SeaBass

Their roster wasn't that good last season and they barely made any additions to improve. What a shock, they suck again.

The conflict is Milwaukee is not perceived as a "cool" city like NYC is so the roof doesn't matter.

Honestly, the folks that perform the anthem well and competently are rarely remembered. Whitney Houston and Jimi Hendrix are probably the biggest standouts among the greats. Ingrid Andress will be remembered for a long time because of this performance. That can't be all bad, can it?

Official petition to change the HR Derby to a Slam Dunk contest, except with MLB players obviously.

Ugh. For the first time in years I was reminded of Sports Illustrated (the actual magazine) and how each week they had a segment titled "This Week's Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us" and boy does this fit. Retroactive to 2022 I guess. They worked way too hard to make Lebron an acronym. I don't think acronyms typically have to do the type of work this one does to fit 47 words into one 6 letter acronym.

The Dodgers are good, everyone knows that. But I wasn't expecting them to hit 20 HRs this series.

Big Hoss!

Yeesh, giving up a HR to Blackmon ain't what it used to be, kinda embarrassing.

Yep, age 70 is the mandatory retirement age for Packers' Presidents/CEOs. I've been putting that out there for a few years now whenever people talk about wanting Murphy fired or just wanting him gone in general that the wait wouldn't be long either way. I do think he's been a good caretaker of the team overall. Like you I'm not a big fan of giving himself "more power" on the football side of things but let's be honest, he already had the power anyway. He just made it a bit more official. I think there are pros to go along with the cons to that. He continues to leave football decisions to the football people and if he just wants to be looped in and be more of an informed overseer on that end ultimately it's fine. I do think that head coaching hiring & firing decisions should be handled by the GM though. Honestly, until we see a head coach fired or replaced we're not going to know if this is a real hinderance of the power structure or not. Only time I had a true issue with Murphy was when he continued to back Ted Thompson even when it had become obvious Ted had fallen off in the quality of his team building decisions. Ted's ongoing avoidance of the media was also a big issue for me, to me the guy had been given too much free reign with no public accountability. Once that problem got fixed I felt Murphy did fine. Was he my favorite guy? No, but the Packers are a thriving franchise and their financial future feels really solid. Overall job well done.

Right. I think the poster I was responding to and I came to an understanding of where our opinions lay. By nature free agency tends to lead to teams paying an inflated price. I think there's reason for a team like the Cubs to spend on a guy with above average offense and production at a premium defensive position like SS where other teams are willing to accept lower offensive thresholds for similarly good defenders. For the Brewers it makes less sense to spend because obviously they are only able to carry very few players at a time with premium salaries. In the end it all boils down to teams having different philosophies of attacking value on the margins. Some just don't mind spending big money on what they perceive to be proven players.

I'm going to admit I misunderstood this, I thought you were trying to have it both ways when I was thinking the Cubs knew his offensive capabilities going in... and yeah I get what you're saying now. Fair enough, you're entitled to your opinion. I think I still disagree on behalf of the Cubs, their market and spending power allow them to make these types of signings and absorb the risk. Not the Brewers though but they wouldn't. I'm also not going to default to Swanson declining offensively or defensively just because he's over 30. It's been two months and three weeks of struggle in a season where there is significant decline in offensive statistics throughout baseball. I think you're also being overly harsh predicting he'll be bad at age 32 or 33. Maybe overall trends support that but once it goes to the individual level it's more difficult to apply it to everyone. I have now read the other thread (but hadn't before my previous post) and I wouldn't want the Brewers to sign Adames to a similar one either. Adames does have some intangibles that can't be measured by statistics but end of the day production is king. Have to kind of disagree on Turner too, I do think the Cubs should be happy with their deal by comparison. I'd take Swanson's deal and production over Turner's just because it's shorter and for less total money. It'd be like adding 3 years and $110M at the end of Swanson's deal. Even being personally more optimistic about a player's early to mid 30s I'd have big reservations about Turner's age 37, 38, 39 & 40 seasons.

So you think he would have gotten that contract if he wasn't a shortstop? Lol. Cool you only want to talk about his offense, I guess nobody should engage in the conversation then since you're rejecting the entire purpose of his means of earning a paycheck. It's not like the Cubs didn't know what his career OPS was when they signed him. Trea Turner is signed until he's 40 at $27M+ per year. I think the Cubs feel just fine being committed to Swanson until he's 35. There's no reason he can't be productive until then the last 3 months of offensive struggles included.

He's still generated positive WAR this season (0.9 fWAR) despite an 84 wRC+ which means a hefty part of his value is based on defense. In 2023 he finished with 4.7 fWAR and in 2022 he had 6.6 fWAR. That's with wRC+ values just above average at 104 and 116 respectively. He's struggling with the bat this year no doubt, but can't ignore the defense.

Hoskins isn't a failure. He's been bad since coming back from his injury, so like 12 games. This is offensively of course, his defense is what it is. March/April: 114 PA, 13 R, 6 HR, 18 RBI, .237/.342/.464/.806 May: 47 PA, 4 R, 3 HR, 9 RBI, .244/.340/.488/.828 June: 41 PA, 3 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, .158/.220/.263/.483

Packers fans used to say the same thing about the Bears when the rivalry was dominated by the Bears and the Packers were terrible. And we meant it. That's why some of us old guys still relish the rivalry even though it's been so lopsided for 30+ years, it was truly infuriating to lose so much against them. The Bears have been afterthoughts for so long the rivalry focus for the Packers has shifted to the Vikings. I, for one, love that and I'm sure it would rankle most Bears fans to hear it. It's the ultimate indignity.

Nobody mentions how Ross is still getting paid to sit on his couch and do nothing. Poor guy. There are 30 MLB manager positions. Damn right it's a cut throat business. Bring your big boy pants. Craig Counsell is supposed to say "no"? Absurd.

Yeah I can't argue with you. Mostly just looking for the "why" in it. Bottom line I'd rather give Ortiz and Chourio the playing time.

I'm not a big fan of strict L/R balance in the lineup but if I had to theorize allowing young players to face pitchers of opposite handedness maybe gives them a boost in trying to get guys going with the bats. There's so many young guys that all need at bats. That said, I wouldn't be against Dunn going back down to get those at bats but I don't mind that he's getting an opportunity here.

They should have been co-managers! Problem solved!

Yelich reinstated, Black optioned back to AAA. Let the Bauers hate ensue.

Why do I feel like this will be unpopular? (Black being sent down I mean. Yay, Yelich though!)

Worker cares more about their own career than their co-worker's career. Everyone that has ever worked for a living.

Watched Miller's Girl on Netflix. It's the movie there's been some controversy over the depiction of an age gap relationship between a high school teacher played by Martin Freeman and a student played by Jenna Ortega. The age gap between the actors themselves is part of the criticism since they are doing what actors do by performing the actions of the characters and Freeman is 30 years Ortega's senior. This did not bother me in the slightest, these are adult professionals. I thought all the actors were really good, Ortega is fantastic as usual. The story was interesting and suspenseful up to a point but I'm not sure the ending was executed in a satisfying way even though I'm not sure if I would change anything. Overall I thought it was worth the watch.