Balta1701
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Posts posted by Balta1701
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1 minute ago, bmags said:
This is the nastrini train sir
And I like it when my trains are engineered properly and stay on the tracks.
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The good news is that no one is ever amped up on opening day, so we don't have to worry about him overthrowing things or over stressing that arm. We also can count on the manager to be responsible about his pitch count and innings count.
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If I'm being harsh, he hasn't fully earned the big league call-up by putting together a strong minor league stretch, his ERA at AA last year was in the 4s, he's only had 19.2 innings at Charlotte, but also weren't great. If you're starting him with the big league squad, the only reason you're doing it is the spring training innings. But, at the very least, he has had a season in AA and made a AAA debut, so it's not the same sort of jump you'd make with Thorpe who has barely reached AA.
It does look like you'll have to be cautious about his innings as he's topped out around 115 each of the last 2 years.
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2 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said:
They don't need to commit to a 5th starter, but they would then need a bullpen game one of those first games.
Example: Your second starter would pitch March 30th and then again April 3rd. That is 3 days rest.
Normally, teams have 2-3 days off the first 2 weeks which makes it easy to skip a 5th starter. We don't have that luxury this year playing 12 games in a row after the first day off.
There is usually a weather cancelation in that first 10 days, so it's possible that won't matter in the short term, but yes they should pick out a 5th starter whether it's signing someone or Kuhl or a plan involving Crochet or whatever.
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25 minutes ago, Tony said:
I feel like a lot of those concerns aren't based nationally, but more Chicago-based from the Fields cult.
I think the fact that Williams has been the likely #1 pick for more than 2 years and has been known to be such also put some extra scrutiny on every decision he made in college that isn't the case for other QBs. "Williams is crying after a game? That's a horrible thing for a future #1 pick."
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3 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:
Cease with two strikeouts in the first...97.2-97.4 with fb slider at 86-87.
Curve around 80ish.
Are the Padres at home? We were told their gun is slow by 4 mph so that would mean Cease is throwing 101.
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31 minutes ago, Jerksticks said:
This roster is full of dudes ready to ball out and try to win.
So optics wise, if they draft Caleb, you have to consider not only Caleb’s development, shot at OROY etc…but you have to do right by that locker room.
I think there’s a lot to consider about who starts the season as QB1. Do you just hand it to Caleb and take the lumps?
I think at this point it’s Bagent. Caleb would have to outplay him pretty significantly to get the buy in from everybody right? That’s not a given.
Caleb Williams will be starting for the Bears in the fall unless either the Bears draft a different QB or something tragic happens.
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16 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:
Only have listened to games, but is Stassi even functional behind the plate at this stage? Based on game thread comments, it sounds like there may be issues, though it could just be he's trying to build strength being off for near 18 months.
I personally don't care if either of these two have a .000 OPS as long as they can perform decent catching, game planning, game calling and pitcher mentoring Lee. Hoping one of the two catchers bow out in some way by May, Lee can stay up and catch 15 + games a month. Keep Chuckie and or Carlos Perez around as well for potential call ups.
Lee tuns 26 in July, think they should use the time to develop and evaluate Lee this year and next. Same with Colas and Sosa unless they already wrote off one or both. Think Getz has at least a rudimentary grasp of player evaluation, so better than Hahn, but whether he can run an organization, think big picture, work successfully within the confines of Jerry's budget and douchebaggery is an open question.
The story last year in Houston was that Maldonado being great at calling a game was assumed: so much so that the manager got outraged if there were any questions about that.
Some guys did use him as their personal catcher, Framber Valdez included. With Valdez they were happy to credit him when he had a good first half, but had no comments when he had a bad 2nd half. Their young starter Hunter Brown clearly worked better with Diaz who he had thrown to in the minors, but Brown was forced to work with Maldonado in the 2nd half to get ready for the playoffs when Maldonado was guaranteed to start (despite Diaz being better offensively and defensively by a lot). Brown struggled with this and eventually did not make their playoff rotation.
None of that could ever be Maldonado’s fault though because everyone knows he calls a good game and that can’t be questioned.
There are hints that this led to organizational friction last year. Dusty had barely retired before new GM Dana Brown took the unusual step of declaring Diaz his 2024 starting catcher over 5 months from opening day.
So you will hear that Maldonado calls a great game. Whether that’s true or not, it will never be questioned, and the only thing that will give Lee an opportunity is injury, if last year is any indication.
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3 hours ago, Quin said:
I know, Spring Training, but if Korey Lee keeps this up and Martin Maldonado continues being the worst major league hitter on the team, is Maldonado gonna be the recipient of the Jeff Keppinger award?
Fwiw, this is exactly how Maldonado was treated last year. Way better catcher offensively and defensively in Yainer Diaz constantly on the bench because Dusty has to have his veteran catcher.
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19 minutes ago, WestEddy said:
Somebody posted in the last couple of days about guys keeping their heads down, and just playing. If they let the issue dwindle away, teams will stash them on the roster. A guy like Bauer who is just too out there, taunting tween girls online about their looks, I don't think a team wants to deal with that. Clevenger is just a shitty teammate. I remember when Brett Lawrie was on the Sox. Abreu hit a key home run, and the dugout went nuts. Lawrie was the first out to hug Abreu, and Jose put his arms out to stop him. You could clearly see Abreu telling Lawrie to back off and get away. I see Clevenger as that level of pariah.
Regardless of exactly why, the league has been super clear on this. Clevinger was actually a pretty good pitcher last year when healthy. Despite teams being desperate for pitching last year, he wasn’t moved at the deadline when the white Sox could have paid part of his contract, he wasn’t picked up on waivers when a team would have owed him about $6 million for September and the playoffs, and he’s unsigned now. The Dodgers gave up two actual pitching prospects to take on nearly $10 million for Lynn and Kelly and despite their rotation being a bunch of corpses by September they wanted no part of him.
Someone may still sign him, but from the perspective of the White Sox, if they sign him and he’s quite good, he’s still likely untradeable. You spend money on him, get 150 really good innings, and zero guys who could contribute to your next winning team.
The White Sox are better off using those innings on waiver claims and churning that 40 man roster Spot for the year. While not guaranteed, at least that gives some chance of finding a piece that improves Them long term.
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12 hours ago, Stinky Stanky said:
Clevinger takes the ball every 5 days and gives you a chance to win. Plus he's not in jail or close to it. Judge not lest you be judged.
Missed this one last night. Clevinger most certainly does not take the ball every 5th day, he missed nearly all of July last year and has had TJS twice.
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22 minutes ago, ScootsMcGoots said:
Who the f*** is Chad Kuhl lmao
Back of the rotation sinkerballer, started in Pittsburgh, I believe Colorado last year.
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47 minutes ago, Milkman delivers said:
The f***?
Very glad I don’t know any details about that.
Yeah this was right before the Cubs traded for him. I do think teams are paying more attention to this now, thanks to both stricter league policies and incidents like Bauer and Clevinger where teams didn’t do their homework before a signing.
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1 hour ago, Jerksticks said:
Eh. What about just making a stand and saying the best 26 guys come north. If Thorpe is in there he’s in there.
Totally merit based for everything.
There is almost no version of a merit based promotion where I’d say that a guy who has barely pitched in AA should come north based on a few innings against inconsistent lineups in the spring.
Send him to BHam and if he’s dominant for a month move him to Charlotte. If he’s dominant there for two months, great let’s see him at the all star break. Thats merit based promotions.
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1 minute ago, LittleHurtCG said:
Didn't one of the pieces in the Santos trade already go down with a shoulder issue?
You mean, um, Santos?
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3 minutes ago, Nardiwashere said:
Montgomery, Thorpe, Ramos, Quero, Zavala, Nastrini, Iriarte, Eder, Cannon, Fletcher, Leasure, Berroa, Bush.
While possible, an appearance in 2025 is very aggressive for Zavala. He is 19 currently and has 50 plate appearances in High A ball. A normal pace for him would be High-A for most of 2024, AA for most of 2025, some time at AAA in 2026, and a big league debut that year. He could be better than this, but rushing guys up based on the needs of the big league club rather than giving guys time to grow up is very much a Hahn thing.
Quero, as a catcher, is also a guy who could easily be a 2026 callup, giving him more time to be comfortable with catching. That would be repeating some levels for him, but with a catcher who you expect to be a good defender, that can be important.
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10 minutes ago, Nardiwashere said:
I can't believe they'd trade for a guy who couldn't hit 90mph.
Let's say he is low 90s like everyone says. Is it possible for guys his age/experience to just gain a couple mph or is he what he is at this point?
Some guys do spike in their velocity but it isn’t all that common at this level, usually velocity goes the other way as they get older. If he’s in the high 80s this does seem down even from the scouting reports on him last year, that could be something he recovers during the year, unless there’s a health issue?
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12 minutes ago, TaylorStSox said:
I want to say Pitching Ninja did a video on Gio which showed it really wasn't the sticky stuff, but I'm not completely sure. I believe he's one the best examples of a guy whose delivery was way more important than his spin rate and velo. A good comp would be Mark Prior.
I think the spin rate doesn't' show up on the changeup specifically, but he never got anything like that ridiculous changeup without the sticky stuff. The spin rate drop shows up on the fastball, but the movement showed up on the changeup.
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Just now, caulfield12 said:
Aren't you or weren't you in Texas relatively recently? Texas A&M? (Maybe Texsox will chime in as well.)
If you had 5-6 days (one week in Plano/Dallas, July 11-23 is timeframe), would you drive back and forth to San Antonio for another 5-6 day trip OR back and forth to Puerto Rico if cost wasn't a consideration?
Just curious...
I am likely teaching a class over the summer so ditching the class costs me money for a replacement. Is there some big financial reward in whatever you're asking?
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1 minute ago, caulfield12 said:
Crochet as opener...
That....makes way more sense than I want to admit. I'm leaving.
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6 minutes ago, TaylorStSox said:
I think it had the movement of a 70 change, but he struggled so much with his arm slot and extension that it went from a plus change to a mediocre curve. I don't think his velocity was the thing that broke him, it was his delivery. He was always in his own head and always struggled with repeating.
Naw, he could just make that change work repeatably when his hand was coated with spidertack. His spin rates and career progression are super clear. He started working with Katz, Katz's big thing was sticky stuff. Giolito immediately developed a super aggressive changeup that destroyed people for 2 years, including a no-hitter. He lost that Change on June 15, 2021. He tried to come up with other arm slots, different pitch rotations to overcome it, it was acceptable, but not nearly as dominant as he was with the sticky stuff change. Ethan Katz parlayed this into a major league pitching coach job and got either 60% or 80% of his starting pitchers using the same sticky stuff, and all of that changed when MLB instituted hand checks, leading to 1-week spin rate drops for 3 of his starters all at the same time and a 4th who threw mostly a 2-seamer and whose career suddenly self destructed.
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Just now, baseball_gal_aly said:
Keith Law said that Giolito had a 70 change in 2019-20
Please stop.
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20 minutes ago, SoxAce said:
Or it can help Thorpe that he has veteran help at ST who can maybe teach him a different pitch grip on a pitch and give him advice (i.e. Shields with Giolito).
Lucas Giolito did not benefit from anything prior to the 2019 season, where a non-MLB pitching instructor named Ethan Katz instructed him in the benefits of using Spidertack to enhance the grip and spin of his pitches. This commentary on Giolito's success from 2019 through June 14 2021 needs to seriously stop, it's ignoring what we know happened. Thorpe is not going to follow Giolito's lead and have success using sticky stuff. That magical changeup disappeared in one day and never returned and that day was June 15, 2021, the day the sticky stuff ban started. Giolito tried to work around its loss with inconsistent success, with more focus on his fastball and slider than on striking people out using the change.
You are making me remind people that Josh Donaldson was right, Giolito's pitches were more hittable when less sticky.
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Garrett Crochet named Opening Day starter
in Pale Hose Talk
Posted
You're asking me to gamble on whether Grifol will be responsible or irresponsible.