If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Hard to complain about winning five of six this week against the Braves and Dodgers. It's too bad Jose didn't get the win but I'll take it nonetheless.
If it wasn't for Turner could be 6 of 6. But yes 5 wins against 2 top teams. We're so good at home. Bullpen's struggles have been concerning. I think with one more good starter in the rotation (Heaney) and and finding at least 2 better arms for the pen, we could be a .500 team. The hitting clearly will be there this season.
Saltalamacchia will not have an 1.000+ OPS
McGehee is not a .316 hitter
Hechavarria is not a .288 hitter
Dietrich will not have an .825+ OPS, neither will Furcal if he shows up
and if I'm being nit picky, I think small regressions are due to Ozuna and G. Jones at some point, but nothing major like the above 4 who are going to rapidly drop from where they are right now. Which leaves Stanton, who is going to continue to be who he is, and Yelich is probably the only underachiever of the group but not by much. I see this as half the lineup is going to dramatically drop at any moment.
They need to radically upgrade two spots in the infield if they want to keep this up. I would imagine those would be 2B and 3B (since they are completely committed to Hech), and push McGehee to the bench to add to Mathis, Baker, and two of Dietrich/Johnson/Lucas/Solano.
It's going to be hard to do that based on merit right now, Furcal is coming back, and their realistic trade assets (i.e., trading Cishek in July fixes one problem and creates another). The best thing would be for Turner/Koehler to really turn it on and they could move one for a bat and replace with Heaney, and then just dip into the farm and move other pitching (DeScalfani, Urena, Nicolino, Conley, etc.) for someone else. I guess they could try and trade Marisnick too for a similar level guy in the infield which isn't a bad idea.
This is fun and better than expected, but under any scenario in my eyes, they are still 4-5 guys away from being a real contender, and most of that is bats. The only guys who aren't helping the MLB team right now that could probably impact this year are Heaney and Turner. That's not going to be enough. Need much more hitting despite the impressive run totals so far. I think that is higher priority than bullpen, which I still think works itself out if they do nothing. They have to much arm talent for it not to come together.
Realistically what can we do about our pen? Do we have any relievers in the minors worth bringing up? I wish we used Capps more.
I think replacing Marmol is about all we have to worry about (and I really do hope we release him soon).
Dunn is posting the best K/BB of his career. But he has a .333 BABIP and HR/FB% nearly 5% higher than his career. He'll be fine.
Ramos has gotten lucky so far but he shouldn't continue to walk people at this high of a rate and his x-fip is 3.89
Slowely isn't great but he can eat innings and start. Hand has been better out of the pen. Jennings/Flynn can replace Hand as second lefty if he starts to suck shit there too.
Cishek is obviously nothing to worry about, and Capps has shown a lot of promise so far.
As far as call ups...Conley is looking good. DeSclafani, Dyson, and a shit ton of lefties like Jennings, Flynn, Dayton, and maybe even Heaney to ease him in (though we need starting help).
I'd love to see Marmol get DFA'd and have Conley called up, personally.
--------------------
Prediction: McGehee's OPS will be about where it is right now at the end of the season. The Average isn't sustainable, but you're going to start to see some of those long fly balls that he's been hitting go out pretty soon which will bump up the slugging and stabilize the OPS.
I'd really like to see Capps become the setup guy. He clearly has the best stuff in the bullpen. With Cishek closing and Capps setting up, Dunn and Ramos can become situational guys which they would be better suited for. It would fix a lot.
One guy who could be interesting in the pen, as well, is Brad Hand. From what I've seen, his velocity has been much better out of the pen and he's looked better out there in general than he has as a starter.
As for the offense, I definitely don't see it being this good all year. I would just like to see Mike Redmond utilize platoons properly, and whatever happens happens. I'm not looking forward to Furcal coming back because I think it'll make the offense worse if anything. It would be cool if he were just coming in to replace Solano, but we all know he's going to start.
Our pitching is exciting. Jose Fernandez is the best pitcher in baseball in my opinion and I'm buying Nathan Eovaldi's progress so far. The only pitcher on the roster who projects to regress is Tom Koehler. The Turner situation can be fixed later in the year with a Heaney call up.
Comment