Rob

Are there any hats that don't draw attention to the fact that my size 7 3/4 head is enormous?

Maybe we should trade Rizzo for pitching. We can always reacquire Bryan LaHair to hold the fort until Vogelbach is ready.

I love seeing smart baseball like that.

There's no point to all of that. It's just that whenever I see Jerome Williams pop up I kinda associate him as a being a bridge to the past. I'd love to see him stick around the bigs for another five years so that those lineups look even older than they do now.

Jerome Williams is still only 33 years old. He made his debut for the Giants in 2003. The lineup behind him that day was: 2B - Ray Durham 3B - Edgardo Alfonzo SS - Rich Aurilia LF - Barry Bonds RF - Jose Cruz C - Yorvit Torrealba 1B - J.T. Snow CF - Marquis Grissom Neifi Perez, Pedro Feliz, Benito Santiago, and Ruben Rivera all made pinch hit appearances in that game. The lineup he was facing for the Phillies that day was: SS - Jimmy Rollins (24 years old) CF - Ricky Ledee RF - Bobby Abreu LF - Pat Burrell 1B - Jim Thome 3B - David Bell C - Todd Partt 2B - Tomas Perez Carlos Silva picked up the save for the Phillies that day. And a 24 year old rookie named Chase Utley got his 10th ever plate appearance in that game as a pinch hitter. He struck out.

Were people seriously still using subsilver?

http://i.imgur.com/wGLDKA3.gif

Interesting thought...I'm not sure how I would set that up through the software. Let's just start allowing swearing, but not at each other.

For anyone else bothered by this, you can turn it off here: ucp.php?i=ucp_prefs&mode=view Good catch. Thanks. That was the only thing really bothering me. The rest will take some getting used to, but I'm stoked about the embedded youtube and twitter links. Thanks Tim!

I chuckled and then felt like a terrible person. Thanks.

You hate to see your odds improve due to something like this, but after all these years of ineptitude I just can't help but think what this does for our chances to taking the division.

Simple solution. Unban Da Bum and make him a mod. Then he will have to start behaving, since he will know there's always a mod examining his posts.

-We're at a position where extra wins are the most valuable. -We're at a point where wins are the most costly to acquire. -All he costs is money. -Isn't WAR for relievers pretty [expletive]? -2nd half ERA?? Correct on all accounts. That said, Soriano looks to be a decent bet to provide the type of production I'm expecting from Motte this year. If Soriano is $3-5M for this year, sure, go for it. But if he's really still looking for something like $10M, there are much better options out there. Hell, I'd even rather take on Papelbon's contract at that price (even if that means getting stuck with his option).

I am loving baseball this year.

Everyone? http://i.imgur.com/cXJnu.gif It checks out, Tim. Open the floodgates. Please and thank you.

And Da Bum isn't here to enjoy it. #FreeDaBum #wearegood

Seriously though, I'll give Hendry plenty of credit for helping to put together the good farm system in the first place. I never said he wasn't a good (or even great) scout. I'm just claiming that he was a terrible GM. Perhaps the contract bit is a fair point. Most of Hendry's stupid contracts were shorter term or small money. He mostly hamstrung us with the state of the farm system on his way out, not the contracts.

I'd just say this last bit is unfair given that he played a large role in building said farm system, and that hamstringing the team for years with bad contracts is an oversell with only Soriano, Z, and Marmol as bad contracts, with only one Soriano being a long-term commitment. If you love Hendry so much why don't you just marry him?

I got 99 problems and 1 of them is with people who completely misunderstand or misrepresent what it was about Hendry's strategy that was a problem. Most of what Hendry did couldn't be called a strategy, since it had so little focus. "We need to [get more lefthanded / get guys who can catch the ball / get more OBP]" with the answer changing every week. What little Hendry did that could be referred to as strategy was so ass backwards that it's painful. He actively eschewed signing young players to cost controlled extensions, with his stated preference being to wait until they hit FA and then get them back when we had to pay open market prices. He focused way too heavily on pitching, but somehow never had enough depth at the major league level. He refused to recycle back end roster spots hoping for marginal upgrades and more upside, preferring to stick with "his guys" despite them being more expensive and no more effective (Neifi Perez, anybody?). He spent as little money as possible developing the farm system, or focusing on player development. He also liked to run his mouth to the media and trash his own players to make it more palatable to the fans when he ran the players out of town, despite what that would do to their market value. Jim Hendry was a terrible GM who only had some short term success due to inheriting a well-regarded farm system and trading most of the assets to win immediately. And when the window had come and gone, he hamstrung the team for years with bad contracts while he made one last ditch attempt to save his job. Did I misrepresent anything?

I didn't know that was the cause of it. I just assumed it was because I've got my monitor in portrait mode. Now I realize it's because you're a terrible human being.

Congratulations everybody, you didn't watch somebody die in last night's game. She's been released from the hospital. http://m.pirates.mlb.com/news/article/119584142/fan-struck-by-foul-tip-at-pirates-game-released-from-hospital

Coghlan needs a day off.

Mike Coolbaugh (had to google the name) was a Rockies minor league 1B coach. That's right. Thanks.

Didn't the Royals 1B coach die a few years back after getting nailed by a liner? Or was that a minor league coach?

Scary stuff