tomwopat

Yep. Kind of annoying. Not hitting well and not even trying to make a play on that ball... Running full steam on wet grass toward a brick wall? ...or maybe he just thought it was either gone or would be played off the wall.

But they aren't talented right now. He should of been fired mid- season last year. National league east full of terrible managers. Calloway terrible, kapler’s phillies team quit on him the last 5 weeks of last year. Mattingley gets the marlins to play above their talent level, and Snitger is why I’m picking the braves to repeat. You get the sense that most of the NL East is poorly managed top to bottom. Washington, Mets, and Phillies all have pockets of excellence but primarily solve problems by throwing money at them. Lots of nepotism, I'd imagine.

The facial expressions of Thames and Cain in that inning were priceless.

What is with the "Respect the Rhino" poster in the dugout?

For anyone interested, the Mets are offering complimentary ticket exchanges for the rain-delayed game last night. I doubt they’ll be good seats, but it’s a nice gesture for those who weren’t able to enjoy the game. https://www.mlb.com/mets/ballpark/information/weather

They have taken the tarp off and announced that the game will start at 9:50 p.m. ET

I am at the stadium and they promised an update st 8:30 p.m. EDT but we have yet to hear one.

*** is going on, I’m here and it’s barely raining at all.

Again, you're just making up numbers. Where is your 20 million number for tax and interest coming from? I can do similar math: 66 operating income, subtract 60 million for tax and interest, = $6million, likely what they have available to add at the deadline. Which of us is wrong? I Guess you could be closer to the actual profit figure than I am. I already stated it’s all a guess anyhow. But we’re never gonna know for sure unless the books are shown, which will probably never happen nor should it happen. Lots of people choose to believe what’s being told to them by the powers that be, I choose skepticism based on life’s experiences with extreme money focused individuals, like when someone says “all in” and then poop hits the fan. Yes, we are operating with limited information; the only "hard" data we have is when there's a change in ownership or other release relating to a transaction, but I rarely feel we get 100% of the story there. I'm curious though, how you interpreted the "all in" comment and what your expectations are based on that?

Someone on Twitter pulled out this quote from the article and I think it is an interesting topic to explore: "The Dodgers had operating income of $95 million last season, the most in baseball. Such richness is a plus when, as in the case of the Dodgers, the owners are in the process of selling small stakes in the team to limited partners. The new investors will pay more if they believe a dividend is more likely than a capital call." There may be owners out there like Balmer or Cuban who aren't worried about the YTY profitability of the team and only about the appreciation of the team, but there are probably an increasingly number of minority investors that want to see a return on their investment because they want the cash flow every year. Do we know anything about how many minority investors there are in the Brewers? That may give us more of a sense of whether there is an appetite to stomach operating at a loss and going "all-in." If the minority investors are expecting a dividend, they are not going to be too pleased if Mark A says nothing is coming. Well, they don't have to like it. Attanasio is the majority owner. They really don't have any recourse. It would be interesting to see how fans would react if they could actually invest in the team. AS though the stock in Green Bay was a real stock. I wonder how many fans would rather they not sign those free agents so they got a few thousand dollars more from their dividend. Totally different situation comparing working class people to those wealthy enough to purchase even a minority stake into a major league baseball team however. I'm curious what the profile of the minority owners are. I wonder if they're the type that have a decent chunk of their wealth in the club so they can brag to their golf buddies, or more serious investors that believe sports franchises offer the most growth opportunity. I would have guessed it be the former, but that Twitter quote gives me pause. In either case I'm guessing they're more risk averse than Mark. So when he has to decide about taking risks, he needs to consider not only about making the most logical business decisions, but also how he'll sell the decision it to the minority owners. He could always take a nuclear option and completely disregard their opinion, but I don't see Mark as one that would jeopardize his reputation in the business world. I also wonder how leveraged the current owners of the Dodgers are. Maybe them looking to minimize their risk by selling off non-essential pieces of their ownership, and reducing their vulnerability is more of a driver of operating income than maximizing their ROI on the sale.

It's self imposed because they are not stupid! Steve Ballmer paid $2 Billion for the Clippers. Was it a good deal? Probably not, but it was his one chance to buy an NBA team in Los Angeles. Sometimes the super wealthy will spend their money in was that are pleasing to them, without regard to whether or not they turn an annual profit. Precisely-- this to me says that the valuation is mostly propped up by the scarcity of the resource (i.e. that there's an artificially limited amount of top-tier sports franchises), than their ability to deliver profit over time. They're still rich people's playthings, in other words. That being said, they're increasingly being run like real businesses, as any reasonably-run franchise can pull a healthy profit without much risk. Mark A. is in a unique position where he can be a fan and also reap the monetary benefits of a competitive franchise (moreso than other markets, I'd wager, as we see in the revenue per fan number), but I still think that he and his management team hold each other accountable to making good business decisions. This isn't a Mike Ilitch-esque situation where he treats the team primarily as a philanthropic endeavor, or a European football club with owners of limitless wealth that are willing to lose tons of money in the short term in order to stratify the competitive landscape and wrest control over emerging revenue sources.

Votto not going to last long in the NFL missing tackles like that

Braun and the middle of the lineup must be smacking their lips knowing that they're practically guaranteed to be hitting with Yelich on first over the next two weeks

The bar for reasons to stick additional baseballs in the ribs of Yadi is pretty low IMHO. Makes no sense to have a basketball logo on a baseball chest protector, you are right. I said the same thing to my wife a while ago, she could not care less...

Sure, why not: 2019 Brewers Predictions Win-Loss Record: 89-73 Playoffs (Yes, No): No Highest Playoff Level Achieved: N/A All-Star Game Representative(s): Shaw, Grandal Offensive Player of the Year: Shaw. Career year, 285/370/590 with 42 HR. Starting Pitcher of the Year: Peralta develops his secondary pitches and refines his pitching acumen to become the lone bright spot in an otherwise mediocre rotation. Relief Pitcher of the Year: Hader, natch. Most Surprising Player: Hiura is called up in late May has offensive production similar to Braun's RoY year. Some struggles to get him into the lineup, resulting in a game of musical chairs at 1B and calls for CC to try Moustakas at SS (!) Most Disappointing Player: Aguilar Solid offensive production from Shaw and Grandal can't overcome regression from Aguilar and injury and inconsistency from Braun and Moustakas. Starting pitching is lacking depth and experience but unlike 2018 doesn't have the bullpen to minimize the effect. Despite all this the Brewers are still in the playoff hunt for most of the season, dealing at the trade deadline to bring Wily Peralta to try and stop the bleeding from a depleted bullpen. He and Freddy combine for a 13K shutout in September, but this is not quite enough to catch the Cardinals for the division, with the Reds taking a WC spot.

I believe that the brewers have been using revenue sharing money to rebuild maryvalle. Also mark a has been constantly paying off the debt he assumed when he bought the team. More likely that this money is out I to a fund for stadium upgrades rather than buying a 2 million dollar bench player. Which I have no problem with but the team should be honest about it instead of saying this is how small market teams compete. This... Have to think someone as business savvy as Mark A. would follow the trend of buying sports teams with other people's money (see also McCourt, Frank). So while I consider Mark A. a real fan, he also views the team as an investment. Taking profits to shoring up his stake and maximizing the return on his investment by retiring debt and/or buying out minority owners, so at some point he has a clean exit option, whether that is selling the team, or leaving it to his family to run. The latter seeming a bit unlikely given the exploits of his children, but who knows. I think the era of sports franchises being treated as toys for the ultra-rich is coming to a close. Thankfully so, since for every Mike Illitch that treats their team like a charity, there's plenty more that treat it like a forgotten classic car in a barn, left to rot or be torn apart by their grandchildren. There's a loss of mystique though, this change in naming being one visible manifestation of that.

Honestly, would have been better for everyone if the Gunners just went under. Seconded. In all seriousness, my Spurs face a similar situation needing the revenue bump to stay competitive, but they need to finish the darn thing first.

Well, on the bright side Freese is out of the game.

There really isn't. It's exactly the Theo Epstein (PoBO)/Jed Hoyer (Exec-VP, GM) system the Cubs have in place. It's just a title construct that teams use to be able to lure existing GM's under the guise that it's a promotion, while in reality they just have a few extra people report into them. Regarding the Brian Sabean comment, his title is currently similar to Hoyer's (Exec-VP, Baseball Ops) except in this situation the GM position is open. If they genuinely offered the PoBO position to Stearns, it would appear he would be brought in to be Sabean's boss and they'd still be looking for a GM (in which case we'd have to play defense and promote Arnold to GM but likely lose another top assistant to SF if they offer up their GM position). Which is a structure that may seem like you have a lot of smart people in the building... but who's really calling the shots? I'd guess Sabean would step aside into some sort of executive advisor role, then Stearns would be left to hire a GM (in effect assistant GM). Can't see how else this would be compelling to Stearns.

How come this wasn't an issue in the regular season? Is it different in the post season? And what difference does it make if he's there if he isn't playing?? Now I see he deleted that tweet. What is really going on here? I think the rule has good intent, have to draw the line somewhere to keep every Tom/Dick/Harry out of the dugout, potentially serving as additional coaches. So limiting it to the 40 man roster seems pragmatic. That the 60-day DL doesn't count against the 40 man roster is another technicality, so they could make the letter of law more closely match the intent of the law by amending the rule to include the 60-day DL too. Whether they want to add this complication for this specific instance is another question.

At least Amy is paying attention to the game

Mention of Javier Baez's tagging abilities.... drink!

Contact so hard from Perez that Kershaw can barehand it

Do you also think homers kill rallies? Walks clog up the bases