2023 Game Thread

[Nick]

btw, Eder since the trade in AA 5 IP 9 ER 4 HBP 6 BBs.

[Erick]

btw, Eder since the trade in AA 5 IP 9 ER 4 HBP 6 BBs.

That can’t be possible from the guy who was supposed to be our future #1, Lee Stone said so. I’m sure he now thinks Eder should retire from pitching since life is all about small samples.

[fish16]

btw, Eder since the trade in AA 5 IP 9 ER 4 HBP 6 BBs.

Plus burger is hitting .317 with an .879 ops since coming over here.

[fish16]

This week is the biggest week of the season. At the very least we need to hold our own and split. Cubs schedule is super easy for the next 2 weeks. After this ours let’s up a little

[fish16]

our hardest series the rest of the month is a 2 game set against the rays, and they seem to be falling apart a little. Their rotation is now completely decimated with injuries and i highly doubt wander franco plays for a while. If we can get through this week 3-3 and even manage to go 4-2, we're looking really good. The 6 games against the nats will be huge. We have destroyed them the last 2 years so if we can take care of business there it will go a long way to getting us back to 10 games over.

[Nick]

Edward Cabrera Minors BB/9: 3.1
Edward Cabrera Majors BB/9: 5.3

I know it should go up a little bit, big league hitters are more patient, but not this much. It's gotta be mental at this point. Need the best sports psychologists on the case.

[fish16]

One of the best developments in august is Puk getting back on track. Last 5 outings he has pitched 4.2 innings, 9 k's, 0 walks. Great to see.

[fish16]

Edward Cabrera Minors BB/9: 3.1
Edward Cabrera Majors BB/9: 5.3

I know it should go up a little bit, big league hitters are more patient, but not this much. It's gotta be mental at this point. Need the best sports psychologists on the case.

or mechanical and physical AND mental. He wasnt like this last year either. last year his bb/9 was still a high 4.14, but much lower than the 6 that it has been this year. Also have to remember that he has had this blister thing for the last month or so. Cant imagine that helped his already shaky control. I think this trip down will help a ton just to get his confidence and mechanics fixed against lesser competition. Your stuff has to be absurdly good to walk as many guys as he has this year and still have a 4.27 XFIP. I think he will figure it out just like Sandy eventually figured out his command issues. Even if he doesnt come back as a starter this year, if he can tame the command a little in his trip down, that can be a serious weapon down the stretch as a multi inning reliever.

Imagine cabrera taking Brazoban's role down the stretch. That can keep us in a lot more ballgames. I hope brazoban goes soon. The guy stinks.

[fish16]

I read that MLB changed the rule at some point that the September roster only expands to 28 now and not 40 like it was in previous years. Is that true? Makes for some tough decisions. I would hope that if that is the case, we see Cabrera up for Brazoban, and then Edwards and Hampson added to the bench.

Edit- trying to research this but cant find anything other than i guess the minimum roster is now 28. Cant seem to find whether that is the maximum as well and that rosters just expand by 2 guys or you are allowed to bring up more.

[fish16]

This team is really starting to come together at exactly the right time outside of the black holes at C and SS. The bullpen has really calmed down recently and settled into the roles of Robertson at closer, Scott and Nardi and Puk as set up man, Okert and to a lesser extent Lopez as the middle reliever, and the rest of them as long relievers. Sandy exploding again has helped settle the rotation that has seen guys fall off a little as they exceed their innings limits. Cueto has been a steadying force and just eaten some innings even if it hasnt been spectacular. And Burger and Bell have really made the lineup much more explosive and dynamic and given them an ability to come back from multiple run deficits that they just didnt have earlier in the year.

We got really fucking lucky the rest of the wild card field sucked at exactly the time that we sucked. Now we need to take advantage of that luck and start playing better baseball and separating from at least the Reds and Dbacks. Unfortunately i think it is going to come down to us, the cubs, and the giants for the 2nd and 3rd wild card spots as the cubs just have such an absurdly easy schedule that they will not be going away anytime soon.

[fish16]

Xavier edwards last year in AAA for the rays had 75 k's and 43 walks in 349 ab's. This year he has 21 k's and 46 walks in 321 ab's. He was also just 7/11 in sb's last year and this year he is 30/34.

[fish16]

i really hope josh bell continues to crush the ball, but every time he does it worries me that he might opt out of next year's deal for a 2-3 year deal. He had a terrible beginning of the year but his peripherals and baseball savant page were off the chart. IF he has a huge 2 months for us, it would of course be awesome, but you have to worry that he might opt out and try to get a multi year deal on the open market again.

[fish16]

sandy's peripherals are starting to regress to very close to where he was last year. K/9 is now 7.67 and last year it was 8.17. BB/9 is 2.27, last year was 1.97. GB% was 53.4 last year, this year it is at 51.7%. Fastball velocity is the exact same. BABIP is slightly higher this year. The biggest difference is the LOB%. Last year it was 78, this year it is just 68%. So teams are cashing in more this year which we saw throughout the first half of the year. Second half so far he is at 83% LOB so he has fixed whatever was going on with guys on base. Hopefully he can continue to be the horse we need for the rest of the year as i expect guys like Luzardo and Garrett to slightly regress the last part of the year with the innings they have pitched.

[Nick]

i really hope josh bell continues to crush the ball, but every time he does it worries me that he might opt out of next year's deal for a 2-3 year deal. He had a terrible beginning of the year but his peripherals and baseball savant page were off the chart. IF he has a huge 2 months for us, it would of course be awesome, but you have to worry that he might opt out and try to get a multi year deal on the open market again.

I have a hard time believing he'll get better than $16.5 million next year, but it's possible he'd look for a more long term deal, like 3 years $33-$36 million.

[lou]

I read that MLB changed the rule at some point that the September roster only expands to 28 now and not 40 like it was in previous years. Is that true? Makes for some tough decisions. I would hope that if that is the case, we see Cabrera up for Brazoban, and then Edwards and Hampson added to the bench.

Edit- trying to research this but cant find anything other than i guess the minimum roster is now 28. Cant seem to find whether that is the maximum as well and that rosters just expand by 2 guys or you are allowed to bring up more.

I believe it is 28 and you can't go over 14 pitchers. They'll call up an arm and Hampson at this rate.