The latest on a few teams’ Division Series pitching plans:
- The Athletics are turning the ball over to right-hander Frankie Montas for this afternoon’s must-win Game 4 against the Astros, per various reporters (including Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News). The 27-year-old was the best pitcher on staff in 2019 before an 80-game suspension following a positive PED test derailed his season. Montas hasn’t performed anywhere close to last year’s level in 2020, although he continues to pump high-90’s heat and strike batters out at a high rate.
- The Astros haven’t yet named their opposing starter for Game 4. Manager Dusty Baker didn’t rule out turning the ball over to veteran Zack Greinke, who has been dealing with some arm soreness, notes Jason Beck of MLB.com. The 36-year-old ran in the outfield before yesterday’s game but did not throw, reported Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). If Greinke doesn’t go, fellow righty Cristian Javier would be the logical choice to get the ball. [UPDATE: Greinke will get the ball for this afternoon’s potential clincher, via Jake Kaplan of the Athletic and others].
- The Padres finalized their rotation plans for what they hope will be the next two games against the Dodgers. Young southpaw Adrián Morejón will go in tonight’s Game 3, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link), with righty Chris Paddack scheduled for a potential Game 4. Of course, there’ll only be a fourth game if San Diego can stave off elimination tonight with L.A. leading the best-of-five set two games to none.
- The Rays, meanwhile, are planning to go to an opener to kick off tonight’s Game 4 against the Yankees. Reliever Ryan Thompson will get the ball to start (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Presumably, the sidearmer will be backed up by lefty Ryan Yarbrough, who has shown he’s comfortable providing bulk innings behind openers over the past two years.
I love what the Astros have been doing with their 5+ inning starters, just piggy-backing them day in and day out. Apparently it’s a good strategy because well… they’re winning. What should scare them is their complete lack of bullpen arms. Brooks Railey and Josh James were an example of that yesterday. Railey wouldn’t even be on that roster in 17′ or heck even last season. Now he’s a guy they turn to in a close game in a series clinching game of the ALDS. That’s gonna hurt.
Houston is not going to win the world series this year and just explained why.
Oh did you? So should we all go try and find that post before we post our own thoughts?
He is right though. Astros just beat the two franchises who have lost the most in the postseason in the last twenty years. Twins are terrible and the A’s won two series total in that span, one being the Twins themselves.
Astros have offense, they are a threat there, but I don’t think they have enough pitching to beat either Tampa or New York.
Tampa would give them trouble. I don’t think they struggle at all against New York.
Regardless of his take your first statement has absolutely nothing to do with this season or really hold any water in an argument.
We have a 615 win percentage using the opener/bulk pitching scheme and a 710 win percentage when it’s Ryan Yarborough in the bulk role. Hoping to end this Yankee BS tonight.
I’ll vote for that! Get Arozorena as many AB’s as possible. That guy is having a phenomenal series.
I like Yarbrough, and I especially like Yonny Chirinos (the most underrated starter in baseball), too bad he’s not playing this season. Anyways, with what you bring up, I do think the Rays take it tonight. Here are my predictions for today:
Rays win a very anti-climatic game (Stanton homers again though)
Astros win yet another battle of a game
Marlins live another day
Padres survive the Dodger’s wrath
You missed it on the Marlins.
Yankee BS? Rays lucky it was a 60 game season. Yankees starting pitching besides Cole is not very good. The Rays lineup is just not that scary, would like to see what they could do against a good rotation (i.e. Dodgers in WS)
I think the braves would give the dodgers a fight
Highly doubt it. Braves don’t have great pitching, at least not the starters.
Cole had a 3.88 FIP. It was over 4 most of the season. He’s vulnerable.
Just saw the Astros are starting Bill “Spaceman” Lee twin brother, Greinke today.
Padres are done. All the talk from the peanut gallery was nice while it lasted. I’d be surprised in a normal full season if padres even made playoffs with the lack of depth and heavily relying on rookies whom pitchers have never faced before. Gotta think dodgers, Arizona and giants all get better this offseason as well.
San Diego is capped by a cheap owner so they are relying on cheap rookie contracts will only get them so far. Davies, lamet, Clevinger, tatis jr, Grisham, cronenworth will all want big pay days if they continue to produce and pads will still be paying machado, hosmer and wil meyers nearly 80 million.
I am a Padres fan, and your take largely makes sense, from a pessimistic point of view. I had little hope for this series. Winning one game would be great. But I do think that SD will be competitive for a while.
I can only quibble.
Cronenworth is a 26 year old rookie, so he won’t really command a high salary, and if he does it will be in a while.
Wil Myers is only signed through 2022, so he probably won’t be in SD when the youngsters you mentioned will be making big money.
The cheap owner thing isn’t going away, ever.
Tatis Jr doesn’t hit arb till 2022 and a free agent in 2025
Grisham isn’t arb eligible till 2023 and free agent in 2026. Same with Nola.
Cronenworth isn’t arb eligible till 2024 and free agent in 2027.
Hosmer price tag goes down to 13 mill in 2023, drops 7 mill. FA in 2026. Myers is a free agent after 2022.
Theyll have money to pay guys by the time their arb kicks in and by the time they reach FA.
Lamet? Injuries will keep his price tag down. Arb in 2021 and free agent in 2024
A lot of their pen guys haven’t come close to arb yet.
Adams, Altavilla, Castillo, Wingenter, Hill, Pagan.
By the time Tatis Jr, Grisham, and Cronenworth hit big money a lot of their financial commitments are gone.
Wouldn’t shock me if the Padres sold high on Myers, chipped in as little cash as possible, and opted to sign cheaper guys for the OF. Pederson/Pillar platoon to go along with Pham and Grisham. Abrams is expected to move to CF which would push Grisham to a corner too long term.
Rotation wise you look at Davies and Morejon as locks. Robbie Ray and Kevin Gausman would be good options to pick up for #4 and #5. We will see where Clevinger and Lamet are once more news on them is available. They could make a run at Trevor Bauer. Larry Rothschild has to go.
I could see bauer being a possibility but his track record is terrible. Has had 2 great seasons over his career, so which bauer do you get the potential cy young or the fringe #5?
Padres are a good Young team no doubt but relying on cronenworth, Grisham, nola and myers, hosmer small sample size season as a full representation of who they will be is just plain dumb.
The padres outperformed mightily this year but nothing points to that being sustainable. Coupled with injuries to their 2 best pitchers how will they survive a full season if they can barely make it through 60 games?
Sadly no one will take that myers contract even after a career year. Larger body of work shows a terrible defensively player and with a bat that just doesn’t carry, unless Of course they pay down half the remaining.
On Lamet, he most certainly will get offer a max deal even with injury history if he continues to perform at the level he has. Yankees, Braves would love to a pitcher of his ilk on their respective teams.
Historically padres prospects don’t pan out but if preller is as smart as we think (main reason for rangers success 09’-13’) he would be best suited to make additional trades for controllable young assets like he did this offseason and at the deadline.
That urias trade was viewed poorly at the time but boy did that trade prove people wrong urias stinks and you got Grisham and Davies. More of that will be necessary for padres to compete for years, unearthing more gems and adding depth to a good ball club is the only chance they have up against the giants or dodgers.
People were interested in Myers as a bad contract swap candidate last couple years.
There will be interest in Myers especially if San Diego eats salary.
Lamet’s price tag is reference to his arb numbers. Not his free agent deal in 2024. He walks at 31 anyways, I wouldn’t be comfortable giving him a long term deal at 31. By that point any number of Gore, Weathers, Patino, Lange, Wilcox should be established as a long term rotation piece to replace him.
Again, Trevor Bauer, Robbie Ray, or Kevin Gausman or trading with the Marlins for one of their young controllable pitchers they have options available to them. They could also opt to try older guys looking to rebound like Quintana or Arrieta (not ideal).
I’m not expecting Hosmer to maintain his lofty season. I’m also no expecting Pham to be horrible next year as well. Supposedly Hosmer has finally embraced the analytics on his swing, time will tell what that produces.
Grisham, Cronenworth, and the rest I expect to be productive offensively and provide quality defense. Theyve got a good eye, take walks, don’t chase much, and run pitch counts.
Again if pads have to eat most of the contract I doubt they would move him. Especially if the dh becomes a fixture in the nl.
I agree that Pham won’t be bad for long he has looked good toward the end of this year and playoffs. Played huge against cards.
I also don’t anticipate tatis hitting at the clip he did to being the year. He went through a major slump the last 15 games of the season and in playoffs. I think he can settle into a .285-.295 hitter with pop but don’t see him being as hot as he was this year for a full 162 game season.
The pads most consistent hitter has been manny but again he has only produced at this clip once for half a season before he was delt to dodgers. Don’t see him hitting at nearly a 160 ops+ for a full season.
It remains to be seen if patino, paddack, gore, morejon pan out still seem a few years away at best.
My guess is some pieces get moved for actual big leaguers and maybe sign bauer for 1 year 30 million if padres can afford it. Maybe a barrios? Also need to add to the pen, you’ll get Yates back but will he return to form? Who knows.
So from your eye the career years of profar Manny, Tatis, Cronenwerth, Lamet, Davies, Hosmer, Myers and a bullpen that already showed this year may be good, but may not be at others times….
Pretty much ALL OF THAT was natural progression for the Padres that they can expect to maintain next year? But the one guy who struggled, season means nothing?
Hahahahaha hahahahaha wow. Nice unbiased review there
Here’s what I said:
“I’m not expecting Hosmer to maintain his lofty season. I’m also no expecting Pham to be horrible next year as well. ”
“Grisham, Cronenworth, and the rest I expect to be productive offensively and provide quality defense.”
Heres what your low brain cell count interpreted that as:
“Pretty much ALL OF THAT was natural progression for the Padres that they can expect to maintain next year?”
Productive and maintain aren’t synonyms.
Profar is a free agent and most likely won’t be back.
How the pen will perform wasn’t mentioned, at all, except regarding financial outlook going forward. Nor was the rotation, except for who may be available next year and what to do if Lamet and Clevinger are out.
You’re better than this. Don’t be that guy who paraphrased stuff wrong on purpose just to try and make yourself look smarter.
You’re correct in that there is a long runway before the young talent hits the free agency market. I’m not so sure on Bauer. Sure, he did it in a small sample size but he’s had flashes of brilliance in the past and you can’t doubt his stuff. It’s the mental game where he struggles at times. I think he’s due for a large pay increase. Potentially doubling his current $17.5 million deal. He only deals in one-year increments so I can see a big market team shelling out a $35-40 million check for one year. The drawback for the team that signs him is that Cincy will most definitely make a QO on Bauer and he will of course reject it.
It’s going to be interesting to see how much stock GMs put into 2020 performance and how that shapes the free agency market. Small sample size but the most current available information.
I disagree. Padres are legit competition. With their two starters healthy it could be a much closer series. They have a lot of good young talent and some capable veterans. They may be able to compete for the NL West for a while. When the younger players are up for big contracts is when they could falter, unless of course if they keep replenishing the pool of young talent. That’s always the case for smaller market teams.
Framber Valdez should start game 1 of the ALCS, then I would have Lance McCullers starting game 2, and then start Jose Urquidy in game 3, Cristian Javier in game 4, then Zack Greinke in game 5.
Idk, I think Javier stays as the primary piggyback dude. He’s rocked in the role thusfar.