Just watched 26,27 and 28 before work as usual great. I've never had great luck tying young talent to long contracts.....fall off cliff or become injury prone! Fingers crossed Wings have a bit more luck....let's go Buffalo!!
One thing that I would recommend strongly this year is that you not be too patient with your players who underperform, especially the pitchers. I know that you just signed Painter to that big, relatively cheap, extension. I also know that, unlike most of your previous teams, you have few long-use pitchers. Painter had a bad opening day and it looks like his second start wasn't very good either. If he really struggles through the first 6-8 starts, send him to the pen or down to AAA to get his shit together. It doesn't have to be forever, hopefully, but don't let him be a liability for the first half of the season before you do something.
I think you should tighten your defense first. That improves both your pitching and fielding at the same time. Only then, would I gradually add some bats at the expense of defense.
Catching Situation: I am seeing Basallo as your backup catcher. I would keep Bard in the minors, unless Murphy went down. I know you like his captain personality, and I do too. I know you want use him as your backup catcher, so you don't have to keep Nolan Jones on the roster. I get that. But I prefer Basallo here. At least in this particular situation. Here's why: Bard just gives you the same look that Murphy does, except he's inferior in all aspects. Inferior bat. Inferior catcher ability. Both of them are slow RH hitters. Basallo gives you a LH bat and a definite upgrade offensively. If things go sideways with Murphy and you need to add more offense, you insert Basallo into the lineup. If you are facing a tough RHP and need another LH bat, you insert Basallo. If Murphy goes down, you platoon Basallo and Bard and use the latter as a defensive replacement. It's all about optionality (I don't think this is an actual word, but I've been listening to you for a long time now.)
team is looking good and thanks for the episode! I think nick yorke needs to go to be honest (even though he got some hits today) also ohtani has been looking pretty bad, im not an expert at baseball or this game but out or curiosity could u get anything for him in a trade or not really because he has a fat contract?
I hear you on Yorke... I don't love him, especially defensively, and had him in AAA most of last year. But in MLB he's still a career .281 hitter with an OPS+ and wRC+ of 115 each. In a perfect world, he's not the kind of guy I'd prefer to have on my team... but I'm not quite at the perfect world stage with Buffalo yet and I think he still has value for us now. Ohtani will be interesting... if he keeps being kind of meh as a pitcher, I'd actually consider turning him back into an OF for the last few years of his contract before trading him. Right now it doesn't look like he has much trade value because of the contract, but that can change!
Ohtani is fine. He is getting shit for run support and the defense behind him has been awful. I know it seems counterintuitive, but tighten the defense and the pitching will improve and you will win more games.
AI isn't going to optimize your catcher situation - or any situation for that matter. You will need to start the game, alter the lineups, and then sim the game. You might be able to use custom lineups, but I don't have any experience with them.
This logic follows for all bench players. Get a bench player that does something different than the starter. It could be better defense, better bat, better speed, different handedness. Something. Avoid replication. It is not optimal.
