This is what Mondesi is on pace for after the game

20 HR 180 hits 35 2B 25 3B 135 RBI 50 SB 35 BBs

He only needs 4 more walks to tie the amount of walks he had last year. He's increased his walk rate from 4.0% of his ABs to 5.2% of his ABs.

Also I bet we see his power numbers go up once the weather starts to warm up. He could legit have 30 HRs, 30 Doubles, 25 Triples, and 50-60 SBs. That's never been done before, hell 30 HR/50 SB has only been done twice, Barry Bonds 1990 and Eric Davis 1987. So if Mondesi pulls that kinda year he will win MVP right? I'm so glad I invested in some of his rookie and 1st Bowman cards before the season started.

Bullpen has gotten better. Kennedy is actually a better reliever then Davis was lol

No he's not

I mean stats don’t lie

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wade Davis&#39; ERA for the Royals as a reliever: 1.17<br><br>Ian Kennedy&#39;s ERA for the Royals as a reliever: 1.15</p>&mdash; Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) <a href="https://twitter.com/jazayerli/status/1123685302026014720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

You're right, so that must mean Kelvin GutIerrez is better than George Brett!

Gutierrez BA - .333 OPS - .868
George Brett BA - .305 OPS - .857

KG will be a HoF! He already has a better BA and OPS than the Royals best player of all time! Well 2nd best player now!

Man if Gutierrez can be a HOF that’s a steal but somehow Owings will still play everyday

There's no way you actually believe this.

Rays dumped Evan Longoria before his age 33 season to SF. He was owed 5/89 on his deal. He has been replacement level in SF and might just be done, batting .244 last year and .206 this year. That’s how you run small market teams.


Instead, we ate monster contracts of Alex, Duffy, Kennedy, etc. and I’ve already mentioned the wasted cash on other retreads the last 5 years (Chris Young, Hammel, on and on)

I think he might actually believe it.

DM isn't very good at this GM thing. He caught lightning in a bottle and now everyone just loves the guy.

God Bless Chris Young and Gordo for their roles in our World Series win though.

Because of the family mentality here that outweighs everything else. I'm sure the 5 Rays fans in existence threw a fit when Longoria was traded but it's the right move.

The biggest difference between the two is Tampa has succeeded in building a consistently productive farm system. They’re really peerless when it comes to developing pitchers.

The salary dump of Longoria was effective in freeing up payroll but that’s really all I see there. Arroyo is a meh prospect and the other two players were fillers. Don’t see a comparable to the Royals players you mention, really.

Duffy was a pending FA with one year of control they were able to nab for 13 million/year for ages 28-32. That’s traditionally been the prime production for many SP, and he was coming off a 3-year run where he averaged more than 3 wins a year (or about twice the Free Market value he received in AAV).

Gordon and Kennedy were signed to try to extend the window. Those moves failed but are very philosophically different than trading Longoria.

The Rays are incredibly well-run, no doubt it.

They also haven’t had a GM who was been wiling or able to go get a piece or two to complete their roster for a playoff run when needed.

This year, will they have the ability to use a Libertore or Nate Lowe to go get a missing piece if they need it?

Will they hang on to players to maximize contention windows, or continue to move them a year or two before FA?

It is a funny thing with the Royals fan base and where it stands now. It seems like there's a large group who thinks Glass is cheap and doesn't spend money and another group who thinks the team has been financially irresponsible and spent too much money and needs to be operated like a small market team.

I actually don't think the family thing is as big of a deal as recent history. Dayton was well aware of the Royals reputation before he came on board of how you can't root for this team because they don't sign any of their players, and he's probably paid for that. Even when they were winning he'd mention that in interviews. There would have been outrage if we didn't sign our All Star LF right after two straight World Series appearances, for instance.

I don't believe the Rays have ever had anywhere near a $100 million payroll though, let alone $150 million, so it's hard to compare them to the Royals. If they actually had money to spend it's entirely possible they would have given out a couple bad contracts if they were allowed to sign free agents. We just don't know. Dayton has had much more money to spend and as a result, he has made a few signings that didn't pan out. He made a bet to try and win in a certain window. When we look back you might make the argument that he should have just tried to sign Hosmer, Moose and Cain and tried to build around that with young guys and inexpensive free agents. It might have not helped in 2016-17 but maybe would have kept us competitive in the long run. It also could have kept us in .500 purgatory too though. The biggest difference between Dayton and teams like Pittsburgh and Tampa is when Dayton has had a shot he really went for it.

If we win this one, it would be called a "winning streak" . It has happened before.

Peralta coming in next inning.

Guaranteed Loss.

hahhahah peralta is such garb.

such a garbage man.

Peralta sucks dOnkeys.

DFA Peralta

Man Chris Owings is killing in his last 15 games!

4/47 1 HR 1 RBI 3 Runs 3 BBs 18 SOs 1 SB. That all comes to be a slash that looks like this

.085 AVG/.140 OBP/.149 SLG

Good for a .289 OPS! You just can't take that production out of the lineup! No wonder Ned has only sat him out of 1 game. He is the future of this team or at the very least he will bring back a top 100 prospect or 2!

I was hoping that fall Ned took would knock some sense into him. Sadly I was mistaken.

Yet they just continue...to...play...him. It’s insane. He’s a worse version of Getz and there he is every day. Idiotic beyond belief.



DM gave Owings $3M and Hamilton $4M. So stupid. Who else wanted these two retreads? Why would he burn $7M when he could’ve had them for $2M, the vet minimums? They both had no other options.

The playing time for Owings should have an upcoming expiration date, and it should be pretty soon.

If they want to game service time with Nicky Lopez a bit and delay his promotion until June, I can see that. But with Gutierrez up and Dozier about ready to return to playing the field, Owings needs to be relegated to playing against LHP only (basically, when O’Hearn gets a seat).

But Lopez should be up in June at the latest (dude has a grand total of 3 Ks, which is just extraordinary). And Starling, if he gets to the AAA ASB with a .800 or better OPS, should be up, too.

Merrifield
Mondesi
Gordon
Dozier
O’Hearn
Soler
Gallagher/Maldonado (Viloria off to a horrendous start with bat means they may just sit with this)
Hamilton/Starling
Lopez

Is at least an interesting lineup to watch.

It's like when Ned just absolutely refused to pull Soria out of the closer role, even after he blew, what, around 10 saves in a month? You just can't explain it.

Our offense, Dozier in particular, has been a rather pleasant surprise to watch. If we had a modicum of middle to closing pitching, we might actually be in the WC hunt.

Cardinals MLB attendance ranking last 7 seasons incl this one:

2
2
2
2
2
3
2

That’s tickets purchased, I wonder what actual attendance is? They have a ton of unused Corp seats.

Why have Owings even on the team at all? Why have him hit against lefties? He's OPSing .536 against RHP and .290 against LHP. There is absolutely no reason for him to be anywhere near this team, but every year DM and Ned have a terrible baseball player that they continue to shove in our face. **** Id rather have Alcides back. Alcides had a .593 OPS last year and were running Owings out with his .464 OPS. How ****ing pathetic is that. With how hes been playing recently pretty soon hes going to be TPJ bad. This organization is a joke

Can Ian be traded @ the deadline for something if he keeps this up? I realize his salary is 16.5 m, but if we send cash and pay for his 2019 salary, the team eating him for 2020, might be up for it especially with a sub 1.2 ERA

Where's Gutierrez in your lineup? Unless O'Hearn can start hitting, I be sending him down and have Dozier at 1st with Gutierrez at 3rd.

And your point (besides trolling) is . . . . . . ?

Gutierrez is probably a UTIL guy or back at Omaha for a bit.

O’Hearn’s batted ball profiles and peripherals are still good and better than last year (walks up, ks down, swing rate down, hard hit up). He’s hitting the ball on the ground more and getting BAbIPED To death. I think he will rebound.

Well I think that city has the same weather patterns and same school calendar. (Elbows you in the ribs, chuckles)

Yep. Not worried about ROH in the least. Owings and Hamilton can eat my asshole tho.

How’s Brady Singer doing in Wilmington? I need some good news

Him, Kowar and Daniel Lynch are all off to good starts there. On the flip side though Pratto, Melendez and Matias are not.

Not sure. But Kris Bubic is tearing shit up at Lexington (same draft, late first round). He seems to be emerging from that 4 pack (Singer, Kowar, Bubic, Lynch) that the Royals selected early last year. If 2 of those 4 can ‘hit’, the Royals could have a pretty damn good rotation come 2021 or 2022.

They're all off to decent starts statistically, at least.

Lynch - 30 IP, 3.90 ERA, 9 BB/28 K
Singer - 27 IP, 2.93 ERA, 8 BB/24 K
Kowar - 26 IP, 3.08 ERA, 11 BB/26 K

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats...=true&sid=t426

Daniel Lynch, Brady Singer, and Jackson Kowar have been pretty good starters for Wilmington Blue Rocks. Lynch in 30 innings, 28 SO, 9 BB, 3.90 ERA. Singer 27.2 innings, 24 SO, 8 BB, and 2.93 ERA. Kowar 26.1 innings, 26 SO, 11 BB and 3.08 ERA. Lynch has had 6 starts and Singer and Kowar have each had 5 starts.

Wilmington also has 3 relief pitchers Collin Snider, Tyler Zuber, and Tad Ratliff that have been doing pretty well. Ratliff has 7 saves. Snider has 19.1 innings of relief in 8 games.


The bad news...well go look at 1B Nick Pratto, C MJ Melendez, CF Marten Gasparini and RF Seuly Matias for their stats.


Good news, bad news - 22 year old CF Kyle Isbel was off to a hot start batting .348 with 2 HRs, 5 steals and 15.4 percent strikeout rate in 13 games but a ball went off his face and he has been on the injured list.

Bubic has the lowest ceiling of those guys. Great deception and a good changeup, but lacks the velo to be more than a back end guy, in all likelihood.

I could see a Marco Gonzales-ish outcome for him.

Lopez is getting rocked tonight.

9th inning Soler bomb.

Woooo hoooo Chris Owings 0-3 baby!

Craig Brown (@CraigBrown_BP) Tweeted:
Eight times Chris Owings has come to the plate with a runner on third and less than two outs. In that situation, he has yet to bring a single runner home. https://twitter.com/CraigBrown_BP/st...224550401?s=17

Clutch baby!

39 SOs too! That's really good!

Jeffrey Flanagan (@FlannyMLB) Tweeted:
Royals plan on sticking with Chris Owings through his offensive struggles. Said Ned Yost, "I work to make everyone on the team better. I don’t just throw them in the trash when they struggle.”
https://t.co/5GU1QnoEkL via @MLB https://twitter.com/FlannyMLB/status...402615296?s=17

Ned keeps his trash out of the trash can! Remember when he said this about Kyle Zimmer "you gotta perform at the big league level, unless you are Chris Owings. He gets to play every game no matter what."?

Seuly Matias is currently on pace for 275 strikeouts over a 162 game season, far surpassing the MLB major league record if he were in the majors. He just went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts tonight. M.J. Melendez is close behind with 253 over a 162 game season, finally followed by Nick Pratto at 220/162 games. I don't know if it's the players, coaching, or some combination of the two, but something is really broken in Wilmington. Those 3 have probably singlehandedly crushed any idea that this farm system has risen to the middle of the pack.

In other words it’s acceptable to keep losing in order to protect Chris Owings feelings.

They better pay Chris Owings a lot of money for getting them that 1st overall pick next year

The walk heard around the world.
 

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KANSAS CITY -- Twenty years ago, a handsome, gifted -- and slightly cocky -- outfielder named Mark Quinn burst onto the scene in Kansas City.

Royals fans hadn’t seen anything quite like him.

In his very first game, the second game of a doubleheader against the Angels on Sept. 14, 1999, Quinn hammered two home runs, becoming just the third player to go deep twice in his debut, along with Bert Campaneris of the 1964 Kansas City A’s and Bob Nieman of the 1951 St. Louis Browns. (They have since been joined by J.P. Arencibia of the 2010 Blue Jays and Trevor Story of the 2016 Rockies.)

The following season, at the age of 26, Quinn hit .294 with 20 home runs and 78 RBIs and finished third in American League Rookie of the Year Award voting behind Oakland’s Terrence Long and Seattle’s Kazuhuiro Sasaki, who won the award.

People in Kansas City all had the same thought: Quinn was a star in the making, ready to join the ranks of Mike Sweeney, Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon. It seemed that nothing could hold Quinn back.

Quinn’s arrival came during a dismal stretch in Royals history. They finished below .500 in every season but one (2003) from 1995 through 2012, and 1999 was especially rough: The club lost 97 games while allowing an AL-worst 921 runs. So when Quinn came up that September and hit .333/.385/.733 in 65 plate appearances, he offered some hope.

Yet just three years later, Quinn would play his final game as a big leaguer. For those who suited up with him, coached him and covered him, it remains a mystery how stardom eluded him. Instead, he is perhaps most remembered for a walk-less streak that ended with stadium fireworks (more on that below), and a freak martial arts injury that signaled the beginning of the end of his once promising career.

A PHENOM IN THE MAKING

“When I think of Mark Quinn,” said Sweeney, who remains close friends with Quinn, “I think he should have had a much longer career. He was talented. He had a cannon for an arm. He had a great bat. He had it all. What bums me out is that he didn’t have a 10-year career.”

His former teammates weren’t the only ones who felt that way. In fact, in the spring of 2000, he was part of a TV ad campaign for K-Swiss sneakers focused on up-and-coming athletes.

“He was incredibly exciting to watch," added Royals broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre. "Every time he came to the plate, I thought something special would happen. Guys today have so much on their mind with pitcher tendencies, scouting reports and all that. He just went up there and swung the bat. A natural born hitter. That was really fun to watch.”

Off the field, there was an aura to Quinn, as well.

Quinn once dated a Playboy model named Teri Harrison and, of course, that became gossipy news in a relatively small big league town such as Kansas City.

“Quinny was good looking, like an Eric Hosmer,” former teammate Joe Randa said. “Women loved him. Wherever he went, it was news back then. And let’s just say he liked life in the big leagues.”

But Quinn maintains that his playboy image was a bit overblown.

“Teri and I didn’t go out that long and we split up in 2001,” Quinn said. “But all she wanted to do was pursue a modeling career. It wasn’t about being in Playboy for her. In fact, she asked me about the Playboy gig because she didn’t want to do anything that might embarrass me back in Kansas City.

“All I told her was that, 'Hey, you’re in L.A. Don’t worry about what people think in Kansas City. Do it.'”

The growing legend of Quinn was fueled at the stadium, too, because eventually, every time he came to the plate, the song “Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn),” recorded by Manfred Mann, blared over the stadium speakers. Fans loved it and sang along.

“You think of Mark Quinn and you think of the fans singing 'The Mighty Quinn,'" Sweeney said. “[Singing] ‘You’ll not see nothing like The Mighty Quinn.’ As players, we thought that was pretty cool. It was an event every time he came up.”

THE STREAK

In 2001, each plate appearance for Quinn also became a must-watch occurrence for another reason: He had quickly become legendary for refusing to take walks.

“It was pretty funny to us,” Randa said. “Just crazy. It’s kind of hard to not get a walk for that long.”

After drawing a walk against the Indians on May 8, Quinn did not draw another walk for more than three months. Though he missed all but three games in June, he was back in the lineup almost every day beginning in early July. As the season progressed, Quinn became the talk of Kansas City, and the talk of the clubhouse.

“Everyone in Kansas City on the street, in the coffee shops, the bars, knew about the streak," said Charlie Seraphin, vice president of marketing at the time. "You got obsessed with his every at-bat wondering if this was the time he’d take a walk. You couldn’t take your eyes off of him.”

Finally, on Aug. 30, 2001, after a then-club-record 241 consecutive plate appearances without drawing an unintentional walk -- the Tigers issued him a free pass on Aug. 12 -- Quinn took a 3-2 slider from Angels starter Jarrod Washburn in the fifth inning that was two feet off the plate for ball four.

“To be honest,” Quinn said, laughing, “I just couldn’t reach it. I thought about trying.”

What followed has become part of Royals lore.

As Quinn started his jog toward first, the Kauffman Stadium fireworks, normally reserved for events such as home runs or victories, suddenly went off, startling everyone in the stadium, including an announced crowd of 12,159. “Hallelujah” by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir began cranking on the stadium sound system.

Fans, players, coaches and reporters howled in laughter. Even Angels players giggled into their gloves.

“Denny [Matthews] and I just broke up in the booth,” Lefebvre recalled. “We couldn’t stop laughing. It was surreal.”

“The first reaction in the dugout was ‘Holy crap. He walked,’” Randa said. “And then after the fireworks went off, it was, ‘Did that just really happen? Did they think he hit a homer or something?’”

Most people wondered if Quinn might be insulted and/or furious.

“I have a sense of humor,” Quinn said. “I thought it was funny. Washburn and the Angels were laughing, so was I. It was just nice to get the monkey off my back. But to be honest, I wasn’t in the big leagues to walk, so I really didn’t understand why it was such a big deal.”

But those close to Quinn thought that he was a bit miffed by the fireworks.

“He laughed at first,” Randa remembered, “but then he kind of got [mad] about it.”

Added Sweeney, “I don’t think he thought it was all that funny.”

So, who was behind the decision to set off the fireworks?

That mystery has gone on for years.

It was once reported that one of the stadium operations workers in charge of setting off the fireworks had simply fallen asleep and was awoken in time to see Quinn jog to first base. And thinking Quinn had hit a home run, he hit the fireworks button.

“No, totally not true,” Seraphin said.

There also was a rumor that the marketing department had planned the fireworks idea for weeks in case Quinn walked, and that players such as Randa and Sweeney were originally behind the idea as a prank.

“It wasn’t us,” Sweeney said. “I’ll swear to that.”

After numerous interviews of people connected to that 2001 team, it was determined that manager Tony Muser was the one behind the idea to set off the fireworks.

“Tony Muser and hitting coach Lamar Johnson had been working so hard with Mark on trying to get him to see more pitches," explained longtime Royals public address announcer Mike McCartney. "And they thought they were making really great progress, so they wanted this to be like a celebration if he walked. They wanted to reward him.

"Coincidentally, they called us that very morning -- how is that for timing -- and asked if we could do it if he drew a walk, and we said, 'Sure.' They weren’t trying to make fun of him. They wanted him to have some fun with it, and they really thought he was close to drawing a walk.”

But McCartney and Seraphin both knew they had better get approval from then general manager Allard Baird and team president Dan Glass before they pulled such a stunt. Baird politely declined to be interviewed for this story. Glass, though, said he gave the idea a thumbs up.

“Your first concern is that you didn’t want to embarrass the player,” Glass said. “But it seemed OK, that he’d have fun with it.”

Pulling off the fireworks was always tricky back then.

“I remember in those days, the fireworks operations guy was seated behind that giant scoreboard and had no idea what was happening in the game because he couldn’t see,” McCartney said. “So sound engineer Dave Asby would get on the walkie talkie and have to tell the ops guy if we hit a home run. So after Quinn takes the walk, he radioed the ops worker and said, ‘Hit it.’”

THE AFTERMATH

While Quinn hit 17 home runs that season, there sadly weren’t many more fireworks in his career. In an era where teams were starting to put more of an emphasis on on-base percentage, his refusal to take a walk (.298 OBP in 2001) was glaring. To give you a sense of just how much of a free swinger he was, consider this: During his 241-plate-appearance stretch without a walk, he got to a three-ball count on just 18 occasions.

The book was out on how to pitch him, and injuries unfortunately plagued him the next two years.

Quinn’s 2002 season was derailed from the start when his missed Spring Training because of a rib injury. The story came out eventually that Quinn suffered the injury while “Kung Fu fighting” in the offseason with his brother, adding to the Quinn lore.

Quinn now says that the story was overblown.

“In [the offseason of] 2001, I started to train a little different,” Quinn said. “I did non-contact mixed martial arts. I was just joking around in my apartment with my brother, and I kind of dropped down on an arm chair and one of my ribs hit the arm chair. Everything was fine going into Spring Training. It started nagging me again and I thought I had strained a muscle.

“Eventually, I went to the emergency room and it showed a crack. But it wasn’t because of Kung Fu fighting. You know, it makes for a good story and all of that, and once it’s out there, it’s out there. But that wasn’t true.”

However you define how the whole thing went down, the bottom line is that Quinn’s career was never the same after that. He played in just 23 games in 2002 and hit two home runs. He was released in the spring of 2003. He bounced around several other organizations, including the Padres, Rays, Cardinals and White Sox. But he never played again in the Majors and eventually retired in 2007.

“Let’s face it,” Sweeney said, “baseball is hard. It’s a hard game. But I always thought Quinny would be around a long time. It just didn’t happen.”

Quinn to this day doesn’t understand the release from the Royals.

“I tore my hamstring on a rainy field [in 2002],” Quinn said. “I think that’s what ended my career. But I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish.

“It took me a long time to get called up. I spent 2 1/2 years at Class A. I won the Triple-A batting crown [hitting .360 with 25 home runs in 1999] while other guys were getting called up. I had success. I had fun.”

But even Quinn admits that his personality might not have been a perfect fit in the big leagues.

“You know, I was happy to be there in the big leagues, but I felt I was always under the microscope,” Quinn said. “There was more than baseball to my life. I was one of those guys who wanted to go to the Met and walk around the city rather than sitting around playing cards in my underwear in the locker room. The best part to me was just playing the game. I loved that part.”

Quinn, who is from Sugar Land, Tex., and went to Rice, now lives in Houston, has been married for eight years and has a 16-month-old son. After a brief stint as the Orioles' assistant hitting coach in 2016, Quinn now runs a highly successful baseball school called “The Baseball School and Store.”

“Absolutely, I would say I’m very content,” Quinn said. “I had a good run [in Major League Baseball] and had a lot of fun. Life is good. I have a wonderful family and I’m still connected to baseball. No regrets.”

Yep. All Ned is doing is trying to make Chris Owings a better ball player. Im hoping Owings gets to play until his OPS is at Tony Pena Jr. level. Hes so close .451 to 398. All he has to do is drop 53 more points. Im sure Owings will get 30 more games and if that happens he may get down to .350.

This organization is a shit show and its not the owners fault. The blame falls on that clown Dayton Moore. What a pussy.

On a planet of 8 billion(roughly), we have Chris Owings on the roster.
/ thread

I was at Quinn’s debut when he crushed those 2 jacks.


Also, Teri Harrison is the single best playmate model in history. This is not up for debate. Best ever and I won’t hear any arguments.


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...YtvBUQTB_a4sbA

God damn. Yeah she's perfect.

Her eggs, harvest!!! We need her mass-produced...

And I don't care if the boobs aren't 100% real.

Kelvin Gutierrez with 9 RBIs in his first 8 games

If Bryce Harper was on the Royals this year he would be 7th in slugging percentage.

Sorry I meant 8th.

So far so good with the Herrera trade, I remember within a few weeks the Nationals imploded and were looking to trade him away themselves lol

Nice game by the Boys in Blue today.

Mondesi now leading the AL in RBI, triples and stolen bases.

Whit leading the AL (for now) in hits and runs.

Dozier leading AL in OPS, 2nd in OBP & SLG %.

Gordon 3rd in RBI in AL.

O’Hearn starting to have a little better luck the last couple days.


This is turning out to be a pretty impressive offensive team and fun to watch so far. Hopefully should continue to get better as the weather warms up . . . .

Can Dozier play RF? Time to move Whit back to 2nd and shit can Owings. Gutierrez needs to stay up and OHearn needs to stay playing at 1st.

Am I crazy for thinking that this offense will be pretty damn good next year with more experience and getting Perez back?

Fix the pen and add a starter and I think this is an above .500 team.

Oh, and Hunter Dozier also leads the AL in batting average now.

Those stats about our offensive pieces speak just as poorly about our pitching as they do about our hitting. Good Lord we should be WRECKING FACES with that kind of hitting.

It's also nice to see Soler hitting the last couple days. Both him and Dozier are on pace to hit 30 homers.

We haven't even seen Nicky Lopez yet, and he's hitting well in AAA. Whit may end up getting kicked to the OF.

Mondesi is on pace to hit 29 triples too, which is nuts. The Royals record is 21.

Well to be fair, this team was like 10th in the American League in runs coming into today. We've gotten zip out of the catcher position offensively from either guy, O'Hearn isn't going yet and Hamilton hasn't been great, even for him. Plus Owings playing every day making Getz look like Babe Ruth.

So there are still some major holes on the offense, but there's also some guys showing real legit potential. The excitement is if you can eventually bring up Nicky Lopez and Khalil Lee plus getting Perez back, you might have a fun offense to watch next year.

But Chris Owings needs more at bats.

Dayton "claims" that next year is the year he starts making moves for the next run. We just have to live through this year of shit first.

Having Salvy would make it a pretty good lineup.

So do we go for it next year? We gonna keep Whit until his wheels fall off, or trade him at the deadline for a great young prospect or two? We gonna extend Alex? We are not ready next year unless we fix the bullpen and get another starter, and let's be honest, the bullpen is not gonna fix itself in a year.

If our team was a bigger market, we could have kept Cain, maybe signed McCutchen for right field, and if Perez was here we would be absolutely stacked. Oh well.

Any pitchers I should get excited about?

The pen can be fixed in one year.

If there’s one thing this organization has proven, it’s that they can piece together a pen when needed. They intentionally neglected it this year. They were a little cocky and thought they could cobble together a respectable pen with no effort. They were wrong.

Can't imagine they're going for it next year. The million dollar question will be what they do with Gordon. He looks really good, and his defense is always strong, and he's obviously a fan favorite. Nicky Lopez will be up next year for sure, if not later this year, and Khalil Lee might see some action by next year sometime.

With the pitching staff, they're probably going to see what they have. Keller, Junis and Lopez will be around. And they are going to wait on the big 4 of Singer, Kowar, Lynch and Bubic. Bubic is absolutely tearing up single A. I'd guess he'll be heading up to advanced A to join the other 3 guys soon.

That's scary. Dude got lucky a few times and is going to absolutely get raped in multiple trades.

Pen sucked last year too and the year before and didn't make the playoffs in 2016 because of the shitty pen.

I don't know if that's entirely accurate. The 2016 pen had some rough spots and wasn't as good as previous years... and Soria was blah but that bullpen was complete light years ahead of this year. Soria would be the best pitcher in this current group.

Even with that, the 2016 pen at one point or another had Wade Davis, Herrera and Matt Strahm who was unhittable. Moylan, Flynn and Scott Alexander were solid too. Pretty much any of those 7 guys would be our best reliever on this team.

The biggest reason that team failed was because Moose and Cain both got hurt. Hard to win without two of your best players. Plus Volquez had a rough year.

I haven’t really thought about it, but is there a chance Gordon gets traded if the production stays hot?

I hope so. Whit becomes the new left fielder. Starling in center. Lee in right. Dozier / Gutierrez at 3rd. Mondesi at SS, Lopez at 2nd. O'Hearn / Dozier at 1st. Everyone rotates at DH. Soler, Hamilton, Gore, and Owings are gone by the trade dead line.

Pretty sure Soler is part of the long term plan.

You are arguing with a moron using logic.