almagest

Astros making a push in the 9th

Skubal absolutely acing the Astros

Good

I wouldn't be happy about having to play the Astros in the postseason, even though they're not the juggernaut they were.

I'm 100% down for becoming the Brewers of the midwest... wait...

Wild game 1. Braves bullpen looked like ours. Can't wait for game 2.

He got promoted and there's a NEW head of player dev! Exactly what you all wanted!

He was really, really bad in ~450 PA from 2022-2024, so I was starting to think he was just not an MLB player and there was no "learning period" for him in the pros. I would love to be wrong.

Vargas should probably DH, assuming he learns the "H" part.

He sure has. .351/.372/.518 in 21 games. .378/.410/.649 over the last two weeks (11 games). I hope he figured something out and this isn't just a late season blip.

Trying to think who this would be.

I can get onboard with spite baseball

Barons win! Gladney with the game winning single!

Blown save. Tied 1-1. Damn.

Hell of a catch by Nishida. 1-0 Barons, 1 out top 9.

Vargas :chef's kiss: on that popup

I like to think that both "the Bears needed to move on from Fields and pick a QB with a higher ceiling than him", and "Fields was held back a bit by this joke of a franchise" are true.

363 yards and 2 TDs for a rookie QB in his third game with zero running game, questionable play calling (OMG that 4th and goal call), and a porous offensive line. Downfield still an issue at times, but better today. First INT was awful. Second was a questionable throw but he hit Rome. Colts secondary isn't bad and made a play there - still think Rome had a chance on that one. Strip sack not his fault. Kmet shouldn't be blocking their first round defensive end on a slow developing play action. I'm trying to be encouraged by Williams' play overall and the somewhat competent offense shown at the end of the game. Hopefully that continues, but Eberflus is not a good head coach.

Barons take a 6-3 lead into the 9th after a 3 run 8th

AJ hinted that Brooks Boyer is the one who signed the plane contract with United. He also mentioned it wasn’t that bad, because veterans would get a row to themselves in the back of the plane.

Sure, they weren't going to compete for most of the high priced free agents, but they had money to spend, and spent it like complete idiots. They never got a RF or 2B, but traded for/signed a parade of guys on the margins and failed with each one. They kept pouring money into the bullpen and it never managed to be anywhere close to a top 5 unit. They already had a lock down closer with Hendricks, and used Madrigal, who was (theoretically) still a trade chip to acquire ANOTHER closer in Kimbrel, who was a disaster. They completely misread the market on Harper and Machado, and focused on the wrong one. They blew the Kahnle/Robertson/Frazier trade.

More of this. Bring in high level talent, good culture, good coaching and player development. Savvy minor league signings and undrafted players. Bring these kids up in a winning culture.

I figured this was coming eventually. Hahn did a lot of things we should all like - recognizing the need to rebuild and acquiring high end prospects to kick start it being at the top. He also was unable to build any sort of minor league pipeline to help fill in for the players he acquired. The team's medical staff took a quality nosedive and no one could stay healthy. He apparently could not affect change in areas he wanted to - scouting and analytics in particular. He allowed Marco Paddy to phone it in and our LatAm scouting was atrocious. Overall, he had 10 years to build a contender and the end result was a lucky 60 game 2020 with an undeserved playoff appearance (and a complete collapse against Cleveland and in the last two games against Oakland), a good 2021 first half, a mediocre 2022, a disaster 2023, and the seeds for the dumpster fire of 2024. Almost every player he drafted or acquired was either injured all year or was absolutely terrible, to the point where replacing most of them with 0 WAR AAA filler would have been an improvement. There's no "apology" needed here. It's good he's gone.

I get it - there's so much talent everywhere they just can't find spots for all these guys.