Jim French Stepstool

For sure, firing Mac would be much cheaper. The issue would be hiring an AD that's A) a good hire and B) willing to keep Fickell around, if that's some sort of a condition of taking the job. That would be a tricky combination.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. It wouldn't be nearly as big a deal if this was going on at Oregon, as I suspect Phil Knight or whoever controls the checkbook in that family these days would just write out a check. Or some SEC school where the alums/fans just can't stomach incompetence on FB Saturdays & would open up their wallets. Getting one or both implicated in a gambling operation would be an easy way out; that seems to be the popular thing. But I have a difficult time picturing either of these two consorting with Frankie the Hammer or Jimmy the Snake. They just ain't the type.

Having events cancelled due to him not showing up is........bad. I also think we have two people that need to be replaced. Unfortunately, what I see in the immediate future is one contract being eaten max, and in that case it would have to be Fickell. That means Mac would be making another football hire. Ugh. Fantasizing here, but if you WERE replacing the AD IMO Mike Finley would be a terrific hire. People bring up Troy Vincent but I think his NFL gig is much too good for him to consider making a move. Not much administrative experience outside of running his foundation but JJ Watt would be incredible as a fundraiser.

W/all those vowels & consonants piled atop one another, I wonder if there will be a price hike on the Adamczewski jerseys in the clubhouse shop when he reaches Milwaukee.😁 Seriously though, it's great to see him swingin' it despite the position shift. That can sometimes derail a younger player at least temporarily.

His defensive skills....the throwing in particular.....have been downgraded after his injury. But the downgrade should be taken with a grain of salt b/c he was looked at as being elite before being hurt. From what I understand he's still looked at as a pretty solid performer behind the plate, just not quite at the previous level. I agree that calling him 'hit first' is not an accurate assessment.

Schlagel just committed to Nebraska. Surprisingly early commit.

He might indeed be leaning on the perceived (by him, anyway) comparison between the beginning of the Alvarez era & what's going on now. But the sad reality is that 35 years ago the department was taken over by a man who held a high-level executive position in private business, was organized & knew how to delegate & appropriate funds. Mac had a career in private business between his retirement from the NFL & his hiring by the UW, and it was mostly unsuccessful. @JosephCmade a reference to public bureaucracy. It's something that I guess can be referred to as a necessary evil. But when a person enters that bureaucracy after going to bat in the business world & striking out it seldom (never?) seems to end well.

Not to pile on......OK nevermind, that's exactly what I'm doing..........but the team suffered back-to-back shutouts vs Iowa & O$U. The last time UW was shutout in consecutive games was in 1968, when they actually put up a donut three times in a row. Those three games had a nice, symmetrical combined score of 100-0. Right now they're working on 71-zip, with one to go in Eugene vs an Oregon team averaging about 44PPG. Fun times.

Yeah, even if he was more affordable than we may think, he still wouldn't be cheap & we don't have an established history of signing guys like that for the BP. And we don't know how effective Craig Yoho can be, but whatever his level is I don't think he needs any more seasoning.

So, we just returned from the Red-White scrimmage. It just doesn't feel right starting a new season thread on October 19th, too danged early. So I'll comment here. It was a two-point win for the Red team, with the score in the 40s. Before anyone wonders if Dick Bennett was coaching both teams, let me point out that there was a running clock through much of the game, plus the coaches were putting an emphasis on everyone defending, which wasn't surprising given the makeup of the staff. That means whenever someone was running an offensive set, the team on defense was guarding stuff they've practiced every day for quite a long time, so no surprises and a few more TOs than you'd be used to seeing (even so, a combined 17 or 18, which isn't a huge number). Can't ignore the fact that the 3PT shooting was sporadic though. I think the two squads combined for something like 10-44. They'll be better than that obviously. As to the new guys.........Austin Rapp came as advertised, a big that can shoot. He even showed a little bit of an inside/drive game. Not sure that'll happen in 'real' games, but he definitely looks like someone that can stretch a defense. Nick Boyd & Andrew Rohde both looked pretty solid (I believe Boyd scored 20-21 points). Boyd showed a versatility to his offensive game, and I'm looking forward to seeing him in tandem w/John Blackwell as they opposed each other today. Braeden Carrington looks like what I hoped for--a veteran who can guard people & good enough offensively to make people guard him. The newcomer who impressed me the most was Hayden Jones, the freshman from New Zealand. He didn't shoot a lot (maybe 5-6 points) but watching him in warmups he has one of the more fundamentally sound strokes you'd ever want to see, and a very smart, heady player. Just solid & reliable on both ends, and at 6'6" didn't look physically outmatched. Stuck his nose in there for 3-4 boards. Saw him make maybe one bad pass, and even that might've been more the fault of the recipient than him. Carrington & Jack Janicki might make it tough for him to get minutes but IMO he's definitely ahead of Zack Kinziger at this point. I hoped to be able to critique the guys looking for backup minutes at the 4/5---Will Garlock, Aleksas Bieliauskas & Elijah Gray---but Gray sat out so I'm left with the other two. Bielauskas looked....not terrible, but rather ordinary. He seemed to have a propensity to foul, and at least today not the best of hands. A couple chances to finish but came up empty, and missed a couple FTs. Garlock was sort of ordinary as well, not a weakling but could certainly use a little more strength, which is the case for most freshman bigs. He did have a nice 180 spin & finish for a bucket. I'd say a little more athletic than Bielauskas, but definitely room (hopefully) for growth from both. Also...Baboucarr Ann, an extremely athletic 6'5" guard ('27) received an offer this weekend. Fifteen PPG as a sophomore along with great defensive skills. 4-star. And he attends Maple Grove (Minn) HS, the alma mater of Brad Davison. Another connection? Lastly, the giant pretzel was delicious.

I'd prefer that but the timing just doesn't seem to match up for things to develop in that order,

That's true. But it's also true that Mac hired Fickell. I'd welcome BA's input.

Hearing much more bad than good things about McIntosh & his ability to run the department. It sounds more & more like something where you're better off with a new AD, a la 35 years ago when Richter came on, then hired Alvarez. The only problem is Mnookin is no Donna Shalala, and the Mac contract runs until the end of the 28-29 academic year. I wouldn't mind Alvarez being involved one bit.

I wouldn't dismiss Hall. He, Ashby, Myers, Gasser and Patrick are all guys who I assume would like to start, although IMO Ashby should stay in the BP. Patrick looked great as a 1-2 inning guy so maybe he should as well. Sort out the others for the final 2 spots (3 if Peralta is dealt). It's hard for me to decipher what they're thinking re Woodruff. I know the health gods haven't been good to him but I'd like to see some sort of mutual 'prove it' deal. He was surprisingly good for several starts & I absolutely love his attitude. Just to try to sound insightful, for a mid-season surprise (if needed) I'll go with Coleman Crow.

What a great point.👍

Apologies for not reading the entire article (yet, anyway) but to answer the question, I'd say yes. Lesson learned, hopefully.

The underlined. That's not us, not if we want to sustain.

Let's keep one thing in mind. There were four teams still playing out of 30, and the Milwaukee Brewers were one of them. Then consider the preseason expectations. Bad time to go into a teamwide offensive funk, obviously. Four games, four very good to outstanding starts from LA's hurlers. I thought Ohtani did a terrific job of keeping us off balance btwn the FB & breaking stuff. But was he one-hit-in-six-innings good? No. Outside of a few good ABs from Bauers this was a pretty ugly performance from some LHHs who are capable of more. I wonder if the long ball power shown vs Chicago got us out of our mindset a bit. I'm sure there will be a lot of "WE NEED TO ADD A BAT!!! TWO BATS!!! THREE BATS!!! talk in the days to come. I imagine there probably is some of that in this very thread. And if something creative can be engineered to improve the lineup, great. But to me this is always going to be, more than everything else, about Needed improvement/consistency from the people like Turang, Frelick, Collins, Durbin, and yes, even a Perkins or an Ortiz assuming they have a role in 2026. And I'll be really interested in seeing how Yelich comes out next year after what has been a productive yet maddingly inconsistent season. Veteran leaders CAN NOT run that hot & cold. We're lucky to have Chourio. And the kind of stick-your-nose-in-there-and-compete type of series we expected from someone like Frelick, we pretty much got from Durbin. Well done. Outside of maybe 3/4 bad innings, I thought the staff did an acceptable to outstanding job all series vs an incredibly tough lineup. This board is a great place. Looking forward to the hot stove talk.

CC said the same thing with his "We're going to Los Angeles" remark. A verbal shot of confidence is far from a guarantee of success, but I don't blame him for trying.

Yes. In Pittsburgh. Well over 100 pitches too. Surprised me at the time.

AFA organizational success going forward, his performance in the post-season might be a case of losing the battle but winning the war. Locating the secondary pitches, getting ahead, dialing back to 100 but still having 102-103 in the tank----yeah, you gotta be excited.

I thought that if you use an opener, Ashby is a better choice than Koenig b/c I'd much rather have Koenig facing their LHHs late.

Good points. But it's Major League Baseball, so the economics........maybe aren't to blame, but are & always will be a huge factor. Our hitters are capable of much more than what they showed this series, for sure. But when you struggle due largely to Snell being on point & Yamamoto being almost as good, then you get to face Glasnow in game three? Ouch. Very tall mountain, esp if you have a chance in game 1 & can't quite make it happen.

Really, one of the characteristics of this team moving forward should be to find ways to somehow contribute when not picking up the ball---you work walks, you stay on the ball & try to contribute the so-called productive out when you can, you always keep the idea of the bunt in your hip pocket. See as many pitches as possible. What's always bothered me about Yelich is that when he goes bad he seldom if ever does any of those things. It's just 2 or 3 or 4 weeks of chasing balls off the plate, and swinging through strikes. I've said it before. He can be hot & cold like a lot of guys, but his cold is exceptionally bad.

The bottom of the 1st was very weird. Ashby worked Ohtani really, really well. Then after making him look very ordinary he throws something offspeed, and everything---Ohtanis' hips, butt, legs---everything is way out in front. But to Ohtanis' credit he kept the bat back, got the barrel on it, and put it in a perfect spot. Really didn't deserve for it to be three bases. But then the 1st pitch double, then he fell behind the next two hitters. Not saying Ashby was good, but his best work of the entire inning wound up being the AB that hurt him the most. When you're scoring three runs in three games I guess it makes little difference. Looked like they could--and wanted to--run on Glasnow. Good strategy. Too bad you can't steal first.