OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Dull days of July

[DJ Spinoza]

Brutal appearance from Mlodzinski. Got a gift with Moreno's mistake and completely wasted it.

I think it was questionable to send Ortiz back out there. The bullpen is totally rested.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Brutal appearance from Mlodzinski. Got a gift with Moreno's mistake and completely wasted it.

I think it was questionable to send Ortiz back out there. The bullpen is totally rested.

Yeah, should have pulled ortiz at 5, going 3 times through lineup when he's had so little control tonight... Shelton Strategy

 

[metalan2]

Not understanding how Cutch and Cruz cannot make contact with 6 straight fast balls straight down the middle.

 

[wheelz87]

Cruz absolutely abysmal game. Dudes either the best or worst player on the field.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Not understanding how Cutch and Cruz cannot make contact with 6 straight fast balls straight down the middle.

Man, cruz would be awesome if he had any sort of ability to pair with his talent

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

Cruz absolutely abysmal game. Dudes either the best or worst player on the field.

Stares at two fastballs down the middle then chases one at his head.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Cruz's head is a mess right now at the dish. Unfortunately we have 0 offensive depth and Reynolds/Rowdy gone, so we have to ride this out with him.

I mean these at bats have been comical today.

 

[metalan2]

I haven't seen Hayes get a hit in like 5 weeks.

 

[metalan2]

Dbacks don't need to do anything but throw fastballs straight down the middle. We're not hitting them.

 

[ChaosAgent]

If this team is going to do anything they need external hitting. Probably 2 guys.

This offense is just brutal especially if Cruz is in a cold streak. There's no danger. It's so easy to face us.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Grandal would have sent that to center field... If he ever popped up

 

[BusinessGoose]

They're gonna need to trade prospects if they want to fix this

 

[metalan2]

Typical loss that any normal hitting team would have easily won. Dbacks pitchers are awful, never seen so many low 90s fastballs directly down the middle not get hit.

 

[ChaosAgent]

They're gonna need to trade prospects

Oh no they may trade Yordany de Los Santos who failed in his first test in A-Ball and is now doing well as a 19 year old in the Complex League!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, this offensive performances builds off of Wednesday when they didn't get a single hit after Rowdy's HR IIRC.

Cruz lacing a single is encouraging but we need help NOW or we are staring at a sweep in this series.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Pretty brutal performance all around. Say what you want about the offense not capitalizing in the last two innings, but 3 runs should have been enough to get the job done. Ortiz makes a mistake pitch at the end of his night and then Mlodzinski isn't sharp at all when trying to mop up.

Hard not to think this will be the series where we finally drop 3 straight this season, but the Snakes are beatable. Pfaadt gives up traffic and home runs, but he's been on a roll.

The offense is woeful without Reynolds and even worse if Rowdy is out. Might be the worst possible convergence of things to take the wind out of our sails and not really buy. Gonzales has had some clutch hits but otherwise looks terrible at the plate. Cutch might take some heat and Cruz had several bad PAs tonight but a lot of the lineup is just nowhere near enough. We need two bats if we're going to make a run at it.

We'll see if we can bounce back. I think this is a series where you just need one to keep in the fight. Would have been a relief to nab it tonight and put the pressure on the hosts.

 

[ImporterExporter]

We're just not close enough in the hitting department to be legitimate contenders. Pitching is trending in the right direction, without a doubt.

This is why we shouldn't be selling the farm quite yet. I'm cool with Chisholm and another bat, but don't be throwing away our premium prospects.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

People are right to jump all over Cherington, IMO. Unless it comes out that Miami is demanding multiple top-100 prospects for Chisholm, there's really no excuse not to get an outfielder to Arizona. Even if that were the case, there are other options who could be had.

Just to put it out there, if we do get swept, it will feel like the sky is falling, but it really will take a huge slide of like a week plus for that to be the case. If we can just claw out a win in this series, it will be totally fine. It's not going to be easy to beat Houston either, but we'll have Skenes and 3-3 would be a perfectly fine road trip.

 

[metalan2]

We're just not close enough in the hitting department to be legitimate contenders. Pitching is trending in the right direction, without a doubt.

This is why we shouldn't be selling the farm quite yet. I'm cool with Chisholm and another bat, but don't be throwing away our premium prospects.

Yea, I'm a no go on selling prospects now. This year is 2012 all over again. No way we can compete with this lineup.

 

[TNT87]

We're just not close enough in the hitting department to be legitimate contenders. Pitching is trending in the right direction, without a doubt.

This is why we shouldn't be selling the farm quite yet. I'm cool with Chisholm and another bat, but don't be throwing away our premium prospects.

Completely agree. I don't want to see another Archer trade when they weren't legitimate contenders. I do like Chisholm.

 

[OnMyOwn]

You make trades for the end of this year and going forward with controllable players. Don’t need any 35 year old rentals. But it’s the same thing as all season. The bats aren’t good enough…at all.

 

[MrBrightside]

I’m at the point where I wouldn’t bother with any trade that’s not 2-3 years of control. With Gonzales turning back into a pumpkin and with Suwinski and Hayes being negatives at the plate, this offense is just not remotely good enough to compete no matter how good the pitching is. That said, if you can add some bats that will help you moving forward you do it as there’s nothing on the horizon in the system and doing anything that gets Taylor or Suwinski or Palacios or the rest of the comically bad OF off the field is a plus.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Sure feels like the tried and true "there's always next year" is about to hit

Might as well shut the arms down if we lose out on any good deals by Monday

 

[MrBrightside]

 

[Ulf5]

So, in other words, up the ante Cherry.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

It's still a question of weathering the next two, two and a half weeks. Even if we drop back to 3-4 games out of the WC race, that's a completely live heat.

I think the prospects we shouldn't trade are Chandler and Johnson. Otherwise, improve the team. We shouldn't do something stupid like trade Harrington for a rental or an alright player with some control (like Lane Thomas, who I do like for a cheaper cost), but it's a thin margin, we are right there, and we have the hardest thing to have - pitching.

Last night sucked, but we've seen bad losses so many times. It's up to the team to find a way to scratch out an ugly game this weekend and salvage the series. Let's hope we get "give up a million home runs" Pfaaft and not "flirt with 10 Ks" Pfaadt.