Fatter than Joey

Johnny needs to hit 7th with that OBP. Batting 8th he wouldn't take the walk opportunities available to clear the pitcher. Couldnt agree more.

Hill is due for a bad game, please let that be tonight. Yeah -- small samples be damned -- he has been remarkable and fun to watch pitch this year so far. I can't wait to see how this young pitcher gets nuked by the Cubs

and the majority of the ones I read were arguing about a curse. It's obvious that they are not cursed, rather evolution is working them out of the rotation.

I thought we agreed to leave pants on nowadays. Did we lose a war to the communists or something? -- PANTS COME OFF NOW! The talking to he gave Villy to get him back on track was managing his players. Everything else is just rolling dice and playing percentages... I agree 100% -- Whatever Yost said to CV, seemed to be way more effective than what Maddux was telling Aquino. Yost rolled some dice in last night's game and he came up big -- which is awesome. Hopefully this team can keep improving and building on games like this. What a performance by CV -- but I want to heap some love on Dessens as well -- he kept us in the game -- if he doesn't get his 2 IP, we could have been out of it. The other guy that is really turning my head is Hardy -- he is just getting better and better at the plate and on the field.

You really fail to see the connection between these two? Yes. If Wise is that bad of a fielder, and he cannot field a bunt, especially as a reliever -- he should not be on a MLB diamond. Like someone said in the chat room -- it would be like saying "we are going to PH Fielder with Counsell, because Counsell gets out of the box faster"

It is compilcated with answers none of us really know. Not true -- Ned said he brought in Aquino and took out Wise because he "fielded his position" better.

I'm amazed how many think the show is still great. I don't think a lot of viewers think it is "great" -- however -- I have given it the benefit of the doubt during the last few seasons. I think though, with a clear end to the series, i.e. no negotiations for another season, I felt like the writing and storylines would be very tight. This season has been awesome so far. The scene with Paulie standing on the end of the fishing boat was priceless....

And also saw Capote this week. I liked this as well -- I thought it was interesting more from the aspect of the history/background of "In Cold Blood", than being a biography on Capote. I thought 16 Blocks was decent as well.

Uh, sure Johnny. Whatever makes you feel better. This coming from the guy who made a bad decision to throw the ball to 3rd base on that bunt.

because frankly, I don't think I or anyone here could do any better. This is something that alot of folks here don't agree with, sadly. You are probably correct -- There probably isn't anyone here that could play CF better than Hall, or 3b better than Counsell either -- BFnet is not the manager/player replacement pool. Personally I would be happy to give the Tic Tac Toe chicken a chance managing our bullpen. But I tend to be quicker to lay blame on players for screwing up than coaches. To a point... If you continually run Jenkins to bat against LHP (e.g.), and he struggles, you have to blame the manager. I blame Aquino for much of tonight. His stats and high walk rate are available on the interwebs. -- Yost could/should know the limitations of Aquino. Aquino didn't have anything to do with Yost misusing his BP on Thursday either. Sure. I won't throw out the "nobodies perfect" cliche again Thanks. Sometimes I think people expect that Ned should have a poster of that kitten hanging from a branch, or that kid with the bowl of spaghetti dumped on his head, or that "Pobody's Nerfect" t-shirt in his office. No one is picking on Yost for one time game decisions -- rather a continued display of head-scratching stubbornness. I think a lot of his decisions not only cost us the game currently played but games down the road -- for example, I think (IMO) if Hart had gotten more playing time in 2006, he'd be hitting better and fielding better in 2007. Remove those: Aquino 2.01 ERA. Right -- Of course though Aquino has had 2 bad appearances recently, -- he has 0 losses though, as Shouse and Wise got hung with Aquino's failures. The problem with Aquino is letting inherited runners score, -- theoretically Aquino could let every inherited runner score and have a 0.00 ERA and no losses.

Tic Tac Toe playing Chicken may be better.

Is he better at fielding than at pitching? Apparently -- Maybe Yost thought Aquino would run that HR by Biggio down? -- Maybe he gets to the plate faster than Wise after the WP?

Read the rest of my post. I mentioned "nobodies perfect". I read it -- didn't think it merited comment. "Nobodies perfect" has no meaning. People whip out this generic statement when Yost does something inexplicable. If you look at Ted Williams best season -- he made outs about 60% of the time -- far from perfect. That does not make Chad Moeller a good hitter. Everybody screaming for Turnbow and Cordero every night. The Turnbow everybody was ready to throw into Lake Michigan after last year. The Cordero who pitched so badly in Texas last year they were happy to send him over here. "Nobodies perfect". Cordero only had a few bad games in April -- Cordero had a solid 2006. Yost had him warming up -- Aquino was clearly struggling. Anybody would have been better -- Yost said he took out Wise because Aquino "fields his position better" But there's alot of very good players and teams in this league, and, to throw out the cliche, "You can't win 'em all". Sure -- Hopefully better than 45% though.

Yost said he went with Aquino because "he fields his position better".

Problem is, even two crummy outings in four games isn't iron-clad proof of anything. In the case of Aquino that is probably correct -- but Ned's inability to use his pitchers goes back to Day 1 -- I think that is where most people are concerned.

It's all about hatred and by golly, this site is full of folks who are willing to jump on Ned for anything. Hatred?? -- c'mon -- Ned choked this game away. No one hates Ned. Ned should be called out for this. Mariano Rivera got ripped tonight in Boston. So what? -- that makes leaving Aquino in the game defensible? Tomorrow they may be up by one This is true -- but we should win the games we are in. Edit: (Powell mentioned it the other night on the radio...not sure if it was directed at BF.net, but it certainly applies) Yost has a career 45% winning pct. he has never had a winning season -- why should he not be feeling some heat?

OK Yost just said they brought in Aquino "because he fields his position better" ???

Yost's post game comments should be interesting

Yost made a huge mistake. Maybe he will learn from it. Learniness is not one of Ned's tools. -- That is what concerns me -- It's the same stuff every year -- we are just doing it with better players. He wasted Turnbow yesterday. I thought he did well with the PHers and the bottom of the 9th -- that was all defensible.

Cordero was warming up. -- He was available

Couldn't have expected more from the T-Bow/Coco 8th-9th inning combo. Hope they keep up the exceptional work. Agreed -- Tbow seemed a little rattled after Hall misplayed that triple, but then got the next batter out. -- Why was Hall not deeper in the 8th? -- The play that had me confused was that H&R with Fielder. Weeks is hitting the ball well, and not a huge DP candidate, and it seemed we sacrificed 2 outs for no good reason.

I love the fact that the @#!&* picture is one of a Pirates fan holding the broom. Yeah -- they have done well against us when they probably shouldn't have. Even Omar Moreno wouldn't look cool in that jersey. Willie Stargell would look awful.

I will make a call and let it be known how Ned should do it. Let's see if he takes your advice seeing he obviously has learned nothing during his many years of coaching. Awesome -- let's wratchet this up a notch. I agree that he has learned nothing during his many years of coaching. Let me know how your call goes -- although -- don't call from the bullpen, that phone doesn't seem to work. All Ned needed to do is look into his ball and see that Aquino wasnt going to get that out. Its always so easy. Actually I would have prefered he would have looked into a monitor or on the diamond, where he could have observed Aquino really laboring -- It wasn't one guy either -- it was everybody but the pitcher. And yes you did say you wanted Wise rather than seeing Aquino get shelled. Your words not mine. No more correctly -- I said I would have wanted to see anyone, if Wise was ready -- I would have preferred to see him out there, but Dessens, Turnbow, CoCo, any of those cats would have fit the bill for me. Or you can just move to another pitcher after someone gives up a hit tonight. Always easy sitting in the chair at home. Again -- it wasn't one hit -- It was a hit, a WP, a IBB, a bases-loaded walk, another hit. The call was easy from my chair or from the dugout. Ned choked.

The opinions here are not "realistic" and I know this because I know people who do this and have been involved myself for a period of years. Egads, -- this is always your hailmary, glad you got it out of your holster. Wise is not going to pitch everyday. I didn't say it had to be Wise. Why can you not understand that? We lost and we will find a guy who can get an out if Aquino cannot. I know where Ned should look -- in the bullpen, he should choose the guy that is warming up. If there is not a guy warming up, he should have Mike call Bill, and say "Hey, is there someone warming up?, -- If not it would be super cool if someone could start warming up, Aquino isn't going to get anyone out here."

The problem is that most disagree because they are not realistic and get angry any time we lose. Incorrect. The problem is, is that you see your opinion as "realistic" and others as "unrealistic" -- I have said this many times, baseball is not a game of wrong and right it's a game of playing probabilities. As evidenced by this: For this instance I will take what you said. He should have had someone up. This is where I see the "fan" come out and the "realistic" part left behind. You dismiss my opinion as being "fan/emotional" rather than the "reality" that you seem to enjoy. Turnbow is our 8th inning guy, and Coco is the closer. Why -- Is this anywhere in granite? Why can't Turnbow be our 7.2 inning guy for one game? Wise is usually our 7th inning guy but had pitched the last two days and we didn't want to use him. He could have but was not prefered. I would have preferred Wise to pitch to one batter than let Aquino get shelled. So Aquino goes into the game and walks one and then we were supposed to pull him? Incorrect. He gave up a hit. Then he threw a WP which forced a IBB, He then walked Gonzalez on 4 pitches, and then gave up a 3 run single. It was obvious to me during the Gonzalez AB, the only player Aquino had a chance of retiring was Stanton. big leagues managers tend to let the guy get out of his own mess. If this is in fact true with Yost, I'd fire him tomorrow. A manager has to face his players everyday and there can be some emotions involved in the decision making process. Last time I checked Yost is in charge, if Yost is worried about what Aquino might say after his performance, I would fire Yost yesterday. So one guy failed and we lost the game. Incorrect. Hall failed, Aquino failed, Weeks failed, Yost failed. 5 run innings are rarely the fault of one player. But if Wise gives up a hit, people will still complain the other direction and say that Turnbow or someone else should have been put in. I think if you read more carefully, that most people are concerned that Yost did not even give himself the option of having someone ready. Some nights a reliever is not going to get people out, I wouldn't have cared if Yost brought Bill Castro in, but Aquino was def. not doing well. Personally, I would have been fine if he would have brought in Wise/Turnbow/Dessens etc. It a no win situation. Yost or someone is going to be blamed. Exactly. When you lose it is a no-win situation. Yost did what he has mapped out and will do the same thing in a bit. If he does, I hope he has his resume updated.