Ruzious

No Rendon and no Soto - the Nats could start out just as poorly as they did last season. They did have a fairly good comeback when the season was a marathon.

Thanks for posting that - I had no idea they had a setup like that in Bowie. It'd be great to see a lot of those names in Baltimore this year. Do they get to play any games in Bowie?

Mullins isn't a surprise. The 10th inning baserunner is an important "position". And his presence lets them use Hays in RF at times. 7 infielders seems a bit much, but maybe they'll do a bunch of platooning.

When in doubt, choose Greg Maddux.

I predict he will be leading the league in something tonight. Maybe somethings. I hope there's at least one positive stat that he leads the league in. It may take some creativity to figure out what it is.

The stat that caught my eye is that he gave up more homers than walks. 24 homers in 111.2 innings. Ouch, but only 23 walks.

If I were them, I'd use a 2nd baseman. But who am I to question the WS champs?

Why? But anyway, all the team needs to do is turn off one speaker. That shouldn't be very difficult.

I suggested this before (and got no reaction)... why not have Zoom style setups where fans can be fans and have the Zoom audio go through speakers in the stadium. You can have a separate Zoom setup for each section of the ballpark - a few hundred people for each one. Real crowd noises instead of fake, and real people enjoying the game.

I got it from an article that started by critiquing Puig's base-running. https://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/54131/yasiel-puig-and-baseballs-bad-baserunners

Yes you were.

Randy Milligan also has the distinction of having the single worst base-running season in baseball history - or at least since they kept stats on it in 1950.

That was a very polite way of responding. I really can't believe anyone would be even close to ok with Wilkerson being the every day CFer. I love Wilkerson's hustle, but him playing every day in CF or any other position would not be acceptable, imo.

I laughed. Funny AND efficient post.

I honestly said that before hearing anything about him possibly going to the Braves. What I'm trying to say is... Damn I'm good!

Come to think of it - with Markakis taking himself out, and the NL using the DH this year, Puig would probably make a lot more sense for a team like the Braves. Then they don't have to play a poor fielder like Ozuna or DuVall in RF. And they don't have to rush 21 year olds Pache and Waters.

If there's ever been a time to try 3 inning starters, this is the year to do it.

Cross him off the list - having a sense of humor goes against the unwritten rules of baseball.

Yeah, there's 5 positions - with 3 OFers, 1st base, and DH. There's NOBODY that would be blocked by Puig.

Ok I see you've had that discussion. $1.7 million should have basically zero effect on whatever else they do.

How much do you think it would cost to get him?

This save the money thing... why assume any money they save this year is going to be spent on future years? I'm not going to say that playing Puig is going to raise revenue, but I think playing guys like Dwight Smith and others like him - will end up in continued loss of fan base and loss of revenue.

If you can get him for beans, do it. We got guys like Dwight Smith and Stewart... never worry about blocking players like that. And with Mancini out for the year, ya gotta present a legitimate major league team. Puig is almost certainly not the next Nelson Cruz, but he's a decent ML starter, and the fans are owed a legitimate product on the field.

Could very well be. That's why when you take a chance like that - where you're certain to get a lot of screwwwtiny, you better have a good Plan B. I think his plan was successful, but I'm just not wow'd by Martin.

Didn't the O's have the highest slots total available - had to have been at least 2nd highest. So percentage-wise, them being $200ish K over is a tiny percentage. The amount and the percentage aren't even worth discussing, imo... which is why I'm discussing it.