caulfield12

But that's like saying Mazara is even more of a bargain if he puts up similar offensive numbers in RF (to Sano at 1B). Granted, historically, Sano has put up the more impressive fWAR numbers over time, despite all Sano's off-the-field/injury/weight issues. We'll see. Sano's defense is going to be tested over and over again by their middle infielders. It's better with Donaldson and Sano on the corners than Sano/Cron, but how much remains to be seen.

The only way we can say that about the Abreu deal is...well, it's impossible, because we don't know how much that signing influenced Robert to commit long-term to an extension. So even if we're overpaying Abreu in 2021-22, we're also getting a positive return on investment from Luis Robert (in the very prime of his career) on the back end of that contract.

It's a pretty even battle. Is Ramirez an MVP candidate, or his first half 2019 version, or, more likely, something in-between? Can Garver, Polanco, Rosario, Kepler and Arraez keep it up? Donaldson and Cruz's health? The Twins had a lot of career seasons, offensively. You can never 100% count out the Indians, they're so resilient in the face of all the disadvantages they face each and every season, it's almost like repeating

Talking about Cubs’ Fest But the one to go to is the business operations panel. Crane Kenney has had the Saturday of this convention circled on his calendar for years, like a bride and her wedding day. It was going to be the crowning achievement of the Ricketts family era of his never-ending Cubs employment. It is, after all, the last big event before the launch of his TV network. The Cubs should be introducing their on-air talent, but there’s a fairly good chance that instead they’ll be left introducing their key advertisers. A panel featuring Peter Francis Geraci, the My Pillow guy, Howard Ankin, Jeff Vukovich and Jillian Michaels would be must-see, and Jillian can entertain the crowd by telling Rizzo he needs to lose some weight. “Fans can later reminisce with Cubs alumni Darwin Barney, Reed Johnson, Miguel Montero, Geovany Soto and Travis Wood during the Welcome Back panel, hosted by Ron Coomer.” And, we should take bets on which one of the panelists makes the first joke about Soto finally coming back to the Convention the year Illinois legalizes marijuana. “Cubs fans can vote on their favorite designs for the Wintrust Crosstown Series Cup, which will be redesigned and unveiled ahead of the start of the Cubs-White Sox series July 7-8. Post-Convention, the designs also will be available for fans to vote on online through the end of March.” https://theathletic.com/1530492/2020/01/13/cub-o-coffee-which-cubs-convention-panel-will-you-attend-and-will-kevin-rizzo-be-there/?source=dailyemail

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/pete-rose-chides-astros-for-signstealing-scandal-i-cant-imagine-doing-something-like-that-172224830.html

The whole Brady Aiken situation Trying to force all the young players to sign below fair value extensions early in their careers (which backfired with Singleton and Grossman) https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/23793/skewed-left-the-economics-of-the-singleton-extension/

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28482487/the-five-biggest-victims-astros-sign-stealing-scandal 3. Mike Fiers. Other players have privately complained about his decision to speak to The Athletic about the Astros' sign stealing and his criticism of the cheating. Maybe those unhappy teammates should consider the issue from his perspective. Their decision to break established rules put him and other players who wanted nothing to do with the sign stealing in a terrible position of either going along with the cheating, effectively condoning it -- which is why Hinch was suspended -- or speaking out against it. For the rest of Fiers' career, he'll have to deal with the whispers from some peers angrily complaining about him, when what they should do is reach out to apologize to him for how they compromised his experience. You could say the same for the other players on the '17 Astros who might not have shared in the sign stealing. Even if he had no involvement, Justin Verlander's one championship in a Hall of Fame career will be forever tarnished. Article for some reason left out Yu Darvish...

https://www.mlb.com/news/ronald-acuna-dunked-in-a-basketball-game

And let’s not forget the players, not one of whom, it seems, showed the courage to say, “this is wrong.” And if so, is this not symptomatic of a society that tends to view right and wrong as fluid and changeable, subject to one’s self-interest? “Everything’s relative dude, it’s all a social construct.” No, it was wrong. Other teams are doing it, maybe, is no excuse. I really thought these guys were better than this. Stupid me. Yes, other teams are doing it, and Alex Cora, at least, deserves the same punishment. But that doesn’t assuage my pain that these lovable underdogs stooped so low. Altuve? Really? The little kid “midget”* who came back to the tryout and said “give me another chance coach, please?” Springer? The boy who overcame stuttering and dedicates himself to helping other kids like him? You’re better than this. Correa, who as a child worked so hard at baseball despite desperate poverty that he fielded grounders near tree roots until his face was black and blue? Even Bregman, who got to #2 in MVP voting entirely by dint of an almost pathological work ethic? They all fell in with this hare-brained stunt. Didn’t someone have the guts to say, just once, “what are we doing? Why are we banging on garbage cans during a baseball game?” My mother used to say, “if everyone else jumps off a cliff, are you going to jump too?” Apparently so. The Astros just hit rock bottom. Does this mean I will not root for the Astros next season? I’m 62 years old and I have done my fair share of stupid things. But I have always tried to learn from those mistakes. Maybe from this humiliation the players will return to their humble roots. Yes, I really do believe everyone involved will learn and grow from this. I expect sincere contrition in the coming days, and if it is so, I will forgive them, as I have often needed forgiveness myself. https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2020/1/13/21064786/houston-astros-you-reap-what-you-sow

Or he had the same poor season statistically that players sitting out the season typically experience, see Lance Lynn.

https://www.city-journal.org/little-women Little Women Goes to War “Woke” critics express outrage that men stay away from a movie with little to offer them.

1995 Nebraska and 2001 Miami...maybe 1972 USC.

https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2020/1/13/21064786/houston-astros-you-reap-what-you-sow Great opinion piece by a Stros fan...and McCullers better hope Clevinger is traded out of the AL soon.

At the VERY least, Luhnow's going to be hired as a consultant to get those cellar-dwelling teams into the 21st century in terms of analytics and their proprietary database operations...which was the bone of contention when he took a lot of that with him from St. Louis to Houston in the first place. There's no clear rules about "work product" in MLB like there is in Silicon Valley.

One of the bottom 5-7 franchises is going to get desperate and hire them as a package deal. They might not hire Hinch to manage the big league team right away, he would probably start off with some front office or scouting/instructional title and then spend at least one or two years in the minors or as 3rd base or bench coach doing "penance" for their crimes.

Even though they claim it's a huge loss since Hinch and Luhnow are supposed to be Top 3 in baseball at their positions, they have the internal replacements and system in place in terms of the front office. Of course, the question then becomes do they keep all those who were "too close" to Luhnow and Hinch, or overlook that for continuity's sake? Is there an organization like the Marlins, Tigers, Pirates, Mariners, Orioles....that's ballsy enough to hire both those guys as a package, let them sit out their suspensions and say "f--- you" to the penalties, basically believing that building a winning team outweighs what they've done?

Where is EVERYONE? Exciting first half, but it seems like LSU just has too much offensive firepower. On pace for a 700+ total yardage game. At least it didn't start out like the semi's, where OU was out of the game in the first quarter. Plus, Clemson has Lawrence, but the Tigers have just lost so much talent from last year's team, hard to see them coming back...yet stranger things have happened.

SoxTalk is world-renowned for its cogent discussions of obscure Women's Professional Hockey Leagues in Eastern/Northern Europe and Russia.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/columnists/solomon/article/Solomon-Jim-Crane-s-firings-set-the-bar-higher-14972513.php According to the report, Hinch admitted he knew what the players were doing, and though he was against the practice, he allowed it to continue. Crane expected them to do more. “Neither one of them implemented it … but neither one of them did anything about it,” Crane said. Luhnow’s claim of complete innocence and ignorance is interesting. According to the MLB investigation, two emails mentioning the sign-stealing effort were sent to Luhnow, and there is “conflicting evidence about conversations with Luhnow on the topic.” “When I found out, I was very upset,” Crane said. “We want to be known for playing by the rules.”

Yes, but she's hardly a "mainstream" actress like a Hanks/Clooney/Eastwood/Favreau/Costner...let's just put it this way, if you ask the majority of Americans who Greta Gerwig is, and what movies she's acted in, the recognition level will be around 3-5%, maybe. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/oscar-2020-nominations-snubs-surprises-joker-jennifer-lopez-oscarssowhite-beyonce-153624963.html Dolemite is My Name should have gotten at least ONE nomination, that was ridiculous. And there's NO WAY IN HELL Joker is one of the nine best films and deserving of 10+ nominations, let alone 5. A GREAT performance from Joaquin Phoenix...and hitting the zeitgeist in terms of the current political climate almost exactly...but nope.

Except all Russian females take the "A" at the end from their father's names....Ivanov becomes Ivanova, Pavlov becomes Pavlova, Sharapov becomes Sharapova, etc.

Yeah, whereas Bigelow started her career in the early 90's directing Keanu and Swayze in Point Break. I do think actors (especially popular ones) who turn to directing have an inherent advantage getting noticed for their "multi-talented" abilities.

“I hardly knew that guy. He was just referred to as ‘bench coach’ around here, and the fact he’s now managing one of our biggest rivals means that we want absolutely no harm to come to some totally random guy that I just went out of my way to pin the blame on by not directly naming him. Well, actually, now that I’ve had time to reflect, it’s kind of AJ’s fault for hiring him in the first place.”

And, in typical “white collar crime way,” Luhnow will get hired in a heartbeat somewhere but Hinch will never manage a big league team again.

That story is MUCH more nuanced, and anyone taking Luhnow’s side without considering the circumstances of his departure from St. Louis and the execs he took with him knows that both guys are far from angels.