OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Dull days of July

[Factorial]

I am very much over IKF at SS. Dude is a great utility guy but he's simply not a regular starting SS.

Official scorer changed it to a hit if that make you feel any better.

 

[bigdaddyk88]

I can’t believe it’s September and Joe is still playing regularly
If cutch can’t DH 130 games a year why bring him back

 

[MrBrightside]

 

[Factorial]

IKF with a good play.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Beyond the outside additions this team very obviously needs, this team desperately needs Hayes to fix his bat somewhat or they're in deep shit next year.

They really need Gonzales at a league average hitter or better and both IKF and Hayes to come in at an 85 OPS+ or better in the infield. I don't think any of those are unreasonable for those guys to hit, but it's grim to know that they basically need all 3 and none are guarantees.

Cruz, Reynolds and McCutchen (if he doesn't retire) are obviously legit and I'm pretty confident in Bart's power being legit, although there will always be concerns about how much contact he's making. Beyond that, there really isn't much reason for optimism with their bats beyond league average. And they really need an additional 2 guys who have above average bats.

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

Two of his three losses came to the Cardinals.

That team ruins everything.

 

[Factorial]

Two of his three losses came to the Cardinals.

That team ruins everything.

That gives him an incentive to beat the Cards.

 

[MrBrightside]

The only suspense now is whether they’ll win more games this year than they did last year. 5-7 would match 2023 so playing .500 would “show improvement,” or at least that will be the spin.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Athletics about to have just five less wins than us.

Lol.

 

[ChaosAgent]

38 year old Andrew McCutchen let a 1-1 middle-middle fastball from Matthew Liberatore go, then struck out in the 8th inning, losing us the game.

Hitting is really hard. But you make it harder when you don't swing at balls in the middle of the strike zone.

 

[MrBrightside]

They now need to go 6-5 to improve on last year's record. With today being a bullpen game against Sonny Gray, they'll very likely need to go 6-4 to improve on last year's record.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

I've totally lost interest over the past few weeks, to the predictable point of not even bothering to watch unless Skenes is pitching.

I imagine it's been talked about here, but one thing I don't understand is how heavily Merrill is favored over Skenes for ROY by the sportsbooks. Merrill has had a great season, but to me, if he wins, it basically means that a pitcher should never win again, unless there's a year where there's a really good pitcher but no relevant batters at all.

Skenes has a fairly strong claim on being the best pitcher in baseball right now. The guys who probably have stronger claims for this season are probably Sale, Wheeler, and Skubal, though Wheeler isn't quite as much of a slam dunk other than the innings.

I've also seen it pointed out that Chourio has turned it on in a very impressive way, and I think he's about equivalent to what Merrill is doing. Both of them are impressive for something that should be irrelevant to the ROY award, namely being big contributors for teams chasing the playoffs. Chourio maybe has an arguably stronger claim given that Milwaukee has had to deal with the injury to Yelich. Either way, their numbers on paper are not that different.

I don't really think Skenes not starting in MLB should count against him. His resume is actually so consistent that it's insane. There isn't a bad start -- maybe 1 or 2 middling ones, but everything else is either full dominance or at minimum a clockwork quality start. I feel very confident in saying that a rookie pitcher will not replicate that kind of performance, and although Merrill or Chourio would be deserving in any other year, I honestly don't see how it's not Skenes, or at the very minimum a situation where the three of them have very similar odds, and not the overwhelming favorite being Merrill.

 

[WickedWrister]

Ok Billy, I see you

Edit: aaaand Bednar right on cue

 

[ChaosAgent]

It's hard to see Bednar putting up elite results ever again. At this point I would move on.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I do not want Bednar on this team in any capacity next year. He's cooked.

 

[WickedWrister]

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

They can't justify running it back with this staff.

And they have to cut the fat and get rid of Bednar.

 

[WickedWrister]

Hey at least Endy is doing stuff

 

[Empoleon8771]

Beeks sucks too in case anyone doubted it

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

They should let Skenes pitch one more game to help his ROY chances then shut him down.

This group of failures don't deserve more than one game from him.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Lol... Well, they outscored us in one inning

 

[ImporterExporter]

And remember Shelton is coming back next year.

Cherington has no real power. There is no sane human who would run Shelton and his track record back. This is deliberate malice.

 

[Factorial]

They should let Skenes pitch one more game to help his ROY chances then shut him down.

This group of failures don't deserve more than one game from him.

He should get two more starts, the last in the last game against the Yankees. It's his audition.

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

He should get two more starts, the last in the last game against the Yankees. It's his audition.

I hate how that's so accurate.

 

[metalan2]

Just saw that the Pirates under Cherington and Shelton, have. A .398 winning percentage since 2020, the worst in the franchises history.

Congratulations!