OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Good Vibes Only

[DanielPlainview]

Do you pinch hit for Keller this inning if he comes up?

 

[TNT87]

Time to chip away at that lead.

 

[cookthebooks]

lol i have never seen a ball die like that. know the rules about first outs at third, but amazed he didnt get there still

 

[DanielPlainview]

colin moran getting deserved kudos for his approach at the plate. boy is it sounding good off his bat rn

TBH the entire team sans a couple have a much improved approach at the plate. The Hurdle teams seemed to swing at garbage all the dame time, these guys are much more selective

 

[cookthebooks]

polanco actually got a call klaxon

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Do you pinch hit for Keller this inning if he comes up?

It's an interesting call. I think I might, but we're also going nowhere and in the grand scheme of things this game doesn't really matter.

It looks like Keller's release point is not erratic today, so that's not the issue. I think it's mostly the offspeed stuff, which he has no feel for. I think maybe you could try and squeeze another inning out of him but any more than that and it's a foregone conclusion that this will get even uglier.

 

[DanielPlainview]

I'm just not seeing anything from Keller that indicates he's going to throw a scoreless inning without some fielding luck. He's not going to fix his command of the curve. Almost want to send him back to Bradenton

 

[wheelz87]

Too early to pinch hit?

 

[wheelz87]

So much for that..

 

[cookthebooks]

down goes frazier meekly

 

[DJ Spinoza]

If we were trying to compete, pretty much no way you can't pinch hit there, but I think part of this is to challenge Keller to at least grind another couple of innings. And even from an overall perspective, we got a winning home stand and split series in our pocket, so don't want to tax the bullpen headed into the weekend series.

Really tough to only get one run there, but until Keller is out of the game, any flail at this being competitive is just that. Hopefully he can at least navigate through 7-8-9. A really big fail would be to do something like walk Paddack this inning on top of everything else.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Kept getting the order of the lineup wrong, thought it was 8-9-1 then 7-8-9, but it was actually 6-7-8. Some good and then bad there from Keller, but salvaged it by getting back to get Paddack.

You probably should just pull him, but at least in theory he can go out there and take the beating to get another inning, maybe two. His pitch count isn't atrocious or anything. Even if we scraped out a couple of runs, I think that will be the plan. Challenge him to see if he can at least tread water.


I really like @WheresRamziAbid's idea to try and introduce a cutter. The changeup is an awful pitch for him and I think the cutter could help his hard straight fastball play much better.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Honestly DK's comments about his gutlessness feels right.

He doesn't have "it." He just doesn't.

 

[cookthebooks]

Honestly DK's comments about his gutlessness feels right.

He doesn't have "it." He just doesn't.

i am incredibly dubious of that kind of analysis. sounds like how people mightve described charlie morton at one point too

 

[DJ Spinoza]

There was some ridiculous clip going around on twitter where some guy was trying to judge Keller based on 10 seconds of his facial expression before the game. Just nonsense type stuff, sorry Doc but I think that's absurd too.

Keller will all of a sudden look dominant if the stuff is commanded and working in unison. Today the slider was horribly inconsistent and the curveball was garbage. One nice thing is that there are a lot of middling offenses on top in his upcoming starts. It's a long season.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Solid work out of Holmes again to both mop up a RISP situation and then eat an inning with no drama. I wonder if we might even extend him one more and then let Oviedo try 2-3. The bullpen isn't really fully taxed, and we have an off day on Monday, so there's probably no need to get desperate with the remaining innings.

I have no confidence in a number of the lineup spots today, but Paddack has seemed hittable that we could vaguely make this a game. I hope Newman is fired into the sun tomorrow. He's just absolutely awful – does nothing especially well.

 

[turd]

Honestly DK's comments about his gutlessness feels right.

He doesn't have "it." He just doesn't.

Surprised you were able to sort through his condescending bullshit of his enough to understand his message. That dude is such a fool.

 

[cookthebooks]

since this is the good vibes thread i think that over a 162 game season a team of jackie robinsons is going to be unstoppable so if we can maintain 100% jackie robinsondom we will win this world series

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Love to see Alford get off the schneid. Maybe this will kickstart him a bit. He has been really bad but there are still times where I think he keeps it together and gives himself a fighting chance by not swinging at garbage. If he can hit a little bit above the mendoza with power and speed, that's a viable CF options for the immediate future and a useful longer-term 4th OF. I am still cautiously optimistic with him, enough to really hope we see him stay around a while longer.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

LOL this has also been "one of those games" on top of a disastrous Keller start. He got some bad luck with guys slapping high fastballs down the line, got bad luck with a flare hit, etc. Newman hits the first good ball all season for him and it's right at the 2B.

However as I type, we get a total gift and it leads to two runs. Need to run into a ball and make this 7-5 and we've got a bit of a game.

 

[cookthebooks]

hard not to salivate at good oviedos stuff

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Yeah, there's part of me that really wishes we would give up something to Cleveland to acquire his rights and fully develop him without having to carry him in the majors all year, but at the same time, we're in a process over results year and he doesn't really have that typical lost young player atmosphere about him. Even though he gave up a run there, it was a good example: got some traffic on base and then had to face Machado and Hosmer. Got both of them out. Hopefully we can get at least one more, maybe two innings out of him.

 

[DanielPlainview]

I think you give Keller a couple more starts and if the command isn't improved, shut him down for the year and send him to Florida to work on his entire game; adding a cutter, off-speed command, mechanics, all of it.

At the rate things are going, I think they'll be able to get quality returns for Frazier, Moran, and Stallings at the deadline, if they're looking to move all three this year. I don't see why not, other than maybe Stallings since C is pretty much a non-existent entity in the organization, but even then it's not like they're expecting to compete anytime soon

 

[ChaosAgent]

I think you give Keller a couple more starts and if the command isn't improved, shut him down for the year and send him to Florida to work on his entire game; adding a cutter, off-speed command, mechanics, all of it.

At the rate things are going, I think they'll be able to get quality returns for Frazier, Moran, and Stallings at the deadline, if they're looking to move all three this year. I don't see why not, other than maybe Stallings since C is pretty much a non-existent entity in the organization, but even then it's not like they're expecting to compete anytime soon

I wouldn't move Moran. The DH is coming to the NL and we could use his bat for the next 5 years.

Edit: and they can compete by 2023 with Hayes, Leiter, Gonzales and crew.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

For me it all kind of depends on what the offers look like. Too early to say for sure, and we still shouldn't turn our nose up at system deepening moves.

The series vs. the Brewers will be interesting, in that we are managing to dodge both Woodruff and Burnes, and Yelich has been out of the lineup with back issues. I actually like the Brewers to win the division, but they really aren't a deep team. I don't really mean this in any more than a half-joking way, but we could absolutely compete in this division if we had both Musgrove and Marte. Every team has serious, major falws.

I'd like to see us get Frazier for the bench and try Evans out in LF, since their LF isn't as bad as ours. I wonder if Hayes' return will force a decision about one of the CFs... definitely could hold onto both, but if Evans remains a pretty much everyday player, then unless there's an injury, pretty much the only way he's going to do it is in LF or occasionally RF.