2023 Game Thread

[Nick]

WTF is a quality assurance coach?

[Todd]

WTF is a quality assurance coach?

[fish16]

why is garrett hampson on this team? what on earth is he bringing that everyone is missing? They need to bring Eury back and bring edwards up and stop fucking around. Eury was showing 0 signs of slowing down and this team was rolling. If they use Cueto or Hoeing in that spot in the rotation on Saturday this team is not serious about contending.

[sports24/7]

The wheels are now completely falling off. Again, I’m not sure how you justify being a buyer unless things get turned around in a hurry. You need a SP, (at least 1) RP, and at least 1 (probably 2) bat with a bottom 3rd farm system.

EDIT: I’m not sure why I keep saying seller when I mean buyer.

[Nick]

The quality of this team is not assured.

[fish16]

brazoban fucking stinks. he's been getting super lucky all year. how this team has not made moves yet is beyond me. i dont expect them to make moves that arent available, but edwards should be up here. half the bullpen should be gone. Hampson should be gone. Wendle and berti should not be getting this much playing time. Eury has no business being in the minors. DLC should not be hitting 3rd every day. Stallings and Fortes should not be the C partners anymore and they had no business coming into the year with stallings on this roster. This is ridiculous at this point.

[lou]

Go all in this offseason and sign the two biggest international free agents, Jung Hoo Lee and Sasaki.

I think pulling those guys will be tough for a lowly east coast team.

[lou]

The wheels are now completely falling off. Again, I’m not sure how you justify being a seller unless things get turned around in a hurry. You need a SP, (at least 1) RP, and at least 1 (probably 2) bat with a bottom 3rd farm system.

I just disagree with the last part - there would be immense interest in Eder and Meyer, and the next 10 guys in the farm are good/interesting second players in a deal, with a variety of power arms after that. They have the juice to make some moves but there would be no margin of error for sure.

[fish16]

you just know we are going to end up scoring 5 runs right after blowing up and giving up the 6th run.

[sports24/7]

I just disagree with the last part - there would be immense interest in Eder and Meyer, and the next 10 guys in the farm are good/interesting second players in a deal, with a variety of power arms after that. They have the juice to make some moves but there would be no margin of error for sure.

The thing is, you can empty the system and fill those holes with short term solutions, but is that worth it? Does that get you a WS or even close this year? Very unlikely. You could also probably get more quality if you eat all the money on some guys, but we all know that isn’t happening. So again, the move would be trying to add a longterm bat, with maybe a RP or serviceable SP thrown in, but I don’t know how many of those guys will be available.

Unfortunately, I think they’re going to feel like they have to make a move, and chances are it won’t be a net positive in the long run as they probably deal a prospect for a player with an expiring contract. I hope they surprise us, though.

[Erick]

brazoban fucking stinks. he's been getting super lucky all year. how this team has not made moves yet is beyond me. i dont expect them to make moves that arent available, but edwards should be up here. half the bullpen should be gone. Hampson should be gone. Wendle and berti should not be getting this much playing time. Eury has no business being in the minors. DLC should not be hitting 3rd every day. Stallings and Fortes should not be the C partners anymore and they had no business coming into the year with stallings on this roster. This is ridiculous at this point.

Brazoban hasn’t been lucky this year.

He’s not that terrible, just shouldn’t be any team’s best righty and has been ridiculously overused at times.

[Erick]

It would be hilarious if we come back and Johnny Cueto comes in. I think I would stop watching this season if that were to happen.

[lou]

The thing is, you can empty the system and fill those holes with short term solutions, but is that worth it? Does that get you a WS or even close this year? Very unlikely. You could also probably get more quality if you eat all the money on some guys, but we all know that isn’t happening. So again, the move would be trying to add a longterm bat, with maybe a RP or serviceable SP thrown in, but I don’t know how many of those guys will be available.

Unfortunately, I think they’re going to feel like they have to make a move, and chances are it won’t be a net positive in the long run as they probably deal a prospect for a player with an expiring contract. I hope they surprise us, though.

I agree 100%, which is why I am thinking guys like McMahon, Edman/Carlson, L. Thomas w/ Harvey and Candelario (+extension), Peraza, Westburg, etc. make sense as if you're going to unload years of control, you need some years of MLB control back. I also think doing something like that is culturally important - making the playoffs is a big achievement and sets goals and gets experience for these guys. Gives the fans something.

Where then, Bruce needs to step in and plug holes. But they'd honestly be pretty set through 2025 with their current MLB control of reasonable guys assuming 2+ MLB pieces come back with some control.

This is just a real THUD coming out of the break but they can make it up before the deadline but will need to do so immediately.

[lou]

Brazoban hasn’t been lucky this year.

He’s not that terrible, just shouldn’t be any team’s best righty and has been ridiculously overused at times.

I agree. The bullpen may be struggling from the massive use first half due to all the SP injuries. Scott is effectively the busiest RP in baseball, Floro and Nardi around 40th. Brazoban 52, and Okert 73. That's 5 heavily used RP. Then if you sort by innings, Brazoban is 14th so he's being thrown into the ground among those appearances. These dudes are a bit tired more than likely. No Rogers, no Cueto, and low Cabrera/Eury innings are being felt here IMO.

[fish16]

Brazoban hasn’t been lucky this year.

He’s not that terrible, just shouldn’t be any team’s best righty and has been ridiculously overused at times.

he's been lucky each of the last 2 years. he's a 33 year old minor leaguer who has way too big of a role. in the last 2 years, before he just came in today and gave up 2 runs in an inning he has 1.40 WHIP, 4.65 BB/9, and a 3.88 XFIP. that is not valuable coming out of the bullpen. He should be in a mop up role at best but realistically a AAAA pitcher. guys who cant throw strikes out of the bullpen are not valuable.