caulfield12

After 60 hours of scrambling to handle Marlins outbreak, will MLB chaos subside? It was, for another day, chaos. Brian Cashman, general manager of the New York Yankees, who were in Washington D.C., then Philadelphia, where they did not play a game, then Baltimore, where presumably they would play a game but only after calling back their equipment truck, which had started on the road back to New York, likened the whole experience to “drinking out of a fire hose.” The Phillies are shut down until Friday. The Marlins, of course, are done until at least next Tuesday, when they are scheduled to host … the Phillies. The Nationals will have the weekend off. Two games were postponed Monday night. On Wednesday the Toronto Blue Jays will play their first home game of the season — in Washington D.C. Their first real home game, which will be played not in Toronto but in Buffalo, is scheduled for Aug. 11, when they are to host … the Marlins. Because the ball will find you. https://sports.yahoo.com/after-60-hours-of-scrambling-to-handle-marlins-outbreak-will-mlb-chaos-subside-003930693.html

We've lost about 10% of our playoff probability, but still in the 7th position and have an adjusted expected record of 30-30 instead of 31-29. So "should" have gone 2-3 and we're 1-4, a one game swing in the standings. We're still without Mazara, Eloy Jimenez, and Lopez. Madrigal isn't up. No Kopech. Encarnacion can go on massive hot streaks that carry a team for 7-10 days, and he can also look like he's a week or two from walking away from the game. Most encouraging, James McCann looks really good again, and, worst-case scenario, he has tremendous trade value if he can keep this up. We're having to rely on the likes of formerly released (June) Delmonico as a clean-up hitter, and giving significant playing time to the likes of Adam Engel and Leury Garcia, who are prototypical role or bench players, not starters. The primary concern, of course, is the starting pitching. It's not like there is going to be a lot of trades made here in the first 2-3 weeks unless franchises are experiencing significant financial shortfalls already. If we simply think of Rodon as a #5/swingman (future reliever), and Keuchel as a 2/3, that puts all the pressure in the world on Giolito and Cease. We'll find out soon enough if they're mentally strong enough. Let's just hope that if we do start to fall out of this, they begin to give more opportunities to guys like Lambert and Dunning instead of Gio Gonzalez and Ross Detwiler. We're in a very similar situation to what the Braves are facing right now with their rotation. I'm going to hope that if we don't make the playoffs, we get some clarity on the roles of Rick Renteria and Don Cooper moving forward. We don't have to have the BEST manager in the game, but it would be nice if just for once we prioritized this position and really thought carefully about who was the right fit to take this franchise to the next level. Also, with the news about Mikolas also being out for the season, we can't afford to sustain another season-ending injury in the pitching staff. That much is obvious, and probably not preventable at this point, either.

"It's interesting: he's got a very good approval rating. And I like that, it's good," he went on. "Because remember: he's working for this administration. He's working with us. We could have gotten other people. We could have gotten somebody else. It didn't have to be Dr. Fauci. He's working with our administration. And for the most part we've done what he and others -- and Dr. Birx and others -- have recommended." Trump continued: "And he's got this high approval rating. So why don't I have a high approval rating with respect -- and the administration -- with respect to the virus? We should have it very high." "So it sort of is curious," Trump said, "a man works for us, with us, very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx also, very highly thought of -- and yet, they're highly thought of, but nobody likes me?" "It can only be my personality, that's all," he said. www.cnn.com

PBS still exists in the US? Just curious...I read a few stories about funding shortfalls or cutbacks, and Sesame Street fans were in an uproar.

Anyone even remotely connected with that name has been unlucky ever since the terrible Adam Sandler movie...

This week at some point. Blue Jays called up Nate Pearson for tmrw's game. That's why a lot were questioning why the Royals had Singer starting the first week.

This sounds like something Robert/Bob Norman Ross would say (the t.v. painter with the crazy hair.)

Robert just timed at 4.3 down the line to first. Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders-esque. No social distancing in McCovey Cove as all the kayaks are bunched up too closely together on the water...

To top it off, the Cubs are off to the opposite start. Couldn't have wished it on a nicer ownership group. Honestly, it's pretty sad that five games into the season, you're (already) almost hoping for cancellation of the season, despite knowing in the back of your mind that so many of the young players need to continue their development tracks. Not hoping for anyone to get sick or even be hospitalized, but just that there's a final recognition of how screwed up this entire year has been, ever since January. It feels to me as if 2-3 years have already passed, and it's only 7 months. Thoughts and prayers! I know, I know, quite fortunate to still have a job, but still depressing to reflect upon the looming realization international travel might not be allowed for MANY months still and that next summer vacation is going to be cut in half yet again. Life. Two co-workers have had total mental breakdowns or been basically incapacitated. Baseball was supposed to be a welcome respite. And it was, for brief periods Friday and most of Saturday afternoon. Guess we're not used to following a team that's expected to perform up to expectations, forgot how it felt like after the last decade.

Knew sitting Carlos Martinez on fantasy roster was the wise move there. Avoidance.

Have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of early career Mike Cameron impressions out of Lu-Bob this year...

Collins with the definition of a slider speed bat there...I mean, this guy is essentially their sixth starter/swing man and throws harder than Josh Tomlin but he's nothing special by any stretch of the imagination.

For future payroll purposes, have they defined exactly how many games out of 60 we're going to have to play to constitute a full contractual year?

Or that Lu-Gone, Basabe, Adolfo, Rutherford and former OU high draft pick (now with the Rangers) haven't amounted to much at all.

Indians' announcers reminiscing about all the homers Luplow hit against the White Sox last year (Manny Banuelos, had two multi-homer games in one week.)

When was he ever "ept"? I guess with the ladies as a career minor leaguer, he had a not inconsiderable following.

Another jam job to 2B from Delmonico, who's incredibly fortunate not to be classified as an essential worker in the real economy right now.

Probably his long list of injury problems last year...although it was equally non-performance. Hard to separate one from the other.

Mazara on IL (possibly Covid). Yermin hasn't been getting consistent at-bats wherever he is, and you can't bench EE five games into a season after you gave him that much money just to hit. Yermin has the type of game where he almost has to play 75-80% of the time, and that would be fine on the 2016-2019 Chicago White Sox teams.

Keuchel is by definition one of those "reliable" innings-eating middle of rotation vets. Something along the lines of Maeda/Rich Hill/Jake Odorizzi....not a huge contract, but much more of an investment than Gio Gonzalez.

That's how Timmy needed to play that groundball early in the first game that pulled Abreu well off the bag...

This is derived from the "you lose 85-90% of your body heat from your throat, so somehow conserving that seems like it MIGHT potentially have health benefits" school of thinking.

Whatever happened to that slider Rodon threw at NC State? I recall a time when it was even cool to follow his college starts, along with Trea Turner at-bats. Guess it went the same way as Francisco Liriano's...just way too much torque on the elbow to get away throwing that for more than 3-5 seasons in top form.

Positional-strength wise, that was one of our top spots. Repeatable, there was certainly doubt there. But it was pretty obvious they needed at least one more veteran starting pitcher (certainly more reliable than Gio Gonzalez, something along the lines of Maeda/Odorizzi would have been perfect to really solidify things along with Dallas.)

Have to lay off those high fastballs out of the zone, Luis.