caulfield12

I’m much more confident at this point in Madrigal being a Gold Glove defender at 2B than Moncada...even though Moncada has all the raw tools in the world to be that kind of fielder. The problem is the consistency. Madrigal is already a finished product, whereas Moncada is learning on the job (and teaching fundamentals/defense at the big league level is not exactly our forte.)

There are two problems...that fastball on the inside 1/3rd of the plate (especially belt high and up) is giving him fits...so he’s really trying to get started early, but it’s causing lag in his swing because his timing is still off. Basically, he’s got that one dead pull swing, which of course leaves him susceptible to anything on the outside of the plate (or just off.) I do think getting all those full count strikes called on him (instead of picking up another 10-12 walks) has also gotten into his head. Last year, after the slow start, he was an OBP machine. This year, the walks are increasingly fewer and fewer. But it seems like every at-bat he’s usually down 1 or 2 strikes in the count...then he starts getting in-between on what pitch is coming instead of at least aggressively hunting fastballs in the hitting zone early.

I knew this was coming. Heimlich and Madrigal have both been largely disappointing, compared to the other “Big 3” of Grenier, Larnach and Rutschman. Who knows, with JR’s unpredictability, we might have three of those players by this time next year...(it’s not like we have a plethora of quality LH arms in our system. Waits to be attacked for being too pragmatic and condoning “child molestation.”)

Preliminary conspiracy theories: It was David Hogg. They had a training about this exact type of incident in the local area...and the 60 second response team means this was planned by liberals to (deliberately) make Trump look bad (not that it’s SO hard to do). The newspaper was liberal, and this is the “chickens coming home to roost” over Maxine Waters. This was a left-wing kook out to attack a conservative newspaper out of anger with the Trump administration and frustration with the Kennedy retirement. The “filed off fingerprints” means it was the work of the deep-state (NSA/CIA/FBI) out to sabotage Trump’s agenda...to not give him an opportunity to “make America great again.” Maryland has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, and it still didn’t stop this guy. Conceal and carry, baby! Everyone should have a gun, that way a “good guy with a gun” could have stopped this instead of cowering under his desk. Trump would definitely have acted with courage and taken the shooter down before anyone was harmed. At least Sanders was out there this time defending journalists/print media instead of fanning the flames. So there’s that. (Maybe they should make her think about the consequences of her actions more often....)

How realistic is it to expect completely different hitting philosophies from both sides of the plate? Right now, he’s more reminiscent of Jose Valentin as a switch-hitter, tbh. With him already being “in between” so often, I just wonder how the affect of having him think EVEN MORE will have? It’s almost like the Giolito and his mechanics thing, and the more you focus on something, the more it gets in your head and you do start becoming robotic instead of “natural” up there as a result, like a deer in headlights. So much of it’s confidence when you’re hitting, and he’s REALLY struggling to get that back, to collect just a couple of multiple hit games in a row.

He needs to be at least a 750 ops hitter and concentrate/focus more defensively. Has even admitted that fact. We can make excuses for everyone, the sun got in Tilson’s eyes, blah blah blah...but major league players need to execute. Moncada needs to practice his bunting more or Renteria needs to be fired.

Listening to the radio feed, you could swear it was a spring training game at the Twins’ facility...Sox fans were definitely outnumbered. Both teams suck, but weekend shopping and sightseeing in Chicago!

He blocked the bag with his foot...that used to be illegal. Next time, you go in feet first and he’ll rethink that strategy. At least he’s hitting, and on pace for 25 or 30/30.

Great, yay Sox, #3 pick. Whatever. Would rather have a new manager. At least Giolito is finally showing signs of turning things around, but Moncada’s really looking lost on both sides of the ball. Some highlight plays, routine errors and just plain Lackadaisical ones that shouldn’t even be close.

Narvaez totally overmatched, looking like he was flipping hamburgers with those swings...

Sure Adrianza had a good game this series, but he’s not someone a manager should be fearful of like he’s Barry Bonds in his prime.

We get the one Cardinals “defense-first/fundamentally-sound” outfielder who isn’t any of those things...sigh.

Renteria with two dumb decisions...Moncada can’t bunt, and walking Adrianza and putting more pressure on Santiago.

I thought the GOP talking point was tort reform...too many frivolous lawsuits driving up the costs of doing business? Well, this is one case where hospitals/insurance company are accruing too much power, and the obvious direction of the SCOTUS is to pretty much do anything to protect corporate interests against individual consumers.

Trump’s legacy just became much more consequential (a mere 80,000 votes and then the SCOTUS decision in Bush/Gore, sigh...) https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/28/politics/donald-trump-legacy-consequences/index.html

Trump said he wants someone who “can serve 40, 45 years,” this can’t go well... At one point, Trump praised Kennedy for his service and said he was “honored” that the longtime justice decided to retire during his presidency — which he suggested was a deliberate choice. “He felt confident in me to make the right choice and carry on his great legacy, that’s why he did it,” Trump said. I’m finding it difficult to look backward, instead of ahead. Justice Kennedy was the man in the middle, who kept the already very conservative Supreme Court from moving ever more rightward. And he loved that role and all the attention that came with it. It is regrettable he is giving it up at this particular moment, however, because his resignation launches even more of an ideological war than we already were having—one that could end up overshadowing whatever one might believe (or he might believe) to be his legal legacy. I’ll make a prediction. I think he is likely to be replaced with another very conservative justice; I think the country’s politics are going to move left; and I think we might end up in a situation like 1937, when we had an epic collision between an entrenched conservative Supreme Court and a public who quite disagreed. The public was looking to the government to help pull it out of the Great Depression, and the Supreme Court was striking down both state and federal economic measures like they were clay pigeons on a range. I can’t say precisely what the coming issue(s) will be—I have my guesses, including campaign finance and a variety of civil liberties—but I may have to add a chapter to The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/27/anthony-kennedy-legacy-supreme-court-218900 https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/pelosi-joe-crowleys-defeat-doesnt-mean-democratic-socialism-is-on-the-rise At this point, I have zero faith the left and centrist wings of the party can successfully be united nationally

The (Wall Street) Journal misses the central point that unions are advocacy organizations. The job of a union is to advocate on behalf of working men and women. Moreover, the Journal ignores the fact that corporations outspend unions by more than 10 to one but are free to hide their spending while unions disclose everything. this from an AFL—CIO rebuttal to a WSJ report in the days following Citizens United

Had another ball well hit up the middle the pitcher was lucky to deflect...

#burritobart #permitpatty #bbqbecky #joggerjoe Is society simply going off the rails? Or just a reflection that now everyone has a mobile or iPad to document everything that happens in life? I guess it all started with the woman who felt threatened by the presence of black women playing slowly at a golf course, the Yale student sleeping in the common room of her dorm, the lawyer in NYC confronting Hispanic staff...the Starbucks business meeting/bathroom denial was the headliner. And that’s not even the seemingly every 2-3 days there is a bizarre incident on an (budget) airline around the world. How can we get back from the brink and return to a more civil society...is it even possible without a change in the WH occupant?

But how does he profile defensively? Palka/Avi/Delmonico-esque or much more competent?

Fathom’s favorite hitter. Now some real drama in the CWS.

Came through. Cronin out there a long time. Madrigal has faded from .405 to .377 the last couple of weeks.

Oops, Grenier.

Leadoff runner reaches in the 9th...couldn’t get the runner in from 3rd with just one out last inning. Madrigal and Larnach with two chances to tie it.

Nice to see a lineup that sort of has threats from top to bottom. Swapping out Thompson and Engel makes a huge difference.