Chen had bullpen cut short today. Mattingly says no time soon.

 

Choices in New Orleans are Vance Worley who has given up 15 runs in 17 IP and Nicolino who has been better recently but last start sucked. Plus they are in Reno.

 

Severino Gonzalez is scheduled to throw today for Jacksonville. He has thrown three straight QS.

 

 

They don't really need a starter to be honest.

 

Just forfeit the game.

 

And the season.

 

 

I would go with Worley. He was doing well until recently. Nicolino has just been getting hammered.

 

I wonder if Chen would be a candidate for the new "repair" surgery instead of Tommy John. Just fix the fucking thing already. 

 

 

I would go with Worley. He was doing well until recently. Nicolino has just been getting hammered.

 

I wonder if Chen would be a candidate for the new "repair" surgery instead of Tommy John. Just fix the fucking thing already. 

 

Worley'a last three starts:

 

4 IP, 6 ER

 

7 IP, 1 ER

 

6 IP, 8 ER

 

Nicolino has been better this year. Sucked last time out but before that was good.

 

 

None of this sounds good

 

 

This is so bad in so many ways. Short term and on a personal level for him it probably means some major surgery and Chen is gonna be out for a long time. Long term it means Chen is now obviously extremely unlikely to opt out of his contract and we're probably stuck with him for the long haul.

 

 

Let Ichiro pitch. 

 

 

Is it possible that he had that elbow issue before signed with us ?

 

 

Nicolino starts tomorrow. For reference, Gonzalez with 4 IP, 4 ER tonight.

 

 

Is it possible that he had that elbow issue before signed with us ?

 

I still wonder why Sean Cunningham resigned as team physician.

 

 

What a disastrous contract. 

 

Thing is during the time Chen signed, his contract was reasonable compared to others. 

 

 

So this season looks like it's going down the tubes pretty quick, just give Nicolino and Urena the ball every five days for rest of the year and remove all doubt(if there is any) that these guys can be MLB level starters, leave Chen on the DL any time he complains of anything so he doesn't reach any of his vesting options

 

 

What a disastrous contract. Thing is during the time Chen signed, his contract was reasonable compared to others. 

So it's arguably not disastrous. Look I get it, it's shit for us now and it's gonna be a tremendous problem but I don't think it's fair to complain about his contract in hindsight.

 

I mean of course you can look back on contracts, deals, trades, signings etc and judge if they worked out or not but I don't think it's fair to bitch about a transaction that was considered ok at the time.

 

At the very least I think there's a fine line between judging a contract in hindsight or acting like it was shit from day one when it wasn't.

 

 

So this season looks like it's going down the tubes pretty quick, just give Nicolino and Urena the ball every five days for rest of the year and remove all doubt(if there is any) that these guys can be MLB level starters, leave Chen on the DL any time he complains of anything so he doesn't reach any of his vesting options

I like this idea but doesn't Chen get to decide if he stays or not? What vesting options does he have?

 

 

It seems like he has three straight player options.  I was under the impression that after the second year he has to opt in to the final three years  as opposed to going year-to-year. 

 

 

Is it possible that he had that elbow issue before signed with us ?

 

It doesn't matter now.  He's our problem now.

 

 

It doesn't matter now.  He's our problem now.

 

Yea,but if he got that issue before we signed him and we knew it,than maybe we won't sign him…

 

 

Maybe "Urena,Straily,Volquez,Koehler and Nicolino" was better than "Volquez,Chen,Straily,Conley and Koehler".

 

 

Let the young arms get a chance. Urena looks better but he could implode very quick.

 

 

Let the young arms get a chance. Urena looks better but he could implode very quick.

 

that's always been his MO though - he loses control and leaves pitches up and gets hammered.  When he has his games where he mostly keeps his pitches down he gets some really good results.  You can say that for a lot of guys but Urena does put up some really good starts as opposed to mixing in average starts with terrible ones and he's also a decent athlete.  I would like to see him be slotted in the rotation for the remainder of the season.  Nicolino has always seemed more of a journeyman long reliever type of guy to me (since lefties have a way of hanging around in MLB). 

 

 

Let the young arms get a chance. Urena looks better but he could implode very quick.

 

Nico too,it's all up to them to perform consistently to stay in the majors.

 

 

Wait.... They need a starter ?, I'll be there, I'll do it.....

 

 

Wait.... They need a starter ?, I'll be there, I'll do it.....

 

 

 

that's always been his MO though - he loses control and leaves pitches up and gets hammered.  When he has his games where he mostly keeps his pitches down he gets some really good results.  You can say that for a lot of guys but Urena does put up some really good starts as opposed to mixing in average starts with terrible ones and he's also a decent athlete.  I would like to see him be slotted in the rotation for the remainder of the season.  Nicolino has always seemed more of a journeyman long reliever type of guy to me (since lefties have a way of hanging around in MLB). 

 

Nicolino was once the best command pitcher in the organization. He struggled with it a bit last year which I wrote on in detail here (https://marlinsminorsmlb.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/2017-spring-training-power-rankings/) if you care to read it.

 

Based off his first start and his year in the minors so far though he has it back. And when he is commanding and spotting his curve, he's damn viable as a back end starter.

 

 

Sign his countryman, the Yankee great Chen-Ming Wang.