GDT 5/21/24 Texas Rangers (Gray, Jn) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Suárez, R)

[andyb]

I think MLB may see more dollar signs in Japan than Venezuela.

One country gets a state dinner. The other sanctions.

[VoteForKalas]

While Alvarez has some excellent "stuff," I've personally been bothered by his delivery for a couple of years now. In my opinion, anytime your delivery causes you to fall off the mound, there's something wrong with it. However, it seems to work for Alvarez more times than it does not. I would love to see him improve his delivery, but in the meantime, I agree that he should only start innings.

I assume you guys are talking about Alvarado?

[zambonir]

I would not want Alvarez to start or pitch in any inning at this point.

[phillychuck]

Does "Alvarado" auto correct to "Alvarez" on some devices? It might....

[MichaelJackSchmidt]

Yes, Alvarado.

[Callison]

MJS, the Phils accept the good and the bad in Alvarado. The good is he reaches triple digits and everybody who faces him knows he's wild enough to break a couple of your ribs at any moment - accidentally, of course - and he's effective because of it. Can be dominant. The bad is he's also wild enough to walk guys back to back to back and worse.

Regarding his awkward form, if you fix that, maybe you don't have the same player.

As a closer, he will keep the fans on the edge of their seats until the final out.

[MichaelJackSchmidt]

Like Mitch Williams, or maybe not that bad ...

[zambonir]

Can't really fault Alvarado for anything last night. Had Hoffman not struggled so much he either would have never entered the game or would have had a much easier 9th (starting with the guy Strahm had to get and not ever seeing Semien and Seager. Bohm's error didn't help either).

He walked nobody last night, even if the final strike also would have been Ball Four. But breaking ball strikeout pitches aren't usually in the zone (even if that one didn't go quite where they wanted).

Just as importantly the offense picked up Hoffman and gave Alvarado a cushion he still would have enjoyed even if Seager had gotten on, even if the next AB would have been stressful to watch.

[schillingfan]

And Strahm came in tonight and cleaned up for Walker, but got a second inning.