bkzwhitestrican

From Mike Axisa, a biased Yankees writer, but I enjoyed it of course: "I wish I was surprised. Earlier this week commissioner Rob Manfred disciplined the Red Sox for their sign-stealing scandal and the punishment is incredibly weak. Here's the report (PDF link) and here's a recap of their punishment: Forfeit 2020 second round pick. Replay operator J.T. Watkins suspended for 2020 and banned from that job in 2021. That's it. Not even a token $5M slap on the wrist fine. In his report, Manfred made sure to clarify Alex Cora was suspended for 2020 for "his conduct as the bench coach of the Houston Astros in 2017," not for anything he did as Red Sox manager. We're supposed to believe Cora was the ringleader of a massive sign-stealing scandal with the 2017 Astros -- Manfred's own report identified him as a mastermind -- who then went to the Red Sox and was not involved in their extremely similar* sign-stealing scandal the very next season. It was just one giant coincidence and he was an innocent bystander? Come on now. Manfred also said he is "mindful that because the 2020 First-Year Player Draft may be as few as five rounds, (forfeiting the pick) may have a more significant impact on the Red Sox than in a normal year," which I guess is true, but it's still weak. The Yankees were punished more for signing Gerrit Cole (forfeited second and fifth round picks) than the Red Sox were punished for cheating after they told MLB they would stop cheating the last time they got caught cheating (forfeited second round pick). Remember when the Red Sox got busted for the Apple Watch scandal in 2017? When Manfred announced their fine, he said he received "absolute assurances from the Red Sox that there will be no future violations of this type." They did it the next season! The very next season. This is the timeline: The Red Sox got caught cheating in 2017. The Red Sox told Manfred they would not cheat again in the future. The Red Sox cheated again in 2018. The Red Sox are a repeat offender -- serial cheaters across multiple seasons and brazen enough to do it again even after they told the commissioner they would stop -- and that's the punishment? Seriously? Manfred put it all on Watkins, a relatively low level staffer, and said "unlike the Astros’ 2017 conduct, in which players communicated to the batter in real time the precise type of pitch about to be thrown, Watkins’s conduct, by its very nature, was far more limited in scope and impact." Manfred tried to downplay the scandal by saying the stolen signs were "only relevant when the Red Sox had a runner on second base (which was 19.7% of plate appearances league-wide in 2018)," or, you know, pretty much the 19.7% most important plate appearances. They stole signs, but it was only in high-leverage situations, so it's not a big deal. That's what we're being told. What the hell man? Between the Red Sox and the Astros, this much has been made clear: cheating is absolutely worth it. The punishment is a slap on the wrist and the potential reward is enormous. I'm not dumb enough to believe the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox won the World Series only because they stole signs, those were two very talented rosters, but the sign-stealing might've put them over the top. The Yankees lost two one-run games in the 2017 ALCS and two one-run games 2018 ALDS. The difference in each series could've been a stolen sign. What garbage. Steal signs. Who cares. If you get caught, you'll lose a draft pick and have to find a new manager, and that's about it. By the commissioner's own admission, two of the last three World Series winners cheated across multiple seasons, all while MLB gets into bed with casinos and legalized gambling. Nothing to see here folks. Baseball's doing great. All the rogue video replay guy's fault. * The Red Sox were found to have used the video room to decode signs during games so the runner at second base could look into the catcher and relay the sign to the hitter. Manfred's report says the Astros did exactly that before graduating to banging garbage cans and whatnot."

Slap on the wrist. Except for that poor video operator.

I spent 35 bucks last night on "Out of the Park 21", which is basically a comprehensive baseball franchise simulation game. It has partially scratched my baseball itch, I'd recommend it for anyone else who is in withdrawal.

If baseball does come back at some point this year, they should make up the lost games by expanding the postseason. Let 8 teams each from AL & NL into the playoffs, and it would only be for this season. Would be cool to see once.

If we don't care that some players took steroids then this would be my full team and lineup: 1. Mike Trout OF 2. Ken Griffey Jr OF 3. Alex Rodriguez SS 4. Barry Bonds DH 5. Albert Pujols 1B 6. Manny Ramirez OF 7. Miguel Cabrera 3B 8. Robinson Cano 2B 9. Mike Piazza C BNCH Chase Utley 2B/UTL BNCH Ivan Rodriguez C BNCH Chipper Jones 1B/3B BNCH Ichiro Suzuki OF/DH SP1. Pedro Martinez SP2. Roger Clemens SP3. Greg Maddux SP4. Randy Johnson SP5. Roy Halladay SP6. Justin Verlander RP Mariano Rivera RP Trevor Hoffman RP Aroldis Chapman RP Craig Kimbrel RP Billy Wagner RP Francisco Rodriguez RP Joe Nathan

I think we're just defining a super athlete differently. Brady is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in NFL history. But athletic prowess is something different in my mind.

I agree his throwing ability was a major athletic skill. Kind of like Kyle Korver's ability to hit 3 pointers is a major athletic skill. And Brady may be the best thrower of all time but OVERALL athletic he was not. At least not compared to the rest of the league. But then again our definitions of super athlete are probably different. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-cant-miss-plays/0ap3000000986814/Can-t-Miss-Play-Brady-catches-pass-on-trick-play

Brady was a great QB but I wouldn't call him a super athlete. When I think of top athletes in football I think Bo Jackson or Deion or currently Mahomes.

Since there's a good chance the season is going to be 25% shorter, I'd like to revise my answer to 66 or less

Well all of these injuries might not matter (excluding Severino) if the season doesn't start until May anyway. Tough break for guys like Frazier and Ford who would have had an opportunity to prove themselves.

Weird that it went from his shoulder hurting to a broken rib. Ribs typically don't need surgery, and usually take at least a month to heal on their own. But since this supposedly happened in September who knows how far along in the healing process he is. This season is really annoying and it hasn't even started.

I would've liked the Yanks to take a flyer on him. But I imagine Boston was the only team to outright offer him a major league deal, which makes sense in their case with Sale down and a couple of holes in the rotation.

I'd say somewhere around 87-88 wins. Even though they only had 84 last year with a more complete team, I think they underperformed quite a bit. Plus there's plenty of tanking teams in baseball that should boost everyone's records by a handful of games.

So I didn't pay in time to join this last season. BUT if y'all are planning to do this again for 2020 I'd be interested in joining and paying on time.

Our extensions aren't work out so far

Pablo Sandoval

Nice, at this rate we'll be seeing Chad Bettis starting on Opening Day.

Still better than what Bloomberg is doing through his influencers https://www.businessinsider.com/bloomberg-2020-campaign-instagram-memes-tank-sinatra-f***-jerry-2020-2

Carlos Correa: "It was definitely an advantage. I’m not gonna lie to you. Knowing what was coming. I think you get a slight edge. And that's why people got suspended and people got fired because this is not right." Also Carlos Correa: "When you analyze the games, we won fair and square. We earned that championship." Also Correa in response to Bellinger saying the Astros probably cheated the last three years: "what doesn't sit well with me is when you say false statements. If you don't know the facts. If you're not informed. This is America. You can say whatever you want. But Cody Bellinger's job is to look for information. Get informed. Know the facts, for sure, before he stands in front of cameras to talk about other players. You should get informed. You should be informed before you talk about other players. If you don't know the facts, then you've got to shut the f--k up." What an asshat. Admits to cheating and that it gave them an advantage, but also says they won the World Series fair and square. And he says that false statements don't sit well with him, but I guess blatant cheating is fine.

BR released their annual farm rankings along with each team's top 10 prospects. Boston moved up to 26th (they were 30th last year I believe) with Jeter Downs being listed as their #1 prospect (ranked #68 in MLB). Casas is 2nd (#81 in MLB). If Verdugo was still eligible the Sox would probably be closer to 22nd-24th. 1. SS Jeter Downs 2. 3B Triston Casas 3. RHP Bryan Mata 4. 3B Bobby Dalbec 5. RHP Noah Song 6. OF Jarren Duran 7. OF Gilberto Jimenez 8. RHP Tanner Houck 9. RHP Thad Ward 10. LHP Jay Groome

I'm going to enjoy watching Andy Dalton lead the Pats in 2020.

Whoa good call bkz !

Marwin Gonzalez was a bum before that 2017 season, and then all of a sudden he had a .907 OPS. An apology is nice but the only person it really benefits is himself, now he can go to sleep with his WS ring on and not feel bad about it. Watch every other member of that team come out of the woodwork this week to issue a forced apology.

Hinch was asked about whether the Astros players wore buzzers to aid with sign stealing during his MLB network interview the other day. His response: "Well the commissioner -- we got investigated for three months -- the commissioner’s office did as thorough an investigation as anyone could imagine, as possible. I mean, I know you mentioned the emails, and the texts, and the messages, and I believe them." Umm, okay. To me that sounds like "I don't want to say no in case we get caught and then I look even worse, but I don't want to say yes because they might not actually find out."

Wow what a great idea (in response to the article). And how about a play-in tournament between the bottom of the league for the 7th spot in the playoffs??? That would make the MLB even more money!... errr, I mean, be super fun!