adambr2

I wouldn't call that a "break". It was a helluva play. If we were on the other side of it you'd absolutely call it a bad break for us. It was a hard hit ball that went for 2 outs. It was a great play still yes.

Two walks, a wild pitch, a passed ball, a stolen base, and they didn't score. I'll take it.

Wow....what a huge break! And great play by Rowdy!

That first pitch to Albies was actually a beautiful pitch that Narvaez couldn't have possibly made look worse.

Gross start. 1st and 3rd and nobody out without them even putting a ball in play? The Braves lineup is too good for Burnes to get away with this garbage.

LOL, how would that be any different than being asked about it every week for the last two years? I mean, it is what it is at this point, isn't it? That version of Hader isn't coming back. I think we all know that version of Hader isn't coming back, but there's a difference between that and at least having a miniscule amount of flexibility to deviate from the traditional routine. This isn't unique to Josh Hader. It's the playoffs. Some of your more accomplished and routine-established pitchers ever are asked to pitch on short rest, come out of the pen, etc.

Look, I know relievers have comfort zones and I'm all about keeping Hader in his but it's the playoffs, there are always exceptions and you have to be willing to ask guys to step out of that comfort zone a little in the postseason. You're telling me that if there's 2 outs in the 8th inning of Game 5 and the Brewers are up 2-1, and Boxberger walks a man and the bases are suddenly loaded for Freddie Freeman, it's not an option here to bring in Hader to retire Freeman and then have him pitch the 9th? Yeah, not buying that.

They also almost ran out of pitchers in the NLCS Game 4 which caused them to ride Junior Guerra with an extremely high pitch count in extra innings which consequently resulted in him giving up the winning run.

Man, I know no playoff series is a given, but up until recently it sure felt like we would be a clear favorite in this matchup. Now to hear it's widely seen as 50/50 at best for us? I just kind of assumed based on numerous factors (better pitching, no Acuna, etc) we had an edge in this one. Is our late September swoon when we took the foot off the gas being read into that much? I guess no series result would shock me, but losing in the NLDS would feel like a massive letdown to end the season. I'll say one thing, Christian Yelich needs to start having some moments, now.

He has a broken hand and required surgery. He won't get the opportunity to pitch in the playoffs because of his big mistake and had to go publicly own up to it and likely feels a great deal of shame for letting his team and himself down. I think that's probably punishment enough. It's done, it happened. It's a big life lesson with consequences that he will hopefully learn from. No reason to pour on anymore.

Ehh, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Not necessarily. You can let somebody else beat the best and then beat them.

I felt our best chance of winning the World Series take a devastating hit last night, so I'm not nearly as delighted as many at seeing the Cardinals make a quick exit. Maybe the Giants can take care of them, but I doubt it.

Why is it worth it with 3 seasons of control but not 2? He could be a big part of a World Series contender in both '22 and '23 and that has value. It's great to get controllable assets but not everyone needs 3+ years of control to be worth acquiring. Years of control affects cost and that needs to be part of the equation, too. You won't get a player like Olson for a prospect like Mitchell if he has 3-4 years left of control. Only real way to get guys like that without an enormous offer is to find them before they break out like we did with Adames.

Jaylon Smith to Green Bay.

Darn. I figured it wasn't going to happen, but I was wishful. The tradition of Kevin King flailing helplessly in the playoffs will remain in tact this year.

The A's kind of march to the beat of their own drum. Billy Beane and his FO won't necessarily avoid dealing a core player just because they're contending.

Pet Peeve of mine: 1) Calling someone a GOAT is an insult in my book. Yes, I know what the acronym stands for, but it is still a goat... 2) Anyone calling Tom Silverstein the Greatest of all Time is a joke beyond comprehension. Or maybe he is just a goat? There was someone (journalist? announcer?) who referred to Tom Haudricourt as "Mr. Baseball" a few years back, which frankly should probably be punishable as a felony.

I'm warming up to the idea of trading Mitchell. The upside is great to dream on, but the risk is high and he's far from a sure thing. I hope I am wrong but I feel like he could end up being a chronic health/injury risk.

Many times their parents don't even have any actual talent.

Sure don't think anybody would be disappointed to land Matt Olson, I know I wouldn't. I guess as with anything else it depends on the price. I think you're probably talking a package of 3 to 4 decent prospects centered on one of Mitchell or Turang to get it done.

I don't have a problem with this. It's all subjective anyway depending on your criteria. Crosby is actually only 9 for 14 on game winning or potentially game winning kicks in his career which is 64.3%. However if you just look at the last 6 years he is 6 for 7. So it just really depends on how you look at his career as a whole. I do tend to think he's a different kicker now than he was early in his career up to 2012 which does skew the percentages against him.

And if what I say comes off as "I dislike Mason Crosby" that is certainly not the intent. He's certainly one of the longer tenured Packers and I respect that. I like Mason. Mason is fine. Mason is a good kicker. He's just not "special". 15 or 20 teams in the league have their own version of Mason Crosby, that's all I'm saying. Kickers are awesome these days. The league average for FGs usually comes in at around 84%. But if you value less volatility at the position, Mason does offer that (I say less, not no volatility), I can understand placing a value on that.

It's not that simple and this is why it's hard to gauge. Aaron Jones or someone like that is more impactful to a game than any kicker, but if Aaron Jones has a bad game it is unlikely to single-handedly cause a loss. A QB can have that kind of impact but a kicker missing 2 FGs can be devastating. Talk to a Cowboys fan if you think a bad kicker can't be a multi-year disaster that loses multiple games while multiple guys try and fail to win the job. At most of the positions there is someone else to provide some replacement value and you can change the gameplan to mask the loss of what was there. There is no doing that with a reliable kicker, you either make kicks or you don't. Yeah, you might be OK with Gostkowski, but we've all see situations where a kicker is plucked off the WW that week and it leads to a total disaster. That can directly lose a game, which is sometimes all it takes to miss the playoffs. So I don't think K is quite to the level of those most important positions, but I think you're dead wrong that a kicker loss can't derail a season. Especially one as reliable as Mason has been for a while now. I mean sure if you end up with a Roberto Aguayo situation. Those are pretty rare, you just hear about them when they happen. When a kicker is doing his job which the vast majority of them do successfully most of the time it is not really discussed. Tampa Bay had no kicker going into their championship season. They just picked up Ryan Succop who got cut because he was a disaster in 2019 and then all of the sudden he was Mr. Reliable again last year and the Bucs win the Super Bowl and he gets a big extension. I just don't see the correlation between your kicking game and championship chances. Justin Tucker is by far the best kicker to ever breathe and sure it's a nice luxury for the Ravens but it doesn't move the needle a ton on their title chances. Kickers are the bullpen arms of baseball. They are very volatile from year to year. Even Crosby is not immune to down kicker years, his 2012 season would have landed him out on the street if he didn't have a patient organization. Most kickers won't survive a 63% FG season. Even as recently as the 2017 and 2018 seasons he was not particularly great but he has certainly been excellent since the beginning of 2019.

No kicker loss should ever threaten a season. Even the difference between a bad (75%) kicker and a good (85%) kicker is only 2 to 3 FGs at the end of a season. Losing Crosby would be far from ideal but they could bring in Stephen Gostowski or Eddy Piniero off the street tomorrow and probably get 80% out of them if they absolutely needed to. It certainly wouldn't compare to losing a key piece on offense or defense.

Compare his cost to Rowdy. Taylor made 7.8 million in 2021, do you think he'll play for Rowdy's contract ($600,000) We are going to be saddled with contracts from JBJ, Cain and Yelich that far exceed their value to this team. I'm afraid that signing guys for a lot of money won't be possible this off season unless they find a way to unload some of that salary. I'm not advocating for Taylor at 1B next year. I agree that Tellez probably gets a shot barring some big trade acquisition. Just stating that Taylor is definitely the superior overall player, mainly due to his versatility.