Harry Dunne said:

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tjack16 said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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scrimp said:

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I didn't say he was a scrub by any means. I understand all major leaguers are in the show because they are good. Gibson absolutely had a career night, but he's a average MLB pitcher at best. 8 year vet with a sub .500 W-L and 4.55 ERA, and the Astro's "stacked" lineup made him look like an all-star.

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I think he's better than you think he is. I don't think W-L or ERA are good metrics by which to judge a pitcher. Beyond that I think the less time we spend talking about arlington pitchers, the better.

But like I said, I agree with you that career night or not, we need to do better against a guy like that.

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W/L isn't a good metric, but ERA absolutely is.

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ERA like W/L tells part of the story, so in that sense it's "good", but it is arbitrary and subjective (and therefore flawed) and isn't nearly the best way to judge the effectiveness of a pitcher. Probably an off day (or offseason) argument though.

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For sure a good offseason debate. I look at ERA to determine how many runs they are likely to give up any given start ... just as a fan. Obviously if I was an analyst or scout I'd look at a lot more.

Yeah, Gibson's a major leaguer, but not the ace we made him look like.

Overall, this team just can't seem to fire on all cylinders. They've had a killer number of blown saves. Right now, I think they have 11 as a team. If they would just have the average number of blown saves this year (7), they could be sitting at a respectable 28-21.

Extra innings has been killer -- 2-6. The blown save and extra innings all support what we've said--the bullpen ain't getting it done. I love Pressly, but don't think he is cut out to be closer. He was great in the 8th inning role, but hasn't adjusted well to the 9th inning spot. Of course, when Pressly had to shift to take Osuna's spot, that left a void in Pressly's set up man spot that no one has adequately filled.

Now I know before even typing this it doesn't tell the entire story but I think it's worth noting.

Last night we played our A+ lineup and yet not one player in that lineup was hitting over .300.

The last few years we'd have anywhere from 3-5 guys in the lineup hitting over .300.

Again...It's just BA and doesn't tell the entire story but it's telling.

Ag_07 said:

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Now I know before even typing this it doesn't tell the entire story but I think it's worth noting.

Last night we played our A+ lineup and yet not one player in that lineup was hitting over .300.

The last few years we'd have anywhere from 3-5 guys in the lineup hitting over .300.

Again...It's just BA and doesn't tell the entire story but it's telling.

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I believe Brantley was batting over .300 yesterday. Dipped after his 0-4 night.

There are only 25 guys batting over .300 this year (qualified), closer to 50 if you lower the min PA to 50-60. I wouldn't put all that much stock in it. It is true we don't have one guy who's dominating like a lot of teams have in this short season.

Our world-class offense is completely average at 100 wRC+ this year. Some of that has to do with backups getting too many ABs.

Here is what our A line up looks like.

Springer - 127
Altuve - 70 (should not be in the 2 hole)
Brantley - 138
Bregman - 131
Tucker - 116
Gurriel - 101
Correa - 103
Reddick - 95
Maldonado - 122

5 guys who are doing well to really well
3 about average
1 well below avg

This is one of the reasons to expect the offense to get better now that everyone (minus Yordan) is healthy. They're performed well enough without each other.

No more Toto-44 (91 PA), Straw-60 (72 PA), Mayfield-9 (41 PA) bringing everyone down.

Speaking of the 2-hole. Have we talked about Dusty's propensity to put ice cold hitters there?

Granted he put Tucker there who proceeded to go nuclear and at the time I thought maybe it was a brilliant strategy But unfortunately it has not worked for straw, Reddick, Altuve and whoever else he's put there.

I understand the philosophy of putting a guy there so that he will get better pitches to hit, but based on our production lately it doesn't help us having an automatic out at the top of the order and maybe it's time to stop playing 3-D chess and just put our best hitters in a position to get more ABs.

Padres-Mariners weekend series moved to San Diego due to air quality concerns in Seattle.

the Astros may not be making the trip to Safeco next week

Going down the rabbit hole here.



Our 7 hole is where we've hit best. It's funny because most of the production is from Reddick. He's killed it from there and down below avg or flat out bat everywhere else in the line up.

It hurts that the clean up spot is one of our weak spots. Replace that # with Yordan's we'd be in a different situation I am sure.

W said:

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Padres-Mariners weekend series moved to San Diego due to air quality concerns in Seattle.

the Astros may not be making the trip to Safeco next week

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Lance can get another home start as a visitor!

If it happens, it is about time we caught a break in all this madness. It seems like we're usually on the other end of it. We got no-no'd in Milwaukee as the home team. We had to play in Tampa as the home team after Harvey. Even this year we played 8/10 games vs the As in Oakland.

I hate how Dusty swaps guys out of the 4 hole almost every night. It's maddening

One night it's Tucker, the next it's Brantley, the next it's Yuli, then back to Tucker, etc etc.

Like he's trying to guess who's gonna have a good night. Just pick the guy best suited to move runners and get RBIs and roll with it.

IMO right now Correa needs to be batting 4th every night. If you want to break up lefties put Brantley at #4.

Springer
Tucker
Brantley
Correa
Yuli
Bregman
Reddick
Maldonado
Altuve

Agreed. How many other teams have had 7 different cleanup hitters this year?

Why would you have Bregman 6th?

I like you're thinking though. Here is what I would do assuming Springer is locked into the 1 spot.

Springer
Brantley
Bregman
Tucker
Correa/Gurriel
Correa/Gurriel
Reddick
Maldonado
Altuve

You'd think that Altuve would at least guess right now and then on a pitch. He can't even do that.

We have to win at least 3 of the next 4 to give us some breathing room in SEA.

We don't want to be in a spot where we have to win all 3 in SEA because chances of that are slim.

Ag_07 said:

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We have to win at least 3 of the next 4 to give us some breathing room in SEA.

We don't want to be in a spot where we have to win all 3 in SEA because chances of that are slim.

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Or have Seattle keep losing. At this point, just make the field.

Marvin said:

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Ag_07 said:

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We have to win at least 3 of the next 4 to give us some breathing room in SEA.

We don't want to be in a spot where we have to win all 3 in SEA because chances of that are slim.

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Or have Seattle keep losing. At this point, just make the field.

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Seems like Seattle does whatever we do. It's been either 1.5 or 2 game difference for over a week now

Who knew Odor needed to join the hair club for men?

Failtuve

Giants trying to close out the Mariners in the 9th

that would be great for Lance to get another MMP start

At least they made tonight's scrub throw a whopping 14 pitches.

'Stro Poll is disrespecting Javier. He should at least be on the list after 8 starts, a low 3 ERA, and a sub 1 WHIP.

I see last nights zone is totally not happening tonight. Make up your mind guys.

iamtheglove said:

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Who knew Odor needed to join the hair club for men?

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He stopped wearing his jersey halfway buttoned up

it's awesome playing in the AL West. Don't have to win that often to make the playoffs.

Seattle falls to 22-28

Big mama trying to figure out how to put that dude's head back on.

Tucker ****er

Nice start.

Tucker ****er!

Almost back to back.

That pitch to Tucker had an invitation written all over it to "mash me".

Franbwr has hit that spot 4 times. All balls. And it's a strike to Bregman. Just like clockwork.

Sigh Sneed would lower his ERA against Houston's lineup right now. What a pillow fight this series has been.

George is now 0-3 on 4 pitches.

This team will go down hell or high water without changing a damn thing.

This team just insists on being a pull heavy team.

Why on earth would we not challenge?