InsideCoroner

Is that him standing back off to the left? A bit tough to tell with the masks.

I hope he at least got to pose with that giant silver sword that the team owners gifted them.

I think you have to keep Davis on the roster until you see what the Covid situation will be like in 2021. If it looks like a lot of games will be canceled again, you keep him, as the team saves over $100,000 from his salary for every canceled game. If half the season is missed, they save $8.5 million, but only if he’s on the roster. But if it looks like there’s going to be a full season, that’s when I would cut him.

Is it already a foregone conclusion that Mancini won’t be back by next year? Mountcastle looks comfortable at the plate but I’m not sure he’ll remain an outfielder, and none of the others are proven commodities yet. I like these guys, and even if Mancini comes back it’s still a B grade, maybe a B- without him. It just remains to be seen which of these Not Ready For Primetime Players can stick it out for 400+ ABs.

Good site if you’re a Hershiser fan.

I really enjoy watching him pitch. His poise, control, the mix of pitches, nasty off-speed stuff that misses bats... Akin is basically the polar opposite of Mike Wright.

Yeah, that’s not my specialty unless we’re talking about obscure metal bands from the late ‘80s / early ‘90s. Not a particularly useful area of expertise.

Did he? I remember he was let go from the New York Daily News some years ago but I thought they just didn’t agree on a new deal.

What’s impressed me the most is how quickly he gets out of the batter’s box as a righty. There are left-handed hitters of comparable speed that I think take longer getting to first.

If I learned that the guy next to me at the bar had done that once in the majors (or hit 3 homers in a series against the Yanks, or even just hit 2 homers in a game), the next round would be on me, just to hear the story.

Only if we can grab Nick Mears from the Pirates too, so that we can print up “Smoak & Mears” tees.

Sure, not a knock, I just meant the mop-up role. I know T.J.’s more likely to be productive than Davis at this point. Then again, the same could probably be said of B.J. Surhoff, K.K. Downing or P.G. Wodehouse.

At least in the T.J. McFarland role he wouldn’t be blocking as many prospects.

I just watched the game. What a tremendous outing by Akin. The only hits they managed were on soft contact, and that changeup had the whole lineup fooled.

I don’t see any downside to this deal. Good luck to Givens in the future (although there can’t be many pitchers excited to hear they’re going to Colorado).

Since I haven’t been paying close attention, how many years will it be until he becomes a FA? He has been fun to watch this year, for sure. Thanks, Cleveland!

Excellent point about the potential salary savings if Covid affects next year’s schedule. That had not occurred to me.

Aside from artificial crowd sounds, starting a runner on 2nd in extra innings, where more than half the teams make the playoffs, and the home run champ might hit all of 20 bombs? Yeah, I guess it’s been just fine.

With the Marlins snd Phillies dropping out for 3 games or more (which is like missing 8 games in a regular season), players certainly getting more anxious, and little good news likely to follow, can we just please put an end to this season already? They tried; it hasn’t worked. Just pull the plug and we all hibernate and hope for better things to come in 2021.

Sad news. The Orioles put a really nice tribute video together for him here.

Early in the year? It’s July, for cryin’ out loud! ?

They should subtly work a few of those into the Jays’ piped-in crowd noise.

The only upshot of this is getting to hear Ben some more. Look, everything about this year is a Dumpster fire. Not just this baseball year, but 2020 as a whole. There isn’t much bad news that really surprises me at this point, so when we hear next month that Kjerstad has quit baseball to dedicate his life to engineering a more potent form of glysophate, I doubt I’ll even blink.

I think I like the idea of fake crowd noise even less than no crowd noise. All I know is that I’m going to kill it this year during “Guess The Attendance”

Roger Angell once called him “the best naked talker I ever heard.”