2024 Ongoing Lineup Thread

[LookitsPuck]

4 minutes ago, terpoh said:

That would be an offensive explosion!

Would be the last 4 games combined! 

[Three Run Homer]

2 hours ago, Fiver6565 said:

Kjerstad in, Jimenez out matters more....now hopefully Hyde doesn't PH for Heston in the fourth or something stupid.

Glad to see Kjerstad in, but again, why is he hitting 4th?  Take some pressure off the guy!  

[waroriole]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

He has. 

Put Soto in there. 

Hmmmm

[Fiver6565]

LOL you can’t make this shit up man. 

[Fiver6565]

Oops wrong thread. 

[Moose Milligan]

If anyone gives a crap:

 

[Sports Guy]

8 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

If anyone gives a crap:

 

Like the lineup.

[sportsfan8703]

9 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

If anyone gives a crap:

 

Seems like a good dart throw.  8 lefties.  Hopefully we can win 3-2.

[Fiver6565]

There are 4 players in that lineup that were also in the OD lineup.  But in spite of that, the scary part about the offense tank job we've seen, is that the lineup really isn't THAT different than you might have guessed it might look right now, back on opening day.   Obviously Rivera instead of Westburg is a big difference, but otherwise, there really aren't players in that lineup that you wouldn't have expected.  O'hearn is getting more play than he would have, but we are seeing who we wanted to see - Holliday is up and playing, Kjerstad and Cowser in the OF.  Mayo not in this lineup but on the roster, and he's been flat out awful in limited time, on both sides of the ball.

The 5 players 'missing' from the OD lineup - Mountcastle, Urias, Mateo, Hays, and Westburg.  Other than Westburg, many on this board WANTED all those players gone at one point or another.   In fact many were in favor of straight up DFA's for Urias, Mateo, even Hays at some point.  So based on that, this should be a pretty exciting lineup.  But clearly, it is NOT.  You can't tell me Westburg missing makes THAT much difference.

All of which is to say, the offense has been bad enough lately, that its making me worry about NEXT year.  Are these guys who we thought they were?  Jury of course still out on the young guys - plenty of room for improvement there.  But how likely is there to be a hangover effect from the end of this year into the beginning of next?  We can't answer that because we don't even know who all's going to be here, but its been a bad enough stretch that it has me thinking about longer term repercussions at this point, even beyond the potential of missing the playoffs entirely, or being swept right out if we do make it.

[Fiver6565]

3 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Like the lineup.

Yeah that's what I'm saying in my prior post.  On paper at the start of the year, we'd all have been pretty excited about that lineup other than the Westburg thing.  Yet here we are, basically feeling hopeless that we can beat a mediocre SF team.  Just a bizarre finish to the season, even factoring in the injuries.

[Fiver6565]

Also, a REAL cleanup hitter should be on the offseason shopping list.  Yesterday it was Kjerstad - potential for him in that spot but he's not ready for it.  Today its Cowser - I can't see him ever being a very good fit for that spot.  We don't have that guy unless Mayo really progresses, especially assuming that Santander leaves.

[Moose Milligan]

4 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

There are 4 players in that lineup that were also in the OD lineup.  But in spite of that, the scary part about the offense tank job we've seen, is that the lineup really isn't THAT different than you might have guessed it might look right now, back on opening day.   Obviously Rivera instead of Westburg is a big difference, but otherwise, there really aren't players in that lineup that you wouldn't have expected.  O'hearn is getting more play than he would have, but we are seeing who we wanted to see - Holliday is up and playing, Kjerstad and Cowser in the OF.  Mayo not in this lineup but on the roster, and he's been flat out awful in limited time, on both sides of the ball.

The 5 players 'missing' from the OD lineup - Mountcastle, Urias, Mateo, Hays, and Westburg.  Other than Westburg, many on this board WANTED all those players gone at one point or another.   In fact many were in favor of straight up DFA's for Urias, Mateo, even Hays at some point.  So based on that, this should be a pretty exciting lineup.  But clearly, it is NOT.  You can't tell me Westburg missing makes THAT much difference.

All of which is to say, the offense has been bad enough lately, that its making me worry about NEXT year.  Are these guys who we thought they were?  Jury of course still out on the young guys - plenty of room for improvement there.  But how likely is there to be a hangover effect from the end of this year into the beginning of next?  We can't answer that because we don't even know who all's going to be here, but its been a bad enough stretch that it has me thinking about longer term repercussions at this point, even beyond the potential of missing the playoffs entirely, or being swept right out if we do make it.

You've got it half right.  

Missing Westburg matters when you plug in Holliday or Mayo who's negative WAR as the replacement for Westburg.  

[Sports Guy]

4 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

Also, a REAL cleanup hitter should be on the offseason shopping list.  Yesterday it was Kjerstad - potential for him in that spot but he's not ready for it.  Today its Cowser - I can't see him ever being a very good fit for that spot.  We don't have that guy unless Mayo really progresses, especially assuming that Santander leaves.

Mayo definitely is a possibility…as is Basallo. 
 

Im not worried about this yet.  I do think a year or 2 from now this could be on the shopping list.

But I won’t be upset if we sign Soto.

[turtlebowl]

5 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

Also, a REAL cleanup hitter should be on the offseason shopping list.  Yesterday it was Kjerstad - potential for him in that spot but he's not ready for it.  Today its Cowser - I can't see him ever being a very good fit for that spot.  We don't have that guy unless Mayo really progresses, especially assuming that Santander leaves.

Santander is to hot and cold to be a legit middle of the order hitter for a WS quality team.  If he was a #5 or #6 hitter in the lineup then you have something.  You need Adley to get back to Adley and you need one more complete hitter which to me means a .350 OBP and a 25+ HR guy.  That would take the pressure off everyone and make the lineup much deeper.   

[Fiver6565]

7 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

You've got it half right.  

Missing Westburg matters when you plug in Holliday or Mayo who's negative WAR as the replacement for Westburg.  

Not suggesting he doesn't matter at all.  Just saying his presence (or lack thereof) alone can't explain the extremity of the drop off.  The real issue is that Holliday has been putrid, Mayo looks even worse somehow, Cowser better than that but not good lately, Rutsch of course has been awful.  That's the big one for next year - what version of Adley are we going to get?  He's been bad enough, for long enough, to make that a more fair question than I would have thought.

In my head we're struggling because of players like Jimenez, Soto, Rivera, Slater in the lineup regularly.  But then I see lineups like today, and that really isn't the case nearly as often as I'm thinking.  Its worrisome.  We've basically cast off (due to injury/trade) the regular Hangout castoff list - Hays, Urias, Mateo, even Mountcastle to some degree - and for the most part replaced them w/ the players we wanted to replace them - Cowser, Mayo, Holliday - and things have gotten much much worse.