Thurston Fluff

In 2018, he may have had a sub-Uecker average in 89 plate appearances, but was still 1.6 wins above replacement. Overall, he had 4.2 wins above replacement in Milwaukee. As a 4th outfielder, not conventional in terms of his offensive profile, but he provides excellent defense. This seems like a misuse of wins above replacement. If it isn't then it says more about wins above replacement than it does Broxton. WAR is ok for a quick glance and does ok at giving a snapshot of offensive ability. It does not do so well with defense IMHO.

Every one of them. They have been told how great they were since 7 years old. I'm sure almost all of them view themselves as future Hall of Famers. Humility probably doesn't set in right away with the high picks but lower round picks know they aren't the best ever or they would have been drafted higher. Teams also have people telling them not to be stupid with their money. It isn't the same as musicians or actors who are basically on thier own from the beginning. Teams have support structures built in to help with all sorts of off field things. But Homer is right I shouldn't judge. Other than to say he messed up.

While I only get half of the references, Midnight Misadventures With Mallika Dua is hilarious. She is outstanding in that role. Kind of Colbert Report type of character spoof without the political overtones.

The dentist sketch might be the single best ever in no small part because of that. IMHO He is, was, -need to get my tenses right- the best sketch comedian ever.

He didn't have enough from baseball to live on forever but how many tenth round picks assume they are going to make enough on baseball to live on forever? That was enough of a financial boost most people would love to have had in their first decade of adulthood.

Why

Decent. Guys like him and Davies are always so easy to root for.

If he can get his fastball to tick up to 97-98 out of the pen, theoretically he can get by with more mistakes in the zone. Maybe but even Hader is getting hammered when he misses with his fastball so I think he's going to need more than just a few ticks on his fastball to turn things around. They have to figure out why the entire staff suddenly can't put the ball where they want it.

Location has been a problem for pretty much all the pitchers not named Davies so I'm not sure a move the pen is going to solve his location problems.

Some of the kids that work for us listen to K-pop. It has to be the single worst genre ever. I'd listen to country or muzak over that stuff. Then again I'm 55. If I like the same music as teenagers there is probably something wrong with one of us.

He was pretty darn good in that one postseason relief appearance --- 3 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 6 ks --- https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN201810160.shtml He was. But that doesn't change the fact that his relief experience is an extremely small sample. I almost wonder if that was a piggyback situation where he knew he was pitching, though, too. Given his propensity to be bad in the 1st inning in his starts, I wouldn't trust him in a relief role. That said ... I don't trust anyone right now, so who knows? I've heard this a lot of times about pitchers but don't really know if having first inning problems as a starter necessarily relates to them having it as a reliever. They really are two different things from the mental side of things.

Never challenge worse.

I wouldn't give up anything for him at this point. If the Brewers have interest in him now he'll be available in a couple days. He isn't the type of guy I'd worry too much about losing if he chooses another team. But why would he? He's know the team a little and would be coming into about as good a situation as he could hope for.

To be fair to Counsell, not sure he expected Burnes to be THAT bad. Yet, he was bragging all three up in ST. They were the story of ST, according to CC. Honestly I have no idea why anyone believes what a manager says about a player coming into a season. Their need to manage players overrides their duty to tell fans exactly how they really think by a large margin. I think most fans know there is some amount of gamesmanship with the press going on. They won their jobs in spring and Counsell had reason to praise them for what they did to that point. Both for what they did to that point and for their mental preparedness going into the season. He was also very clear all along that the opening day roster was not what the roster would look like for the whole year so it isn't like he said they were etched in stone for the remainder of the season. I get it's early to pull the plug now but Burnes has been really bad. As in nearly history making bad giving up homeruns. I think what finally made them pull the plug for now is he was getting worse. I think they're worried about doing lasting damage to his confidence by letting him get his hat handed to him time after time so early in his career. This is the first time he's struggled at any level IIRC so this is also part of learning how to be a big league player. He'll need to figure out how to overcome adversity at some point anyway. Which is some way makes this not so bad at this point in his career. It certainly doesn't change my view of him going forward even if I had hoped he'd be ready right away. Give him some time to clear his head and get his location issues straightened out and I think he'll be fine.

He may have the talent to be one of the best pitchers on the staff but he sure isn't performing like it. While it is true he has faced several very good offences that is no excuse for how bad he's been. The other starters have faced the exact same offenses and aren't doing as poorly as Burnes is. I think he can turn it arund but at some point he's going to have to get past the 4th inning if he wants to remain a starter in the majors.

I think most successful bullpens in any given season depends on multiple options beyond just the ones pegged to contribute before the season starts. TO me it appears we have more legitimate options than most teams but fewer than last season. As long as we have enough guys in the minors that are major league ready it will sort itself out.

You are the most hip dude I know. You're so hip you must have trouble seeing over your pelvis.

I fall for it every year even though I know it happens every year. This one had a slightly higher chance of being true but I think this is the first time I didn't swallow it hook line and sinker. I know some people don't like it but it's never done in a mean spirited way here. Nothing baseball related is life or death even if someone does fall for it.

Update. The lady called back and apologized. She was sincere and said she was under a lot of stress and took it out on me which was wrong of her. She then thanked me for being so patient and will definitely use us for any future events. So glad I didn't say all the things I was thinking of saying to her.

My plans are the same as every year. Running around all day all giddy because baseball is finally back.

Let me guess, she was from the North side? Sounds exactly like a couple people I know. It is fascinating when someone is convinced something is true that can easily be proven wrong. Like you wouldn't know that was your customer? Weird, but like I said- definitely know the type. Hey I'm a north sider. Honestly don't know where they are located. I've never been there.

I love when you give a quote to someone and they get mad at you. Our line is we're not cheap, we're easy. I think anybody who works in a specialty shop get that fairly often. I know we laugh about it with the hardware people down the street on occasion. They get it all the time. It usually doesn't bother me but on occasion they are just so blind about it. I kind of felt like saying "hey give me a break we can fail at that price too." But that would be counterproductive.

Got my face ripped off today because the person thought we did the balloons for their company event and it sucked. Tried to tell them we didn't do anything like that today and it must be someone else. She refused to believe me. Then she called back about half an hour later and said it wasn't us and how much would it be for us to fix it? No apology for dressing me down for 15 minutes for something we didn't do or anything. So I told her how much and got another earful for being more expensive than the people who screwed it up. It wasn't even that much more and we'd have to have dropped everything to do it right away. Then I got another earful when I told her we won't just go there and try to fix their mess for less.

I've done a lot of work with and for them over several decades. Some of the nicest people I have ever dealt with. i don't know how it is to work there but they certainly didn't carry any of the baggage over to outside people they deal with.

Limiting it to just sluggers you have: David Ortiz Nelson Cruz Goldschmidt’s top two Baseball Reference career similarity scores through their age-30 seasons are Jeff Bagwell and Adrian Gonzalez. Both of those hitters maintained health and hitting prowess until around age-34/35. Gonzalez last season with an OPS+ north of 100 was his age 34 season but he already fell off considerably from his age 33 season. Bagwell is harder to compare due to the era he played in. There was a lot more guys who aged well back then. Not coincidentally that era ended about the time steroid testing started. I doubt he's going to fall off a cliff at age 33 but he isn't likely to be worth what he's making after that.