So much of that piece is overreaction, but I get that's his job as a writer. The only inexcusable thing he did over the weekend, at least in my book, was calling for a bullpen pitcher when he wasn't warming up. That's asinine and should never happen again, of course since I've never seen it happen before and these are smart men who presumably can upgrade communications systems on the fly. The rest seems like growing pains to me I can't imagine Kapler has lost the clubhouse in three days. Of course Jim Bowden is already calling on Kapler to be moved to Director of Minor League Operations (which is not filled in the organization) and that the Phillies hire Girardi toot suite. What was that about overacting again?

Astro's couldn't get cover off during pennant unveiling. Hilarious.

chuckrh wrote:Astro's couldn't get cover off during pennant unveiling. Hilarious.

big pet peeve of mine: anytime announcers mention league leaders or standings this early in the season. its probably just an autopilot thing and im not quite sure specifically when it becomes relevant but certainly not after 5 games

Shakespeare wrote:big pet peeve of mine: anytime announcers mention league leaders or standings this early in the season. its probably just an autopilot thing and im not quite sure specifically when it becomes relevant but certainly not after 5 games

Same with "he's on pace for whatever".

sun so hot, clouds so low, the eagles filled the sky

Tonight's game being ground to a halt by Buck Showalter brought to you by Geritol. Pace of play lol

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

sun so hot, clouds so low, the eagles filled the sky

That is not something you see every day.

LBRod wrote:

Shakespeare wrote:big pet peeve of mine: anytime announcers mention league leaders or standings this early in the season. its probably just an autopilot thing and im not quite sure specifically when it becomes relevant but certainly not after 5 games

Same with "he's on pace for whatever".

Agreed.

beantownbubba wrote:

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

sun so hot, clouds so low, the eagles filled the sky

That is not something you see every day.

Although apparently nearly the same thing happened to Derek Jeter before game 3 of the 2003 ALCS. The eagle was also named “Challenger” although it has yet to be confirmed it was the same eagle

Tequila Cowboy wrote:

beantownbubba wrote:

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

sun so hot, clouds so low, the eagles filled the sky

That is not something you see every day.

Although apparently nearly the same thing happened to Derek Jeter before game 3 of the 2003 ALCS. The eagle was also named “Challenger” although it has yet to be confirmed it was the same eagle

do the eagles have large talons?

Well the Cubs fucking suck what am I going to do with the next 5 1/2 months now? Yes, I've gone full meatball and yes this too shall pass. I'm just pissed.

Tequila Cowboy wrote:Well the Cubs fucking suck what am I going to do with the next 5 1/2 months now? Yes, I've gone full meatball and yes this too shall pass. I'm just pissed.

6-6, time to call in Jon Taffer to "shut it down!!!"

Cubs played like hot garbage to start last year too, and they ended up in the NLCS. I’m not worried

Tequila Cowboy wrote:Well the Cubs fucking suck what am I going to do with the next 5 1/2 months now? Yes, I've gone full meatball and yes this too shall pass. I'm just pissed.

The Giants are 6-6, losing tonight, and I am happy so far.
It's impressive how fast Cubs fans became spoiled.

LBRod wrote:

Tequila Cowboy wrote:Well the Cubs fucking suck what am I going to do with the next 5 1/2 months now? Yes, I've gone full meatball and yes this too shall pass. I'm just pissed.

The Giants are 6-6, losing tonight, and I am happy so far.
It's impressive how fast Cubs fans became spoiled.

They act like they won 3 in 5 years

The Sox have been really fun to watch, and especially considering the opening day meltdown, their performance has been exciting and surprising. When you add in the fact that their starting second baseman hasn't played yet and their starting shortstop is now out as well, what they're doing is little short of amazing.

The biggest question surrounding the Red Sox every year is pitching. Always. Without exception, at least during my lifetime.

The second biggest question this year was whether the "young core" would bounce back from disappointing 2017 seasons or was 2017 the new reality for an over-hyped group? Until he got hurt, Xander Bogaerts was responding in a big way, and Mookie Betts was having a great year before last nite, when he hit 3 home runs and helped drive Ohtani out of the game, leading the Sox to a 14-2 record. He now joins ted williams as the only sox w/ three 3 HR games and his OPS for the season is 1.289. It's a long season, but I think we have a pretty good hint at how this question will be answered. BTW, I'm not sure Jackie Bradley will ever hit above .250 or have more than 20 HRs in a season again, but he continues to amaze in the field virtually every game.

Everytime you think you finally understand something about the game, baseball will knock you on your ass.

Red Sox come into Oakland on an absolute tear, scoring something like 7 runs/game, averaging over 10 hits/game, leading the majors or in the top 3 in just about every offensive category and then they get no hit but a guy whose mug could be on a poster for the league's average pitcher. He's got better stuff than that, but that's his record to date. He pitched well and deserved the no-hitter, just not the guy you thought would be the one to stop the Sox in their tracks. And imho the umps made the right call on the controversial benetendi play but i do have to say that had a no no not been pending I doubt the call would have been made that way. Same thing w/ the earlier error called on the shortstop: that's probably ruled a hit at least 2/3 of the time.

Then the Sox go out and score 1 run in today's game. The last 2 games wasted 2 very good performances by Sale and Price (who probably shouldn't have started the 8th and definitely shouldn't have faced khris davis).

So the Cubs are still sputtering a bit, primarily due to pitching, but the offense is really heating up. The two players that Cubs fans seem to love to hate are putting up some really nice numbers. Javier Baez is slashing .292/.363/.736 with a wOBA of .447 and a wRC+ of 187. Kyle Schwarber, the other whipping boy, is putting up .293/.414/.552 with a wOBA of .417 and a wRC+ of 166. Baez has his K rate down to 21% and Schwarber to 25%. It's early, and maybe they won't end up quite this good, but they both look good at the plate, are showing greater discipline and both are hitting to all fields. I love both these players so I'm feeling a little vindicated today.

Tequila Cowboy wrote:So the Cubs are still sputtering a bit, primarily due to pitching, but the offense is really heating up. The two players that Cubs fans seem to love to hate are putting up some really nice numbers. Javier Baez is slashing .292/.363/.736 with a wOBA of .447 and a wRC+ of 187. Kyle Schwarber, the other whipping boy, is putting up .293/.414/.552 with a wOBA of .417 and a wRC+ of 166. Baez has his K rate down to 21% and Schwarber to 25%. It's early, and maybe they won't end up quite this good, but they both look good at the plate, are showing greater discipline and both are hitting to all fields. I love both these players so I'm feeling a little vindicated today.

I was wondering if it was too early to ask why the Cubs' record is so mediocre, but I guess it's not, so why are the Cubs so mediocre thus far?

BTW, I'm w/ you on both these guys.

beantownbubba wrote:

Tequila Cowboy wrote:So the Cubs are still sputtering a bit, primarily due to pitching, but the offense is really heating up. The two players that Cubs fans seem to love to hate are putting up some really nice numbers. Javier Baez is slashing .292/.363/.736 with a wOBA of .447 and a wRC+ of 187. Kyle Schwarber, the other whipping boy, is putting up .293/.414/.552 with a wOBA of .417 and a wRC+ of 166. Baez has his K rate down to 21% and Schwarber to 25%. It's early, and maybe they won't end up quite this good, but they both look good at the plate, are showing greater discipline and both are hitting to all fields. I love both these players so I'm feeling a little vindicated today.

I was wondering if it was too early to ask why the Cubs' record is so mediocre, but I guess it's not, so why are the Cubs so mediocre thus far?

BTW, I'm w/ you on both these guys.

The starting pitching hasn’t been good and the bats took awhile to heat up. Didn’t help that Rizzo has started slow and spent two weeks on the DL. On the positive side Bryant, Baez, Schwarber, Almora and Heyward (!!) have hit welland to a lesser extent so have Contreras and Zobrist before the latter had some back issues. I do not believe that Hendricks, Lester, Darvish and Quintana will be bad forever and all have looked good at times. I’m not sure I understand Chatwood but there’s time. After his week I can’t see this team at .500 or below again. It does seem the better the team the better they play though so bring on Cleveland

How baseball will survive in the age of distraction

I had no idea Samantha Power was a baseball fan

tommy john for corey seager is huge. gotta wonder how much kershaws looming opt out will push them to make a move for machado

Shakespeare wrote:tommy john for corey seager is huge. gotta wonder how much kershaws looming opt out will push them to make a move for machado

I can't imagine they'd do it. Machado is making $16 mil this year and while it would be prorated. Say they got him in June, that would be about $10 mil and they have just under $15 mil under the CBT (luxury tax) which they financially need to stay under to reset their clock. That would leave them no room to do anything else. The issue is that Machado is no guarantee that they win the division. I went back and forth on my pick for that division but eventually went with LA because of injuries on the D-Backs, but that hasn't seemed to hurt them. The Dodgers would be foolish to trade for Machado for a WC spot. After this year they can spend big and they're system is loaded, even if they don't resign Kershaw. They're going to be good for years. this year might be one where the best move is to punt.

you might be right but i think that division is still very winnable (i was at sundays game robbie ray left with an oblique strain and he didnt even try to throw a pitch after he felt it, so who knows how long he'll be out. strong team though, definitely) and while theyre not necessarily a win now franchise im not sure punting on the year is wise given the money they have tied up in older guys like hill, jansen, turner. machado is probably the only name that can truly make up for seagers absence, but of course thats not the whole situation and the money matters.

the bigger obstacle is i really doubt peter angelos will greenlight a firesale this early in the year, even if he absolutely should. for that alone machado might be a no go for LA

Shakespeare wrote:you might be right but i think that division is still very winnable (i was at sundays game robbie ray left with an oblique strain and he didnt even try to throw a pitch after he felt it, so who knows how long he'll be out. strong team though, definitely) and while theyre not necessarily a win now franchise im not sure punting on the year is wise given the money they have tied up in older guys like hill, jansen, turner. machado is probably the only name that can truly make up for seagers absence, but of course thats not the whole situation and the money matters.

the bigger obstacle is i really doubt peter angelos will greenlight a firesale this early in the year, even if he absolutely should. for that alone machado might be a no go for LA

Fangraphs has an interesting piece up on this today. Interesting that he's been the second best player in the NL by WAR since 2016 and 5th best in baseball. Huge loss.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-opt ... ent-great/

Tequila Cowboy wrote:

Shakespeare wrote:you might be right but i think that division is still very winnable (i was at sundays game robbie ray left with an oblique strain and he didnt even try to throw a pitch after he felt it, so who knows how long he'll be out. strong team though, definitely) and while theyre not necessarily a win now franchise im not sure punting on the year is wise given the money they have tied up in older guys like hill, jansen, turner. machado is probably the only name that can truly make up for seagers absence, but of course thats not the whole situation and the money matters.

the bigger obstacle is i really doubt peter angelos will greenlight a firesale this early in the year, even if he absolutely should. for that alone machado might be a no go for LA

Fangraphs has an interesting piece up on this today. Interesting that he's been the second best player in the NL by WAR since 2016 and 5th best in baseball. Huge loss.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-opt ... ent-great/

I don't cheer for injuries for anyone. Corey Seager is an electrifying player who I love watching play anybody but the Cubs. With that said, I wouldn't mind seeing the Cubs be aggressive for a Machado at the deadline for him. The Dodgers core and the Cubs core are going to compete in the playoffs for many years. I'd like to see the Cubs be extra-aggressive while the Dodgers could be going through a down year.
Perhaps Addison Russell helps sweeten the pot for a rental Machado.

Buster Olney had a Twitter poll up asking if Yadier Molina was a first-ballot HoFer, a HoFer, or not a HoFer. The majority of the voters said A or B. What is this madness? Molina isn't close to sniffing the Hall of Fame on any level, but there is this narrative about him being some transcendent player.

Zip City wrote:Buster Olney had a Twitter poll up asking if Yadier Molina was a first-ballot HoFer, a HoFer, or not a HoFer. The majority of the voters said A or B. What is this madness? Molina isn't close to sniffing the Hall of Fame on any level, but there is this narrative about him being some transcendent player.

Almost every baseball analyst I listen to, and I listen to a lot of them, think he's a lock. I don't see it. He was an incredible defender for a long time but as a hitter he's a lifetime 100 wRC+ there's nothing there that screams HoF to me.