caulfield12

Minaya has to be the worst pitcher with an ERA under 4 in baseball...

And it’s not like Anderson, Yolmer, Davidson or Delmonico are lighting the world on fire, either...we have a ton of 675-700ish hitters on the roster right now. Pretty appropriate for Sox now...”greatest market inefficiency is actually being able to win games,” talking about A’s and Mariners (to a lesser extent.) “After three seasons of last place in the AL West, of 94, 93 and 87 losses, it was time for other ideas. Time to be smarter and braver again. Starting with the lowest payroll in baseball and the new – and still rising – World Series champion in their own division, Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Billy Beane and GM David Forst would require another way to ambush the league. “I feel your pain,” Beane had told A’s fans this winter, adding, “I’m running out of time myself. So, I’m with you.” And maybe this was intentional and maybe it’s a matter of dumb timing, but this year’s market inefficiency, its most undervalued asset, its best bargain, and that which the A’s have become exceptional at, is … winning baseball games. Look around. Not everybody is in. Not everybody is playing to win. There is, instead, a separate race to terrible, those franchises playing as though the first to terrible will then be the first to trampoline from terrible. The alibi created by championships in Kansas City, Chicago and Houston had become a windstorm, carrying as many as 10 teams – a third of the league – with it. So, hell, why not try to win? It was just crazy enough to work. You don’t even have to be great. (Great can be expensive.) You just have to, you know, try. Not that the A’s weren’t trying before. They were, in their own way. But finishing in last place year after year after year does tend to start looking like not trying, whether it’s meant to or not. And now, in 2018, holding your own against good teams and bazooka-ing bad teams is a more than reasonable way to contending, to bringing that old ballpark to life again.”

If Moncada could bunt for hits more consistently...he’d be at least a .240 or .250 hitter, but that should be more of an add on to keep the defense honest, rather than trying to change his offensive game too much.

Cross between Nelson Cruz and Manny Ramirez...? He needs to be, unless the rest of the young hitters are going to take a hyper leap in their learning curves/adjustments.

At least Moncada was looking fastball and not sliders there? Sigh...

Narvaez is the best hitter on the team...Las Vegas odds on that before the season?

The gap with women is particularly important because who do you think will have the biggest impact on the beliefs of children and grandchildren (especially in single-parent) homes?

He never threw 98 consistently after the surgery. He might have hit 98-100 at Harvard Westlake and in the Futures Game appearance 3 years ago, but he has never sustained that 96-98 stuff over an extended period of time in pro ball. 93-95/96 is likely his peak.

https://sports.yahoo.com/david-botes-story-too-unbelievable-053108048.html

Pretty obviously someone who can stand toe to toe with Trump and not be cowed by him...and I theoretically someone who is a master at publicizing themself for free while simultaneously sustaining the public’s interest in them.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/11/opinions/avenatti-dems-fire-with-fire-opinion-zelizer/index.html Avenatti is right, Dems have to fight fire with fire

Gonzalez continues to hum right along...

Let’s sincerely hope it’s only for marketing purposes and not player instruction that they monitor this site, lol...

Well, at least Mariners and Padres’ fans have close to perfect weather conditions every game...and it’s not like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota O’Brien Detroit are doing particularly well, either. Maybe we should be emulating Milwaukee? (Of course, having Selig as commissioner has helped, as well as escaping the Red Sox/Yankees/Blue Jays.) The exceptions for tolerating terrible weather are always going to be the Red Sox, Cubs and Yankees (and their fans have taken a ton of criticism, too, in recent years.)

Well, that’s pretty much why they’ve had four GM’s (including) that last 2001 playoff team...

And hospital billing rates for unneeded tests/exams, malpractice insurance and Big Pharma...and they have to cut somewhere, hospitals/doctors are the least likely of the 3. (Of course, the GOP would prefer tort reforms to protect corporations to the disadvantage of individual customers.) Without a check on corporate greed and sheer price gouging, then you’re not going to accomplish much. We saw flash points with the Epipen (Manchin’s daughter) and the Martin Shkreli PR disaster for the drug industry...but no systemic changes. How much profit is acceptable? We put a limit on it for payday loans and check cashing, and call it usury for lenders.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pelosi-is-the-star-of-gop-attack-ads-worrying-democrats-upbeat-about-midterms/2018/08/09/f85a2474-9b43-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html?utm_term=.86359990f53e

is Call really a legit prospect for a legit team starting MLB job?

You can’t read Dick Allen’s previous comment and see what he wrote at the end of it? Fine, we can go back and quote it. “The clock should be ticking. Yes, this year was bound to suck. Next year wasn't bound to suck, but it's looking like that may change. There needs to be improvement, not only with the talent level, but with how they play the game.“ Should I start a separate thread? Insert it into the game thread? Isn’t Rick Hahn in charge of every aspect of the way the team plays the game? If not, he can fire Renteria, right? Did giving Ventura all of 2014, 15 and 16 to fix what took place in 2013 rectify the mistakes in fundamentals?

If Hillary actually admitted her mistakes, then we could all move on...she had 8 years to do it after the Obama loss. That was blamed on South Carolina and the ugly racism of his comments being unfairly turned again the Clintons. He was the king, they were interlopers not willing to wait in line for the presumed queen, basically. See 1980, what happened the only time her husband lost an election (as an incumbent) his entire life (as ARK gov, he also ran in 1974 for Congress at age 28)...or what self-reflection did in changing the 1996 results, recovering from the bloodbath in 1994 (of course, some would say he sold out by triangulating, using Dick Morris, attacking black people over welfare abuse and the whole “superpredators” accusations regarding violent crimes and drugs/criminal justice reform.) He won, I guess...?

We MIGHT very well get 23 seats picked up, but what’s the plan after that? Obstruction like 2010-2016? Great we have pretty much nothing to look forward to, other than 2020...in terms of actual, real solutions for the country. Trump will probably spend 75% of his last two years campaigning and fundraising.

For example yesterday’s game, what’s the first rule in baseball? On second base, don’t try to advance when the ball is hit to your right...Delmonico, what did he do? Got thrown out at third for the first out when we were down 4 runs. Anderson later advanced on a WP to get them back to the same baseball situation, runner on second, 1 out. But that really let the air out of the balloon...and Anderson should have been trying to hit the ball the other way in the first place, so there were actually two mistakes. In the end, he hit a homer on a 98 mph fastball and made an error, so a typical Anderson game. Lots of potential, raw, but we are still saying that at the end of year 3. I don’t think anyone is convinced we have the coaching staff in place to bring out the full potential in these guys.

https://sports.yahoo.com/yes-yoan-moncada-striking-lot-000712552.html https://theathletic.com/464893/2018/08/08/on-pace-to-set-mlb-strikeout-record-yoan-moncada-knows-he-has-to-adjust-his-approach/?source=dailyemail

I don’t know why we’re referring to it so obliquely then...it’s like talking about a cholera outbreak that killed hundreds. And if that was the case, why spend more “bad money” on James Shields when they were already desperate, like gamblers trying to turn a loss into break even?

Luhnow also developed the most sophisticated player evaluation system/database for any sports team in the world...along with assistants from MIT, NASA, Cal Tech, etc. On the other hand, we’re still seemingly half stuck in the traditional way because of KW and JR. What is our market niche or identity around the game? Keeping players healthy and Don Cooper?