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Thompson calls these things, “unfortunate events.” Everyone knows that these types of things are the direct result of the evil baseball gypsies. The key is to have more friendly baseball gypsies on your side than there are evil baseball gypsies that are attempting to inflict baseball voodoo on your team. If you can attain that advantage, you’ll always be successful…
What a game! Glad we still had a pitch challenge left. Stewart thought he had walked and was already tossing his equipment towards the dugout.
The sad news today is that the Cubs tied it 2-2 with two outs in the last of the 9th against the Giants. Then the Cubs won 3-2 in 10 innings.
We can only control what we do. The Cubs are underachieving. They should beats those Gigantes though.
I’d have to shuffle the Nootz around in the order according to several scenarios involving factors such as who was currently swinging a weak or productive bat, pitching matchups, injuries, etc. I expect to see him plugged in at just about every slot from lead-off down to the 6 slot in the order. One thing that’s almost certain is that he’ll improve the amount of production generated simply by nudging one of several lifeless bats from the order. I’d say he’ll undoubtedly improve the offensive threat that this team features.
I’d mostly keep Wetherholt at leadoff to keep things simple this rookie year. I find myself thinking about putting Noot third, Burly 5th. If Burly hits 5th, does Walker see more strikes? And does a pitcher who’s just navigated Wetherholt, Herrera, Noot, and Walker get tired and make a mistake to Burly?
Yeah, Gags, in my estimation he’s not unlike a WC in the sense that you can dovetail him in at multiple slots in the order. Despite Herrera featuring the nice OBP, I’ve never been a big fan of him in the 2 slot. And I’ve always felt that the supposed advantage of the L/R/L/R placement was vastly overrated. So I wouldn’t see any issues at all with the Nootz occupying the 2 slot when Wetherholt returns to his current home at lead-off.
Noot’s offense had been tailing off for a couple years and we don’t know how much of that had to do with his feet. Another consideration is some of Burly’s success might be due to Walker hitting behind him. So I think I would leave the top 4 JJ, Herrera, Burly, Walker, and bat Noot 5th. See how that goes. If he makes himself a threat it will help Walker. Winn has pretty good contact skills so he could go 6th to keep them from just going around Noot.
The more I think about it, and read through the scenarios suggested, there just isn’t a good alternative to just going with Gorman at third. Nothing compelling at least. Trading a bit of defense for a bit of offense. There is no real good reason to push for more reps for any of the bench guys or Urias. There is no one at Memphis needing a shot at an infield job besides Jordan, and it seems like he probably isn’t an MLB third baseman. The only possible thing would be to put Jordan at third and tolerate whatever defense we get so that we can see how his bat plays at ML level. I sense that Oli doesn’t want to upset the DH rotation he has, so Jordan would need an everyday position.
Hard to say if Francona would have IBB’ed Crooks if he’d have PH for Pages instead of the Nootz. I’m not too sure he would have.
Bling-
I’m curious what Mendoza looks like, but he’s not a long run solution, so sticking with Gorman makes sense. A 3B prospect is top of my wish list when trading happens. And you are probably right re fifth for Noot. That’s where I was till just today. Patience….
Yeah, Bling, no matter where you place him in the order, he’s certainly an improvement over a hitter like, BEVACQUA…Haha!
I always forget about Mendoza. I think he joined the organization about the time puberty hit. This is his 9th year and he’s still only 25, so yeah, give him a chance.
With 62 games now in the books, you really can’t deny that this year’s team has done a nice job of avoiding any protracted bouts of lousy baseball. They’ve never been below .500 or lost more than 4 consecutive games this season and have featured two W streaks of 6 and 5 games. They’ve also featured a W/L record at .500 or above for every month since the ’26 season got underway. I’d go so far as to claim they’re the model of consistency, but they’ve only placed 62 games in the books…Tomorrow’s game is a must win.
upgrade Gorman and Scott and the lineup could be legit.
Same as the last 3-4 years we need 3 starting pitchers better than what we have and at least one of them needs to be a stud.
This team might sneak into the playoffs.
Next year I’d expect to make the playoffs – if there is baseball
2028 will be the year I’d expect to make a real push to win the division and advance in the playoffs.
No baseball in 2027 could throw a real monkey wrench into a building team like the Cardinals.
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