Edgy MD

One of the reasons you get closers through trades is that there's no misundertstanding that their role is to pitch when asked to. If Callaway is serious about moving away from the designated ninth-inning closer, he's already the manager of the year in my book. If he bunts against the shift I'll name a child after him.

Ceetar wrote: I like Harrison previously but he seemingly started declining. This sentence also tended to work as an answer to "Who's your favorite Beatle?" after, say 1974.

I support Flores as much anybody, but I think alternatives that don't count on him and Cabrera being 24-7 players are rich and rewarding things. But we'll see.

How do you like my Votto deal now, sister?

Mike Puma is reporting Jed Lowrie and versatile 2014 wonder Josh Harrison as other prospective infield candidates. Man, this isn't narrowing down quickly, is it?

#leadership

Here's a thread on Trading Harvey. That's from when he was, you know, an asset.

Indeed. As I said, that's some disturbing loose-lippedness. You've got to protect your information. Even if you're a free agent, you save that shit for your new team. So, unless the guy is really dumb (which is totally possible), maybe it's part of a counter-information strategy. Circles within circles.

Mike Napoli hit pretty crapoli in 2017, but that was an injury year, his L/R splits are good, he's worked with Callaway in the past, and he might be the righthanded insurance for Dominic Smith that all the kids want, and could probably be had on a one-year deal, or maybe one and an option. A big downside is he doesn't really play anywhere besides first, but he used to be a catcher, and maybe can be an emergency third-stringer back there. Can definitely drag the Mets into bearded age with the big shrub on his face and his WWF pattern baldness. [fimg=700:2a0z0s0r]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Mike_Napoli_in_2017_%2835176934554%29_%28cropped%29.jpg/1200px-Mike_Napoli_in_2017_%2835176934554%29_%28cropped%29.jpg[/fimg:2a0z0s0r] Stories praise him as a leader, but he strikes me as the growly kind.

That's a good point. It's why I have a little pitter-patter in my heart for Jurickson Profar. There's hope in the secondary numbers that may not be shining in the primaries.

Reporting by Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci is supposedly quoting a disturbingly loose-lipped Houston Astro, letting the world know that they destroyed Yu Darvish in the World Series because they deciphered his tells, and knew what was coming. I guess, at some level, if you take this account at face value, you can look at it optimistically. Tipping can be fixed without delving too deeply. It beats waking up one morning and your control has abandoned you or your breaking pitch has lost its bite.

Gleyber will probably appear in 2018, but counting on him from opening day? That'd be surprising.

I hear Jeter was offering to include the memory of José Fernandez if the Yanks would send back a few more $$.

Good hands, big league experience, second base specialization, and redundancy, I guess.

So, is Miguel Andujar and his eight career plate appearances now their #1 thirdbaseman? With the scarecely-more-experienced Ronald Torreyes at second?

I don't know if the light burst around Granderson and Reyes' hands is authentic or digital manipulation, but it makes it look like an explosion of chalk. Either way, it makes the shot a winner for me.

Yup. Really good composition, conveying a lot of information but somehow keeping the clutter from being garish.

Joel Sherman has suggested the name of Ryan Goins has been floated about. I love Doug Flynn as much anybody, and more than most, but if we're goin' Goins, I'm hoping it's on a minor league deal.

Nymr83 wrote: Harvey hasn't shown he is healthy enough to get back what he had. I question whether health is the issue. His velocity was down last year, but by how much? From 96 to 94? He should be able to work at that speed to get outs. But what was really lost was his precision control. He was all over the place, missing off the plate and missing over the plate. That may be a function of diminished health, true, but it also may be a function of the other things that make a guy pitch with control: discipline, coordination, confidence, etc. If the issue is those latter things, I'm not sure it makes him more or less likely to rebound, but I sure hope the project is more focused on the control than the extra 2 MPH. He gets more outs with his slider than his fastball anyway. Or he did.

Marvin Miller wasn't a union rep. Josh Thole was a union rep. Rusty Staub was a union rep. Marvin Miller was the executive director. He was executive director of the most successful union in America during it's most successful era. And the game has reaped untold benefits because of it.

I never asserted anything as fact with regard to his teammates' feelings.

Ceetar wrote: Don't object to my posts by pretending I said something I didn't and then assert that I'm jerking you around. I didn't pretend anything. And you were jerking me around. Please don't presume to tell me what to do.

Centerfield wrote: But I've never heard one report, one suggestion, that he wasn't well liked by his teammates. I've certainly gleaned several times that coaches and teammates were pissed at him. Much of it may require reading between the lines, and quotes out of context. While none of it is conclusive in itself, there is a convincing preponderance, including and especially Terry Collins choosing not to back him up at key times.

Ceetar wrote: then learn to read. Really? We're going there?

You'd probably like it more than not. What I think works best is the frenetic style. From a brief surreal moment where the main character is oblivious to what's happening around her and then sees a man run down the subway steps on fire, she exits onto streets that are familiar but insane. It's unclear what direction the threat is coming from, who the good guys are, or why anything is happening. People are killed utterly senselessly and the pillars of her small home-neighborhood world are falling apart around her. I have little clue, but it's what I sensed that it was what life must've suddenly become in Aleppo. And it put me in mind of how hatefully oblivious people were who rejected the very idea of refugees, saying they should go back and fight for their country. How do you stand and fight in a situation where one day is trips to the deli, swimming lessons, and a visit to your mom's endocrinologist, and the next day is absolutely insane, with a well financed army raining destruction on you from vantage points you can't even see? It's all done with handheld cameras running alongside the actors, with mostly practical effects, one character suddenly appearing, having an exchange with the principles, and then deleted by a sniper shot like they were never there, as the other characters just go on, because they have to. Every death is pointless, which makes it's point. Look for poetry elsewhere. It's like the urban, gritty, existentialist Sidney Lumet street dramas of the seventies, with a broader chaotic war-film scope, more approaching Saving Private Ryan or something. The problem is a search for a message in the script, beyond the tone of the direction. I have my doubts that this urban Red Dawn occupational army could get a toehold in Brooklyn, when New York is wired to the hilt to detect against hostile threats. You may set off a bomb, but digging in with an army is another thing. It's never quite clear how they arrived, either. Plus the film is loaded with an uneasy ambiguity about private ownership of assault weapons. Watch out, those guys loading up on weapons may be planning an insurgency, but hey, you'd better load up on weapons for the counter-insurgency. I'd be more inclined to hole up for a few days. And in this search for meaning, the most stagey moments become the most eyerolling absurd. When a disturbed priest (in the basement of a church that sounds more Pentecostal than Catholic) goes into a batshit crazy monologue, you know the script isn't going to save the day. It briefly tries to make a point about strength through diversity, but abandons that thought mostly as too cute. But the story told with the cameras and tone and utter chaos can keep you glued nonetheless.