2018 MLB Thread

[Chuckie Finster 23079]

5 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Look, don't turn this on me.  If it's wrong, it's wrong, and if you're a man, you own up to that.  Luhnow did the exact opposite of that, and JV didn't either, especially because Luhnow said that he discussed acquiring Osuna with guys on the team.

And I like the Astros.  I'm old enough that I grew up rooting for both the Astros and the Rangers, because when I was a kid, the Rangers were fucking terrible and you had to have other teams to root for once they were mathematically eliminated in June.   Altuve, Springer, Correa, Verlander are among the most likeable players in the league.  So I still like the Astros (in spite of the efforts of Harsin, Nobis, and utgrad97), a lot, and that's why this really pisses me off. 

  

Again, if you watch the interview that those quotes are from, they ask Verlander if Luhnow talked to him and he, fairly tersely, says that he was not consulted.

It's absolutely valid to give Luhnow shit for this.  It's not realistic to expect Verlander to say anything more than he did.

[Beau Vine 55867]

This is awesome.  From theathletic:

Quote

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – This is a tough place to get to. No interstate highway. No airport. No train station. Few hotels.

It takes effort to get here, for fans and players, because the Baseball Hall of Fame is also a difficult destination, which is what makes its location so appropriate.

The Hall doesn’t just let anyone in. Only the top one percent of players to ever step onto a Major League Baseball field gain admission, and the criteria is the most stringent in sports.

Vladimir Guerrero got here, and he did so coming from just about the unlikeliest place imaginable, a tiny village in the Dominican Republic where he grew up in poverty and swung his way off the island, becoming one of the most unique talents in baseball history.

But to Montreal, Guerrero’s journey here goes past his enormous talent; it speaks to something more profound, more hurtful. Though Guerrero elected to go into the Hall with a Los Angeles Angels cap on his plaque, he will in all likelihood be the last Montreal Expos player to be enshrined in the Hall, the recordkeeper of baseball history found in this middle-of-nowhere town that was falsely labeled as the birthplace of the game.

There is a case to be made that even though Guerrero was not around when the Expos moved to Washington, his greatness and his place in baseball’s hallowed ground and the likelihood that no one else who wore the uniform will ever make it here makes him the Last Expo.

---

Of course, who is the Last Expo is open to interpretation.

If you consider the Last Expo to be the last player left in the majors who once wore an Expos uniform, then the Last Expo is 45-year-old Texas Rangers pitcher Bartolo Colón, who went 10-4 with a 3.31 ERA with the Expos over the second half of the 2002 season after coming over in a trade from the Cleveland Indians. Big Sexy, bless him, continues to pitch, somehow, and in so doing maintains that feeble link that binds the Expos with Major League Baseball.

But Colón was only an Expo in passing, the result of a desperate trade made by a rookie general manager who had nothing to lose with a potential contraction looming. He pitched well for Montreal, the Expos fell short of the playoffs regardless, as they always did, and then he was gone.

No, to many the Last Expo is Brad Wilkerson, a player who was an Expos first-round pick, was developed by the Expos and was a good player for them to the bitter end, embracing Montreal like no one else in those final, funereal years. When the Expos played their final game at Olympic Stadium, Wilkerson cried.

It hurt.

Wilkerson was in Cooperstown over the weekend primarily to honour his former teammate, whom he had a chance to catch up with.

“It’s special for me to be here because he’s the best player I ever played with,” Wilkerson said Friday night. “You can’t recreate Vladimir Guerrero. He was such a unique talent, a unique player. Guys couldn’t figure out how to get him out. I mean, he would hit everything. You saw it; he would hit balls off the ground for God’s sakes. He could hit every pitch, and it’s hard to recreate that. From where he came, to come to the States and be successful, it’s just a tribute to him as a person and his family and how tight-knit their family is. I got to see it for three good years, and it was awesome.”

So many people have been asked about their favourite memories of Guerrero over the last week, but Wilkerson’s showed why Guerrero garnered so much respect from his peers because they had a unique appreciation for his unique skills and freakish ability at the plate.

“He hit a home run off Jaret Wright; he came out of the bullpen and threw like six, 97 mile an hour fastballs in a row,” Wilkerson said. “Then he threw him a breaking ball. To be able to do that after six 97 mile an hour pitches and then put an 80 mile an hour pitch that far, that’s pretty crazy.”

It was actually five straight fastballs, but Wilkerson can be forgiven for getting that detail wrong because he remembered everything else perfectly, and that home run was indeed ridiculous in light of the pitches that preceded it.

When fellow Hall of Fame inductee Trevor Hoffman, the fearsome closer of the San Diego Padres, was asked what the scouting report was on pitching to Guerrero, he answered simply, “Be careful.”

Here’s why:

“I think the most amazing thing I saw him do, I remember we were facing the Braves and they used to always throw the ball over his head. Like, literally over his head,” Wilkerson said. “So, he took big swings and almost threw his helmet off a couple of times off (John) Smoltz. He fouled one off. Then he literally chopped the ball down, and it basically went through Smoltz’s legs. It almost killed him. And the ball was like, eye-high. It was pretty amazing because that’s like the perfect swing, to hit the ball on the line, eye-high. It was perfect, to drill it low and square it up that good.”

But Wilkerson was also in Cooperstown to honour the Expos. He was invited by Perry Giannias, one of the driving forces to keep the memory of the Expos alive in Montreal and organizer of Expos Fest, an annual charity event that brings former players back to the city and raises money for the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

On Friday night, Wilkerson was bowling at one of Giannias’ charity events in Cooperstown, and Wilkerson can bowl. He was reading the oil patterns on the lane, spinning balls for strikes and competing with Bill Lee, bowling one lane over. In the next lane was former Expo Claude Raymond, and another lane over there was Curtis Pride.

Pride wanted to be at Giannias’ bowling event so badly, he took a taxi from Baltimore to Philadelphia to catch his connection after his flight from Baltimore was canceled. He was Guerrero’s teammate in 2001 and only played 94 games for the Expos, but Pride left his mark on the franchise and city on Sept. 17, 1993, when he stroked a late-inning, pinch-hit double for his first career hit against the Philadelphia Phillies in the midst of a pennant race. That double triggered a massive standing ovation, one that Pride couldn’t hear because he’s deaf. But he felt it. In his heart. Through the ground.

It is truly an iconic moment in Expos history.

Pride played 421 games in the big leagues with the Angels, Red Sox, Tigers, Braves, Yankees and Expos.

“I played in six cities, and Montreal was the best one of the six,” Pride said. “I loved it there.”

That love brought Pride to Cooperstown, much like Wilkerson, much like Perry Giannias and Annakin Slayd and David Morneau and Peter Giannias and Peter Koron, the fans who shared a house with Pride, Wilkerson and Raymond overlooking beautiful Otsego Lake for the weekend.

Did Guerrero share that love? No, not to the same degree as Wilkerson or Pride or Lee or Raymond, at least.

---

Guerrero went into the Hall with an Angels cap on his plaque, a decision that was left up to him because a case could be made for the Angels or the Expos. Guerrero explained himself at the time that he made his decision, and did so again on Saturday, the day before his induction.

“It was a tough decision all the way to the end because of what Montreal meant to me, the many years that I spent there and coming to the big leagues as an Expo for the first time,” Guerrero said through translator José Mota. “I’m going to say things about Montreal in my speech, but with the Angels, being able to wear the hat and being able to win when I was with the Angels, and … the fact the Expos don’t exist actually made my decision a little bit easier.

“The significance is that in my six years with the Angels, we went to the playoffs five times. That, to me, kind of sealed it because of the importance winning played and the significance of my teammates throughout that time with the Angels was very special.”

Guerrero definitely has affection for Montreal; otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of being in Montreal for a fundraising softball game that Giannias organized in late June, then proceeding to homer in that game by tagging a ball over the wall in left field.

 

No, Guerrero cares about Montreal. He became a man in Montreal. His first son, Toronto Blue Jays super prospect Vladimir Jr., was born in Montreal. There is absolutely no doubt he sees that and recognizes that, no matter which cap he wore to Cooperstown.

 

But let’s be real for a moment; the Expos did not provide Guerrero with the best circumstances to succeed. The fact he did so anyway only adds to his career achievements.

During Guerrero’s peak years in Montreal from 1998 to 2002, the players who batted behind him most often were Brad Fullmer (1998 and 1999), Lee Stevens (2000 and 2001) and Troy O’Leary in 2002. That’s right, Troy O’Leary, a player who hit a very respectable .286 in 2002, but hit three home runs, 12 doubles and drove in 37 runs in 314 at-bats. A total of 12 different players batted cleanup at some point that season, including Guerrero, but no one batted there more often than Troy O’Leary. Guerrero drew a career-high 84 walks that season (his next highest total was 71 in 2007), including a franchise record and career-high 32 intentional walks.

All Guerrero did was lead the National League in hits (206) and total bases (364) and would have had a 40-40 season if not for an asinine umpiring decision to rob him of his 40th home run. From 1998 to 2002, Guerrero averaged 39.4 home runs a season batting in front of Brad Fullmer, Lee Stevens and Troy O’Leary.

Over the course of his time in Montreal, Guerrero had to watch as his fellow Dominican and mentor, Pedro Martínez, was traded away in a cost-cutting move and the team was slowly gutted, then threatened with contraction before ultimately being run by Major League Baseball. A fan base still hurt by the 1994 players strike and the countless times its team was unable to compete stayed away in droves. Over those peak Guerrero seasons from 1998 to 2002, the Expos did not draw a million fans to Olympic Stadium once.

So when Guerrero talks about winning in Anaheim, he has every right to do so. But that doesn’t mean the fans who did come out to watch him, the ones who watched him turn into what he became in Montreal, don’t have the right to be hurt.

But perhaps because there were so few of those fans who watched him, and so few of those fans who were ultimately hurt by his decision to wear an Angels cap, the contingent of Expos fans in Cooperstown over the weekend was far less than the busloads who went down to see Tim Raines get inducted last year.

“In many ways, last year felt like the final year, and when we found out that Guerrero would be going in as an Angel, it kind of preemptively cut it at the knees,” said Montreal broadcaster and Expos super fan Dave Kaufman, wearing his game-worn Bill Gullickson jersey, after Guerrero’s induction speech Sunday. “We don’t have any buses of Expos fans here; anybody that came this year, it was truly an individual action that required a lot of effort. Because of that, it hasn’t had the same sense of an Expos goodbye party or an Expos wake that the others had.

“That being said, I think that those who were most moved by Guerrero, which was the what, 5,000 of us that went to every game and saw him grow, it was very important for us to be here. But if you’re going to try and convince me that Vladimir Guerrero lives for baseball in Montreal and will do anything to bring it back the way that Pedro or Raines has spoken like that, I’m not going to buy it. It’s about a feeling that I had inside that I had to be here today.”

He wasn’t the only one.

André Cossette and his partner, Carole Duchaine, came with their sons, Dominic Cossette and Étienne Lefebvre. They are a baseball family through and through.

“She says my first word wasn’t mama or papa,” Lefebvre said of his mother, Duchaine. “It was Tim Wallach.”

The entire family was dressed in Guerrero jerseys and shopping in the Hall of Fame store when they were asked if it meant anything to them that this might be the last Expos player to be enshrined here. Their faces immediately dropped.

“That’s why we came; we told ourselves we might never have another one,” Duchaine said. “There might be someone from the Blue Jays who gets in. But for the Expos, there won’t be.”

“It’s sad,” André Cossette added. “We had good players in Montreal, a great farm system that produced great players. Yesterday (in the Hall of Fame parade) we saw Randy Johnson, a former Expo, Pedro, a former Expo, and we could have had others.”

Could have.

Quote

Kaufman, part of the Expos Nation committee headed by Matthew Ross that works to keep baseball alive in Montreal, spoke of a sense he felt that the Expos were being “whitewashed” from the weekend’s festivities and, more generally, from baseball’s history. Because Guerrero went in as an Angel, the vast majority of the Hall of Fame merchandise on sale was in Angels colours. And, really, Cooperstown being the record keeper of baseball, the Expos’ place in that history at the Hall of Fame was indeed difficult to find.

Come take a little tour.

It starts in a room full of lockers, with each locker representing a team and containing artifacts from that team. The Angels locker had a pair of Guerrero’s cleats in it. Here is the spot where the Expos once were.

And here is a disclaimer in the Washington Nationals locker.

Here is a display recognizing Dennis Martínez’s perfect game found in the section honouring Latin baseball players.

This acknowledges the 1994 players strike that killed the season and, ultimately, the Expos.

Underneath it, a description that basically sums up why the Expos left.

A bit later on, a big board displays the startling growth in value of Major League Baseball franchises, and Montreal is there.

Here is Guerrero’s induction display, including a signed Expos helmet from his rookie season loaned to the Hall by Giannias and the bat with which he hit a home run on Aug. 26, 1999, the final hit of his 31-game hit streak with the Expos.

And, finally, here is where Guerrero’s plaque was eventually placed, covering that signature. He lives directly under … Bud Selig. Perfect.

---

So is Guerrero the Last Expo? Does it matter if he is or isn’t? Maybe not.

But what Guerrero is, in so many ways, is the embodiment of everything that was good and bad about the Expos. So if he isn’t the Last Expo, he is perhaps the Emblematic Expo.

First, the good.

Guerrero was discovered by Expos scouts Fred Ferreira and Arturo DeFreites at a camp in the Dominican Republic, with Ferreira signing him after one day of very limited viewing, and after the Los Angeles Dodgers decided not to sign him after he spent eight months in their Dominican academy.

“They continued to sign outfielders, but I was never given a chance to sign,” Guerrero said. “My brother said on a Wednesday that if they don’t sign you tomorrow, Thursday, I want you to go home. Which I did.”

For a franchise unable to pay high-priced free agents that survived on scouting and a deep, fruitful farm system, Guerrero was the ultimate example of the Expos’ strength in that department.

But Guerrero also played in front of all those empty seats on the rock-hard turf at Olympic Stadium. He insisted the small crowds and turf had no impact on him, that he was able to play his best regardless, and the injuries that eventually caught up to him were not due to playing on cement for seven years.

Wilkerson, however, did think about how unfortunate it was that the arrival of Guerrero coincided with a time when baseball fans in Montreal were so disillusioned by the game that they refused to support it in any way, regardless of the fact there was a Hall of Fame-calibre talent playing in the east end of town.

“I never saw a sign up saying the Expos play tonight, like a billboard; I never saw any of that,” Wilkerson said. “That was the disappointing thing. I understand the fans in Montreal and the situation since 1994, and they did get a little cheated because they missed out on someone that was so hard … you’re never going to see a Vladimir Guerrero again, I don’t think.”

Guerrero, like so many before him, left Montreal as a free agent while he was in his prime after the 2003 season. And by going into the Hall with an Angels cap, the Expos fans who willfully ignored him while he played did the same when he was inducted into history.

“Maybe because I’m so biased as an Expos fan, but I don’t think of him as an Angel,” Kaufman said. “I think of him as part of a great team on the Angels. But who defined the Expos? At a time when they were potentially viewed as the most irrelevant team in professional sports, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in an Expos uniform. There was something about that that was really special. I’m sorry that didn’t transfer today.

“But it’s been a lovely weekend. And if this is the last goodbye, it almost makes sense that it was a small crowd.”

---

There is, of course, one way that Guerrero or Wilkerson or anyone will not be considered the Last Expo.

This is where the prospective ownership group headed by Stephen Bronfman and the openness of baseball commissioner Rob Manfred toward the return of baseball to Montreal comes in.

If the Expos come back, this whole debate becomes moot.

“I want my team back,” Giannias said, acknowledging this might have been his last trip to Cooperstown, though he said he would come back if broadcaster Jacques Doucet finally gets recognized. “Until then, there will be continued misery in the world of Montreal sports.”

“I will always return to Cooperstown because I’m a fan of the game and its history and I’m sure that’s true with a lot of baseball fans in Montreal,” added Slayd, probably Montreal’s most visible proponent of the bid for baseball’s return. “But it’s definitely bittersweet to see Vlad go in knowing it might be a whole generation before we see another Expo. But for me personally, it’s just another challenge for us to find new ways to keep up the Montreal baseball profile.”

Bronfman’s group just completed a round of market research conducted by U.S. consulting firm Conventions, Sports & Leisures to get some specifics of what potential season-ticket holders would want to see in a new stadium. Manfred continues to say Montreal remains a strong candidate for an eventual expansion team once the stadium situations in Tampa Bay and Oakland are resolved. And as long as they are not fully resolved, the possibility of a relocation to Montreal remains in the cards.

“I feel like it’s moving in the right direction, I think there’s still a lot to go in my opinion,” Wilkerson said. “But I feel like Montreal’s right where they need to be. I mean, they’re the front-runner for the team, so we’ll see what happens. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they got a team, and I would love it.

“To not have a team in Montreal is kind of crazy for me, just spending the time that I was there and what kind of city I saw it potentially could be based on better circumstances. It would be a disgrace to the game.”

But even though Bronfman’s group is working hard and spending money to make this dream a reality, until it actually becomes a reality, it will remain a dream. And as long as it’s a dream, Guerrero’s induction into the Hall of Fame could potentially be the last link between Major League Baseball and Montreal we will ever see.

“Great few years for the Expos brand in Cooperstown with Timmy and Vlad,” Bronfman told The Athletic via email late Sunday night. “Sure, (Guerrero is the) last of an era, but hopefully not last … we keep progressing with the end game of MLB returning to Montréal.

“All things aligned, heck yes there will be more Montréal players in the Hall.”

The journey to Cooperstown is a difficult one, but Guerrero showed what the payoff is at the end of that journey.

The journey Bronfman and his group are in the middle of is also difficult and largely out of their hands. But the payoff would be so much more massive.

It would put to rest the notion of the Last Expo for good.

 

Trying to figure out what didn't copy and paste...

 

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Beau Vine

[TheFlagship 466]

Well there’s the end of that 

 

[Chuckie Finster 23079]

6 minutes ago, TheFlagship said:

Well there’s the end of that 

 

Anytime you get a chance to miss the playoffs by 4 games, you have to take it!

[MC Fresh Breath 4075]

10 hours ago, Radical Larry said:

 

The baboon explanation is way more fun.

I didn't know what a "haboob" was, so I guess I learned something.  I thought autocorrect was getting him again.

 

[Beau Vine 55867]

9 minutes ago, TheFlagship said:

Well there’s the end of that 

 

This is pretty easy to translate -- Rizzo just heard from ownership that he's going to be fired if they don't make the playoffs.

[MC Fresh Breath 4075]

41 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Yeah, a guy accepted a 75-game unpaid suspension for beating his kid's mom, but maybe he didn't actually beat his kid's mom, we'll never know until the details come to light.

JV belongs in that "Guys everyone should like" thread, but then he goes and does this.

See also Verlander on Peralta being suspended (while they were teammates) vs Verlander on Cano getting suspended.  

[Beau Vine 55867]

20 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

Again, if you watch the interview that those quotes are from, they ask Verlander if Luhnow talked to him and he, fairly tersely, says that he was not consulted.

It's absolutely valid to give Luhnow shit for this.  It's not realistic to expect Verlander to say anything more than he did.

Thanks, that's fair enough, I haven't seen the interview. 

Just blows my mind that Luhnow said that he consulted current players, but Verlander wasn't one of them?

 

[Chuckie Finster 23079]

8 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Just blows my mind that Luhnow said that he consulted current players, but Verlander wasn't one of them?

 

Definitely agree here. Luhnow has no obligation to consult his players, but if he's going to, you'd think Verlander would be one of them.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Chuckie Finster

[txhorns 2421]

He already knew Verlander's thoughts on the matter.  By consulting Verlander he wouldn'tbe able to say that all of the players he talked to were ok with the deal.

[spystud13 2371]

 

.931 OPS last season, .730 this. 

 

[TheFlagship 466]

Didn’t see that one coming. 

[pacman 7508]

13 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

 

Go into the Astros thread, or literally anywhere else on the internet, and you’ll find it. Or you would if you were genuinely concerned and not just trolling.

 

Astros thread seems very accepting.

Like most cases of DV, Osuna will get off due to money and popularity and probably a payoff.

Case seems clear, emergency call to police was made during the assault. Police arrived and immediately arrested him after finding a bruised, bloodied female who had been punched in the face and pushed down the stairs as well.

It's clear hypocrisy by Astros but it's business and sports, not a place for your moral compass. 

 

MLB did its job, now he gets to try and not fuck up again.

Edited July 31, 2018 by pacman

[clapclapclap 9000]

Osuna wasn't Luhnow's first choice, parole board nixed the Matt Bush deal.

Edited July 31, 2018 by clapclapclap
hacked

[Pato del Muerto 53506]

11 hours ago, Radical Larry said:

Baboon is the much better noun for that sentence. 

[Rockethorn1978 6205]

Nationals will be kicking themselves when Harper leaves in the off season and they got nothing for it. Belief like Rizzo has can drive a man and front office insane.

[Scraps 13800]

Whats most idiotic is they could still potentially make the playoffs even with removing Harper from the team and getting a haul.

[Patrick Bateman 3980]

If you've read up on the Osuna situation, the case is very strong against him...... and it was brutal.

Verlander's reaction at the time.

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Patrick Bateman

[kevwun 16438]

That was a tweet about an Astros' prospect who was caught on video in the act and was released.   I am not making excuses for anyone or justifying anything, just setting the facts straight.

Edited July 31, 2018 by kevwun

[Patrick Bateman 3980]

6 minutes ago, kevwun said:

That was a tweet about an Astros' prospect who was caught on video in the act and was released.   I am not making excuses for anyone or justifying anything, just getting the facts straight.

Great point.  Thanks for the clarity..... When the pics come out of the victim (and they will), it's going to be interesting to see what happens.... probably during the offseason.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Patrick Bateman

[Helobious 9820]

13 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

but Helbious said they were hanging up on people...

 

 

Looks like I was right & you were wrong.

[spystud13 2371]

Leonys Martín to Indians, they needed a CF. 

[Mitch Hedberg 2117]

1 hour ago, pacman said:

Astros thread seems very accepting.

Like most cases of DV, Osuna will get off due to money and popularity and probably a payoff.

Case seems clear, emergency call to police was made during the assault. Police arrived and immediately arrested him after finding a bruised, bloodied female who had been punched in the face and pushed down the stairs as well.

It's clear hypocrisy by Astros but it's business and sports, not a place for your moral compass. 

 

MLB did its job, now he gets to try and not fuck up again.

Can you give us a link to where you found those details? As far as I know no one knows exactly what happened and no details were ever released. Everyone keeps confusing the Astros former minor leaguer and Osuna.

And I don’t know where Passan got his info either. I’ve looked over Twitter and the internet and found hardly anything. Canadian law evidently puts this stuff on lockdown. Maybe after the court appearance tmrw. 

And I haven’t seen very much acceptance at all anywhere. Quite the opposite.

[mbtex 697]

Heard interview with lawyer for Osuna. Does not sound like anything will come out tomorrow. 

[Sbbruin 22144]

33 minutes ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

Nationals will be kicking themselves when Harper leaves in the off season and they got nothing for it. Belief like Rizzo has can drive a man and front office insane.

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.  And no good thing ever dies.

[spystud13 2371]

Brad Ziegler back to DBacks. 

[txhorns 2421]

26 minutes ago, Mitch Hedberg said:

Can you give us a link to where you found those details? As far as I know no one knows exactly what happened and no details were ever released. Everyone keeps confusing the Astros former minor leaguer and Osuna.

And I don’t know where Passan got his info either. I’ve looked over Twitter and the internet and found hardly anything. Canadian law evidently puts this stuff on lockdown. Maybe after the court appearance tmrw. 

And I haven’t seen very much acceptance at all anywhere. Quite the opposite.

Osuna accepted the largest suspension for domestic violence in MLB history without putting up a fight.  He didn't even appeal.  He simply agreed to take a 75 game UNPAID hiatus from baseball.  The MLBPA didn't fight it.  There is only one reason that no one even tried to fight the suspension and that is that he is guilty.  The odds are greater that this is much worse than anyone expects than the odds of him being innocent.

[Pato del Muerto 53506]

8 minutes ago, txhorns said:

Osuna accepted the largest suspension for domestic violence in MLB history without putting up a fight.  He didn't even appeal.  He simply agreed to take a 75 game UNPAID hiatus from baseball.  The MLBPA didn't fight it.  There is only one reason that no one even tried to fight the suspension and that is that he is guilty.  The odds are greater that this is much worse than anyone expects than the odds of him being innocent.

But he wasn’t an Astro when he beat her. If he gets caught beating her or another woman now, the Astros will act disgusted and look to trade him before waiving him. 

[Huckleberry 34657]

Yeah there aren't any logical explanations for what's happened since his arrest other than he's guilty as hell.

 

Nobody gives a shit about one anonymous internet fan but I won't be purchasing any Astros tickets or merchandise or even wearing merchandise I already own until Osuna is off the roster. And I might not even watch games anymore. I don't want to be in the uncomfortable position of hoping Osuna does well. Unless by some completely unforeseen result we learn that he wasn't guilty. But as already pointed out, who sacrifices half their salary and declines to appeal via their union if they're not guilty?

 

 

[David Dennison 19542]

7 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Yeah there aren't any logical explanations for what's happened since his arrest other than he's guilty as hell.

 

Nobody gives a shit about one anonymous internet fan but I won't be purchasing any Astros tickets or merchandise or even wearing merchandise I already own until Osuna is off the roster. And I might not even watch games anymore. I don't want to be in the uncomfortable position of hoping Osuna does well. Unless by some completely unforeseen result we learn that he wasn't guilty. But as already pointed out, who sacrifices half their salary and declines to appeal via their union if they're not guilty?

Brave.

[Huckleberry 34657]

Brave.

When you have a 10-year-old son who considers watching games with his old man a good time and likes to bond over it it is actually a big deal. I'll also explain to him why I'm not watching anymore.

But don't let that get in the way of your efforts to single out a specific aspect of a longer post to make a feeble attempt at an internet burn.

[David Dennison 19542]

4 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

When you have a 10-year-old son who considers watching games with his old man a good time and likes to bond over it it is actually a big deal. I'll also explain to him why I'm not watching anymore.

But don't let that get in the way of your efforts to single out a specific aspect of a longer post to make a feeble attempt at an internet burn.

It was the "might not" that caught my attention. 

[MC Fresh Breath 4075]

Pretty cool.

 

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/minor-league-pitcher-gets-taken-out-of-game-to-go-to-major-leagues/c-288022184

 

[pacman 7508]

10 minutes ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

Pretty cool.

 

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/minor-league-pitcher-gets-taken-out-of-game-to-go-to-major-leagues/c-288022184

 

and many butt slaps were given...

[miguelito 11505]

That's great.

[spystud13 2371]

Scrappy’s second favorite player, Cameron Maybin, to Mariners. 

[Scraps 13800]

Scrappy’s second favorite player, Cameron Maybin, to Mariners. 

Well i now hate him

[henrygandorf 29225]

4 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Thanks, that's fair enough, I haven't seen the interview. 

Just blows my mind that Luhnow said that he consulted current players, but Verlander wasn't one of them?

 

just wanted to throw out another tidbit - in the correa interview (similar to verlander's) at his locker, he said luhnow consulted with altuve, but he didn't know who else.  he (luhnow) obviously didn't consult correa or verlander.  when asked if he (correa) knew osuna personally, correa said he met him at last year's asg and seemed like a good guy (paraphrasing), but he didn't know him.

as an astros fan, the guys i would want consulted on a deal (especially a non-rental like osuna) would be altuve, verlander, and mccann.  without knowing what other due diligence was done concerning osuna, it's disappointing if luhnow didn't go to at least 2 of those guys, although i obviously trust altuve to speak for the team.  he is the astros for the foreseeable future.

[spystud13 2371]

Wilson Ramos to Philly. 

[Beau Vine 55867]

1 hour ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

Pretty cool.

 

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/minor-league-pitcher-gets-taken-out-of-game-to-go-to-major-leagues/c-288022184

 

 

[henrygandorf 29225]

4 minutes ago, spystud13 said:

Wilson Ramos to Philly. 

philly and atlanta are making moves.  washington is...letting everyone know they will not be making moves?  bold move.

[txhorns 2421]

Washington would do best to sell pretty aggressively right now.

[Dewey 3332]

I guess I missed something, why would anyone trade for Harper right now? Give up all your assets only to join the bidding war at seasons end? The guy isn't going to sign any new deal until he gets every team in the room fighting over him. Good work by the Nats.

[Beau Vine 55867]

2 hours ago, spystud13 said:

Brad Ziegler back to DBacks. 

One of my favorite players ever.

 

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Beau Vine

[Beau Vine 55867]

5 minutes ago, txhorns said:

Washington would do best to sell pretty aggressively right now.

Everyone except Mike Rizzo seems to understand this.

[henrygandorf 29225]

4 minutes ago, Dewey said:

I guess I missed something, why would anyone trade for Harper right now? Give up all your assets only to join the bidding war at seasons end? The guy isn't going to sign any new deal until he gets every team in the room fighting over him. Good work by the Nats.

i think for the right package, it could make sense for both teams (to make a harper deal), but it wouldn't have anything to do with signing him long term.  in fact, i would guess the teams interested aren't even thinking about signing him, they want him as a rental to help win right now.

not only are the nats going to keep him, not win the world series (or likely get to the postseason), but after they let him walk, even if they make a qo, they'll get (what an article estimated was around) the 135th pick in the draft for comp, because of the recent rule changes.  not ideal.

[spystud13 2371]

Brandon Kintzler to the Cubs. There’s your Nats’ move! 

[txhorns 2421]

4 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

i think for the right package, it could make sense for both teams (to make a harper deal), but it wouldn't have anything to do with signing him long term.  in fact, i would guess the teams interested aren't even thinking about signing him, they want him as a rental to help win right now.

not only are the nats going to keep him, not win the world series (or likely get to the postseason), but after they let him walk, even if they make a qo, they'll get (what an article estimated was around) the 135th pick in the draft for comp, because of the recent rule changes.  not ideal.

This correct.  The Nationals don't look like they are making the post season this year.  By trading him right now they could probably get back 3 quality but not terrific prospects.  That is better than 1 draft pick.

[Beau Vine 55867]

deleted because HG just said exactly what I posted.

 

WHY CAN'T WE ACTUALLY DELETE POSTS!!??!?!

Edited July 31, 2018 by Beau Vine

[TheFlagship 466]

Wow the Pirates are the favorites for Archer now