caulfield12

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...

Are they really going to leave him out for 40+ pitches in one inning...?

Is this the fourth time now we can’t move past the .500 mark? Lamb’s play is now an error on the bunt.

Well, probably a good idea not to give him $125-150 million. Of course, without getting his TOR stuff back means they’re going to struggle to make the playoffs... More bad defense from Garcia. No idea why Vaughn’s not playing today after picking up a double yesterday. Finally threw a slider.

Can’t burn the entire bullpen. Going to have to eat it. Changeups getting hit yet again...and more defensive issues from Lamb not helping much.

Having a flashback to 2017-18 Giolito here...

Well, this couldn’t have gone any worse. Changeups getting hit. Missing locations. Only throwing 91-94. Just a couple of 95’s.

But if $64 billion of Bitcoin is in the hands of just one person or maybe it’s a corporate entity hiding behind a Japanese-sounding name...how can that possibly be a stabilizing force? Well, at any rate, it will be interesting to see how things evolve. China wants their own digital currency because not being able to track or control an outside system is anathema to them. The US is afraid that China’s digital currency will be a threat to the dollar. Is it a currency, a commodity like gold or silver, a technology platform to hide shady financial transactions from prying eyes? Everyone’s lining up to attempt to profit off it, but not sure it’s going to be any different from Dutch tulips.

No point to burn him against Cy Civale. He’s like kryptonite to our team.

SPAC Wipeout Is Punishing Followers of Chamath Palihapitiya https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spac-wipeout-punishing-followers-chamath-130000409.html Just as Chamath Palihapitiya was the face of the SPAC frenzy that gripped financial markets at the start of the year, he is today the face of the bust. All six of Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Hedosophia-linked blank-check companies, including three that already completed mergers, have plunged more than the broader SPAC market since it hit its peak in mid-February. One of them -- Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., a space tourism business that’s backed by Richard Branson -- is down more than 50%. All of these losses are greater than the 23% average decline in SPACs, as measured by the IPOX SPAC Index, over that time. The collapse in special purpose acquisition companies -- oddball financial structures with a niche role in markets before the recent boom -- came as part of a broader cooling of speculative mania in markets. Just a couple weeks earlier, the fever in meme stocks had finally broken. So, too, in penny stocks. Too much supply is part of what did SPACs in. Dozens of new deals -- many of them minted by celebrities -- were hitting the market each and every week. Days before the rout began, Palihapitiya, a 44-year-old venture capitalist with a flair for self-promotion, proclaimed he was poised to be the Warren Buffett of his generation. “Nobody’s going to listen to Buffett,” he said in a Feb. 8 Bloomberg “Front Row” interview. “But there has to be other folks that take that mantle.”

Well, by definition, almost every hitter is streaky. He's in the mid 600's or whatever for OPS, he's under-performing but not killing the team or anything. And he has a pretty consistent pattern there, as well, in terms of early season struggles. In the same way his bat is a little bit slow in the cold, most of our pitchers will hopefully gain back another 2-3 MPH on their fastballs as we move into May.

Not really any "winning" unless we 1) sign Lynn to a 2-3 year extension, or 2) don't sign him, extend Gio and/or get enough production from Kopech/AAA-AA to capably replace him in the rotation.

Yeah, Abreu swung right under a center cut, belt high 92 MPH fastball in his last at-bat, that's definitely a pitch he usually drives, or, at the very least, fouls off. Just a bit out of sorts. Then something clicks and he goes on a tear. But you don't sit the reigning AL MVP unless he's facing someone like Cole, Bauer or Buehler from the RH side and his bat is looking slow/er.

Speaking of Bitcoin, had a "flash crash" over the weekend over a matter of an hour from $58k down to $51K. Last week crypto enthusiasm seemed to reach a peak as trading platform Coinbase went public at a valuation of $86 billion, followed by a wild 500% rally in Dogecoin — an asset that was created as a joke in 2013. Cryptocurrency backers have spent years insisting that bitcoin, ethereum and other digital coins could revolutionize the world of finance, and with the success of Coinbase's Wall Street debut Wednesday, those backers are finally having their moment. Tesla has started accepting bitcoin payments for its cars and now holds some of the digital currency on its balance sheet. Payment processors including PayPal (PYPL), Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V) are trying to streamline crypto payments on their networks. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs will reportedly soon offer its private wealth management clients avenues to invest in bitcoin and other digital currencies and Morgan Stanley announced that it will offer its wealthy clients access to bitcoin funds. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/18/business/bitcoin-sharp-fall/index.html A $1000 bet on Dogecoin could now buy a Tesla Bitcoin has an energy problem According to one estimate, the process of mining bitcoins and keeping the network running uses more energy than Belgium in a year. CNN's Clare Sebastian reports on the network's vast energy usage.

One of the best pitched series in a long time... Now there's no way guys their rookies can keep this up, but the Dodgers are just almost impossible to beat when at least 2 of their top 4 guys are going offensively, and of course Bellinger's out for now. I do think their one weakness is the bullpen, especially Jansen when he goes through one of his shaky periods. As good as Seager (one of the most underrated, underappreciated SS's in the game), Betts and Bellinger are, Turner's the one who always seems to bite you in clutch situations. But when you have a Top 3 rotation like that and follow them up with May/Urias, it's scary.

Everyone’s thinking that here...but idiotic to say. No good will come from it, especially if it gets picked up somehow by Chinese social media. Every day, there’s a new reason to fight over something, like the Xinjiang cotton sourcing issue.

That guy has more detractors than Rongey, Bill Melton and Benetti...

Does Crochet still exist?

What did he say again? He will end up getting all the White Sox games blacked out here in China, White Sox merchandise banned, etc. Everything said right now results in an overreaction/boycott over here.

Thought that was a three run bomb.

Hard to prefer Burdi here...but Foster’s really going to have to start showing something here. And not so good. Center cut fastball. Too good a hitter.