Darius

Nobody in organization should be given quarter from criticism. They’re playing awful baseball. I don’t blame players, personally. I tend to blame it on the people making the decisions. Astudillo isn’t an issue if they’re making competent personnel decisions elsewhere (see 2019 when he hit .260 and OPS’d less than .700 in 200+ PAs). That said, Astudillo has been pretty good this year (except when it matters most, as noted - it’s just not that hard to bear down and get the guy out). He’s a fine bench player. It’s not his fault that nobody else on the roster can stay healthy and he gets more run in big spots than he should. Speaking of injuries, at what point do we start question what the training and strength/conditioning staff is doing? NFL teams don’t see this many injuries and they’re openly trying to maim each other on the field.

No, the guy in charge is always 100% responsible. If it’s a matter of the players being bad, why didn’t the talent evaluators figure that out? The FOs job is to put together a collection of players that can win baseball games. The managers job is to get that collection of players to perform. That’s his one and only job. Literally. Blaming this on guys like Kepler and Polanco, who now have a large sample size of suck, is absurd. Why would you think Maeda, in his mid 30s, is all of the sudden an ace because of one good shortened season? You can’t heap praise on these guys as “geniuses” when the players perform, then blame it on the players when they don’t. When Molitor was given crap team, nobody seemed to be lining up to give him a pass like they are Baldelli. The FO had every opportunity to get this bullpen in adequate shape. They made the decision to let two key late inning guys walk (May and Clippard) and replace them with guys off the trash heap. They terribly misjudged Colome (other FOs that wouldn’t touch him seemed to figure it out). If they would’ve addressed that properly, we’d be within spitting distance of the division leaders now despite the slumping offense. We wouldn’t be having this conversation. It’s time to stop making excuses for these guys. We’ve been sold a bill of goods on them (brilliant data analysts, pitching wonderkind, etc.) that is false. They got lucky in 2019-2020. Do your job or be held accountable.

I’d gladly take Eddie’s .240, 4 HR, 5 steals on this team over what Jake Cave, Kyle Garlick, and Max Kepler have given us. I still think there was more to losing him than can be quantified in the stats of him and his replacements. I think he brought some intangibles that were a big part of this teams success.

The offense has been fine, even with a multitude of injuries. There are 3 teams in the AL that have scored more runs. There are only 5 teams in the AL that have given up more runs. There are 2 teams in the AL with a higher bullpen ERA. We’re tied with the Tigers for the fewest saves in the AL (and we’ve had plenty of chances). We’d be just fine right now if our bullpen wasn’t a garbage fire. That’s the issue.

We’ve been told to be patient. We’ve been sold this window for a decade. The hubris, incompetence, and as always, penny pinching, of this FO and ownership group is currently robbing us of that. Then, what? Another 10 years of lip service about some fictional future date in which they’ll push the chips in? Frankly, I’m kind of p’d off about it. This franchise is a loser. Always will be. This has left an awful taste in my mouth regarding the FO, who I’ve been told are pitching savants (time to put that to bed). Go get someone who actually knows what they’re doing. Not some kid who clearly rode some coattails out of Cleveland. And what has Levine ever accomplished? He partially oversaw a perennial loser (Rangers) for 10 years. I’ve had enough of hearing about how they analyze data. Do something real.

Sano will be fine. He’ll go on a tear at some point and end the year with 35 HRs. He’s a convenient punching bag. But, why does a flurry of articles always come out calling for his job when he struggles? We haven’t seen that for Kepler or Garver. I don’t get the constant fawning over Arraez, either. Good hitter. Not great defensively. Negative power. He’s a fine player to have, but I’m not overly concerned about him not playing everyday (which he clearly can’t and stay healthy, anyway). Sano’s career OPS is actually about 10 points higher than Arraez. In 3 of the 4 seasons Miguel had more than 350 plate appearances he’s slugged over .500 and OPS’d over .850. Two of those were over .900. He was an absolute force in the summer of 2019. I’m not ready to write him off after a poor COVID shortened season and more 50 bad ABs in 2021.

Garver, Donaldson, and Kirilloff breaking out walked me back from the ledge this weekend. They might hit enough to get back into it. If nothing else, that was fun to watch.

Thrylos?

There’s a lot that can be controlled. Baldelli has been downright awful this year. We’ve seen multiple games where his managerial decisions have directly lead to losses. The FO could’ve signed some competent relievers. Can anyone control Maeda being awful, the hitters slumping, or the injuries? No. But, there are plenty of other things that could’ve been done differently that would lead to this team having a few more wins right now. The FO and management have one job: Find good players and get them to perform. They’re not doing that. The injury issues are well documented, that should not be a surprise. It was clear that the bullpen was going to be a disaster, shouldn’t be a surprise. Regression from Maeda shouldn’t be a surprise. Polanco, Cave, Garver being awful shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s their job to identify these issues and prevent them from derailing the season. That’s what they get paid to do. The bottom line is, as much as this will offend some, they are failing at their job.

You can’t tell me watching Colome accumulate a nearly impossible -1.5 WAR and cough up 5 games in 8 appearances, with no accountability in terms of his role, doesn’t cause some sort of rot in that clubhouse. If I’m Duffey or Rogers, who’s put my time in here and been performed, I wouldn’t be very happy about it. Colome is doing this in epically bad fashion. It’s not a walkoff extra base hit to Mike Trout. We’re talking about throwing batting practice level stuff to guys like Jordan Luplow, and the team is in the dugout before the ball lands. It doesn’t help when Baldelli is getting cute and doing things like yanking Josh Donaldson in the 10th inning. Walking Robby Grossman to pitch to one of the hottest hitters in the game. Forgetting the rules on mound visits with your ace on the mound. The decisions he’s been making are inexcusably bad. It looks like the life has been sucked out of some of these guys, and rightfully so. It’s amateur hour over there in the FO and management.

If the FO did their job even remotely well, the answer would be no. Unfortunately, this bullpen is so devoid of talent that there probably isn’t a better option. At this point, who really cares. They (the FO and Baldelli) have botched this so badly that the season is likely over before May gets here (fewest wins in the MLB, second to last winning percentage, 7 games back of the Royals, and no help in sight).

Best news we’ve had all season.

I’m reaching the point where I’m done buying the hype on the highly touted FO and manager. This doesn’t look like a bad luck or hindsight issue. The bullpen is clearly awful. Gambling that this crew could keep it together was a massive error in judgement. The manager is making awful decisions night after night. The club is lifeless. It’s possible they turn it around. I’m fairly confident the offense will. But, I just don’t see them winning at a high level with this bullpen. They’re going to get shelled all year.

This just isn’t a good baseball team. That’s about it.

For a team trying to compete in the playoffs, it was an absolutely awful offseason.