Ron Robinsons Beard

The Patriots releasing CB Stephon Gilmore in a surprising move today. It makes a ton of logical sense for the Packers to at least make a call, especially given Jaire Alexander's injury. That said, I 100% expect Gilmore to be a Buc before the end of business today.

Judging by your previous posts, I believe you are implying that he has been sent to Arizona and removed from the team intentionally due to his actions. But sending a player to Arizona for rehab is 100% protocol following a medical procedure. He was in the dugout in Los Angeles last weekend, which signifies to me that the rest of the team supports him.

Mountcastle is a 1B/LF. I don't believe the O's would want any part of the deal, but for the Crew it would all depend on re-signing Escobar first. Why in the world wouldn't they? Urias is 24 years old, and is coming off a .789 OPS season with 24 HRs. He's a solid 3B and 2B, and has the ability to play SS if he can get more accurate on his throws. A guy like that has a ton of value in a deal, and the Orioles are running absolute crap out in their middle infield.

Young stud for young stud. That is a fun offer. Mountcastle's K% is a bit high at around 27%, but he brings legit RH power, which is something this team is sorely lacking ... other than from Adames and Urias. Urias brings more positional value obviously. Mountcastle isn't a great OFer. Much better suited for 1B, which is where he'd be playing with the Brewers.

Exactly. Someone is always going to be perceived as getting the short end of the stick. In this case, it's the Dodgers. It is certainly hard for me to have any sympathy for a team that literally goes out and buys whatever it wants, though. Watching the Wild Card game is going to be rough tomorrow, because I'd really like both teams to lose.

With Adames and Urias but young and around long term, not to mention solid SS depth in the minors, it wouldn't surprise me if Turang is on the block. I would imagine he could bring back solid value.

The Rays are likely starting Drew Rasmussen in Game #3 of their playoff series if he's not needed in relief in Games #1 or #2. That is really pretty awesome.

Right now I'm the assistant coach and defensive coordinator for our school's 7th/8th grade eight-man football team. Last night the kids played their arch rival, and pulled out a tough, close 20-18 win against a team that was previously unbeaten. It was a heck of a game. But what should have been a great night ended up being tarnished when one of the parents of our backup QB/S (a 7th grader) got in the head coach's face and chewed him out for "not playing his kid more" following the game. The head coach let him say his piece, and basically listened before ending the conversation. Then, as the coach turned to walked away, the parent let out a vulgarity when describing this man's coaching skill. The head coach swung around and, instead of decking the parent or yelling, calmly informed the parent that not only did his son not play the first half of last night's game because he decided to skip practice last Wednesday and not tell anyone, he is also not showing any drive or ambition to actually be out there. This is a good-sized kid, but he regularly gets knocked around in blocking drills by kids that he's got 20-30 pounds on, and despite our nearly constant reprimands, he tries to tackle every kid from the shoulders up. He's a good kid, and one of my son's best friend's on the team. But I've told him that I can't put him out on defense until he starts tackling better. This kid has an older brother who was a heck of a high school football player, aggressive as all get out, and very coachable. He's playing at a state DIII school now. I think that part of the problem is that our under-aggressive 7th grader has always been compared to his older bro. Ultimately our head coach calmed the situation down. But just fair warning to you sports parents out there ... if you want to see your kid get more playing time, calling the head coach a (poop) coach is definitely not the way to accomplish that. Instead, try contacting the coaching staff and find out how you can help your kid improve.

Looked awesome for awhile, followed by looking average? It appears that McNeil has looked exactly like Yelich. That said, I'd still target the hell out of him if the Mets were looking to move him.

You think that Cardinal fans are concerned that they dropped the last two in their series against the lowly Cubs to close the year? I mean not really a comparable situation. They won like 18 in a row this month. I don't think any concerns from Brewer fans is primarily based on the last two games. And that 18 in a row got them a one-game date with the defending champion. We'll see what happens. All I know is that there is a very strong possibility that the Cardinals' season will be over before the Brewers' postseason starts. And that's because the Brewers were better this year.

Hopefully Ashby can flip that switch starting Friday, because if he isn't the guy to replace Williams, we have nothing else. Worried yet? No. Whatever will be will be.

Optimism thread, dude. Literally every other thread is full of like-minded concerns. Please kindly leave your "concerns" at the door in this one.

You think that Cardinal fans are concerned that they dropped the last two in their series against the lowly Cubs to close the year?

This is a very nice breakdown. Thank you for putting it together. In the end, the Braves are a solid squad. They don't really hold a candle talent-wise to the Brewers, though. Hopefully that bears out next weekend.

very true. hoping the week off helps him reset. I meant that Garcia has been a good hitter that hits some homers. Urias is a solid hitter who hits less homers. Escobar is a mediocre hitter that has some power. Strangely he's performed better with us than he did with AZ, and he hasn't seemed that great with us. I still miss Moose at 3b. I don't think of Garcia, Adames, Escobar, Tellez, Vogey, or Urias as major power threats. They CAN hit a homer. The team can occasionally hit 2 in a game. But the Dodgers have a lineup capable of hitting 5 in a game on any given day. Same with the Cardinals. The Brewers don't. THe Cardinals have 3 more HRs than the Brewers this season.

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that it'll be the Collin Rea show tomorrow. Still taking bets? The season premiere came a night early. It was also the season finale.

It's a good thing that they built a big enough lead, then, that they can play crappy ball when the games literally don't matter. Here's hoping that the lights are not too bright starting next Friday. I rather go into the playoffs on a positive not negative note I'm sure everyone would like that. But it is what it is. They aren't. So hopefully it won't matter once the bright lights come on.

My point as I have said earlier is that Urias's stats are not that much inferior to anybody's in terms of ERA, etc. But his W-L record is eye-popping ... When a pitcher has an eye-popping 20-3 record and all his other stats are near the best of the rest, he should be in prime consideration for the Cy Young award. That is my point. I know you disagree ... but, that's where I'm at. I get where you are coming from but if you start digging into things like ERA+, FIP and even WHIP, Burnes has been far better and historically so (I'm guessing Scherzer and Buehler would as well). Plenty has been written on that. If you chose to look at ERA and wins to make those assessments then have at it but lets not pretend that doing so is not a failure to consider all of the data. And moreso, it's simply an opinion that is no longer based in reality. Cy Young voters have evolved on the stats they use to rank these guys perhaps moreso than any other voted-on award in MLB. It is truly an award that is very much based on analytics and advanced statistical analysis. That isn't a bad thing, in my opinion.

It's a good thing that they built a big enough lead, then, that they can play crappy ball when the games literally don't matter. Here's hoping that the lights are not too bright starting next Friday.

I wasn't really trying to change your mind. Maybe moreso was just trying to realistically explain why he isn't a legit Cy Young candidate. You of course are more than welcome to hold the opposite opinion, though. Heck, I have plenty of baseball opinions that aren't really based in reality, too. Thank you for not being snide. Not trying to be snide. I personally think Avi Garcia should be the NL Comeback Player of the Year. He of course won't win. That doesn't mean that I don't think he deserves it, though. That is an opinion not based in reality. Much like believing that Urias's win total should win him the Cy Young.

No one is saying he isn't very good. Just that there are probably 4-5 pitchers who should probably be ahead of him in the Cy Young balloting. Your opinion, not mine ... can you accept that others have different opinions than yours? Certainly. I'm not real sure where I was unaccepting on your opinion. My argument was entirely based on how Cy Young voters now value pitchers.

I wasn't really trying to change your mind. Maybe moreso was just trying to realistically explain why he isn't a legit Cy Young candidate. You of course are more than welcome to hold the opposite opinion, though. Heck, I have plenty of baseball opinions that aren't really based in reality, too.

No one is saying he isn't very good. Just that there are probably 4-5 pitchers who should probably be ahead of him in the Cy Young balloting.

Because as you said ... wins are discounted far more nowadays than they were 10 years or more ago ... Which is 100% true. And which is why Urias will probably get a few down ballot votes, but won't come close to winning the Cy Young. Because as antiquated as baseball is at times, the way stats and numbers are viewed is evolving. There are simply better ways to determine pitching effectiveness and dominance than there used to be.

Why? I don't think that is close to obvious. The responses you got point out how arbitrary wins can be whether it be a starter or a reliever. Sometimes it's nothing more than a scoring decision. Wins only matter in the team sense. A reliever can luck his way into wins far more easily than a starter. Isn't that obvious? I don't know if that is necessarily true. The Dodgers are averaging 6 runs a game in Julio Urias starts, which is one of the top marks in the league. Isn't that luck too?