skooch

The angle from behind home plate looked to me like it showed daylight between the glove and Abreu. That was the angle that convinced me that he was really safe. I think Matheny is wrong on this one.

According to reports. You may now all exhale.

Hustle is great and all but that ball couldn't have come down more than 10 ft from home plate. If that's not the catcher's play then, apart from a pop-up behind HP, I'm not sure what is.

Wow! Irish folk songs *and* 80's hits. Does your talent know no bounds? ?

I just assumed this was Tony giving Ruiz an opportunity in a higher leverage situation since he has pitched so well this year. Unfortunately, he did not make the most of his opportunity.

Seconded.

That's not how I read it, but I admit it is possible. I believed that the intent of the "or a pinch runner" was to allow the manager to actually "pinch run" for the pitcher and remove him from the game. That is, there are three options 1. Let the pitcher run; 2. Let the position player immediately before the pitcher run; or 3. Remove the pitcher from the game and replace him with a PR. But, as with so many things in life, wthdik? Edit: Sorry, I misread your quote. I agree. PR for Hendriks and removing him from the game was an option.

Well, this is certainly a valid point and Bummer obviously couldn't have done much worse than Hendriks in B10 (hindsight being 20/20). However, it seems obvious that TLR wanted Hendriks to pitch B10, because if he didn't and failed to realize that he could simply PR for a base runner (Hendriks) who is then taken out of the game, that's a much bigger indictment of TLR than anything having to do with this ridiculous runner-at-2nd rule we've been discussing.

Well, it doesn't allow for PR (a remaining bench player), per se. It allows for the player immediately preceding the pitcher's spot to run instead. My point was just that saying "who's running for Hendriks" might be interpreted by an old NL manager like him to think of actually PR for Hendriks and having someone else pitch B10.

Because that might imply that they wanted to replace Hendricks with a PR which would mean he wouldn't pitch the bottom of the 10th.

This speaks volumes about what the FO really thinks of the OF prospects already in the org.

Which is why I was surprised they brought up Mendick. You basically have 4 OF (including Eaton) on the roster + Lamb who never played OF before this year.

Lose Robert, call up Mendick. We have four viable OF with Eaton looking kinda gimpy. Can Mendick play the OF or is there a master plan to put Mercedes in the OF?

This org wasn't very deep in OF talent before the season began and has now seen major injuries to Eloy, Engle and Robert. And watching Eaton it looks like he's having issues too. They've basically sustained injuries to their top four OF coming into the season. They can't run Leury/Hamilton out there every day for the next six weeks, especially with a ton of division games coming up. I think the FO will be forced to make a trade.

I was very much wait-and-see on TLR, but I've actually started to worry about his lineups as well. But today, he's sitting Vaughn against RHP Bieber. Is that optimal or not? I can see an argument for it, even if I'm not enamored with the alternative.

It must be nice to have access to the multiverse where you can see alternate realities where Vaughn has been handled differently and evaluate his success in each universe. That must be what enables you to make such absolute statements. Tell me ... in which universe was he handled optimally? And by whom? You state things as fact when they are clearly just your opinion, but, truth be told, you don't have any idea whether TLR is handling things "right" or not. It's this kind of stuff that comes across as plain arrogance. CIrcumspection is not a bad quality to have. Just my $0.02.

Just to be clear ... "... was an ethically abusive study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)".

Good night.

The volatility of bullpen arms never ceases to amaze me.

It was the HAL-9000.

When his babip drops below 0.700.

Any idea what Yermin's BABIP is?

I hope you will consent to allowing me to change my avatar to this.

Hey. Cut me some slack. I made this a few years ago. Use your imagination. Imagine he's wearing a Sox hat.