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Memorial Day / Labor Day are one of the few times where MLB teams will sometimes schedule games with a start time that is ideal for parents with young children who take afternoon naps (3:30 or 4 PM start). I'll also give MLB credit for one thing...recently they have been doing the poppy patch on Memorial Day which feels far more appropriate than another military salute holiday that is indistinguishable from the others.

My hypothesis is that in 2-strike counts, hitters are the ones who have to expand the zone. It's one of those unwritten rules that hasn't completely gone away.

It's starting to look like more rule changes are going to be needed to increase offense. Batting average is only up 4 points over 2022 and the strikeout rate is higher than last year. I don't know the exact culprit, perhaps the "sweeper" pitch becoming popular is part of it?? No matter the cause, it's clear from watching MLB this year that hitters are struggling to put the ball in play and there have been a number of speedy 2 hour games where there is almost no offense. Maybe some form of robo-umping will help hitters more than pitchers?

Nobody wants to give up their 3.5% mortgage.

Yeah these days I would recommend watching a few Youtube videos, making a checklist, and doing a quick inspection yourself at the open house. It's hard for first time home buyers because they are less likely to know what to look for. Every house is full of flaws and you have to learn the difference between cheap cosmetic flaws and money pits. In theory a good agent should help you with this but good luck finding one that is truly on your side. We ended up getting a house with no competing offers on one of the busiest weeks of the year in the middle of the 2018 peak. The house we bought had a poor cover photo on Zillow and all of the buyers flocked to a couple homes nearby that looked sexier on the outside. Way cheaper to spend $5K on an exterior paint job than $50-100K on a bidding war.

Yeah, unfortunately this was a pretty smart PR move. I also get MLB's concern about keeping ballparks up to date, although in many cases the owner of the club in question needs to look in the mirror. The more relevant comparison is probably not Oakland but Phoenix. Chase Field was not maintained as well as AmFam and it's a way messier situation to deal with after the stadium is already a few hundred million behind in maintenance. The AmFam situation is mostly about proactive maintenance and getting ahead of that built into the next lease. And yeah, it's a shakedown of the taxpayers who are responsible for the bill, but if Wisconsin didn't want that then they shouldn't have gotten into the stadium ownership business.

That's going to be a very, very big scoreboard.

In my view the location itself is fine. The Brewers draw from a large geographic area and the location along the freeway suits them. The Braves have done well with their stadium location at a freeway interchange. Building the entertainment district is the tough thing, I haven't been to Truist Park but I think it's mostly mixed-use developments around it. Currently I agree, it's 0/10 for amenities. I don't know how you build something like that from scratch when you have a city like Milwaukee that isn't really bursting with demand for new housing or new developments.

"MLB has told the Brewers that they need to tell the taxpayers to make stadium repairs" FTFY

Adrian "Ace" Houser chugging along again today.

He was a terrible baserunner last year, I'm impressed that he got worse. For whatever reason, whether it be physical or mental or both, Winker just seems like a guy who is no longer interested in being a baseball player. I think he's physically capable of being a faster baserunner but he simply isn't interested in being one. This comes after having previously lost interest in playing defense, which I again think was more mental than physical.

So the combination of Lauer being terrible and Woodruff being injured is what is really killing this team. As well as Burnes being good but not great. Maybe you throw Peralta being average into that mix as well. Just overall a severely underperforming rotation relative to expectations except for Miley. The offense needs to hit better as well, but we knew that was going to be an issue going into the season, and at least their gloves are making up for a decent portion of the poor hitting. We'll win the division if the bats move in the direction that we think they are capable of and starting pitching regresses to the mean. The Cards still don't scare me much unless they make some deadline moves. They dug a pretty big hole and have at least as many fundamental issues as we do. I still think they fail to win 90 games.

I saw that our pitching staff 27th in FIP!!! It's just us, the Mets, and the Red Sox down there with the dregs of MLB. Our defense is clearly bailing out our pitching. We're basically the opposite of the Cardinals, who are league-average in FIP but allow 0.5 R/G more than us because of their terrible defense. I had a feeling that our lack of rotation depth was going to be a problem this year and it seems like that, more than anything, is really hurting us.

I used to feel this way but after moving around to a few different cities I think it comes down to winning and marketing. It's not an "if you build it they will come" type thing like it would be if they put a team in Quebec City.

We've seen teams like the Cards before that mash the ball and do very little else right. If they make the playoffs it will be because their pitching climbs into the upper half of MLB, not because they are winning a ton of 12-8 games.

My understanding is that the move to Glendale was a result of clashing with the Suns' ownership and the Suns' arena not being designed for hockey. Obviously it was a poor decision in retrospect. Then the NHL had to take over the team in 2009. The saga with Glendale has been well documented over the past 10 years. The current ownership supposedly didn't pay rent because of a "clerical error" (yeah right) and now they play at a 4,500 seat college arena because there are no better options. The current owner sees the team as little more than a piece to add value to his real estate investments, and they once again embarrassed themselves by failing to fund or plan a proper a "YES" vote campaign and apparently had no backup plan for losing. I'm kind of shocked at your optimism to be honest. The product on the ice has been consistently terrible for years now. I know they bought up bad contracts in exchange for draft picks and a brighter future, but after watching them play the Kraken three times in March/April, I didn't see anything redeeming about them. I don't mean to be harsh but they didn't look like a team that is going to be competitive for at least a few more years. Anyway, I don't mean to dunk on the Coyotes, but the above is just my perspective from being an NHL fan and reading blogs/reddit/etc. I really wish the best for the Coyotes...I lived in Miami and went to Florida Panthers games during some of their lean years, many people wanted them to relocate but they did finally turn things around. I just don't see how it happens in Phoenix and I think this latest setback is going to be the last straw for the NHL. Speaking of the Panthers...what a game last night!

It sounds like they didn’t have a backup plan if they lost the Tempe vote. I suspect they will be playing at ASU again in 2023-24 while they figure this out. Most people seem to think that it’s over for Phoenix which is a real shame but ultimately a consequence of having a series of incompetent owners. Even the lowly Florida Panthers have managed to turn things around after getting competent ownership.

No.

All of these coaches are just going to shuffle around to new teams. I'm fine with either Doc or Monty.

If he can keep up this 4 WAR pace that's fine with me.

Right, and the Mariners needed a DH but dumped him anyway and the reports that came out made it clear that he wasn't interested in putting the work in to get better. Like many, I figured that he was frustrated about his injury and would be motivated to perform in a contract year, but I wonder if there isn't something else going on. That all said, as long as he keeps getting on base he'll have a job with the Brewers.

Have you ever been to Mexico?

Which is extremely dangerous and kills pedestrians. Right turns on red should not be allowed in urban areas and it seems like some cities are finally figuring that out. It's mostly school zone speeding cameras where I live. They are extremely effective. Near-perfect compliance of 20 mph driving through school zones. Recently they have rolled out bus lane cameras and box blocking cameras as well after some state laws were changed to allow more of them. I've also seen them testing some new IR cameras that automatically detect and trigger signals for cyclists which is pretty cool.

The Cards are failing the eye test badly which is why I'm convinced the slow start is for real. They probably have enough bats to make a run at .500, but the only way they make the playoffs is if they are gifted an 85 win division title.

They could just make the odds 1/16 for each of the 16 teams that miss the playoffs. Nobody would purposely miss the playoffs for 6% odds of winning the #1 pick.