2023 Game Thread

[lou]

At this point, I’d be down for a great starting rotation, our new upgraded lineup and just an absolute defensive BEAST playing SS every day for 2024 (or 2025). Nunez?

Amaya would likely be that guy over Nunez, but he is probably the heir to Berti as a utility guy. He only really hits lefties in the minors, so if they could find a SS who can hit righties a little, they might be in business.

Nick mentioned one of the better ideas IMO - Joey Ortiz - https://www.fangraphs.com/players/jo...position=2B/3B. This dude is never going to play with Gunnar, Holliday, and Westburg likely their starting IF forever come super2 deadline June 2024 for Holliday, with others like Mateo, Urias, and Norby looking for time as backups and competent. A lot of SP deals can be worked with Baltimore for their overloaded bats. Definitely something to think about in the off season. Ortiz would be a nice piece to match with some FA OF to help them, and god knows what they can do at catcher.

[lou]

I actually don’t think he should play against RHP at all, and was surprised/thankful that the Phillies intentionally walked him in the last inning to face Burger/Sanchez for some reason.

I don't think they have the bodies to do that with their current roster configuration as those starts would have to get apportioned to Wendle and Yuli and one of them is playing every day then. But maybe one of those two is better than Garcia. We'll see.

Cue - Edwards? Dane? Amaya? Can believe I'm saying this, Johnston?

[Todd]

Ivan Herrera would also be good business in the offseason. He is too good to be a backup, Contreras is signed long term, and they have multiple other catchers in their top prospects(although I don't know what their system is ranked).

[Namaste]

Insane game and HUGH win. Marlins were declared dead a minimum of 3 times in this thread. Totally wild that this was Burger and Bells first game and they contributed SO much. Castellanos catching Arraez’s warning track shot made me want to throw my TV off of the balcony.

[fish16]

There just has to be a role on this team for Edwards already. I just don’t get it. If you don’t trust him at ss fine, but there are enough at bats for him up here if you actually wanted to try. Sit jazz vs lefties. Give Arraez the occasional day off. The occasional start at ss to get his bat in there. You can move Arraez to first, bell to dh, and soler in place of dlc in the field occasionally. It’s not like dlc is so much better defensively. You can make room for him up here, just do it already

[Namaste]

“There’s something that they know about Edwards that we don’t know”

[fish16]

“There’s something that they know about Edwards that we don’t know”

That’s been my thought but at the same time the guy has been completely lighting up aaa for going on 3 months and really it’s been all year. I just don’t understand how he doesn’t at least get another look. He was solid when he was briefly brought up before. Especially now that we have the 2 mashers in Burger and Bell. I could see the argument before where they already had too much contact and no power, but those 2 really change the game. He deserves a look. He is putting up arraez numbers with elite speed in AAA all year with literally no cold streaks. He's hitting .353, .867 OPS, 28/30 steals, and just 18 strikeouts all year to 35 walks in over 300 PA's. He's been ridiculous.

[fish16]

jacob berry has held his own in his first few weeks in AA. I think the acquisition of Bell and the emergence of Johnston as an option for next year really gives him a full year next year to develop and be ready for 2025. Hopefully he can continue to look better. Cant look much worse than he did his first year in the system

[fish16]

looking ahead to the weekend, we seem to have gotten a little lucky with the pitching matchups early unless espn isnt correct. We do face montgomery and heaney but we miss Scherzer and Jon Gray and Dane Dunning and we get their number 5 perez. Though it looks like Gray has been injured for the last 10 days and might take Perez's place. Still, we miss their top 2 in Scherzer and Dunning

[fish16]

xavier edwards has started to play 3b the last few games. If the issue with SS is his arm, how would 3b work? Why not try to fucking kid at SS. If he sucks defensively, adapt, but you got to give him a try in favor of Wendle. Wonder if we could see some edwards at 3b, Burger or Bell at DH with the other at 1b, and Soler in an OF spot for DLC more often. We have the power now where there is no logical argument for Edwards still being in AAA. Imagine him in Soler's spot at #2 and then the bottom of our lineup has even more run producing potential and the top of our order are 2 plate discipline and contact monsters.

[Nick]

“There’s something that they know about Edwards that we don’t know”

If that were the case, you think he would've been traded at the deadline.

My take, I think they like him, but 1. have an aversion to giving young guys meaningful playing time in the middle of a playoff race, they feel guys like Hampson, Jonathan Davis and Wendle are safer bets. 2. Don't want to lose a guy like Wendle to give a guy like Edwards a shot. We've seen how they hold onto guys until they absolutely give them no choice but to release them.

[rmc523]

Huge game to pull out a win. Hopefully that turns us back around. Gotta win tonight to split the series.

Hopefully it's just a hiccup for Robertson - he's been good for a long time.

[fish16]

Today is a huge game for a bunch of reasons. Splitting after losing the first 2 and being down 5-0 last night would be huge. But big picture, this is a huge test to see if Cueto is actually someone who can be relied on for some quality innings every 5th day or if he was just lucky against 2 bad lineups. Much bigger test against this phillies lineup.

I would have liked lorenzon at the deadline and he has good overall numbers this year but digging into his game logs, he has really feasted on some of the worst lineups in baseball. this month he had 7 scoreless against the royals, 6.2 scoreless against the mariners, 5 scoreless against the a's, 6 innings of 1 runs against the royals again, 7 innings 1 run against the white sox, 6.2 scoreless against the whitesox, 6 scoreless against the pirates, and then 7 inning 1 run outings against the guardians and the mets. He's gotten lit up against the giants, brewers, dbacks, braves, angels, and even the rockies. We certainly cant be considered a good offense yet, but you can see why the advanced numbers arent all that special. Hopefully we can knock him around a little. Huge game.

[fish16]

With Cabrera's spot coming up Saturday, who the hell pitches that game? Eury doesnt line up for that day, Weathers is supposedly starting tonight. Soriano vs texas seems like an awful idea.

[Nick]

With Cabrera's spot coming up Saturday, who the hell pitches that game? Eury doesnt line up for that day, Weathers is supposedly starting tonight. Soriano vs texas seems like an awful idea.

Have to think Castano or Hoeing, both pitched last Saturday.