Brownie19

and Bo still batting 2nd. Maybe John isn't the savior?

Coaching teenagers is a lot different than coaching 35 year old multi millionaires. And this seems like pretty basic stuff. He made a struggling pitcher laugh on the mound? Better extend him now! I did this last week with a 12 year old kid - what a brilliant coaching mind I must have. I'm ready for the job Ross! I'm not even sure how the starting pitcher gets properly stretched out and prepared if he shows up 30 minutes from first pitch. Could you imagine if a manger told Doc Halladay he had to show up 30 minutes before game time when he was starting? Oddly they never seem to report when the manager makes the pitcher laugh on the mound and he goes onto walk the next 2 batters and then give up a grand slam, or all the tactics they tried that didn't end the losing streak. Remember when Maddon changed all the walk up songs to Nickelback songs to break their losing streak and it didn't work at all and then he lost his job? Most of those types of things have little to no impact - but we hang onto them like the guys a genius when they do. I hope Schneider is amazing and the Jays go on a massive winning streak, but these types of stories are stupid.

How sure are you that the video both says "maybe"? Not sure I've ever heard that before. They are going to let the Manager, who can't see videos of the play go off what his naked eye saw in real time or what his gut tells him? That seems stupid. Charlie said the video booth said challenge it and he said he motioned to challenge it before he saw Vlad motioning not to. I guess all of that could be a lie. Maybe Charlie is a notorious lier and the FO just finally saw through all his lies.

To be fair - that's because it rarely, if ever happens. The reality is the accuracy of a player knowing the call was right or wrong is not great. I'm sure that if Vlad was wrong and he did graze 1st base that people would still s*** on Charlie if he chose to listen to Vlad instead of trusting the people in the booth with the highly zoomed camera angles. Everyone rips a Managers call when it doesn't work out, but very few even acknowledge all the good decisions they make during a game. That's life.

I'm just playing off this on-going discussion in what (in my mind at least) is playful banter. But I'm still not convinced that the leagues best managers are hard asses that implement repercussions consistently when players make mental mistakes (let alone physical mistakes). Who are the best managers in the MLB now anyways? Any evidence those guys are alphas who bench or pull players regularly when they make mental mistakes? I see a forum of fans who are frustrated and looking for a solution to a season that is slipping away. Firing the manager is the stereotypical solution and Atkins has now tried that lever (perhaps to save his job as the gun probably should have been pointed at him instead). We've seen this work before, let's see what happens now. I can't wait to see Vlad benched for not running out ground balls or making a bone headed base running mistake - and for Schneider to rip him a new ******* in the dugout. Maybe it will work! That fat ass sure needed a wake up call after 2020 - I still wonder what his weight is at right now v. last year.

C'mon guys. Every player knows there's people in the video booth responsible for making the decision on whether to challenge or not. The manager is just the messenger. Players are wrong about what they 'saw' on the field ALL the time. This is really bad reporting by BNS.

C'mon man. Media talk isn't meaningful, true or even interesting. Could Charlie have said something like "I think we're all disappointed in our performance and we need to regroup and get back to playing better baseball'? Sure he could have - would that have changed anything? Obviously the message he gives to the players behind closed doors and the actions he's taking to right the ship are 1000% more important and impactful to the team. If the final straw was the message that Charlie provided to a random interview comment, then we need a new FO immediately because that's f***ing stupid.

Then how do we know that Charlie isn't talking to the players or being the alpha in the dugout?

I guess we'll see. I'm always take what the media says with a massive grain of salt.

How is this even a discussion? As Charlie said in the post game interview - the video room told me to challenge, so I challenged it. End of f***ing story. That's literally their only job and they've been pretty good at it this year. Vlad can pretend all he wants that he knew the answer, but players are wrong about this all the time.

You think the FO fired him because of his PC response to the f***ing media? Really? C'mon man.

But is he the alpha who will tear a strip off players who make mental mistakes and errors? (I mean if he was, wouldn't he do that as the bench coach already? or was a muzzled by the presence of Alpha Montoyo?)

Managers are kind of like RBI's in 1998. When the players in front of them play great and do their jobs, than that player racks up RBI's and people think he's doing a good job. If the players in front of him suck, people think he sucks. Are Maddon and Girardi good managers? Angels and Phillies don't think so, but maybe it's just because the team in front of them sucks.

Ah - that's not really what you wrote, but if that's what you meant than OK. You said you're surprised the pitching coach wasn't fired because that's been the problem....haha. All good.

It must be all that media pressure that Barker and Blair put on him.

Personally - I had no issue with Charlie this year. I don't really blame him for the results. I believe most of the calls, direction and decisions are collectively made by the FO, high performance team and the coaching staff. That said, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it and we've seen these types of moves work before. Whether it's a new voice in the clubhouse, or simply the players taking a look in the mirror that their s***** play just caused someone to lose his job (and taking that personally) - they turn it on and start winning. Fingers crossed that's what happens.

How do you assign blame for poor pitching? Is it the GM's fault for signing/trading/drafting s***** pitchers and not providing the necessary depth? Do you blame the players for poor performance that is below their projections and historic results? Do you blame the pitching coach for not - um...coaching good enough? I don't know how some of you assign blame onto one person so easily.

That would be a terrible decision - at least the Shapiro portion.

Can you elaborate? You think based on his performance this year that he'll be a solid #4 for the Jays this year? or you think if he returns to prior form that he's just a #4 pitcher? or you think ideally he's our 4th starter?

I wonder what the White Sox players think of LaRussa. They see him make these bizarre in game decisions that suggest he's gone senile....then when they make an error or mental mistake (or just when they have fun in context of the way the game is played today), they get this guy berating them and disciplining them (to be honest I'm completely assuming LaRussa yells at players, berates them and disciplines them - but I have no idea). It must be a confusing feeling....you know this guy's been around, seen everything, had a ton of success and once demanded a ton of respect, but you also know he's a dinosaur who's losing it, so how do you take him seriously.

Fans need to realize that everyone deals with stress and pressure in different ways and no one way is 'correct'. It's like folks who laugh or crack jokes at funerals. For some - trying to be super serious during a 'slump' would only extend and make matters worse. If Vlad knows he (and perhaps other teammates) plays better when he plays loose and has fun - then you keep doing that. Of course if he hasn't tried the alternative and isn't taking it seriously, that's an issue, but I have no idea how a fan would know that.

So Berrios struck out 13 in 6 innings last night. Can anyone smarter than me determine if this was just a fluke or did he made some tangible changes that may suggest he's returning to prior form? I know someone showed a graph to illustrate his release point had dropped significantly this year. Did that change last night? xFIP is now down below his career average, but xERA is still awful. Good to see the K/9 rise up above 8, trending towards career averages. Any thoughts?

I don't follow hockey much at all - certainly not advanced stats. You're saying the underlying advanced stats suggest Murray is way better than Campbell? What about Ilya Samsonov? His numbers don't look great to me? Am I missing something?

Doesn't matter. He's an alpha who yells at his players when they make mistakes

The f***? You say that because Ryu is s***? The guy was awesome from 2018-2020. So bizarre.