USAFChief

added to that for you.

Some thoughts: - some of this is self inflicted. Keeping Kinley meant you guaranteed your manager was playing with a 24 man roster, for example. The Fernando Rodney Experience would have some rough patches, at minimum, for another. Settling for Grossman as your 4th OFer and LaMarre as your 5th OFer AS YOUR PLAN COMING OUT OF SPRING TRAINING is self inflicted pain, and I have no sympathy. A team fancying itself a contender doesn't try to get away with that. Phil Hughes. Phil Hughes is completely, totally, unquestionably NOT bad luck, or unforeseeable circumstance. That is 100 percent on the front office. - It's remarkable how much worse the defense looks when you remove Buxton and Polanco (and Polanco isn't really a very good SS). Escobar is really stretched as an everyday SS, Sano has some talent but is inconsistent at 3rd. Dozier's arm is even worse than last year, if that's possible. Watching Grossman run in place as a ball 10 feet to one side or the other scoots by him to the wall and a runner scores from first easily is painful. Rosario's inexplicable throws seem to still pop up once a week or so. Mauer is a good defender at first, but he's already taken SIX days off from first base duty. Six! So barely a month into a season where off days have fell like snow flakes in April, the team hasn't benefited from that defense in a quarter of their games. Can someone explain to me why a first baseman needs ANY days off, much less 1 in four? Especially as the team's injury and W/L situation crumbles? Some things I'd try: Mauer plays 1st base every day. Adrianza is my every day SS. Escobar goes back to his utility job. I love's me some EE, but he just gives away too much at short to play there every day. I move Rosario down in the order. The inability to control the strike zone is just too damaging in the middle of the few rallies they generate, particularly when you're already forced to endure a massive whiff rate from Sano. I also have my OF coach sit down with Rosario and go over, one last time, where and why we make certain throws. Next time he airmails an ill conceived throw to the backstop, he sits. "That's just Eddie" excuses stop now. This is supposed to be major league baseball. Play like it. Find a fourth OFer. At this point, it might be impossible, and for sure you're going to overpay in a trade, but do it. The idea that Buxton/Kepler/Rosario were going to play every day for 6 months was never going to happen. And you don't have anyone to back them up. Admit your mistake and try to fix it. Hughes' time on the roster is over, immediately. Thanks for your service, hard work trying to return, and best of luck to you in the future. The checks will be in the mail for another 16 months.

I’m trying hard to resist, but...man. Dismal. Seeing 15000 in the stands today sorta makes it official...everyone’s already given up. Front office to players to media to fans.

This season started with so much promise. So much optimism. Good vibes. Man, things have changed.

Now on pace for more than 50!

There it is...proof of the ol’ “million monkeys and million typewriters” saw. Anyone can eventually write anything, implausible as that may seem.

Didn’t the toe injury happen DURING the DL stint? After the migraines? I thought he fouled a ball off his foot during BP in rehab. EDIT: during a rehab game https://www.mlb.com/news/byron-buxton-has-fracture-in-left-big-toe/c-274261230

The Sanchez HR is on Rodney, although it wasn’t a bad pitch. The hit was a swinging bunt, so in effect Rodney made too good a pitch. If he gave up harder contact it’s a DP ball. I’m not that worried about Rodney. The results have been ugly, but you can’t always judge by that.

Be right there. Beer’s on ice, I presume?

Been a long time since we had any frickin chicken 'round here.

Is that definate?

winnah!!!111!!!1!!

Lead off walk. Seriously??

My old friend Sol, who fancied himself a pirate, met me at my usual afternoon neighborhood bar spot for a beer. He's not really a pirate, of course, but he tries to pretend, and all of us friends just play along. It's harmless. And he does go to the Gulf of California and sail his boat every chance he gets. Anyway, we meet, and I see Sol has a patch over one eye, a hook for a hand, and a wooden peg leg. “Ye gads, matey,” I says, playin' the pirate part. “What happened to ya?” Sol says, “Me pirate ship (his sailboat, actually) sail was fouled, and a rope wrapped around my leg, and pinched it right off. So now I got me a wooden peg.” “That's Awful! And yer hand?” I asks. “When me ship sank, a shark bit me hand off. So now I got me a hook.” “OK, but what’s with the eye patch?” “I was standin’ on a dock, and the biggest seagull I ever saw poops right in me eye.” “But ya don’t go blind from no seagull poop.” “True,” says Sol. “But it was me first day with the hook.”

Not to worry, the pen's got this.

At least its a hit, even if its a hit that does the least possible damage. Even with Dozier running, he can only advance one base, on the soft single to left.

How about a double off the RF wall here, Joe?

would rather not face Votto in this inning...

So RB is in the big M town Acting, no doubt, the big clown Will he deliver a win? Or on his shoulders do we pin The blame for the pen’s inevitable meltdown?

Fantastic! But just so ya know, in case we do...who to blame, well we all know it.

I hate you.

You are now responsible for the outcome. Good luck, we’re all counting on you. //insert gif from Airplane! here//

I believe he’s at Ft Myers. Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week. Try the chicken.

I respect your opinion. Some people like opera, too.