JosephC

It's not just temperature, it's also wind and rain. I don't know about Green Bay, but in Chicago it was cold and/or rainy pretty much all of late October and November. It was a wet fall here, and temperatures dropped to highs around 40 in late October and rarely got above 50 after that. I would assume colder in Green Bay. If it's windy enough, it can alter the ball slightly when dropping it to not get square on contact. Yeah, ask the worthless Badger punter about that. Oh wait, that guy is in Southern California and still cannot drop the ball within a yard of his foot.

I remember when Robbie Gould wanted 3 million per year and the dumb GM said he wasn't going to let a kicker make that type of demand and showed Gould the door. That one worked out real well.

Strop's velocity was down 1.5 MPH last year and it just didn't work with the velocity drop. But he was having neck and leg problems last year (not arm/shoulder), so I guess it wouldn't be so surprising if his velocity climbed back up if healthy, even though he is older. https://www.mlb.com/news/2020-mlb-free-agents-by-position So looking at what is left out there....Dyson is out for 2020 so cross him off the list....there is Kintzler and then everybody else was 0.5 WAR or less last season. I don't think Strop is a bad option when looking at the field.

We can talk about money coming off the books after the season, but Arenado is still making 35 million in 2020 and it's hard to fit that into the equation when it sure looks like the owner is cutting 20 million off the payroll.

Absolutely right. Have to wonder if cold weather has something to do with it? The Packers need to be serious about finding him some competition in training camp next year.

I've been looking through my music collection and I don't know if there is any band that put out a run of 5 studio albums that tops Rush's streak from 2112 through Moving Pictures?

WR TE OT WR (again) ILB DE backup QB OG

It's pretty obvious at this point that defenses are built to play the pass, and when an organization builds for that, the best 11 on defense winds up being more of a 2-3-6 alignment and that spells big trouble when the other team is only interested in kicking your tail by running the ball.

Kyle Shanahan's offense is just wonderful to watch. Packers have no clue what's coming. So many different player packages and they will run and pass out of pretty much every formation they throw out there. It's almost like watching a Bill Walsh offense. So refreshing after watching McCarthy's 3 WR/1 TE...Aaron, find the mismatch pre-snap and throw it to that guy on 90% of the plays offense. Hopefully LaFleur will evolve the offense towards what Shanahan is doing.

Murphy is not the lone acquisition in the deal - Vilade becomes the SS in AA as well, and provides a high-average, high-OBP hitter with some speed who had double figures in doubles, triples, homers, and steals in 2019. Supak is one of the Crew's pitching prospects, but not the only one. I'd put a solid role-player prospect grade on Supak which would give him a 5.5 million dollar prospect surplus value on my board. Vilade, I'd probably put him at about #250 on a top 300 list...translates to about 9.4 million dollars in prospect surplus value. The 3.9 million dollar difference is not nearly enough to make me want to bite on a 14 million dollar commitment to Daniel Murphy. I just see Murphy as a rapidly declining offensive player and his defense at 3B would likely be horrible. Steamer is projecting him at 0.3 WAR for 2020 and that seems like a pretty fair number to me. I do like Vilade and think he could turn out to be a really good player. But that 14 million dollars just can't be ignored.

Just wasting some time this afternoon: Dodgers get: SS - Francisco Lindor (from Cleveland) LHP - Josh Hader (from Milwaukee) LHP - Eric Lauer (from Milwaukee) Indians get: SS - Corey Seager (from Los Angeles) OF - Joc Pederson (from Los Angeles) SS - Eduardo Garcia (from Milwaukee) 3B/1B - Edwin Rios (from Los Angeles) OF - Jeren Kendall (from Los Angeles) LHP - Scott Alexander (from Los Angeles) Milwaukee gets: LHP - Julio Urias (from Los Angeles) RHP - Josiah Gray (from Los Angeles) RHP - Kenta Maeda (from Los Angeles) LHP - Brad Hand (from Cleveland)

Back in the day T-Jo's pizzas were all softer, thin crust and baked in a traditional pizza oven. If you like the meats, expect plenty of grease (my attitude has always been...if you don't like the grease, order a salad).

Get the whole wheat crust when ordering from Rocky's. IMO it's essential. Makes a world of difference. The regular crust does seem undercooked and "doughy" which is a turn off for me and is the one real big knock on Rocky's IMO. But I think they have the best sausage, onions, mushrooms and most flavorful cheese out of all the larger pizza chains. Hands down would take them over Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa Johns. I haven't lived in La Crosse in nearly 30 years, but back in the day, T-Jo's on the north side was my favorite pizza place. I see they have a website and are still in business.

That would be a horrible trade for Milwaukee. Murphy gets 8 million this year and then a 6 million dollar buyout in 2021 on a mutual option. So it works out to a 1 year, 14 million dollar contract. Way too much money for a declining offensive player who is probably a train-wreck with the glove at any spot other than 1B. Not to mention that I'd guess Stearns is probably down to less than 5 million to play with when it comes to the opening day payroll.

Do you know the status of Sanchez? Been looking and not finding much. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/09/aaron-sanchez-to-undergo-season-ending-shoulder-surgery.html Last I heard it was a torn capsule with an estimated recovery time of 12-14 months.

Apparently my snark wasn't that snarky, as Cruickshank visited Rutgers this week. Which, of course, begs the question as to why he would make this move... He's from New York - gets to play closer to home. Probably wants the opportunity to play in a more traditional WR role and that wasn't going to happen at Wisconsin. Coaching staff gave him every opportunity to beat out Jack Dunn and Adam Krumholz for the #5 spot on the depth chart during the fall and Cruickshank couldn't unseat either of them. Great kick returner...nice gadget player on offense...not a Big 10 quality player when it comes to playing a traditional WR role. Or else he just wants to go for kickoff return yardage records. He would have plenty of opportunities for that at Rutgers because their opponents generally kick off A LOT!

Baylor is probably going to be really good the next few years. They will be the only team in the conference that actually has an interest in playing defense.

I think Matt Carpenter has the ability to kill any chance of Arenado going to St. Louis. The Cardinals would almost certainly have to dump on contract on the Rockies, and Carpenter would be the obvious choice. The Cardinals have stated that they will not put Carpenter back in the outfield, and with Goldschimdt at 1B and Arenado at 3B, that would leave 2B as the only option for Carpenter and I don't think there is any chance they'd put him there. Carpenter now has no-trade protection, and he could easily demand the 2022 be made a guaranteed year which would make him as untradeable as Kyle Seager. There is always a chance that Carpenter would agree to a trade to Colorado and maybe just demand a reassignment bonus of a few million to waive his no-trade, but Carpenter has all the power here and will be the one who makes the call on where he plays. Have to wonder how much of the Rockies motivation to move Arenado comes from the opt-out? Maybe they are comfortable with the average annual value of the deal, but think they will get outbid for him if he does opt-out...and if that's the case then trade him now and take what you can get. If so, would the Rockies be OK with the 5 years, 110 million left on Goldschmidt's deal (22 million per season, far less than Arenado and no opt-out to worry about, St. Louis obviously picks up all remaining signing bonus payments)? Goldschimdt was by no means bad but probably was considered a slight disappointment in St. Louis last year (.821 OPS). That would put Carpenter at 1B and Arenado at 3B for the Cardinals. Daniel Murphy is basically on a 1 year deal (mutual option for 2021), but he could get kicked to 3B in Colorado. Obviously a long-shot, but it should would be a blockbuster if Arenado headed to St. Louis and Goldschmidt plus a few other pieces (including Liberatore) headed to Colorado. I would imagine there probably wouldn't be too many Brewer fans crying about this. Arenado is the better all-around "value" player, but very few hitters have beat up Brewer pitching like Goldschimdt. 1.097 career OPS against Brewer pitching.

Have to admit that I think the rotation currently looks dreadful. For all the belly-aching over third base, I really like the lineup against lefty pitchers and think the 2-6 spots should be very good against righties (at a minimum, overall still feel pretty decent about the lineup against righties). I like Brett Anderson and think he could be a good fit in Miller Park, but I have little confidence in his health. Lindblom has been a really mediocre pitcher in MLB and I don't think the rest of MLB saw him as that great of an option considering the deal he agreed to with Milwaukee (<10 million over three years...next to nothing in today's MLB), Lauer, career 5.44 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, .286/.360/.455/.814 batting line against when pitching outside of San Diego. Optimistic on Houser, but he was a 4.57 ERA/1.35 WHIP performer as a starter last year. Love Woodruff's ability but have to start looking at his inning totals as well. Season high mark was 158 innings in 2016, and last year was his second highest total and that was only 121 2/3 innings. Ace? Maybe, maybe not but hard to say he's the anchor of a rotation with the career inning totals that he has. I don't like the bullpen either.

Also upset that Rocky's got booted out of Westgate Mall and no longer have a delivery option for the west side of Madison. I think the best pizza in Middleton/west side of Madison is The Roman Candle. http://theromancandle.com/

Mmm, haven't had Buck's in 30 years. Pizza Oven has recently closed. Is Buck's pizza the same as Buck's Bar? https://www.buckspizzamadison.com/ Still upset that Buck's swore that they would re-open on the west side after finding a new location, but never did.

I'd predict a Hader trade with the Twins would look something like: Twins get: Josh Hader Brewers get: RHP-Brusdar Graterol, 1B-Brent Rooker, RHP-Zack Littell, OF-Gilberto Celestino

The more I think about it, the more it just seems ridiculous that no player was punished for any of this. Not really buying the immunity aspect of this. How many players have not been willing to talk to MLB about impending domestic violence suspensions? Seems more likely that lengthy suspensions for what would probably be a dozen players has the potential to really turn off fans in that area (likely would have to rotate suspensions as to not leave the Astros too short-handed, and could very well last for over half the season). And lower ticket sales and less TV viewing in the 8th biggest market certainly has a chance to put a small dent in MLB's big revenue machine. Yeah, they will scapegoat some front-office guys...those guys don't impact the bottom line so they are completely expendable. And then there is always the aspect of upcoming CBA negotiations. Don't upset that apple-cart now. Also, I have little doubt that several other teams (maybe all) are engaged in this same behavior at one level or another, so suspending players now would set precedent and MLB probably shakes at the thought of having massive suspensions impact several big market teams at once. In the name of $ it's obviously just best to scape-goat some insignificant front office guy and let the players continue to make more money. To think that any commissioner in any of the "big-money" sports truly has the "good of the game" at heart is a complete and total joke at this point. Would definitely prefer that the term commissioner be retired and be replaced with "head of the owner's fraternity" or something along those lines.

I want to know if MLB has figured out why so many pitcher's spin rate has increased by a couple hundred rpm as soon as they pitch for the Astros.

I kind of like this signing. Gyorko was beyond awful last year, but he's still slashed .258/.333/.426/.759 over the last three years even with the awful 2019 numbers included. I like the chances of him bouncing back and being a .333 OBP/.759 OPS player, which makes him a pretty decent guy to have on the roster as he can play all four infield spots. And yeah, he's a really cheap insurance policy for 3B in case Sogard reverts back to 2018 form.