Samurai Bucky

He must have been tired of yelling at the clouds.

Hey -- they beat the spread!

I guess Tampa has never hosted. According to this site (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_All-Star_Game_venues#Times_hosted_by_club), here is the list of teams and the last time each has hosted the All Star Game: Club Last Hosted Tampa Bay Rays -- Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics 1987 Toronto Blue Jays 1991 Milwaukee Brewers/St. Louis Browns/Baltimore Orioles 1993 Boston Red Sox 1999 Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers 2002 Chicago White Sox 2003 Houston Astros 2004 Detroit Tigers 2005 Pittsburgh Pirates 2006 New York Yankees 2008 St. Louis Cardinals 2009 California/Los Angeles Angels 2010 Arizona Diamondbacks 2011 Kansas City Royals 2012 New York Mets 2013 Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins 2014 Cincinnati Reds/Redlegs 2015 San Diego Padres 2016 Miami Marlins 2017 Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals 2018 Cleveland Indians/Guardians 2019 Colorado Rockies 2021 Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers 2022 Seattle Mariners 2023 Washington Senators/Texas Rangers 2024 Boston Bees/Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves 2025 Philadelphia Phillies 2026 Chicago Cubs 2027 New York/San Francisco Giants 2028

We need to remember -- these ARE the good old days.

They almost went bankrupt, so MLB wanted (or maybe needed) to step in. LA is the second largest city in the US and they needed to somehow keep that market interested. The Dodger ownership was smart and took advantage of it. I'll have to see if Brodie Brazil has anything new on it.

Since Lara started, Mitchell's at .204 / .313 / .265 / .578 with wRC+ of 68. Hard hit % is 48.6% Lara is .224 / .316 / .318 / .634. wRC+ of 80. HHP is 41.8% Neither has been that good. Mitchell's K rate is 29.8%. Yikes. I was expecting Lara to be ripping the cover off the ball. I'm not seeing it, yet. Perhaps with time he will be, but not now. I'm with agreement with many to send down Lockridge. Lara needs ABs at the major league level, but I don't know if he has earned the everyday role, yet.

This is one of the funniest things I have heard in a long time.

This is a good discussion. There are obviously a lot of things that make a clubhouse gel, or can cause some problems. I saw something this morning that made me think about this. There was a short video showing some of the actors and actresses that passed away this year. They mentioned 2-3 that were from Venezuela and had died in the earthquakes. I had no idea who they were. I think William, Jackson, and Luis might. On June 24, Venezuela was hit with a huge earthquake -- 7.2 on the Seismic Magnitude Scale (not sure if it is still called the Richter scale). Many, many people died. I'm not sure if any of their families were directly affected. I know they were emotionally involved because they wore items on their equipment and mentioned it in their pressers. With the help of the Milwaukee fanbase, William Contreras and Jackson Chourio collected and shipped 27 tons of emergency supplies to Venezuela. That was awesome! For us in America, we did our part and we moved on. That is what we do. I'm not sure those with family and friends could just turn it off, nor should they. Remember, they are humans playing baseball, not an avatar on some PS5 or XBOX One X game. Before June 24 (inclusive): Contreras: .302 / .365 / .427 / .792 and wRC+ of 119 Chourio: .296 / .346 / .524 / .870 and wRC+ of 137 After June 24: Contreras: .172 / .259 / .298 / .557 and a wRC+ of 55 Chourio: .244 / .323 / .400 / .723 and a wRC+ of 97 Maybe the reason why I bring this up is because while I do struggle with players not playing up to their potential, I know they are people. Before I get so mad about players not playing well, I remember that there are other things that could be affecting them. Does that mean that Contreras suddenly is a bad player? Of course not. I believe that this event has affected William in a way none of us on this board can even begin to understand. Has William been a key to a great clubhouse? Most likely. Is the clubhouse atmosphere suffering because he isn't his normal jovial self? Probably. Heck, he tried to kid around with a catcher and got fined $100K. It wasn't malicious and probably a bad decision, but $100K? ***? I feel like the only thing I can do as a fan is to not spout any vitriol to them. At no time have I seen them do something that was detrimental to the team from a human or teambuilding standpoint. Contreras is trying to work through this personal event and we should support him, not buy the ticket for him to be on the next train to... wherever. ¡Mantente fuerte, Venezuela!

Or even from the hitting side... Joey Ortiz since June 1: .296/.342/.472/.814 wRC+ 123. We all know that he has been in fire lately, but there are those who may look at his season average and say he hasn't been doing well. There was a highlight from some Dodgers podcaster that said that Ortiz had only a .670 OPS and was frustrated he got a hit on Thursday night. I was a little overboard by saying that Gasser is having a bad season overall. IMHO, he shoved and that shows his potential. Oh yeah... wasn't Contreras behind the dish? 😉

Yeah, and Ben Sheets was terrible in 2004 because he had some games where he gave up three or more runs. I remember a certain radio personality on AM 1250 named Steve Fifer who said that Ben Sheets should have done more. Gasser pitched well enough YESTERDAY to win against the defending World Champions. Has he been good overall this year? No. Good Lord, if the Miz gives up three runs today, he sucks for sure.

I know they made a big deal out of Kody Clemens and his dad, Roger, "Having a catch." Well, what would be cooler is to have Samurai and his four kids to go Am Fam field and "Have a catch". I didn't see the cool factor since the Clemens have been in most every MLB stadiums when Kody was growing up.

One thing that I don't understand is how they can take such terrible swings on 2-0. Mitchell might be the worst offender. On 2-0, you should be looking for one pitch in one spot and driving it (depending on the situation). The number of strikeouts this team has is terrible, too. I don't get it.

Whenever they showed the Twins, they only showed half of their face because they were all in Oscar's garbage can. LOL

Well, at least Contreras shouldn't try to steal third... ... right? RIGHT?????

In this case, there should be a shed in the back involved.

I’m in my late 50s, but my knuckleball still dances!

Fair enough. Does that mean that the hitting coach needs to be let go. We have never heard that before...

The best part, which was not seen on TV, was when he very subtly urged the fans to get loud when he was walking back to his position. Nothing demonstrative, but it was on the scoreboard. The crowd got very loud.

He hit balls that didn’t move much. He is still getting accustomed to recognizing MLB breaking balls. Many times, he looks really lost.

Pound the zone and work ahead. That works.

At least Sal hacks…

That is my hope, too. Since nobody outside of Milwaukee really gives a rip about the Brewers, why would they know about Henderson? The only reason the national media knows about the Brewers' prospects is because they are on a list and somebody else did the research on them.

Be careful... you might have to subscribe to @sveumrules to get an answer... 😉 You know... like grok with X...