nicksaviking

Yet, still infinitely better than last years....

Thanks, but now my joke doesn't make sense.

Whether Lee can help the team now is one thing, but I'm not worried about losing an option year. Seems to me, guys that need to use all of their options almost never meet their potential anyway. I'm not sweating a "tough" decision on a Nick Gordon type four years from now.

That's the best looking lineup the A's have put together all season.

Yankees fans are just THE worst.

They'll wait to see what seeds the big market clubs get and will determine TV schedules based on that.

I've been waiting to see when they'd blow it up, and while the SD newspapers are saying they'd still keep a 200M payroll, we'll see: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2023-09-25/padres-payroll-juan-soto-nick-martinez-seth-lugo-michael-wacha-debt Sounds like GM A.J. Preller may get the boot, which is understandable after his repeated failures spending the owners money. And there's way more drama than just the losing according to Ken Rosenthal: https://theathletic.com/4874799/2023/09/19/san-diego-padres-disaster-season-preller/ With the suggested 200M payroll, MLBTR believes the core group of Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Yu Darvish, Ha-Seong Kim and Joe Musgrove would be retained, though Juan Soto is quite likely to be moved and they won't resign any of their free agents. (Any doubt Josh Hader is going to be the most posted about non-Twin this winter?) https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/09/padres-plan-to-reduce-payroll-to-around-200mm-front-office-changes-possible.html I have my doubts they keep the core group together though. If they do hire a new GM, and they are looking to cut costs, I'd bet they trade more than Soto, and I'd bet ownership would start over with a lower payroll than 200M. Aside from Soto and the injured Musgrove, their stars had down years last year, so I guess it's possible they could hope for a rebound and move them down the road, but Machado and Bogaerts are now over 30-years-old and have some ugly contracts coming up. If they don't turn things around, SD will have to eat most of those contracts if they gamble wrong. Anyway, I've been waiting for this soap opera to start for awhile now, hope any of these guys who don't find their way to Minnesota, stay in the NL.

The best thing that could happen to this club is get embarrassed by Carolina next week. And I'm not saying that just because I want to get a franchise QB in the draft. If they lose next week, it should remove any doubt from ownership that this organization went in the completely wrong direction about building a sustainable winning team, which was supposedly the goal when they didn't tear this thing down to the studs last off season.

If PFF graded Ingram strongly, that's a knock on PFF. Anyone who watched that game knows he wasn't good. I'm also not sure how much Davenport would help. It's not like he got the QB ever last year. How the heck does this team only have one sack outside of Danielle Hunter when it blitzes nearly every play?

Anthony Prato would make my list.

Moving to the pen isn't an indictment on Maeda, he's just the most trustworthy option out there, and that's going to be a key position, probably even more key than the #3 starter. The Twins have had three managers this century all make the post season, and each of them has shown diminished nerves come October and have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to pulling starters early. He's almost certainly going to be needed and I think most would feel better about plugging him in for multiple innings in a critical game over Ryan and Ober. We don't know if the early pull will be game three; odds are it will be before then, regardless of how well Gray or Lopez did during the regular season.

As opposed to the GMs who aren't interested in winning seasons? I don't think I follow, should the Twins be avoiding Boras clients just to spite him?

Oh for sure. And if I had to think of a list of teams that would aggressively try to chase a QB mid-season, Pittsburg would be toward the bottom of that list. They tend to like to try to work around their problems instead of replacing them.

I don't either, but watching the Steelers game last night, they'd be a Super Bowl favorite if they had Cousins. That defense is fantastic, Cousins wouldn't have to be the 'leader' type, just get the ball to all of their playmakers. Pickett isn't very good at that.

It should be a quick rebuild just by the fact they already have Jefferson, Addison, Hockenson and the two starting tackles. Really just need to get that high draft pick to find the QB of the future and use the rookie contract savings to plug up the interior of the O Line. Obviously the defense is a mess, but plenty of teams are competitive while the defense is a work in progress. Like, say the 2022 Minnesota Vikings.

Surely his mother would file a missing persons report long before then.

I like Buxton, but they’ve been playing better since they freed up the DH spot. Here’s hoping for rest and recovery till the calendar turns.

Soon. After we get robot umpires, surely robot third basemen will follow.

Yeah, I mean I don't need my Vikings to all be growly, no-nonsense Bill Belichicks, but that dude sounded like he was itching to get back to his smoke filled bachelor pad, put on some Phish and play video games the rest of the day.

Sounds like a pretty flakey dude. Based on that video, I'm not sure I'd take anything he says at face value.

Absolutely a low risk or even no risk dice throw.

Yeah, and it's not like the coaches should have had the only input, there was no front office saying 'doing X will result in more production based on the team/ballpark/defense/pitcher we're playing'. I mean, can you imagine an NFL team today saying, 'well playing like this worked for the 1960 Cleveland Browns, should work for us too'?

He's got to be amongst the slowest backs in the league. He's not at all shifty either. It always seemed weird to me they had interest in re-signing him. Can't recall watching much of Akers, so I have no clue about how quick he is.

Yeah, the swing held him back from the power. I suppose most of us thought it was there to stay in that one MVP season, but it was an outlier. Seems to me the contract complaints were from a small minority of fans, who just happened to be the loudest. Most fans were in favor of the deal or at minimum understood it was necessary. It would have never kept him out of the HOF, nor would it have damaged his reputation nationally, that was purely a midwestern passive-aggressive gripe every time he stepped to the plate. But back to the swing though, perhaps my memory is foggy, but I seem to recall that the biggest complaint, which wasn't addressed in the article, was that for how respected he was as a bat swinger, he didn't adjust his swing to keep up with the changing game. He still tried to hit through the shift instead of hitting around or as most wanted, over it. As talented as he was, I think most fans figured he could have adjusted as well or better than other hitters who thrived during that time. Either way, he's a HOFer.

Sounds like Akers is bad in pass protection too. I don't know, I suppose this could be a really nice move considering I've never thought much of Mattison. But this is a pass heavy team, which it should be, and it seems like a similar situation as to where Akers was previously. Is he going to be a disruption and complain in Minnesota's locker room too? Though the guy's caught only 27 passes in three years and he wasn't targeted once in the one game he played this year. If this team is throwing 70% of the time, it's possible he only sees 10 snaps a game, in which case, if he doesn't do anything he may very well be cut in short order.