King

Montero. That's what Stangstags "Lol no" post was to that admin replied to

I still don't get why Girodo and Bolsinger aren't up, unless they are injured.

I wouldn't have had a problem with him being a bat off the bench for September. Projects for a 98 wRC+. That's about it though.

I'd have interest. I have a glut of left wingers due to Yahoo going all strict on the position eligiblity requirements.

This board will meltdown like never before if we lose to the Orioles in a wild card game.

SawyrrFord?

Good ban

Brutal

Rekt

We called up Chris Smith a few days ago, and he has an interesting story, with good numbers. http://i.imgur.com/kPGmPVH.png http://i.imgur.com/lvqTeu0.png http://www.canadianbaseballnetwork.com/canadian-baseball-network-articles//released-and-re-released-chris-smith-now-a-big-league-reliever-with-jays Chris Smith’s story is a little different. Sure, he’s a brand new big leaguer whose first day in the show was surreal, his journey to get there was a long and winding road, and he’s overwhelmed with support as he tries to contribute to a playoff-bound Blue Jays club, is excited to help an already-solid bullpen, and he’s looking forward to enjoying the experience. But, his is a dream that has had to change every step of the way, every rung on the ladder seeming out of reach only until he was on the one directly beneath it. The latest addition to the Blue Jays’ relief corps went from flying as the lone passenger in a propeller plane with two 23-year-old pilots just for a shot at playing independent ball, to getting a first-class ticket to Toronto on Tuesday afternoon. “When I told my dad [Patrick] that I was actually active yesterday, it was pretty emotional to hear him, and all he could say was, ‘Wow,’” Smith said. “Then he got teary-eyed, which inevitably made me teary-eyed, and it’s like damn, this is a phone call you always want to have. “My mom [Maria] and dad have played such a pivotal role in everything that’s gotten me to where I am now. Whenever I was thinking about hanging them up, they’ve always believed in me…Without them initially pushing me to see what I can do with this, it would be crazy to think about where I would be instead of here.” The right-hander is 28, but he turned himself into an unlikely prospect this season down on the farm, spending the majority of the year in Double-A New Hampshire before receiving an end-of-season promotion to the Buffalo Bisons to fill out the roster when September came calling for players on the 40-man to be added in Toronto. Between both squads, the native of Louisville, Ky. posted a 1.93 ERA over 47 appearances and 60 2/3 innings, walking 22 and striking out 81 with a fastball up to 98 and a nasty slider to complement it, getting his name into conversations among the Blue Jays brass. Then, Smith went to Dunedin to continue working out for the team at its minor-league complex, “just in case”, never really thinking that his time would come. On Monday night, having a late dinner at Olive Garden with his girlfriend Abby Avila, he got a phone call from Toronto’s director of player development Gil Kim, but it wasn’t exactly THE phone call. The team wasn’t yet sure of the status of relief pitcher Joaquin Benoit, who had been injured during extracurricular on-field activities in the game against the Yankees, so they wanted Smith to fly to Toronto and wait. He had a chance of being activated, but there was also a chance he might sit in his hotel room until they sent him back home. “It’s been incredible” Smith said. “When Gil Kim gave me the call, that night at around 11 p.m., he apologized for calling me late, and I said, ‘Don’t worry, this is the best phone call I’ve ever received.’ At the time, we were wondering if I was going to get activated, so I had to explain it to my mom and dad, and it’s been a flight of emotions.” By the time Smith got into Toronto on Tuesday afternoon, and to the ballpark less than an hour-and-a-half before game time, the odds against Benoit returning in good time had been narrowed with a calf tear diagnosis. Bad news for him, bad news for the team, but great news for Smith. He was on a big-league roster for the first time. “Getting here, I’m continuing to stay excited,” the fireballer said. “As a child, you always dream of that call. When it comes, you just try to take it all in. that’s what I’ve been trying to do since I’ve been here.” It was a whirlwind, like it is for most, but with some peculiar and interesting details, just like the bulk of Smith’s career. And he wouldn’t have it any other way. With his suitcases tucked away in the Blue Jays clubhouse, the reliever was told he was going to get some warmup tosses in on the field with Jason Phillips, one of the team’s two bullpen catchers. Unsurprisingly, Smith had trouble. He didn’t know who Phillips was, where the bullpen was located, or even where to find the field. Also, he still hadn’t met manager John Gibbons. As he went to find Phillips, Smith kept an eye out for where he was told his new skipper might appear, which would likely be somewhere around the dugout. But since his bullpen catcher had just gotten the stitches out of his nose earlier in the day, caused by a vicious foul ball, Phillips wanted to play catch as close as possible to the outfield fence, far away from where the Baltimore Orioles were taking batting practice, and from the dugout. The clock wound down and it didn’t take long before Smith had to make his way out to the left-field bullpen for the game. He took a seat knowing that if he were to make an appearance in the matchup against the Orioles, the latest bullpen addition would meet his manager for the first time as he handed him the ball on the mound. Smith gave it some thought throughout the contest, but in the end he didn’t make his debut on Tuesday, giving him the chance to meet Gibbons when it was all over, and allowing his parents time to arrive in Toronto on Wednesday, in the hopes of taking in his first major-league outing, something he looks forward to having under his belt. “There’s a lot of pressure because first impressions are a huge thing,” Smith said. “Ironically in the past, it’s kind of funny, my first games have not always been the best. But after that, I settle in. It’s about getting my feet wet. Take for instance this year, I blew my first save [with the Fisher Cats], gave up a homer. In independent ball, my first outing I gave up a homer. Then my first outing in Puerto Rico last year, I gave up a homer. I’m trying to end that trend. “At this level, it’s all about winning and helping the team, ad that’s why I’m here. Whether they put me in a game where it’s 12-1 or where we’re ahead 3-2, there’s going to be pressure no matter what, because you want to succeed and do well because there’s someone always looking. There’s someone always evaluating and it’s not just about what you did for me yesterday, it’s about what can you do for me today? So every outing there’s pressure but it’s the same game. I’ve just got to take a deep breath and take it pitch to pitch.” In terms of innings and wear and tear on the arm, Smith is a fresh pitcher. It wasn’t until after he finished college at Kentucky Wesleyan and decided to hang up his cleats and go to grad school that he was pushed into pitching instead. Every guy on the mound thinks he’s a shortstop, but Smith actually was, spending the majority of his time there and playing centre field before occasionally taking the hill for the Panthers. He impressed his pitching coach Paxton Gardner so much though, that he had to promise that before he went to take his GRE test, if Gardner found a workout for him, Smith would take it. The hurler wound up in the independent Frontier League instead of immediately retiring and got released by the Lake Erie Crushers after throwing just one inning. It was enough for the Traverse City Beach Bums though, at least for five outings, the amount of time they kept him between signing and releasing him. When the Washington Wild Things signed him, they kept him around for an entire season, plus the end of the previous one, and helped him earn his next spot. In between, he had a tryout with the Tampa Bay Rays that he and his uncle drove through the night to get to, and couldn’t have possibly gone better, before he was told they were going in another direction. So, that next spot was to go play club ball in the Greater Brisbane League, all the way down under, with a chance to make an attempt at cracking the Brisbane Bandits roster in the Australian Baseball League. There, Smith quickly took over as the ace of the Bandits, dominating the competition with his slider and a fastball sitting around 91-92, getting looks from the eye of every evaluator in Australia, including John Wadsworth with the Yankees. Extremely excited for his first shot at affiliated ball, Smith arrived early for spring training and on his first day, ran poles until someone told him he should probably stop. He just didn’t want to leave. But that first year wasn’t all he had dreamt it to be, sidelined for the entire season with a strained forearm and wondering how long his chance with the Yankees would last. It couldn’t be over before it started, could it? It wasn’t. He came back and had a good season with Class-A Advanced Tampa and headed into the following spring training – last year – excited for what might come. He was up to 95, he barely issued a walk all spring, his slider was working, and he had a shot to break camp with Double-A. And he was told he would. Smith got his money to travel to Trenton to join the Thunder, and before he could start his drive, they released him. A few days later, the Yankees realized they had made too many cuts. They didn’t have enough bodies to fill out their teams. They re-signed Smith, who was happy to have a job again, but when they sent him to join one of their GCL squads at extended spring training, no one had been informed he was returning. He had no place to go and nowhere to belong. Eventually his situation with the Yankees was sorted. That is, until he got released again. It was after the draft, when every organization was already making a number of additions and subtractions to fit their players, and Smith’s situation looking grim again. “The craziest part of this all has been the releases,” he said. “To be told you’re not wanted. I mean, it adds fuel to the fire but at the same time, it’s like if something else doesn’t fall in place, then this could be it. Last year, when [i was] released by the New York Yankees for the second time that year, that was probably the craziest part because that’s when I thought I was at a crossroad where my career was over. “At that time, I was 26 years old and I only had High-A experience and a month of Double-A time. Who’s going to give a 26-year-old with that much time a shot? I could go back to independent ball probably, to try and prove myself, but taking steps backward was going to crush me.” But it also happened to be the time when the Blue Jays were trading away minor-league arm after minor-league arm in order to get back the big-league talent that eventually helped them to the American League Championship Series. It looked like a perfect fit for Smith, and his Canadian agent Blake Corosky found his right-hander a spot, signing with Blue Jays director of minor league operations Charlie Wilson and heading to Dunedin to finish his year with the Class-A Advanced Blue Jays. “At the same time, the craziest part is just how everything has lined up too,” Smith said. “All the releases have been blessings I disguise and it’s made me a better person, helped me want to do more. When I was in independent ball I thought man, if I can get to affiliated ball that would be awesome. It would something I can tell my [future] kid. “Then the New York Yankees signed me and I thought I’m always going to be able to tell my kid I signed with the Yankees. Then I get to start pitching and I’m thinking, I can be here. I deserve to be here. Then I get up to a higher level and I wanted more. I got to Double-A and I want to be in the big leagues, and I know I can do it. I wanted to tell my kid I’ve been to Double-A. Now, I want to tell my kid I was a major leaguer. Just having that dream come true has been crazy.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2016/09/28/tim-tebows-home-run-creates-more-false-hope/91236646/?hootPostID=c9306ed129ad0cf7bd73671fef765856 Tim Tebow gave fans more than reason to cheer Wednesday when he hit a home run on the first pitch of his professional career. He gave them false hope, too. His legion of fans is loyal and loud, and they won’t pay much attention to the fact Tebow, 29, hit the homer in an instructional league game. Or that the homer came off of a pitcher who was 12 years old when Tebow won his first football championship at the University of Florida. Or that he finished the day 1-for-6. Or that the New York Mets seemed as eager to put Tebow’s jersey for sale as they did about Tebow wearing the jersey after the club signed him to a minor-league contract this month. The home run he hit to left center is less telling than the showcase/tryout Tebow held Aug. 30. I saw it with my own eyes in Los Angeles. During batting practice that day, Tebow crushed eight balls over the fences at the University of Southern California's baseball stadium. But let me repeat the operative words: batting practice. Against two former major-league pitchers that day, he was overmatched. And his arm and fielding skills underwhelmed most of the scouts, with 28 of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams represented. As an American League scout told USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale, “It was a complete waste of time. It was like watching an actor trying to portray a baseball player.’’ (The scout requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about his assessment.) There’s no shame in Tebow trying baseball if he is serious about the words on the home page of his website: “True success is not measured in physical possessions, but in the amount of lives you change.’’ He has changed lives not just because of his athletic prowess, but because he is thoughtful, intelligent, philanthropic and passionate. And in time his most ardent fans, including the ones convinced Tebow’s home run Wednesday is evidence he can play baseball at the highest level, will have to acknowledge the truth. Tim Tebow is a big-league inspiration, but not a big leaguer.

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I added some players yesterday and Frenchsoup added Asher today. I have no idea if this is allowed or not just wanted to bring it up because I saw the discussion in the DDL thread regarding it. I can drop those players, if not allowed, it's cool with me either way.

Wrong league, dumbass

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-tragic-final-night-of-jose-fernandezs-life-023645408.html MIAMI – A few minutes before midnight, Will Bernal’s phone buzzed. Up popped a text message from one of his best friends, Eddy Rivero. They had spent a lot of time together the previous week after another close friend of Bernal’s was killed. Now Rivero needed help. This was really important. Rivero asked to talk. Bernal stepped outside and took the call. Rivero’s friend, Jose Fernandez, had asked him to go for a late-night ride on a 32-foot fishing boat into the wee hours of Sunday. This sounded bad. Bernal had ridden on a boat at night once, and it was terrifying. Not just the darkness, but the choppy waves from the rain earlier in the day and the threat of other boats and the objects obscured by the night. “I told him it was a horrible idea,” Bernal said. “Do everything you can to get him off the boat. Do whatever you can to get him on land.” Fernandez, the Miami Marlins’ star pitcher, was upset and just wanted to get away, Rivero told him. He loved boating. He wasn’t going to budge. Bernal tried to reason with Rivero. Bernal had lost one friend already. He didn’t want to bury another. Surely Fernandez’s gloom, Bernal said, had to be fleeting. “Both of you guys have a bright future,” Bernal said. “Whatever he’s stressed out about today he won’t remember a week from now.” After Bernal said goodbye, he picked up his phone and shot Rivero a message. “Yo please be careful bro,” Bernal texted at 12:07 a.m. “I will bro,” Rivero said. “Try to keep him close to shore if you go out,” Bernal wrote a minute later. “Trust me,” Rivero wrote, “it’s not my time yet.” Rivero was young, 25 years old. He’d met Fernandez through his girlfriend, who was friends with Fernandez’s. He’d started working at Carnival Cruise Lines and was trying to save up money to pay off his debt and buy an engagement ring. Fernandez’s girlfriend was pregnant, and even if they were in different economic stratospheres, there was a kinship there between two Cuban sons who loved their family and friends and good times and Miami. So when the 24-year-old Fernandez insisted on going out, Rivero couldn’t say no. He trusted he would return safely. “I know,” Bernal said, “but try to keep Jose cool, tell him what I said.” “I know,” Rivero replied. “Turn in your find iPhone app,” Bernal said, correcting himself to say “on.” “It’s on,” Rivero wrote.” “Dale [go ahead] keep me in the loop,” Bernal said. “If you guys need me to meet up with u guys to cool down for support let me know” At 12:13 a.m., the texting stopped, and Bernal said he started to track the boat, nervous the dot would stop moving. Around 2 a.m., it did, at American Social Restaurant and Bar, a gastropub along the Miami River. Above the restaurant is the Neo Vertika condominium building, where 27-year-old Emilio Macias, a friend of Rivero’s who never had met Fernandez, lived. Bernal checked in with Rivero. They were docking the boat, waiting for Macias. Rivero said everything was cool. Around 3 a.m., Bernal stopped tracking the boat on the iPhone app and fell asleep. He had a soccer game a few hours later. He needed some rest. Bernal slept late and hustled to the game without checking his phone. After the hour-long game, he saw a text message. Fernandez had died when the boat struck a rocky jetty and flipped. The other two passengers on board had died. “I just had this horrible feeling,” Bernal said. “I knew. I knew.” He still hoped this was all a mistake, a terrible, awful nightmare. Bernal called Rivero. There was no ring. It kicked straight to voicemail. -- Around Miami, they cried Monday, too. Jose Fernandez was this city, with his Cuban blood and his joie de vivre and his love of the water. That part hurt. The ocean that gave him freedom took his life. He spent as much time as he could on the water, with his friend Jessie Garcia, who brought Fernandez on sport-fishing expeditions all over. Sometimes they went to Cat Cay in the Bahamas, about 50 miles from Miami. Jonathan Dames, the Cat Cay dock master, said Fernandez and Garcia would go on late-night trips, coming back at 10 or 11 at night, because swordfish bit best in the dark. “Swordfish is one of the sweetest fish inside the sea,” Dames said. “That’s why they’d always go for it. That was Jose’s favorite meal.” Sometimes Fernandez would go to Cat Cay on his off-days. He would have lunch and play basketball and look at the chickens and iguanas on the island. He was ever curious, wanting to learn more about fishing and to drive the boat. “Jessie kept telling him no,” Dames said. “I think Jessie knew he wasn’t ready to start going out on his own. Jessie always controlled the vessel. He made sure everybody got back safe. He wasn’t allowing [Fernandez] to buy a vessel at the time.” It remains unclear whether Fernandez was driving at the time of the accident. Bernal said Eddy Rivero did not have a boating license and had minimal experience driving a boat. Authorities said the boat, named “Kaught Looking” and tagged with a backward K and two baseballs for Os, accented in Marlins colors, was registered to Fernandez. -- Last Tuesday, Will Bernal and Eddy Rivero decided to go to a Marlins game. Bernal was despondent over the death of a friend, and Rivero helped score tickets to watch Jose Fernandez pitch. They sat next to his girlfriend. “We just talked about life,” Bernal said, about how short it was and how much he and Rivero were looking forward to a trip together to Las Vegas in October. Bernal went home that night appreciating Rivero even more. They were fellow sneakerheads who met because of their shoe-collecting hobby, and they’d grown into true friends. Rivero couldn’t thank Bernal enough for gifting him a pair of red Air Jordan 1s recently for the same he reason he didn’t say no to Jose Fernandez early Sunday: He wanted to give more than he took. “Eddy was always the type of guy who would put others before him,” Bernal said. “He was a genuinely nice, caring person. The type of human you want to meet and have as a friend. It’s so hard to find friends like that. “He lost his life being a good friend.” Guilt consumed Bernal on Monday. He wanted to run out of his house and yell at Rivero and Fernandez to get off the boat, to be smarter, to save themselves. He didn’t want the last memories of Rivero to be the text messages and the conversation about how much Rivero loved his little niece and the Marlins game they attended together. He didn’t want his final piece of Fernandez – “A stand-up guy,” Bernal said, “very humble and likeable, especially for a pro athlete” – to be watching him on the mound. Of course, if there was a Fernandez game to witness, this was it. Fernandez hadn’t pitched that well in more than two years, before his elbow blew out. This was a masterpiece. Eight innings. Three hits. No runs. No walks. Twelve strikeouts. The Washington Nationals, champions of the National League East, had no answers. Bernal and Rivero marveled at Fernandez, congratulated his girlfriend, went off into the Miami night looking forward to so many more like this. Bernal is 32, and on occasion he tried to warn Rivero that they weren’t invincible, that they should savor what they had. It’s why the text message saying it’s not Rivero’s time to go so haunts Bernal, and why the ink on one of Rivero’s arms gives him goosebumps just the same. “Life is Short,” the tattoo said. “Heaven is Forever.”

holy dumn

It's not the same situation. Bush Throwing at Bautista was for a bat flip in the playoffs a good 7 months before when he wasn't even on the team. Then you could consider Odor was standing up for himself when Bautista came in with the hard take out slide, but he also tried to throw the ball at Bautistas head, and I think they were both looking to start something there anyway. In any case I agree that the Headley HBP was dumb whoever called for it. If it was Happ by himself then he deserves the blame. If it was Donaldson or Gibbons, it's hard to fault Happ for it.

1 body was in the water and the other two were on the boat

Because throwing 95 at someone's head isn't accepted? It's widely looked down upon and will give you a bad rep fast if you do it. Look at Yordano. Neither Happ or Severino threw at anyone's head yesterday as far as I saw. The general rule of thumb is to keep it below the waist, you are a pitcher, you know this? Players charging each other with bats during brawls would end in blood, death, assault charges. There is no good that could come from any of this. Truly absurd.

Surely you aren't serious? You want to see players swinging bats at each other during brawls? Thats f***ing stupid.

"Go get em!"

[h=1]"You died being a great friend. You went to be with Jose and help him when he called you. I tried so hard to tell you not to go out on that boat. It didn't feel right and we both knew it."[/h]

From the IG post it sounds like Jose and his GF were at the bar and they got into an argument, when they left Jose called/texted his friends wanting to go out on the boat to cool down.

It's been reported that he wasn't the one the driving the boat, as well as when they took it out other times he never drove it either.

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