Richie

Strong this. Looking to tie in Grandal's success to PED use is beyond a reach. lol His power hasn't shown up yet. That's it. His OBP is the same and average isn't far off. He's always been a hot/cold sort of a hitter too. MLBN did a comp of his numbers vs Realmuto over the past few years and it's nearly the same guy. Realmuto only slightly better. Grandal is one of the two best catchers in baseball recently. It's 22 games... in a year with basically no spring training. People sure do love their small sample sizes.

I hope man

This is facetious, I assume. lol

Is there any doubt that Fry just gets lit up this inning and we're down 8-3 in about 10-15 minutes?

The crazy thing is that you're not wrong. Today is a great example of why we need a real manager.

What was the point of Mazara? I was okay with it because I thought it was a reclamation project with a former top prospect. But this guy still has the same long, lazy, loopy ass swing he did in Texas. Nothing has changed with this guy. We did nothing with him. The only difference is that he somehow has not lifted a ball out of the ball park yet. Which he tended to do before.

Nothing today has inspired hope that we're going to rally back. Whatever... I'm here for it, I guess.

Can we calm down on pigeon holing Eloy based on like a week sample size? Sheesh.

Watching this team hit shouldn't be so frustrating. But it really is...

This whole day is a trainwreck.

Find a way to get an out Fry, christ. This is atrocious.

Christ almighty, we're really going to drop both of these, huh? Just checking in. I cannot be the only one who is disgusted by how we've looked today.

Definitely in the 9th - Engel should be in there. I mean, even if just for protecting his body. Shit... the guy walks a very thin tightrope every time he goes towards a wall. Whether it be in foul territory or the left field wall.

That's fair. I do recall that more clearly now that he picked it back up a little. Not like he was in the 1st half, but still solid. I'm not taking last season away from him. That's for sure.

He's just a disaster waiting to happen out there. One of these days he's really going to twist a knee the wrong way... something like that. I'm tired of watching it.

The definition of a QS is 6 or more IP and 3 or less ER. Cease went 6 innings and allowed 1 ER. FWIW, he also K'd 5 and walked nobody. Allowed 7 hits. That's a WHIP a touch over 1.000 for the day. His season ERA is down to 3.23.

Yeah, they're pretty committed to Grandal for the future. Agreed.

He would have to keep this up to really get paid in a big way, IMO. He really only has one half of legitimately good baseball in his entire big league career. 2nd half of last season his numbers totally fell back in line with his career in Detroit.

I want to praise Cease in this game-thread... but I also desperately don't want to jinx him or speak to soon. I'll say this much. He is seemingly on the right track.

Yeah, you can look his career April splits and they've always been a bit ugly. Mid-May through June he starts heating up. I think he'll get there.

Really? I think he has looked good today. No reason yet to think he's slowed down. Why? A bad first week? He's fine.

Fulmer's really going to plunk us with his first pitch? What a bum he is. Then, he gets lit up. Perfect. He is trash. Sit down, loser.

Why? I promise that I'm not being a dick. I genuinely want to know what the rationale behind this take is. It's his 5th season and he's 27 years old. Nothing has changed. Why will it? How long do we keep saying this type of thing? He's closer to being 30 than he is to his days as a prospect.

Semien has led the league in errors by AL SS's 3 times in Oakland. Doing so in his first 3 full seasons in Oakland. Last year, he finally managed not to do so. You know who claimed his spot? You got it. Timmy! You know who he was tied with for the lead in 2018? Timmy! You know which SS led the AL in errors the year Semien got hurt? Timmy! These two have had quite the battle of defensive ineptitude. TA is 27 years old. He's not a kid anymore. He's not a prospect. He's a major leaguer and a bad defensive SS. He's out of excuses. Could he improve? Sure, I suppose. However, there's NOTHING to suggest he will. He's been making the same mistakes since the day he has arrived and nothing has changed. At a certain point, you are what you are. In year #5 and at age 27? He's pretty much reached that "point".

It's becoming evident that Anderson's issues at SS aren't going anywhere. It's getting old. I am definitely for moving him to a corner outfield position. Not sure I see the Alex Gordon comparison, though.