caulfield12

Well, there's basically Cubs/Cardinals and then the Astros since they're pretty difficult to ignore with their ALCS streak, World Series appearances and cheating scandal/s. To be honest, if Trout/Ohtani played on the Dodgers Yanks Red Sox Mets or even Phillies the amount of ink they would be generating would be off the charts. And pretty clearly the two worst divisions in baseball just so happen to be in the middle of the country right now...along with some of the lowest, most non-competitive payrolls other than OAK and TB. And that has been the case for at least six years now.

The Twins are saying all they need to say about this by what they're not saying. https://mobile.twitter.com/dohyoungpark/status/1528943565535326208?cxt=HHwWgMDRlc-E87cqAAAA If that’s MLB’s finding then one game is clearly not enough. Don’t like my take? Don’t care. Save it. Suck it up. Not your column. Your take doesn’t count. Pick any of those micro-aggressions you like. Josh Donaldson saying “What’s up, Jackie” to Anderson? That’s a racist micro-aggression that should pick up at least a few more games from MLB. Donaldson reportedly is appealing the one-gamer. If that defense consists of trying to show the league he’s something other than racist, Donaldson might actually find an unwitting character witness for his defense in the White Sox clubhouse. Said Sox reliever Joe Kelly Monday on 670 The Score: “He’s a douche.” https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-trade-deadline-cubs-trade-004617941.html

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl-playoffs-avalanche-kadri-racist-comments-death-threats-fueled-game-4-hat-trick-blues-160010941.html Who knew? Hockey...soccer, NASCAR, NFL/Gruden, what is the world coming to? Seems we didn't simply "transcend" this problem as a country or society back in 2008. In fact, the last 14 years have just served to bring racism in all it's various forms more into the open (overt) and out of the shadows.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/9186117/why-african-americans-play-pro-baseball The answer is here, hiding in plain sight. Some will use the word or term alienation. Others simply socio-economic disparity. Whether it’s baseball, golf or tennis, the endemic structural issues are similar. The committee members need to see the industry of youth baseball for what it has become: A business enterprise designed to exclude those without the means and mobility to participate. Over the past 15 to 20 years, the proliferation of pay-for-play teams in youth baseball -- and the parallel proliferation of parents willing to pay for them and coaches willing to cash their checks -- has had more of an impact on African-American participation than anything another sport has to offer. It's become standard in youth baseball for parents of supposedly "elite" kids to eschew the riffraff of Little League and cast their lot with travel teams that play as many as 130 games a year. Both preposterous and routine, it's based on the questionable theory that the more you pay and the farther you travel, the better you will become. Longtime big leaguer LaTroy Hawkins said it directly: Baseball in the United States has become a sport for the rich. ….. The sport does move slower, but why does that make it less attractive to black kids than white kids? There are fewer recognizable and highly marketed black stars than in the NFL and NBA, but is that merely a product of the numbers, a self-fulfilling prophecy? The path to the big time is slower, but why don't more people associated with baseball trumpet two facts -- the number of players who get paid is far larger than the NBA and the money is 100 percent more guaranteed than the NFL?

The day after the incident, when Anderson came up to the plate, it really did feel like the dismal days of Jackie Robinson were being channeled as the Yankee faithful booed him vociferously. In the words of longtime sports columnist David Steele, “It’s ‘Boy Remember Your Place Night’ at the ballpark in the Bronx.” That Anderson responded to the boos with a three-hit game, including a three-run HR game, ironically also echoed Robinson: succeeding in the face of a racist tidal wave by opposing fans. There is a bigger issue here than just the morality play that went down in the Bronx. Consider the idea that Josh Donaldson actually used the word “Jackie” as a racial slur. On one level, this is shocking. Jack Roosevelt Robinson is a hero of the first order who walked through hell in a gasoline suit precisely so players—players like Anderson—wouldn’t have to endure the racism that he faced. His name should forever be remembered not only as a synonym for courage but also as a reminder that baseball—not merely “society”—was extremely racist when he attempted to integrate the sport. The problem with the way Major League Baseball celebrates and remembers Robinson is that it talks a lot about the first part—with abstract words like “bravery”—without discussing exactly what kind of athletic environment he had to be brave in. If the league does discuss context, it’s always that word again, “society,” as if racism was just something in the air—not something that baseball as an institution was actually built upon. Major League Baseball fits Robinson into a neat schema of “segregation, integration, celebration!” Its desire for marketing and patriotism, which are really one and the same, is for baseball to symbolize “post-racialism.” ….. The fact is that Josh Donaldson represents a lasting culture within Major League Baseball. It’s a culture in which Robinson is praised abstractly, but current players like Anderson are routinely disrespected. Alienating Black players with magnetism like Anderson has also discourages a generation of young athletes who choose not to play baseball because of how Anderson has been treated. That will cause the great sport to suffer immeasurably. The entire sport pays a price if it holds up a sign that says, “Not For You.” We also pay a social cost, beyond the generational loss of new talent, by allowing racist ideas to fester in the “national pastime.” https://www.thenation.com/article/society/when-jackie-robinson-is-used-as-a-racial-slur/

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33971336/who-mlb-see-tv-right-now-season-most-watchable-teams-players

AJ Pollock doesn’t count?

White Sox (-0.6 SRS) Record: 21-20 For all the consternation there has been toward Tony La Russa and his managing style this year, you would think this was a powerhouse team losing close games on the margins. But SRS thinks the White Sox are a far below average team, worse, in fact, than the Mariners, the Red Sox and, gasp, the Cubs. (They have the same SRS as the Orioles.) Considering most of the White Sox’s best injured players will be back relatively soon, the fact that they are still staying above .500 and remaining in this race seems of vital importance. Maybe La Russa is doing something right, anyway. https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-teams-with-deceiving-records

https://www.nj.com/yankees/2022/03/mlb-rumors-royals-could-blow-up-yankees-as-trade-talks.html Royals pursuing Frankie Montas, might end up blocking Yankees and other suitors

But he/Boone also said this…perhaps a bridge too far to state publicly you want your own player suspended. Manager Aaron Boone said he didn’t believe Donaldson deserved a ban. “I thought they were thoughtful and looked into it and did their due diligence on it and made what was a tough call,” Boone said, referring to Major League Baseball. “I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it warranted a suspension, but, I certainly respect their process, and I know JD is planning an appeal.” https://www.nj.com/yankees/2022/05/yankees-aaron-judge-aaron-boone-react-to-josh-donaldson-suspension.html This Day in Yankees History: Jackie Robinson calls out the Yankees’ racism The first Black major leaguer took to television to decry the Yankees’ failure to integrate their roster by the 1950s. Jackie Robinson flames the Yankees, however gently, citing racism as the sole reason the club had yet to integrate their roster. On a New York NBC daytime TV show, “Youth Wants to Know,” Robinson answered affirmatively when asked if the reason for the absence of players of color in pinstripes was prejudice. However, he was careful to cite the executives as the reason for Black players’ absences from the Yankee lineup, maintaining that the Yankee players were, “…fine sportsmen and wonderful gentlemen…” By 1952, Jackie had spent six seasons in the majors, joined by at least a score of other Black players. The Yankees didn’t integrate until 1955, becoming the third-to-last team to do so when they called-up slugging catcher Elston Howard years after passing on opportunities to sign eventual Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Willie Mays. By that time, there had been more than 50 players of color in Major League Baseball, none of whom played for the Yankees. https://www.pinstripealley.com/2020/11/30/21725663/this-day-in-yankees-history-jackie-robinson-racism-history-birthdays-steve-hamilton

Or you can argue without so many blown saves, defensive blunders and getting outmanaged consistently... Most of that shows up in the respective head to head competition in the AL Central. Sox are 7-12 vs. 13-3 for the Twins, a 7 1/2 game spread. Guardians are 8-6. But we even trail KC and Detroit.

Aaron Boone showed he’s the rare manager with a backbone in the Josh Donaldson fiasco “When I first heard the name Jackie, I was really taken aback,” Boone said on Sunday. “Frankly, I was upset about it myself.” ..... From a human perspective, that’s a fairly easy statement to make. Not making racially driven jokes about people is a pretty easy thing to get on board with. But so often in the past, managers across Major League Baseball have let the name on the front of their jersey dictate their decisions. If the person under fire is on their team, the manager will often lean on empty statements about needing more information or reviewing things internally, even if it’s clear as day that their guy screwed up. That’s not what Boone did at all. While he acknowledged that the context of the situation is important — Anderson said he felt like “today’s Jackie Robinson” in a 2019 interview and Donaldson told reporters that he’s called Anderson the name before in jest without it being an issue — Boone also drew a pretty hard line, by MLB manager standards, against Donaldson’s comments. In saying that he wants the notorious agitator to “rein it in” and “read the room,” Boone went about as close to denouncing his own player as a manager can. Boone and his wife Laura have two Black children, Jeanel and Sergot, whom they adopted from Haiti. During the 2020 season, in the wake of Jacob Blake being shot seven times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisc., Boone broke down in a press conference when discussing how hard and heavy that year had been (see video below). https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-josh-donaldson-aaron-boone-20220523-ggbnlrdzczguvd64iowjagh66a-story.html

https://nypost.com/2022/05/24/aaron-judge-critical-of-josh-donaldsons-jackie-comment/ Unsurprisingly, only one of 21 comments after the story supported Anderson. "Can't believe people are offering excuses for Donaldson and minimizing the comment. You just can't go where Donaldson went and it was very stupid of him to go that route - in New York of all places with both the media and Jackie Robinson's history - to try to rile Anderson up. Anybody with half a brain knows it's out of line." Some went after Judge for going after a teammate and "wokeness." One thought this would result in a mid-season trade of Donaldson.

Lynn was at one point late May. Jimenez mid June but nobody quite believes that one.

Minnesota 9-4 in one run games (that will even out), 14-6 in day games, 5-6 against teams over .500 AL Central Head to Head MINN 13-3 ----- CLEVE 8-6 4 GB KC 9-12 6.5 GB DET 4-8 7 GB CHW 7-12 7 1/2 GB

They have to protect Kopech throughout the middle 1/3rd of the season though.

Tigers tied it 4-4, what do you know? Former Guardian/Indian Joe Smith gave up his first run of the season for the Twins.

He's actually more likely to comment on it than most around baseball...or Stephen A. Smith.

Twins with a Kepler grand slam against a pitcher nobody has heard of with a 12 ERA.l in the bottom of the first. Likely to be 10 games over .500. Btw glad we were smart enough not to go after Javier Baez at least. The defense and base running just can't offset the offensive woes. And we will also see how the Guardians stack up against the Astros in Houston. Likely pretender, but they've been sticking in there for longer than most would have given them credit for.

https://m.startribune.com/chris-paddack-mets-padres-trade-twins-tommy-john-surgery-lavelle-neal/600175699/ Why the Mets shied away from Paddack (and Kumar Rocker)...but Twins didn't.

Now you've done it. Haven't Frank Thomas or Bo Jackson stood up for their former War Eagle/Auburn Tigers alumni?

Self-induced.

Seemingly.

One of many cases of addition by subtraction if you look at all the payroll space it created...they were able to add Correa for at least one season.

I guess a two game suspension knocked down to one would look bad for baseball...but if they don't make him serve that one, MLB under Manfred is a complete and utter joke. Might as well just cancel Jackie Robinson Day itself if they choose to take that course of action.