Hank Chinaski

I mean, I agree with you…but, in fairness, it appears that the girl holding the sign is around 8 years old.

Agreed. 3B across MLB is historically strong right now. It is a bit of an underrepresented position in the HoF, but I see 2 (maybe 3) guys on that list who are nearing no-doubt status, and another 3 or 4 who have a shot based on their age/trajectory. I can argue, however, that Arenado should be no lower than 3rd on that list (and probably 2nd). He, Machado and Ramirez, to me, are the clear top 3 and Alex, Riley and Devers are the next tier.

Well go fuck yourself, Ken.

Ah, we’ve reached the stage at which they can finally start to acknowledge how good Bijan actually is, after a 3-year stretch of having to repeatedly remind each other about how overrated he was. This is an ag classic.

Yup. I live in ABQ, so luckily I can watch the Astros via the MLB package. I cannot, however watch the Rockies or D-Backs. Which isn’t that big of a deal I guess, but like you say - in no way could I be considered “local” to Denver or Phoenix, and the blackout has no impact on how likely I am to drive 6 hours to Denver to attend a game. In fact, it probably makes it less likely: the AAA team in ABQ is the Rockies’ affiliate. I go to a handful of their games every year. If I could watch the Rockies on TV, I may be more likely to become more familiar with their overall system, to keep up better with their prospects coming through ABQ, and, with more general familiarity and interest, I may be more likely to get to Coors more often (we take a summer trip to Estes Park every summer, but it never occurs to me to stay in Denver for a night and take in a ballgame). Instead, I’ve been to one Rockies game in the 6 years I’ve lived here , and I kind of forget that the Rockies even exist (yes, part of that is because they’re a bizarre franchise who is almost never particularly competitive or interesting). All that is to say - there is no major professional team in NM…it isn’t practical to expect a large number of NM residents to attend Rockies games with any regularity. There is a natural local tie-in to the franchise with the AAA affiliate (which draws fans pretty well). Yet people here don’t seem particularly interested in the Rockies at all. I have to think that blacking out their games here reduces their popularity in an entire state. Anyway, I get that I could probably figure out a way to subscribe to some cable provider here and get rockies games if I really wanted to, and that these deals were signed when cord cutting was perhaps less ubiquitous, so I am just kind of yelling at clouds here…but it does seems absurd that they deliberately undercut an entire potential market’s ability to develop a relationship with a team.

I feel this way and I’m not from the Bay Area. I’m from Houston and my team ceased to exist almost 30 years ago. SF has kind of been the team I pull for the last few years because (1) I like Shanahan and their style of play, and (2) I was a kid of the 80s and loved watching Jerry Rice, so there’s a little nostalgia.

Yes, but you could ask: Why do the continue to _________? …and fill in the blank with any of the inane shit they continue to do, say, write, believe…and the answer from any reasonable person would be, “I have no fucking idea.”

Sometimes I think about how Mack Brown (of all people) single-handedly destroyed that program and I chuckle to myself.

I get your point, but I’d argue that Mack’s ability to attract, retain, and develop such a talented roster for a decade is exactly what made him a great coach. That’s part of a coach’s skill set - maybe the most important part.

Fangraphs at one point created percentile outcomes on their top prospects lists, basically probability tables for performance outcomes for individual prospects. I’m sure teams have similar methods of estimating future value, and baked into that is the possibility that some guys will never produce any value. The assumption is that their predictive/odds methodologies are sound, and that such a thing can even be reasonably predicted. (I think it can.) So it’s basically an odds assessment. But yeah, deadline trades like the Bartolo Colon for Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee scared the piss out of a bunch of GMs for a long time. (As an aside, it’s a damn shame Sizemore couldn’t stay healthy - he was a tremendous player with HOF ability.)

This is correct. The Texans began when I was 25 (and lived in Austin). I’ve never really cared about them one way or another. If everything were exactly the same except they wore Columbia blue and had oil derricks on the helmets, I’d be all the way in. It’s completely irrational, it’s literally rooting for laundry, but it is what it is.

It seemed like they fired Culley because they wanted to hire Flores, and then all the lawsuit stuff flared up and that became a situation they wanted no part of. Then they just hired Smith. But I could be making that up.

Look, I’m not going to pretend that I’m objective when it comes to this guy - he has pretty much every attribute I abhor in people: arrogant, zero humility, victim complex, loudmouth, attention seeking, childish, self-congratulatory, etc. We all know people like this, and they’re almost always insecure, full of shit and generally a drag to about around. But he has been accused specifically of being an abusive person, by multiple people. He has denied that he did anything that was extra-consensual in all cases. Maybe he really did nothing wrong, maybe he did - no idea. I tend to think he probably crossed some line, but maybe that’s because I think he sucks in general and it seems on brand.

He has certainly already made more money for doing nothing the last year and a half than I will in my lifetime; I’m not sure what that has to do with anything, or “taking the L” (whatever the fuck that means). It doesn’t change the fact that he’s ruined his MLB career because his “weird kink” involves beating the shit out of women.

Ha, perhaps, but I was thinking it may be the sum of all his loathsome attributes.

Maybe one day Bauer will reflect on his a career and think to himself, “huh, perhaps if I wasn’t always such an insufferable fucking jackoff douchebag, I would have gotten everything I could out of my baseball career and perhaps I’d be memorable for something other than strangling women. Perhaps if I could have figured out that I should just shut the fuck up sometimes and not be a perpetual attention-craving, petulant titty-baby, things could have turned out better.” (Note: He won’t ever have the self-awareness for that type of reflection, he’ll always tell himself that it’s all everyone else’s fault.)

I hope not, but I bet somebody will. Maybe not immediately, but he’ll probably resurface. But perhaps the fact that, not only does he like to beat the shit out of women, but that he’s always been a detestable dipshit, who lacks an ounce of humility and whose teammates have generally hated him, will ultimately push teams toward letting him rot.

beware of poisonous sound waves, friends! (I don’t think that’s exactly what Nick says.)

Dodgers DFA’d Bauer. Good for you, LA. Go fuck yourself, Tyler.

Not gonna lie, I fucking love this dude. His expression in the meat judging team photo is one of my favorite things ever.

I mean, the difference is obviously the years of team control at the time those deals were signed. It’s not apples to apples. But yeah, the Braves have used that leverage well. Well I guess it remains to be seen, but right now they look smart.

I always need help.

CSB: A cousin of my mother’s was Norm Bulaich, who played at TCU in the ‘60s (then for the Colts and Dolphins). I remember him showing me his super bowl ring when I was at his house as a kid.