Useful Idiot

The way I expect it to play out, Reyes and Greene will compete for the 4th spot in spring training, whichever prevails, the other goes to Toledo. A similar decision is merited at the trade deadline, with Grossman potentially becoming a trade chip. The wildcard being Hill. If he pans out then he's a keeper, but if he peters out,.. it's comforting to know we have a stand-in. It's great to have options.

I think that he potentially could make Grossman expendable. Assuming ( IF, in other words), he continues to get better. Id love to have three outfielders with "wheels", I guess that is my main motivation

Personally, I believe he is better than most give him credit for. Sometimes opportunity can be empowering. I hope that can be the case for him. And I think waiting until next year's deadline to make a final determination is highly unlikely to interfere with any championship window available to us, If I felt that Greene truly was ready for the leap now, then I might feel differently

As I said in another post, I would love to see Victor get better, so that I could call him "under rated".

I think you are (perhaps intentionally) making things more complicated than they need to be. Look at it from all angles....if he doesn't continue to improve, then he is gone. Personally, I believe that his performance the past two months entitles him to the opportunity to try and stick.

My strategy will be cheap to implement, provide Greene with additional development time, provide an eventual exit for a veteran with $ervice time, AND provide an insurance policy policy for an apparently frail Hill. Therefore I think it will be just the formula this organization will be comfortable with...

Assuming Reyes continues to improve, I think we have an outfield of Baddoo-Hill-Reyes, and Grossman...with Grossman being a trade chip at next years deadline to make room for Greene

So then, would you permit Jose Altuve to stand on a phone book while he takes his cuts? Considering the way he spits like a lawn sprinkler, that phone book might get nasty.

Yeah, that's probably it. But at the same time I think we are getting to the point where we are going to have to make some tough decisions if we are going to get better. Some of the guys that we've been nursing high hopes for are going to either have to produce, or go away. I like Niko Goodrum, his ability to serve many roles in the field is a plus, good speed, but he's gone soft at the plate. I think Victor Reyes has more potential than is readily evident. If he can manage to up his game a bit more then I will delight in calling him "under rated". Cameron, Short, and Willi C, I'm having doubts on. I'm also concerned that the brilliance shown by Haase earlier in the year has been "scouted out" by the rest of the league, and he is less a threat than he had been. I've not given up on him, but I am concerned. And pitching? There are a handful of names that just need to disappear. Jiminez AND all the "high potential up side" bargain basement pitchers we've been farting around with.

One can only hope that some of our low offense players are being given "last chance" opportunities as fill ins for these late season injuries. When Victor Reyes was sidelined and they brought up Zach Short to replace him, it was hard not thinking "this is a team claiming to have a future?"

Put a Qr code on each player's sleeve?

And then there is Joe West....🧛‍♂️ We had an organized developmental "league" here called "wildcat" that I played as a young child, where everyone made the team, and your uniform consisted of a tee shirt with a graphic. Mostly to keep vulnerable kids out of trouble. The main emphasis was to instill fundamentals. I recall hitting a mammoth home run, and upon returning to the bench the coach chided me "That pitch was over your head!" Innocent as a child may be, I simply asked "So, you want me to do that over?" I realize that pitch was not made by a big league caliber pitcher, but it often strikes me as curious why big leaguers don't give high "lollipop" pitches a good ride.

This might be of interest to some:

I found the following interesting for a number of reasons. https://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/strike_zone_rules_history.shtml When I first started playing ball as a child, I could have sworn that the shoulders were defined as the top of the strike zone, then following the sport from an armchair in later years, learned that it was lower. So I just suspected that I had been misinformed earlier. Now it makes sense though, since I would have "come up" during the 1963 era rules. I still think there will be considerable variance with the "at a point midway between the shoulders and the top of the trousers" formula....as there is considerable difference in back bones. My friend often jokes that I must have an extra vertebrae.

A friend of mine and I both have 31" inseams in our trousers, yet I am 5" taller than he is.I don't believe that any one single standard could be fair to both of us. And then I always see those trousers on the racks in the stores with 36" inseams.... Freaks of nature though that I am sure they are, their zone would no doubt be different than mine. So, you would need some expert means to calibrate the robo umps to each successive batter. And it would have to be real time...due to the possibility of pinch hitters

Aren't the strike zones different in the American vs National Leagues? Seems that I've heard comments to that nature, but not really sure if that's official, or just prattle from broadcast announcers.

FWIW, I don't mind the replay reviews at all, compared to what some other posters have stated. I like them because the TV crew uses the time involved with the review to show slo-mo footage of the plays in question. Even when the calls go against what I might prefer they might be, I still find peace in knowing the actual truth.

I don't disagree with you on that. I was just trying to state my rationale specific to the issue of robo-umps. Sometimes I wonder if the umps might realize they made a bad call to the benefit of "team A", and intentionally make a call against them trying to balance the books in their own conscience? I'm probably giving it too much thought, but I've often wondered if they do that sort of thing.

I see a lot of odd-off calls relative to where the ball passes relative to the box painted on the screen in the broadcasts, vs what they are called by the umpire...but I haven't decided if the deviation is due to bad calls, or by bad schematics in the broadcasts. I think it's the same box painted on the screen for every batter...not tuned specifically to the physical characteristics of the individual players. And naturally, you're going to have different strike zones for someone like Frank Howard, vs a squirt like Jose Altuve. Which leads me to wonder about robo umps, who will diligently calibrate the strike zone for each individual player...through out each and every game in their entirety? How accurate and dependable will the calibrators be, and how would one appeal malfunction?

Earlier we had encouragement from Chris and Al that they intended to be active in the free agent market. Now I'm seeing qualifiers that it all isn't going to happen in one year, that it will take some time to phase in. I truly believe they are going to wait for Miggy's contract to lapse before they spend any serious money. And, although I hate it as a fan....doing so probably makes more sense, from a purely business perspective. If I'm wrong about that, then great...let them prove it. I don't think Scherzer is eligible for a qualifying offer, so they should go all-out to sign him.

What happened? Did someone pass?

Besides,if they can bait the fanbase along by flirting with a wildcard slot for a couple years, they'd be throwing money away building a dominant roster.

I sincerely doubt they will sign any $20M+ pitcher. They are gonna remain thrifty explaining it that they aren't being "cheap" but rather that they need the roster slots to develop up-and-coming talent....Personally I think even Boyd will be "too expensive" for them.

For the first time in my life, I'm pulling for the Jays to make in into the postseason 💣 At least it provides a distraction from all the Gabby Petito news inundation