| 12:47 |
: It’s been a long time since I listened to some R.E.M willingly but this song is kinda tight
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| 12:01 |
: Hello, friend!
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| 12:01 |
: Hello!
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| 12:01 |
: how many cases are you buying when i’m back on shelves?
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| 12:02 |
: I have no calories for soda.
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| 12:02 |
: I’ve been offered Sano for Dahl in a dynasty league. What do you think?
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| 12:03 |
: Happy post-deadline Wednesday.
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| 12:03 |
: I’m a bit under the weather today, so I don’t know how long I’ll make it, but I’ll take questions until I need to go pass out.
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| 12:04 |
: Does Matheny suck? He seems to suck.
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| 12:05 |
: At some point, Mozeliak is going to have to tell him to stop double switching so often, and to stop taking Holliday out of close games.
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| 12:05 |
: His overmanaging is hurting the organization.
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| 12:05 |
: What would a Noah Syndergaard/Nolan Arenado trade look like?
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There’s a bad joke that we throw around when an older player signs — that he brings with him veteran presents. In the modern clubhouse, though, it’s unclear how much this sort of thing matters. There’s a lot of putting your head down and working on your craft — or keeping your nose out of other players’ business, at least. But then you get the odd story here or there where a veteran comes in and helps a young man develop, and you wonder if the jokes are misplaced.
Like this story about Jon Gray. He was a man with a fastball and a slider, searching for something that would expand his arsenal. The curve was promising, but less effective in Colorado. “Then I talked to [Adam] Ottavino about the slider,” the 24-year-old Rockies starter told me earlier this year, “and I started manipulating it differently in different situations.” Look at that: tangible veteran presents, from a player who just last year told us about his ability to alter his slider to battle lefties.
I recently got to check back in with Gray about that slider manipulation. He was fresh off a rejuvenating bullpen session in San Francisco and had even better feelings about his changeup. And his curve. Now we look up and, in his last start, on Wednesday against the Orioles, he actually used both his curve and change 10% of the time… and it was the third time he’d done so all season. Looks like Gray has found a few more pitches that he trusts.
| 9:03 |
: Hello friends
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| 9:04 |
: Doing a one-time chat swap with August, as he’s unavailable today, and I’m unavailable Friday
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| 9:04 |
: So, resuming next week, August is your Tuesday man, and I’ll be there on Fridays. But if you’re looking for August, come back in a few days!
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| 9:04 |
: Hello, friend!
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| 9:04 |
: Hello friend
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| 9:05 |
: So it seems like the Mets front office has decided it’s content with Wilmer Flores as the everyday 2nd baseman next year?
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| 12:00 |
: Welcome to deadline day.
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| 12:01 |
: With four hours to go, there are still a ton of players who should be moved by days end, so I’m guessing we’re going to see a flood of deals once the dam breaks.
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| 12:01 |
: This feels like one of those days where everyone has their plan Bs and Cs lined up, so once they all decide to move on from Plan A, we’re going to get a bunch of moves all at once.
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| 12:02 |
: We’ll be hanging out here all afternoon, rotating through FG authors depending on who is writing up what. Eric Longenhagen will be swinging by at 2 to answer prospect related questions as well.
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| 12:03 |
: How badly do the mets end up overpaying for Bruce?
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| 12:04 |
: I don’t really see the fit there. Bruce is an average-at-best player, and he forces Granderson or Conforto to CF. I doubt they’ll pay a high price for him.
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| 9:05 |
: Hello friends
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| 9:05 |
: Welcome to baseball chat
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| 9:05 |
: Hello, friend!
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| 9:05 |
: Hello friend
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| 9:05 |
: Why have I not heard any chatter at all re: Oakland shipping people off?
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| 9:06 |
: Hill has been hurt, Gray has been mediocre, Reddick is part of a saturated outfield market, and Valencia is basically on the level of Steve Pearce
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| 1:39 |
: I think I’ll do some weird music today. Some won’t like it. Shrug emoticon!
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| 12:01 |
: What’d you think of Demeritte in San Diego?
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| 12:02 |
: Asked him about his two-strike approach and he said he was trying stuff and nothing had clicked. I think that’s a fairly bad sign and I’ll put his bust rate at 80+%. But! He probably still has a 5% or so superior rate, because if he does put it together, I believe in his power, and think he can even stick at second.
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| 12:02 |
: I hope you are very wrong that Josh Reddick could net Bellinger+. That would be an objectively horrible trade for the Dodgers’ present and future
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| 12:02 |
: Well, I think the trade would be Hill and Reddick together, and I thought Bellinger was further down the prospect list, so I probably am wrong.
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| 12:02 |
: Where do you think manfred can improve!
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| 12:03 |
: Happy Wednesday, everyone. We’re a few days away from the trade deadline, so I imagine most of the questions will revolve around whether we’ll see any interesting deals in the next few days.
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| 12:03 |
: Do the giants still make a bullpen move in your view in light of rising prices for relievers?
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| 12:04 |
: Yep. I don’t know that they’ll land a closer, necessarily, but I think they’ll get someone. Maybe Will Smith?
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| 12:04 |
: So do Nats need a RP? Good case that Shawn Kelly should be better used, and maybe Reynaldo moved to the pen for the rest of the year. Outside of that, worth raiding the farm?
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| 12:05 |
: I think trusting Baker to use Kelley/Lopez correctly is probably too much to ask. So if they can get another good arm at a reasonable price, it’s worth doing. I can see why they didn’t think the price for Chapman was reasonable, though.
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| 12:05 |
: Javy Baez is outhitting Montero, Russell and Heyward, but usually is hitting behind them when he plays. Any idea on Maddon’s thought process there?
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| 9:01 |
: Hi everybody!
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| 9:01 |
: I think you’re stuck with just me tonight. Jeff is out with his better half.
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| 9:01 |
: Given that the cost of Upton was 1.5 years/$5M and a ~30th ranked prospect, why wouldn’t more teams be in on that?
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| 9:02 |
: Maybe they were but the Padres just like the Blue Jays prospect better.
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| 9:02 |
: I mean, we definitely heard that Cleveland was in on Upton. Baltimore too.
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| 9:02 |
: It’s not dark yet…are you in Europe?
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| 12:07 |
: hey!
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| 12:07 |
: let’s chat
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| 12:07 |
: while listening to Beck’s Mellow Gold
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| 12:13 |
: OK, sorry. Let’s start for real.
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| 12:13 |
: Hello, friend!
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| 12:13 |
: Hi, Bork!
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