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

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I think the only thing that could prevent Contreras becoming a legitimate #2 pitcher is his stamina. He has the stuff and control, you can clearly tell that. The only thing that would prevent him from reaching that #2 starter level is if he can't go super deep into games.

He looks so good right now and I don't think it's at all unsustainable. His BABIP on the year is only at .240, but even when that regresses to the mean, it will still have him giving strong results. He's not giving up hardhit balls or fly balls this year.
 
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Empoleon8771 said:
I think the only thing that could prevent Contreras becoming a legitimate #2 pitcher is his stamina. He has the stuff and control, you can clearly tell that. The only thing that would prevent him from reaching that #2 starter level is if he can't go super deep into games.

He looks so good right now and I don't think it's at all unsustainable.
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He's been super efficient so far tonight.

And he's an ace if it all comes together. Not a 2.

I think most of you remember me talking about his arsenal many times over the last year. What I saw at AA was the 3rd best trio of pitches by any prospect of ours in the past decade plus, behind only Cole and Glasnow and Glasnow didn't have Contreras' command at the time.
 
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I'm not entirely sure why what Marcano did there was legal while a catcher blocking the plate in the same way is illegal, but I'll take it.

Nice sequence from all of Roansy, Perez and Marcano there.
 
A couple of hard hit balls off Roansy but no walks, command looks good and he's missing a lot of bats. Wasn't like he was leaving a bunch of stuff middle middle. And of course another unearned run to deal with.

We just don't have any offense to make up even small deficits.

Swaggerty is Jared Oliva. Prove me wrong TS.
 
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It's tough to even get mad or invested when the offense is showing this level of incompetence. There isn't a single bat in the lineup you feel good about on a night like tonight - maybe Mitchell.

It's 2 months-2 years before these guys are supposed to be good. In the meantime, it would be nice if Bryan Reynolds could prove why so many of us were tripping all over each other to offer him $100M.
 
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When Vogelbach was 2-2 and he just waved aimlessly at the Strider slider, that's why I want to get rid of him.

Like, he basically chose to give up on that at bat and stop competing. If you're a young player watching this, you see the org rewarding nonsense.
 
The Braves are one of the better offenses out there, so hopefully it will be a good learning experience for him. Swanson just put a great swing on a fine pitch. I think some of Perez's calls were not ideal, especially the Albies double.

In isolation, he was able to make a lot of good pitches in a big moments, and bounce back even when the Braves did damage against him. All kind of a moot point, as we're in serious trouble until we face less talented pitching. Sitting Swaggerty against the righty now looks really dumb the other day, as his first games are Skubal, Fried, and now Strider.
 
I'm not giving Swaggerty a pass because he faced tough comp out of the gates. He also cost us a run defensively.

So did Marcano and he took multiple high end pitchers deep, including a lefty. Mitchell looked good at the plate tonight and numerous other games. It's MLB. A lot of these guys are waaaay better than AAA pitchers.

There were also people who wanted us to give Reynolds 100M plus. That would look awful right now, huh.
 
Davis is back in Altoona BTW. I'm planning on heading over to Reading tomorrow as he was on the bench tonight, likely only got in today from Florida so I imagine he'll be in the lineup. Might go Sunday as well if he's slated to play back to back.
 
I don't think Swaggerty would have done anything there, but my God just give Chang his last $20K in the MLB and send him to play in Asia already. Dude sucks.
 
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Maybe it is just worth it to throw these guys all in the deep end of the pool.

A guy like Skubal who we faced 2 days ago or Strider tonight used to be in the 1% of the MLB stuff-wise. Now they are like 15-20% pitchers stuff-wise. The stuff and quality of pitching is just so outrageously higher in the MLB that we really can't read minor league hitting stat lines anymore. Even Faedo or whomever, the less talented righty would have had elite stuff by the standards of 2000-2010 MLB.
 
DJ Spinoza said:
Cruz has been in AAA because they are manipulating his service time. They will do the same thing with Henry Davis next year, and they would have done the same thing with Contreras if depth didn't force them to have him in the bullpen. They then sent him back to completely dominate while he "stretched out".

The rest is noise. There was a lot of talk, but a lot less action, about how the organization's approach is "player friendly". I suppose the content of that is Baker referring to players as "human beings" when he gives the company line.

They have repeatedly shown that they do not think AAA is a meaningful development location, as they've called lesser touted prospects directly up from AA and stuck with them through ups and downs. Cruz does not have anything left to prove against AAAA pitching, and he never had anything to prove in the first place. The only silver lining I can find is that Mackey and the other journalists didn't present the context of their questioning, and so Baker's comments could very much just be general ones about Cruz being in AAA and have nothing to do with their near future plans. Cruz's performance in AAA doesn't have anything to do with when he will or won't be called up.
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I disagree with your obsession with service time. I don't think you have a clue when a player is actually ready or not for MLB. Most of us don't actually.
 
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DJ Spinoza said:
I'm not making any comments on whether this has been done because of Nutting or not, or with other teams or not. It obviously has in both cases but that's besides the point. My concern the whole time has been specific to the player and what I see from him.

I think it's been a waste of a development year so far, beginning with spring training, and that the best case scenario at this point is that he was able to settle in and perform and is now poised not to have more of the year wasted by the FO playing games with his promotion now that he is no longer in line for super two within a few days.

Otherwise, we seem to be talking past each other and there's a dynamic in this thread where arguments never end, so I'll leave it at that. (the "we" here is in response to IE above, but also basically everyone else in the thread. I've said my piece about Cruz and don't feel like continuing to rehash it.)
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Yeah - we're just not nearly as impatient as you are bro. I'm a big fan of your eternal optimism, but this kind of repetitive criticism is bit much IMO.
 
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Empoleon8771 said:
Solometo is going to end up an absolute gem I bet. Him performing really well in his first professional starts in A ball at age 19 is really impressive.
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I've never been more sure a Pitcher was going to make it coming out of prep. The guy has all the work ethic and intangibles you could hope for, with a great body, and has been surrounded by good baseball people for years. They made him pitch the way he does on purpose, and it makes a real difference.

Barring injury, I'm absolutely positive this guy's at least a back of the rotation starter. He's got the kind of mind and training that he's just going to make it happen IMO.
 
ImporterExporter said:
I loved what I saw live. He's a plus contact guy and always hustling. Hope he and Mitch are playing most days.



Leading up to the draft I pegged him as a prime target. It's waaay early but he's got such a unique delivery and a nice trio of pitches to build on.
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Some of the in-depth interviews of this kid leading up to and after the draft were just so impressive. He's a really dynamic guy, and super focused on success. He can throw that fastball 95-96 without a problem too, but they've kept him throwing slower to build up command.
 
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