nrockway

talk about a boring wild card.

I've been watching football but Shitler seemingly dominated this bad Red Sox lineup.

why am I catching strays!!!

The Red Sox trotting out this guy "Early" in an elimination game is just sad. Too bad they're missing Gio and have other injuries to (bad) SPs, but come on.

I don't think they were trading Shaw. He was hitting the ball really well in the minors the past 2 years and plays a position they need. Vargas had a better season at the plate. For Shaw, I think the stolen bases and 400 more innings at 3rd base are doing the heavy lifting on the WAR front. The SBs are nice. Shaw is also a rookie and Vargas isn't. Def prefer the profile of the player on top though.

2nd run would've scored on that Cronenworth tapper...unless they throw home but I don't think they would've gotten the runner there. I think the only play there was at first with the runners running/the momentum toward first base.

what a bad fuckin call, man.

he was the guy that threw at Tim, right? Yup...what a moron.

my god

incredible bs...he waited to call that s%*# too.

https://nhl24all.ir/ courtesy of a different poster who shared these with me and I don't want to see get in trouble 🤫🤐. good for nfl, mlb, etc just change the name of the league in the url.

I think if he mixed in a sinker he'd look better. But he's doomed if he's a 'changeup pitcher' (his changeup is +++) and his four seamer continues to get slugged at .566. His BA against on the four seamer isn't horrific (.245) but it gets hit way too hard before he even has a chance to throw the change. 37.9% whiff rate on the changeup, 28% on the slider, 7.7% on 4seam, 7.1 on the cutter. Changeup doesn't play as well off a sinker, but if he's a 'kitchen sink' kinda guy, maybe he can get batters out of a rhythm where they're not simply waiting on the very hittable 4 seamer. Or somehow he improves it, I just don't get how he would. Which is why I like Shane Murphy better than Thorpe, both are soft tossers but Murphy's repertoire is larger and more varied. I think Thorpe benefits from a fastball that moves more even if it weakens his change.

Weird bullpen management this series. The starter King only goes 1 inning despite looking good? Why did Darvish start over him in the first place? Miller and Saurez throwing a combined 45 pitches in game 2 also strikes me as a curious choice... Also, why are the announcers having an orgasm about Swanson making a routine play? "He's everywhere!" No, he's standing at shortstop and the ball was hit directly to him.

I was just thinking that Brooks could've made that play lol. JK, that ball was ripped, Statcast said it had a .720 expected batting average. But Sheets did indeed look silly.

1.54 ERA in 35 IP is simply good. I noted the peripherals (in low volume). His stuff is absolutely the same as it has been. Not using him in place of rookies/second year players would be a mistake. And I find it doubtful if he does actually return. He pitched 4 games in the World Series last year and closed out 1, below in the bullpen behind Treinen. I find it unlikely that Blake Treinen is the high leverage choice before he is this postseason. This season, post September, Yates/Treinen/Scott were getting that closer role before he was. All three of those guys suck/collapsed/can't be trusted. I think they all actually have negative WAR (checking: they have -0.6, -0.6, -0.5 bWAR). Sasaki probably gets the 'closer' role before Kopech does I would think. But I might say with confidence that Kopech is a very useful pitcher to LAD in some capacity, probably a high leverage one...again, assuming he returns.

I think Roberts will play him if he's healthy. Even in a lower leverage role, he helps their bullpen considerably. As far as righties go, I think he gets a spot before Henriquez or Sheehan. Maybe not Roki if he's truly just a bullpen piece these playoffs. Sasaki and Kopech seem a lot a alike to me in terms of their stuff. I mean, he pitched some important innings in the World Series. If the starters they're relying on blow up, there's plenty of room for all of them. This is assuming Kopech is even ready to go in time. Treinen as a closer just feels like playing with fire. The guy has just not been good this year, but I think you're correct in that Roberts trusts his veterans.

Why not? He's way (way) better than Treinen and much more tested than Henriquez or Roki. Kopech was excellent in his limited time this year. He was very good for them in the postseason last year en route to a WS. Well, the peripherals aren't so great, but his stuff is as good as ever. I think Mikey figured something out after he was relegated to the bullpen/traded.

I definitely thought the worst team ever might've been semi-competitive if everyone played to their utmost potential. Robert, Eloy, Moncada, Benintendi, etc. producing like they had in the past. That clearly didn't happen and the shame could've fried the egg all over my face. Bump whatever thread I discussed that and I would think "aw, whoops".

Right, if their starters can't go deep, they might be in trouble. They had two great outings from their starters in a 3 game series. Might not have the same fortune against the Phillies offense across 5 games. Wonder if our old friend Kopech will be back from injury, he will certainly help.

Despite their regular season record, I think the Dodgers are by far the best team in MLB. They definitely overmatched the Reds whose pitching was never that good to begin with, but collapsed regardless and never had much of an offense. LAD's offense is too high-powered. I think they will do the same to the Phillies unless it turns into a slugfest. But the Dodgers starting pitching is all healthy and converting Kershaw and Sasaki to high leverage relievers might be the difference maker in such games. Ya never knows what happens in the MLB playoffs, small samples and all, but I wouldn't bet against them. If the Yankees can beat Boston, I suspect they are the team to beat in the AL.

Brother, I haven't seen a post of yours in months that wasn't a troll post. One or two sentences, dismissive, seemingly 'holier than thou'. No real analysis. Nothing in good faith. Nothing kind. God forbid I respond to a thread regardless of its date. Some forums have a policy to lock threads after a certain date. You have that power. Since that wasn't the case, I replied to it! I think you appreciate the discussion or you wouldn't have replied four times. Others seem to be replying to it as well considering it's the offseason and there isn't much to talk about besides "this team sux" and Garrett Crochet objectively rocks. I'd consider it a useful bump or else nobody would've replied to it. I made a serious thread a few weeks ago hoping to prompt discussion and nobody replied to it, aw shucks. I'm certainly not "laughing" at anyone. It isn't that serious. It's a bat and ball game. We're all fans of a team that is historically not very good and the more marginal team in our city of residence. The idea is that some might reflect on their emotionally-driven tirades and make more thoughtful posts in the future. Maybe a silly idea. You act as though I can control people's ways of thinking whereas we've recently determined that you admins control the weather, stalk posters, are possibly non-human entities, etc. I tend to think the admins are the ones to facilitate discussion and not relatively new users. You have more power over this matter than I do. Genuinely, the discussion was interesting and there are a lot of posts that made no sense even at the time. I suspect time will progress and posts made over the past year will look similarly as misinformed. I'm mostly intrigued by the idea that Crochet could never be a starter because of his limited experience/injury history. I think it's akin to Montgomery being called a bust and now this talk of Noah Schultz. Jury is still out on Schultz or if Montgomery can repeat his awesomeness. I purposefully didn't quote any of your posts because I thought it might offend you, but it seemingly did regardless. I was trying to avoid conflict! You didn't have to respond, my friend!

Oh. Interesting anecdotes and not surprising, but I'm always skeptical when people I've never heard of air out their grievances like this on social media. Especially because this guy hasn't played baseball in over a decade. According to his Wikipedia page, he only played within 6 MLB orgs and never found a role. I wonder if his top 5 will entail los Sultanes de Monterrey or 統一7-ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇn獅.

no I don't. maybe you could explain it to me, "no fat chicks" guy

when do I tell people what to say or think lul I can be quoted as saying something along the lines "it would be boring if there weren't disparate viewpoints". I constantly disagree with caulfield and I think he's an awesome dude. you seem to have that bullying instinct though.

didn't this guy play for the Windy City Bulls for, like, 10 days? 3 time slam dunk champion