GDT 10/21/22 San Diego Padres (Musgrove) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Suárez, R)

[BostonRoss]

Yeah, tomorrow could be a slugfest.

Still think so!

[Dirk41]

For my next trick....

Nick Castellanos is..... Umm, he has good hair. Really want him to turn it around

[fish]

I watch him and I think “who is this guy?”. Unrecognizable to the guy everyone knows him to be- here’s hoping he’s that guy next year.

[Dirk41]

He also looks absolutely miserable 100 percent of the time. He's always been a contrarian, but he isn't even really in on the good vibes so many of the players are having right now.

[zambonir]

I mean that's it in a nutshell isn't it? He doesn't feel like he's contributing. He still did, certainly - was starting to hit when he got hurt, showed clubhouse leadership at the start of the season embracing Moniak, and a team's a team - but I'm sure he's dying to have at least a Moment.

Next year could go either way, he's back to his old self or he's never that guy again.

[Dirk41]

I've also wondered how much having to be in the field is really getting to him.

[zambonir]

Well, it didn't seem to hurt him on the Cubs or the Reds in 2021. He was worse as a DH both in 2019 and 2020!

I assume like most guys he wants to play the field, for every DH who seems to benefit from thinking only about hitting there are the ones who say they don't feel sharp or in the game.

[Dirk41]

Wasn't he the intended DH this year, though? Until the Harper injury?

[LoneStarPhan]

I think the plan was to rotate Schwarber, Harper, Castellanos, Hoskins, and probably Bohm through the DH slot on a regular basis.

[zambonir]

When they signed him I think he was meant to at least split LF with Schwarber a bit more. Having previously played 3B it shouldn't have been a huge adjustment. But the fact remains, he produced with the Cubs and with the Reds in 2021 as an OF, and has never produced as an NL DH.

He does have 6 RBIs this post-season and seemed to be leading the charge in the clubhouse celebration tonight - and caught the final out! - so all good really.

[flyers19rw]

NC as signed in mid March so he basically had little to no ST. Then was put right into the lineup. He got off to a rough start with a new club. There had to be a lot of personal pressure on him to perform and show that he was a fit for a club that had a slew of hard hitting bats. In the latter part of this season he started to get settled at the plate though his power didn’t show up as it had in the past. My call is that over the winter he’ll work on his hitting approach and be back in form next season. His career numbers are too good for this season not to be an outlier. The guy is a hitter.

[EastFallowfield]

From the Athletic:

Suárez was in a meeting with the coaches. They asked him if he could pitch Sunday if needed. Suárez wasn’t going to pass on it. But the Phillies already knew the answer; they had been thinking about this as soon as they pulled Suárez at 68 pitches in his Game 3 start Friday.

“We knew right then,” director of pitching development Brian Kaplan said. “We knew he was going to be an option. We’ve been planning for it for the last two days. His workouts, everything.”

[andyb]

I never thought they would go to Eflin on a third consecutive day. He had only had a handful of back to backs even. Suarez made sense and as a starter he has been tiring late in the season as his cumulative workload increased.

[Dirk41]

What a moment for Ranger. Always a bit of an afterthought coming through the organization his rise was much like he pitches, steady, without fanfare and efficient.

[julio]

[julio]