So I came across this article the other day. I’ll just leave a few excerpts of it here.
Gee whiz, lookit dat anorexic right fielder in the Brooze uniform wearing a latex Ryan Braun face mask. Funny thing about that. It’s a treat to watch that guy, whoever he is, crushing ground ball singles through the infield.
You will hear a lot about the two home runs J T Realmuto hit last night, especially the inside-the-parker he got courtesy of Brooze centerfielder Domingo Santana’s cluelessness about how to play a falling line drive orf a curved surface. Well, I wouldn’t be too upset with myself if I were Santana. I know physicists who haven’t figured out how a particle in spacetime bounces orf a curve, either – and those guys have degrees in place of guaranteed contracts. But on a more interessin’ note, the Feesh announcers played a split-screen recap of Realmuto’s dash around the bases and Dee Gordon’s I-T-P’er from a few weeks back to show how fast the Feesh rookie catcher ackcherley is. He made it around the horn barely a split second behind Gordon. Now, of course, the question is: knowing that there are lots of toad-shaped catcher wannabes out there, how many years do you want this kid squatting in the woods before you decide to save a pair of legs like that for run-scoring services? With Justin Bour (two more ribbies last night) emerging at first base as the guy the Feesh could have brought up from day one instead of wasting a third of a season on Mike Morse, where would you put a reconstituted Realmuto? (And don’t let the name fool you – he can speak, and he’s not a complete genetic accident.) Answer: try him out in the outfield, of course. The Feesh will prolly try to move Scott Boras this orfseason (on the assumption that he’ll take Marcell Ozuna with him), so there’s be an opening out there.
Well, one can dream.
Stupid Manager Tricks: while everyone is busy bashing Matt Williams (he’s so bashable, though) for having Anthony Rendon bunting in the bottom of the ninth, the Meerkat did pretty much the same thing. With one out and Donovan Solano at second, our tactically challenged General/Manager had Cole (.295) Gillespie try to bunt him over, giving up an out in the faint hope that Dee Gordon would drive him in, but Gordon was out of goopher dust and grounded out to short. Granted the stakes weren’t very high in this game, but a dumb move is a dumb move, no?
Ten points if you can guess who wrote it. Discuss.
(OK, I really just wanted a fresh post for us to talk about the topics of the day and I’m too lazy….er busy to write something.)
Update: Still working on finding a good theme. Got some suggestions yesterday will play around with them later. For now I have to go call the bank and take the puppy to get a few shots. And probably find some time for lunch in there. Also, I’m going to work on getting a few of you access rights to post your own posts. Whatever you want. Steal it from other sites, I don’t care, just make sure to give proper link-backs and credit, and well don’t take from a paywall. Maybe today? Maybe tomorrow?
Fan Interference 
Gotta go with OG as the author
LikeLike
So what does everyone think about Matt Williams getting booed at his own presser? I came home last night to find him trending on Twitter, and immediately thought, “Dear lord, what did that doof do now?”
It’s a race to the title of MLB’s crappiest manager, and Williams and ol’ Fredi is running neck and neck. Can’t count that poor sucker down in Miami as he’s just a placeholder.
LikeLike
After watching Maddon manipulate a bullpen for years, Kevin Cash is my runaway favorite for least valuable manager. Boxberger’s his go-to-guy, because he leads the league in saves. The thing is, he has 9 freaking losses. If there is ever a reliever, who needs to be in a few non-critical ballgames, it’s the Box!
The way arbitrators view saves, I figure they’re getting the Box all these saves, so that they don’r have to pay McGee (the far, far better reliever). Who needs a “proven closer, look at all those saves), because Brad Boxberger will be sold to the highest bidder this offseason.
LikeLike
These days, you can’t be just a crummy manager. You have to be spectaculaly boneheaded. :p
There’s been an awful lot of bullpen follies lately. Wonder why that is? You’d think that the Royals’ success last year would cause managers to rethink how they use their arms. Alas, the LaRussa Method is alive and well.
LikeLike
I’ve become quite a fan of the way Maddon is handing the Cub’s bullpen (and rotation for that matter). Egos and “designated roles” be damned, when you have a chance to add a number to the win column in the standings, you grab it with both hands.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, Butthead Brad keeps going to Rondon because it’s an unwritten rule that the Tigers must have a lousy closer — so that’s a gift to you. Frankly, the fact that y’all couldn’t capitalize on the gift-giving event that is Feliz Neftaliball! (everyone gets a present) because Brad regretted that soon enough got my hopes up. But, I knew Rondon was coming. You’re totally getting Lobsteined today, and hopefully Rondon is unavailable. Of course, that means Brad will go with Al-Al instead of Wilson like he should. Short version: take Rondon, please!
LikeLike
Butthead Brad? What happened to beautiful Brad?
How’d you like the throw to end the game last night? I’m pretty sure Sizemore threw it almost 80 feet in the air! For God’s sake, it bounced on the infield dirt!!! He was already playing in, then he ran in some more!
http://m.mlb.com/video/v466152683/tbdet-davis-delivers-walkoff-sac-fly-in-the-13th/?game_pk=415723
LikeLike
They weren’t booing him. They were saying Boo-urns.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was in the stadium last night, and there is no way to describe the state of Nats fans right now. It is literally like they are being forced to watch the same car crash over and over again. I feel bad for them. I’m going again tonight.
LikeLike
How’d you get Craig to blog on here? That was copied, pasted, and snarky remarked with the best of them!
LikeLike
OG expects you to cite is material.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OG in the house. I haven’t been posting lately as work became extremely busy (I hate it when career interferes with life), but if I get more time, I’d like to be a part of this quasi-community. Though of course no one likes my team but me. I noticed today that the Mighty Truffle caught Carlos Correa in both fWAR and bWAR in the same number of plate appearances. Long live the Truffle!
LikeLike
Hey! Welcome to our humble new spot.
LikeLike
Dear Leader, can you summarize the blog post summaries of other articles that HBT puts up? That is, can you steal the information that HBT is stealing from other sources, so that we may comment on those topics here?
LikeLike
I would volunteer to take a day each week to slap a Settling the Score list together but I am on PT and you East Coasters wouldn’t probably care for that. Once scouts gets it set up, maybe it would work out if we took turns…
LikeLike
I’m willing and able to be the late night blogger, like D.J. was. My schedule is best suited for that, mostly because I don’t feel like I could do anything but a piss poor job on my phone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There you are!
LikeLike
I don’t want to outright steal from them, that feels kind of cheap, but if there’s something decent there worth talking about, we can link to it and discuss. Basically do to Craig what he does to everyone else. I’m gonna have this place setup for several people to freely post, because there’s simply no WAY I can do it myself, and eventually we’ll move sites to a more permanent home that will allow basically anyone to post anything they want within reason of course.
LikeLike
HBT is dying, you guys.
LikeLike
So light it up up up up up…..
They’ll come to their senses. I’m not going back though. Made my final post today. The first in 2 days.
LikeLike
We’ve argued, but I really am on your side on that one. It was uncalled for.
I’m sure HBT will thrive like baseball — that is they will count the visitors and feel like a success, even if PFT gets more attention and the curmudgeons move on. It’s going to be something different and that’s find, if that’s what they want. And, we can do what we want too. That’s life.
LikeLiked by 2 people
ehhh…We disagreed one time in a few years. I always respected your opinion more than most. Perhaps that’s why I was such an ass when you weren’t on my side.
LikeLike
We went after the bigots together pretty well.
http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2015/08/10/yankees-affiliate-co-opts-black-lives-matter-to-blue-lives-matter-on-the-anniversary-of-michael-browns-killing/
It hurts to see this in the new format!
LikeLike
snerk I see what you did there.
LikeLike
Is HBT in the best shape of it’s life?
LikeLike
Enjoyably not. Eventually, I’ll get tired of dropping in there for some schadenfreude and let it go. In the meantime, it’s like watching your ex rebound with a dingbat…or get a new toupee and hit the singles scene. Good luck to you, NBC.
LikeLike
Here begins my semi-live blogging of the Cubs/Cards day game. I’m watching on my lappy-toppy today, so why not talk about it on my lappy-toppy too.
Cubs are going for their first sweep in STL since almost exactly 5 years ago, Sept 13/14/15 of 2010. In that series, Carlos Marmol recorded two saves, in the last year that he was any good whatsoever.
So far in his brief time back up, Javy Baez has looked like a completely different person at the plate than he was last year. Everyone knows that Starlin is likely on the way out this offseason, so I’m hoping Baez can really prove himself in this last month.
LikeLike
Cubs ambush a Cardinal starter for the 3rd game in a row, scoring in the top of the 1st. Some very sloppy defense by the Cards, but I’m happy to take it.
LikeLike
This is great. Ya think Rizzo hits another finger today? He’s been pretty hot lately.
LikeLike
Dinger! EDIT BUTTON! …aw, like old times
LikeLike
You could include the score there. lol
LikeLike
For the purposes of my fantasy baseball team, I hope Schwarber and/or Fowler put in some longball work today. But yeah, Rizzo is certainly capable of launching a bomb out of anywhere.
And I think Heyward is out here, but it might be hard to overturn it.
LikeLike
Cubs score a pair in the top of the first, Cardinals answer back with one in their half.
2-1 Cubs after 1.
LikeLike
If Baez can cut that K rate, he’ll be something. So far, o good, but the pessimist in me (and freshman statistics class prof), says give it more than a week to make that determination.
Actually, I don’t think my stat prof was very good at math (state skool). He’d say “memorize the formula on page 134 long enough to enter it on to a TI-85 (NOT provided!), then write it home on your take home exam”.
Basically, 20 PA might be a large sample size. It might be a small one. I don’t know?
LikeLike
I’d been noticing that Baez had looked different so far this year….and like they were reading my mind, fangraphs put together a piece on him today.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/projecting-javier-baez-and-quantifying-his-improvements/
I tend to agree with the ultimate conclusion that he’s still got plenty of work to do, but things are moving in the right direction.
LikeLike
Hitt, just remember, there’s three kinds of people in the world. Those that understand math, and those who don’t!
LikeLike
People forget that Baez was Bryant before Bryant. He’s two years younger and their minor league track records are incredibly similar. Its silly that people wanted to give up on Baez so quickly. If he had two more years of development there is little reason to think he’d be much different than Bryant, and possibly a better defender.
LikeLike
Baez has indeed been very impressive with his glove. He’s already made a nice play on a short hop at 3rd today (Bryant’s getting the day off).
LikeLike
I’m watching too! Go Cubs!
LikeLike
So it turns out that Cardinals CF Grichuk is apparently unable to throw a baseball with any kind of steam on it. Interesting managerial decision there.
Fowler brings home Lester to make the score 3-1. Runners on the corners, 1 out, top 2nd.
LikeLike
I am think Grichuk is still dealing with lingering effects from his injury, but he is a known quantity as opposed to Tommy Pham, who is even greener?
LikeLike
Funny, a Cubs fan calls the Cardinal manager’s completely fucking moronic decision “interesting”.
LikeLike
I’ve been known, on occasion, to find idiocy interesting.
LikeLike
Hey, if Maddon started and OF of Lester, Ross, and Motte…with them batting 3rd, 5th, and 7th….I’d find that pretty interesting….though I’m sure Cub fans would find different words for it.
LikeLike
It must be nice to have a manager where you can feel pretty confident that he isn’t going to do something totally freaking stupid that might cost you the game.
After 3 years, I am pretty sure that Matheny will unnecessarily endanger just about any close post-season game.
LikeLike
It very much is nice. I’m actually still getting used to it. I’ve still got some lingering PTSD from the Dusty Baker years.
Then again, he will occasionally do something insane like make known-arsonist Motte a closer, or bring human-gas-can Rodney into a high leverage situation…..
LikeLike
Then you must find me completely fascinating! 🙂
LikeLike
Clean 1-2-3 for Lester in the 2nd.
Cubs by 2 after 2.
LikeLike
Cubs put a couple more guys on, but Lester decided to hit his line drive right at someone instead of not right at someone. Oh well….clearing the pitcher’s spot in the lineup is always a good thing anyway.
LikeLike
Not everyone can be Zack Greinke! 😉
LikeLike
Maybe if Greinke was a little less like Greinke, Arrieta would be coasting to the CY right now.
LikeLike
Why bring in Rodney? Why? Ugh…
LikeLike
Another 1-2-3 for Lester….Martinez, Carpenter and Piscotty (whose name sounds like my 3 year old niece trying to say “spaghetti”)
3-1 Cubs after 3.
LikeLike
Same score, middle 4th.
It’s taken Carlos Martinez 82 pitches to get 12 outs, continuing the trend of Cub hitters getting into deep counts and making opposing starters work.
LikeLike
1-2-3 for Lester again in the 4th. That’s 11 in a row set down.
LikeLike
Still 3-1 through 5. Martinez’s day is over.
Chris Coghlan ended the bottom of the 5th by taking a header into the stands to catch a foul ball. The clip probably won’t be up on mlb.com for a while, but go check for it later.
He did seem to be running a little limpy on his way back to the dugout, wouldn’t surprise me if he comes out of the game…
LikeLike
Through 6, same score. Lester is cruising, 2 H(both in the 1st inning), 1 BB, and 7 K.
LikeLike
Another 1-2-3 for Lester in the 7th, groundout-flyout-popup. 100+ pitches and with his spot due up in the top of the 8th, I suspect his day is done here.
LikeLike
The normally-dependable-in-the-8th-inning Strop gets the first guy out, but then gives up a walk and a single…..and Maddon wastes no time going out to get him.
This is what I was talking about in that post way up near the top of the page about Maddon’s pitcher usage. This is an important game and there’s no room for bullshitting around.
LikeLike
And Richard gives up a single too.
3-2 Cubs, bottom 8th, runners at 1st and 2nd, 1 out.
Looks like Fernando Rodney coming in. I don’t exactly feel good about this….
LikeLike
And I was right not to feel good about this…
Spaghetti brings home two with a double. 4-3 Cards, bottom 8th.
LikeLike
At least it didn’t get any worse.
4-3 heading to the 9th. Bryant will probably come off the bench to pinch-hit for somebody (maybe Denorfia).
LikeLike
Well, that sucked.
I should be happy that the Cubs went to STL and took two of three, especially in a series that didn’t see Arrieta throw a single pitch.
But when you are just 6 outs away from a sweep….2 out of 3 feels like a disappointment. Shame to waste that performance by Lester too.
This concludes my crappy semi-live blogging of this game. I’m gonna go do a bit of drinking now.
LikeLike
Hey let’s make this “live” blog of the Cubs/Cards it’s own Post!!!!
LikeLike
never mind, screw you guys, im going to a bar.
LikeLike
Yeah, I’d rather be at a bar myself….
LikeLike
Booooo!!!!
LikeLike
i want to read and play along. I will soon
LikeLike
Yea, clyde is here!
LikeLike
Whatup, clyde?
How close are we to having full fan coverage? By my count we have the entire AL Beast, the Tigers, Indians, As, Braves, Marlins, Phillies, Cubs, Cards and Brewers. Am I missing anybody?
LikeLike
Maybe we should have a roll call of teams we follow, or at least pay attention to.
Like if there’s not a full time fan, there’s at least someone who can talk intelligently about them?
LikeLike
Good idea, do me a favor, and put a pin in that, once we get up and running and have a staff, remind me (My memory is flipping terrible.)
LikeLike
God knows how long ago I setup my WP acct (probably day 1 of Circling the Bases), but if you can link to other stuff, maybe do a roll of team specific blogs that people like to follow? I’m a nerd for this stuff (shocking, I know) and would like to occasionally read what others do.
LikeLike
So serious question – can’t someone “reblog” ATH? For all the time we always saw that annoying pop-up, it would seem that could be done for this spot.
Also – hat tip to Historio…someone has to grab Craigs “Baseball is Dying” tombstone and change it to HBT.
LikeLike
Dastardly. I love it. “reblogged on…Hardball Talk”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rats, of course NOW they get rid of that reblog button.
LikeLike
The one thing we all wanted, and its too late. /sigh
LikeLike
They screwed up everything!
LikeLike
Been traveling today, so I haven’t had a chance to update on my visit to the soccer stadium in the South Bronx last night. Monument Cave was as depressing as I’ve heard in the shadow of that monstousity of a sports bar in center. On the welcome side, one of the beer vemdors was selling several varieties of a local microbrewery – it’s almost like the Yankees realized they were playing in New York! A wasted gem from Tanaka, who might have turned in his best start of the season. It was a pretty sparse crowd (no way it was the announced 29,000), and they only player they got consistently excited for was the #unmarketable A-Rod, who drew ovations even before his sixth-inning homer.
LikeLike
Was that your first visit to the new stadium?
LikeLike
Nah, I went there back in ’09 and hated it. I’ve also been there a half-dozen times this year to watch the MLS team the Yanks and Manchester City are backing. The anger I have towards the place’s faults as a baseball stadium don’t exist when I’m not watching baseball.
LikeLike
No mistaking that inimitable writing style. The Gator is on the loose.
LikeLike
A for effort, but the font and font size of the comments is brutal.
LikeLike
We’re still looking for themes.
LikeLike
But, I think scouts is looking at forum software instead. It’s more conversation-friendly.
LikeLike
I think I’m gonna hold off on that for now, as WordPress /seems/ to be working out ok, and I want to see just how this little experiment of ours goes before I look into raising the $500 or so to give us a better home. Of course that means we need a MUCH better theme, and a font and size we can all agree on. But long term, we are 100% going to end up on a forum software. It’s just so much better suited for our needs I think.
LikeLike
Replies to other comments seem to randomly located.
LikeLike
Can you give me an example? I know they got all wonky when I fixed the time on the forums, so some replies appeared to be coming from the future. Newer posts should have improved commenting sorting and all. I’m still learning the software, so I hope to keep improving on the site.
LikeLike
I posted the below reply to Professor’s Matt Williams post and it appeared as a comment and not a reply to his comment:
I was in the stadium last night, and there is no way to describe the state of Nats fans right now. It is literally like they are being forced to watch the same car crash over and over again. I feel bad for them. I’m going again tonight.
LikeLike