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I agree BB. He’s made the plays he should make and his throws look good. I’m assuming his range is nothing anywhere close to vintage Arenado, but he’s not screwing up the plays he should make as a third baseman.
Overall, I’m a big fan of Blaze being on the roster long-term. In a perfect world to me, he’s a right handed complement to Burleson and he could DH, pinch hit, and take some starts at 3B. But minus having a true third baseman, he’s filling in well – probably better than expected.
Yeah. Brian said that in today’s article. I wasn’t certain. He’s been called up this season but I wasn’t sure if he had been optioned as well.
Baez has played a lot of SS though so he could still be in line for 3B. It may have more to do with allowing Ortiz to play 3B at Springfield lately. Not sure. I’m really not sure Ortiz will make it there.
I think in part, this is the hitter Blaze used to be, which is why people were somewhat ho-hum about him. We were excited we got anything at all for a partial season of Matz, but Blaze was a contact-first bat with limited power – at least through most or all of last season. And it’s not like his base running or defense was/is anything to get excited about. He always has had the raw power, but it rarely showed up in games. Then, the staff at AAA worked with him (presumably), and he became an even better hitter with modest power. A really consistent hitter with some power. In my opinion, fighting for his life against MLB pitching which is far better than AAA, he’s reverted back to the approach that helped him survive in the Minors. That probably doesn’t maximize his potential, but it might make him a slightly below average MLB third baseman. That’s the best option we have there right now. Like you pointed out, Mendoza and Baez aren’t likely to be the future at 3B. Gurevitch might be next man up. But he just got to AA. So it’s Blaze for now. And he’s mostly ok. I like the ABs he takes. But hopefully he can slowly unlock some of that power again.
Peirera may be optioned to Memphis. He’s a long time minor leaguer who started at 17 and made the Majors at 22 with the Yankees. He hit a lot throughout the Minors and probably was a big prospect back in the day. He’s still only 25, but I think this is his last year with options. My guess is he goes to Memphis either now or on September 1 when rosters expand and Baez comes up.
BB – To me, Rincon would be the least surprising. Regardless of Rule 5 or not, he becomes a free agent if not added. Therefore, less to lose on him than someone else.
Barring an injury, I don’t see any way Bernal gets called up this season. I’m not sure what Denton is even thinking here. More than likely, Baez comes up when rosters expand. Pitching side is harder to predict due to injuries and the shuttle, but in general, the additional player should be Matthews. I could also see a DFA of Stanek and addition of Rincon or Winquest around that time.
Just 89 starters who have thrown 100 innings across baseball this season. The Cardinals have 5 of them (if I include May who pitched over 100 with St Louis).
Kyle Leahy (#29) – 3.44 ERA
Michael McGreevey (#36) – 3.59 ERA
Andre Pallante (#39) – 3.63 ERA
Dustin May (#68) – 4.38 ERA
Matthew Liberatore (#79) – 4.97 ERAThat’s basically 3 #2 pitchers, a #3, and a #4 or 5. A lot better than what most anyone expected.
No home runs tonight equals no runs. The Yankees hit two out for 2 runs. This series has been all about the home run thus far.
Ferguson looked solid in his debut. Good fastball with a couple wrinkles. He’s probably lefty #1 for us ahead of Bruihl.
I’m no expert on diagnosing hitters. Overall though, Herrera just hasn’t seemed right at the dish for about 2 months aside from roughly about a 5-game span that ended about a week ago. I know he went to Driveline over the break to fix his swing. But yeah, I was still super surprised they stayed with the lefty there only to bring on Bednar for the next batter anyway.
Herrera used to destroy lefties. You can see the difference this season as the Yankees stick with a lefty against Herrera with Bernard warming. And then Herrera strikes out swinging at a pitch above the zone. Ugh.
The Yankees then change to Bernar and the Cardinals counter with Burleson pinch hitting.
After falling behind 2-0, they intentionally walk Burleson to get to Velasquez who strikes out on 3 pitches looking completely overmatched. That would have been the time to use Walker if he was at all available. Must not be.
Well, hitting more homers is certainly a better sign than striking out every other at bat (or every at bat) even if it is Memphis.
I strongly believe Matthews is a lot better pitcher than Dobbins and is more likely to be part of the future core. But, maybe that’s the point with this move. It could buy another year of service for Matthews in the long run – maybe. But it will likely burn an option year which shouldn’t matter. Also, give Dobbins credit for pitching well in his MLB opportunities. AAA though has been a mixed bag for him.
Prieto getting the call up to replace Nootbaar. No Baez. Not even Saggese. I guess Baez needs more work and Torres gets some more runway in LF.
I think they saved $5 million LA with the loss of Noot and addition of Ferguson being essentially a wash for the remainder of this season. Really $4 million after they add a player at the minimum to the roster. But I get your point. However, I don’t believe that these transactions to save $4 million had anything to do with money. Or at least not hardly anything to do with saving $4 million today.
This brings up an opportunity to discuss the inter workings of WAR.
As BB points out, JJ is a 3% below league average hitter since May 1. Similarly, Ivan Herrera is 1% below league average in that same timeframe. But here’s where it gets interesting and some of you aren’t going to like it. Wetherholt’s 3% below league average is providing him positive WAR value. Not tons of positive value, but some. However for Herrera, his 1% below league average is providing him negative WAR value. Why is that? It’s because of the position that they play. WAR recognizes that 2B is a far more demanding position than mostly DH and part-time catcher and that second basemen typically hit far worse than your average DH. Therefore, it credits them more value when they hit close to average. Therefore, a roughly league average hitting second baseman who runs the bases well and plays stellar defense at that demanding position is considered extremely valuable, which is why JJ is listed as one of the best players in baseball.
I found that interesting too BB. That one is a bit of a head scratcher. I’m not sure why they didn’t just give the job to Mautz and let him try.
Fun game tonight. Great to see offense again. Maybe the weight of the deadline is off the players’ backs and now they can just play baseball again.
Nice work by Graceffo for the last 2 to keep the Yankees off balance. But Burleson is the big hero in this one.
I like this Yankees pitcher. Glad they didn’t trade him. Burleson with his third HR of the game – all the 2-run variety.
Bad example Rats. As Albert said, Flaherty’s value wasn’t high at the time. And despite our minor league system being far worse back then, none of those prospects we got back were top ranked in the Top 20 (I don’t think at least). We got Rom, who was not exciting at all, Prieto, who is still around and has been called up a couple times with poor results, and a lower level pitching prospect (name escaping me at the moment) who was interesting, but got hurt and became ineffective. I didn’t like that trade at the time because we watered down what little value Flaherty had for 3 fliers.
A better example to make your case is Jordan Hicks. In that trade, we got Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein who both made it into the teens in our prospect lists. Kloffenstein threw one big league inning and was released the next season. Robberse hasn’t made it yet and has been hurt a lot. Basically no value for what at the time was an excellent bullpen pitcher.
The other big trade that deadline was Mo dealing Montgomery for Saggese and Roby. This one still could pay off but hasn’t yet. I didn’t really like this trade at the time. Roby looks fantastic when he’s healthy, which isn’t often. Saggese came over and won the MVP of the Texas League but hasn’t really done all that well in the big leagues. Another example of prospects being risky.
They brought Dobbins up (I assume he was there traveling with the team) but also acquired Ferguson. When Ferguson arrives, a pitcher needs to leave. The Cardinals may tell him to wait a few days to report to give Dobbins another piggyback start before sending him back down. Other options are an option for Graceffo or Gastellum or a DFA of Stanek or Stryzecki. I’m curious which they choose.
It’s supposed to be a PTBNL coming to us. But that could have conditions on it like be based on how healthy Nootbaar is.
I also don’t know much about the 2 DBacks pitchers. I’m learning more now!
We have to do both well Rats. First we need to build a strong foundation and then buy talent to supplement it. We aren’t close enough yet. Compare our team to the Dodgers position by position. Are we better than them with any single player on our 26-man roster? Almost certainly Wetherholt over Edmans at 2B. Maybe Walker over Kyle Tucker based on recent results. That’s it. They would have 24 to 25 better players in a head-to-head matchup. Even the Cubs probably have a 20 to 6 advantage.
We have to build the base first. These prospects have a chance to improve that future or become traded for proven MLB talent when the time is right.
