Dojji

THen I'm glad Slasher is not the GM. There will be plenty of ways to redress this problem without going and doing something that drastic. You have at least until the first month of next season, if you make any move before then it will be decidedly premature. And there are plenty of pro grade LF's one can pick up in the offseason if it does become clear that AB won't be ready to go this Spring -- and in the worst case scenario we're a contender with Brock Holt everyday in left so that should be born in mind too. He's a great player. I'd hate to lose him. I'd be really broken up about this if I actually thought we had.

We don't even know if there's ANY permanent damage. If he has any kind of surgery, then I'll worry, but we won't even know if there will be surgery for awhile, possibly some weeks. If this can just be rehabbed out, (and with a sprain this is very possible) he should bounce back like nothing happened.

Yes. I don't do the porn thing, and I don't beat people over the head with my religion.

I would rather have Vazquez in the bigs right now than Holaday. Even if he doesn't hit. And I like Holaday.

Spuddy's probably got some residual frustration about Rusney Castillo. Although I can't say I appreciate the casual racism, even though I am not in any way Cuban.

Oh come on debbie downer, lots of athletes get sidetracked by knee injuries and come back the next year and are perfectly fine. It happened to Tek in 2006, and the next year he was back at an All Star level, and Tek was a lot older than Beni at the time..

I would be comfortable with Vazquez as a backup-that-can-hit-a-bit. A guy you could give the reins for 3 weeks and be fine, that's a top quality backup. That's always been his floor. They'll try to get his bat going if they can, but even if they can't, Vazquez is a major leaguer for his defense alone.

All I know is *I* don't touch the stuff. That's all I'm answerable for.

Yeah, bible thumping has nothing to do with actual religion. it's more of a symptom. The more a religion is tolerated the more fanatics it accumulates.

I'm open to the idea of Encarnacion, but not sure I want to commit to 7 years of Encarnacion when he's only been an elite hitter for 5.

Another good one.

When someone makes an argument I've already replied to in a prior post, I find it saves time to quote myself rather than repeat myself. A bit narcissistic perhaps but we all have our own little flaws.

Last year is not a fluky year. Flukes happen when you can't ascertain the cause of a shift of performance. We know why Pablo became awful, his lifestyle caught up with him. The only reason it feels fluky is because it caught up with him a few years earlier than it does for a lot of very fat players. Can he get himself turned around? Yeah. But the desire has to go down to his core. It has to be a real and complete lifestyle change. If he goes back to being a social eater he won't change. If he does the just-once routine, he's not going to change. If he thinks for one second that it isn't going to take a LEGENDARY amount of work to fix what a lifetime's steady self-abuse has caused, he's not going to change. We're talking about a complete change of mindset and full devotion to athletics over everything else. Not family, not celebrations, not socialization, not enjoying the fruits of your labors. Athletics and athletics ONLY. That's one of the hardest things to do when you're wealthy and living comfortably. I'm just not sure the character traits are there to really hang a lot on Pablo having the change of heart that will allow him to change his body.

So... yeah. Bout dat smallminded fury.

Close to average is a real stretcher for a guy who was the worst player in major league baseball in 15 and a DNP this year. I'm just saying, it's one thing to say it's possible but I ain't exactly betting my nonexistent house on it.

If he's healthy for Truck Day, I'll call it good enough. I do hold out a little hope that he might be able to come back in a limited role if we go deep enough into the postseason.

Will Middlebrooks, 2014, .191/.256/.265 You were saying?

Farrell isn't a bad manager. Farrell isn't a good manager. If the team is going badly he won't pull wizardry out of his hat to save it. If the team is doing well, he won't make boneheaded decisions that torpedo its success (fan wangst about small insignificant moves notwithstanding). Because all managers take risks and play the odds, there will be times when Farrell makes moves that don't work. These will include two kinds of moves that don't work -- calculated risks that don't pay off, and moves that seemed right at the time but did not pan out that way He will also make many moves that do work, and well be ignored because they did work and so everything is fine. Because the focus isn't (and can't be) always on winning the game right in front of you, fans can always point to times when Farrell made decisions that didn't win the game in front of him, at least in their own heads. All of these things are part and parcel of an average manager. No one who has said words in this thread in the last 6 months has said anything new or interesting. Farrell isn't the greatest manager in the history of ever but he is also nowhere NEAR bad enough to worry about replacing. He is right in the middle, a solid rank-and-filer, and anyone you replace him with will be subject to every criticism our smallminded fury idiotically assumes is somehow uniquely his.

Because the pitching has improved lately and there is little else to talk about.

I actually like him OK. I don't TRUST him though.

Ahh, my mistake in not being clear enough. I was thinking more of an offseason move, which is why I mentioned the gap at DH.

What worries me about bringing Buchholz back again is that someone might get silly and relegate E-Rod in order to make Buchholz happy, especially if he shows one of his ephemeral hot streaks going down the stretch. I see that as a problem because I am firmly convinced E-Rod is the better pitcher and don't want to see the team get penny wise and pound foolish over Buchholz yet AGAIN, after seeing them do it so often before.

What you mean to say, is he's what Bryce Brentz was supposed to be.

I wonder if it's time to bring Brandon Moss home. Moss is to righties as Young is to lefties, and we have holes at corner OF and 1B, both of which he plays. we also have a hole next year at DH. We could definitely give him playing time and he may wind up filling a need. We could have a formal platoon in left and Moss could also spell Hanley at first or DH from time to time. I think he'd be a great fit.