ashbury

The union exists because of the unequal relationship, and now that this new phenomenon has arrived maybe they'll think up a way to tilt the playing field in the next CBA.

I'd also start bunting more and otherwise playing for one run, after a certain point.

Fun With Numbers: This is the first time since 2016 that Ben Rortvedt has gotten a base hit in his first game of the season. OK, that's not so unusual, but I'm happier to see a good start to his season than a slow one.

Fair enough. You can host a game thread sometime this season, in return. You also should write up a nice trip report for us.

I find this link useful for some purposes too: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/affiliate.cgi?id=MIN

(I agree with what you're actually saying, of course.)

It could be that the lack of chances goes deeper than that. For example, as I've said before, the one game I saw of him in person, at AAA last year, I believe I've never witnessed a player make his way out to left field to start an inning slooooower than he did. He didn't happen to get tested there in any meaningful way during the game, so I had only that one small impression to stick with me, and an assumption we'd be dealing with a Josh Willingham-level of skill out there*. There could be other things like that with Willians, I have no idea. Scouts have a deeper repository of views of a player, than my one little observation time, but still little things could stick with a player if seen at the wrong time. Maybe a scout has been burned by players who chose to turn on the effort only at certain times. Vague observations lumped together with a lethal comment like "questions about makeup" could stall a guy's chances in an organization. I don't give much credit to charley hustle types, but I really was perplexed when I saw him, considering what I had heard. The reality, after seeing him several more times on teevee, seems to be a ballplayer with a nose for the ball on defense. I would actually love to see him faced with a challenging play in LF. He may just have had terrible luck in when the people who matter saw him. * I always rush to add, Josh's spine was badly damaged by the time we got him, and I don't hold his lack of an all-out effort against him in the slightest. He just was who he was, by that point, and is my benchmark for substandard left field performance that you choose to live with anyway.

Byron Buxton: Reckless or Aggressive? Yes.

Insanity can be measured by doing the same thing 3 times and expecting a different result.

Yes, this is a completely new phenomenon. "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." -- Socrates (469–399 B.C.)

La tortuga dorada.

I'm less hopeful that Trump would refrain from grabbing anything on Responsibility.

I like it when posters say nice things.

"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so." -- Josh Billings

Sure, but there's a difference. Had Bernie been nominated, I never would have been persuaded that someone widely thought at the time to be crooked could make a catchphrase like Crooked Hillary stick. So yeah, I and others would have been wrong, and blithely unaware that we were. But in our actual situation, we can look at what Nixon (closest thing to Trump, as it happens) did to McGovern at the polls in '72, and use it as a pretty sure guide. The country hasn't changed that much. The great mass of voters in the middle would rather have a candidate whom they personally despise, over an economic philosophy they are frightened to death of.

This pitcher Diekman has nearly a balk-move when he comes to the plate with the runner on first.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/08/0848cba1a97180c12eb83fc7f228d6c535ddb1e5994d198a0b8eae2d602a25fa.jpg

Some lazy outfielding by Gordon in left. Eddie takes advantage.

I think so too, and I'm about as peeved at them as I am at Nader voters back in the day.

I love his bat, but does Jorge Polanco have a major league shortstop's arm?

Not a shortstop's arm. I've never thought so, I don't think I'll ever be convinced.

Some. Also some who might just stay home.

Trump would have cast the election as a straight-up referendum on Socialism versus Capitalism, and would have won by a bigger margin than he did against Hillary. The biggest thing Trump is outstanding at is finding a weakness in a rival's armor and hammering at it. Low-Energy Jeb, Little Marco, Crooked Hillary..... Crazy Bernie and/or Socialist Bernie (Bernie Marx?) would have had little chance.

Longer than I thought. Three more seasons to try to make the selection work.

It exemplifies the asymmetric relationship between teams and players. A team, even a small market one, can financially withstand a career-ending injury that makes a long contract not worth the money the day after it's signed. A player can not say something similar, about such an injury the day after turning down such a contract. It can be a good deal for both sides, and yet because of the economics of any big business it might be a better deal for the team. "It takes money to make money."