Cody Pirkl

I think the issue is that the front office has gone on record saying they will aggressively add to the team when the window is open and they know what to expect from this team. The window is wide open. Buxton and Sano are performing at the maximum that you can expect from them. If they go back on their word, it's going to look like they were just blowing smoke and weren't expecting to actually have to act on their promises. Fans always blow the deadline out of proportion when they don't get the big names. In this case though, it reaches all the way back to the offseason when the only moves they made to address the well known weakness of this team was sign Martin Perez and Blake Parker. Perez being found money aside, those were pretty low effort moves. I like the Sergio Romo trade as a supporting move, but if you're a contending team and the only pitching acquisitions you make in a calendar year are Perez, Parker and Romo, you deserve the criticism you get every time your staff loses you a game. I think we have a very smart front office. They've done a lot with a little in terms of signings, trades, player development etc. But if they aren't willing to make a splash on a surging team right now while they have the financial flexibility and prospect capital, when will they? I still do have hope that we will add another serviceable reliever at least before the deadline by the way.

Could change in a hurry. Giants are discussing MadBum with the Astros. Their statement that they're not going to sell could have just been theatrics only to open the market as time runs down.

It's going to be a difficult day for the main beatwriters on social media tomorrow if we stand pat.

This is about the thought process I have. The nice thing is the bullpen has been doing well and just replacing a couple suspect pieces with a matchup lefty or an OK option would be an upgrade. Someone like Will Smith would be fantastic but even if we got like Jake Diekman and/or Sam Dyson rentals, we'd be looking good.

It was a tough luck loss but at some point you have to start wondering if it's more than just luck. We just keep finding new ways to lose to these teams we should be taking care of business against. Today it was wild pitches, passed balls, another untimely error and yet another baserunning decision that made everybody watching ask "what the hell was that supposed to be?".

It's pretty perplexing but he was similarly bad in the same situations last year, (granted pretty good the year before though). The thing about "early season Schoop" is that we were winning games by so much that those were the games where he's gotten a lot of his stats, when we already had the games put away. With the team struggling just a bit over the last month plus, he's really contributed nothing on offense and it's become more noticeable as we've struggled too. He's 0-8 with bases loaded which is absurd. You can see his approach fly out the window every time it matters.

Owners that like to intervene usually tend to do so either in the way of limiting spending in the offseason or when a team is trying to offload a franchise cornerstone that puts people in the seats (see Manny Machado in Baltimore a few years ago). Dealing prospects is usually a spot where ownership will put full faith in the front office. I'd guess Falvey and Levine have full control.

It's Rocco's job to see that not only did Odorizzi have absolutely nothing, but he was injured. I have no idea why he wanted to wait until we were absolutely buried to take him out but in my opinion this loss is on him. The offense did it's job and it wasn't enough because Rocco chose to save the bullpen (which turned out to be a couple pitches) with a few days until the break instead of bringing somebody else in who would have given us a better shot. We've gotta start winning games like these or the script is going to flip in July.

He's on a one year deal with a mutual option for 2020 and a $500,000 buyout. He can't be sent down but I doubt the Royals want to keep him for 5.75 million next year. They'll likely be willing to ship him out for pretty cheap.

It seems like he's fallen out of favor in Cincinnati. Maybe it'd be a Tommy Pham Cardinals situation where we could get him for cheap. My concern is I think I read a few weeks ago that he raised a huge stink because he only wanted to pitch in 3 out save situations. I don't think that mentality would fit into our bullpen too well considering Rocco loves to mix and match. I wouldn't give up anything significant for him.

Arraez is our best quality contact hitter

If we sent a package that got us him and Will Smith, we would probably be good to go in terms of bullpen acquisitions.