Wow, Joc and Vlad Jr just put on a CRAZY show in the HR Derby. It took 2 3 swing off's for Vlad Jr. to knock off Joc. 79 HR's hit between the two!
With the trade deadline coming up, it's clear that we need an elite reliever. Most of the bullpen have not been consistent for this season (besides perhaps Urias) and Jansen blew another game today. Kenley's loss of velocity and lack of movement on his cutter is very concerning. He also has a big ego that dismisses criticism when he pitches poorly. With the team consistently churning out gold from the farm (Seager, Bellinger, Buehler, Verdugo etc.), it becomes difficult to give some of our most highly prospects. Gavin Lux and Will Smith have been doing very well in AAA. Smith has shown that he can hit in the majors and will take over Martin's spot next year. There are quality relievers potentially out there, but some of them (Will Smith, Sam Dyson, and Kirby Yates), belong to SF and SD. Felipe Vazquez is another name that's been thrown around, but the Pirates apparently want the world for him.
I don't care what it costs to get a top reliever. This needs to be our World Series winning year, and the last thing I want is to see Jansen on the mound when we are trying to close this thing out in the Series.
Had to stomach another awful performance by Kenley yesterday, he completely lost it after he got hit. Seems he's lost a lot of confidence in his pitching as he takes more time to pitch now, looks uncertain about his pitches, and being paranoid about a player on 2nd stealing signs. Of course, you'd never see him admit it with that massive ego and penchant for blaming others (Doc) for not taking him out. A lot of news about us trying to get Vazquez, he's the man that we desperately need at the moment. One of the best closers in the game, lefty, and a very affordable contract for the next 4 years. I think Ruiz + other players is a reasonable deal for him. I'd put Dustin May, Gavin Lux, and Will Smith (rest of our "Big 4" prospects) off limits.
Help for October bullpen? https://www.yahoo.com/sports/ginger...ostseason-job-with-the-dodgers-061016823.html
Went to see the blue play the nats in DC. Willy went off! Glad hes on board. I'm upset we didnt make moves for bullpen help but Kelly is doing ok now. Hope he continues .. kinda scared of Houston again. Please dont lose to them again. Please
Mired in a mini slump this week/month with more questions about this bullpen, we have called up another special prospect:
Our next rookie of the year or would this disqualify him next year after how many games? The prospect everyone wanted and we said no. He talked about how our stud hitting coach worked with him too in the minors.
I don't think it would disqualify him LT. He'd likely be removed from the prospect list after a couple of months next season though. I assume that they called him up now to not mess with that service time. He would've called up earlier by other teams if we weren't so stacked. Meanwhile, thankfully Dustin May only suffered a contusion after that hit that went to his head. I don't think he should be tried as a reliever, he's not been good at it and I think he needs more time in the minors to improve his secondary pitches.
Our best ever regular season! I'll probably make a post later about how I feel about this year's playoffs.
We're coming into the playoffs with a great September. There's a lot of players that are hitting and pitching well. The offense is the best that I've seen and the team has been more consistent than the 2017 team. There are a ton of good players that can turn it up at any moment. Luckily for us, the opposing teams do not have much starting LHP, which means Joc will get his chances. I think our starting pitching is also a little better. Ryu's had a career year and then there's Kershaw and Buehler. The major concern that I have is with the bullpen. There has not been a consistent reliever this year and Jansen is more vulnerable than ever to blow a save. I think it'll take some hot arms down there (lke Joe Kelly last year with the Red Sox) to bring us that title. I hope this team uses the predominant media perception that one of the AL teams will win the World Series to motivate them.
The Washington Nationals will be a tough matchup for us. Got formidable starting pitching (Corbin, Scherzer, Strasburg) and Anthony Rendon. Got Buehler in Game 1, which I think is the right move as he's better at home. I feel that it would be better to pitch Ryu in Game 2 as he has the same thing, but people are thinking it'll be Kershaw (so that he can pitch out of the bullpen if needed if this goes to game 5).
