PappyVanVinceYoung

Based on the latest tracker. Looks like Jeter and Walker will make it. Jeter may be unanimous. Schilling may barely get in, and Bonds and Clemens will be just out.

I'm pretty damn sure Iran exports far more crude oil than they do refined products. Why do you think their economy is centered on refining?

Been a great offseason so far.

And here's her ballot. So Bonds, Pettitte, Sosa, Manny, and Sheffield were all PED users and got her vote. No vote for Clemens. Makes sense.

I know none of this is new, but here are Odor's stats by month for the past three years. What is it that makes him so streaky?

Thanks for posting this. Great article.

So what do you do with Solak? Just try to get him enough ABs between DH, 2B, and OF?

What kind of person votes for Bonds but not for Clemens?

Feeling good so far about this offseason. Trying to make sense of where we stand and what's left to do. A few questions for you guys. I don't live in Dallas, so I'm a little out of it on current thinking. 1) What role does Nick Solak have this year? Does he start out splitting time with Odor? Can he play third base if we don't add someone via free agency? 2) With our starting five seemingly set as Kluber, Minor, Lynn, Gibson, and Lyles, will any of the younger guys like Allard, Burke, or Jurado be on the opening day roster? I guess maybe Jurado would be bullpen? 3) Is Danny Santana our opening day CF unless we add someone else via free agency or trade? 4) Our returning bullpen guys are Chavez, Leclerc, Brett Martin, and Montero right now? Joely Rodriguez has been added. Anyone else? 5) Any chance Pence gets resigned? Remaining priorities seem to be the following. This seem right? 1) Fill out the bullpen 2) Starter at 3B 3) Starter at 1B 4) Catcher upgrades over Mathis, Kiner-Falefa, and Trevino 5) Upgrade centerfield

What are the main differences between Pony and Little League?

Most important thing at that level is having a first baseman that can catch. You put your best players at 1B, P, and SS.

Had an awesome time in the Fall doing our first foray into select ball. Had my 9 year old on a 9U team coached by our hitting instructor. Ups and downs, but it was a great experience. He learned a ton with his first year of kid pitch and open bases. Played 1B, backup catcher, and pitched quite a bit with a lot of success. Had my 7 year old on an 8U team that I coached. Coach pitch is a blast, and we had a ton of success. Towards the end, the coach of our 9U team asked my 7 year old to join that team as well. He did that too, so he got a crash course in kid pitch and open bases. He played in 2 tournaments including getting to pitch this past weekend. Went 2 innings giving up 1 run and striking out 5 in his debut. Only real issue is that he's used to playing middle infield, but with this older team he's usually playing LF or sitting on the bench. He also bats last. He's handled it great, and I'm sure he feels cool playing with these older kids and having some success. Kids all treated him great, which I'm sure it helped having his older brother on the same team to stick up for him. Going to have both kids play in the local little league for the first time this Spring along with playing periodic tournaments with our 9U select team. Older one will be a young minors player, and the younger one will be pee wee. They do machine pitch at that pee wee level. So, he'll be doing both kid pitch with the select team and machine pitch with little league. He's a good fielder, so I hope he can get an infield spot and get a lot of fielding work in this league. I'm assuming there's a lot of offense with machine pitch but not many outfield hits with the USA bats. I need to start researching bats for both. We've never used USA bats before.

Bonds, Clemens, Jeter

I like your style. I was also trick or treating with a glass of MWND.

Anyone tried the Kentucky Owl batch 3 rye? I loved batch 1 and kind of liked batch 2, although the price was ridiculous. The batch 3 I've seen was retailing at $190. One positive is that they've increased the proof up to 114.

Good start to both the 8U and 9U teams we're on. Both are playing a Sunday DH league. I'm coaching the 8U coach pitch team. We went 1-1, blowing out a solid AA team and then getting crushed by a really good AAA team. We played okay the last couple innings actually outscoring them 4-1 from the bottom of the 2nd on; the problem was that we fell behind 14-0 to start the game. Oh well, it was a good learning experience. 9U was generally some ugly baseball, but we went 1-1 there as well. We played well against an okay AAA team. Most of our kids were pitching for the first time, and it showed. We lost 9-3, giving up 5 runs in the last inning when our pitcher couldn't find the strike zone. We beat an overmatched team the next game, and my kid pitched one inning. No hits, no runs, struck out 2, walked 1, on a pretty efficient 15 pitches. That level isn't very fun to watch. Feels like it's nothing but walks and steals.

Those Knob Creek Rye picks can be delicious. One of my favorite bottles was a Houston Bourbon Society pick from a couple of years ago.

I'm going to hold off for now. Looks like that's about what they're going for on stub hub, but it also seems like the price has been trending down. I may check in again with you in a couple of days if I still haven't found any and you still haven't sold yours.

Looking for 2 tickets for the opener. I'd preferably like something lower level or a club section.

I bit the bullet. Just agreed to have my kid join a 9U team that will start play this Fall. Hoping for a good experience.

We're moving closer to joining a team. It will be a newly formed 9U team made up of kids from our school and a few others nearby. The head coach is not a dad; he's an assistant coach at a nearby private school that several dads have been taking their kid to private lessons to for the past few years. He intends for it to be a AA team initially. We will roster bat and no kid will sit for consecutive innings. He wants everyone to have an infield and an outfield position. The team will be formally selected in July with games starting in the Fall. We'll do two practices per week with a double header every other Sunday in the Fall. We'll play weekend tournaments every other week in the Spring. Still in the learning phase, but I like what I hear so far. The things I like the most are: 1) not having a dad for the head coach; 2) having some friends from our school on the team; 3) it being located near where we live; 4) a lighter Fall schedule that will allow for participation in other sports; and 5) every kid will get fairly even playing time. Thoughts from those with experience? What questions should I be asking?

I think it is pretty unlikely you're going to get a fake open bottle. The seller would know you are going to drink it and would likely be able to tell it was fake.

I don’t like it as much as batch 1, but KO batch 2 is pretty damn good. Also helps that I didn’t pay that ridiculous retail msrp though.

I'll send you a pm.

Which act? I'm not interested in act 5 or 6. Maybe for one of the others.