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1:15 p.m.
RHP Miles Mikolas (6-10, 5.17) vs. RHP Braxton Ashcraft (4-2, 2.70)
FanDuel // KMOX // WIJRMikolas has been decent at home for the past two months but terrible on the road.
Home: 2, 0, 0, 2, 3 ER avg 5 1/3 IP
Road: 6, 8, 5, 5, 4 ER avg < 4 IP
I offer no defense for the offense.Ha ha, yeah on the offense but what can you do?
As far as Mikolas goes is there absolutely not 2 starters at AAA that we could give 2-3 starts each to just to give them a peek at the majors?
Would that screw something up with the 40 man roster?
Maybe they are not ready for the bigs but then again neither is Mikolas and to me any starts he makes going forward are wasted opportunities.
At this point everyone knows, including Mikolas, that they are just playing out the string with him. It is just as well, as in the long run we are probably better off letting the prospects pitch at the lower levels, and get through the rest of this season using Mikolas. We are not going anywhere but the golf course in October, whether Miles takes a few turns or a younger guy.
Speaking of young guys, this Bubba Chandler for Pittsburgh looks good in early trials. Add him to Skenes, and if Oviedo can get to being a starter again, they might have a nice starting corp.
Keller has club control left, Burrows looks good, Modzi too. They shut us out 3 in a row, not long ago.
In past times i might have taken the afternoon off and headed downtown to take in the game. Nice day for it.
“At this point having Mikolas pitch is just trolling the fan base.”
“What are the alternatives?”
I would say there are two alternatives. One involves a AAA pitcher. Memphis plays in the International League, home to 20 teams. In the International League this year, 18 starting pitchers have made at least 19 starts. The lowest ERA and 2nd-lowest WHIP of those 18 pitchers belongs to a journeyman reliever who has been converted to starting this year. His name is Curtis Taylor and he pitches for Memphis.
It doesn’t matter now, since the last wildcard team is 7 1/2 games ahead of the Cards, but a few weeks ago Pallante or Mikolas could and should have been replaced by Taylor in the rotation. Not because Taylor is going to be a rotation fixture going forward, but because the thing that absolutely is NOT working needs to be abandoned even if it means trying something unfamiliar that might also fail. Taylor has earned a chance. You never know when you might get a Simontacchi Hot Streak from some minor league veteran. (For you kids out there, Jason Simontacchi was a non-prospect in his late 20’s having success in AAA — just like Curtis Taylor right now — when the Cards called him up in 2002. In his first 13 major league starts he posted an ERA of 2.82.)
The other alternative was used to great effect in Detroit last year by manager A. J. Hinch. He spent the second half of 2024 rallying the Tigers to a playoff spot by rejecting his lesser starting pitchers and utilizing good relievers to eat up many “starter innings.” Basically he used 3 or 4 conventional starters for much of the second half, and fed the rest of the starts to bullpen guys like Holton, Brieske, Faedo, et. al. It was creative & risky and it worked spectacularly well.
I’ve been out mowing on the John Deere, push mowing, jogging, and watering the landscape.
Do we have any runs yet?
Pat Murphy and the Brewers have used that routine all season long. I’ll have to check the standings to conclude whether or not it’s a viable approach.
Obviously the entire advantage is to the Bucs in the sense that they split on the road with the team they’re chasing in their quest to relinquish the NLC cellar.
Judging from the box score and gamecast pbp, it seems like a good game, pretty well played by two evenly matched teams.
A nice, comfortable game that one could sit back and enjoy, though I would have enjoyed a bit more offense even more.
And the Cubs lost again to the Giants. 4-3 San Francisco your final at Candlestick Park.
And the DBacks beat the Brewers again. 6-4 Arizona your final at County Stadium.
The Cubs are missing chances to get back into the NL Central race. They now stand 6.5 games out with only about 28 games left.
Cubs only have 28 games remaining in which to be the Cubs. They’ll probably scavenge the final NLWC.
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