But the Padres are the worst team

My theory that these two teams are bound by fate due to Tatis might be true after all.

hmmm we would be kicking so much more ass, could finish at the hahn 74 win equilibrium. Bummer.

The @Caulfield Curse (SD #1 worst team).

Losing Liam for the season played a big role, just not meant to be this season.

Minnesota is all of a sudden 15 games above .500 and ahead of 4/5 of the AL East. 

56 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Minnesota is all of a sudden 15 games above .500 and ahead of 4/5 of the AL East. 

Amazing.  And they traded Hitting champ Luis Arraez!

1 hour ago, Quin said:

But the Padres are the worst team

My theory that these two teams are bound by fate due to Tatis might be true after all.

When you are baseball fundamentally stupid and can't execute in extra inning games with the ghost runner it shouldn't be surprising how bad the one-run record is. 

A lot of that is idiot Grifol bullpen usage, he made wrong move 80% of the time!

11 minutes ago, Soxfest said:

A lot of that is idiot Grifol bullpen usage, he made wrong move 80% of the time!

While true, there's also one problem - the bullpen is terrible. Joe Kelly was bad and regularly injured. Aaron Bummer was and still is awful. Graveman was acceptable, Santos was acceptable, Middleton might have been tolerable, that's at most a couple tolerable arms. Guys like Lambert, Banks, Shaw - they're borderline big leaguers, the guys who should be called up if someone else gets hurt. Crochet was rushed back so quick from TJS that his body fell apart, and he had a WHIP over 2 while he was here. And they rushed Hendriks back from bloomin' cancer to try to save the pen and his arm gave out because of it. Who is actually supposed to pitch in these games?

Second worst on paper, first worst in our hearts.

aren't we the third worst? SD +16 STL +11 CWS +10 or am I reading that wrong?

27 minutes ago, MEANS said:

aren't we the third worst? SD +16 STL +11 CWS +10 or am I reading that wrong?

Nah you're right, I fixed it

16 hours ago, Quin said:

But the Padres are the worst team

My theory that these two teams are bound by fate due to Tatis might be true after all.

I don’t think it is Tatis that bounds them 

16 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

While true, there's also one problem - the bullpen is terrible. Joe Kelly was bad and regularly injured. Aaron Bummer was and still is awful. Graveman was acceptable, Santos was acceptable, Middleton might have been tolerable, that's at most a couple tolerable arms. Guys like Lambert, Banks, Shaw - they're borderline big leaguers, the guys who should be called up if someone else gets hurt. Crochet was rushed back so quick from TJS that his body fell apart, and he had a WHIP over 2 while he was here. And they rushed Hendriks back from bloomin' cancer to try to save the pen and his arm gave out because of it. Who is actually supposed to pitch in these games?

So what exactly is the protocol to return to pitch for a pitcher coming off non-Hodgkins treatment with a history of a partially torn UCL?

1 hour ago, ptatc said:

So what exactly is the protocol to return to pitch for a pitcher coming off non-Hodgkins treatment with a history of a partially torn UCL?

Don't bring him back to the big leagues until he has gotten back to his normal velocity? Maybe a full 6 to 8 week spring training, maybe even longer as no matter what he did his body wouldn't be in full athletic shape after chemotherapy? Seems like a good starting point.

2022 AL Central, same rules:

Minnesota: 86-76
Cleveland: 81-81
White Sox: 70-92
Kansas City: 69-93
Detroit: 64-98

Lessons:

1. Cleveland's bullpen the last two years has been super strong. They have been a massive help to this team, they won a division title because of their bullpen.
2. Minnesota could have won the division the last two years had their bullpens not been terrible. Their bullpen is perhaps the top reason why they didn't win the division last year and it's the reason why they're the worst division leader this year. They need to fix this.
3. The White Sox might not be as bad as they were this year, their bullpen has been bad and that has been a major problem, but they also were probably worse than their record last year and they probably got a little lucky overall in '22. They were a 3rd place team, well below .500 both years if it wasn't for the 1-run game swings.
4. Neither Detroit nor KC have been any good and the bullpens haven't been important there. 

1 hour ago, Balta1701 said:

Don't bring him back to the big leagues until he has gotten back to his normal velocity? Maybe a full 6 to 8 week spring training, maybe even longer as no matter what he did his body wouldn't be in full athletic shape after chemotherapy? Seems like a good starting point.

Are you saying he wasn't in full athletic shape? He seemed to think he was. He was throwing the whole time so to back him way down to a full Spring Training really didn't make much sense.

2 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

2022 AL Central, same rules:

Minnesota: 86-76
Cleveland: 81-81
White Sox: 70-92
Kansas City: 69-93
Detroit: 64-98

Lessons:

1. Cleveland's bullpen the last two years has been super strong. They have been a massive help to this team, they won a division title because of their bullpen.
2. Minnesota could have won the division the last two years had their bullpens not been terrible. Their bullpen is perhaps the top reason why they didn't win the division last year and it's the reason why they're the worst division leader this year. They need to fix this.
3. The White Sox might not be as bad as they were this year, their bullpen has been bad and that has been a major problem, but they also were probably worse than their record last year and they probably got a little lucky overall. 
4. Neither Detroit nor KC have been any good and the bullpens haven't been important there. 

So you're saying they should spend more money to improve the bullpen?

Just now, ptatc said:

So you're saying they should spend more money to improve the bullpen?

Minnesota? Yeah, they have to do something. It is really mattering for them.

The White Sox? They got an excellent performance in 1-run games in 2022, and that at best dragged them up to .500 and 2nd place. A great bullpen performance this year would still leave them 3rd place and well out of the playoffs, so they would be better off strengthening their roster as a whole first because they have so many holes that the bullpen isn't the biggest issue.

2 minutes ago, ptatc said:

So you're saying they should spend more money to improve the bullpen?

If the goal is 90+ losses again...they will stick with their current bullpen churning the deck from the waiver wire philosophy.

The Royals worked because you had three near quasi elite relievers simultaneously (and relatively cost controlled) in Holland Davis Escobar near their primes simultaneously.

3 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Minnesota? Yeah, they have to do something. It is really mattering for them.

The White Sox? They got an excellent performance in 1-run games in 2022, and that at best dragged them up to .500 and 2nd place. A great bullpen performance this year would still leave them 3rd place and well out of the playoffs, so they would be better off strengthening their roster as a whole first because they have so many holes that the bullpen isn't the biggest issue.

makes sense.

Twins added Jorge Lopez in 2022 and he was a complete dud after All Star level in 2022.

Duran and Clase (CLE) both have great stuff but not nearly as dominant as they both were in 2022.

Even with 100+ there are so many guys throwing nearly that hard like a Santos on the Sox it's easier to time than years past.

Well, I would think that the Sox are the third worst, or worse, in most areas. 
 

On 9/13/2023 at 5:10 PM, Soxfest said:

A lot of that is idiot Grifol bullpen usage, he made wrong move 80% of the time!

Easy to make the wrong move when there's no right move among the bozos you have to choose from.