Point Beer Is Best

The new owner owns the new Epic Event Center nearby, which is trying to host small-venue rock concerts. Now he'll use the ballpark essentially as an outdoor concert venue. He rebranded the team as a tie-in, which is very lame and not punk rock at all.

[sarcasm]Just remember kids: When Aaron Rodgers chews out a young receiver, looks to the officials for a penalty flag, and throws a tablet on the sideline, it's because he's a giant baby. But when Brady does it and also tells the opposing sideline to go "eff" themselves - that's generational leadership.[/sarcasm]

No word yet on Adams (who is vaccinated) in terms of if he had a negative test yesterday (Tuesday), so it doesn't look good for his availability on Thursday. He needs to have 2 negative test to play. Lazard (unvaccinated) is in a different situation. I haven't seen it reported that he actually had a positive test. Rather, he's been deemed a "close contact" (presumably of Adams) and by rule has to be placed on the COVID list for a minimum of 5 days which definitely rules him out for Thursday. Given the other WR's haven't been placed on the list as of now, I would assume they are vaccinated and have so far received negative test results. Hopefully MVS will be activated - his ability to stretch the defense has been a missing element.

My son wants a Willy Adames jersey for his birthday. Does anyone know if they sell those in the Team Store? Or what the best way of procuring one is? So far it seems like the only way to get one is to make a custom jersey at mlbshop online.

His 2022 salary was guaranteed for injury, so if he had sustained a major injury during the course of this season and was not 100% healthy at the beginning of the new league year, the Cowboys would have been on the hook for an additional $11.2M next season. Given they had no intention of keeping him next season, it was a pretty shrewd move on their part to just release him rather than find some other way to keep him off the field for the rest of the season.

His era of SNL and particularly his time behind the desk at WU was what I grew up with. I agree with what others have said - if you just read his jokes, you probably wouldn't even find it funny. But his delivery is what made it work. One of the best skits he was ever in is when he's in a car crash and Sylvester Stallone happens to be the first person on the scene, but even as he's slowly losing consciousness he doesn't pass up the opportunity to absolutely roast Stallone's career decisions in terms of what movies he's been in.

NFL rules require the game must be held in an NFL stadium due to their replay system. I was a little surprised that AT&T stadium said no due a concert being held 3 days later. I don't know how much it takes to set up a concert but I guess that wasn't enough time.

We stream through YouTubeTV so we've been unable to watch any games this season given their ongoing dispute with BallySports.

I've been away from this website for the most part for the past few years, largely fueled by the fact my oldest kids are involved in various sports, so it was funny to see this thread pop up. My boys are 9 & 10, each playing "competitive" baseball since 7U. We are a community based program (they started playing in the recreational league at 4) but we also offer "tournament" teams for kids who want to try out for a more competitive experience. I've coached my oldest son's tourney team for the past 4 years as well as coaching their rec league teams. They definitely play other sports (football, one in wrestling one in basketball) but they stay "active" with their baseball training year round in our basement since that is their biggest passion. By "active" I mean tee work maybe 3 days a week, and then ramp up pitching in the late winter after we've totally shut down any throwing for 3-4 months. Our summers are completely consumed by baseball (my wife and I often have to divide & conquer since the boys will likely play in different towns each weekend), but so long as this is what they are passionate about and enjoy, then this is worth it.

He suffered a knee injury (meniscus tear) at the end of camp last year. He was just never the same player after that.

Things we know to be true (facts): - Yelich is a FA after the 2022 season - The current CBA is set to expire after the 2021 season Likely to be true (opinion): - Yelich and Brewers won't agree to an extension before the CBA expires What I *think* may happen this next offseason, is that some free agents may opt for 1 year deals for the 2021 season, if the belief is that there teams are budgeting for higher spending after the new CBA deal. If that ends up being the case, 2021 may be another "go for it" year for Stearns & Attanasio where they go after these types of FA's (like they did with Moose & Grandal) which could also explain why they are being more budget-conscious this offseason. After the dust settles with the new CBA and what the core of the team looks like at that point, that's where I see it most likely we would trade Yelich and Hader to retool the roster heading into the 2022 season.

The link was removed from Reddit, so I'm unable to listen to the podcast.

There are some players who are talented enough where GM's overlook their personal shortcomings. Russell isn't in that category. I'd pass.

Sir, that's pronounced "Lawffices."

I've never understood the arguments against a salary cap and floor with massive revenue sharing...at least on the players side. I can see why big markets wouldn't like it, but why would players dislike it? If the cap and floor were set in a way that would guarantee players a similar revenue percentage to what they are getting now...what's the problem? A cap and floor would prevent stupid offseasons like 2017 and 2018 where teams didn't spend and everyone cried collusion. Exactly. Nobody on the players side cries about the salary cap in the NFL. The collectively care about what % of the revenue in total is going to player salaries. We only hear about the complaining in MLB about the Luxury tax because the teams that actually CAN spend more and not lose money are the ones hiding behind the Luxury tax, and those owners have to absolutely love the narrative that it's actually these small-to-mid market clubs that are to blame for the lack of spending. It's insanity.

I seem to recall that when Selig was Commissioner, they made a determination that revenue would be split evenly among all teams for online streaming (essentially mlb.tv). That's really the only way you can level the playing field. MLB teams negotiate with regional sports networks and take in what that market bears, which creates this inequity. NFL negotiates on behalf of all teams with national networks for an evenly distributed share of that revenue. This won't be fixed until such a time where they stop allowing negotiations with regional sports networks and they negotiate with a streaming service (or create their own) that would broadcast all MLB games. Almost all baseball games are viewable on paid-programming platforms already. It's just a dream at this point and a huge uphill battle, but that's got to be the eventual outcome.

Just to clarify, those terms (socialism & capitalism) are economic ideologies in the way that I used them. Nothing political or government-related was intended.

I think that can be answered here: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-gerrit-cole-went-from-so-so-to-unhittable/ His spin rate spiked upward the last two seasons, and he also targeted the upper part of the strike zone with more frequency.

Salary/Luxury tax aren't the issue, and aren't the reason the NFL has parity. It's revenue-sharing. The NFL system is set up in a way where each team has $400M in income from revenue-sharing activities, and their player/labor budget (salary cap) is $200M. Half of the revenue goes to players, half goes to the teams to operate. It's socialism. If you can't compete, it's not your market's fault. It's incompetent management. MLB system is set up where the player budget (luxury tax) is $200M, but some teams could never afford that. Some teams make that on their TV contract alone (Dodgers have a 25 year deal worth $7-8B, or an average of around $300M per year). For better or worse, it's capitalism. Each team makes in revenue what their respective market can bear and has very limited revenue-sharing. If you think the system that MLB uses isn't broken then I don't know what to tell you.

From what I've read, it sounds like the Pirates have/had a "pitch to contact" philosophy and the Astros convinced Cole to rely more on his 4-seam to try to miss bats. The results speak for themselves.

Maybe the next time he throws at Braun intentionally it will be on a pick-off play?

Thanks for the response. I agree that kids need to be playing and having fun above all else. Our age group will begin "kid" pitch rather than machine pitch (9U) this year. I agree that going A/B is really tough because chances are all of your kids that can pitch will end up on the A team. I received a lot of feedback from my parent group (none of which I can do anything about since I don't sit on the Board, but have had a dialogue with them). Most believe that you should have cuts because there already exists a format where every kid can play (the program's recreational league), and that tourney ball should be reserved for the kids with a higher skill set. Parents of kids who would likely be on the A team obviously don't like being split evenly because they want to be as competitive as possible (our age group lost 2 kids that went to play for a Travel-only program despite the hefty price tag they charged). And I was somewhat surprised that several of the parents of "B" level kids didn't like an even split because now their kid will likely be playing OF and not competing in tourneys set up for "B" level competition. What I proposed was, in the spirit of trying something new and maybe satisfy everyone a little bit, was be allowed some movement between the rosters. Maybe play 7 tourneys per team, where 5 are played with the same evenly split teams and then mix in a couple of "B" tourneys and send those kids there (I would coach that squad as that is where he would fit best) while the "A" kids go to another tourney. Whatever the decision ends up being, I would communicate with the parent group from the get-go what was going to happen. I've been pretty fortunate the past two years that the parent group has been really supportive of all of the kids and has become a close group. I've never had a situation where a parent questioned anything or asked for favors for their kid in terms of positions or playing time. And the rarity of that is not lost on me.

I assume there are several posters here that are currently, or have previously been, involved in some capacity with youth baseball. Both of my boys (age 9 & 7) have been involved with our local rec program since they were in 4K and have coached the program's "tournament" level team for my oldest son's age group since he was 7. The Board that oversees the Rec & Tourney programs recently made some changes to the Tourney program and I'm wondering how other programs operate: 1) When does your program hold tryouts (Fall, Winter or Spring)? Before the change, our program help tryouts in August for the "A" squads from 9U through 14U (no "A" squads formed for 7U & 8U). Then in March, there would be tryouts for the 7U, 8U, and 9U-14U "B" squads. What the program has changed is that they will not form A/B squads until 11U and up, so no tryouts held for 7U-10U until March and those teams must be evenly split if there are enough players to form at least 2. 2) Do you allow cuts at the Tourney team level? Before the change, there was the possibility of cuts at all levels to keep rosters manageable. After the change, you are no longer allowed to cut any kids at those age groups (except in circumstances where it is clear the kid cannot protect himself on defense). If you have a situation where you have 28 kids that want to play, you have to figure out a way to split them into 2 teams of 14 but schedule tourneys in a way that each kid plays an equal number of tourneys but not taking more than 12 to any one tourney. 3) If you have to form more than one team at an age level, how do you split the teams (A & B or evenly)? Who determines that? Presently our method is for independent evaluators (board members) select the top 9 kids for the team, and then the coach can fill out the rest of his roster as he sees fit. 4) If you are located in WI, what tourneys have you done that you would highly recommend or avoid? Thanks in advance for anyone that replies. I think we all agree that if there was one perfect way to operate, everyone would do it that way. Just looking for new ideas we haven't thought of as we look at having a dialogue with our Board on some options to take into consideration.

Agreed with everything you said. And frankly with JJ's career moving into the latter stages, he has more chances of latching onto a team if he has more seasoned representation. I'll withhold judgement on Josh's tweet about "walking away" and "drawing a line in the sand" until we find out more information, but agree that it is a really odd thing to insinuate JJ had a relapse (or crossed some other line) and that you chose to terminate the relationship and he winds up with new representation 3 days later.