1. This is why Baseball Reference, even coming into this series, had Cleveland with only a 30% chance of making the playoffs. Minnesota has a weaker schedule the rest of the season. When we play one of the best teams in baseball in their home park and Minnesota plays the As, you HAVE to find a way to win one of those games in Texas. We didn't.
2. As I have been saying all season, Fry is a great 26th man. Now we just need to identify who the other 25 are.
3. Rosario lucked out at the end as he could have easily grounded into a double play to end the game. At least he husted.
4. With all the left-handed pitching Texas has, why was Gonzalez not called up and Arias not sent down before this series?
5. I can't believe how Straw sucks. His defense is mediocre and he gets beat by 91 mph fastballs.
6. Why-oh-why is Frnacona such a status quo guy? He is managing just in case the game goes 15 innings EVERY TIME. Guess what, Tito. We haven't had a game go 15 innings since last October.
7. Then there is Stephan. Could you just not screw up? Once. Could you just not? Your team really needed this win and you had to go out of your way to screw it up. Bend over backwards to screw it up. You screwed your team and totally demoralized them heading into the next series. Hope you are happy!
8. Finally, and the most maddening of everything, is that we are screwing ourselves being sellers at the deadline. Bieber is hurt. Rosario, on a daily basis, lessens his trade value and Straw is almost worthless, too. Plus, you can't trade Civale right now. You need his veteran presence and for him to eat innings to save the young arms. Even if we wanted to get rid of these guys it would be just a subtraction. They are not good enough to get anything back. You would be better off sending Rosario and Straw to the minors and call up Rocchio and Gonzalez. I am NOT into giving away these veterans to other playoff-chasing teams for nothing. Rosario and Straw deserve to be in Columbus. Just send them there. Don't do other teams a favor by giving them a veteran for free and don't do these players a favor by sending them to another ML team. Just send them to Columbus to remind them that playing in the majors is an honor, not a right...something Francona should be saying, as well, instead of running these guys out there every day while rookies who ARE producing sit on the bench or stay in Columbus. So there are no trades to be made as these three guys are now untradeable.
Hey, most of last year was frustrating, too. We all forget that but this is all about accountability and no one holds any of these guys (except for rookies) accountable for their play.
POSITIVE NOTE
Consulting with my unicorn she reminded me to say what a great job Tanner Bibee did today shaking off bad luck and pathetic defense to really mow through a damn tough batting order. Kwan, Fry and Bibee were the really silver linings today. But, just like the Cleveland teams of the 70s and 80s, that was just the hope for the future and not enough talent in the present. They are better. They just need to play, coach and manage better.
3) Hope we trade Rosario. Talented, but streaky at the plate and lacks fundamentals in the field. Good athlete and naturally strong arm, but lacks range and makes bad throws due to horrible footwork.
ReplyDelete4)Gonzales should have been called up when he was hot. Struggling now.
5) Straw is just a wuss of a hitter. Generally a fantastic outfielder (he won Gold Glove for a reason) but he has made some bad reads lately
7) Stephan...seems like his head has not been in it the last month or so. Lots of talent, great stuff, so hoping his issues pass.
8) Besides being hopeful that we can unload Rosario, I see no hope for a trade at this point.
And yes, great effort by Bibbee. Too bad the bullpen from hell struck again. He should SUE. Love these young starters.
Other internet types see Rosario's bad defensive stats and I have seen the term "throw-in" at least twice in connection.with him. He will not bring anything reasonable back and I am not inclined to just give him away. Would rather just send him to Columbus for the rest of the season, especially given our recent trade hustory.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, would rather go with the youth, either Rocchio or Freeman. Would give them some much needed experience and would be an improvement defensively. Might as well trade Rosario now, as he will never have a ton of trade value. I can imagine a few teams would take him for his bat, and maybe we can get a decent prospect for him.
ReplyDeleteSend him to Columbus. Whatever prospect we get back for him won't be wotlrth nearly what he is worth to the other team. I just don’t want his time with us to end with (a) him getting a playoff share from some other team, (b) the team we are trading with getting more than we get back (c) us doing this just to dump dme salary. I mean, haven't we been screwed enough in trades already this year, having to see our former guys having great years while we got nothing or almost nothing back in most cases? Don't accept any trade back that doesn't look great!
ReplyDelete