caulfield12

Hand (50/50 Indians keep him) Vazquez, Pitt (depends on standings) Yates, SD (on paper, best year of any closer and one more year of control like Colome) Greene, Detroit Giles, Toronto If at least half those guys are on the market, Colome’s not going to fetch a top prospect...

That play early in the game was a carbon copy of the ending to Sunday’s. Infielders playing out of position trying to make plays they shouldn’t. Rondon should have take his time to get one out in Oakland...and Leury should have collected himself and made a controlled throw to first to get at least one out there. Cubs’ fans are complaining about their defense, but it’s still light years ahead of us. Cordell wants to play hero ball and dive for everything....but he apparently didn’t study that RF corner in KC to know that it wraps around and would result in an easy triple or even inside the park for a solid baserunner in Merrifield.

And the Twins were coming out of a period where they had six playoff appearances over the course of ten years. Combined with the Mauer contract going bad, they were due for a rough cycle after having successfully (until the playoffs) competed for a full decade. They held on too long, and then it was too late (see SF Giants for another prime example.) But it should be noted they’ve gone through three GM changes and three managerial changes as well during that time frame. All the successful rebuilds witnessed major front office and coaching staff changes, except for ours...even KC changed to Moore and Yost.

“the only way he need's TJS, is if he needed it before the collision. there might be some evidence of this, considering he's been skipping the ball into the infield all season. how can a dude that big have such a noodle for an arm?” Someone wrote that at Twitter...was it Jay or Jimenez that had a top line or average velocity of 70 mph throwing from LF? That’s really ridiculous, I mean most of us could hit high 70’s or low 80’s pitching in 9th or 10th grade.

Steverson has a lifetime contract because he can take credit for Moncada and McCann...and Narvaez. Then Palka for 2018...that's enough, right?

Hard to believe in this organization when they just seem to be "mired in mediocrity" across both the front office, coaching staff and scouting/talent evaluation. There have been some tweaks (like Getz/Hostetler), but nothing has fundamentally changed the SOP of this organization, not with the same group in charge for almost two decades. We STILL underpay coaches/manager and scouts....have a smaller analytics department....the ONLY area where in the Top 10-15% in the major leagues is combined executive salary between KW and Hahn.

Seems to be the trend in the AL Central. Berrios and Buxton (especially after they manipulated his time last year) won't sign an extension in Minnesota, Lindor's going to be leaving CLE after already turning down a $100 million extension (which would have been a total bargain compared to Jimenez's deal.)

Shades of Rob Mackowiak in second half 2006...

I think he must have believed that Merrifield had no way of NOT just sliding directly into an out with his foot blocking the plate...

Nestor Molina for Sergio Santos says "hello!, what about me?" Not to mention that trade for Zach Stewart, Teahen and Jason Frasor involving EJax.

How many times this year have our outfielders had miscommunications this year, or infielders/outfielders or catchers/3B/1B? It's ridiculous. And it's not like the one between Cordell and Jimenez tonight happened in front of 35-40,000 screaming fans. As DJ correctly pointed out, they need to do something different in terms of their communicating style or routine out there....he suggested that the CFer keep calling 3-4-5 times "I've got it" and that the corner outfielders should be taught/trained to only call "i've got it!!!" twice. If the CFer's still calling after two times, the corner guy defers and the CF takes it. If the CF stops calling after just two times, the corner outfielder knows he can't get to that particular ball....he needs to then make a full commitment and CF will peel off or bail out. Whether it's Daryl Boston, Steverson, Cooper...Renteria, something needs to be done to shake up this team before they completely go south. If Jimenez ends up missing major time with a hyperextended elbow, it's going to feel almost like a repeat of last year's injury to Kopech, in terms of zapping all the energy out of the fanbase. And if they do go on to trade Abreu and McCann...there will only be ONE interesting offensive player remaining in the line-up, Yoan Moncada.

And yet will probably join Junis in setting individual career highs in K's over two consecutive nights against Sox hitters...

I assume he means the pitcher?

The Padres have Margot, Cordero, Myers (benched, bad contract again), Jankowski, Renfroe and Reyes. They’re a good potential trade partner, but I just shudder to think what low minor leaguer we’ll give away to take on Myers’ contract...and if they would eat roughly half of it. Josh Naylor is more of a DH, masquerading as a first baseman/corner outfielder. All seven of those guys have pluses and minuses, but would be better starting options than Cordell/Tilson for a variety of reasons.

Mike Cameron/Devon White/Eric Davis...those are three pretty good comps for what we hope is the floor of his potential.

The problem then is that trading Hosmer, Gordon, Cain, Moustakas, Perez...would have completely alienated their fanbase. Hindsight is always 20/20, it’s the same reason we held onto the likes of Contreras and the 2005 remnants all the way through 2012. Letting go is hard, for fans and owners alike. KC clearly attempted to hold on one year too long (2017), but it was not meant to be due to untimely injuries, their bullpen hegemony finally dissolving, and perhaps the most critical, the untimely death of Yordano Ventura. Signing Gordon to that contract (which he hasn’t lived up to at all until this year) hasn’t helped, either.

A three year window isn’t what we were promised...that means more rebuilding than sustained winning. Because that’s how long before Moncada and Giolito are gone. Nova, Herrera, Colome and Castillo are the biggest current contracts after Abreu, pretty pathetic....so they obviously have to invest that money into extensions and free agency.

31-41 puts them at 73-89... that’s far from unexpected, especially if Giolito continues to slide

He’s not home free yet for the HoF...

Greg is not at the same level of vitriol mixed with dripping sarcasm...not even close.

Abreu is having his best season? What the he$&?

It’s not a sure thing how much Rodon will pitch next year...granted, he’ll be fighting for his career and a new contract, but no way we can trust or rely upon him in a playoff race down the stretch. He’ll enter 2020 having missed almost exactly half (49) of roughly 96 possible starts from 2017-2019.

Well, no more so than if Zion Williamson blew out his Achilles playing 20-30 pounds overweight in the summer league. Blame...maybe not, but it’s also not like there wasn’t a huge red flag the day he was drafted.

Madson was a veteran and had plenty of postseason experience, and Doolittle would have been viewed as a notch above Colome. If we could get back a pitcher who did as well for the A’s as Treinen before this year, that would be good...but then you really need to get back something significant to make the trade worth doing.

Like Santana? If they legitimately want to compete next year...they’re already looking at Kopech on an innings limit, so they’ll need a #2 and a SOLID #4 if they are serious at all.