drewski6

I get that its fun trying to use what you got. Trying to win with a disadvantage of limited resources. Trying to get the most out of player x, trying to coach up player y. Trying to see something in a player that nobody else saw and now hes contributing and you got yourself a bargain. Trying to be like I think we can be fine at 1b with a bunch of "ifs" and "justifications" but without a 1b. Its fun in video games to take the worse team and build them up without signing the best fa's. Its a challenge and its fun. But its also egotistical and provides cover to cheapskate billionaires and gun-shy GMs

its the mlb that sucks right now, not us.

My issue right now is not that we have gone over a half decade without being truly competitive. My issue is that we have gone over a half decade without being truly competitive in a painfully weak MLB, where teams are selling off and still finding their way into the playoffs. Its one thing to get got by a tiger when the tiger is chasing you and 5 runners. Its another thing entirely to get got by the tiger when it is chasing you and 5 fatties. You couldnt outrun the fatties?

Im not saying that injuries didnt impact. Im saying every team in teh MLB except for 3 are trying to just be good enough, adn we arent one of the three. There is a huge complacency problem in mLB right now, thats how teams are selling off and still making the playoffs. Thats absurd and this isnt some 1 yr fluke. It was detroit last year, guardians this year. We are competing against teams like KC. The whole freaking AL is full of teams like KC. The truth is we arent trying hard enough, but really neither is anybody. This isnt the nineties where stacked teams are losing out to more stacked teams. That i understand. This is a race to the bottom. Teams are trying to just do enough, and im at the point where i kinda hope the dodgers win 10 world series in a row. Cuz im sick of cheapskate billionaires selling us a mediocre product. The red sox had a chance this year, and appears to have blown it. With complacency in the offseason, with complacency during the season. Not trying to actually fix holes. Just getting DFA guys and calling up rookies. Our biggest get on paper was May , a guy who had lost his job. Nate Lowe also is here because he lost his job elsewhere. Maybe go get guys who didnt get fired? The injuries may have turned us from the 4th best team in a disgustingly weak landscape to the 6th best. Maybe that is the diff between playoffs and not. Maybe they were the straw that broke the camels back. But Ive seen worse. Idont care what fangraphs says, the yankess injuries were worse. Imagine losing Crochet for the entire season in spring training. THe injuries dont excuse yet another mediocre team failing to seperate itself in a disgustingly weak AL. Not because every team has injuries. Not because all injuries are the same. NOt because we had a chance to fix our injuries and didnt. Because your fangraphs thing is misleading and our injuries were bad but not that bad. You should never point to injuries to rookies to disrupt your season unless you are like an nba team who had the first pick in the draft or maybe an nfl team with a tip-top qb coming in.

Thats just not how it works in sports. They were relying on rookies because they were complacent or didnt want to spend. Teams that want to win dont think our rookies are gonna bring us there. Even MJ didnt win anything until he was in the NBA for years. Rookies are just not going to get you there. ANd what you are saying, is that this team didnt expect to go anywhere this year....But thats because they were relying on rookies. Its chicken vs egg. If this organization was aggressive they would have not gone into the season with so many question marks.

Correct. If you have a rookie making an impact, you add because you have a pleasant surprise and your window has opened sooner than you expected. So time to fortify. You dont go , well yay, a couple of people doing better than we thought. TIme to take the foot off the gas

Hey look at all the noodlebats on a team that sold off on the deadline, but is still better than the rest of the absolute dog-crap AL somehow. Maybe we can sneak in this year or next with noodle-bats also? Why even try to win? You see teams trying to lose (selling-off) and sneaking in. *This isnt directed at you , this is directed at MLB If we cant win, go Dodgers! I will not root for GMs selling off and cheap owners.

Right, you two are agreeing. This team did not choke. This team was not deep enough with the bats to enter the season. THen they traded Devers without replacing him and thought the rookies would carry us and that usually doesnt go well. Choke implies playing down. I think this team is who they are, at present. Too many noodle-bats, carried by some better than expected stretches. I wouldnt say this is a choke job. I would say this is water finding its level (mediocre)

No we're saying the roster on the hole should have been stronger. The injuries - Ive seen worse years. 2 rookies a few pitchers who we knew were likely to get hurt coming into the year, sure bregmans injury hurt, but thats one dude.

And if you are in a position where you are relying on a 21 yr old rookie, you already failed.

Hes just not following the guardians closely.

I feel the pain of everyone, yet I feel nothing

guardians as sellers dont desrve anything. None of these teams do. KC passed us last year, they didnt deserve it. Neither did the twins. The mariners dont. These teams are just not aggressive enough about building their roster. They look at their team and settle. We did too. Too much offseason hopium, especially on the lineup side. Thats where we are. I agree that our injuries are providing too much cover. Not counting the guys who we knew were going to have issues this year (Houck, Sandoval, Craw)...How many all-stars do we have on the shelf? You should have never been in a position to bat rookies in the top 5 of your lineup. You shouldnt be one bat injury away from batting Masa clean up and seeing a big drop off after him. If Mayer never got hurt, he should be in AAA. We shouldnt be using RA injury as some excuse either because its not like we entered the season counting on him. Like Ive said before, you have to prepare for attrition on BOTH sides of the ball. SO you need like 7-10 proven solid hitters so when the playoffs come you have 4-5 still standing. ANd you need to add throughout the year. We didnt.

Ive told him before that he oft overlooks how badly other teams are run. The dodgers, phils and yankees got to where they are because the rest of the league let them.

What if you are none of those things but you have bright orange hair that sticks straight up and a gem in your belly.

Its because it was to Oak. Each game has an assigned chance of win %, so if you lose one the predictive algo penciled you to win, its gonna hurt more than if you lost to LAD in LA

Theres logic in this for sure.

I mean - we just saw this last year. Bregman turned down a very fair offer from his Astros the team he has been with through all those memories to chase max dollars. Now, I dont think its fair to suggest that this makes him not a team guy. Team guy has to do with helping teammates and being positive influence on the team, which he will, even if he is unwilling to take a discount. But if Bregman was willing to turn down a fair contract from the stros because he thought he could get more, hed do it to us too. If he does opt out, and lean towards he will....Then we may have to let him play the market. Either he gets something that we were unwilling to give him from like the Tigers or maybe back to the Stros or one of the teams that love to splash money around, we cant be mad. But theres also a chance he comes back looking to negotiate with us.

Assuming Breg doesn opt out, I see it , you have 3 spots up for grabs. Mayer does not get 2b gift-wrapped. You need to get a legit , middle of the order bat for one of those positions. There arent many MI who fit that bill, but Marte is one. So if you get him, Mayer goes to minors (or more likely is sent in the trade), and it takes the stress off needing to find a masher who can play 1b or dh. You cant roll with questionable in-house candidates at 3 positions if we want to keep improving.

And I think if one things so, they are underrating Gio. We see Gio when he slumps, when Ryan slumps - we notice it less because we arent watching those games as closely.

I dont think so.

Too much optimism counting on both Lowe/Casas to be healthy / productive. I guess 2 out of 3 if you include Yoshida. I think they gotta go fetch a more established power bat. Casas is a walking injury waiting to happen. Dude doesnt even know how to run.

When my mothers now deceased dog would stay with us, I would walk the dog and let the cat out while I did so and kitty would stick with us the whole way. She loved going on a family walk. When Sophie (the dog) and I would turn around, the cat would turn around. Shed never be more than a few steps away.

I assure you Boras didnt get to where he got by not listening to his clients. More likely Boras is willing to be seen as the bad guy and shielding his clients from fan-frustration from clients demanding more money, but its the client driving. There have been a few exceptions Im sure. I think I remember Dice-k telling Boras to chill.

Are there clicks? Is there like a click of 2 dogs and 1 cat and they are like the popular ones. We want a breakdown of the social dynamics!