GT: Nationals @ Jays / Aug 28-30

[Mehar]

Well the Rangers followed up the Mets blowing the game with blowing it themselves.

So at least we gained ground of somebody. The nice part is that being 3.5 gamrs behind 3 teams rather than 1, makes catching somebody easier. The bad part is you need to still win.

Jays are 2.5 games behind Texas, after the meltdown by Aroldis Chapman. I have been saying it for a couple of weeks, but to me Texas is the one team the Jays could possibly leapfrog if this team got its act together and won some winnable games against terrible teams. That was before this week's 3 and 3 homestand. Jays needed to do better than go .500 against Washington and Cleveland, but it might come down to the 4 game homestand in two weeks against Texas.

[Boogie!]

It can be both at once. Who is going to pick up the deadweight? Will the manager rescue the players, or will the players rescue the manager? Nobody is stepping up.

The manager can't rescue stars from slumping or not performing up to expectations. Like I said there are certain team sports like basketball where chemistry is key. Guys have to play together, the coach can run certain plays to make guys more effective. When vladdy is up to bat in the clutch what is John Schneider gonna do hold his hand and swing with him? Yell things like "you got this vlad we believe in you?" He can't make guys hit or improve their hand eye coordination, strike zone recognition and plate discipline. Thats individual player ability.

Managers can hold players accountable for poor performance.

Managers can lose the locker room by constantly making mistakes that cost the team wins.

Hitting coaches can help change a hitter's approach at the plate.

When literally almost every single position player on your roster is having a down year, coaching might just be an issue.

Who's dvery single position player? Belt is having a great year. Bichette is having a great year. Whit merrifield is having a great year. Jansen has a career high in home runs. Davis schneider has been amazing.

Varsho has always been a **** hitter. Same for Chapman, very similar hitter to varsho for his career but more walks.

The only guys who are not performing to their expected standards are guerrero, springer and kirk... Springer is getting a little older. Guerrero save for the mvp year has actually not been superstar level and kirk having a down year isn't necessarily surprising... baseball is weird like that where a guy can be an all star one year and shkt the next, and only real stars are consistently good.

So are you gonna blame to coaches for the success of the other players or the **** of the stars? What about the sudden improvement of kikuchi and berrios coming back to form? Or are they only responsible for manoahs implosion?

Which one is it? Constantly bitchint about management and coaches for individual **** performances shows you're not really understanding how baseball works. Like I already said, there's definitely been tactical mistakes but they're not the reason certain guys are sucking.

[Raps in 4]

The manager can't rescue stars from slumping or not performing up to expectations. Like I said there are certain team sports like basketball where chemistry is key. Guys have to play together, the coach can run certain plays to make guys more effective. When vladdy is up to bat in the clutch what is John Schneider gonna do hold his hand and swing with him? Yell things like "you got this vlad we believe in you?" He can't make guys hit or improve their hand eye coordination, strike zone recognition and plate discipline. Thats individual player ability.

Managers can hold players accountable for poor performance.

Managers can lose the locker room by constantly making mistakes that cost the team wins.

Hitting coaches can help change a hitter's approach at the plate.

When literally almost every single position player on your roster is having a down year, coaching might just be an issue.

Who's dvery single position player? Belt is having a great year. Bichette is having a great year. Whit merrifield is having a great year. Jansen has a career high in home runs. Davis schneider has been amazing.

Varsho has always been a **** hitter. Same for Chapman, very similar hitter to varsho for his career but more walks.

The only guys who are not performing to their expected standards are guerrero, springer and kirk... Springer is getting a little older. Guerrero save for the mvp year has actually not been superstar level and kirk having a down year isn't necessarily surprising... baseball is weird like that where a guy can be an all star one year and shkt the next, and only real stars are consistently good.

So are you gonna blame to coaches for the success of the other players or the **** of the stars? What about the sudden improvement of kikuchi and berrios coming back to form? Or are they only responsible for manoahs implosion?

Which one is it? Constantly bitchint about management and coaches for individual **** performances shows you're not really understanding how baseball works. Like I already said, there's definitely been tactical mistakes but they're not the reason certain guys are sucking.

Bichette is on pace for his worst season since breaking out. He's had a good season, but far from a great one (he's currently ranked #57 in fWAR).

Merrifield has had a good season compared to his terrible production the last few seasons. He had a good comeback season for a 34 year-old, but far from a great season.

Belt had a good season compared to the terrible season he had last year. Another solid season from a washed up veteran.

Aside from the three of them, everyone else forgot to how to hit, and the three of them were far from good enough to be able to pick up the slack.

The team was among the worst in the league at hitting with RISP. Part of that is bad roster construction (favouring defense over hitting), but part of it could be attributed to low morale or a bad approach at the plate. There was absolutely no risk associated with replacing Martinez and Hudgens this season. In fact, it was incredibly stupid not to fire them after the team was struggling for an extended period. It was also incredibly stupid to retain Schneider as manager after the **** up in last year's WC series.

[bluerap23]

Managers can hold players accountable for poor performance.

Managers can lose the locker room by constantly making mistakes that cost the team wins.

Hitting coaches can help change a hitter's approach at the plate.

When literally almost every single position player on your roster is having a down year, coaching might just be an issue.

Who's dvery single position player? Belt is having a great year. Bichette is having a great year. Whit merrifield is having a great year. Jansen has a career high in home runs. Davis schneider has been amazing.

Varsho has always been a **** hitter. Same for Chapman, very similar hitter to varsho for his career but more walks.

The only guys who are not performing to their expected standards are guerrero, springer and kirk... Springer is getting a little older. Guerrero save for the mvp year has actually not been superstar level and kirk having a down year isn't necessarily surprising... baseball is weird like that where a guy can be an all star one year and shkt the next, and only real stars are consistently good.

So are you gonna blame to coaches for the success of the other players or the **** of the stars? What about the sudden improvement of kikuchi and berrios coming back to form? Or are they only responsible for manoahs implosion?

Which one is it? Constantly bitchint about management and coaches for individual **** performances shows you're not really understanding how baseball works. Like I already said, there's definitely been tactical mistakes but they're not the reason certain guys are sucking.

Bichette is on pace for his worst season since breaking out. He's had a good season, but far from a great one (he's currently ranked #57 in fWAR).

Merrifield has had a good season compared to his terrible production the last few seasons. He had a good comeback season for a 34 year-old, but far from a great season.

Belt had a good season compared to the terrible season he had last year. Another solid season from a washed up veteran.

Aside from the three of them, everyone else forgot to how to hit, and the three of them were far from good enough to be able to pick up the slack.

The team was among the worst in the league at hitting with RISP. Part of that is bad roster construction (favouring defense over hitting), but part of it could be attributed to low morale or a bad approach at the plate. There was absolutely no risk associated with replacing Martinez and Hudgens this season. In fact, it was incredibly stupid not to fire them after the team was struggling for an extended period. It was also incredibly stupid to retain Schneider as manager after the **** up in last year's WC series.

Major issue is lack of lineup depth. Losing Semien, Teo and Lourdes for worse offensive players has really thinned things out. Makes the opposing pitchers job much easier if you only have to really worry about 2 guys. Also makes it way tougher for those 2 guys that don't have proper protection. Our top 6 is just so much weaker today than 2 years ago.

[Ranger One]

Who's dvery single position player? Belt is having a great year. Bichette is having a great year. Whit merrifield is having a great year. Jansen has a career high in home runs. Davis schneider has been amazing.

Varsho has always been a **** hitter. Same for Chapman, very similar hitter to varsho for his career but more walks.

The only guys who are not performing to their expected standards are guerrero, springer and kirk... Springer is getting a little older. Guerrero save for the mvp year has actually not been superstar level and kirk having a down year isn't necessarily surprising... baseball is weird like that where a guy can be an all star one year and shkt the next, and only real stars are consistently good.

So are you gonna blame to coaches for the success of the other players or the **** of the stars? What about the sudden improvement of kikuchi and berrios coming back to form? Or are they only responsible for manoahs implosion?

Which one is it? Constantly bitchint about management and coaches for individual **** performances shows you're not really understanding how baseball works. Like I already said, there's definitely been tactical mistakes but they're not the reason certain guys are sucking.

Bichette is on pace for his worst season since breaking out. He's had a good season, but far from a great one (he's currently ranked #57 in fWAR).

Merrifield has had a good season compared to his terrible production the last few seasons. He had a good comeback season for a 34 year-old, but far from a great season.

Belt had a good season compared to the terrible season he had last year. Another solid season from a washed up veteran.

Aside from the three of them, everyone else forgot to how to hit, and the three of them were far from good enough to be able to pick up the slack.

The team was among the worst in the league at hitting with RISP. Part of that is bad roster construction (favouring defense over hitting), but part of it could be attributed to low morale or a bad approach at the plate. There was absolutely no risk associated with replacing Martinez and Hudgens this season. In fact, it was incredibly stupid not to fire them after the team was struggling for an extended period. It was also incredibly stupid to retain Schneider as manager after the **** up in last year's WC series.

Major issue is lack of lineup depth. Losing Semien, Teo and Lourdes for worse offensive players has really thinned things out. Makes the opposing pitchers job much easier if you only have to really worry about 2 guys. Also makes it way tougher for those 2 guys that don't have proper protection. Our top 6 is just so much weaker today than 2 years ago.

Christ almighty, when you look at those numbers head on like that, thats is a monumental dropoff in offensive quality. Yikes. How did this front office think this year was gonna shake out with that kind of dropoff in overall offensive talent?

[Raps in 4]

Bichette is on pace for his worst season since breaking out. He's had a good season, but far from a great one (he's currently ranked #57 in fWAR).

Merrifield has had a good season compared to his terrible production the last few seasons. He had a good comeback season for a 34 year-old, but far from a great season.

Belt had a good season compared to the terrible season he had last year. Another solid season from a washed up veteran.

Aside from the three of them, everyone else forgot to how to hit, and the three of them were far from good enough to be able to pick up the slack.

The team was among the worst in the league at hitting with RISP. Part of that is bad roster construction (favouring defense over hitting), but part of it could be attributed to low morale or a bad approach at the plate. There was absolutely no risk associated with replacing Martinez and Hudgens this season. In fact, it was incredibly stupid not to fire them after the team was struggling for an extended period. It was also incredibly stupid to retain Schneider as manager after the **** up in last year's WC series.

Major issue is lack of lineup depth. Losing Semien, Teo and Lourdes for worse offensive players has really thinned things out. Makes the opposing pitchers job much easier if you only have to really worry about 2 guys. Also makes it way tougher for those 2 guys that don't have proper protection. Our top 6 is just so much weaker today than 2 years ago.

Christ almighty, when you look at those numbers head on like that, thats is a monumental dropoff in offensive quality. Yikes. How did this front office think this year was gonna shake out with that kind of dropoff in overall offensive talent?

They didn't expect Vlad and Springer to forget how to hit (although they should have seen it coming with Springer given his age and injury history). They also expected Varsho to hit at an all-star level given his ZiPS projections (despite nothing in his actual MLB career suggesting that was likely to happen). The projections were based on his last season being better than the previous season, and then assuming that two data points make a trend.

[-MetA4-]

Bichette is on pace for his worst season since breaking out. He's had a good season, but far from a great one (he's currently ranked #57 in fWAR).

This is very dishonest. Your premise revolves around hitting decline and coaching impact, but here you are bringing up Bichette's "worst season" which is actually entirely fueled by a drop-off in his defense and baserunning. Bichette's hitting hasn't dropped off at all. His overall fWAR is also obviously impacted by the fact that he missed time due to injury...and is currently out with injury, therefore not accumulating any WAR.

Bichette is 2nd in the entire league among qualified shortstops with a 129 wRC+. He is having a great season at the plate, not a "good" season.

[Raps in 4]

Bichette is on pace for his worst season since breaking out. He's had a good season, but far from a great one (he's currently ranked #57 in fWAR).

This is very dishonest. Your premise revolves around hitting decline and coaching impact, but here you are bringing up Bichette's "worst season" which is actually entirely fueled by a drop-off in his defense and baserunning. Bichette's hitting hasn't dropped off at all. His overall fWAR is also obviously impacted by the fact that he missed time due to injury...and is currently out with injury, therefore not accumulating any WAR.

Bichette is 2nd in the entire league among qualified shortstops with a 129 wRC+. He is having a great season at the plate, not a "good" season.

A 129 wRC+ is great among SS, but it's far from the world beating numbers of a player that can carry an entire offence. And it shows, because we have a putrid team offence. He'd need to be putting up Aaron Judge numbers to lift this lineup out of the gutter.

[bluerap23]

Major issue is lack of lineup depth. Losing Semien, Teo and Lourdes for worse offensive players has really thinned things out. Makes the opposing pitchers job much easier if you only have to really worry about 2 guys. Also makes it way tougher for those 2 guys that don't have proper protection. Our top 6 is just so much weaker today than 2 years ago.

Christ almighty, when you look at those numbers head on like that, thats is a monumental dropoff in offensive quality. Yikes. How did this front office think this year was gonna shake out with that kind of dropoff in overall offensive talent?

They didn't expect Vlad and Springer to forget how to hit (although they should have seen it coming with Springer given his age and injury history). They also expected Varsho to hit at an all-star level given his ZiPS projections (despite nothing in his actual MLB career suggesting that was likely to happen). The projections were based on his last season being better than the previous season, and then assuming that two data points make a trend.

Again - this is very likely impacted by the lack of lineup depth. Even Springer could be having a better year if he was surrounded by better offensive talent.