Jake

LMAO @ Hawk blowing up the Metrodome

I keep envisioning these Memorial Day spots ending with Paulie laying on the ground

Chris looks unbelievable right now. Wow.

We squared him up a couple times that inning.

Great catch.

Moore has really been pounding the strike zone.

Chris Sale will not be outdone.

Paulie sucks!

ADA always looks like he's getting hurt sliding into second base, I feel you on that one. And trust me, playing everyday can be quite the drag, especially when you throw things in like travel, etc. There is a mental/psychological toll that goes along with spending all your waking hours focused on this one little thing. You may not always "feel" the physical benefit that comes with rest, but over time one believes that you are making the players' body a little more resistant to injury. You also don't want to be in a position where your entire bench is useless because they never see pitching. It is a hard thing to balance, especially in the American League. You don't want to screw with your best lineup but you need to give those bench guys some at bats, since you're bound to need them for both pinch hitting as well as potential long term fill-ins for injury.

I didn't realize until this discussion how young our team is. It's nice that we don't have a bunch of guys that need all kinds of special care

The pitching talent in the majors right now is noticeably different (better) than just 10 years ago, even.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 28, 2012 -> 11:39 AM) I get what y'all are saying, just worry that some of the guys might get burnt out at some point down the stretch. Then again, outside of 1b/C, the legs are pretty young in that lineup. The real trouble IMO is if you lose today with the "good" lineup, it increases the pressure to win tomorrow. It's kind of a circular argument to always play the starters when you value each game. I'm okay with at least waiting for the historic offensive surge to slow down before giving other guys a day out there. At this point, who wants to sit any of our outfielders? Does O-Dog need a day off after all the time off he had before coming to us? Alexei/Gordon never take days off. AJ always gets days off. That just leaves Paulie and Dunn, who get "sort of" rest via DH.

Ballsy of Robin to keep the regular lineup out there.

I don't miss Gio, honestly. We got two good players for him. It's clear at this point that he'd be welcome on our staff, but that's baseball. We didn't GIVE him away, he netted us two all-stars. Let's not go into the weirdness of the Nick Swisher experience, but he's a good player, he was on our team, it didn't work out -- honestly have to wonder how much the manager had to do with that... Let's just enjoy this run we're on. Beating the Rays would be huge...

Since we had a teamwide terrible approach last year along with equally terrible results from otherwise good hitters and we blamed that on the hitting coach (seems warranted), I will go ahead and attribute the squad's excellent approach, results, and upward trajectory with mostly the same players warrants praise for the new hitting coach/coaching staff.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 27, 2012 -> 04:45 PM) I break out a new dance move with every Viciedo hit, I absolutely love being wrong. pics or it didn't happen

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 27, 2012 -> 03:59 PM) Is it just me or does Gordon's stance look different? Looks like Lilli's to me

Chips are falling for Gordon.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 27, 2012 -> 03:35 PM) When has he been "off track"? Had a wild start last time out, he did finish well though. Nice to see him come out and just pound the strike zone today

That was a fantastic at bat

Time for Nate to get back on track.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 27, 2012 -> 03:32 PM) Ha, who would have ever thought those words would be written about Rios?

Rios needs to stop losing his mind over every out...he's on fire right now for christ's sake

I really don't think Gavin lacks toughness. He's just very inconsistent.

That should be it for Gavin