Dojji

Stripling through 7

Dodgers' Ross Stripling through 6.

Brock Holt is rapidly becoming my favorite player on this team.

Another tough day for a member of the rotation, but let me just say a word in praise of the bullpen. Noe Ramirez rose to the occasion, and Tavarez-Uehara-Kimbrel shut down the game once we had the lead.

Agreed, NWIH Sandoval makes that play. Shaw is shaping up to be the pleasant surprise of the year. Still reserving judgemment at the moment, it's way too early to do anything else, but so far I'm pretty impressed.

He was being heavily sarcastic RSG

they need to trade him, demote him, or play him. Pick one and do it. We can't be playing with a 24 man roster.

which really helps parity and beefs up the small markets which I like a lot Like Bud or hate him he probably left the league in a better condition than he found it

I'd call hat a good workmanline win. Everyone did their jobs, no real surprises, the players who you'd expect to make big hits made them, the ace was on his game, and the closer hung a 0

Hope you enjoy it. Welcome back to the forum

The dream is alive

Armando galarraga

I think you're right Jung, it's a reasonale idea, I think the team would consider letting Pablo have a game before the home opener.

Somehow I don't think Pablo's problem is hunger. Any and all puns aside, I actually think he really does want to get out there and perform. It's just that there's some prepwork he needs to do to be the best he can be, that he's gotten away with not doing that prepwork in the past based on his talent and natural athleticism, and he can't get away with blowing off the preliminaries anymore and he hasn't fully realized that. I don't intend to question Pablo's hunger to play or his quest for championship. I question his ability to prepare himself to be the best player he can be over the long term. Professional pride can be questioned. As can willingness to actually do what it takes to make the most of his talent. but in the short term yeah I bet he really does want to be the one out there leading the charge. He just needs to get it into his head that there's some things he needs to do to take care of himself so that can happen.

I didn't know you were an Andorian. or perhaps you're more of a Bolian?

That or you're starting fewer massive crapstorms that take over multiple threads due to your own muleheaded stubbornness. Just like Pablo's wasteline, you can only push things so far before there are consequences.

but it's not a fluky year. it's a year brought on by a health problem Pablo has been at risk of his entire career that sprung on him last year and is by all evidence still with him. Until he gets his weight under control, I'd need to convinced that letting him play his way back into shape wasn't just asking for another injury. At least playing off the bench will give him more time to recover between gigs, and considering that a heavier guy racks up additional wear and tear for the same work, it seems to me he might need that.

No he hasn't. Pablo has slowly but steadily gained weight throughout his entire career. Yes, because being fat is something you can theoretically change, it's a poor lifestyle choice, and it's not an attribute that usually combines well with being a professional athlete at an important defensive position that requires a player able to move around, stop, start and change direction quickly. 3b is a oposition that above all else requires quick stop and start mechanics, and it's the one thing that Pablo Sandoval is going to have more and more trouble with both as his waistline expands and as his body ages. Even if he wasn't slowly but steadily expanding his borders, he's at an age when athletes start to break down in little ways, and that's only going to be magnified by the fact that he is a little fatter each year. He needs to bring that back under control somehow, or he's going to be out of the league entirely in the next handful of years. It's a fate that's overtaken quite a few overweight players, especially those who are not pitchers or 1B.

because it's one of her few remaining legs to stand on.

a700 is right. Even if you recongize that he is a prety stocky, thick-bodied guy even without the weight issues, a guy who's 5'11" has no excuse to weigh more than about 220 or so, if they're trying to be in the top physical condition they're capable of being in.

you may not be trying to tilt anything, but the question is tilted. It is not a straight question, and will not get and does not deserve a straight answer. the question about whether Pablo was ready and able to play his position is renedered irrelevant by the fact that he is not. And the question of whether he ever would be again is up to Pablo. Playing time is one way a team can control a player, it's not an entitlement. In fact it's one of the few carrots a team can dangle to reform a player's behavior. So until he works his butt off (literally) and is good to go? Welcome to the bench, Pablo, please sit on the part with the load-bearing legs directly under it.

the assumptions are not because he is fat, Kimmi. the assumptions are because he came into camp 1: heavier than he was last year 2: heavier than his own camp said he was and 3: far heavier than what he promised to report to camp weighing Weight is a secondary issue here. The real issue is that yet again, Pablo Sandoval is not what he advertised himself to be, he did not keep his promises to the franchise to try to keep his weight under control, and he put the team in a bind by his own decisions and actions. If a player had a simplar problem with alcoholism that put the team in a bind because the player was not able to perform his duty, the reaction both by the team and by the fans would have been the same. Of course there will be some additional juvenile immaturity because the problem is specifically his weight, believe me I get that, I've been severely overweight for most of my life. The difference is I didn't sign a contract to perform as a professional athlete, a job that requires physical fitness, and then proceed to completely fail to take care of myself, report into camp well above what the team expected me to weigh, and expect everyone to be fine with this. The weight is secondary here. Broken promises and a player showing up in unexpectedly poor health and in no shape to do the job he's paid for are the real problems, and the sense that since the problem is weight-based, it's also self-inflicted, doesn't help (sometimes that's true, sometimes it isn't, but if Pablo literally can't contain his weight, that's even a bigger problem for the team as he's even less likely to be able to return to playable condition if that is true).

No it isn't. A question that's based on an assumption is as unstraightforward as it gets. The question is one that clearly comes with a bias. A bias is another word for a slant or an angle, not words one normally associates with the word "straightforward." that's what the media would call a "gotcha question" because to answer it at all you have to play into its fundamental assumptions and then the media can call you on the fact that you've done so and find all kinds of ways to put words into your mouth. It's not quite as bad as "when did you stop beating your wife?" but it's in the same category. you haven't got an answer to that question that satisfies you because no one's played into a question that they know is tilted, either deliberately or accidentally. And I'm sorry Kimmy, I have too much respect for your intelligence to assume it was done accidentally..

And those that never made that argument, which you're jumping in with everyone else because for some reason it's all about how you react emotionally to the argument rather than what is actually said?

Is it generally a good idea to expect a player to improve by 3 WAR in a single season? Pablo was effectively a win BELOW replacement last year. I do not understand how you're operating under the assumption that he'll improve his WAR score by 2.9 when there is no physical or on field justification for that level of improvement. If they thought that Sandoval was likely to put in 2 wins above replacement, he would not have been himself replaced. Maybe by a dynamic stud 3b prospect who blew down the door and forced the team to make room for him, but certainly not by a bench 1B who would have been on the roster anyway. I think it's fair to say that judging by their actions, the team disagrees strenuously with your assessment that 2 WAR from Sandoval is a possibility worth having a conversation about.