Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Win tomorrow gets ’em to 3-3 in this stretch of 17.
Re Bruihl…Maybe he gets DFA’d after Wednesday to make room for Dobbins and then they bring up Zimmerman as the second lefty? His K’s are up from last year. Really too bad in many ways that Naughton is out. Really nothing there in lefty relief at Memphis just now. Hard to demote Fernandez after his last outing, and not clear that losing Bruihl would cost much.
Bikemike-
Got it. Could be. Dunno what conversations there were about how his arm was doing, though. That’s an awfully big change from his regular pattern.
Rats-
About Goldy…I think with the old management that would be more likely. My sense is that they want to let the kids play this year. But I wouldn’t mind letting Pozo go and having a righty 1B to sub for Burly now and then. And it would likely get us a hall of famer on the roster this year.
My only soft drinks now are Dr. Pepper on road trips and ginger ale on planes. Shifted to fruit for a lot more of my snacks. I’m waiting for cherries to be in season.
Bikemike-
Are you talking removing Dotel last night? His other two appearances this year he only went 1 and 1.2 innings. Barco going to long tonight means their pen, other than Dotel, should be good to go tomorrow. We might see a position player soon. Those last two games are gonna be hard. Dobbins drawing Skenes for his first Cards game is a rude welcome.
I’m really looking forward to watching Winn and Weatherholt up the middle for a long while to go…
The Cards have a couple 5 run wins this year, but have yet to win by 6. It would be great to get a wipeout, rest the key relievers a bit more, and wear down the Bucs’ pen a bit more.
Pugs–they had grilled asparagus tonight and I went for that instead of the broccoli. Just wanna make sure I get the record right.
This outing by Leahy makes me, well, a bit less inclined to swap him with Dobbins. Between Fernandez last night and Leahy today; Svanson only walking 1 in his last three games after 5 in the two before….are we seeing some good work by the pitching coaches?
6 NL teams have positive run differentials of at least 14 runs. Only one AL team has a positive run differential of at least 11 runs. Then NL has a record of 88-65 against the NL. Is this a fluke, or has the NL gotten to a spot where it is this much better than the AL? Some is probably that Washington and Philly on ly have 3 interleague games so far, but 10 NL teams are better than .500 in interleague games, and only 4 are below .500. Only 3 AL teams are above .500.
Oh, dinner will be carryout from a local grilling place tonight…chicken breast filet sandwich, a side of deep fried yucca, and a broccoli-bacon salad.
Who was that Fernandez who was pitching for the Cards tonight? If he and/or Svanson can come back to form, things get more interesting. Keller going tomorrow for the Pirates? Hopefully he walks a bunch of guys and we can get to the pen fast again. Hope Leahy can get them through 5.
That was so close to a three run bomb from Church. He is suddenly seeming so much more interesting.
Hopefully he’s listening to you, jnevel!
Carves ’em up in the 2nd, too, fanning the first two and then getting a weak grounder. 6 up, 6 down.
Memphis up 10-0. Should be 4-0, but the Norfolk CF just whiffed on a not that hard fly ball with the bases loaded.
In the the third, Matthews gets a moderately hard hit fly ball for a first out, a second fly ball that sneaks over the the fence just fair of the foul pole. Then a line drive single. Then a 104 mph liner to CF. then fans Barrero. He had at least three pitches at 94 in the third. Not sure if the harder hit balls were tied to his seemingly trying to get more velo. And with that, I’m switching to the big league game.
Matthews get Norfolk 1-2-3 in the first, with a K, an infield popup and a weak grounder. Velo topped at 93. Perhaps he is dialing back just a bit to regain control, recognizing that he can probably live at 93 given the rest of his stuff?
Crooks and Bernal are both removed from the lineup at Memphis shortly before the first pitch. Crooks was supposed to catch and Bernal DH. No word yet of arms that are no longer available. Dobbins is pitching and gave up 3 in the first.
With Pages leaving, I wonder if this is a moment to call up Crook?
I’d like to see Saggese swapped with Prieto. I think Saggese is better than this and could use some regular ABs. And Prieto could rest some guys in this 17 straight game stretch.
Dinner’s going to be a chicken breast, rice with dill and parm, and a salad, with a couple discount chocolate covered marshallow Easter eggs, bought in my annual day after Easter candy shopping.
Winn has sure come on. He, Burly, and Herrera are all at wRC+ of 120 or 121. Church might be righting the ship? 9 of his last 24, 3 walks, 6 K’s. Graceffo’s only given up 5 hits in 13.2 ip this year. Soriano has only given up 4 in 10.1. Too many walks, but perhaps they can be the folks who supplement O’Brien and Romero. Pallante looked different to me last night with the K pitches. Perhaps Dobbins flips with Leahy and the rotation is solid. There are some encouraging signs they could make the season interesting, especially if Noot really does come back in a month and looks like the good Noot.
But watching to see how quickly Walker can get back on track does seem the key for whether they have a centerpiece hitter.
Edit: If the bench right now is Pozo, Urias, Fermin, and Saggese, they are a combined -0.6 fWAR, with none in positive territory. Oof.
Thanks all on the Blaze Jordan takes. The point re his arm and lack of errors is particularly helpful to me just now. I’ve seen reports of his making swing adjustments that could mean that the early strong performance indicates he has stepped up. If Gorman can settle in, then having him come up near the trade deadline when they ship out Urias for whatever they can get for him, with Jordan resting Gorman and Burly, serving as DH some, and being the RH PH makes some sense. Perhaps the reps in Memphis will get him to average and he could replace Gorman if they decide Gorman is not going to be part of the core.
Has anyone watched enough of Memphis to talk about how Blaze Jordan is doing fielding 3B? I keep wondering if either Jordan or Mendoza could end up at 3B if Gorman doesn’t improve.
Whew! May needs to pitch very deep tomorrow.
jnevel–
Could be Svanson for the two instead of Fernandez! 🙂
Masyn!
With the three run lead, there’s a chance. Svanson for the 10th? Bruihl?
And right after I ask, the announcers say that Bruihl is warming up…
Graceffo went two yesterday. Assuming he’s out and with Romero and Stanek done, and with Soriano having gone the last two days, once you can’t use O’Brien any more, That leaves them with Fernandez, Svanson, and Bruihl.
They really need to get Fermin home and have O’Brien bring it home in 9.
Huge play by Gorman in an at bat that had me pretty nervous. And I like this Libby we are seeing today.
Looked like both Walker and Gorman swung at ball 4 on 3-2 counts. Could have been a bigger inning? Regardless, that went from worrying about a perfect game to the pitcher being gone about as quickly as I can imagine.
Just noticed that Gorman, at 14, has about as many RBI as Walker (16) or Burly (15). I thought that might be chances, but with runners in scoring position Gorman has an OPS of .783. He was at .567 last year, .509 the year before. Small N, but maybe a sign he’s doing something different this year?
Winn is at .350, Urias .125, Scott .310.
Scott (a) didn’t have much on that throw; and (b) seemed to take his time getting the throw off instead of just going for it. If Church eventually becomes CF, I’d think that the difference in arm strength would be part of the story.
On the east coast, the game doesn’t match up with meal times. Just munched on some mixed nuts and plan to get Chinese carryout for dinner.
Only 38 pitches through 3 for Libby.
Good to see Libby get through the inning in 6 pitches. Maybe he can go deep today.
Pugs-
With seats behind the plate getting so expensive, how much is having a seat a sign of one’s power rather than a result of loving baseball? If a team is doing badly, going to the ballgame is probably not a sign of power, and the ‘Stros haven’t been playing well. Just a guess. We’re living in a time where expense of game makes fair weather fans more common?
