Hawk-Lock":353dhjs3 said:
I'm just going to put some questions out there, I'm curious where most people are at with this team.
Can we win the AL West, what percent chance do you give us? Division IMO will likely come down to the head to head with Houston. Just not sure we can go above .500 against them, which we will probably have to do.
If we don't win the AL West, can we catch either Boston or New York to host the wild card game?
If you could make an upgrade to any part of the team, what would it be?
Paxton is the #1, how would you rank the rest of the rotation if set up for a playoff series. If everything lines up, Pax would likely pitch the WC game, who would you have start games 1-3 of the following series. Would you pitch Pax on 3 days rest and go to short rotation?
Diaz over/under 55 saves. Over looks easy, but got to think they scale him back.
What should we do when Cano gets back? Dipoto already said he won't play 2B, it would be unfair to move Dee back to the OF. Obvious answer is split time at 1B with Healy. With Heredia being mediocre at best, it would really make sense IMO to move Dee back to the OF and put Cano at 2B. I also wouldn't mind not even playing Cano, what is the point. He will be back for a month and a half and then be gone.
It almost looks inevitable we will play Boston or NYY in a one game playoff, who would you rather play?
As good as our record is, I don't think we can overtake Houston with our current roster. They simply have an all-worldly rotation. Even though Keuchel has been struggling with inconsistency, he can still come up with a good outing whenever. We wouldn't be able to match up with them head to head consistently in our series.
Now, if we get another quality arm, like say Hamels, then I think we can very likely win 2 out 3 against them, or at least put up a good fight. At this rate, we'll likely win games vs other teams to keep pace with Houston, but we'll likely lose ground to them when we play them head to head.
As for Boston or NY, I think they'll likely beat up on one another, but if NY gets a starting arm via trade, they'll likely run away with the division. We can play with either one of those teams in a one-game elimination playoff. We'll just throw Pax out there and have confidence in him being on his A-game. Afterwards, though, comes the problem of our rotation not having a legit #2 starter. If Felix is on, he can contend with being the #2 guy. But if he's not, then it'll likely be Marco, Leake, then Felix. I don't think Leblanc will end the season being a part of our starting rotation. If we get a starting arm, he'll likely be pushed to the pen to be that elite lefty that can do long-relief if need be.
When Cano comes back, it'd be foolish and unfair to kick Dee out of 2B and have him play CF. Cano isn't gonna be there in the playoffs, even if he is, he's nowhere near as athletic as Dee is at 2B. You can't tell me that Cano would've made that diving stop last night, nor the other Superman-esque diving stop Dee made a few weeks ago. And Heredia is a stellar outfielder, defensively he's probably our best one. We've done this well without Cano, but we can do even better if his bat is a consistent part of the lineup. I'd be all for him splitting time at 1B and/or DH whenever Cruz needs a break. Just do what they've been doing with the 4 outfielders, bringing in the 4th guy after the 7th inning for defensive purposes. But, yea, it will be interesting to see how Dipoto/Servais handles it when Cano comes back. I hope he's not selfish and has a team-first kinda mentality, considering he got himself into this mess and has no one else to blame but himself for losing his spot at 2B.