July 2021 Game Thread

[Maddawg]

That fire sale led directly to another championship in 5 years.

TRUE

[Maddawg]

WTf ? but I'm loving it

[Nick]

I don’t understand Luzardo still being in the game.

[fish16]

I hate service time bull shit.

it sucks but until mlb changes the rule and stops incentivizing teams to do it you absolutely need to factor that in. is a few cabrera starts to end this year or to begin next year worth losing a year of potentially ace level performance 6 years in the future in his theoretical prime?

MLB just always sabotages itself so often in every aspect. Manfred is the complete opposite of adam silver in terms of forward thinkingness and the ability to do things that get your sport in front of potential new fans.

[fish16]

it is visible to the eye every single ab how much better brinson's eye and ability to barrel up the ball have gotten. It's just little things when you watch the ab's now after seeing the last 3 years. There is so much less flailing at pitches outside of the zone and he's shortened his swing to allow himself to get to the balls quicker and barrel them up more. That walk just now was a terrific ab

[fish16]

glad we decided to give up a brinson AB and bring morimando in to take his spot AND be bad.

[lou]

glad we decided to give up a brinson AB and bring morimando in to take his spot AND be bad.

Brinson BABIP watch:

May 1st - 110PA, .320/.364/.631 (.995 OPS), 5.5% BB, 30% K, .413 BABIP.

Really incredible this guy is on a 1.000 OPS 100+ PA hot streak after arguably the worst 800+ PA to start a career maybe ever.

[Todd]

Am I the only one who wasn't a fan of the Marte for Luzardo deal? Marte really should have gotten more, even as a rental, than a soon to be 24 year old with an ERA close to 5 for his career and hovering around 7 for the season.

[Nick]

Am I the only one who wasn't a fan of the Marte for Luzardo deal? Marte really should have gotten more, even as a rental, than a soon to be 24 year old with an ERA close to 5 for his career and hovering around 7 for the season.

It’s not what I would’ve done.

That being said you’d be blind not to see the potential of Luzardo despite the lack of results he is currently getting. If Luzardo is still struggling this time next year then I’ll be worried about this trade.

[Lee Stone]

I loved the Luzardo acquisition. As an elite prospect just a year ago, he gets easy velocity despite his small stature and is the epitome of a smooth lefty. The attached article discusses his difficulty this season. While he should probably be working out his repertoire/spin at AAA, my guess is that Stottlemyer wanted to work with him personally. I'm also guessing that we'll all be raving about Jesus Luzardo come mid-September.

[URL="https://www.pitcherlist.com/what-went-wrong-for-jesus-luzardo/"]What Went Wrong For Jes

A couple months of Marte, salary included, was nothing to pay for the upside of Luzardo.

[fish16]

the more i look at our organization and the depth in the OF and SP both in the majors and in the upper minors the more it is clear they have a 4 for 1 or 5 for 2 trade to make. there just is no way around it, at some point we have to turn the great job of building organizational depth into a trade for legitimate impact hitters.

Also, as the sample size gets bigger Brinson seems to keep getting better. Since may 1, 118 ab's now, 5% walk rate, .960 OPS, wrc+ of 158 and the most impressive thing to me is the .282 average. I know average is not a great way to judge guys anymore but the fact that his average is that high to me just shows the improvement in the consistency. Its not just a high ops being inflated because he is hitting bombs with the power we all know he has. He's just flat out getting on base and having great ab's.

As for luzardo, the results have not been spectacular thus far but i like the move for a few reasons. One, we didnt need more depth so i like the way they identified a player they liked and went after a 1 for 1 deal instead of getting 2-3 prospects for marte. Two, they paid marte's salary as a way of getting a better return which is a good sign and new for this team. Three, they bought super low on Luzardo and hoped Stottlemeyer can get him back on track. The guy was literally a top 20 prospect in the entire sport just over a year ago. Buying low on a talent like that for a free agent to be is just good process. You cant teach what the guy brings to the table as a lefty pumping 95 easily, so i love the move and the trust in stottlemeyer to get him back on track.

[fish16]

watson is making his minor league debut today in the rookie league. Excited to see him in action.

[lou]

I loved the Luzardo acquisition. As an elite prospect just a year ago, he gets easy velocity despite his small stature and is the epitome of a smooth lefty. The attached article discusses his difficulty this season. While he should probably be working out his repertoire/spin at AAA, my guess is that Stottlemyer wanted to work with him personally. I'm also guessing that we'll all be raving about Jesus Luzardo come mid-September.

[URL="https://www.pitcherlist.com/what-went-wrong-for-jesus-luzardo/"]What Went Wrong For Jes

A couple months of Marte, salary included, was nothing to pay for the upside of Luzardo.

I agree across the board. I'd add further that the organization has extremely low lefty depth, and has for years, making him even more important to them as a good risk/reward.

You can envision Rogers, Luzardo, Eder, Garrett, and a TBD lefty (maybe Guenther, he has been great in minors even if lacking on the squad) being the lefty core for years. They should trade for another play-now/soon lefty reliever this offseason and take some swings on MiLB deals to find another one as likely some of them don't work out. Also keep Bleier for next year as all of those guys clearly aren't ready yet. Luzardo addition is starting to develop some real depth here which is a good thing.

[Nick]

I agree across the board. I'd add further that the organization has extremely low lefty depth, and has for years, making him even more important to them as a good risk/reward.

You can envision Rogers, Luzardo, Eder, Garrett, and a TBD lefty (maybe Guenther, he has been great in minors even if lacking on the squad) being the lefty core for years. They should trade for another play-now/soon lefty reliever this offseason and take some swings on MiLB deals to find another one as likely some of them don't work out. Also keep Bleier for next year as all of those guys clearly aren't ready yet. Luzardo addition is starting to develop some real depth here which is a good thing.

Dax Fulton, Antonio Velez and Will Stewart all lefties. Wish they had kept Vesia and not made that Floro trade.

I think most organizations would kill to have four lefties the caliber of Rogers, Eder, Luzardo and Fulton, so I'm not sure I quite agree we're super low on lefties. Lefty relievers maybe, but I would say we don't have many guys that look promising simply as relievers period, left or right. It'll be a matter of converting a lot of these starters to relievers starting next year.

[fish16]

this front office has really done well at the deadline for a number of years in a row now. Obviously they have had bigger moves but the de la cruz addition seems like another good addition and the perfect encapsulation of why you deal relievers who are upcomng free agents when you fall out of it. Yimi was going to be gone this offseason, the season's done, and we got what looks to be a nice 4th OF with some upside for him. Not sure where de la cruz fits in long term given the OF depth, but if nothing else it gives another guy to add to a potential trade in a 4 for 1 or 5 for 2 deal.