Balta1701

That 2017 Jaguars defense was legit, everyone saw that last year right? #2 in yards given up, #2 in points. The 49ers with JG dropped a 44 point game on the Jags late last year while the Jags were still needing a win to clinch their division and fighting for playoff seeding. The Vikings were the #1 defense last year and we saw what happened to them in the playoffs. The Bears do need to be better than this, but your point is important and correct - very good defenses occasionally have surprising 30+ point games dropped on them. If you want to go to the playoffs with your very good defense, it's how you respond to that.

I like to use Robert's salary as a comparison point for "the price for buying a prospect". If Greinke has $90 million remaining on his deal...he's still a strong pitcher, but for the next year or two he's definitely not worth anything like that to us. It took $50 million for us to buy Robert...if the D-Backs wanted us to take on Greinke's entire deal, then it would have to include a top 50 value prospect to make it worth doing. If they wanted to get a better return, then they'd have to include some money, but if the D-Backs are paying 1/2 the deal then why wouldn't someone like the Phillies or Braves jump into that so that they could actually have him contribute next year?

The "You" was a "Front office". Replace that statement with "A front office has to know what they're doing to get there".

If teams are willing to take a chance on him being something other than a complete loss then it's not a good fit for us. If someone like the Mariners thinks they can get enough out of him to help a competitive roster next year, he's worth more to them than he would be to us since he has only 1 year on his deal. For us, his only real value is as a guy that could be moved at the trade deadline, otherwise he's a replacement player. That's all we should give up for him - stuff that doesn't matter to us.

The part of that I dislike is the "Modest price" part. You remember how we acquired Soria and his 1 remaining year/$8 million contract for Jake Peter? That's the kind of "Modest Price" we should be talking about. Gray is on a 1 year contract for about $8 million and Soria in 2017 was about as useful as Gray was in 2018, his value should be pretty close to comparable, you look back a couple years before either of them look good. If we're going to move Smith and Fulmer...fine, because that's not really losing anything of value to us and it clears out a useful roster spot, but that's potentially more than Gray should be worth.

Like it or not, the Democrats are the reality-based group. Harvard was listing her with a slight native american background when she worked there, now we know that listing was accurate, and it's nice to continue being reality-based. He'll still denigrate her by calling her Pocahontas because he's a giant racist.

I don't know about that. Basketball seems freakin' impossible to win at. If you'll give me quality odds I'll go put a bet on the Warriors to win the championship right now, and IMO the only thing stopping me from winning that bet would be someone breaking Durant's knee and having a shard fly off and impale Curry in the eye, causing them to both be out for the playoffs or season. Baseball is tough. We're now in an era where the teams who are really good actually knew what they were doing on the way to getting there. That means you have to know what you're doing to get there. But, we have teams like the Brewers and Indians in the final 8, and they were payrolls #22 and 14 on the season. Out of the top 10 payrolls, only 5 teams made the playoffs, and the #2, #4, and #5 payrolls missed. And out of these last 4 teams, I genuinely am not sure who will win. I would put money on Houston because they're the only team that seems able to trust their starting pitching, but I wouldn't be surprised if I lost that bet. I certainly wouldn't have bet on Milwaukee at the start of the season, and here we are, they had the best record in the NL. You can't rely on the Yankees and Red Sox being dumb any more, you have to be as smart as them. If you do that, you can make the playoffs and have a legit shot. If your team isn't that smart, then you are buried at the bottom and out of it at the beginning, but I don't feel bad for you because that should give you a lower payroll, better draft picks, and an opportunity to trade pieces to the teams in contention. You should be able to build yourself back into contention within a few years if you do things well.

We're going with "Rogue killers" as the lie that we'll use to declare it was ok that Saudi Arabia murdered that guy.

You can also argue that 7 is a higher number than 10, but that doesn't mean that it's worth listening to.

I have no idea what this means.

Worth adding to this thread somewhere that Gray has 1 year of arb eligibility remaining before being a FA at the end of 2019, and he'll probably make something like $8 million next year as an arbitration payment. He only threw 130 innings last year for that money, with that ERA of nearly 5. While I'm totally ok with taking him on as a warm body to fill the rotation spots, Fulmer and Smith is probably more than the Yankees should expect in return given that performance and price tag. If saving money is their goal, they can just non-tender him.

No, but if he heard this from a doctor then that would be a HIPAA violation by the person he heard it from. It's hearsay, no likely not a violation, but pretty inappropriate.

Has anyone noted that this seems to be a completely inappropriate disclosure even if it's true and that it should be considered private medical information if true as it isn't an injury?

well then.

IMO, that game was decided during game 1 when he blew out Hader's arm.

I gotta say this in another thread apparently, I hated pulling Sale there. Boston doesn't have a dominant bullpen, Sale was on a roll, he was only in the 80s on pitches, retired like the last 7 guys or so, he'd given up 1 g*dd*mn hit, he wasn't walking people any more, he struck out 2 of 3 guys in the last inning he pitched. Unless he asked out himself (somehow I doubt Chris Sale would ever do that barring injury) or he was on a pitch count from the medical staff (no one said so), I'm putting him out there for the 5th. These are 7 game series and it seems like the managers are now managing them all like they're 1-game playin sessions or game 7 sessions. Your starter is on a roll, he's literally the best pitcher on your team, it's the 4th inning, you don't need to go to the bullpen yet just because going to the bullpen is the cool thing to do. If I have to answer in the press conference for why I left the best pitcher on my team in the ballgame for the 5th inning, that's an easy question to answer.

And there's the Dodgers lead where having Hader available could have won the game...

Gosh it would have been nice if Hader were available right now, but as you told me Counsell gave the order for Woodruff to come out of the bullpen and hit a home run and that is the important thing yesterday, the home run hitting pitcher.

You borrow money and have the government give you money back based on the interest and over-claimed depreciation, then you sell the property and invest into another one to do the same thing without having to pay capital gains taxes on them. Standard legal fraud, like I assume at this point most wealthy people are doing.

The Average big league RF put up a .766 OPS. Avi Garcia put up a .719 OPS. The average big league 1b put up a .770 OPS, Abreu put up a .798 OPS - he's above the big league average but actually behind the national league. Neither one of them played a full season. The average american league DH put up a .780 OPS, Palka put up a .778 OPS and Davidson put up a .738 OPS. The White Sox had the 2nd worst offensive production from their SS position in the AL in 2018. You have a couple guys who are average, a guy who will be a monster but who is also a rookie, and a bunch of below average bats, some of whom (Davidson) Might be removed just to clear a roster spot because that's more valuable. Your murderers row is a laughable joke.

The NY Times published another one - this time how Jared Kushner and his family have basically avoided paying taxes and how avoiding taxes is basically their only income source.

No, that is a pathetic murderer's row and a weak offense.

So you're saying that if you were in his position and you knew that staying healthy could be all that is between you and a "JD Martinez deal", you'd take a 3 year deal to guarantee yourself an extra $10 million rather than betting on yourself to try to go for $100 million? Frankly, if Avi was willing to sign a 3/$18 deal at his age, I wouldn't want him. The guy signing that deal doesn't believe in himself.

The Brewers didn't score first. And if your plan as a manager is for your pitcher to come in out of the bullpen and hit a home run, I submit that you have a poor plan.

I gotta say, I know the guy replacing him homered, but I absolutely hated the move pulling Gio there. They burned through their bullpen, including Hader, so early, that when things got dicey at the end they didn't have Hader and now they won't have him in Game 2. They even pulled him right before what might have been an easy inning, with the pitcher's spot leading off. No one was on, he wasn't in trouble, and if he gave up another solo HR that isn't on its own going to kill the game. If they got Gio through 4 innings or longer, they might have only hung 1 inning on Hader, they might have had him available when guys got on in the 8th to come in and shut the door, or they might have limited his use so that he could also pitch tomorrow. Yeah they won this game, but they literally can't do the same thing with their best pitcher on Saturday.