BTS

If you had framed your idea in the way the FG writer probably did “hey I wonder if… “ it wouldn’t have turned into a drawn out multi-day BJMB brawl. Olerud makes posts like that all the time.

Looked like Acuna thinks Arcia is a bit of a dipshit

Also the unwarranted surety and confidence with which it was delivered, combined with the general abrasiveness towards anyone pushing back.

Hang on to it. There will come a day - maybe not next month or even next year, but eventually - when the forum is overrun by posters who narrativize playoff randomness and fanboy the Orioles. So overrun that the sane forum regulars can’t regain control. When that day comes you’ll login, and see the blue alert indicating that you’ve received a private message. And it will be from the BJMB moderation team letting you know that it’s time for the sheriff to get back in the saddle, because his forum needs him.

Is it just me or has the hairline mostly held strong for the last 8 years, albeit halfway back on his head? He did look like he's waited too long since his last dye though.

I don't remember what thread we were talking about John Means in, but his arb projection came in a hair under 6M. Close to a 100% raise, but probably low enough that he's tendered a contract, unless the elbow injury that held him out of the playoffs means his arm is just finished.

Is this a bit? You've been weirdly chest-thumping for like two weeks every time a good player does something good and then trying to convince people that you've figured out the secret to assembling a winning playoff team. You've also, deliberately or otherwise, misinterpreted almost everything others have said to you in response. You've basically become jaysblue. It's very annoying.

I think you just don't really understand probabilistic thinking. Baltimore could have won the WS. Going into the playoffs, it was reasonable to say that that if they were going to be eliminated, it was probably going to be their pitching staff as the primary culprit. Being happy that that it played out that way isn't a logically incoherent position to hold if someone also believes the playoffs are unpredictable to a large degree.

I don't actually know if Shapiro believes there was a systematic offensive problem, or if "we're looking into it" was just a deflection. Fans/media are acting like the offense was historically bad or something, but they were still 14th in runs and 8th in wRC+ despite getting nothing from Vlad. A lot of guys were fine offensively. Vlad, Springer, Varsho, and Kirk disappointed. But I don't think this looks too far out of the ordinary if Vlad mashes. If Vlad is between 2021 and 2022 Vlad, the team is like 9th in runs and 5th in wRC+. Which seems about right given their lineup this year. If that happens the underperformers are just a 33-year old Springer, a fat catcher, and Varsho. I dunno, I don't think Shapiro really believes they developed a systematic organizational issue between 2022 when they raked and 2023 when they were just a bit above average. What they do have to figure out is Vlad. And maybe don't give like 1500 PA to guys like Merrifield, Kiermaier, and Biggio if you have designs on being a top-5 offense or something.

Braves win in 2021 with an 80-something win team and no Acuna, then go out like a wet fart this year with Acuna playing like a top-3 player in the world and the rest of the roster absolutely stacked. f***ing baseball.

They gave him 200+ PA this year for some reason. AA still has his guys.

Asking Shapiro to comment on Atkins' mistakes was absurd for all the reasons you state, but also because she seemed to be talking about mistakes with MLB roster transactions, and Atkins has mostly avoided them in his tenure. His trades and especially FA signings have been very astute. Just an embarrassing question to ask.

Damn, RAJ flies out with the bases loaded to end the inning. He just hasn't come through for them.

She came off as very unprofessional

d'Arnaud in to pinch hit for Harris with two on

Just finished the Shapiro press conference. I'm not sure there's anyone in the league better than him at his job.

The Braves might actually lose two Spencer Strider vs. Ranger Suarez starts in a stretch of 4 games.

There hasn't been this much dysfunction around the Jays since the days of Gibby fighting Shea Hillenbrand

Time for bed, Spanky

Laika dropped him during the finals. Jim snagged him with the 6th waiver priority because, as usual, a few teams weren’t paying attention. Then he traded him to me in the Verlander trade. Tidy business from Jim.

We just had thanksgiving baseball on the weekend

I hate it. Long live the 1-wild card format.

I think baseball fans are going to have to adjust to the fact that this kind of thing is going to happen more often, and WS or bust is an increasingly unrealistic bar to judge a GM by. The playoffs are now a 12-team tournament that's going to do a much worse job determining the best team in the league than all previous incarnations with fewer teams making it out of the regular season. The cost of the all-important TV revenues for WC games is more randomness in deciding a WS winner. And it will only get worse when Manfred inevitably expands it to 16 teams.

"I don't care if we eat half the contract. Mookie needs to be traded. That contract will be an absolute albatross in 3 years. f***, it already is considering he becomes 2023 Austin Barnes come Oct." Example of a typical Dodgers reddit post right now. The entire forum wants to trade Mookie because he's not a playoff player. Reminds me of BJMB