Hairyducked Idiot

I will say this. I definitely think Fields has been overrated to this point. He wasn't just failed by the offense, he also failed the offense. It was an ouroboros of suck, he dragged down the WRs and OL just as much as they dragged him down. The most important skill an NFL QB has, the one that ultimately decides success or failure, is the ability to make a snapshot read of the field and quickly deliver the ball to optimal spot. I do not think Fields has yet demonstrated that he can do that consistently. Sorry, I was leading up to a "but" but the doom boner got away from me. BUT, the upside is every bit as real as the downside and if I have to bet one way or the other, I think he has a breakout season. He hasn't proven he *can't* do the snapshot reads either, his work ethic and intelligence are excellent, and his non-passing tools are such an absolute cheat code that it gives him a lot of margin for error.

But he was really awful in the other two.

Why wouldn't you count the other two starts?

There seems to be some buzz about calling up Ben Brown. That sounds promising and I'm still not 100% up on our farm system, I'll look him up. Ok, cool, he's a former 33rd-round pick who is averaging less than 5 innings per start an ERA over 4, 17 walks and 7 HRs in 28 AAA innings. Crap-ton of Ks is nice, but still. Every couple of weeks I get told to be excited about a prospect and then I look them up and they're the most tepid wet-turd plop of a prospect I've ever seen. Oh hey, everyone's geeked up about this Brett Dokstra kid and Brett Dokstra turns out to be some random roster fill from the back of a draft who has managed to only be slightly worse than average at several minor league stops he was two years overage for, which I mean *is* better than you'd expect for somone in his draft slot so good for him. If we're going to do this, I wish we could at least do the 2001/2014 version.

I may owe Bryan lahair an apology (Not really though not enough PAs to mean a lot)

Forearm strain is very frequently a precursor to elbow go boom. Not always though

I do think that Poles inherited a mostly bad situation and that taking a step back to build up a little long-term capital was reasonable. But he took it way too far and fielded an absolutely negligent offense around a developing Fields. And now he's had two off-seasons to build whatever he wanted. He owns whatever happens this season, good or bad. none of this "wait till 2025" stuff. If Fields is the guy, this team wins football games in 2023. If Fields is not the guy, then you start trying to find the guy for 2024 and Poles is on the clock immediately. Or more generally, the minmaxing of the success cycle has gone way too far. There are times in all the major American pro sports where it's reasonable to say "OK, this year we're gonna be a little more development-focused. We're gonna do our best to win games, but we might give a little preference to younger guys breaking in over veterans and probably not be looking to trade long-term assets for immediate help." It's just been taken to a counter-productive extreme. Fan spaces have become full of smarmy turds crowing about how the Plan was always for the Window to open in 2027 after The Core is assembled and anything that looks like bad news before then is actually good news because it was always The Plan and people just have to be patient and good in this life and they'll be rewarded in the next one, or whatever Puritan [expletive] morality play they're importing into sports.

It's mostly ownership, but I blame fans a bit too. Fandoms have gotten way too easily sold on the idea that the virtuous thing to do is only try to win about half the time.

I can separate what I think from what I feel. What I feel is that the team is on a good ol' fashion doom spiral. What I think is that they're probably objectively better than their record and will probably (though not certainly) do better from here on out.

Half the time Ross gets blasted for pulling guys too early, have the time for pulling guys too late. There's no good way to manage a bad bullpen.

Kerry Wood spring training flashback

Momentum isn't real and strength of schedule barely matters

...

I don't really care if they fire Ross or not. Managers barely matter. If they're not Dusty Bakering the pitching staff, they aren't hurting anything. Firing the team-runner is a much bigger deal.

Yeah, sign me up for 4 years at whatever market value is for a guy like that these days. I don't like signing pitchers, especially 32 year old pitchers, to guaranteed money. But I don't think we have a lot of options to replace him.

I want Vegas to win the Cup. In a world of "we have to lose for years and years before we can even begin to try" shenanigans, they came into the league with the bold plan of trying to win hockey games.

If you stripped the names and told me "go look at this team's fangraphs page and tell me what you think of their chances for the rest of the season," I'd say they looked a bit unlucky and that it as probably too big of a hole to climb out of, but they might be worth keeping an eye on and shouldn't give up completely yet. But honestly a good doom boner is way more fun and I'm enjoying seeing the team melt down.

I don't think they've figured out pitching

Long as they can convince fans this is a good thing half the time, they'll keep doing it

Oh fun the league figured out Steele. It was getting confusing having a nice thing or two.

"never" is really not looking bad right now

Agree or disagree with this statement: Gipson is better at being a DE than either Patrick or Whitehair are at being C's.

too late to get a refund on the pitch lab?

The worst players are always low-risk, low-cost. The risk and cost is the playing time you give them finding out they still suck.