nrockway

does anyone ever actually get banned from this forum? seems like a good thing to me. it's all in good fun.

they should delay this mess

I think he's gotta be above 3 now

beer league championship next week

lol, turned the game off for a second and we've gone through 3 pitchers somehow 😵‍💫 why take Burke out at 80 pitches is my question

lol that 300 lb ball person moved at lightning speed to avoid fletcher's foul line drive 😅

Sean Burke has a career high 10 Ks through only 4.1. His stuff looks incredibly nasty and is more or less controlling it. He wastes a lot of pitches though. Still can't tell if he's a frontline starter or a reliever though. I'd rather see him in the rotation next year than Davis Martin tbh. I like Martin but I think he's a trade candidate.

They keep getting worse. NFL has some real stupid ones this year too. I don't get it. I mean I get the desire to pump out jerseys, but these 'designers' or whatever are incredibly uncreative. How does this "connect" to the city of DC?

Daylen Lile is a real nice young player. Had that awesome inside the parker a couple weeks ago. .848 OPS in his rookie season, bright spot for the Nats.

gonna be seeing a lot of this I think

I think you misunderstand what I meant. I'm talking about JR playing GM and doing things like hiring Tony La Russa. JR has had his fingerprints over baseball operations since he's been around and now he seems to let the GM have free reign. Whether that's due to old age, selling the team or a genuine willingness to try something different, I have no idea, I'm not a mind reader. I do enjoy how that 'play for second place' quote is received differently nowadays around here evidently. We used to all resonate over how stupid of a thing it was. How JR doesn't desire to win but desires to profiteer. Yeah, I'm pretty consistent about the bolded point. AK went all in one year, it failed because of poor talent evaluation and it jettisoned the future by perpetually trading first round draft picks for has beens. He continues to double down on this horrible strategy leaving the Bulls in NBA hell. I was excited that first season of going 'all in', but it was an unabashed failure. "At least he tried" isn't good enough. Instead of giving up first rounders (and more) for Vucevic, DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, they should've traded Zach Lavine at the height of his trade value. They might've gotten a king's ransom for him like OKC got for Paul George. I'd criticize the Sox/Getz for not doing the same thing with Luis Robert after 2023. I might criticize the Cease return, but I think teams actually valued him appropriately and the jury is out on any of the players returned in that deal (though it's not looking promising). I don't 'stan' Getz, I think it's too early to genuinely know if he's good at the job or not, but I very much appreciate that the White Sox operate far differently than the Stone Age Hahn/Kenny teams. Operate in a similar way that most winning franchises do in this day in age. I've provided a few 'bottomfeeder to good' teams as examples of this process. Are the White Sox those teams? It's too early to say, but the framework and ideation is similar. Good organizational hires who have seemed to make an impact. As stated, I'd change my tune if we're not winning by 2027 and signing real players next offseason. That seems like an aggressive timeframe for a baseball rebuild if anything. I think it's a reasonable perspective for fans to want to watch a 'competitive' team that plays .500ish baseball. It's fun to go to a game or turn on the TV and maybe see a win. The Bulls capture these sorts of fans, the JR quote I cited is rooted in that feeling. But for some reason, I think forum posters and 'diehards' do not necessarily share that perspective. We're entertained regardless or we would've be talking all this s%*# on the internet lol. Good or bad, there's always something to discuss. We haven't tuned out of the Sox. I'm actually tuning back into the Bulls next season, they have a couple of young players whose development I'd like to watch and they played a lot better after finally getting rid of Zach. There seems to be some philosophical differences between rebuilding and treadmilling. If I the GM, I'd follow a similar 'tanking' path where it seems to me you'd do what the Royals did to produce the team they have currently. They've had OK teams the last two years, right? But they're pretty much tapped out and are missing the postseason this year. The Twins followed a similar route and I think they might break the Sox record next season. Teams that aren't the Yankees and Dodgers don't go from treadmill to great. You simply have to build it internally.

“Finish in second place every single year because your fans will say ‘Wow, we got a shot. We’re in it!’ But there’s always the carrot left” - Jerry Reinsdorf I think you can ask for much more as a fan. Losing begets winning, this is just how it works in sports. If the appropriate processes are in place, that is. Nobody seems to care about "the process" besides 76ers fans. Are the neo processes in place any good? I haven't heard a convincing argument that they are not. I could be convinced, I'm tellin ya. Arturas Karnisovas convinced me that the processes he put in place were worse than those of GarPax. I'm not sure the same is true of the current regime. I was hyped on Poles but he seems to be a total disaster...jury is still out but I'm skeptical to say the least. Really seems like JR is checked out of both teams which is good for the Sox and bad for the Bulls in my mind.

I thought they had one more game. shucks. I'm sure all 3 of their fans are sorely disappointed. I think this is the preferred outcome. I thought it would've been funny if the Red Sox fell out, but it'll be great to watch Crochet in the postseason.

FLIP THE SCRIPT! why don't more kids give balls to the grown men who might appreciate it? jk, but heartwarming. nice kid.

Angels come back to beat the Asstros behind 2 homers from Trout. They want out of the postseason as badly as Detroit does.

Started the game late, watched until it was 8-1 or something then nodded off with sweet dreams about Yoendrys Gomez's 93mph four seamer...woke up and the score was 8-5 and Leasure about to give up a 4 piece. Colson coming up clutch was totally hype though. Grant Taylor shut the door throwing absolute heat. For Leasure, these are the first runs he's given up since August 26. He was bound to fumble at some point but otherwise he's been quite good. The last outing vs the Yankees was not so good and he simply looked bad tonight, wasn't commanding his pitches. Venable made a nice call to the bullpen to get him out of there. He simply didn't have it. Sometimes that happens, I wouldn't write him off, but I think he's a 7th/8th inning pitcher kinda guy and not a closer. Grant, on the other hand, is a Mason Miller kind of dude. His ERA will be quite good next year I imagine. I really like those two and Wikelman at the back end of the bullpen.

Unfortunately I don't find this hard to believe at all. All TIF has done is channel money designed to assist the public into the hands of private real estate developers. B-b-b-but it's "privately financed!!". I think that's the only part City Council heard and cared about. It's an easy dub to tell constituents "you're not gonna pay a dime!". Unfortunately that's totally false, the project will, as you say, still be massively subsidized by public funds if it actually moves forward. The City will just see none of the financial rewards (if there are anyway) nor have democratic oversight over the project. And for a fucking soccer field, a sport nobody actually cares about in this country. This is genuinely the dumbest council Chicago has ever had made up of fake 'progressive' yuppies and corrupt dinosaurs. The other bit was about how they voted in unison to approve that new 'accessory dwellings unit' ordinance (there was no debate or dissent), how it's going to make housing more affordable despite plenty of evidence how such programs do absolutely nothing in that regard (see: California for instance, see the Reagan, Bush 1 and Clinton administrations more generally). The ADUs simply give homeowners an opportunity to become landlords and improve their property values by relaxing regulations, thinking it's 'dignified housing' for a family to live in a hastily-built shack on someone's half acre property or in their one-window attic. I'm sure CHA is licking their chops about it especially because they won't have to lift a finger. https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-housing-authority-hud-transformation-plan Still waiting for CHA to rebuild all that housing they demolished near 30 years ago and promised to rebuild in a more 'humane' way. The best this progressive city can come up with is trickle down housing, 'granny flats', channeling public funds into the hands of billionaire investors in the hopes that, like, 20 'below market rate' units get built. North Side voters who live in a bubble definitely don't give a s%*#, they actually think they're being helpful. The policymakers have been brainwashed by 40 years of Ronald Reagan derived policymaking, that public investment is actually a nuisance and government only exists to facilitate the accumulation of investor/developer profit. 'Neoliberalism' is sort of a buzzword, but this is what it actually is in practice right before our eyes.

I think this Tatis grand slam seals the deal on The DBacks season. Reds and Mets going down to the wire, Mets are facing an easier team. I wonder what kind of deal Zac Gallen gets this offseason. ERA up to nearly 5. Wasn't that long ago he led the NL in WHIP and posted a 2.5 ERA. His trajectory is kinda Cease-esque, good one year bad the next. Both will be interesting UFA's. Both are traditionally healthy. I wonder if they sign 1 year deals.

I asked rhetorically 'what would you have thought about the GM of the 2014 Astros at the time?" It's easy to say things with hindsight. It's semi-amusing that his 'pre-success' resume sounds a bit like Getz. I reference Stearns that the Mets are fucking garbage and Getz literally made moves that Stearns should have made to address the flaw that might keep their $340mil roster out of the playoffs. You didn't seem to address either point. I guess you can't really address the rhetorical question, but simply ponder it. But you seem very certain how 'destined to fail' the White Sox are and you don't have much basis for it. I'd love to talk more about this but I have to leave!

genuinely illiterate

bro what

The resume is irrelevant though. We can compare side-by-side the moves the guy with the "great resume", David Stearns, has made with the Mets relative to Getz with the Sox. The Mets could've kept Vasil, Orze, might've signed Houser, might've even signed Michael A Taylor instead of trading for Jose Siri and would have a better team this year. Among other moves and wasted mega-expenditures. Stearns signed Soto, right, and retained some key players because of the massive budget. Any GM could've signed Soto to that team. If the Mets acquired pitchers like the Sox did, they're not fighting for the playoffs with a $340mil payroll. The good pitchers on their team (sans rookie McClean) are from the previous front office. The resume, "the past", isn't really the question. Tony La Russa has a great resume too, he's a Hall of Famer, how'd that work out for the Sox? The point is about how past success doesn't necessarily indicate future success. The Astros had Hahn-esque, recent-Sox type teams under Ed Wade, and the MLB team immediately got worse when they hired Luhnow. The MLB team was really bad for several years under Luhnow. Do you think posters on this board would care about his resume with the Cardinals when the Astros are bottomfeeding? And yet, look how it turned out for them. Speaking of those Cardinals teams, "Luhnow's hiring initially prompted skepticism, since he had no previous experience in baseball and had not played the sport since high school. He was derided with nicknames like "the accountant" and 'Harry Potter'". Sounds like somebody we know. They won 105 games the year prior to Luhnow taking over the scouting department and not many of his draftees made MLB before being hired by the Astros. Had some MILB championships (The Barons just won their second straight). He didn't have anything to with Yadier Molina for instance. He did draft Lance Lynn who debuted prior to be hiring by the Astros. Maybe reliever, proper MLB reliever, Joe Kelly debuted during his time there. Several other 'meh' MLB players whose names I don't remember joined the team and contributed to their WS team (83 wins) in un-meaningful ways. He opened an academy in the DR (something the Sox just did). His resume is essentially that of Chris Getz the farm director with less baseball experience. The actual point being made is that it took several years for the Astros to turn into a dynasty after being a terrible team for several years. Sox fans would've been calling for his head. Hiring Mike Elias would've been even more eye-rolling. I'm not sure that Getz is either one of those guys, I just don't think the argumentation checks out. Talk about what is being done in the present day in order to build an effective organization, not their "resumes". Rookies and first year coaches don't have a resume but everybody starts somewhere. Young people in the real world wouldn't ever get hired over people with a 40 years of experience or privileged brats who attended Ivy League universities because their parents forced them to study from day 1 or did 'extracurriculars' in the third world. Talent wins out over pedigree. Or it ought to (it typically doesn't except in sports). Harder for us in the peanut gallery to analyze that in baseball executives. But the signs are there. If the signs aren't actually there as I think they are, let's talk about it. I like to analogize Chris Getz to David Stearns because it seems like a very easy argument to make that Getz would've done a better job with this Mets team. Stearns could have hired Bannister or Venable over Mendoza (not sure either one is a good manager, but one was a hot commodity). Within the Sox, the organizational deficiencies have certainly been addressed...it's just, again, too early to say if it'll actually work. Are Fauske and Bonemer good picks? Will the new Dominican academy bear fruit when the Sox haven't operated there since that one guy was convicted by the feds for stealing from children/the org? Is Marco Paddy's replacement any good? Did the new Arizona facility actually help un-bust Colson Montgomery? Will an unsheathed Mike Shirley's draft picks do anything? tl;dr: pedigree is meaningless and so is the w/l record during a rebuild

So if you're the aforementioned 2013 Astros, you'd fire Jeff Luhnow and his scouting director, Mike Elias, right? You just lost 107, 111, 92 games after all. Were those guys really bad at their job? The Astros proceeded to win 311 games over 3 seasons (104 wins average). The Orioles hired that moron scouting director for some reason, proceeded to lose 108, go 25-35 (95 loss pace), 110 games...before winning 101 and 91. I don't know how baseball fans don't realize in their many years of watching the sport the timeframe in which teams are actually built. It's true of most sports. I can appreciate the emotional component of it certainly, the mlb-PTSD wrought by JR. I could appreciate the idea that Getz and co is drafting bad players and that the minor leaguers aren't developing. The only thought is the MLB team's W/L record which is short-sighted and simply a wrong mode of analysis. This is potentially an interesting debate/discussion where I'd love to be proven wrong. But, frankly, it's genuinely too early to say anything definitively. There are positive advances that many on this board harp on that fall on deaf ears. Things the White Sox did not used to do but are doing now. The sorts of thing that modern MLB teams do. I'm not sure if the fans who pay close attention to MILB think the sky is falling. I thought it was a fascinating take that "hiring a biomechanics staff was stupid". Weren't we all calling for that sort of thing in previous years? I think it's interesting that similar voices who thought Crochet/Montgomery were busts also think losing 100 games is a meaningful indicator of future success.

1969 Mets won the World Series. 2017 Astros won the World Series Orioles probably lose 100 games 4 seasons in a row if the third season isn't shortened due to COVID (60 games played, BAL was on pace to lose 95 anyway). Soon after, they won 101 and 91 games. TBD on the Rockies and Sox. Astros and Orioles seem to be the relevant point of reference. "Losing 100 games" doesn't actually matter in the long term.

sheesh, at least get in a run down, let Quero get to second.