caulfield12

Was going to let it go foul, hesitated, lost his footing...and that was all she wrote.

Because Hahn has no cojones...and prefers retaining his cushy e-suite job?

The ol that wouldn’t be a homer in a phone booth...at least not a four hopper 4-3 putout? Nick Williams homered simultaneously. Coincidence? I think not.

Odds that he comes out of the starting blocks hot offensively instead of swinging like a disjointed rusty gate?

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/kansas-city-royals/whit-merrifield-19840/ Whit Merrifield might be the most valuable trade piece in baseball with this contract. But doubt KC moves their franchise fan favorite, along with Perez and Duffy.

Rodon gives up way too many SB’s. Easy advanced scouting call...run at will. Except Perez and Soler. On the plus side, Burger 2/2 with another double. .233/881 ops. But Lambert getting hit hard again. Nomar Mazara 688 ops for Tigers ties it up in extras against Kimbrel, haha.

Madrigal just doesn’t have the type of arm to complete that DP. Of course, 75% of 2B don’t either, which is why most are limited to that position.

Well, he is the 1 L in that 22-1 streak against LHP...actually 23-1 counting Jesus Luzardo and the A’s in the post-season. Some pitchers just have that extra confidence against certain franchises. Nothing new.

Next weekend in the Bronx will be a gut check. First high profile series in quite some time for the Sox.

Just doesn’t have it tonight. Bullpen game. Maybe get another inning out of Rodon if possible.

Benetti...stop making excuses and carrying water, sheesh.

Perez a borderline HoF candidate if he could have stayed healthy his entire career...certainly going by his stats against the Sox.

Mostly, if you don’t have a playing background, it’s 75% weighted towards the Ivies, Cal Tech, MIT, Univ. Chicago, Michigan, ND, NW, Duke, Stanford. Rick Hahn could be the poster boy. Chris Getz, another. Even KW.

Sprinkled in with some random Indian/Indian-Americans with an avid interest in the game that started out with cricket and Million Dollar Arm, haha. You’ve got Sig Mejdal (NASA background) and Farhan Zaidi who’s revitalizing the Giants. 90% sure Zaidi has a Filipino background, like Erik Spoelstra. As Ray Ray said, thousands (85% white males) are dying for ANY chance to get their foot in the door. It’s cool, compared to cloud/AI and data science working for Big Tech. One of my big regrets was turning down the Red Sox in 1994 because the stipend was “only” $500. Idiot! Too practical, and too loyal to White Sox, in some weird way. So I took a minor league internship where I had a stipend, free apartment and the ability to get a 10% sales commission on season tickets, special event sponsorships, billboards and program ads. If I was doing it today, it would be working with Christine Reilly in PR. They do some really inspirational stuff with charities, food depository and player appearances.

This is not starting out well. Let’s see if Carlos can limit the damage to just one.

No command of anything yet. One of those 50-60% starts you just have to battle your butt off as Hawk would say...when you don’t have your A+ stuff.

Vaughn almost got him...nice effort.

Dozier was hanging his head because of what was soon to be an 0/31 streak when Grandal caught it...

Twins scored 4 in the bottom of the 8th, gutted out a 5-4 victory over the A’s with Hansel Robles as their new closer. Lawrie and Murphy (yeah, that guy) had two shots to score the runner from second. Sigh of relief from Twins’ fans.

Abreu, Hamilton and Collins in the lineup. Unfortunately Leury is there again at the top, hitting second with his 500ish OPS line. Playing RF for Eaton. Now even Jose Berrios is losing, Twins down 4-1 at home against the A’s. If the Cubs somehow lose to DET, worst record all alone.

And creating a clique by turning half the Cubans against the others and their teammates...not unlike the Yermin lesson that wouldn’t have happened with a veteran player without his own signature burger a month into his rookie campaign.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=3b&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2021&month=0&season1=2021&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2021-01-01&enddate=2021-12-31&sort=21,d Glad you asked. #1 defensive fWAR in the game today at 3B. TA is 11th at SS. Luis Robert 10th for his position. Nick Madrigal 21st out of 27 qualified. Overall, 10th overall in MLB when looking at all positions. 10/165. Gold Glover Gallo dead last.

Yoan Moncada is the 24th ranked player by fWAR. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2021&month=0&season1=2021&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2021-01-01&enddate=2021-12-31&sort=22,d Nick Madrigal is currently on pace for 1.2-1.5 fWAR. Moncada, 5-6. But clearly Moncada is the bigger issue. Maybe Burger can be shifted to second if Max Muncy can pull it off. Even Andrew Vaughn is heading towards 3.5 (besting a healthy but defensively challenged Jimenez), and Grandal and Eaton 2.5ish. Heck, Collins has the same fWAR as Madrigal. And when Madrigal hustles his ass off, he’s still 10-15 meters behind Moncada in a 100 meter race. Engel, Hamilton, Robert and even TA are close to lapping him on the curve if it’s 220 m.

There are guys with flat out sprint speed, quickness and fast acceleration. Moncada is just not a natural or instinctive base-stealer. Never has been...and I wouldn’t be shocked if nobody in the front office is all that concerned. Maybe they just know the likelihood of injury is not worth the extra bag unless it’s an absolutely critical scoring situation. Just like guys such as Dunn, Morneau and Thome never started learning push bunts up the 3B line...against the shift.

Sounds like an unintentional Red Bull promo...or PED’s, lol. TLR getting that caffeine injection from his early afternoon coffee?