bmags

Just as I started reading positive stuff on Deiondre (or maybe this is cause effect?)

I think receiving can be improved, but the balls he lets by him makes me worried it's an issue with athleticism and not just technique.

This is nice that they've stabilized, I see it as more regression to the mean than anything else. This team was bad, but if we ran this season 100 times I think this season would be in the bottom quartile. It honestly blows my mind that the team could win 30 straight games and only get to .500. The end of injuries has helped. The outfield in june was truly embarrassing, and the bullpen has felt refreshingly average as our SPs have turned in fewer 3-4 inning bombs.

If we're to believe the checked boxes thing as real, I have to imagine the emergence of his curveball has to have been what pushed him up this year.

I think I need to start re-evaluating Narvaez. THis is quite a stretch. I was at the detroit game where he hit a 3 run homer (i think his first of year?) and I laughed at how crazy that was. Now I'm like, expecting him to be our best hitter. I also think his success is good news for Collins. The theory being Narvaez has a wonderful batter eye, but for a while really weak power. So, you'd expect pitchers to just pound zone with strikes and make a player like that ineffective. But Narvaez still ended up with good OBPs because pitchers aren't that good at throwing strikes all the time! Now, Collins probably has as good or better judgment of the zone. But if pitchers challenge him he has the power Narvaez is showing now to make them pay more consistently.

so for our keepers, you only lose the pick from the round you drafted them in +1 (so if you drafted them 2nd, it's a 1st you lose this year). I picked up Jared Goff as a FA last year, so I would only lose my last pick. I have 3 players I consider to be keepers: Goff - 22nd pick lost Kareem Hunt - 2nd round pick lost Jordan Howard - 12th round pick lost Hunt is probably the best player there, but he gives up highest value. Any advice?

Jarred Kelenic after draft .266 .355 .435 .790 Blake Rutherford after draft .351 .415 .570 .986 Both were old for their level high school picks. I'm glad for kelenic, local kid. The difference between rookie leagues and full season ball is large. I hope he does well. Gorman was not a bat issue. What will we say if his size keeps him as a bad 3b likely to move to 1b. Would we be pumped about another one of those?

Madrigal also broke his wrist this year. If Madrigal was hitting .500 I'd certainly be excited, but it's not surprising production starts to dip for college players in august coming off of CWS, especially one being challenged more than any other to this point.

I'm just gonna go Delmonico

Gotta say...I just have no interest in this guy anymore.

Yep.

I imagine that's all other people's money. I do want to know how much Sean Spicer is getting paid though.

I think I"ve only seen video of Burdi. So him.

I finally listened to slow burn. That was really good! (Oak Park grad too). I found my knowledge about timeline and major events to be completely off, and I think they rightfully avoided too much WaPo introspection since that story is well known, but i'm not sure I full understand how if WaPo reporting didn't exist, if the government investigation itself would have ended with same result regardless.

I gotta say. I think the retalitation stuff is dangerous and, imo, stupid. Imagine applying it to a game you are familiar with and play and how out of bounds stupid it would be. "Oh he did well against me I will now throw a hard ball at his back! Showed him" Pitchers do not have that good of aim, so the whole "just aim for the butt" thing is not realistic, it can slip and have terrible consequences Again it's pretty dumb I also don't think it's that big of a deal and something that would make me not root for a player. Dunning did it, luckily at lower level, and still just gets "bulldog" thrown around instead of "idiot". The pirates did find that after pitchers throw inside, they are more likely to get a grounder. I'm unconvinced this is due to intimidation and not changing of eye levels or something like that.

Come on. Carlton Fisk would be a top catcher in today's game with just as aggressive a personality except the definition of what aggressive can mean would have narrowed. He's probably be similar to Yadi, but coincidentally I find Yadi's "I know the game" b.s. to be ridiculous.

I'm not particularly convinced by this article, but it is an update of sorts: https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-prospect-zack-collins-improving/c-290586256?tid=151437456 I found this part especially annoying (to be clear, I generally like Merk's work fine) "Any doubts of Collins sticking at catcher have been erased. Just ask pitchers Dylan Cease, Jimmy Lambert, Dane Dunning and Bernardo Flores, all of whom have done high-level work with him." He proceeds then not to quote or back up that claim at all, as if I actually should just go and ask them ?

So kind of an article without a place, didn't want to make it it's own thread, but highly highly recommend this piece on unmoderated online forums. Will probably resonate with quite a few: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/magazine/twitters-misguided-quest-to-become-a-forum-for-everything.html

The sheer magnitude of this abuse is just astounding. Considering the appalling nature of the abuse, we really need to understand how we can deter people from accepting the institutional cover ups. This has been easiest to occur in a closed institution such as the catholic church, but has popped up in lots of different institutions. It always ends up that so many more knew about it. I've thought a lot about this douthat column, and about some of the rumors about teachers that ended up being true. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/opinion/sunday/cardinal-theodore-mccarrick-metoo-archbishop.html

Yeah at the very least it seems every UK/european country had their own reckoning in the last 15 years. Was being managed at a global level. The catholic church at the very least needs to open up to allow a 3rd party create a definitive account of all of the abuse, but it would almost certainly touch every part of their heirarchy. I'm not sure US is even best positioned to force that, France or certainly Italy could apply more pressure.

I don't understand this logic. His contract protects his guaranteed money unless he gets the suspension lengths you mention, which means unless he gets the 4 game vontez burfect suspension, the team cannot take away guarantees from on field suspensions. Think about the whole helmet stuff, this protects against the uncertainty of if suspensions go hog wild. And no, if I had millions on the line in a league that is predicated on weeding out poor performing or outspoken athletes, I would not take the handshake guarantee that my employer would not take away guarantees for on the field conduct even as they maintain they must keep legal option to do so. If they would never use it, then they shouldn't feel bad about taking it out of the contract.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/08/14/bears-roquan-smith-reached-a-compromise-on-issue-of-voided-guarantees/ Seems like some reasonable wins here for players.

Nice. He just didn't want to go to bourbannais, can't blame him.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?cid=&lid=&org=145&sc=&sid=milb&t=affiliate&ymd=20180813 I'll add mlb later.

Do Austin Beck now