Buck's defense of JJ

[Blizzard1090]

It becomes a doubled edged sword. Yes BUck will lose some players if he keeps putting JJ out there but you can lose many more by badmouthing your players in public.

Look at the Red Sox last year for an example.

[GoldGlove21]

What are Buck's options? Jim Johnson is in a funk, Strop went down, Patton has performed poorly and O'Day is one option for the 7th, 8th or 9th. If you make him the closer than is Matusz or Steve Johnson the answer? Buck is smart enough to know that throwing your closer under the bus is not a smart move in terms of long term success of this team.

What would you do?

[Norfolk orioles]

When did this ever become about your line of work being on par with a major league ballclub and JJ's feelings?

You were the one who brought it back up by asking what my boss would do.

Golly gee wilikers you can't come up with a valid response to what I said.

[Norfolk orioles]

You acted like a DB and I still tried to answer your question. So you reply by being an even bigger DB. Congratulations!

This is a baseball board for people who want to talk baseball. What are you doing here?

Good question.

[Norfolk orioles]

I don't feel like we waited to long for any one of those players. Are you one of the people that wanted Tommy Hunter gone? Chris Davis should be gone too right? Nate Mclouth? Who else had a tough patch that you people wanted gone? You guys know better than Buck and DD though right?

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

These posts just get worse and worse.

Show me where anyone "wants Johnson gone".

You do realize it's possible to want him removed from the closer role temporarily without "wanting him gone".

Sweet strawman argument though.

[Moose Milligan]

You acted like a DB and I still tried to answer your question. So you reply by being an even bigger DB. Congratulations!

This is a baseball board for people who want to talk baseball. What are you doing here?

Well thanks! I'll wear that congrats as a badge of pride, considering its coming from someone who has had their fair share of DB moments on here.

Guess I confused you whining about Buck not publicly criticizing his players in a way you see fit as talking about baseball.

It's unfair that for most every person, the people you work with are the people you spend the most time with. I think about this often when I stay late and the guy I work with is bugging the hell out of me. It's unfair that I have to spend more time with him than anyone else in my life...family members, girlfriend, friends. I have to sit next to that dude 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

With a baseball team, or any professional sports team, it's even more time spent together. Ever see a guy retiring? They don't talk about missing the game, they talk about missing their teammates and the clubhouse. They talk about it being a family, and it's for a good reason because a MLB club spends more time together than anyone. They certainly spend more time together with each other than their families or loved ones.

We see these guys 3 hours a day, 162 times a year if we're lucky. We like to think we really know them, we devour every tweet, every quote, every press conference, looking for something, ANYTHING to help us get closer to them. We try to relate to these guys as much as we possibly can. On a day like today, we sit and scream at the TV when one of them craps the bed and blows the game. Then we hop on here, get all reactionary about it and say how "JJ needs to go NOW!" or "Buck needs to stop giving JJ save opportunities NOW!!"

We quickly forget what I've written above, that those guys in that clubhouse treat each other like family, like it or not. How do you act with your family? Pick on your little brother but the moment someone outside the family picks on him you step in, right? Your dad wouldn't publicly do anything to make you feel like an idiot or embarras you no matter how bad you screwed up. He'd take you aside and talk about it later.

Unfortunately, we don't get to pick our family members. You've got your crazy uncles, your aunt that talks entirely way too much. There are arguments at Thanksgiving dinner when someone brings up politics or religion. But they're you're family and you've only got a handful of them...so you stick up for them when the situation calls for it. You're there for them when they need it.

So when you've got a group of 25 guys that spend a ridiculous amount of time together from spring training through October, what do you expect them to say about each other in a public forum when things hit the fan?

[Norfolk orioles]

What are Buck's options? Jim Johnson is in a funk, Strop went down, Patton has performed poorly and O'Day is one option for the 7th, 8th or 9th. If you make him the closer than is Matusz or Steve Johnson the answer? Buck is smart enough to know that throwing your closer under the bus is not a smart move in terms of long term success of this team.

What would you do?

Bring up britton and arrieta and put them in the pen??

The major league club comes first and foremost. Move Johnson out of the closer role, make Patton a loogy ONLY (instead of pitching him 1-2 innings) and make arrieta the closer. Only bring him in to start an inning and not when we need a partial close. Arrieta can usually get through an inning, his problem was staying consistent for 5+ and getting through a lineup multiple times.

As a closer he could dominate with his array of pitches.

Then when Johnson is back on his game, move him back to the closer role.

Or we could think outside the box and have no designated closer!!! Just pitch matchups the entire game instead of just until the 8th. Novel idea right?

[Moose Milligan]

From page 1 of his thread. That's not throwing anyone under the bus. It's simply acknowledging that Johnson isn't pitching well right now. Maybe Buck has some insights on why he isn't. Guess we'll never know. I guess if the manager acknowledges that one of his players isn't performing up to his usual level and that things aren't quite right, that would somehow ruin team chemistry forever. As for your long post, Moose, couldn't get through the whole thing. Stick to the bad jokes.

Thanks, cool guy. Glad you really need Buck to acknowledge what we all know to make you feel better.

[Norfolk orioles]

Well thanks! I'll wear that congrats as a badge of pride, considering its coming from someone who has had their fair share of DB moments on here.

Guess I confused you whining about Buck not publicly criticizing his players in a way you see fit as talking about baseball.

It's unfair that for most every person, the people you work with are the people you spend the most time with. I think about this often when I stay late and the guy I work with is bugging the hell out of me. It's unfair that I have to spend more time with him than anyone else in my life...family members, girlfriend, friends. I have to sit next to that dude 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

With a baseball team, or any professional sports team, it's even more time spent together. Ever see a guy retiring? They don't talk about missing the game, they talk about missing their teammates and the clubhouse. They talk about it being a family, and it's for a good reason because a MLB club spends more time together than anyone. They certainly spend more time together with each other than their families or loved ones.

We see these guys 3 hours a day, 162 times a year if we're lucky. We like to think we really know them, we devour every tweet, every quote, every press conference, looking for something, ANYTHING to help us get closer to them. We try to relate to these guys as much as we possibly can. On a day like today, we sit and scream at the TV when one of them craps the bed and blows the game. Then we hop on here, get all reactionary about it and say how "JJ needs to go NOW!" or "Buck needs to stop giving JJ save opportunities NOW!!"

We quickly forget what I've written above, that those guys in that clubhouse treat each other like family, like it or not. How do you act with your family? Pick on your little brother but the moment someone outside the family picks on him you step in, right? Your dad wouldn't publicly do anything to make you feel like an idiot or embarras you no matter how bad you screwed up. He'd take you aside and talk about it later.

Unfortunately, we don't get to pick our family members. You've got your crazy uncles, your aunt that talks entirely way too much. There are arguments at Thanksgiving dinner when someone brings up politics or religion. But they're you're family and you've only got a handful of them...so you stick up for them when the situation calls for it. You're there for them when they need it.

So when you've got a group of 25 guys that spend a ridiculous amount of time together from spring training through October, what do you expect them to say about each other in a public forum when things hit the fan?

You realize there is a difference between coming out and saying "yeah he's horrible, he sucks, I'm benching him immediately" (which I agree he shouldn't) and coming out and flat out lying like buck did, saying "he made good pitches" and making it sound like he was just unlucky???

I don't need buck to throw him under the bus to be happy. But don't pee in a mason jar and tell me it's lemonade. At the very least say "yeah he struggled today but I still have faith in him, he's our guy". I have a disagreement that he should still be closing, but at least I'd respect the position.

But telling us he made "good pitches" is so embarrassingly false and untrue it just makes buck look ridiculous and embarrassed Johnson that he needs his coach to flat out lie in public for him.

Do you understand the difference?

[Norfolk orioles]

From page 1 of his thread. That's not throwing anyone under the bus. It's simply acknowledging that Johnson isn't pitching well right now. Maybe Buck has some insights on why he isn't. Guess we'll never know. I guess if the manager acknowledges that one of his players isn't performing up to his usual level and that things aren't quite right, that would somehow ruin team chemistry forever. As for your long post, Moose, couldn't get through the whole thing. Stick to the bad jokes.

Exactly. There's a difference between reality and fantasy. Buck's statement belongs in fantasyland and he deserves criticism for it, as Johnson deserves some criticism for blowing 4 of 5. If you can't even criticize that, you have no credibility on any level.

[Moose Milligan]

You realize there is a difference between coming out and saying "yeah he's horrible, he sucks, I'm benching him immediately" (which I agree he shouldn't) and coming out and flat out lying like buck did, saying "he made good pitches" and making it sound like he was just unlucky???

I don't need buck to throw him under the bus to be happy. But don't pee in a mason jar and tell me it's lemonade. At the very least say "yeah he struggled today but I still have faith in him, he's our guy". I have a disagreement that he should still be closing, but at least I'd respect the position.

But telling us he made "good pitches" is so embarrassingly false and untrue it just makes buck look ridiculous and embarrassed Johnson that he needs his coach to flat out lie in public for him.

Do you understand the difference?

Sure, I understand the difference but don't think it's that big of a deal. Over the course of an entire season, what Buck says and how he delivers it in his post game pressers is a complete non-issue, IMO. If the issue is the fact that you feel lied to...well, I guess I'm a bit jaded. I expect athletes and politicians to lie.

So if Buck came out today and said "Yeah, he struggled today but I still have faith in him, he's our guy," how would that change anything about what went down this afternoon? How would that stop you from rolling your eyes when JJ comes into a save situation next time?

Anyway, I agree he shouldn't be closing right now, I think DoD should get the next chance and JJ should come into a mop up situation or two when the games out of line and whatever he does doesn't really matter.

[Moose Milligan]

Still waiting for your first good post on this board after 30,000. Keep at it. Your bound to get lucky one of these days.

Man, you really do take this message board stuff way seriously, don't you? SG's not here anymore, guess you have to be the big bully on the block now. That's cool, someone has to fill his shoes, guess it's fitting that it's one of his former sparring partners.

As far as the "good post" thing...I'd tell you to look at the amount of rep that I have compared to the amount that you do and then check out how many posts we each have. But then I'd probably be taking this whole thing seriously, too.

[Moose Milligan]

Pretty funny there. You think rep points actually have something to do with your knowledge and discussion of baseball. You are a shining example of how rep points can be a joke. LOL

Stick in your little circle jerk and keep piling up those points.

Is that the best you can do? Come on, man. Say something about my mom or something.

[Moose Milligan]

Your mom probably posts on this board and gives you a lot of that rep. It makes sense.

I thought you could do better, I'm disappointed.

Off to bed. Keep on enjoying being a tampon.

[Norfolk orioles]

Do you see what Johnson has done to us!!!