biggentleben

In a situation like Los Angeles or New York, you need a babysitter as much as anything, which is why Joe Torre looks the role of genius and, lo and behold, was fairly mediocre everywhere outside of pinstripes that he managed. Gardenhire will become one of the "recycled white guys" that take jobs. There are basically two camps in hires right now - offer a former player his first gig at the MLB level or recycle old white guys. Lately the openings were with organizations who jumped at the first group, guys like Brad Ausmus, Matt Williams, Paul Molitor, Kevin Cash, Don Mattingly, Mike Redmond, and now Craig Counsell. There was a wave before that that included your recycled white guys like Ned Yost, Bob Melvin, Bruce Bochy, Terry Francona, etc. I'm not sure why hiring someone you mold through your organization through minor league managing has gone away, but it does seem to have gone the way of the quality baseball broadcaster.

You've officially jumped the shark. No one on here has once praised the violence involved, however, often it seems that is a needed progression for real change to happen. It'd be lovely if real social change could happen without violent and/or over-the-top actions taken, but in this country, that's simply not the way it works. The bit about the black vs. white? Just no. I respect the rules of this forum too much to continue down this road as most likely my verbage will not be TD-worthy quite quickly.

MLK could have spoken until he was blue in the face, but protests that became violent (often due to police initiating the violence, but there was still violence) were what made the movement a national movement. People discussed the way those people were being abused, and MLK's famous DC speech never would have been given to the crowds that were there without the violence in the protests that really drove the nation's attention. This movement is part of MLK's movement, This is the issue that was present then and was only partially completed by the 1960s movement. People got to a point where they were comfortable with seeing some change and backed away from pushing the civil rights of all forward any further. Now those who have been sitting in silence for 50 years are no longer quiet. There are thousands of protesters in Cleveland, Ferguson, Baltimore, and elsewhere where this has happened that were more than peaceful in their protests, but yet they got nearly no attention until others around the protests took advantage of that emotionally charged time to be violent and destructive. The funny part is that you'll likely not be able to remember Cleveland's protests because they weren't violent, and therefore they got about as much media coverage as me stubbing my toe on the couch. Without the violence, it's not seen around the country, and without it being seen around the country, it's not a discussion point. Use it as a way to divert from the actual conversation that needs to happen and focus only on the violence or address it as what it is - violence overflowing from real, horrible issues of civil rights that are still blatantly present in our society.

There will be at least three on this list that make the All-Star game and don't deserve it. I cannot believe they open the freaking voting this early.

Johnny Manziel did similar things last year. I think I trust Winston just as much in his rookie year for fantasy football. We'll see what happens going forward...

Being a part of a forum that is Braves, Cardinals, and Dodgers fans, I would say that Dodgers/Giants is only the second best on that site. Cardinals/Cubs I would rate better for historical purposes, and as much as it gets overhyped by ESPN and such, Yankees/Red Sox has tremendous tradition, and it'd be my #1 baseball rivalry. Giants/Dodgers is a top 5 for sure, with Cardinals/Cubs, Yankees/Red Sox, and though realignment has taken away some of the fight in the rivalry, Braves/Dodgers was once an amazing rivalry, as was Tigers/Yankees.

Yeah, this rivalry is done so right that it recently caused a man to be beaten to the point of lifelong brain damage. Go rivalry!

Not another umpire makeout session. Cool it, Cowboy West!

So, this is something a friend of mine posted yesterday, and it's gotten a lot of positive reception from those of all races that basically state that he nailed it on the head: "I've been thinking about Freddy Grey a lot recently. Again? Seriously? Is this some sort of epidemic of racial violence? And then I had a chilling thought. What if this treatment of black Americans has been going on all along, and Black people are finally able to use smart phones to prove that they were not trying to "cause the officer harm"? And how would I feel if I suddenly realized that the experience of my people was exclusive to my people; that the experience of black people was so foreign to white people that they couldn't possibly believe that it happened? I would be enraged. I would be Jesus-clearing-the-temple enraged. I would burn the vehicles of my oppressors and shout about the injustice from the rooftops. I would say, "No more! I don't want my children to ever experience this. Not in Baltimore. Not anywhere." Lord have mercy."

My baby brother told me that MLB.tv is removing blackouts for the area for a few days. I know Manfred was in Baltimore for the weekend, but he stayed longer to try to work this out. It takes months of full-time work (and year-round work for a couple employees) to get the schedule situated around concerts, graduations, and other items going on in each stadium along with trying to plan around weather concerns and making sure no team's road/home schedule is too taxing. Baseball isn't perfect on this issue, but they absolutely were doing what they could. If a major threat happened around Target Field today, there is so much to move and consider before altering the schedule for a game happening Saturday.

Like I said, I've not seen any video or pictures, which tells me perhaps it was something a couple players asked to participate in and was not able to be done, but I thought even the offer was a very cool goodwill offer. I know Adam Jones was one name mentioned in the "unconfirmed" message I got among some of our writers. Like I said, with the security of such a meeting being difficult to ensure, MLB might throw a wrench into that, but this was a discussion among players in the clubhouse as they watched on TV what was going on right outside the stadium.

There were idiots who thought that winning a collegiate hockey championship was a reason to cause destruction and damage others' and public property. A possibly racially motivated shooting of a young man could certainly flare up those same type of people who often are looking for what would be emotional unrest within the larger community to take advantage of their own destructive natures as part of that emotional movement.

To paraphrase what Rob Manfred said in his phone interview to media, MLB has 162 games to play over the course of roughly 181 days. Coordinating both teams is difficult, especially as moving to Chicago is simply not an option without moving another series between the teams later in the season to Baltimore, which would upset both teams' scheduling. His more important and larger point is that there are certain issues that MLB has to adhere to within the current curfews, temporary laws, and good community relationships with Baltimore. In a time when the city is torn apart like this, taking away a game from what has become a well-attended team could actually add to the issues in the city. So, rather than look at the short term of getting one game played, instead they'd rather work to encourage peace in the city, something reportedly that Orioles players attempted to do yesterday. I have not seen video or pictures of that, but they met with some of the protest leaders and police to attempt to end what is going on in certain areas of Baltimore.

As a FanSided writer, I will tell you that any post I put up goes through at least one editor before it hits our site. I don't know that every FanSided site uses the same standards, but I know that's mine, and that used to be a requirement at SB Nation, but their team site editors over there now are pushed so hard for content that they can't keep up on even the mid-tier traffic sites, let alone the heavy-traffic ones.

Yeah, and I can respect that. I have heard a LOT of praise for the team cutting the cash, which likely influenced how I read your comment. One Braves blogger has already compared it to the Dan Uggla situation, which it's not even close to equating. Hell, Uggla is the Braves' highest-paid player this season, and he's not put on their uniform for nearly a full year at this point.

My honest question is how different is this, really? We've had political royalty in our country for well over a century. The Roosevelts, Kennedys, Bushes, etc. It goes back beyond GHW Bush. Many of those were local/state political royalty before becoming such on a national level as well.

That's the point, though. They're obliged through the CBA to go through those hoops and still could end up not owing a dime on his contract. I'm not sure how that is worthy of praise for the team for being willing to bite a financial bullet. If he clears waivers and they then release him, eating all the money, akin to what the Braves did with Dan Uggla, then they can be lauded for eating the contract to upgrade the team's performance. Heck, if they ate a ton of contract just to get him off the team, that's also to be lauded as many teams (I'm looking at you, Philadelphia) hang on to players because they're not willing to eat much, if any, contract in a trade. But simply starting the DFA process? That's a procedural thing, and he could still end up in AAA being paid the money by the team, and they wouldn't have saved a dime. I think there are a few here too connected to Salty because of his flirtation with the team a couple years ago and too connected with the Marlins because of their manager to come at this objectively. I'll openly admit that I like Loria like I like a scab being slowly ripped off, but outside of him in general being classless, the move on a financial basis would make sense...but I won't praise their team sacrifice until they've actually removed him from the roster by paying all or a significant portion of his salary. As of now, they're rumored to have roughly a half-dozen suitors, so it's unlikely they pay all the contract they agreed to just 18 months ago. That sort of contract manipulation is a big part of the business issues that baseball currently has.

SB Nation team sites have collectively gone significantly downhill, akin to what happened to ESPN forums once outside moderation was brought in (and why places like BYTO, and now TD exist).

I didn't pin anything purely on him, but he certainly was involved in the decision, and this is right on par with his modus operandi.

Except they didn't. They DFA'd him, meaning they have the opportunity to trade him before putting him on waivers, at which point, the team could completely be off the hook for his contract if someone grabs him off of waivers.

Yes, because I exactly meant that he should be kept around because of the kid. The decision could have been made weeks ago, but to tell him on the day he returned is classless. And if you think that Loria wasn't involved in this decision, you're delusional.

Salty was on paternity leave, and on the day he returned from paternity leave, they released him. The move from a performance/financial aspect, I don't have an issue with, it's the timing.

Keep it classy, Jeff Loria. Oh, wait. Keep it your usual, Loria.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Eyg_RX8GjHU/0.jpg I mean, really, what's the deal with Kansas City? Right?

I think an era of fans who don't trust their superstars is exactly what Bud Selig wanted to create. We'll end up with a Hall of Fame that is a quagmire for years, we'll have people who aren't sure what to make of historical numbers, and players will forever be looked at with an eye of suspicion. Meanwhile, baseball is recording record profits, has seen more growth on a global scale than in decades previous, and may have some of its finest on-field product since the days of Mays, Mantle, and Aaron with the young talent on the field currently. And you know that Bud is more than happy to take the credit for that, nevermind that he was more than happy to support McGwire/Sosa in 1998 when it seemed to be bringing baseball back from the strike and possibly putting some positive spin on his horrid image. He had no issue jumping all over Barry Bonds' jock as he chased both the single season and then the career home run record. It was only in the last few years of his time as commish that he came out so strongly against PEDs because the public tide had turned so strongly against them. Bud's a typical used car salesman, and baseball deserved better. Talents like A-Rod deserved better. We as fans sure as hell deserved better. </soapbox>