Inside Pitch

The only time Willits came into the game batting fourth before the 8th inning was in the 7th inning of a 0-14 blowout. I don't know of anyone stupid enough to opt for Quinlan over Willits as a defensive replacement.

Bavasi -- Port went to Boston...

I think Lou has a theme going in his recent posts...

And if he had not rested them the criticism from arm chair types would have been that he didn't rest them before the playoffs and they were spent after chasing down the A's all year and using the bullpen in the 5 spot of the rotation. Monday morning QBing is easy.

I had to look it up... Reggie Willits never started a game batting cleanup. Ever. All told he had 12 at bats in 26 games. No doubt all 12 of those at bats were totally crucial though...

So.. Jerry Dipoto was a puppet for MS too? How did his analytics department fare in player development? How did keeping MS away from the minor leagues and how players were being developed work out? Things sure got better under the smartest man in the room, didn't they?

God you are dense.. You want to use the fact that 5 GMs traded him away to validate your ignorant narrative.... Meanwhile you ignore the fact that 5 GMs traded for him. Your own process renders your argument null ... a fact made even more clear when you consider three of the GMs that traded him away -- also traded FOR him.

The giveaway on ladies night is gonna be epic... Herpes and a gift basket... http://nypost.com/2011/12/13/jeter-gives-autograph-swag-to-one-night-stands/

"And so let it be known that in their darkest hour a beacon of light and of hope shone down upon the fallen Angels -- mighty Buttercup had left the building" -- Herodatus

One more player, (15) -- 6 more days. Not sure how big of an impact losing Shae Simmons and Shawn O'Malley for 120 days has had on them. Dodgers BTW with 21 players and 572 days lost to the DL blow both teams out of the water..

Check to see whoever was doing well the last ten days -- then order his headstone.

Well -- they DID draft Posey.. Matt Harvey too...

The Cal League isn't really offense happy -- that's an old stigma it still carries but just doesn't ring true anymore as teams have moved into different stadiums. These days it's got some extreme pitcher parks and extreme hitter's parks but overall it tends to play pretty neutral to pitcher friendly. IE's HR index for LHB is 75, for RHs it's 60. Those are pretty extreme values.. Rancho Cucamonga sits at 85, Lake Elsinore - 76.. The only hitter's park in the southern division is Lancaster which is ridiculous with a HR index of 159. Up north you have two parks over 100, Visalia at 120 and Stockton at 119, the other two are are extremely slanted towards pitchers - Modesto's at 57 and San Jose at 81. When it's all said and done 5 of the 8 teams play in parks with a HR index about 20 points below the average. When you look at Thaiss you have to look at the predictive rates -- his K rate is 10.7, the league average is 17.7. His walk rate is 14.5, the league average is 10,0. His pulled FB% is 49% vs a league average of 42% and his LD% is 5% above the league average. All of those numbers are pointing in the right direction... The pulled FB% is a good sign as far as power goes -- it tends to mean he is able to turn on pitches which directly leads to power output.

Preach... 2018 and on...

Eppler's work with a tight budget and his work with the clean peanuts is why I'm not doing any hand wringing. I think the smartest thing we saw him do when he took over was he didn't fire everyone right away. He took a year to acclimate himself to what we had both on the field and in player development then started to remake things. I'm not Arte, I don't know what he's thinking, but based on recent history I imagine he's far more impressed with what Eppler has done and the return on guys like those you mentioned than at any point since Stoneman bolted.

If that alternate universe still contained the people behind the drafts I don't know we see much of a difference. An alternate universe where Bill Stoneman would have taken Arte's money and stayed on.. now that I would have loved to see.

He's allowed 15 baserunners in his last 9 innings.. 9 via BB.. I doubt they will be bringing him up until those walks start coming down.

Tonight is an epic battle of two, second place teams.. Quality matchup.

If he's appealing doesn't that usually mean he will get to play until they get back to into NY or the area? You should be safe.

You win, Blarg....

89-72, 1250 innings of 104 ERA+

Man -- the way he looks like he's getting ready to blow a kiss as he's a Red Sox is both scary and anger inducing....

This is hypnotic...

Too bad it wasn't against the Red Sox-- It would have been a veritable "Battle of the Bastards" part two....

Cock-blocked by a seal -- man, who HASN'T had that happen to him at least once...