biggentleben

Just make sure you know what bully sticks are...they're not exactly something you want laying around for guests to stumble upon without having at least a good sense of humor!

LOL. No. He was dancing as he came toward the plate, encouraged by his best friend and teammate pumping him up. MLB labeling it a "revenge home run" is clickbait for them, not what happened in game. He has a full foot between him and the chalk on the inside of the box. Freddie Freeman is the only one who stands farther back in the box. If you WANT him hit, you can say so. Don't bring out crap. Thankfully, the Marlins didn't this time.

Bully sticks. Once there's flavor along with the chew, there's less desire to chew flavorless or "bad" flavor stuff. Not saying it'll be completely gone, but it'll help a ton!

Acuna homers early against the Marlins. Acuna plunked later in the game by the Marlins. Most reasonable Braves fans are not upset. Intention has a big, big thing with HBP.

One question to toss into this...if a person sentenced to life without parole requests to end his/her life, what say you? I really struggle with that one. I would be good with eliminating the death penalty and having our most restrictive penalty be life without parole, but then what do you do with the person who no longer wants to be alive in that situation? The person is not getting out at any time, and he/she is costing taxpayers money every day of the sentence - is that person allowed to request his/her life to be terminated? This obviously gets into another area of morality, but something that rattles in my mind...

The Braves coverage is excellent. Coverage in many other areas is excellent, so I'm certainly keeping it.

My colleague at Call To The Pen put this out today, and I think it's especially thought-provoking today: https://calltothepen.com/2018/08/17/ray-chapman-anniversary-reminder-nothing-changed/

He was overjoyed at the second home run of the game on Tuesday, and he did jump up and down a bit as soon as he hit it because he struck it VERY well. However, there was no grandstanding, and he hustled around the bases as he always does and then celebrated with his teammates once he got to home plate. I've seen that used as reason to plunk him. If that's true, then 90% of the guys in the game are going to be wearing 98 in the ribs.

Great piece...

Urena's statement means jack. MLB offices confirm that most of the guys who say they failed a PED test taking a tainted supplement are telling the truth. How many of them have you believed? (Sidebar - that doesn't change their guilt or innocence on a failed PED test, just shows how horrid the supplement industry is, especially outside of this country) I'm not talking sensationalism. I'm not sure why EY had more skin in the game than any other coach standing near when Urena spouted off. I explained why those two people would. As far as Urena's control, he's got a lower walk rate than any member of the Twins starting staff this year, with only Ervin's four starts being lower. He once had control issues, but those have progressively gotten better over his career. Oddly, his HBP rates have gone up as his walk rates have gone down. Care to explain the factual evidence that the guy's reputation as a head-hunter BEFORE this game was well-earned?

Whether he was in the lineup or not, there's plenty ado about something here. Word from a Marlins scout is Urena may be unemployed soon. He was at a game with the Marlins PBO last night, and the PBO put in a call while they were having drinks to Mattingly's cell to let him know that he should watch his words more carefully because what just happened would not be acceptable in the organization. If Mattingly's job is being threatened over this incident, it's plenty ado about something...

I had a good back and forth with someone who argued that Gibson and Drysdale wouldn't have backed away from this "pussified" generation. I then reminded him that best evidence we have is that both pitched in the mid-80s for most of their starts, rarely ever dialing up into the 90s and maxing out just in the mid-90s. The comparison is nothing like today's game. The finale of that discussion was when I mentioned that #2 in HBP this year is Chris Sale. I found video of 3-4 of his HBPs, and he hit a toe on a sweeping slider or barely hit someone just off the plate. I could not find any Sale HBP where it was far inside. I then found multiple Gibson and Drysdale HBP vids that showed them nibbling and that most of their "intimidation" was placed so far above the guy's head or so far behind his back that it was near-impossible for an HBP to happen.

Nolan didn't have near that kind of control. Also, utilizing fantasy is absolutely sickening. I want to say a lot of things that would be against TOS in response to that comment. I've had the pleasure of covering Ronald for years and getting to talk with him. EVER cheering for an injury or being in any way, shape, or form happy for it should cause some serious self-evaluation.

If you watch the video of the "brawl", there's an absolutely distinct moment as Urena is jawing that sets off those members of the Braves, and the umpire steps back and then warns both benches and tosses Urena. They weren't conferring at that moment. They had as things calmed down just before Urena started jawing again and brought people back out and broke up the initial conference the umps were having. This wasn't a miss. The guy has a sub-7% walk rate. It was the HARDEST FIRST PITCH HE'S THROWN AS A MAJOR LEAGUE PITCHER. He didn't miss just off the plate and barely clip Acuna. This went for midsection, middle of the box. You don't "miss" to that point with the hardest fastball you've ever thrown.

If you haven't seen this yet, check it out. Ronald Acuna has been the hottest player in the game for the last week, hitting 8 home runs over the last 8 games, spanning from last Wednesday through this Tuesday. He'd hit a home run in 5 straight games and led off the game 3 straight games with a long ball. Enter noted head-hunter Jose Urena. Urena has a sub-7% walk rate this season, but he leads the league in hit batsmen. Urena threw the hardest first pitch he's thrown this season, registering at either 97 or 98 miles per hour, depending on which gun you trust. The pitch was not nibbling inside. It was sent directly for the middle of Acuna's back. He happened to drop his elbow in attempting to get away, and the ball hit off the tip of his elbow. Acuna was in obvious pain, spun away hard from the plate, and turned toward the field in an attempt to head to first, but as soon as he turned, Urena threw his glove down, looking for the fight. This led to both benches and both bullpens emptying to the field. In the midst of everyone standing around doing a whole lot of nothing in the infield while the Braves trainers attempted to work with Acuna, Urena was jawing. He said something that incensed manager Brian Snitker, who knew Acuna's father and had Acuna at his dinner table as a young boy, pitcher Anibal Sanchez, who has taken a mentorship/surrogate father role with the young Venezuelan and Curacaoan players on the Braves, and Eric Young. Snitker was so pissed that he had to initially be held back by as many as 5 guys from going after Urena. The umpires threw out Urena at that point, knowing that the game would not be safe to play with him still in it after whatever was just said (or whatever was just said deserved being tossed, either way, he was tossed immediately after whatever he said that sent off Snitker, Sanchez, and Young). This needs to include a suspension. I saw Matt Carpenter's HBP as well last night, and that was a legit mistake pitch, but how can baseball complain about the issue of marketing players when a fun, exciting, youthful player like Acuna, and a white toast, appeal to the grinder community guy like Carpenter are the two hottest players in the game, and they both are removed due to being hit by pitches? The fact that after warnings happened that Freddie Freeman was hit 5 innings later and the pitcher remained in the game blew my mind as well. Kevin Seitzer, nearly the most calm person in any baseball dugout, was out on the field screaming. Not a good look for MLB last night in Atlanta.

With the privatization of prisons, it is incredibly profitable to have a life sentence, which gives tremendous incentive to a judge to send a person away forever. Until those incentives are removed, I'm tremendously conflicted. I'm not a fan, but I'm also having issues with those who have been sentenced to death and end up with someone sitting on death row for years and years due to trying to find more "humane" ways to do it.

Confirmed by multiple sources that the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin, has passed. The greatest waitress that the Soul Food Cafe has ever known.

One of the best examples of this recently is South Dakota. Heavy Republican state in general, but kept Daschle and Tim Johnson in office for decades due to their tremendous ability to relate to the totality of the state and act in the best interests of agriculture. When Daschle became the public face for opposition to Bush Junior just after 9/11, it cost him his seat. Johnson ended up retiring out of his. Then the state had their next generation of tremendous Democratic representative in Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, but the Republicans attached her hard with AMA and used her support on that bill to indicate she was a party-line lackey, which is opposite of the truth. Now she's hesitant to jump into anything state politics, which is horrible because she really was the type of person and politician that would have carried on Daschle's and Johnson's legacies.

He'd have to make the majors before he'd be making a living wage as it is.

But he's also not guaranteed employment at the highest level. I've mentioned it already, but why does a major league team have to sign him? Why can't he prove himself in independent ball? If you have your MBA but have a sex offense on your record, you won't be getting considered for the same job most with the same education would. It's the way it is.

And as I mentioned earlier, without true remorse, there's a very high chance he offends again as an adult. I'd love him to be the rare one that proves me wrong, but that's just what he'd be - rare.

Well, it's a privilege to work in any field, truly.

It's a number that came from various industry services when I worked in that industry. Related to offenders that offended on underage victims as a juvenile versus them offending again on underage victims as adults.

And those statistics were based on all sexual assaults committed, not specific to offenses committed with juvenile victims. It's a messy situation with numbers.

No, I'm referring to the recidivism for those who offend as juveniles who then offend again as adults. Different statistic. Sexual offense on a minor is a different case than most all juvenile offenses as far as the behavior as an adult and repeated behavior. It's a scary thing, to be honest.