Bellhorn04

If I was moderator I would delete every post that took a personal shot at another poster. It would be fun.

You could be right about all of this. I guess we'll just have to see if things turn around for the better at all.

That's a pretty typical post mortem comment though. It's pretty rare that players pile on a guy who just got fired unless there was some serious hate.

Of course I don't have enough information, and neither do you or anyone else. But if pressed on it, I'd say it's a case of having to do something to try to change things for the better. I don't think it's a PR move. That doesn't make a lot of sense. What great PR do they get from this move? To me it's a baseball move unless I see evidence to the contrary.

Yes it's 5 weeks into the season, but it's also his 3rd season, so they know him pretty well. They said they didn't think he was communicating well with this year's staff. One of the beat reporters-Brian McPherson, I believe-kept a tally on Nieves's mound visits this year. His numbers showed that after 19 visits, the next batter had a hit or walk 15 times. Obviously that in itself didn't get him fired, but you could look at it as symptomatic of a problem. The bottom line is, none of us know jackshit about why he really got fired. We probably never will.

I'm not buying into anything. Please note how I phrased my statement - 'wasn't necessarily', 'possible', 'maybe'. You and iortiz are the ones who are so certain about being right, based on nothing.

Firing the pitching coach wasn't necessarily a desperation move. That's possible, but maybe it was just the right move.

Rickie won in spectacular fashion, huh? He owns that crazy 17th hole like nobody else. He's never put one in the water there, and this week he played it 6 times and birdied it 5 of them. Incredible.

You guys have never had enough of this stuff. Insatiable.

Weird, but not fluky.

Including this game, 8 games, 16 runs scored (2.0 per game), 38 allowed.

Yeah, he has a lot of young followers, right down to little kids. He's definitely good for the game.

I'd like to see Rickie win. He's due for a win.

I've always found the Players to be kind of a strange tournament. Supposedly it has the strongest field of any tournament. Over the years there have been calls to make it the 5th major championship, but it looks like that ain't happening, so it has to settle for being the biggest non-major. The winner gets a 10-year tour exemption, I believe, which is a huge prize. What makes this tournament weird is the last two holes, especially the 17th-the island green par 3. This hole has been heavily criticized over the years for being unfair and worse-for being a complete gimmick, rinky-dink, Mickey Mouse. Yesterday the pin was on the back of the green. Ernie Els hit a tee shot that landed a few feet from the hole, but it bounced hard and trickled off the back into the water. Re-load, big guy. The 18th hole is a beast too, a long par 4 with water all down the left side that the fairway curls around. In the first round I saw Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, playing in the same group, both hook their tee shots a bit, both into the drink. If you like watching pros hit it in the drink, this tournament is for you. You'll see more balls in the water than at a nudist beach on a ninety-degree day.

Another Canadian, David Hearn, is T3 at the Players after 2 rounds.

Sorry. Black humor is the only thing working for me right now.

It's OK. That'll all even out by the end of the year.

This team might get everyone fired before they're done.

Yes, our 4-5-6 hitters are hitting 165, 143 and 152.

You just noticed?

Most baseball players seem to do pretty good in that department. Maybe it was super models who put Jeter in the HOF.

Jays fans: Hanley is still out, and the Sox offense has started the year much worse than expected. Hopefully Sanchez can take advantage. Fortunately, Wade Miley sucks.

Huh? He's a streaky hitter off to a slow start. Or maybe he's getting old and losing it a bit. No idea why you would bring juice into it.

The Lackey trade looks pretty bad at this point. Don't be surprised if something 'leaks' out of the Sox FO about Lackey causing problems last year.

Yes, 4 years is below market for Porcello. FanGraphs predicted he would get a 6 year deal as a free agent. This is one of the crucial points of this whole debate.