CHRIS

Does anyone know how many lefties the Padres have?

Assuming the return and salary considerations are reasonable, I like this deal, especially if it gets Jose to DH with more regularity.

Personally I don't see how trading Bautista, based on reasonable expected returns, helps this team win this season. If he gets moved, or gets asked to move, it's going to be an utter donkey show in this city. It won't just be about a talent exchange, in my opinion. I don't know if this is a thing or not, but it took earlier Blue Jays teams a few kicks at playoff experience before finally breaking through. I'd like to see this team going into the playoffs with as many returning players as possible.

Nice to hear SRF understand that results does not necessarily equal performance; namely that being effectively wild isn't a recipe for long-term success.

I think most of the bullpen help that gets moved will be coming from non-contending teams, which likely don't have a want or a need for Cola or Goins. I guess it's possible that Goins might be attractive to a contending team in need of middle infield help, but they'd also likely have to have an abundance of bullpen arms to part with. Off the top of my head, not sure who that might be.

I don't know if offended is the right term to use, but no, I personally don't like it, due to the negative connotation associated with its use.

The questions... - Is there a better first baseman available for $4 million dollars than Justin Smoak? - Is spending $4 million dollars on Justin Smoak a wise use of resources? ...do not (necessarily) hold the same meaning. For me, the main questions to ask are: - Is Justin Smoak's value likely to rise significantly higher the closer we get to the end of the season? - Does the benefit of Justin Smoak's "cost certainty" outweigh the loss in flexibility of looking to fill his roster spot next season? I guess we are facing the possibility of a future without Encarnacion and Bautista, both who would could fill a 1B/DH role, and Justin Smoak semi-fills those roles, but it just seems odd to me to lock him into a roster spot and take that money off the table.

Sorry, meant cut from the major league roster; i.e., I wouldn't just give him back a major league roster spot simply because he had one before the suspension. Poor wording on my part.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Cola. I'd cut him personally, but if he somehow makes it back to the majors, then it's going to have to come at the expense of somebody. When everybody is healthy, does the decision become Cola or Goins, or is there enough room for both? I'm assuming they're not going to do something like egregious like punting Barney or Devo somewhere.

I think it's getting better. My nephew is a child with Down Syndrome and I hear less of the R-word being bandied about than I used to. Still too much of it, but definitely better.

I think only this. I don't think the playoffs are the time to get fancy with a batter-by-batter Dickey effect attempt. I also don't see how a bumped starter necessarily becomes a better pen option than the guys who have been there all year long, unless the bullpen is atrocious or the bullpen has numerous injuries. In our case, assuming all of Cecil, Osuna, Storen, Grilli, Chavez are healthy, I don't see how a bumped Dickey supersedes any of these guys.

Hutch optioned me thinks.

Just hang dry it, no?

Ha, I was also trying to come up with some kind of Def Leppard pun, but as usual, I was two steps behind.

My guess is that Edwin was a bit banged up from his slide into 3rd. For all the grief that Gibbons receives, and a lot of it is justified, I'm pretty sure he knows how hot Edwin is at the moment. I can't imagine it's just a random day off.

Chris Davis disagrees.

Is the book about having to switch to vodka to mix with his tonic after running out of gin?

But how competitive were they?

I think if we wait for the vets to figure it out, then I think we're going to be in trouble. Of course the bulk of their performance at the plate is due to their talent level, but we're approaching mid-June. I think if it was simply a matter of things clicking, or hitters getting timing down, it would have happened by now. I'm not smart enough to know what the problem is. Something is different though, whether the team is being pitched to differently (in response to last season's success), or whether overconfidence has caused hitters to prepare in a different manner, I really don't know. Could a different hitting coach help make the adjustments that haven't been yet to date? I certainly think it's worth considering.

Just because Jacoby isn't hitting for these guys doesn't mean he can't be held accountable for his job performance. I can't claim to know exactly what a hitting coaches job is, but I imagine it is largely to discuss hitting approach and identify and correct bad habits that the hitters get into. Here are some plausible scenarios with respect to Jacoby and the team's hitting: - last year's success has caused him to take a more hands off approach resulting in less analysis of hitting approach - last year's success has caused some hitters to expect the results to just "turn around", without possibly examining what the core issue are that have led to these struggles Regardless of the talent level of the player, everybody is capable of developing bad habits, and/or capable of feeling the pressure of struggling and trying too hard, thus abandoning the optimal approach at the plate based on the scenario. I believe it is at these times that a hitting coach can prove their worth. These are human beings playing in the grind of a 162 game schedule. For some to say that a batter's struggles is entirely on them, and that they can't benefit from a proper diagnosis from a competent hitting coach's set of eyes doesn't hold water with me. Firing Jacoby may help this team, and it may not. But to dismiss the idea outright that it can't help because "he's not the one swinging the bat", is a really lazy argument.

Gibby should be worrying more about winning games than attempting to validate meaningless labels like "ace". Estrada looked done, and I think was fortunate that some of the balls found gloves in the later inning. With the no-hitter gone, I think he should have gone to the pen to start the 9th, and that it should have been Osuna.

The ad part way through this article is for a McDonald's burger. Hat tip to the internet.

I was assuming that we would need Hutch to fill in for Sanchez when he gets moved to the pen. Not sure what the sequence would be if we needed to dip into starting depth beyond Hutch.

Yes, they have to run on their own. He'll probably just get so swept up in excitement that he'll probably take off without realizing it.

We've done it a couple of times and my boys have really enjoyed it. It does take a bit to get going and it may be worthwhile to line up early (we've always waited until the game ends and the lineup is pretty long at that time). Once things get moving though, the lineup moves pretty quickly. It's pretty neat to see them experience being on the field. Enjoy!