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Really worried our strength on fastballs in hitting and pitching will be what holds us back in the playoffs

This sucks but the game isn't over and it was a bad matchup, and I still love lynn.

Who is waivers, ruiz? I thought that he ended up being a trade when he was put on waivers.

I agree for the most part, but you can see how awkward it is when game plans are too aggressive in changing players. By that I mean the Yankees who tried to get out in front of expected strike throwing and ended up getting a bunch of quick outs as they are a patient team. But, there is a balance there. Yaz, Yoan, Sheets need to bring some patience.

Lineup vs. McCullers July 16, 2021 Anderson (2-4) Moncada (1-3) Abreu (0-4) Goodwin (0-4) Vaughn (0-3) Garcia(0-3) Engel (0-2) Sheets (0-3) Collins (0-3) Lineup vs. McCullers June 20, 2021 Anderson (0-3) Moncada (0-3) Abreu (0-3) Goodwin (1-3) Grandal (1-3) Collins (1-3 Vaughn (0-4) Lamb (1-2) Mercedes (0-3) Mendick (0-3) Goodwin is now Luis Robert Vaughn is now Eloy Jimenez The improvements are big. Let's get this guy. Sadly Cease had a great game vs houston on 7/16 before tiring out and a bullpen collapse. But yeah we didn't do much after starting game with a double and single.

Sheets has pretty poor defensive marks. Jose is somehow more spry.

Nailed it.

Romy had an extraordinary year, providing offense at similar levels and ages that far surpassed what Mendick did in minors. He then came up and still hit for a 91 wRC+...almost 30% better than Mendick this year. So I don't think it's that, but I sympathize with sox. Romy moving up 3 levels in a year and playing in playoffs is a lot.

It's an interesting choice. I thought it would be sheets easy. Against Lefties, McCullers is pretty much a curveball only pitcher. While Sheets has cranked a few curveballs and has decent Slugging, he ha k'd 33% of the time on them. Against Righties, McCullers is Sinker/Slider. Vaughn has crushed sinkers, his best pitch (4 seam fb has better expected stats however). But vaughn has been terrible vs sliders. And McCullers never seems to have problems just loading hitters with their weaknesses. Grandal has a good chance to be a hero.

This year was all about the playoffs for the twins too.

TLR was vocal about the Snell pulling after his hiring and how analytics shouldn’t make decisions.

And yet if you would have asked people pre season how many wins Sox would have if Eloy missed 4 months and Robert 3.5 months and Grandal 2 months 93 wins would have been on the optimistic side

Some of the early season stuff was really bad and like...ugh. However, he 100% did say he was learning about the team, and I do think he followed up on that. I do think he has been testing players, and I do think the playoffs will be him putting his players in the best position, which wasn't happening in april/may. Thankfully Carlos f'n rodon and Grandal basically carried this team to 20 games over and then we just kinda floated through some consistent injuries and slumps.

My biggest TLR worry was actually that last night Scherzer getting pulled early would end in an STL lead and TLR would respond by letting our pitchers go way too deep to show the pansy managers how to baseball. Fortunately that didn't happen.

This pre-emptively getting mad at TLR for decisions he won't make is fun. Playoffs are fun. TLR was horrible in the first half, and other managers are better, but I'm thankful he was able to guide this team into the playoffs with a remarkably healthy team that is well rested and playing good ball. He was able to manage Lynn's knee and Rodon's shoulder so we have both. Kopech is here in the playoffs. Crochet is here. And now they are going to be going 110%. No more management. No more holding back.

Yes, first playoff team in history to shorten their rotation.

No I think Lynn would pitch game 4.

I mean, regardless, if Cease is 3 then the point stands that you have Carlos and Kopech as two multiple inning relievers who can effectively get batters out. Ruiz can get people out in an inning. Keuchel can pitch innings ineffectively...so the only time he'd be somewhat of a help is an insanely long game, but even then isn't he just losing us it and ending it anyway?

Because Carlos Rodon made the roster.

Players like Hamilton have more value than ever in the playoffs, look at what Terrance Gore can do. Feels like every time Hamilton can get on base he scores.

I'd be lenient today, they may be waiting until last minute to make call on Jose.

I meant to say in this series I doubt Cease starts so between Kopech and Cease we have 2 non-starting long men. Keuchel seems like a lot there just for the edge long ass game.

I'm just assuming we'll stagger our lefties. if it were me I'd do Anderson Moncada Robert Grandal Abreu Sheets Jimenez Engel Garcia

I am certain Ruiz could give up 3-4 runs over multiple innings as well. They've stretched Kopech out recently, and in this series I doubt cease plays. Obviously some 15 inning game could happen but a 3rd long man who hasn't shown he can get people out in short or long stints doesn't seem much better than Ruiz, who with clean innings has just as much potential for a 2 inning stint.

isn't he still banged up thou?