Two-Gun Pete

Thank you for agreeing with me.

First, you and your family are welcome, though I never "severed" my country. And yes, Lance Lynn had been better than Giolito in the past. But, Father Time is undefeated. Unless you believe that older and fatter pitchers get healthier and better as they pass 35 year of age. Is this so?

To be fair, I'm concerned about Lynn's health, and Kopech's durability. I'm concerned about VV and others not being good enough at baseball. I'm concerned that you feel a need to defend this FO, when their decisions on this area of the team have already been proven wrong. I find it funny that you'd rather gamble on Keuchel making his 2023 option than have gambled on an insured contract for Rodon in 2022.

Hey, you really know how to make a guy feel welcome. I appreciate you. So, to your engaging screed about how I own your mind, I say: 1. "Keuchle" threw 162 IP a year ago, WITH Rodon and a healthy Lynn in the rotation. How many IP will he HAVE TO throw with Vince Velasquez and other AAAA types in the roster? 2. "Keuchle" has an xERA in the threes, and most importantly, 3. Who's gonna take the ball when VV is DFA'ed, and/or other SPs underperform or are injured? Indeed. You know me well. When I provided you and your family a blanket of freedom in the Marines, I had to be fit. Whats more, it was a bad thing for one of our fellow Marines to be out of shape, because it made my job and others' jobs more dangerous and difficult. My view on fitness remains the same as it was back then. If you're using your body to make a living, take care of it. Eat vegetables. Do your cardio. Keep your weight manageable. I've not seen that commitment from Lynn so far. Have you?

I hope so as well. But here are a few questions to consider: Who will take the ball when VV is DFA'ed? Who will take the ball when Kopech needs a break? Who will take the ball to replace Keuchel himself, and Who will take the ball once Lynn eats his way out of MLB?

Let me add my voices to yours, stating that I have no interest in Keuchel remaining here. But let's write out what the rest of the rotation looks like, and the gambles this team is taking: 1. Giolito & Cease are TJ recoveries, with Giolito already injured. These are easonable gambles that they should remain reasonably healthy, and effective, IMO. 2. 35 year old, overweight, and already injured Lance Lynn. Gambling on the health of a guy who doesn't like exercise or vegetables to remain healthy is shoddy logic, IMO. Adding into it his age is a further gamble, IMO. Father time likes eating fat guys at the end of their careers. 3. Keuchel. 4. Michael Kopech, who comes pre-injured, and who has scant chance of producing enough IP to take the place of others in this rotation. 5. DFA candidate VV. 6 Others: 36 year old Cueto got curb-stomped in Charlotte the other day. Lopez has been up-and-down out of the pen. Lambert has been curb-stomped both here and in Charlotte so far this season. In sum, they're gambling on health and effectiveness of a group that hasn't demonstrated enough of both to be sure. All this taken together, whos gonna take the ball every 5 days? Once VV is DFA'ed, i guess you go with Cueto? Once Lynn sprains his stomach shoveling ribs down his hole, I guess you go with Lopez? And when Kopech needs time off, who? And if/when Cueto, Lopez, and Lambert fail or get injured, who? There's neither the depth in the org, nor quality/health among the 5 man rotation to ABSOKUTELY GUARANTEE that Keuchel won't make it to 160 IP, IMO. Simply because there ain't enough MLB-caliber arms on offer. And thats why its a 50/50 proposition that Keuchel makes 160 IP, IMO. Far too high for my liking, but this is what happens when your FO does stupid things. You're right. I should be a fan of the scrubs like you.

Couple things: 1. As southsideirish said, JR/KW/RH/TLR absolutely WILL sign him, whether its a good idea or not. This is an org that LOVES overpaying for stupid things, like RPs, shitty utility players, and yes, aging 1Bmen. 2. Because they stupidly gave Rodon away for free, there's now a 50/50 chance that Keuchel will be back in 2023. (Theres no surplus among SPs to allow them to move Keuchel out of the rotation.) 3. Don't know what Pollock's option will be, but there's also his, what, $10-14MM occupying space while he occupies the training table. 4. Whatever holes that will need patching THIS offseason, add them to the holes that weren't addressed LAST offseason, because the FO did exactly Jack and Shit about them. Enjoy.

Josh Harrison hits for the cycle, then charges the mound for good measure. TLR still doesn't know what happened.

And nor would I expect Katz to run the meeting that would determine defensive positioning. But I would expect it to be prudent to have him have input on some level. That he has NO input is surprising to me.

I would assume that the pitching coach would work in tandem with the other coaches to come up with a comprehensive run prevention plan, not isolate one coach from the others. After all, if the pitching coach is working with the pitchers how to approach an opponent [in general], wouldn't the other coaches also want to know HOW we're going to pitch to our opponents? And given how shitty this team has been at defensive positioning, wouldn't you as an org WANT the pitching coach involved? I would.

1st, the FO royally fucked up all offseason long, and made the team older, more injury-prone, more expensive, and worse at baseball. They did little-to-nothing to address the major issues with the roster, and created another hole by giving away ~5 fWAR from the rotation for free, and then not replacing the lost fWAR. Holding onto Kimbrel, then trading him for an ancient, oft-injured Pollock was a way to protect their egos and cover their asses for the dumb trade last TDL. 2nd, injuries. 3rd, either TLR's ego won't allow himself to empower his assistants to help him, or he's refusing assistance from the FO, or both. His player usage patterns suck. He's failing to use defensive subs when we're up late in games, and offensive subs when we're down late in games. Then, of course there's the Leury and Vaughn usage. Lastly, because of all of the above, the roster has got to be disheartened. On the one hand, some KEY players signed long, cheap, team-friendly extensions. OTOH, the stupid FO gave away possibly the best SP in the AL for most of 2021 for free, and signed DFA candidates VV and Harrison. I hope this turns around soon, somehow.

Katz said on the Score yesterday that he isn't involved with defensive positioning, which I found odd. One would assume that the pitching coach would want to be able to communicate to the defense how [in general] a pitcher would approach an opponent, so that they can be best-placed to make plays. Either this is TLR's ego keeping Katz from being involved, or this is Katz being incompetent. I can't decide which is worse.

Don't forget, they added the pre-injured Kelly to the mix as well. Agreed. All of those guys listed are injury-prone and/or old. Maybe, just maybe there's a reason why younger and/or healthier players are worth more in FA? Also, maybe this FO should, like, try to figure out why this is happening, and to intervene? (Yes, short spring training, and all, but this is ridiculous. )

It's simple, really. One guy has more melanin than the other guy. The more melanin you have, the less "benefit of the doubt" you seem to get over here.

Alas, this stretch is representing the worst of what this team was going to be, based on the (in)action of the FO this offseason. The OF is still full of injury-prone types, and 1B/DH types. They did nothing to add solutions for hitting vs RHP. They made the rotation weaker. And they did nothing to contain TLR's tendencies. I think it should get better, but it didn't have to be this way. The division will be much more interesting than it had to be.