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OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Congrats to the Houston Cheaters on their win

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MrBrightside said:
So who takes Thompson's spot in the rotation? I really can't identify a good candidate for it. DeJong?
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I wouldn't mind seeing Bolton but he still needs to be added to the 40 man if so. Honestly, I kind of expect us to DFA Kranick, because no one will claim him, but I'm not sure how the ins and outs of 60-day IL spots work in the offseason with the roster (in theory, he could be on the 60-day and not count towards the 40, but still be getting prorated MLB minimum salary + insurance for rehabbing, which I think is pretty standard).

DeJong in some kind of bullpen game is a good guess, but with no off days, maybe a callup is in order.
 
I will say this - this thread has been miserable which the team has earned and I've been a part of it. But something @DJ Spinoza said a couple of weeks rings true - it's going to be very hard for this team to snap out of a slump facing such talented pitching.

And the reality is, we went through the absolute ringer of elite righties and good-to-elite lefties between Skubal from Detroit, Atlanta, St. Louis and then Rodon from the Giants. The pitching we faced was disproportionately difficult and left-handed, which this set of players is not equipped to handle.

After that it is such a nice reprieve to face average (or below) right-handed pitching. There is no way the entire MLB is so elite as the pitching we faced over the last stretch. Let's do better now. Cruz is up. Madris looks good. Suwinski is hot. Time to get it in gear.
 
ImporterExporter said:
I lit a fat bowl right before the start of the game and then again before this inning.

A preview.
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MrBrightside said:
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If this Kilian is their top pitching prospect, yikes. He looked like Keller circa last year. He just didn't have the tools to get left-handed hitters out at all.

It's the Cubs, so they will have deep pockets. But I don't see anywhere near the same wave of talent as they had in 2015-2017.
 
The average lefty dominating Suw and Cruz snaps me back to reality somewhat.

We haven't had a star hitter who could actually dominate pitchers from both sides since peak McCutchen. I don't think we have one now at the ML level...Reynolds will always just be serviceable from the right side and I don't see Cruz hitting ML lefties well. Maybe Henry Davis or whoever the guy at 1-4 is transcends it.

I'm not totally doom and gloom about this but if both Davis and Gonzales don't make it we will have to look for lefty-bashing specialists. And hold onto Chavis (whose name I'm 100% sure is going to come up a lot at the deadline).
 
Really, Cruz's profile as a player is very similar to Tatis Jr.

Big time power, fast, great athlete, rocket arm and their biggest weakness is that their strong arm is just a bit difficult to control.
 
Yeah, I think that's exactly why you play him at shortstop until it's just not really tenable. He can't commit errors at the same rate he has this year, but that's just one small aspect of the defensive game. There's a world of difference between messing up a throw on a routine ground ball with 2 outs and no one on vs. in other situations.

I think he just needs patience and experience, as he can physically play the position and play it well. I haven't seen him make poor plays in terms of getting to balls and fielding them cleanly -- it's 90% just the throws, and I'm willing to bet the frequency will tick down now that he's in MLB. To some extent, you can live with the defense no matter what it is if the bat and speed end up playing. It is quite literally the difference between one of the handful most valuable players in the league vs. a run of the mill corner OF.

All that said, I don't want to get ahead of myself. Just one very good and exciting game. He needs consistency over time, and I think that was the encouraging thing about last night, i.e., he was able to work himself into good counts and see a lot of pitches, even when the game was over and he got caught looking on a pretty nasty pitch by Norris.


I think that Jared Eickhoff might be who gets the nod for Wednesday's start. He's been a relatively consistent source of innings for Indy, though like most other pitchers in the system it seems, not really as a straight starter every five games. We've seen commentary that the Dewey Robinson approach has been to mix up the kinds of appearances pitchers are making, and I think the schedule format in the minors also accommodates that well, with the guaranteed off day every Monday.

I haven't actually mapped it out, but it allows you to more easily plan for rest days, and not necessarily to have one pitcher start twice a week when that lines up, unless you want him to.

In any case, Eickhoff pitched on Friday so he'd be on regular rest for Wednesday, and has experience in a starter's role. Bolton has the talent and I would like to see him at some point, but he pitched two innings on Saturday (seemingly for innings management reasons, not performance / injury), and I doubt we want to go through adding him to the 40-man just yet. There are some easy ways to free up 40-man spots, and I think Eickhoff will be the simplest guy to add and try to ride for 5 innings so that the bullpen doesn't get too taxed.
 
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DJ Spinoza said:
Yeah, I think that's exactly why you play him at shortstop until it's just not really tenable. He can't commit errors at the same rate he has this year, but that's just one small aspect of the defensive game. There's a world of difference between messing up a throw on a routine ground ball with 2 outs and no one on vs. in other situations.

I think he just needs patience and experience, as he can physically play the position and play it well. I haven't seen him make poor plays in terms of getting to balls and fielding them cleanly -- it's 90% just the throws, and I'm willing to bet the frequency will tick down now that he's in MLB. To some extent, you can live with the defense no matter what it is if the bat and speed end up playing. It is quite literally the difference between one of the handful most valuable players in the league vs. a run of the mill corner OF.

All that said, I don't want to get ahead of myself. Just one very good and exciting game. He needs consistency over time, and I think that was the encouraging thing about last night, i.e., he was able to work himself into good counts and see a lot of pitches, even when the game was over and he got caught looking on a pretty nasty pitch by Norris.


I think that Jared Eickhoff might be who gets the nod for Wednesday's start. He's been a relatively consistent source of innings for Indy, though like most other pitchers in the system it seems, not really as a straight starter every five games. We've seen commentary that the Dewey Robinson approach has been to mix up the kinds of appearances pitchers are making, and I think the schedule format in the minors also accommodates that well, with the guaranteed off day every Monday.

I haven't actually mapped it out, but it allows you to more easily plan for rest days, and not necessarily to have one pitcher start twice a week when that lines up, unless you want him to.

In any case, Eickhoff pitched on Friday so he'd be on regular rest for Wednesday, and has experience in a starter's role. Bolton has the talent and I would like to see him at some point, but he pitched two innings on Saturday (seemingly for innings management reasons, not performance / injury), and I doubt we want to go through adding him to the 40-man just yet. There are some easy ways to free up 40-man spots, and I think Eickhoff will be the simplest guy to add and try to ride for 5 innings so that the bullpen doesn't get too taxed.
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Eickhoff interests me, but IMO De Jong has earned a start with his bullpen work here.
 
I'm interested to see how long Shelton will keep Cruz out of the top 3. His power/speed combination is, to me, an automatic, top of the order type play. Put him there until he proves he can't handle it. And make no mistake, I'm not getting ahead of the pack here. I don't expect Cruz to not have some hiccups along the way. But the potential is as big as you can get.

No offense to Hayes, but he doesn't belong as a 1/2. He may have better than expected exit velo's but the production is basically a decent average/good on base guy w/little pop. If I'm an opposing manager he doesn't scare me all that much at the dish as he currently is. Yeah, he'll have a big game here and there. He'll even go on mini runs w/the bat but the numbers don't lie much at the moment.
 
ImporterExporter said:
I'm interested to see how long Shelton will keep Cruz out of the top 3. His power/speed combination is, to me, an automatic, top of the order type play. Put him there until he proves he can't handle it. And make no mistake, I'm not getting ahead of the pack here. I don't expect Cruz to not have some hiccups along the way. But the potential is as big as you can get.

No offense to Hayes, but he doesn't belong as a 1/2. He may have better than expected exit velo's but the production is basically a decent average/good on base guy w/little pop. If I'm an opposing manager he doesn't scare me all that much at the dish as he currently is. Yeah, he'll have a big game here and there. He'll even go on mini runs w/the bat but the numbers don't lie much at the moment.
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Eh, as a Hayes skeptic I think you have to keep him at the top of the order as getting on base is his greatest asset as a hitter. Moving his .365 SLG% into the 5 or 6 spot isn't really helping and really, for as limited as Hayes may be, he's still probably the 3rd best hitter in this lineup after Reynolds and Cruz, so you need him to get the plate appearances.
 
DocEmrickSkitters said:
Eickhoff interests me, but IMO De Jong has earned a start with his bullpen work here.
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I think it's just a question of how they'll strategize the next little bit. There's no off day until July 4th, and even then, later that week is a doubleheader. It also depends on Thompson's exact situation, and whether it's possible he'll be back soon enough or shut down for months.

De Jong has looked pretty good to me but I think he's much better in these short bursts. I don't think Eickhoff is much more than a guy who can eat a couple of games of innings, but with him potentially lining up vs the Cubs and Nationals, to me it makes a good bit of a sense, since he's probably giving you 10 max between those games, and the rest of the bullpen probably has a good chunk to cover in general. Then you can see if Thompson is back, or if you'll have to ride out Eickhoff longer vs. stretch De Jong out, turn to Bolton a few turns, etc.

Honestly, it will really help things if you are consistently getting 5-6 out of all of Brubaker, Keller, and Quintana, and then 5 from Roansy. I don't think we're going to push his innings that much, but if the first three are giving you that most of the time, then at least there's some stability for the bullpen.
 
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