GDT 3/27: OPENING DAY!!!!

left work and was driving home when twit made that debacle.. I gotta say, I still don't know why he went to Neris... Bright side is that I am sure twit learned his lesson and will never make a pen decision like that again.
 
left work and was driving home when twit made that debacle.. I gotta say, I still don't know why he went to Neris... Bright side is that I am sure twit learned his lesson and will never make a pen decision like that again.

Won't make the same.mistake again this series. Maybe the LAD series we'll see Snit top his decision making from today.
 
Maybe they've 100% decided he's going to the pen when Strider comes back/AJ will stay #5? If they want Holmes to start all year, he threw about 110 IP last year, which unless I'm missing something was his first season over 100 IP since 2017, so...

They wont want to screw with a young pitcher by bouncing him between rotation and pen. The pen is going to need Holmes anyways. Also Holmes might have pitched at a lower intensity for his inning. Wasnt like it mattered if he gave up runs.
 
I mean twit has a huge hand in yesterday’s disappointment. But AA is also just as guilty. He neglected the team needs this off season and he continues to allow twit to do whatever he wants in games. I think I have moved from just having a convo to I am starting to really believe AA is not the top five GM that everyone thinks he is.
 
I don’t blame anyone for AA frustration because of the bullpen. The only hesitation I have with it is we don’t know payroll restrictions he was given. It’s clear a decision was made above him to reduce payroll in the middle of our World Series window. We just don’t know by how much.
 
I don’t blame anyone for AA frustration because of the bullpen. The only hesitation I have with it is we don’t know payroll restrictions he was given. It’s clear a decision was made above him to reduce payroll in the middle of our World Series window. We just don’t know by how much.

He had deals in place and for whatever reason they didn't happen.. so he had some money to play with.. I think he had a few guys he targeted and when they feel through, he got caught with his pants down.

I am not saying he is a bad GM.. he has done some great things here.. Sale, drafts, things like that... He has kept the window open for sure.. but he has also done some really, really dumb things like WC, FF, depth debacles.. but every GM is going to make some mistakes.. where I knock him down a few pegs is the continued allowance of 90's baseball philosophy for in game decisions. He should be smart enough to have someone make a lineup that optimizes performances.. He should be smart enough to know reliever's metrics and leverage usage.. he should be smart enough to know that saves are a meaningless stat and to use the best guys in the HIGHEST leverage situations. he should be smart enough to know what 3rd time through penalties are for each starter.. he should be smart enough to know twit is NOT smart enough to handle these things and that he should hire a more progressive bench coach to help him with that.
 
I don’t blame anyone for AA frustration because of the bullpen. The only hesitation I have with it is we don’t know payroll restrictions he was given. It’s clear a decision was made above him to reduce payroll in the middle of our World Series window. We just don’t know by how much.

The problem with this line of thinking is that quality relievers were available for less than 5 million and we still passed on them, only to sign Kimbrel and Neris both for 2 million.
 
He had deals in place and for whatever reason they didn't happen.. so he had some money to play with.. I think he had a few guys he targeted and when they feel through, he got caught with his pants down.

All of the relievers we were connected to were before the Profar deal, right? I'm wondering if he just decided to pivot to Profar over a high priced reliever - and I actually like that decision.

Again not trying to say he's blameless at all here. The pen sucks.
 
You can't pump up someone like Hernandez as a reason you didn't go get another high-leverage reliever that required something more than a minor league deal and ST invite and then not use him. Snit ****ed it up, but AA created the conditions to allow it to happen - again. Overall, just one game but I'm seeing some of the same things from the players themselves that pissed me off last year. Lack of patience from Albies and Harris in key situations. Suspect base running. Awkward defensive coverage on bunts. Pitchers/fielders not monitoring/holding aggressive base runners on the other team.
 
While my preference was to add a high leverage reliever from the jump, I can grudgingly accept the idea of adding a bunch of bounce-back candidates as NRIs to see if anyone emerges. Problem is, we had 3 spots and only one guy emerged (De Los Santos). This started to become pretty clear 2-3 weeks ago, and yet the brain trust decided not to revert course.

Adding insult to injury, there were better options than Neris and Suarez (in my view) for the low-leverage RP spots. To keep it simple, I'd think you'd want guys who either were solid last year or looked good in Spring. Neris and Suarez check neither of those boxes. Give me someone who checks at least one. Buck Farmer is right in our back yard and had a nice 2024. Jalen Beeks was available for nothing as recently as 3 days ago, has been solid for several years and had a mediocre - but not terrible - Spring.

Aye, aye, aye.
 
Overall, I am ok with not making huge BP signings. I think 1-2 year low profile deals are more beneficial. And relievers tend to be pretty cheap deadline additions.

But our pitching staff lost Fried, Morton, and Minter to free agency and we replaced them with virtually nobody of note. Any way you slice it, this is a just a huge oversight by AA.
 
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And we're still the 2nd favorites to win it all this year.

I think the roster is mostly fine. We just don't have a manager that can maximize it properly.

It's going to be depressing when we finish this window with only one WS because AA won't let Snit go.
 
I don’t blame anyone for AA frustration because of the bullpen. The only hesitation I have with it is we don’t know payroll restrictions he was given. It’s clear a decision was made above him to reduce payroll in the middle of our World Series window. We just don’t know by how much.

Don't forget all the extensions Anthopoulos handed out that contribute to the payroll constraints. He built a team with a defined window. The players with the extensions are all good players, but there's a trade-off in terms of payroll flexibility especially if there's a blip. What has happened is that he can't address holes without cuddling up to the next-highest luxury tax threshold.
 
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