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Seems like it would be easy to get people in that activity. Like any random “massage” place has to be a front for this, right? You tell me that next to a dollar general and check cashing place is where you can just go in and get an above board massage?

The end of Colbert’s show was great. Goose bump inducing then this last night. He did joke about it during his last monologue.

May 23 https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/may-23?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0523-05232026&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-tdih-2026-0523

And with that unique state flag you can do all kinds of stuff with the sleeves/hat/etc

Right now you just go: C- Ding 1B- Tork 2B- Lee SS- McGonigle 3B- Keith LF- Greene CF- Vierling RF- McStinky DH- whomever Hinch wants to for matchup purposes/or Dingler when he needs a rest from the field. Probably Jones vs LHP and Workman vs RHP If by some miracle we have the lead in the 8th or 9th, then you can swap out Keith defensively for McGonigle and put Short in at SS.

so for this season, Jack's best inning is his second with a 2.45 ERA. In the first inning of his 11 starts he has a 5.7 ERA with 6 walks, 15 K and 3 HR. But still, since for Flaherty so much of his success seems tied to his FB velo - it he can come out throwing hard that could be a key to better success in short outings. OTOH, throwing harder might send his command completely into the toilet. But what else are they going to do? They have to try to get some kind of value out of him.

Vanasco and SGL

I have zero hope for Olson right now. Any return to form and long stretch of help should be considered a surprise bonus. Don’t plan around him for next year and beyond.

Well, you would think that’s what would occur. But as you say, the drain swirling is getting a bit out of control. We’re into the chapters of the choose your own adventure book that nobody thought we’d be reading.

As for Flaherty…..the last few outings he’s started off fairly strong and then falls apart after 2 innings. I think you could possibly convert him to the pen and have a productive short reliever. Hopefully he’d uptick his velocity too—because low 90s fastball as a starter is not helping him when he doesn’t have much control.

My only hang up with that strategy is that more than likely those players will be 3-4 years away from helping if everything goes right. So are we going to “waste” Greene, Dingler, McGonigle and Clark’s next 3+ seasons waiting for draft picks to develop to be the help we need? There’s enough to build around right now—so why not use the deadline to go get what you need to help immediately? We will probably have a top 5-10 draft pick the way things are going anyway.

Thing is, even if Hueter ends up on the 60 eventually with a more serious muscle strain, that's probably a decision they would normally prefer not to make until a week or more on the 10 day after they see how it's responding. Of course what they 'prefer' to do is probably swirling down the drain with the rest of team's chances.

I'm invested in how the pitching staff evolves for next year. You will get Melton back tomorrow then Jobe in a few months. We need to see them prove that they are durable and can be counted out after the lockout. Once they get healthy on offense, they have to completely churn the middle and back end of the roster. That includes Tork, Perez, McKinstry, etc. It's time to punish people who are not performing to even their middling standard.

Charm City with a picture of Earl Weaver in there. How did they miss that opportunity?

Some shade of green/black. I wonder what they look like in the sunlight. Probably still horrible, although it’s the BMORE that really makes it fugly.

That’s fair, too. That might explain part of Torkelson’s struggles, as an example. He’s not a guy to build an offense around, but can helpful as a 6th hitter in the lineup. The same is probably true with the defense. Meadows’ injury creates heavier responsibility for both corners. Probably a similar deal on the infield with Baez out.

this is true. But to be fair, I think there is at least some synergy to hitting; as the number of dangerous hitters in a lineup falls, it gets easier for the opposing pitchers overall and I think that tends to make it tougher for the rest of the hitters as well. Or another way to put it is that unless you are Barry Bonds, it's tougher to be a good hitter on a bad hitting team.

Since you were complaining about the lineup Hinch was running out there last night, I thought you were talking about the actual team in the dugout now., so that’s what I was asking about. I don’t have a big quarrel with your proposed lineup, but we haven’t had the dream team you’re referring to here literally all season. If your complaint was about last night’s lineup and Hinch’s penchant for moving players around on this particular team, do you have a set nine guys in positions for them?

The move for Melton was probably predetermined. I’m ignorant on Brieske’s estimated return. Hurter was pulled last night. So what for and does it become a factor in the decisions? It’s hard to believe whatever he did would cause a trip to the 60 day IL, but who knows.

That’s great and I love it when he is quite good, but staying on the field is also a skill.

The team is currently composed of a bunch of individuals with ranges of performances scoping out from their skill set as a middle point. There’s a group of players performing below that middle point and there’s a group of players that have a middle point lower than where it was assumed to be and there’s a group of players in the both of those scenarios. Ain’t good right now. It kind of reminds me of the 2008 team that was going to score 1,000 runs. Now, this current team wasn’t going to score 1,000 runs. But it sure is t delivering on the preseason expectations. The problem is that while there have been a slew of injuries, that variance doesn’t bridge the entirety of the gap between what should be and what currently is.

yeah - the guys I would care least about losing are position players but that's a mismatch since it's pitchers that are coming back.

If you were the team of hitting coaches for this team... maybe you should be shot into the sun.

40 man moves to make room for Melton and Brieske could get interesting...