caulfield12

We might win this game. But we're not going to do anything but barely survive the Central playing this way. Madrigal's throwing yips are one thing, whether it's a Knoblauch/Sax thing going on, who knows. At least he's carrying his "weight" on offense, more or less. Grandal is the highest paid player in team history, and he's playing like he's on the Jay Bruce early retirement track at age 34. Of course we could never get so lucky to save the remaining dollars on that contract, so we'll get a Konerko fade without all the pleasant memories and WS ball hand-off to JR. It's one thing if he doesn't hit, but the same mental mistakes over and over again? You can't move back a bit from the plate/batter's box? Or stop reaching forward? Rodon is going to be denied an opportunity to win the game (as it turned out after 20 minutes, they extended him over 100 pitches.) The bullpen will have to cover an extra inning. Rodon is throwing 15-20 additional high stress pitches after a no-no, where he gave everything he had physically down to the very last out. This bullpen will not survive the season with things going as they are...no matter how vaunted it was in the offseason. I didn't even see the Moncada deflection, so until I watch the replay I'll have to reserve judgment, but there were THREE freaking plays in one inning that could have been made. Granted, Anderson got the out at home and spared a complete letdown (I was expecting Hernandez to have hit a bases clearing double or triple on my At-Bat phone app upon refreshing.) Now Mercedes is out? For defensive purposes? And Leury in? They say a team is a reflection of its manager, and we're clearly (at least so far) lackadaisical, inconsistent/erratic and lacking in focus. What other explanation can there be? At least when Robin Ventura came in for the 2012 season, we went from one of the worst to one of the best defenses, playing behind over 10 rookies that pitched that season. How can we be even worse now without Eloy Jimenez on the field? Finally, Yoan Moncada has to really figure out if he's going to be a "shoulda been" MLB superstar or a rap and reggaeton impresario? I can see him having a 700-725 OPS, but in the 600's again after so many seasons to overcome his various offensive struggles, especially from the RH batter's box. Maybe he just did that? Who knows where his head is at, same with Grandal and Madrigal.

China Evergrande (a massive real estate conglomerate) having tens of billions behind their e-vehicles is the scariest indicator in that market...with no realistic plan or technical expertise to actually produce a working car, let alone prototype. Worth supposedly $87 billion, and another company overextended into areas like professional football that is far outside their core area of competency. https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3130063/shanghai-auto-show-2021-chinas-evergrande-nev-valued-us87 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-18/china-s-87-billion-electric-car-giant-hasn-t-sold-a-vehicle-yet As far as Tesla goes, there’s plenty of bad news coming from both the US and China right now...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/19/opinions/vaccine-passport-covid-19-baldwin/index.html Vaccine passports, technical/public safety question...or an ideological one?

Xavier for Nunge and Frederick likely to be a KY Wildcat...no way Iowa gets to tourney next year without Marcus Carr. The idea of Bohannon back and Connor McCaffrey after two hip surgeries is bleak bleak bleak to abysmal.

It’s frustrating with McCaffrey’s son blocking legit point guards... Guess it will be the Murrays, Oglesby (needs to slim down), Weiskamp, Patrick McC and Ulis, Perkins, Toussaint as rotation. Need immediate contributions from Mulvey at center and Payton Sandfort. One of those three guards will exit as well, unless Weiskamp bolts, too.

Wow, that's a bit of a shock for a Midwest kid. Iowa lost Jack Nunge back home closer to Indiana simply because of family health issues and going through another knee injury (torn meniscus). Still waiting on Weiskamp to decide, but doubt he goes for NBA. Garza might not even be drafted. And hopefully Jason Bohannon will just leave campus and become a local real estate or Edward Jones investment broker. Guess Marcus Carr, Jacob Young (Rutgers) and Rasir Bolton from Iowa State are three of the best ones left out there...and a kid from Siena.

Is this is a soccer joke?

Has anyone heard where Liam Robbins of Minnesota/Drake is going to go? Any rumors?

Despite his roster listing with the White Sox, Yermin isn't yet qualified as a catcher on most fantasy league rosters. Still listed as a utility guy. Ironic now he can be a pitcher and utility guy but not behind the plate, where he would make an even bigger impact since defense is completely irrelevant. Maybe it is appropriate, in a way...that they haven't even had him catch a single inning yet.

Put him together with Soto, Tatis, Vladdy Junior and Walker Buehler over Fulmer, we might have ourselves a team that can actually beat the Twins and Indians. All we're lacking is Ronald Acuna, Jr.

Well, the problem is that every athlete/celebrity/social media has one now...it's especially hard for even more sophisticated investors to parse through this stuff. Definitely not for short-term, in/out or day traders looking to make a quick profit. That said, the majority of individual investors aren't putting $1 million into little baskets of future explosive growth all over the place...it's the ones with at least $100 million in net worth, investment banks/hedge funds driving all this, am I right? Everything's gone crazy. Even JP Morgan Chase is now involved with their own version with that $6+ billion loan for the European Super League for soccer/football.

Plus Yermin wasn't throwing all out...77~78 isn't close to his throws from the catcher's spot or were he positioned in the outfield. Now if he got hurt, though, everyone would look like complete dumbasses.

They already have McKay with that in mind...partially. Saving money, too, over the longer term. But he got hurt just like Ohtani.

Eaton not giving up...at least. And Robert has been making lots of hard contact in different directions for the last week.

Eaton not giving up...at least.

Well, it might be the worst thing ever not to have an ace...unless it’s going to be Rodon or Kopech, not many candidates. Madrigal’s first big league triple. Wrapped around that RF curve.

Where did Burdi’s fastball go? Well, at least the last one to Gonzalez had some life on it. 7 earned runs, leaves with a 5.79 ERA after starting the game just above 3. So much for our +/- RS and RA differential argument.

This feels like the 2017-18 version...where you were hoping and praying he would give up no more than 4-5 runs and maybe eke out 5+ ip. Finally mercy rule is in effect.

Getting closer and closer...

Eovaldi’s fastball is the envy of baseball. He’s usually behind only deGrom, Severino and maybe Thor in average velocity.

And Padres had to use Cronenworth, who actually pitched as Michigan and legitimately could make it as a reliever if he focused on it exclusively.

His curve was one of his better pitches in 2017-18...or am I totally imaging things?

Five earned runs...

He has a curve and slider, but hardly ever uses them. Well, the fantasy league pitching stats have been totally eviscerated for this week, lol.

Burdi up finally...