For our 5th pitcher it was a fantastic performance.

We need an ace.

Come on.

The Great Balbino had to be carted off the field tonight.

JFC...they seem to get a lot of days off...especially Moose.

Bye-Bye Balbino

I agree he started terribly, but it's been exactly two months since the Yankees game. Over those two months he's given us 5+ innings in 10 straight starts. He's posted a 4.25 ERA with 15 BB and 37 K.

He's probably going to finish 2nd on the team in IP for the 3rd straight year. He's been a solid back of the rotation innings eater. Those cost money these days.

But he lost a game in which he got 4 hits and zero runs worth of support, so he sucks.

I agree. If you look at Guthrie's year as a whole, the conclusion would obviously be that he has been terrible. But even a couple starts before the game in New York, he has been serviceable as a back-end of the rotation guy. He isn't as big of a problem on this team as some make him out to be, but unfortunately that is magnified because we have no one reliable up front besides Volquez. No one is disputing that Guthrie started the season miserably, but he hasn't been terrible since June for what his role is supposed to be in an innings eater that can qualify as a 4-5 starter.

IMO, it would be a shame if we can't add to the rotation at the deadline. Rany thinks that a bat is more important, Vernier believes no moves need to be made, Parkins on 610 says we need pitching. Should be interesting here in the next week. The ball is in DM's court here.

Yeah I don't know what Rany's thinking. Usually he's pretty sharp. Unless you think Gordon is not going to come back, then I think you could make the case we need to replace his bat.

But what's our playoff rotation right now? Does anyone really know? It's literally going to be whoever is hot in September. Certainly Volquez and Duffy, and probably Ventura, but that could go a million directions in two months. Even if you think offense is more important than pitching, how is that not a bit worrying?

Ya know what is nuts. We have the 8th best era in baseball.

Settle down. Let's see, Guthrie going against one of the pitchers people were interested in trading for to be our frontline guy, and yet an outcry of disbelief that the Royals didn’t hit 5 homeruns, score 10+, while JGuts was supposed to strikeout 27...

Nancies

I've been saying all year Houston is a horrible matchup for us. Hopefully they can pick up these final 2 and we can be done with it and hope their not our opposition in October, or we've revamped some things by then.

Its why I was worried about SP depth and thought trading Duffy was insanity. I don't want to trade Mondesi either (and now since this is clearly a buyer's market, thats not even on the table anymore, which is good), but at least that would have been somewhat logical since we'd be adding a pitcher.

Yes that is a luxury of having a 5.5 division lead, over a team that no one still takes seriously, in July.

But having said that - I am ready for a SP. Once Vargas went down we have to pull the string on someone.

As far as Rf, unless a cream puff deal just falls into our lap I am ok with Orlando/Dyson and Rios until Gordon comes back.

Plus we're playing 18 games in 17 days during the hottest time of the year. Ned seems to be trying to make sure we aren't gassed by September. Amazed he gave Perez a Friday night off.

Good on him. Everyone remembers last fall, and it's not a knock on Salvy. He was a warrior last season with all the time he put in behind the dish. It just ended up being the reason he was running on bald tires come September.