Great comment. The difference in the guys that should be picking up innings this vs last year should allow the team to be better. 

Well, the results could still be bad if Kremer, Akin, and others get 100+ innings and prove they aren't major leaguers.

But I'd still rather give innings to them to find out than to some of the guys we gave innings to last year.

[interloper]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Whose fault is that?  The players?

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