Bobthe4th

Timed his return right to replace Stroman in the MLB rotation.

Trade about to be announced?

Rome wasn’t a country. Most of the strongest ancient military powers were city states.

Did you forget to logon to your alt account?

That’s a pretty popular opinion. Outside of national teams, anthems before team games is uniquely North American.

That's a really good idea.

Interesting article on Trout from the BBC: Mike Trout: The brilliant $426.5m MLB star most Americans don't know Quotes a study showing less than a quarter of Americans and only half of American sports fans know who he is. Then neatly encapsulates MLB's issues with trying to promote him and the game: "The situation is compounded for Trout because he plays on a California team, most of whose games don't start until late in the evening for East Coast viewers. And the Angels, while located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, have always been the little brother to the Los Angeles Dodgers - the Manchester City to their Manchester United. The franchise's identity issues are reflected in the revolving list of names the Angels have gone by in their 58-year history - the Los Angeles Angels, the California Angels, the Anaheim Angels (for the actual town in which they play) and finally the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (which resulted in the team being sued by city governments in both Los Angeles and Anaheim). By whatever name, the team has only won a single championship, in 2002, and has only made the play-offs once in Trout's career, a 2014 first-round sweep at the hands of the Kansas City Royals. Despite Trout's contributions, the team has posted three consecutive losing seasons and is currently in fourth place in its five-team division. Post-season games - and, particularly, the World Series - are where baseball players can begin to command the nation's attention. It's a stage Trout, whether because of bad luck or bad decisions by the Angels management, simply hasn't had the opportunity to enjoy. Last July, in the midst of the 2018 All-Star game, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, the top executive for the sport, directly questioned Trout's dedication to building his "brand". Mike has made decisions on what he wants to do, doesn't want to do, how he wants to spend his free time or not spend his free time," Manfred told an interviewer. "I think we could help him make his brand very big, but he has to make a decision to engage."

Yup. He looked so out of shape in the final round. TBF anyone would have been tired after hitting that many homers in the earlier rounds though.

TBF they changed it from that format because it took ages and was boring as s***. The knockout is more exciting, but seeding most homers against least should be used after the first round.

Using that logic, no fan can ever be happy or unhappy with any trade, because we can never know for sure what the alternative potential offers were.

Everyone is right though that Stroman and Giles are completely different, and Happ like deals shouldn’t have any relevance to what we can expect.

It’s perfectly fine to be disappointed with the trade at the time without expecting to receive multiple high value prospects. Getting two fringe 40 man players rather than one or more prospects with more risk but higher upside isn’t a very exciting return. It’s made worse because Shatkins liked and targeted Drury, even though he is trash. Plus Happ was a rental so age wasn’t really relevant.

Haha

Wall has the worst contract in the league and with his achilles injury his best attribute (speed) is unlikely to return to elite levels. Stay the hell away from Wall.

No Jays in the All Star game now:

I see them more as an OKC (stars and scrubs) than as a pre Durant Warriors (a cohesive team but with stars). AD is also injury prone - if he gets injured and misses any significant time I think they will be a low playoff seed in the West.

TIL. Always thought it was basically a death sentence.

I always though he’d end up in LA after he quit on the Spurs to try to force a trade there, but the media has been ridiculous in their Lakers love in. Great that he choose the Clippers (like Durant with the Nets over the Knicks in New York). IMO there’s a good chance the Lakers are not even going to be a contender next year. I think the Warriors with Curry and Draymond wanting to prove themselves will have a better record than the Lakers.

Maybe I’m wrong but isn’t leukaemia one of the worst cancers? Like how can he possibly pitch again this season?

Vlad has never played more than 120 games in a year in the minors. He was never going to play every day straight away. One day off a week gives him more time to recover, rather than playing through any little niggles or general wear and tear. In a non-competing season where wins are irrelevant, putting the best lineup out every day is not very important compared to sticking to a managed rest program for Vlad in his rookie season. I’d argue that playing every day, on top of the stress of better opponents, less forgiving umpires (as a rookie instead of the best player in the minors), and pressure to perform has just as much chance of getting him into bad habits. Spending time with and getting help/advice from coaches and veteran players is vital, and of course it’s not like he’s away from the team on his days out of the lineup.

No. You are thinking of “passed away peacefully”. Passed away literally means died, and it’s f***ing ridiculous that we’re still debating this.

Yeah, an elite reliever is more likely to help you in the playoffs. Giles could either close or fill the 7th/8th inning role for most close games. Stroman would only start once or twice a series.

The Rays should wear them too!