Thurston Fluff

Spoken like a Fantasy Baseball owner. In real life, it's not the case. Baseball players are real human beings with thoughts, feelings, and opinions. The way to get the best out of them, in this day and age anyway, is not to treat them like chattel if you can help it. Stearns crapping on Zach Davies to get a couple of meaningless plate appearances out of marginal player is not a good use of human resources. If his thoughts, feelings and opinions are so self centered that a 10 day trip to the minors, when he wasn't playing anyway, trumps knowing a fringe major league player gets 10 days closer to a pension and a few days in the big dance then I am not sure I care about his thought feelings and opinions. Both players involved are making the same prorated salary. Service time isn't an issue other than it helps Wilkins get closer to a pension so the Brewers are not doing this for money or service time. They are doing it because it makes sense for the roster over the next 10 days. Boras would have no problem disrespecting anyone else if it helped his client for so much as an hour. So his whining rings hollow. Honestly I doubt Davies will have much of a problem when it is all said and done. No matter the reason, it sucks to get sent down so I understand if his first reaction is "what the hell?" I doubt he'll carry a grudge. If he does so what? After his six years of control are over we can't afford him if he's great and he's replaceable if he isn't. As Scott Boras' other client Prince Fielder showed us, being nice doesn't change that dynamic at all.

For Scott Boras to complain about a team using technicalities or grey areas for it's benefit is pretty obnoxious considering his past efforts. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/16/AR2009081602024.html

Maybe "underwhelming" was not the right word for my reaction. It seemed like Hill could have been a piece in a package that would have netted more in totality. Something like Hill + a reliever = more or something like that? How many teams looking to fill a reliever also just happen to want Hill bad enough to give up better prospects than we just got? Maybe more but not better. He's an very average 34 year old rental. There is nothing wrong with average, being 34 years old, or a rental. It's just, in baseball terms, that does not net a huge return. Like some others I am kind of intrigued by Wilkerson. If he can fill a rotation spot a for a year or two (or three or four) until the team is more competitive he would be well worth Hill on his own. Until the team's talent level at the majors is raised we are going to need some journeymen type to fill the roster. Why not do so with prearby non prospect types? As long as they can eat enough innings keep the team functioning we don't have to rush real prospects or start their arby clock it's a huge win.

I don't think I have ever agreed with anything you have ever said. Until today. I agree 100% and well said.

I think they want to get Anderson back on track. He's a control pitcher who had his spot skipped once recently. Skipping it again for what would be a pretty long time between starts probably isn't the best way to get him going again.

Once again I totally agree. I never understood the secret recipe thing. It's food, share and enjoy.

Make very small adjustments and wait 15 full minutes before making further adjustments. Otherwise, you start chasing a yo-yo... up, down, up down. NEVER open the lid to lower the heat. It will initially drop, then spike way up due to the huge amount of fresh air you just let in. This goes back to the idea of treating smoke like driving a boat. The effects of sudden changes don't work suddenly. I BBQ constantly and very successfully. There are very few "rights" and even fewer "wrongs." If something works for you, stay with it. Your family and friends may not like what my family and friends like and vice-versa. You're cooking for you, not for some people on the Internet. Didn't want to short change this. It is the most important thing. If you like it, it's good. Cooking is not a contest. It's a way to tailor make stuff you treat your specific palate.

The 1000 ab's part can be misleading. If it comes in part time play it makes it harder to do well in. If it was in regular play then it is more telling. Take Maldonado for instance. When he was the every day catcher in 2012 he had a 729 OPS. Not Lucroyesque but respectable for a catcher. When he was the backup and playing sporadically he hit well below that.

Ditto. All respect lost. Just like the flavor. Seriously though I've done it both ways and I don't think it matters one way or the other truth be told. All fat side up does that is can tell is self baste the meat.

I used this site a lot over the years. It used to have some of the best wood there was. No bark at all and a wide variety of wood to chose from. They sold some infused wood as well though I was never a fan of infused wood some people swear by it. I will say the oak barrel wood used to ferment Jack Daniels in is changing my mind on it a bit. They don't have the same wood anymore but still a good resource for smokers. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/

Every pitcher has stretches where they pitch over their heads. Every pitcher has stretches where they pitch well below their ability. The key is to maximize the good runs and limit the bad ones. The pitchers who can do that stick around. This is just my opinion but I always felt the pitchers who could throw the ball where they want to tend to do that better than ones who have to rely on great stuff but less control. That is why I am fairly confident Davies can be a solid starter for the long haul.

I don't think a sinker can ever be called a straight fastball. His certainly isn't. His problem isn't due to his fastball being too straight. It's a combination of him throwing it in the wrong location and his secondary pitches haven't come around. For what it's worth, PitchFX has Peralta throwing both two seam & four seam fastballs. The biggest issue does seem to be the slider, though. When Wily was decent in 2013 & 2014 he was getting positive results on the slider (+6.2 & +2.3), the last two years those results have cratered (-2.6 in 2015 & -6.8 this year in only 66 innings). His number one pitch is his sinker. His second pitch is his slider. The other two are more or less afterthoughts that he throws a handful of times a game. If he relies on those two pitches about 90% of the time the idea that his straight fastball is the problem is pretty hard to believe.

I don't think a sinker can ever be called a straight fastball. His certainly isn't. His problem isn't due to his fastball being too straight. It's a combination of him throwing it in the wrong location and his secondary pitches haven't come around.

Because he can't be sent down and it would be beyond stupid to just cut him at this point.

Js online just reported it also. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/382612911.html

Adding holes will get more heat but it will also use more wood. The reason your temperature doesn't get that high is because smokers are designed to cook at low temperatures. As far as the out edge goes smoking it will create a crust even at low temperatures. It just takes more time. Trying to cook it to fast can lead to dry meat.

I think even the Royals are getting tired of Ventura's act. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2645008-yordano-ventura-trade-rumors-latest-news-speculation-on-royals-sp

This is the part that is all too often overlooked. I don't remember anyone in the organization ever putting a time table on it. I think a lot of people felt a long term rebuild in the vein of Houston or Chicago was inevitable. Which is an understandable, if incorrect, assumption considering they hired a young guy from the Houston organization. But it seemed to me from the get go that the front office was going to let the talent base dictate the length instead of deciding beforehand how long it would take.

It isn't the type or cut of meat that makes it grilling, smoking or barbecuing. It's the temperature you cook them at. Smoking is low heat. Usually up to 180 degree or so. Barbecuing is mid heat usually around 180-300 or so. Grilling usually starts at 350-400. While you may feel one should grill certain things while barbecuing or smoking others that is entirely up to personal taste.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if some team claimed him. He has shown he can take a walk and plays multiple positions. There are several rebuilding teams who might have more use for him that we do. Even if he will never be a part of a winning team he could be useful as filler waiting for the farm to grow. Give the state of the Reds and Braves I can't help but think they could use someone like him to fill out a roster at league minimum for a few years.

Just curious if anyone else has done lamb or oysters? Both of those turned out very well for me. Tried hamburgers once that turned into quite effective hockey pucks. Though hockey pucks might not have been as dry. One other thing I do is when smoking meat add some soup bones. I just freeze them and make broth later. It makes a great soup base. I also did some experimenting with tomatoes that turned into some really good salsa. Also did baked beans, onions and squash. For the squash I cut it in half and added apple juice in the center. I don't serve smoked veggies with smoked meat though. Smoke flavor in multiple dishes never works well IMHO. Prime rib is one of the things people request from me the most but I never felt it was anything close to the best way to do prime rib. Guess it's personal preference. I do like smoked tenderloin a lot. It's good day one and makes for great sandwiches the next day. Usually when I do beef, which I think isn't represented enough in the smoking world, is use a lot of black pepper in the rub. Black pepper and smoke beef go very well together. But prime rib is one of the few beef things that I don't like a lot of pepper on so it may be why I am not fond of smoked prime rib. I second this.

We aren't looking for a marginally better pitcher for a playoff run and he hasn't created any trade market for himself. I think any number of guys on the 40 man can do what he does. His days were probably over when one of the guys on the 60 day DL was ready to go anyway. In a "your body gave out" vs "you just aren't very good anymore," sort of way this might be the most graceful way to end it.

The water should go above the wood. The reason for the water is to help increase your smoke ring. Mop sauce also helps with that. When it comes to soaking the wood there are differing opinions on it. The reasoning behind soaking the wood is to create more smoke for the wood used and increase the smoke ring. I personally haven't noticed much of a difference with or without soaked wood when it comes to the smoke ring. I don't use it to start because it's makes getting started harder without propane but when I add wood I use soaked ones. Avoid using bark and it helps a lot. Not totally true. You can get a smoke ring by adding curing salt with sodium nitrite in it. There are a lot of store bought rubs that have that in it. If you are using your own rub and know it doesn't have sodium nitrite in it then you are correct.

Given there are a couple guys on the 60 day DL that are closer to returning than not and his pretty pedestrian results one has to wonder if he hasn't pitched his last pitch in the majors.

When it comes to cooking I have no secrets. Outside of restaurants I never understood why some people refuse to share tips. Ditto for food competitions. I've had a couple people hound me for years to enter competitions but just don't see why food should be a competition. As for why you might have had trouble I've found it usually ends up being because you didn't add wood soon enough, added the wrong size of wood or added to much at once. It helps a lot to look at the fire like stopping a boat instead of a car. You have to do it before it needs it or it's to late. Once it's going add larger chunks and only one or two at a time. If you do add too late you may have to add a few smaller pieces or chips but only a few to get it moving or it goes too far the other way.