General Baseball Chit-Chat Thread

[Sammy Sofa]

Watching Prince's farewell conference, pretty touching. Dude was a likable guy even though he played on a rival for a long time. Sad situation.

 

I also think A-Rod has gotten a raw deal pretty much throughout his career and the way this is ending is pretty ugly and silly. Dude is 5x the player Jeter was and he's getting mad disrespected on his way out. Its silly.

 

I don't hate ARod or anything like that, but at best he's just been a ridiculously easy person to laugh at and mock. I mean, yeah, it's ultimately just a game, but I can't think of another player with his talent level with as little respect his way, or someone who just so consistently managed to do or say the wrong thing to make him look even more absurd. Like, Bonds was a notorious dick, but that often just made him more intimidating and enigmatic and even badass. ARod is just a clown. I guess I feel sorry for him in the sense that you feel sorry for someone who simply can't stop making a complete ass of themselves, but mostly I just found him hilarious.

[Sammy Sofa]

Deadspin suddenly rolling out the decent articles now that it's about to be sold. I thought this one was a good breakdown of how a guy THAT ridiculously talented was basically nothing more than a joke/punching bag for his entire career:

 

http://deadspin.com/alex-rodriguez-was-big-enough-to-take-all-the-blame-1785097449

 

It's pretty unprecedented when you think about it. Who else at that talent-level spent basically all the time they played baseball as a second banana at best that almost everyone just made fun of?

[David]

Deadspin suddenly rolling out the decent articles now that it's about to be sold. I thought this one was a good breakdown of how a guy THAT ridiculously talented was basically nothing more than a joke/punching bag for his entire career:

 

http://deadspin.com/alex-rodriguez-was-big-enough-to-take-all-the-blame-1785097449

 

It's pretty unprecedented when you think about it. Who else at that talent-level spent basically all the time they played baseball as a second banana at best that almost everyone just made fun of?

 

i agree with the part that it's unprecedented and weird, but i never really saw him that way until he got to the yankees and that dumb ass fan base planted him firmly in jeter's shadow (not to mention the yankees making the better SS move to 3B). the ridiculously high expectations for the playoffs set off by their 90's run probably didn't help him, either. set an impossible standard. i'm not sure it plays out the same if the union had allowed him to go to boston.

[Sammy Sofa]

It didn't help that for almost all of his time on Seattle he was on Junior's Team. As amazing as ARod was then, he couldn't help but seem like the second banana, and for some reason it made him look weirdly not as impressive. It's not like I thought he sucked, but he was just "that really, really good SS who was in that weird SS shirtless photoshoot and played with Griffey." Hell, it was basically like he played FOR Griffey.

 

With Texas he was still amazing, but he might as well have been in a black hole being on those garbage teams. Outside of the news about the contract it was basically like he didn't exist. And I don't know if Bopston would have changed all that much; he would have just gone to a different dominant team already packed with marquee players. He just would have been the creepy weirdo in Boston instead of the creepy weirdo in NY.

[Liam Neeson]

NACHOS

 

https://gfycat.com/MarriedLimitedAndeancockoftherock

[BigSlick]

I don't care if he took steroids, I will forever love him for having a mural of himself as a centaur in his house

 

A-Rod is both the weirdest and the best

[Sammy Sofa]

He is also guiding Starlin to even more game-winning clutch hits:

 

Rodriguez is making the most of his dwindling bench time as a player, however. The Yankees rode a five-run seventh inning to an eventual 9-4 win over Boston, and the capper in that seventh was a go-ahead two-run double from Starlin Castro. Castro gave the credit to Rodriguez for scouting reliever Junichi Tazawa.

 

“I asked him about the pitcher and he said, ‘Be ready for a curveball on the first pitch,’” Castro said. “He was so happy in the dugout when I looked in there after the double. He told me to be ready for the first-pitch curve and I was. If he didn’t tell me that, I would have taken that pitch because I would have been looking for something harder.”

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I don't care if he took steroids, I will forever love him for having a mural of himself as a centaur in his house

 

A-Rod is both the weirdest and the best

at first I thought you were commenting on nacho man

[Sammy Sofa]

I feel so bad for Nacho Man. I hope he got some pity nachos.

[sneakypower]

it's going to be weird when ARod wears a Yankees cap into the HOF

[Derwood]

it's going to be weird when ARod wears a Yankees cap into the HOF

 

There's no way gets in

[badger]

MLB tonight just showed a two minute tirade from terry Collins that was quite enjoyable

[soccer10k]

Girardi sure looks terrible with how he's handled this whole ARod situation.

 

-says he's going to find a way to play ARod in each of the games but then benches him in one and gives him a PH AB in another

-denies ARod's request to play third base because "we're in the business of trying to win games" (this relates to the first point) but runs out Mark Teixeira (.197/.287/.334) every day. They're only 3.5 out of the second wild card but just traded their best hitter and two of their best three relievers

-says his job description doesn't entail a farewell tour, conveniently forgetting Rivera and Jeter. I know ARod is viewed in a completely different light than those two players but while Rivera was pretty much his usual self that year, Jeter was not only horrible but batted second the whole year and might have cost them a playoff spot

 

It's not like it's the rest of the year or even a month. It's four games. Just put him in the lineup for four games and you're done with him after Friday. Just all around, from his decisions to what he says to the media, Girardi has handled this about as poorly as he possibly could have.

[Banedon]

 

Oh.

[Derwood]

 

Oh.

 

Sneaky

[Cubswin11]

Zach Wheeler going to see James Andrews after experiencing a setback/discomfort so RIP. Also the mets sent Conforto down again and seem hell bent on ruining his development

[philosophizer75]

The Mets make so many questionable-idiotic decisions as an organization.

[davell]

[soccer10k]

 

Well at least they're consistent.

 

They've also got the second worst record in the majors since May 9. They were 23-10 at that point which was their high water mark for the season.

[Banedon]

Thank horsefeathering god we can stop hearing about Arod now.

[BigSlick]

god looking at those numbers I'd be furious if I was a White Sox fan. every year, same story, same terrible patchwork job trying to put together a team that could maybe fight for a wild card, and another year wasted of Chris Sale and Quintana.

 

Good job White Sox front office!

[David]

god looking at those numbers I'd be furious if I was a White Sox fan. every year, same story, same terrible patchwork job trying to put together a team that could maybe fight for a wild card, and another year wasted of Chris Sale and Quintana.

 

Good job White Sox front office!

 

blame reinsdorf for being a half assed version of mike illitch

[Cubswin11]

Stanton to the DL with a groin injury

[Liam Neeson]

Stanton to the DL with a groin injury

 

RIP my fantasy team. At least Ichiro gets a bunch of playing time now.

 

This also increases the extreme outside chance of Bonds playing for the Marlins.

[Cubswin11]

Stanton out for the year