Storm the Field

Would have been nice to have Bielak come in and eat a few innings as today's long relief whipping boy.

How many firings we expecting this season? Espada? Pitching coach?

That'll do it. Night y'all.

Are you under the impression it's my call?

I think it's just a scheduled day off. Don't think Tucker has sat out a single game yet. Edit: Yeah, he has appeared in 38/38 games this season.

Haha. Post ended up going viral after someone posted it on Reddit. The next day the guy was like "Boy I really stepped in it. While my message was good, my delivery was clearly tone-deaf..." All the replies to that post were basically "Jesus Christ, it's not the delivery, your message was dog shit, you pathetic corporate simp..."

Been helping out on some Permian work again lately for the first time in a little while. Keep seeing leases that have these specific provisions where they can't be assigned to CHK, Endeavor, or any entity affiliated with Autry Stephens. I've run across similar provisions several times in various leases over the years. Anyone know the exact story on that? Feels like it only ever applies to those specific companies

Welp, as of lunch today, I've got a new unpaid, thankless side job. I'm now in charge of "managing" our deer lease. Met with the guy who's been the point man for our group the last few years, but he never has time to go out anymore, and has been wanting to pass the torch and implied he may drop out entirely. No possible way this can backfire and end up being a pain in the ass! Brother and I's new stand should be ready fairly soon, so first order of business will be heading out sometime in the next few weekends to drag it out there and hopefully we can convince a couple of the other guys to come out for a minor work weekend to do some brush clearing and beer drinking.

Love it. I've been wearing a very similar Citizen almost every day for the last 2 1/2 years. I probably only wear my "fancy" dress watch probably 20-30 times a year when the outfit calls for it.

Yesterday was the first truly gross Summer-like day here in Houston. High 80's, extremely humid, producing a "feels like" close to triple digits. Walking through my work garage yesterday morning brought back that old familiar feeling of "oh here we fucking go." Close to 90 today, but much drier air arrived overnight and it's actually pretty pleasant. I'm gonna savor these last remaining tolerable weeks before it gets terrible.

Dumbass shit we see on LinkedIn.

Leadoff 2B. Infield dribbler for a single. Runner stays at 2B. 2 on, 0 Out. Shallow fly out. No one advances. 2 on, 1 out. Sharply hit single to shallow OF. Runner held at 3B. Bases loaded, 1 out. K (swinging at what would have been ball 4). Fly out.

Damnit. Had a chance to blow it wide open there. Tucker swung at Ball 4 to K with bases juiced. 2 singles and a double that inning and no runs.

Another entry in the "annoyances that develop as you get older" dept. Had a great short trip out to Sonoma this past Thu-Sun. Just 3 nights spent living on Pacific Time has totally screwed up my sleep schedule the past 3 nights. I'm talking not even getting remotely sleepy until after midnight, waking up groggy damn near 8:00 in the morning feeling like I could instantly fall back asleep for 2 more hours. I don't recall any kind of issues following a time change for longer than maybe 1 night as a younger man. At this age, feels like I need a full week or so to adjust every March and November for DST.

Interesting. Reports just came out that FTC will approve the XOM/PXD merger on the condition that Sheffield be barred from serving on the BOD.

Haven't touched the pool since October or so, but looks like Summer starts next week for all intents and purposes. Several days in the low 90's on the forecast starting Tuesday. Water will still be chilly, but might have to think about jumping in next Saturday.

I was reading about Loperfido some more and his problematic K rate. One thing I read is not so much that he whiffs a bunch, but apparently he takes a ton of strikes looking. I know at least one of his K's last night was staring at Strike 3. Hopefully being a little more aggressive at the plate is something that can be taught.

No shit. I believe we were 1-11 our last 12 games that have gone to extras, dating back to last season. Moreover, I believe that may have been our first big clutch hit of the year. Was talking with my Astros group chat and nobody could recall another time this season we had a go-ahead HR late in a game or anything similar. Definitely our only walk-off.

Feel bad for the bride now. Thursday and Friday still look excellent, but cold front rolling in overnight Friday. Rainy and in the 50's on Saturday during the wedding. Literally only day on the extended forecast that isn't sunny and cool.

Loperfido LF tonight. Singleton 1B.

Holy shit. Jose Abreu consented to a demotion to WPB to work on his swing and timing. He's off the roster.

This is a totally made up stat. It's supposed to mean "If I miss a single paycheck, I'm screwed. Not gonna make rent, car gonna get repossessed, have to decide which utility bill to pay and which to get shut off....." When you see a stat in some news article saying "70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck," it's guaranteed bullshit. 1. Typically, the source is basically a pull commissioned a shady debt consolidation firm or personal loan provider. Almost every article on this cites a "study" by LendingClub.Com. 2. Question wording matters, hugely. If you ask "would it hurt to miss your next paycheck?" or "do you feel like you don't have enough money left over at the end of the month?" you'll get a majority agreeing. If you specify something like the definition I provided above, the percentage drops precipitously. People that make six figures, but max out their 401K, put money into their kids college funds, have multiple car notes, take multiple vacations every year, will agree that they live paycheck to paycheck if you don't accurately define it. 3. Only 78% of people age 25-65 are even in the labor force. You're telling me an overwhelming majority of (>90%) of people in this country who receive a paycheck are "struggling financially"? The poverty rate in America is 11%. The numbers just don't make sense if you dig even an inch deep into them.

Finally opened today. I'll have to head out there for lunch sometime soon. Significantly bigger than the original.