Jose Abreu

Going for 4 consecutive wins

Health concerns and walk rate/control. The latter is correctable, obviously, but I prefer guys who are more polished like Hamilton and Johnson. I do think Burdi has the higher ceiling, though

He'd probably be a starting shortstop on 8-10 MLB teams. Good trade piece for us, or a good replacement for Yolmer if we trade him.

Since all of his years in rookie leagues were in the U.S. (as opposed to Dominican leagues and whatnot) I believe he would actually need to be added to the 40 man this offseason to be protected from the Rule 5 draft. However there's no way any team would take a guy from rookie ball in that draft. Not sure when we'd need to worry about the minor league portion of the draft though, but I know it's not this year

He should see a one or two week promotion to Birmingham before the season ends like Eloy did. I guess the Dash are headed to the playoffs so maybe not, but I think he's clearly ready for a new challenge

Yeah I was about to say that. He's the one guy who has given it 100% since the moment he was traded here, and in a year where his knees are failing him, god forbid he doesn't sprint all the way to home plate on a routine fly out on which he actually was running pretty hard to begin with. I swear half of the time they get pulled for "not hustling", they were actually hustling.

Great rebuild game. Tim with good offense, defense, and baserunning. Moncada with 0 strikeouts and good contact. Delmonico looking good too

The one time we don’t send him on contact with 1 out, it’s with Engel on deck. That makes sense

Great at bat too, unlucky result. Maybe they’ll have a Tyler flowers like effect on him

I wouldn't really call him a starter when he's throwing 4 innings per start. I know that's just what Tampa does but he's still essentially being used as an (effective) long reliever

Yup. I would absolutely love him if he could provide good defense + a .300/.350 BA/OBP with minimal strikeouts. If he does that then I don't even care what his slugging percentage is. I just don't know if he can get to the point where he takes those walks, even if you throw in 10-20 HBP per year

Also, Ryan Cordell has been pretty solid since returning from injury

Eloy pinch hit single

That wasn't an attempt at me to add Hamilton but rather to protect the guys for this offseason. I now understand the value of waiting until next season for Hamilton- but what I meant is that I don't think it will be too difficult to find guys to cut in order to protect the Kopech/Cease/Frare/Ruiz/Zavala etc. guys. Not this season, at least.

Even after reading Fegan's piece I really don't see this as a problem yet. Ridding of Danish, Farquhar, Gomez, Gonzalez, Shields, Santiago, Garneau, Smith, Skole, Engel, LaMarre, Tilson, and Davidson would leave more than enough room for us to protect those who need protection. Then there are the guys like Avilan, Cedeno, and Avi Garcia who are fine players but might be traded. The 9 names listed in the post above probably all need the protection aside from Medeiros, but it probably wouldn't hurt to add him too. There's still just so much garbage on the current 40 man that this seems like a non-issue to me.

Moncada is batting .800 with a 2.833 OPS versus Junis, Kansas City's starting pitcher.

Never been too big on Burdi. To me it's easily Hamilton, and Johnson has the potential to get to that point by this time next year. Ruiz is nice too

Strictly offensively, how can you not? If you don't hit for power, you need to get on base. He projects to do neither. Edit: If he can just lay off those and walk, I'd be a fan. But he has said that he has no desire to stop swinging, which gives me the impression that he won't be taking many walks. His approach needs to be overhauled, much like our current second baseman

My concern is that he never gets to that 340 OBP since he doesn't really draw walks much

Welington Castillo is batting 2nd for Charlotte

No reason he shouldn't be in the Majors right now. Service time for a reliever? Please, he's ready and he has been ready for weeks

Moncada

I do agree that he should swing more with 2 strikes. But not on pitches that are called strikes 0% of the time, because they're nearly unhittable anyway. That's more what I was getting at, those 15-25 calls that were just indefensible for an umpire. If the pitch is like an inch off the zone, then yes, he should expand and swing.

Posts like these make it clear to me as to who watches games and who doesn't. If he were getting rung up on pitches that were an inch off the zone I wouldn't care as much. But when he routinely gets called out on pitches quite literally 5-6 inches off the zone, pitches that are called a strike in their respective locations 0-5% of the time, I really can't fault him for it, and neither should you

I'm sorry, I guess I didn't consider that thinking that Abreu is a good hitter and not an awful person makes me biased. Sorry I don't go out of my way to rail on him for every slump or every off the field choice he makes. It's so unfortunate that he's an above average baseball player, and he's such a monster for helping special needs children in his off time. Better?