Two-Gun Pete

¿The Hair?

I know I'm "looking in the margins," but why is Mendick @ SS, while Leury is @ 2nd? I thought that Mendick didn't have the arm for SS? Unless Leurys shoulder is preventing him from throwing well?

I thought I saw you post the same back then. I feel like someone had to recognize how key Grandal is to this team, and MAKE SURE that he was unlikely to make a "slight" injury into a several weeks-long or months-long absence. Agreed that the player had to "fess up," and properly report the injury. But this also feels like a failure in leadership, be it from the training staff, the coaching staff, or the FO.

OK, this begs a few questions: 1. WHERE did you see this "video?" Can you link it here? [Otherwise, be prepared to be called a "bullshitter."] 2. WHY do you insist on grouping "the scientists or politicians" together? Did some fuck-stick who has no scientific bona fides on your favorite networks tell you to group them together? 3. WHAT are you watching these days? [On TV, internet, etc...] And how much of each are you watching? [I'm legitimately curious.] Thanks in advance for answering these specific questions, BEFORE trying to turn the discussion elsewhere.

OK, so what would cause a training staff to clear a catcher with an extant calf injury so quickly? Given the craptacular injury luck this team has had this season, one might anticipate that they'd be more conservative in their estimates for his return from the initial injury.

Would this hypothetical 1st Base coach have the "superpower" of being the Team President's buddy, but otherwise be generally useless?

I dont know that there are a lot of other options, apart from rolling with Collins/Zavala in the interim. I mean, I don't see a whole lot of substantially-better options that are readily available at an acceptable cost of acquisition. Or at an acceptable cost/contract length after having been acquired. This sucks to have Grandal go down, no doubt. And this training staff is doing themselves very few favors with the choices that they've made. But, meh. Next man up. And here's hoping that Hahn's presser isn't too depressing.

Yeah, given all the injuries to the position players, and the fact that they've both been to the stoopid All Star Game before, I don't know why Lynn and Hendriks don't ask out of this one. Do players actually want to GO to the ASG? I get that they all like the recognition of being named to the game. But wouldn't you rather have a few days off R&R with the family and friends? As a fan, I don't want any of my team's pitchers wasting a single pitch on a game that does not fucking matter. We're told that pitchers have finite quantities of pitches to throw in a game/season/career. Why waste them?

This is disturbing, to say the least. I'll wait for this to be sorted out, but the fact that the alleged victim went right to the police speaks volumes. It also speaks volumes that in the day and age of "me too" that LAD/MLB dragged their feet in taking action while this was being investigated. According to THIS, the police were looking into this 6 weeks ago. HFS.

Gotta say that I'm enjoying Copa America and The Euros a lot. I think these confederation championships offer top competition, with the juicy familiarity of rivalry. There are also a lot of great stories, from Eriksen and Denmark's ride, to Spain simultaneously rebuilding their team AND making it to the Semis, to England finally beating Germany in a knockout. Down in Brazil, some of the stories are: Messi putting Argentina on his back, Chile and Ecuador giving the hosts all they can handle, and all the young players that'll be the next stars of the game. I think I might be enjoying these competitions more than The World Cup. This is awesome. If you're only a "sometimer" in terms of your soccer consumption, right now is a good time to enjoy the best of the best.

Vaughn is listed at 6', but in seeing him in oerson, he's probably only 5'10". I'm not yet convinced that he's a better defensive 1st baseman than the league MVP. Anything to get your rocks off on getting rid of the reigning MVP, right? While he might be better off to take a day off/DH here and there NOW, he's also proven himself to be a solid defensive 1st baseman. (He's been positive on DRS in each of the past 2 seasons.) Your vendetta against Abreu has gotten old. Give it a rest. There are much bigger issues with this roster than 1st base.

I've been as harsh as any on these boards when it comes to Burger. I've doubted his dedication to his fitness and his desire to be well enough to allow his talent to take over. But now, I'll give him his due for fighting through all that he's been through. Congrats to him, in getting to this point. Godspeed Jake Burger, you've earned this. Go make us all proud.

ND is 178 years old. I said "its nearly 200 year history," which, even if you're splitting hairs, is plenty of history for them to be high profile. Hell, ND didn't crumble when Gerry Faust ran their program into the ground. That aside, in a day and age where most kids spend more time on their phones than they do in a library, some tiny directional school isn't going to become prominent through sports. It just ain't happening, especailly in today's financial environment. The smaller schools would be better off finding a better value proposition than having their football team go 5-6 year after year. Because college is getting too expensive for the students, in all honesty.

Yeah, if you think that a 3rd rate directional school has a snowballs chance in hell of making them "an elite school" through sports, I'd like what you're smoking. Louisville, Notre Dame, and FSU all had higher profiles well before their ascents into big time collegiate sports. FSU is the oldest university in Florida. Notre Dame's tie to the catholic church, and its almost 200 year history made them prominent well before knute rockne. And Louisville's been around since the 1700s. Honestly, its a fools errand for say, WIU, to think that their football program will one day propel them to national/international prominence. A school like that would be better served to try to just survive in today's realities, in all honesty.

Cool. Exactly why should taxpayers continue to support loser programs that cost money? And why should parents of students pay ever-higher tuition and fees to support them as well? There's not a whole lot of value proposition in there, even if you like NCAA sports. I mean, I'd take a finance degree from U of Chicago 20 times out of 10 over a finance degree from one of the directional schools. And U of C doesn't have any competitive sports at all. If you don't care for that comparison, look at northeastern Illinois University's student population since eliminating sports. They seem to be doing just fine. OTOH, Chicago State seems to be on fumes, despite having D1 programs. (Shrugs)

Meh, as a tax payer, I fail to see the need for a lot/most of these programs at the smaller schools. Plenty of schools do just fine without sports; if the NIL policies force states to re-evaluate the need to continue loser programs at directional schools, so much the better. In any case, there really are only a handful of programs that can win a championship in a given year. (I.e. NIU ain't beating Bama in FB, SIU ain't beating Duke in men's BB.) So again, this makes the smaller programs all the more insignificant in the bigger scheme of things.

Hey look: Irrational exuberance after a kid bum-slays for 2 games. I wonder when the juggernaut thread will come back. All kidding aside, good for Sheets, and good for us. And I hope this continues. But let's pump the brakes before proclaiming this kid a "stud."

So, just like legalizing pot, or allowing sports betting, the NIL policy (in theory) could make payment to players legit, yes? If so, this sounds like a good thing.

Hey, thanks. I'd always assumed that most major revenue sports athletes were getting under the table payments already. (Shrugs)

Uh.... Gotta ask, as I dont much care for watching children. But what is "NIL Policy?" Thanks.

No, that would be "punting his development," or something. He's gotta drag the team down with him, in order to develop. And his long track record of success in 75 career MiLB games shows that he's got nothing to learn whatsoever in AA or AAA.

To be fair, I'm guessing this happened at Truist, though Burger's been decent on the road as well this year.

Thats right, thanks. I still think he's out of time in this org, in that I can't see him being a part of the future, given his shortcomings. I'd much rather trade Adolfo for a rental than trade Tatis or Bailey at this point.

For Adolfo, between the injuries and COVID, he's simply run out of time, IMO. If his K-rate was in the high ~20s% in AA, one could squint and maybe see a path for him to come up to Chicago before he's exposed to Rule 5 at year's end. His profile does look like a lot of the "raw power/shitty contact" types that used to overpopulate the SOX farm system just a few years back. I think they should continue to inflate his value, and use him to land another piece that can help now. It could end up hurting, as the lad's got talent. But without a lot of trade ammo, ya gotta use what you've got. For Adolfo, he's gotta want a change of scenery by this point. And maybe it could be a good thing for his career as well.

Relax, I'm mostly making fun of this stoopid FO for actually trading anything for Mazara. Oh, and for those posters who carried a torch for Mazara, who has always sucked at baseball. Shit, if there are "good options," it wouldn't be Vaughn here in the first place. How about just having options that aren't "revolting?" I meant, its a 37 wrc+ vs. RHP for Vaughn. He'd need a ~200% increase in wrc to get to a league average wrc+ vs RHP. In terms of development, Vaughn looks like a guy who hasn't played above A+ ball. Fuck "learning how to hit a major league slider," he looks like he just might lose any measure of self-confidence at this rate. Its a 37 wc+. If WE know this, I guarantee that Vaughn and his team mates know this as well. At what point are fingers starting to be pointed at him? At what point do fissures develop in the clubhouse? He (and others) are actively hurting this team right now. He won't be hurt by being sent down, if Moncada got sent down, or Mickey Fucking Mantle got sent down, or any other number of youngsters got sent down without being totally crushed. YMMV.