97marlin

There is a lot to like, but I think we should send him to double A to work on the curve/slider

eovaldi had great peripheral numbers, and until he got hurt he was a solid major league player. Ellington never showed any excellent skill, except his 100 mph fastball.

so we are talking a half run difference in ERA. not a massive jump. I think it's within the realm of possibility. If the Power comes, we might be way better than expected. I'm going to try to contain my excitement from this first series. If Trevor Richards dominates the Red Sox tomorrow, I doubt I will be able to contain my excitement.

What do you guys expect from team ERA? like 4.5? or like 6? Over the series it was 3.8. I think 4.2 is a reasonable ERA expectation of the entire staff.

I mean I think this team could sustain a team ERA in the low 4's. This series we had an ERA in the high 3's. I don't think this series is unsustainable.

Bour, Castro, and Realmuto should have power. Brinson, Anderson, and Cooper, have all showed plus power in the minor leagues. Dietrich appears to have changed his approach that might result in more power. I'm fairly confident in the first 6 players. semi-confident in Dietrich.

this is literally game 4. let's slow down a little bit. We still haven't shown much in the power department. We have shown a patient approach and an ability to avoid strikeouts. The two wins are nice, but for me the exciting this is we were only outscored by a single run. That is an encouraging stat.

finished first series with the cubs. 2-2 with a run differential of -1. Not bad.

Deep counts, lots of walks, not many strikeouts. If some of the guys can show some power, we might not have a bad offense. Insert JT instead of wallach, we might be a good offense. If Smith and Garcia can look like they did tonight on a regular basis we might not be a bad team. Who pitches today?

our offense is good, if our pitching can be mediocre we might win some games.

.....so no to Trevor Richards? Damn, if anyone falters in the starting rotation he gets the first call I think.

because this topic has been really unclear. Where is trevor richards starting the year?

it really sucks for guys like Richards. He had a deserving spring to give him starts, but because of the roster room he is gonna start in the minors.

I feel like I should have seen that coming.

Have they released our opening day roster?????

Highest K/BB rate on the team. He has walked nobody. I don't know what you think is projectable, but it's not ERA in spring.

Why no love for Hernandez? Hernandez should start in our rotation. He misses bats

my lineup: CF Brinson 3B Anderson RF DD 1B Bour C Realmuto 2B Castro LF Maybin / Van Slyke SS Rojas Pitcher Honestly this isn't that bad of a lineup. The question marks come from age. Rojas is bad, but honestly that's it. We might be able to score runs. If only we could pitch.

I know there is the predict opening day roster thread, but I felt with all of the "tryouts" the rotation should have it's own discussion. Alcantara was sent down. Peters can't find the strike zone. Nicolino sucks. Conley should start in single a, where he might remember what its like to be good. Who is left? Our 2 rule 5 picks, 1 who has been arguably dominant, and one who has been arguably ineffective. Jacob turner, who has developed a high gb rate, but has forgotten how to strikeout anyone. Despagne who looks fine, I guess. You tell me. Who is your starting rotation?

Anderson's spring has been even better. Unlike other players rookie stats from spring can glean a lot more information in spring training. https://www.talkingchop.com/2015/3/23/8266435/can-we-glean-anything-from-spring-training-stats Also just as a throw in, DD has a lot of fly balls this spring. Maybe that will be another sign of things to come.

I think it's more complicated than that. There are a lot of guys that have 2 great pitches, but don't have that pitch to pair it. I say the odds that all the 21-22 year olds don't add one plus pitch to there arsenal is pretty low. If 2 of them do we will be okay. If 4+ do our future rotation will be stacked. It all comes down to our organizations ability to improve physical talents.

if you don't strike guys out you have to make up for that skill in three ways. 1. Don't walk guys (less than 2BB/9). Without a high K rate it's hard to get out of jams. 2. Don't give up home runs (less than .7HR/9). if you don't get a lot of strikeouts you will have a lot of balls in play 1/3 of those on average will be hits Meaning over time you will yield more baserunners. 3. Lots of soft ground balls. This was in theory why the scouts like him so much. When he was with the Blue Jays he had a ground ball % over 50%. Which in theory meant his ability to prevent hard hit balls wasn't luck. With all that said the modern Justin Nicolino does none of those things. Unless he changes dramatically this year he is not a major leaguer.

does anyone know what the actual issue is. source please?

I hope whatever it is they try to figure it out in triple A. Why was Elieser dropped from the start today? He has looked interesting so far this spring. He got another K and gave up a HR. I'm getting mildly excited about this kid.

Nicolino is an entirely different monster. He stopped striking people out in 2014. and to me never regained his status as a prospect. He was a flyball pitcher without an ability to strike guys out. Ellington is a guy with great stuff who hasn't found a way to use it effectively at the major league level. The difference is Ellington is almost useful. Nicolino will never be useful as is. Just as an asside the way you speak about minor league numbers makes me think you just don't trust minor league numbers as a whole. Just to further the asside, what do you think of guys like Guzman, and Elieser Hernandez. and Graves? Would you be happy with any of these guys starting for our team this year?