Things I believe need to happen this year.

In order:

1) It is time the starting pitching did its job.  Teheran's inconsistency is maddening, and I believe he should have been traded in 2016.  Not good if he gives up another 20+ gopher balls at home.  Folty at some point needs to harness his talent and quit pouting when the ump doesn't give him a call or someone makes an error behind him.  Newcomb hopefully can cut down on his walks and Blair/Wisler either need to perform or go.

2) I'm ok with Acuna coming up in May, as much as it hurts.

3) Albies looks good, Swanson I fear can't hit the slider and Camargo--- who knows.  The early returns looked ok, but what is his ceiling?  We are so used to below average play anytime someone has an OPS of over .700 we anoint him the next Mike Trout.

4) Snitker won't be manager next year.  We've got our next guy on staff--- Weis, or Washington, I guess.  Get rid of Hernandez, also.  Seemingly every pitcher got worse from 16 to 17, IMO.

5) Minter may be the guy.  Arodys gives up too many homers, but ditching Jim Johnson was addition by subtraction.  We automatically eliminated 15 blown saves.  Sam Freeman looked good at times, but who knows.  Go sign Holland for 2  years and 15 million and call it a day.

I believe Snitker will stay as manager unless Alex just wants his own guy if he does I believe it will be someone from his days in Toronto.

"1. Starting pitching needs to get close to its potential. I believe that Foltynewicz needs to finally turn the corner and have a complete season keep his E.R.A under 4
I also think Newcomb should and will become the ACE his stuff says he is. and I believe Gohara needs at least 20 starts."



Folty and Julio both need to turn the corner. Will it happen? Who can say for sure? I do believe they are at an age where the good pitchers find themselves and start to pitch well. I'm cautiously optimistic.
Asking for Newcomb to become the ACE this season is asking too much. Yes he has ACE stuff but he's in his 2nd year in the majors. Agreed on gohara

"2. Acuna needs to start day 1 and needs to continue to play at ROY level all season"


If we were a competitive team then the way he's played says yes he should absolutely be in RF day 1. We are not a playoff team though so he should be a may call up so we get an extra year of service.

"3. The Kids (Swanson,Albies & Camargo) all need to play to there Potential. However, I do not see Swanson doing so.sadly enough He looks to have made no changes from last season. He kind of look like he is trying to Hit around the ball more than through it."

Swanson just needs to be a league average SS this year. Last year was so terrible that asking for more is unreasonable. I do still have faith though. The talent is there."
Ozzie has tons of potential. We as fans need to be patient though. He's very young and only in his 2nd year in the majors. Pitchers have a lot of tape on him now so he'll likely see some slumps this season.
Camargo was welcome surprise last year. What he did last year may have been his potential. Who knows? He was a virtual unknown before then. His longterm home is likely not at 3rd. Next year he'll either battle with Dansby, be a super utility guy(if Dansby balls out), or get traded.


"4. Snitker needs to see what type of players he has and play to there skills. This team has lots of speed and it needs to be Super aggressive on the bases."


Snitker isn't going to be our manager next year so I don't care what he does. Dude needs to go back to triple A where he belongs. I agree with the previous poster. Washington or Weis will likely be our manager in 2019

"5. We have got to get the back of the BP figured out. Someone has to close games, Someone please close the games out."

Honestly the BP is the least of my worries. I'm not delusional so I don't care how many games we win this year as long as we have this stuff figured out by the end of the year so we know what we need to go get in FA to make a run in 2019 and the future. Hopefully during the season we will try a lot of different guys out to see who fits where. We have tons of talented young arms. Some of them are going to end up in the BP and it should be a very good BP. For instance, if Folty struggles as a starter this year we should start transitioning him into a closer roll. His arm would be deadly for one inning.

Good post...

Regardiing the back of the pen... Minter has been great in the spring.

This is one area though where I don’t trust that Snitker wont want to go
with veteran presents.

ISWYDT.

Kudos, sir.

And sign him.  

Though, Minter looks like Billy Wagner.