2025 Game Thread

[Namaste]

I know it's a pipe dream, but if we could go out and get one of the SS Free Agents (Bo Bichette, Trevor Story, Ha-Seong Kim) it could be an interesting lineup in 2026.

C - Mack/Ramirez
1B - Mervis/De Los Santos
2B- Edwards
3B - Norby
SS - FA SS
LF - Conine
CF - Sanoja
RF - Stowers
DH - Ramirez/Myers

Bench - Ronny Simon UTIL, You could have Fortes come back, since Ramirez would be mainly a DH, or could keep another righty bat like Wagaman.

Deal Otto and Sanchez at the deadline.

Rotation:

1. Sandy
2. Max
3. Eury
4. Weathers
5. Mazur/Snelling/Braxton/Cabrera

White waiting in the wings.

Spend some money on the bullpen.

I agree 100% but Bendix’s hands will be tied by Broke Bruce forcing Bendix to use spare parts at that position until Caba is ready.

[fish16]

I agree 100% but Bendix’s hands will be tied by Broke Bruce forcing Bendix to use spare parts at that position until Caba is ready.

this. If they had any intention of signing an actual significant free agent SS at any point, they would have done so by now. Which im weirdly actually fine with so long as they actually start to spend in the fringes to complement the home grown core. The issue is they have no intention of doing so, and as a result will need every single thing to hit and have injury luck to ever compete. They can spend 20 million dollars annually to fill in pieces and accrue an extra 5 wins or so and have a real shot in a few years, but they almost assuredly will not do that.

[fish16]

And you took exception to my 22 game sample size for Jake Burger! Pure gold! Hahahaha I love it keep it coming!

the literal first words of my post are "obviously just a game". I was also referring to his body type. He's a big bodied dude. he's listed at 6'1 210 lbs and he will gain weight as he gets older and stronger. Reggie Abercrombie and Jeremy hermida also looked the part.

[Nick]

the literal first words of my post are "obviously just a game". I was also referring to his body type. He's a big bodied dude.

I liked his approach at the plate. The 9 pitch walk he took told me more about him than anything.

[fish16]

I liked his approach at the plate. The 9 pitch walk he took told me more about him than anything.

it's also nice to have some young guys with pure power. Felt like we went about 6-7 years from the stanton/yelich/ozuna era to this year without any real pure power bats outside of the one Soler year and Burger. Had a bunch of guys who could obviously hit some homers, but no real 30+ hr pure slugging potential. Got a few now with Conine, Stowers, Ramirez, DDLS, mack has some power, norby has power, mervis. Very early on a lot of those guys so it remains to be seen if they pan out, but the type of player is different than what they have had in recent years. Less guys like Corey dickerson, Aguilar, Cooper, DLC, Bell, anderson, etc.

[fish16]

joe mack was promoted to AAA after a tremendous start in his 2nd AA year. Would have to imagine Ramirez stays up for good i think. They both need to be catching and i dont see them moving mack back down if Ramirez was going down once Fortes comes back.

Prospect sites have Teel higher but they both feel like very similar players. Lefty catchers with pop while drawing a good amount of walks. I think Mack starts climbing his way to the middle of the top 100 lists by mid season. His improvement since the new regime came in with 7000 new front office and development people in place has been really great to see. He was truly terrible in Beloit in 2023. Follows a trend of several guys in our system finally actually improving and developing year to year as opposed to the Ng era and the Denbo era. Not sure if that's just better, more talented players or better development.

[Nick]

De Los Santos is 4-4 in today's game. Average up to .316.

[sports24/7]

joe mack was promoted to AAA after a tremendous start in his 2nd AA year. Would have to imagine Ramirez stays up for good i think. They both need to be catching and i dont see them moving mack back down if Ramirez was going down once Fortes comes back.

Prospect sites have Teel higher but they both feel like very similar players. Lefty catchers with pop while drawing a good amount of walks. I think Mack starts climbing his way to the middle of the top 100 lists by mid season. His improvement since the new regime came in with 7000 new front office and development people in place has been really great to see. He was truly terrible in Beloit in 2023. Follows a trend of several guys in our system finally actually improving and developing year to year as opposed to the Ng era and the Denbo era. Not sure if that's just better, more talented players or better development.

I was worried that Ramirez would get the Max Meyer treatment, and go back down as soon as Fortes is back, but this does seem to suggest Ramirez may be up for good. That would be refreshing.

[fish16]

I was worried that Ramirez would get the Max Meyer treatment, and go back down as soon as Fortes is back, but this does seem to suggest Ramirez may be up for good. That would be refreshing.

i would have to know the amount of time he would have to be down to figure out if id be ok with that. if it's a months long thing then that's a bad look. if its a days thing..... i could probably get behind that if it gains us an extra year, as much as i hate shit like that. I know there is usually some guys who get an extra year if they are down the 3 weeks to 1 month of the year. We're probably close to that with him. If it can get us an extra year in his prime, you'd have to consider doing that, and honestly they would have a more legitimate excuse than Meyer last year. That was pretty inexcusable with the injuries they had in the rotation.


Edit- nevermind, just read they already got the extra year by keeping him down the first 15 days of the year. So ya, he's probably here to stay.

[fish16]

So ramirez really looks the part thus far. Very few guys come up and look like they belong right away. not just based on the results, though that obviously plays a part, but the guy just looks like a big leaguer. I will again say Wilson Contreras looks like a hell of a comp. and not just because they look very similar. if he keeps up his 461 wrc+ he might be a keeper

[Namaste]

Not an ideal start for Sandy but it qualified for a Quality Start

[fish16]

stat line looks better from sandy today. Not watching the game but still seems a little shaky. He looked great in spring so hopefully it's just the rust of throwing 100 pitches every 5 days. Hopefully as he gets further in the year we start to see more consistency

[Namaste]

I guess there are things to talk about here.

[fish16]

bullpen hasnt been terrible thus far, but it doesnt instill a lot of confidence. Doesnt feel like it will hold together for a lot longer without blowing up. These guys just dont seem to be very good outside of Bachar, who walks a lot of guys, and Bender. Our top 7 guys in terms of appearances all have at least 5 walks with many at 7 or 8 walks. Tinoco hasnt been bad but he has 3 walks and 2 k's, which is not sustainable.

[fish16]

Robbie snelling with another great outing last night. He has thrown 22.1 IP, 29 k's, 3 BB's, 1.61 ERA, and a .90 WHIP in 4 starts. Cant imagine he is making another start in AA. Also wouldnt shock me if they promote him all the way up to the big leagues and skip AAA but i doubt that. Used to see that a lot more but not really anymore.