Weaver going along pretty well right now.

Callate!

Wow, 11 runs. They normally don't score that many in a week.

Cueto was throwing 83-89 mph. He needs TJ surgery. Then it was a washed up Holland.

His average fb velocity has been 91 for years. He had no arm strength because he took two months off and had one rehab start. Dan and McCarver were talking out of their asses.

Sounds normal. :)

This pen just always ****s up at the exact wrong time.

I’m still in favor of being sellers. We could get some good pieces for guys like Jose Martinez and Ozuna. Carpenter would bring some value and so would Cmart and Wacha. This team is just bleh. Definition of mediocrity.

Right now I’m just tuning in to watch Yadi.

At this point I'm actively rooting for the Brewers. Even though Braun is perhaps the most despicable scumbag in the league, and the sight of Craig Counsell peering out of the dugout with his dour face and beady little rat eyes makes me want to punch my TV, I'd still rather see them win the division than the ****ing Cubs.

It could be worse, you could be a Pirates fan right now.

Even as Brewer fan I still don't like Braun and I have wanted him traded ever since he proved what a piece of shit he really is. I get a lot of hell from other Brewer fans now if he's brought up and I mention the time when he tried to blame his rule breaking behavior on a regular guy just trying to do his job

Especially when they started off so well before doing what was expected of them this year. They gave their fans false hope, but that happens sometimes in sports

Yup. I would rather they just had stunk from the start.

that was above and beyond scumbag crap. He just didn’t blame it on bad mechanics of the test but held a press conference to call the guy out personally as incompetent or out to get him. Ruined his career. Got him fired and couldn’t hold a job that needed trust. It was really bad.

Not something you can just write off as I was scared to come clean about my drug use. Sorry, my bad.

Did he ever give the guy some money for falsely slandering the poor dude?

He implied that there was tampering if I recall. I heard that he later apologized in person and took the guy to dinner. I didn't know that the guy was fired. I'll have to remember that

you publicly slander someone to hide your own crimes seems to me a crime by itself. And definitely something you can sue someone in court for doing to you.

I hope that he can and does

SI Reports: Ryan Braun tried to discredit urine collector as anti-Semitic Cubs fan.
——————————————

After he accepted his suspension on July 22 — 50 games for the drug infraction and 15 games for his conduct at the time of the grievance — Braun was heavily criticized by players around the major leagues.

“I thought this whole thing has been despicable on his part,” Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer said. “When he did get caught, he never came clean. He tried to question the ability of the collector when he was caught red-handed. So that’s why the whole Braun situation, there is so much player outrage toward him.”

——————————-
Asked if he apologized to Laurenzi or offered him compensation, Braun said Wednesday, "I have not made any payments to him. I've had some really productive and positive conversations with him. The Laurenzi family was actually gracious and kind enough to have my fiancée, Larisa, and I over to their house for dinner last night, and we had some really good conversation.

"We've made amends and I think we're both excited to be able to move forward and put this behind us."

Braun had earlier railed against baseball's joint drug agreement, calling it "fatally flawed" and suggesting players are "100 percent guilty until proven innocent."

"We won because the truth is on my side," he said at the time.

"I wish that I hadn't done the press conference," Braun said Wednesday. "It was a big mistake. I deeply regret having done it, and a lot of the things that I said that day."

I will root for the Cubs ahead of Ryan Braun...

You wouldn't if you spent five days a week in Chicago. :cuss:

Talk about a no-win situation. Both sides are insufferable.

Matt Bush, Aroldis Chapman, and Jose Reyes say hi.

Hitting women - bad juju no doubt.

But calling some poor schlub who's job is to courier piss about a deceitful, lying anti-semite to cover your ass is hardly something to hand waive.

Braun engaged in a planned, prolonged attack plan to ruin this guys life in order to save his own skin. He didn't give a shit if that guy and his family ended up losing everything because a multi-millionaire slandered him. And it wasn't some spur of the moment kind of panic move. He had every intention of lying this poor schmuck into oblivion.

I'm not gonna call that a slam dunk - they're all distinctly different but absolutely comparable assholes. Ryan Braun can eat a bucket of dicks. If the Brewers offered him straight across for Dexter Fowler, I'd keep Dexter Fowler. That's how much I hate that ****ing guy.

:clap:

Can we cut Holland yet?

Only all star: miles mikolas

Ahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhaah!!!!

nope. He needs to blow about 5 more games before this happens.

And why can’t we start Bader every game? He’s hitting .294 and .390 OB% when he starts games. Seems to me that our offense could use those numbers.

Munoz is hitting pretty damn good too. How can you justify sitting him on the bench and playing inferior offensive players? Your going to play Martinez and tolerate his horrible defense, you have to play Munoz. He’s not that bad defensively.

Just bought a Mikokas 67 tee shirt jersey

If Pham continues to put up worse offensives than the NVA, then the best lineup would actually involve hiding Martinez in right with Bader in center. Munoz might do better at second, but Wong has been so good on defense that his (now improving) offense has him as the better option.

Lineup should probably be:

LF: Ozuna (wRC: 96 fWAR: 0.9)
CF: Bader (wRC: 106 fWAR: 1.4)
RF: Martinez (wRC: 127 fWAR: 1.0)
1B: Carpenter (wRC: 133, fWAR: 2.6)
2B: Wong (wRC: 80 fWAR: 1.2)
SS: DeJong (wRC: 122 fWAR: 1.6)
3B: Gyorko (wRC: 103 fWAR: 0.7)
C: Molina (wRC: 119 fWAR: 1.3)

Pham needs to take off about two weeks with a bullshit DL designation to un**** his swing and/or get new contacts. Munoz can get periodic starts throughout the infield.

Good luck with that #1 overall pick. Maybe you can find another Kansas high school phenom that can't hack it in AAA.

85 wins. Goodbye Matheny and Mabry and good riddance.

Bader has 16+ defensive runs saved. He should be starting and play CF. When Pham gets his shit together he can play RF.

I like playing Munoz over Gyrko.

He's 9-3 with an 2.63 era and has been one of the better NL pitchers this year. Say what you will about the team, but it's not Mikolas' fault that they suck.

Starting pitching has actually been great. If you want to troll you could attack the hitting and bullpen. Or better yet the manager.

Matheny post game on Holland:

“His stuff was probably the best he’s had. Life on the fastball and you could tell there was pretty good break on the slider.”

That puts us in “contention” until the last week of the season. That doesn’t get him fired.

Just bench Pham and be done with it. He s a platoon guy at best.

agreed. We are in contention for a wild card the last week of the season, Matheny stays. And we get another year of this mediocrity.

I agree, relying on guys like Pham to be starters is why we are in this mediocrity hell. He should be a role player not someone you should expect to carry a franchise. This team has a bunch of depth players forced into a starting role.

Carp Ozuna and Molina are the only starters in this lineup. And Carpenters defense is bad so you could make a case for role player. JoMart needs to go to the AL.

I watched a couple clips of the hits they got off him and there was one where he threw a pretty nasty slider that ended up at the shoelaces but was golfed out into left field. Just gotta tip your cap sometimes.

Really none of the hits that led to runs off Holland today came on bad pitches. Sandoval golfed one of his shoelaces for 2 runs. Hanson popped up to CF that Pham dropped. Then Hernandez lines a slider that was in a really good location at the bottom of the zone and outside to right center.

Not only starting, but hitting in the TWO hole. Pathetic.

I read that the O's have seven offers and the Cards are not one of them. I wonder what the long-term plan is? This will be an interesting offseason considering we are on pace for yet another year not making the playoffs.

Respectfully, Munoz IS that bad defensively. He's maybe not quite as bad at SS as Martinez is at 1b, but man it's close.

He's a really really bad defensive player and his offense is virtually identical to Gyorko's in approach. Over large enough numbers, the best case scenario is that he gives you something on par with what Gyorko does and the far more likely scenario is that he's worse.

Playing Munoz over Gyorko is a bad idea.

We finally have a truly competent and potentially strong infield defense. DeJong's defense has been a pleasant surprise, Carpenter's has improved significantly, Wong is among the best defensive infielders in baseball and Gyorko would be a GG finalist if we'd just stick him at 3b and be done with it. That's a really good infield defense - let's not dick around with it but putting a guy in Munoz who is a butcher back on the field because he might (and probably wouldn't) provide a modicum of improvement offensively over a virtually identical offensive player with a longer track record of success.

Morosi putting his money on the Brewers.

He also said that the Orioles have discussed Keibert Ruiz and Dustin May with the Dodgers but the Dodgers are "unlikely to include Ruiz in a deal for a rental." I find that shit hilarious. The Dodgers have 2 of the best defensive catchers in the game at 28 and 29 years old with Grandal also being one of the better offensive catchers right now but they arent willing to trade Ruiz for a run at a WS.

Thats typical Meathead to get the player "going". Did the same with Fowler/Carp. Carp finally turned it around when dropped in the order. Fowler, we are still waiting.


Same with Ozuna. Clean up regardless of being in a bad streak.

Hey, it’s not Cerrano - er, Ozuna’s fault that pitchers are only throwing him breaking balls. Maybe if he’d swear off Jobu he could get going again.

Come on man, he's not Ozzie or even Dejong but Martinez is an all time bad infielder. Munoz is not anywhere close to all time bad infielders.
Had this conversation before the season and nothing has changed after seeing 1/2 season of baseball. I still don't like Gyrko. He puts up numbers when it doesn't matter. Makes his stats look better. If he was an everyday player, he'd be playing everyday. He doesn't because he gets exposed.

I'm not saying Munoz is an everyday player either. Just that right now, today, he should be starting until he reverts to his norm.

Posturing.

What would really surprise me is if the Yankees don't go out there and look to bolster that #2 spot in the rotation. They have soooooo muuuuuuch organizational capital. But what they don't have is a genuine #2 starting pitcher.

If they can't get the Mets to deal across town, sure would seem to make sense to give the Rays a call on....TWIST....Blake Snell. I know folks are saying Archer but I would want no part of a do or die game with Archer. You really have to have far too much fantasy stock of his to understand, but Archer is a prototypical 'pitch well enough to lose' guy. No no no, 1000 times no.

But let's say the Rays want Justus Sheffield, Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar for Blake Snell. That's obviously a ton for the Yankees to give up, right? But why wouldn't they do it?

The obvious concern would be the short term hole they create at 3b with Andujar but that's an easy fix - go get Moustakas for the Loaisiga kid who just had a nice cup of coffee then you throw gobs of money at Machado to play 3b in the offseason.

You line up Severino, Snell and Tanaka in a short series and you have 3 guys with potentially knockout stuff backed by one of the best bulllpens in baseball, all of whom present distinctly different looks so you could scramble your short series opponent and keep their timing off.

I could see the Brewers making a move. They have a history of giving up prime prospects for rentals. This could be their year to win the Central and avoid the wild card. They have a good team already.

If I'm a Brewers fan, I'd like to see them go for it. Its been 30+ years since they went to the NLCS. They are good fans. They deserve to go to the NLCS and WS.

Munoz is absolutely close to an all-time bad fielder.

He's as bad as any infielder presently playing. And while he doesn't do the small 'braindead' things that Martinez does, he doesn't execute relatively simple plays on a routine basis.

Munoz is far far worse than you're giving him credit for. His range is abysmal, he has bad hands and his instincts are poor. Like I said - he isn't quite Martinez bad, but he's not nearly as far away as you're claiming.

And you may not like Gyorko, but there's no reason to like Munoz any more than him. While it's a small sample, your argument that Jedd 'does it when it doesn't matter' simply doesn't hold up - to this point in the season he's been the best high leverage hitter on the team; a 1.059 OPS in high leverage situations.

As for your argument that 'he'd be an everyday player if he was an everyday player' - I hope you understand how ridiculous that was to even type when you're talking about a team with Mike Matheny in charge. Jedd's been worth roughly 6-8 wins over his almost 1200 PAs in a Cardinal uniform. In what universe does that not qualify as an everyday player? Oh wait, the one where Mike Matheny is in charge and refuses to use his players well.

The fact that he's not playing everyday isn't an indictment on him, it's an indictment on Matheny. Moreover, it hardly seems relevant when you're using it to talk him down in favor of another player who isn't a major league starter.

Finally - why should we wait for him to regress when Gyorko is just as hot as him over the last 2 weeks and we KNOW Gyorko is a better defensive player? They've been virtually identical over the last month as well. Offensively there is next to nothing to support the idea that Munoz is a demonstrably better option than Gyorko. Not in the short term, not in the long term.

Defensively it's night and day - Munoz is absolutely as bad as you'll find on the left side of a major league infield right now. He's miserably terrible. He makes Aledmys Diaz look like Rey Ordonez. He's AWFUL with a glove on. Offensively they're a wash.

Gyorko deserves to play.

Molina is for shit this year, as our local cubs fan JD likes to point out, with stats. Molina is going to make the All-Star team. He got robbed for his first year or two because catchers seem to get grandfathered into the All-Star game. So I could see it as payback for the start of his career. But, I digress......

There is more to this game than WAR and stats. I have eyeballs. I watch every game. Maybe not the whole game, every inning. I skip ahead, get distracted with other things etc. But, he just doesn't impress me. I know its anecdotal and my opinion. Your responding with stats that I don't understand like yourself. I'm not the only one. I would wager that the majority of Cardinal fans are not impressed with Gyroko.

Never said Molina is shit. He's been about as average as average can get for a few years now, but you still talk about him like its 2012 and he's pushing for MVP honors.

I gave you one stat that's a damn benign one; I intentionally stayed away from stats for that very reason - didn't figure I'd need to parry something as simple as OPS in high leverage spots.

Your eye is lying to you. And if a majority of Cardinals fans are not impressed by a guy who has shown over the last 2 seasons to possess both GG caliber defense AND 30 homerun power, I'm disinclined to attempt to educate them because they're simply not paying attention. Most of those same fans probably thought spending $20 million/season on Hosmer was a good idea and that Fowler's dreamy smile made him worth a 5 year deal.

Jedd's a good ballplayer and if you hadn't already convinced yourself otherwise your eyes would support that notion.

Gyorko has a chance to be our best infielder defensively and offensively. The fact that he's got less than 200 ABs on the season is a fireable offense for Meathead.

https://deadspin.com/i-can-t-get-eno...wit-1827443647

Damn. This guy hates us.

You have had your own players that you hate, just allow me my own.:)

I think he might be a Cubs fan but usually trolls Cards fans in the past and they take the bait.

Either that or a butthurt Mets fans still pissed about 2006.

This is funny though:

That’s fantastic. Imagine your boss emailing you a ****ing fortune cookie slogan every night before you go to bed. “Dave, I want those TPS reports on my desk by 10 a.m. sharp. Also, character is not forged in the mountaintop but in the valley.” What a complete ****ing pud. I would purposely strike out in every at-bat just to own him.

Its just awesome that we have to interject race into every single ****ing facet of life.

Yea Fowler is unpopular in Stl because of his race. Just like Gibson, Magee, Brock, Ozzy, etc.....

Deadspin is the Buzzfeed of sports journalism.

Posey out of All-Star game with sore hip. Yadi in.

Before JD comes in with some kind of trash Yadi talk......

Posey: 285/367/412/780 with 5 bombs and 27 RBI in 313 PA
Yadi: 278/320/495/816 with 13 bombs and 38 RBI in 231 PA.

Should have been Grandal replacing Posey.

ROFL

Not sure why you are laughing. He's been a better catcher than Yadier.

But if a 4th place voter for catchers and injury replacement All-Star is "elite" then I guess you win.

I'm not subscribed to the Athletic but if you are then there's an article over there agreeing with me https://theathletic.com/423348/2018/...say-maybe-not/

because I knew as soon as I heard you’d be in bitching about it.

I'm not bitching about it. I couldn't care less because it doesnt mean anything. It doesnt change the fact that Yadier is riding the rails of average.

Reports surfacing that the Orioles rejected the #1&#8 prospects in the Dodgers org for Manny.

If he winds up a Yankee I'm not watching another game this year.

where is he going to end up but LA or NY? That’s where all the top FA’s are going to want to go to for making and improving of their brand.

Bunch of hacks at that joke of a site. Not reading that garbage.

Bernie says that Meathead texted Fowler to tell him he was being dropped down in the lineup. He then texted him later to tell him he was moving to RF. After that Fowler blocked Meatheads texts to force him to talk with him in person.

Meathead continued to text. It was only when Mo told him that Fowler blocked his texts did he figure it out.


He also said that at any time during Larussa's era 40% of the players in the locker room would like to take Tony out back and kick the shit out of him. But, they all respected him.

If this is true, Matheny should be fired on the spot. :#

Its been widely reported that Fowler blocked Matheny's texts. Sequence of events is Bernie's "reporting".

Hopefully he finds out he's fired through text

Who gives a **** about texts? If you're too much of a [whatever he is - butthurt bitch, pussy, arrogant asshole, total moron, all of the above?] that you can't speak to your players and have to text them, then you have no business managing a major league team. Or any team, for that matter.

This goes beyond questionable game decisions. Clearly he's lost control of the team. He needs to go. Immediately.

The only hope is to lose, lose, lose.