tmwiese55

Which is ironic, because he could have been a good fit with LeBron, Davis, and whoever the 3rd guys is they bring in. Just play great defense and feed the ball to the three scorers. I could see that. However, I'd greatly value shooting/spacing next to LBJ/Davis. you need that lane as unlogged as possible. And I'd say Ball to be his best would need the ball in his hands and obviously LBJ is going to be doing most of that. But yea with Ball's seemingly strong bball IQ and vision yea I could see him finding a way to help and of course he'd be great open court. Best role if in LA probably off the bench getting most of his mins when LBJ is resting.

Perez can't go simply because he's the only one who can play SS. He likely isn't going anywhere this year.

Yea Horford is locking in more guaranteed money than 30 mil, that's all he's worried about and he's going to be right. Sounds like he's getting at least a 3 year if not a 4 year deal from someone. For Ball, my take is that he's capped out due to next to chance of him ever being a good shooter. His shot form is an absolute trainwreck. Does a lot of other things well but probably capped out as a role player imo/borderline starter

I think considering their situation NOP did about as well as they could've. Other teams knew ADs hard on for LAL. I'm quite low on Ingram/Ball as well, especially Ball, but given the situation I think it's the best they could do. They rightfully held out for more picks and were smart to move them back and to not have protections on them so they might get lucky like the BKN/Bos trade after LBJ leaves. If I'm them I'd also be looking to flip Ingram/Ball now rather than face their contract situations in the coming seasons, just move them now for more building blocks and less chance of clogging up cap. Or at least do that with one of them to balance the risk a bit. Yea I'd guess Mids deal was done a while back. And I think the 5th year is there to keep the yearly down and they'll have it be low for next season and then escalate. Trying as best to make it easier to keep the team together.

It's about competitive balance for the league. Same would apply as to why their is a Max salary and why they reduced the years to 4-5 instead of 7. Protecting owners from themselves for the betterment of the league.

He's not saying that. He's saying that all the talk and angst on fans is about this but for some reason they're not talking about the massive glaring weakness that is really the one costing us games. Coming up with scenarios, trades, whatever on that topic instead. When in reality having had Hiura up likely has not cost them any games yet because the pitching has been getting worked. But yes in general, the topics are mutually exclusive. No one should argue that point.

Odd thing to say coming off a 2-0 loss. Hiura doesn't solve all the problems of this team, but he has shown the ability to help solve one of them. I don't think there's a person here who thinks the team is better equipped to win a game today with him in AAA. And they lost while scoring 7 a few days ago. Someone posted all the stats yesterday that make it essentially even, if I recall the numbers were slightly be better vs LHP but the takeaway was that it was basically the same. I was surprised too.

It goes back way furtehr than that to the early 80s https://www.liveabout.com/what-is-the-ted-stepien-rule-325791 . Also the Clips back then were notorious for trading away their firsts and having it come back to bite them. Essentially you just can't trade them in back to back years. Since MKE has that PHX pick dangling without knowing when it goes they can't trade their picks around it. So they just have to get creative on the timing on things. Also, in regards to the BKN/Bos deal that's whey every other year of the picks were actually "pick swaps" not just the picks.

Yea I'd be all for a month or two done dedicated to control and a change up. Don't care on the game results, just throw a change up a lot and keep working on it

And his delivery is reminiscent of KRod. With that type of almost violent delivery a change-up would be devastating for him, just like it was for KRod. He just has to find it.

They would just have to draft someone for the other team and then execute the trade. Semantics, but they can move that pick.

Good post. Generally yea I think you can survive fine right now with him a platoon and some Grandal days at 1B vs LHP. It's just that we know there is such a good RH bat waiting to come up that could do better. Still, knowing that you lose JEsus I get them holding out as long as possibly to maintain the organizational depth. It will be surprising if someone in this IF mix doesn't get hurt between now and September. And for end of year and postseason we know Hiura will be up

There is no doubt Hiura will be up in September and for the potential playoffs. It's how they manage things leading up to it as they're trying to maintain their depth in case of injury. FWIW Shaw is at 250/400/817 since he's been back which is obviously fine. I know he's become the whipping boy here but really Jesus is the issue. As soon as Hiura is past the date I think the move should be Jesus to the DL with back soreness to give him a break and some time playing every day in AAA. That buys you a few weeks to decide, see who else might get hurt, see who hits well, etc. Play Perez some at 1B and give Grandal is off days at 1B vs lefties in the meantime.

Rich Aurilia hitting 37 bombs, what an era.

True. I saw something a few weeks ago that HRs in AAA have gone up 50% this year. I don't know if it's leveled but I doubt by much. Apparently they just started using the same balls as MLB this year. Pretty clear to me something is up

I hope it doesn't come to that, he basically carried the team the first half last year and probably had a legit argument for NL MVP at the ASB (at least in consideration). Really crazy if they have to DFA him a year later. But man he has to start showing something

Make a commitment to get all the way through season 1 of GoT. Takes a bit to get all the families and characters straight. I watched my first episode about a month ago. It's EXACTLY how I thought it would be, and that's not a compliment. I kept watching til the middle of season 3 because I wanted more of the characters (except for the Stark kids) to die, but they never did. Soulless fantasy porn devoid of any redeeming qualities. The sheer hollowness of substance in GoT is rivaled only by outer space and the bookshelves of 20th century philosophers. I've met strains of streptococcus that have more heart than any character in that show. This isn't my normal genre by any means. But I was pretty much hooked after the end of the first episode. Then the Ned storyline in season hooked me all the way. Funny you mention you quit middle of season 3. Let's just say if you made a few more episodes you'd have got what you wanted in probably the best episode of the series and one of the biggest shockers in TV. Stuff no other show has done For ability to watch, yes having no kids is the key. Two TVs in living room is big too. Put sports on the silent TV, you can still watch and see what's going on while watching another show. I don't care what the announcers say anyway and there is a ton of downtown in sports that you don't need to watch(especially baseball and football).

Well it's just such a less physical game for everyone other than the P/C that there really isn't any reason not to try. Football, hoops and hockey you're risking injury every play.

I think if they were to make such a move he'd be playing almost every day. With Shaw/Thames kind of splitting the RHP starts at 1B and of course Hiura taking a normal day off each week where Moose can play 2B. If he's not going to play a lot they just wouldn't bring him up

That's the thing, he's being put in his most favorable matchup and still looks lost up there. Sure it's not easy to get in a rhythm with sporadic playing time, but remember 2017 and the beginning of 18 he did well in this platoon set up. So well he earned more and more. I understand they want to keep trying and you don't just want to give up a guy as you need depth, like if one of the other corner guys got hurt, but IDK how much longer they'll give him. A few more weeks for when Hiura is past that date and then you could play Perez at 1B vs LHP or give Grandal his 'off days' at 1B instead of the bench. Still hoping Jesus comes around but to me the eye test is rough and I'm starting to think he might not be a contributor again. I'd hope you can find one of the bad AL teams that need a DH/1B would take a buy low chance on him and would toss us some lower level prospect types for him but maybe not. Along the lines of the Lind trade that got them Peralta. Probably not though

This really isn't true. He was pretty darn good three of the last four years. Which really is no good thing for the Padres because, in my opinion, he has been a surprise bust this year. I didn't think .950 OPS Machado was going to be a thing...but wow, sub .800? I don't think anyone expected that. Teams really sell out for these young FAs....and it has not been going too good. I mean, I said Good. I was just one who was very skeptical on him being that just in 2017 the guy had a .310 OBP. And even the better years before that are in the 800s OPS. Again, that's good and all especially for someone who can play 3b/SS. But it's not this generational/freak level hitter he was hyped as (he's basically done that for one half season). Even you Braun/Fielder level guys floated in the upper 900s. That's all I was saying, I didn't say he sucked or anything. Nothing wrong with just being good, I just thought the hype was out of whack when were looking at getting him due to his hot start last year which he then cooled right off to finish and hasn't picked it up yet this year. Age though of course is a big perk in his and Bryce's deal. Giving out those deals at 25/26 is way different than at 31ish.

Yea that's fair too. Overall I think that would simply also show how advantageous it is to have good starting pitching as it pertains just to making the playoffs. Then once you're there everyone has good pitching so anything can happen. And of course I totally agree it's an advantage we'd all take if we could get it. But of those teams I think one could argue 11 Cards Ace would've been what an old Carpenter or maybe Wainwright, IDK how good either were at the time to be 'ace' level. Bumgarner, of course counts in those years. Bost was Lester/Bucholz. Again good Ps but not like true 'ace'. Cubs had old Lester, Arrietta, Hendrick. Arrietta for that like 1.5 year stretch was ridiculous that's for sure. But they beat true Ace Kluber I think twice. I know they beat true Ace Kershaw to make the WS. Verlander rebounded in 2017 to be Ace like again so yea that works. Sale of course Ace as well. I'm sure some of this has me just using a tighter definition of the word "ace" than most but what you point to me also shows good pitching staffs all the way through are key. not necessarily "needing" the true Ace though in Kershaw, Max, prime Bum, Stras, etc. Of course I'd want the true Ace but just saying it shows it can be done with depth and several good 2nd or 3rd tier guys as well even without true ace. Long story short I guess of what I'm getting at is: Definitely an advantage to have a guy like that but no guarantees, and there is certainly other ways to do it. That said, I for sure know I'd like one more workhorse type in the line of what Woodruff is trending towards right now. Note that I'm not saying MKE even has that now since the Pen is not what it was last year. But what they put together in a creative way would've had them toe to toe with anyone, just like they did.

It doesn't surprise me at all. Remember how many low scoring games they played first half last year and still had a winning record? All those shutouts early on that we lost by like 1-4 runs. Bullpen was great to start the year as well before the implosion right before the ASB. This year has been lots of high scoring games and frankly the starter just getting smashed a lot of games.

Thing that's had me questioning this the last few years is that LAD and WAS haven't won (NAts not even making the WS) in spite of just loaded Ace level pitchers every postseason. Of course it's an advantage and everything if you have one but it doesn't seem to guarantee anything now that they've reduced off days in the playoffs so they can't pitch 3 games out of 7. Maybe the money can be more efficiently spent spread out improving other areas. Really though all I take from it is that it shows baseball is the flukiest game when it comes to the postseason so the key is just getting there and then anything can happen.

My favorites are the told ya so's after every good Peralta outings, which is like 1/4 appearances. Wonder what they do there, walks issues from the minors seem to have gone down so maybe trust him as reliever to just come in and gas his one great pitch for a few batters. Then focus on a changeup in the offseason.