SigBaby

I think an ideal lineup at this point would be 1. Escobar 2. Trout 3. Calhoun 4. Pujols 5. Cron 6. Simmons 7. Perez 8. Gia/Pennington 9. Ortega/Gentry But it wont happen because MS refuses to separate Trout and Pujols

Just a couple things I've noticed i dont know if they've been mentioned yet ,but: 1) I've noticed we've played our regular lineup quite a few times already this spring training with more consistency than we have have in past years. Maybe i'm just not remembering correctly, but it seems like at least 6 of our starters are regularly in there with most of the bench pieces like Pennington or Gentry getting most of the other starts. Guys like Cowart, Kubitza and Ortega don't seem to be getting much of a chance to prove themselves although Ortega's looked good so far as a depth outfielder. 2) Why haven't we picked up at least one free agent pitcher for depth? It seems like everyday we're starting one of our 5 starters and Nate Smith is our only guy not in the rotation who has started a game. I'm not saying they're good pitchers, but why not sign a guy like Jerome Williams or Chad Billingsly to a minor league deal? Maybe the club's waiting for other teams to make roster decisions before picking up some veteran guys to stash in the minors.

The Escobar-Gott trade was actually a good one for us. Outside of a few elite relievers (Wade Davis, Street, Kimbrel) relievers fluctuate a huge amount and have a lot less value than a solid everyday player. Look at a familiar face in Mark Lowe- gives up the walk off bomb to Freese in the World Series, pitches horribly for the Angels for about a month, then churns out a fantastic season last year.

From what I saw last year, Freese was fine with making plays on balls hit at him, it was his range that was an issue. It would serve the defense best obviously to have range at 2nd and 3rd but with the presence of Simmons, we can afford to have a less mobile third baseman who simply makes the plays on balls hit to him. It would've been best served to have a rangy second baseman which Gia is not and Escobar could be given his experience at shortstop.

At that price I hope we at least made an offer. I think gia at second isn't a big issue but it wouldn't hurt to have flexibility.

Thu Oct 02 Minnesota at Green Bay Sun Oct 05 Atlanta at New York Giants Baltimore at Indianapolis Buffalo at Detroit Chicago at Carolina Cleveland at Tennessee Houston at Dallas Pittsburgh at Jacksonville St Louis at Philadelphia Tampa Bay at New Orleans Arizona at Denver Kansas City at San Francisco New York Jets at San Diego Cincinnati at New England Mon Oct 06 Seattle at Washington

We need to win every home playoff game. Weav's average at best on the road

Yeah not quite understanding the hate for the guy. Like it or not he has been the face of baseball over the course of his career and deserves to go out this way. Only thing that has sucked about his goodbye tour was that Paul Konerko got no attention to his retirement.

Thu Sep 25 New York Giants at Washington Sun Sep 28 Buffalo at Houston Carolina at Baltimore Detroit at New York Jets Green Bay at Chicago Miami at Oakland Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh Tennessee at Indianapolis Jacksonville at San Diego Atlanta at Minnesota Philadelphia at San Francisco New Orleans at Dallas Mon Sep 29 New England at Kansas City

1. Calhoun RF 2. Trout CF 3. Pujols 1b 4. Hamilton DH 5. Kendrick 2b 6. Aybar SS 7. Freese 3b 8. Ianetta C 9. Navarro LF Conger Beckham McDonald Campana Cowgill Weaver Shoemaker Wilson Street Smith Jepsen Morin Rasmus Grilli Thatcher Santiago

Streets only pitch is his slider

Best case scenario for us: Royals win the central Mariners and Tigers/A's are the wildcards with the Mariners winning. We play Mariners in ALDS Orioles lose to Royals in ALDS

Thu Sep 18 Tampa Bay at Atlanta Sun Sep 21 Baltimore at Cleveland Dallas at St Louis Green Bay at Detroit Houston at New York Giants Indianapolis at Jacksonville Minnesota at New Orleans Oakland at New England San Diego at Buffalo Tennessee at Cincinnati Washington at Philadelphia San Francisco at Arizona Denver at Seattle Kansas City at Miami Pittsburgh at Carolina Mon Sep 22 Chicago at New York Jets

Thu Sep 11 Pittsburgh at Baltimore Sun Sep 14 Arizona at New York Giants Atlanta at Cincinnati Dallas at Tennessee Detroit at Carolina Jacksonville at Washington Miami at Buffalo New Orleans at Cleveland New England at Minnesota Seattle at San Diego St Louis at Tampa Bay Houston at Oakland Kansas City at Denver New York Jets at Green Bay Chicago at San Francisco Mon Sept 15 Philadelphia at Indianapolis

Usually his change up is pretty straight and his back up fastball he throws to lefties sits in the high 80s. Maybe I haven't been watching him enough recently but he's thrown a couple really good pitches at 77 with a lot of running movement. Whatever it is it looks really good

Thur Sept. 4 Green Bay @ Seattle Sun Sept. 7 Buffalo @ Chicago Cincinnati @ Baltimore Cleveland @ Pittsburgh Jacksonville @ Philadelphia Minnesota @ St. Louis New Orleans @ Atlanta New England @ Miami Oakland @ New York Jets Tennessee @ Kansas City Washington @ Houston Carolina @ Tampa Bay San Francisco @ Dallas Indianapolis @ Denver Mon Sept. 8 New York Giants @ Detroit San Diego @ Arizona

His bat is far better than Iannettas. I'm actually fine with sticking with Conger/Iannetta though. Conger's bat is better than what we've been seeing with him he makes a decent guy to share time with Iannetta. I wonder though, would it be worth trading for BJ Upton if it also gave us the opportunity to get Mike Minor? Upton + Minor for Kendrick seems possible

Yeah i see this giving Weaver a new spark. He's looked mopey on the mound recently and without much energy.

Freak accident yes and it obviously sucks that he got injured. But I can't be the only one who felt nervous that he'd sustain an arm injury if he kept on his current pace of innings. It would have been nice to have depth not just as insurance for him but for Wilson, Weaver, even if Shoe or Santiago falter. Richards does the whole "inverted W" thing when he pitches, which has been linked to Tommy John. How many young guys with a fastball like his stay healthy over a 200+ inning season?

Do you feel confidant that we can win stay in first with our current rotation? I'm not talking about getting Price or Lester, we should've gotten a guy who could give us a better chance to win than Randy Wolf

I agree, but so were Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey, Corbin and the list goes on for young pitchers who are forced into heavy workloads. I know it wasn't a workload related injury but we should have been better prepared with more depth than Randy Wolf

I completely agree on the type of injury being one he could have sustained at any point, but I always thought it was stupid to rely so heavily on him when he's never thrown this many innings. But the point is he was likely to get injured at some point and this team did nothing to prepare/ had no plan to limit the workload. I can't be the only one who thought he was an injury waiting to happen, it just didn't occur in the expected way

Bartolo

We don't need another starter Thank god its not an arm injury like I thought he would sustain, but anyone who was thinking Richards would make it through well over 200 innings was an idiot

Weaver looks bad again. Same issue he's had in recent games: he gets ahead but can't put hitters away and misses his spot in pitcher's counts. Thank god for Calhoun