stormthetrooper

Next one up, probably

I'm from Brazil, therefore soccer is something we all know and follow. When a team is in a crisis (like we are), FOs, fans and the media as a whole usually says the team needs to create a "fato novo". Fato novo could be translated, in this context, to create a new environment or situation. In reality, this means "we cannot pinpoint what are you doing wrong, but this team is in a slump and you cannot figure things out, so bye bye, we are hiring someone else to rally the team until they figure things out". This is often highlighted as one of the reasons of why our soccer is unprofessional, considering managers wants to fire coaches on this excuse after a 3 games losing streak, but when t comes to Maddon, I think it could really make sense. Maddon has his coaching dogmas and, within them, there's literally nothing else he can do other than go really crazy and have Velasquez playing leadoff, Trout batting 8th, start Loup...other than non-sensery, he is at his ceiling. Stefanic and Wallach are the only minors that could realistically change something at this point and not enough to turn things around. Firing Maddon could either derail us for good or allow someone else to rally the team. At this point, it's either this or things clicking back again by magic, because coaching-wise, Maddon did everything he could within his own dogmas.

I specially agree that this needs to be fixed with the starting rotation. We don't have a 6th starter right now, with Silseth and Diaz going back and forth. Syndergaard needs to figure it out his inner wall, Lorenzen and Detmers are good for their roles at this point but cannot be expected to lead the rotation (both are overplaying their expectations IMO). Ohtani is clearly in need of a full day or 2 of rest and a good 10 days off the mound, doesn't matter if he thinks his stamina is endless. We need to trade for a good starter that can guarantee us 7 IP in a week, at least, and a 2B bat that can make our back of the lineup something dangerous (I posted this and I'll maintain: we need to overpay to get Bogaerts and Eovaldi. Doesn't matter if only one of them stays for next year). We need Maddon to stop fucking around with his Maddonomics and play the best. Let Walsh hit every day, keep our best OF defender on the field instead of Lagares and play Stassi 5 days per week. Hell, give Suzuki a symbolical spot and bring Wallach in. Keep Silseth and Diaz as long relievers until they are more ready (the Detmers approach of throwing to the wolves only sorta works when you already punted the season). This should relieve the pressure on the bullpen and allow the relievers to play as good as early on the season.

Yes, this is my reasoning. The major reason of why our pen collapsed in May is, at least for me, being overstaffed due to starters not going deep. When you have your starters going less than 5 innings in 4, 5 games in the week, no bullpen can survive. I much rather get a known asset in Eovaldi, Castillo, Mahle or even Stroman than going for relievers that are volatile in their nature. Our staff is already decent. Loup, Tepera, Ortega, Herget and Bradley, paired up with Silseth, Quijada, Junk and Diaz going to long reliving duties, is a decent group if you don't overextend them.

Losing streak aside, we are still in sole possession of the WC3 spot, a still solid 2.5 games difference from the Rangers and even more from the White and Red Sox and, even better, just 3.5 GB the Rays and 4 GB the Blue Jays for the WC1 spot. The Astros are very likely impossible to reach, but the sole focus for this season should be to make the playoffs. You can pile up as many elite players as you want, creating a winning culture is more important and effective. I'm trying to be realistic here, so do call me out if a trade like that makes no sense. I have two scenarios in my head: (a) if the Red Sox establishes themselves as sellers in the deadline and (b) if they recover just enough to not sell out rentals. (a) - Red Sox partner Send: Jose Suarez, Jaime Barria, Luis Rengifo, Sam Bachman (#2 prospect), Landon Marceaux (#11 prospect), Arol Vera (#6 prospect) Receive: Nathan Eovaldi, Xander Bogaerts, Kiké Hernandez, Kutter Crawford (#24 prospect) I will get this out of the way: if what it takes is Adell or Bachman, I would include them. Adell reached his ceiling and won't get the needed ABs here, at least not for the short term, and Bachman's injury history concerns me a lot. However, I do think this is a decent package for a pair of rentals, even if they are high-level rentals. Eovaldi still has 3-4 years left in the tank and is pitching really well. With the doubts around Thor, I would love to skip the line and ink Eovaldi long term. If Syndergaard gets it going, even better. Bogaerts I don't even need to argue here, he would be instantly our 4th best batter and create a monster of lineup. His bad glove can be more than covered by Velasquez. Kiké Hernandez is a good utility player and better than Wade should we need to start someone at the OF (and certainly better than Lagares). Besides, I love clutch bats and Kiké is terribly clutch. Crawford is the low-ceiling, high-floor type of prospect that I like and could make an early cameo. As for the Red Sox, it is blatant that this package lacks firepower. If they intend on keep Eovaldi, I do think we'll need to include Bachman or even Adell, but I like the nucleus. It is solid. Suarez and Barria, although without a spot in our rotation, would give the Red Sox a safe floor and innings eaters, one thing that they need desperately (Whitlock and Hill being forced to start is working, but for how long?). Vera is the big prospect to make a name, Marceaux is an OK pitcher for all that I read on and Rengifo is a solid, if unspectacular, INF. Bachman is our top prospect not in the majors, so this would be the highlight. I like Suarez, I really do, but the emergence of Diaz and Silseth made him redundant. We can roll a Ohtani/Eovaldi/Sandoval/Thor/Lorenzen/Detmers rotation and rely on Silseth, Diaz and Junk as long relievers/spot starters. We also have Bush on his way up. I'm safe with letting go of Suarez and Barria. (b) - Other partners Cincinatti Reds Send: Jo Adell, Jose Suarez, Sam Bachman (#2 prospect), Arol Vera (#6 prospect) Receive: Jose Castillo, Brandon Drury or Send: Jo Adell, Arol Vera (#6 prospect), Elvis Peguero Receive: Tyler Mahle, Brandon Drury, Andrew Abbott (#12 prospect) I'm still high on Mahle, yes. He's not top of the rotation material like Eovaldi or Castillo, but he is generally very solid. I understand that Adell would be a severe overpay, but Mahle is the type of starter that, even if he won't pitch a no-hitter anytime soon, you just know he'll walk to the mound once every day and pitch 7.1 innings/100 pitches without giving too much of a headache. Low-maintenance starter that could feature in the 3-4th position in the rotation for years. If you can get him for Bachman, even better, but the market should heat up in favor of the Reds the closer we get to the deadline. I don't need to talk about Castillo, but Drury is a real thing for me. A strong and underrated bat. Would help us significantly solidfy the middle of our lineup. Chicago Cubs Send: Jose Suarez, Luis Rengifo, Landon Marceaux (#14 prospect), Davis Daniel (#12 prospect) Receive: Nick Madrigal, Marcus Stroman Yes, Stroman is struggling mightly. Yes, Madrigal bat died as soon as he went to the NL. I like both to rebound here and provide playoff-like performances. Swapping Rengifo for Madrigal would sound like a bad joke last year. The upside is ridiculous obvious that I don't think the Cubs seriously entertain this unless they absolutely want to get rid of Stroman's contract. The same could apply to Kyle Hendricks, even if it worries me that every start I've seen from him was good up until the 3rd inning when he melts. Hendricks' contract isn't even that much of an albatross. One of Paris, Vera or Jackson could be packed here, specially if some salary is shed. I'm ready to blame the Cubs' terrible defense for their mound issues (even if Keegan Thompson is playing like a legit All-Star).

Am I the only one significantly upset with how blasè is Vasgersian sounding? Last season he was getting a rapport not just with Gubie, but with the team as a whole. After this long break, it feels like I'm watching the game on ESPN but with decent comments instead of A-Rod babbling. I'm already missing Patty and he isn't even that good to begin with. If Matty V becomes just a guest play by play for the East Coast games, we might just let Patty call games full time.

This is the MO of our rotation: weak contact and pop-outs. Detmers is getting good at that. Of course, you will have bad nights when the lineup is crushing your pitches, but Detmers is developing into quite a decent guy at inducing weak hits out of the zone. He is en route to become what we were screaming to get in Stroman. I'm not confident that he'll be an ace any time soon, but people overreacting that he does not belong to a MLB rotation were just wrong.

People will spend months dreaming about deGrom and Musgrove, but at best we can overpay Rodon or try to look for Eovaldi. Market won't be that strong.

At this point, the real battle will be for WC3. We will end tonight with a 2-3 games lead to the Rangers, White Sox, Guardians and Red Sox. Things should stabilize if we somehow manage a double sweep of the Phillies and the Red Sox. If we let the Red Sox get close and get trounced by the Mets and Dodgers...things'll be bleak

I had an Astros-Jays ALCS but this Yankees team can beat the hell out of the Astros, specially with a Cole-Montgomery-Cortes rotation. It'll be any of Astros, Yankees or Jays at the WS and they'll mop the Dodgers-Mets-Giants-Brewers.

Maldonado is hitting .127/.205/.236/.441 and yet the Astros are a WS favorites. We have a lot of problems, but Velasquez ain't one of them. Having Trout on a slump, a no-factor at the OF when Marsh and Ward ain't playing (either because of injury or because Maddon got too cute with his precious matchups) and losing our mop-up hitter in Rendon are an issue.

For the people that follow up the Bees with some constancy, why Stefanic did not get a call yet? We clearly have an open spot at 2B for the grabs and his slashlines are so gaudy. His defense did not felt bad at ST either.

Rangers trouncing the Rays in Arlington, Red Sox got blown out at Fenway against the Orioles, so far the results are working well for us. Our fight isn't against the Astros, I gave up on that team getting cold again. We need to keep the White Sox at bay and hope that the Red Sox get quickly to a 28-40 record and punt the season for good. If the Rays bats go silent for a longer stretch, even better. The Rangers derailed our early season rally, all I need is for them to do the same with the Rays.

This is more of an eye test than stats-based, but I think the pen is overstaffed. It felt like we were playing Loup 4 days in this week when he and Tepera were effective playing once per series. Syndergaard's 0.2 IP meltdown threw a wrench in our pen rotation and it got worst with the subsequent meh-to-bad performances. I would go the other route, the route we all know very well: trade for a SP. It would be thrilling to get an ace like Montas or Castillo, but I think we just need a decent SP3-4 here. Mahle, Smyly, Keller, hell see if the Cubs are regretting the Stroman contract. We have the infield for him now with Velasquez. Get a mid of the rotation guy and let us roll a Ohtani - Thor - Sandoval - X - Lorenzen - Detmers rotation. This would give us at the pen: * Three guys that can give us 3 IP without delivering meltdowns: Barria, Suarez, Junk; * Three guys that can go 3 IP if needed and can be mop-up in the 6th and roll until Raisel comes: Bradley, Herget, Warren; * Two young arms that can spot start and deliver performances: Diaz and Silseth; * Three guys that must play elite set-up when the starters manage to go deep: Loup, Tepera, Ortega; * Innings eaters scattered. We have a decent pen. Not lights-out, but it isn't the Guerra-led crew that is currently showing up. Maddon needs to be more methodic here and play specific set-ups, which he could with another starter that ends the revolving door the demotion of Suarez brought. Loup and Tepera simply cannot play more than 1 game every 5 days. It is ideal? No, but we have evidence that their efficiency vanishes when being put in multiple high-stake situations in the same week. Keep Barria, Suarez and Junk ready when a SP melts down (this happens with everyone at one point) and restrict the pen to specific situations. Stop putting Loup in the 5th inning on monday, in the 7th on wednesday and to get the save on a friday. He's either a 7th or 8th inning guy, play him in that role. Have Bradley, Herget and Warren ready to play 2, 2.2 IP and then allow your setup man to step in the mound. Ortega can also play closing duties, use that to give Raisel a spell. Of course our pen would benefit with another good arm, but I think we would be much better by having another starter and giving our relievers specific roles within the game. Have Diaz and Silseth crisp for when a starter is injured, keep our long relievers ready for another Syndergaard at Arlington special and please, PLEASE, keep the other relievers to their tasks. Play efficient pitching, just like we were in the 1st month. We don't need a Brewers shutdown mound, we just need efficiency. Oh, and definitely grab an infield impact bat. Rengifo improved a lot and Wade is a gimmick show, but we need an ironclad lineup. Velasquez already gives us elite defense, so give the call to Boston to enquire about a Bogaerts rental. Brendan Rodgers, Kyle Farmer, grab someone that can bat at least .250. If a trade cannot happen, at least call Stefanic. Velasquez can play D, we need hitting and Stefanic showed he can provide that.

Hello everyone, good afternoon. I'm from Brazil and became a baseball fan as a whole last season. I tried for a couple of years to enjoy baseball, but never could sit down through a game until Covid came. Working from home I managed to watch the shortened season playoffs and the following season I could follow the Angels wire-to-wire. Curiously, it was not Ohtani who drew me to the game: a friend in common, knowing I was a Packers fan, jokingly said that I should follow the Angels, since I had expertise with seeing "the best in the game being let down". I usually post at the Angels subreddit as well, but I will probably cut down social media in the next semester (due to local reasons) and this should include Reddit.