Tony-OH

I'm still friends with his Dad (Rick) on Facebook and we used to interact a lot. He was good guy overall, but yes, family members are too close to the situation for the most part.

By the way, did anyone notice Povich was taken as an underslot 3rd round pick ($500k), a pick after Mason Miller ($599k) was drafted by the A's in the 2021 draft. Not to beat this dead horse, but the Orioles selected John Rhodes 21 picks before Miller and gave him overslot at $1,375,000. Sometimes you win some (Gunnar/Westburg) and sometimes you lose some in those 2nd-3rd rounds. And yes, this is where @DrungoHazewood or @Frobby tells us that most players are misses in these rounds which is 100% correct. I'm just hoping seeing how some of these 3rd round pitchers have done well will help them select more in the higher rounds like they did in last draft. Also, I'm hoping with failures like Carter Young and Rhodes to a lesser extent, they realize guys that did not perform well in college the year before they get drafted may not have because they weren't that good. But that's a different subject than Povich so digress. I've moved Povich up to the top pitching prospect in the system but Luis DeLeon is right on his heels.

Potentially if the need exists late in the year, I could see Povich filling that down the stretch. Until that point/situation, he needs to to keep getting his reps as a starter. He's got a chance to be a guy here next year in the rotation.

I expected him to do that. He became tiring. I mean we all get that he loves himself some Povich, but his constant attacks on @Sports Guy when Rob even showed restraint (for Rob at least :D), was getting obnoxious. He's probably a former roommate or went to class with Povich or something. Remember when Parker Bridwell's mom came after you?

I guess I'm not quite convinced that Hays is done offensively as some of you are. I do think he's probably betters suited as a 4th outfielder, but he's a 4th outfielder that should still start 2-3 times a week.

That's funny, but I guess a player should think of himself as a "Ferrari" vs a "Yugo." Players need to to think if they played everyday they could be a star. they need that kind of confidence in themselves because self doubt will kill their career quickly.

Jim Hunter called and said he wants his stats back.

I'm with you here. Maybe it's the old school part or me, and I certainly wouldn't worry about getting win for my pitcher over making the right bullpen move, but I do hate it when a pitcher deserves a "W" and doesn't get it because of a bad performance in the bullpen . The win stat is not a great stat, afterall, any stats that won't give a pitcher a win after pitcher 4 2/3 innings but give it to the 1st reliever who pitch an inning of relief, is a flawed stat. I do want to see Adley hit over .300, and I do want to see a hitter drive in 100 runs. I like those stats. It doesn't mean you evaluate too hard over them, but they are stats that have some meaning in the right context.

The draft of course is hit or miss, but it kinda stinks that Elias spent on $1,375,000 on John Rhodes 21 picks before the A's spent $599,000 on Miller. Oh well, it happens, but I wonder if that's why he went more pitchers this past draft.

I think you have to add in the defense. Hays is better in every way defensively and he's a much better instinctual player. I'm fully aware of how bad Hays has been since last June, but I'm not letting McKenna popping a couple of homers to make me feel he's a better player than Hays. Hays provides value deesnively and I don't have to worry about dumb gaffs like I do every time McKenna takes the field. Even in last night's final out he caught it a bit awkwardly and one handed. I'm sure MCKenna is a good clubhouse guy and that's why Hyde likes him, but I think he's shown that he's not a very good player in any aspect of the game.

Sorry to hear about your experience. Traffic, parking, and the lines for food at Nats park are all the reason why I stay away from that place at all costs. I've been to two games there and both experiences were not good. Sorry to hear about the lost data and voice mails. That certainly is very unfortunate.

You can't be serious Clark? Hays is getting back into a groove in his rehab and is certainly an all around better player than McKenna and it's not really close. Hays might be a 4th outfielder at this stage of his career, but I'll take him on the roster everyday of the week and twice on Sunday over McKenna.

In Wildcard's defense, he did point to Mountcastle's less than ideal numbers last year vs righties as well. Now obviously this year's numbers are a small sample size, but with Kjerstad basically benched, the idea of monitoring Mountcastle to see if his struggles against right-handers continues was worthy of discussion in my opinion. Now maybe the title of his thread here is the issue more than the conversation. Obviously Mounty crushed that homer last night off Harvey so now some people will be like, "See he can hit right-handers just fine," but at the end of the day, keep an eye on how a player is performing when another may be able to do better in his place is a worthy discussion in my opinion. Hays had a small sample size this year before he was basically replaced by Colton Cowser before he got hurt. Hays also struggled the second half of last year. So sometimes a "small sample size" might be enough to make some adjustments to a player's playign time. Now saying all that, Mountcastle wasn't struggling that badly and as @Frobby point out was actually 104 +rc and his defense is clearly superior to O'Hearn at first base. With all that said, Mountcastle is going to still get the vast majority of at bats at 1B this year against right-handers unless he suddenly drops into the mid .600 OPS wise.

Fair enough, but I guess I just don't see how the title of Wildcard's post erodes the credibility of the thread or forums. While it could have been read in different ways, it actually fit what Wildcard was going for and I can't really ding him for that. I've seen seriously misleading titles and changed them, but in this case, I case we'll just have to agree to disagree. On top of it all, Wildcard, as a 20 year plus member here, will always get some leeway from us. He's an OG.

I said this is the game thread this morning "The craziest thing is I don't normally yell during games because I can just type out my frustrations here. But without it, my expletive laced shouting at McKenna for making such an off line throw (after taking three steps), knowing Santander would have most likely made a better throw just annoyed me to no end. That's the second time McKenna as a defensive replacement has not worked." I hope when Hays gets back we can end the McKenna era for a bit. He's hit a little bit off lefties, I give you that, but he such a poor instinctual baseball player and that's obviously not going to change.