mtutiger

I dont know, actual annoyance with Monroe attitudinaly while calling games? Actual reporting about friction between them? Something? Anything? Cody Stavenhagen, who everyone seems to respect, has said in the past that he thinks Monroe is here for the long haul. That's kinda my baseline. There needs to be more than baseless speculation to move me off of that.

Monroe has issues with any of his partners in speaking over them. It's his biggest weakness... as bad as people think he's been with Benetti, it was most evident in a game he did with Greg Gania in the spring against the Yankees. That said, the booth, even when he's in it, has been better than last year. And if things were as bad between him and Benetti as people are speculating, there's a good chance Monroe wouldn't even be in the booth right now. I'm sorry if people don't like it, that's just how I see it. If it were up to me, they'd just hire Carlos Pena full time, but that's not in the cards and I dont see a lot changing going forward

"Any sort of indication" =/= "Jason Benetti has to say it"

I never implied that...

Look, they aren't going to win every game and even a team like the A's will at least 1/3rd of their games. Blackburn is also a better pitcher than I think he's given credit for. But the quality of the ABs was pretty frustrating today. Cannot do that against better competition

Umm, no. But I would expect there to be some evidence that chemistry doesn't exit between the two of them or some subtle indications that there is friction before beginning to actually speculate these things. To-date, I haven't seen basically zero evidence that this is the case. So yes, one can continue to dislike Monroe's color commentary without losing objectivity in the process.

The first of a few, one imagines.

I'll wait for Benetti to give any sort of indication before making that leap. Until that happens, it's people who are predisposed to disliking Monroe projecting their feelings on Jason Benetti

Agreed

I dont even like Monroe all that much, but I've watched most of the broadcasts early in the season and, on its face, it doesn't seem like there are any issues between Benetti and Monroe. This reminds me of Gorosh intimating friction between Harris and Hinch last year, which clearly was never the case. People seeing what they want to see.

I think Benetti is fine working with Monroe.

Blackburn shut down the Guardians in his first start.... worth mentioning

They really did.... another extra inning game would have been really taxing

People get upset that AJ sits Kerry against lefties, but that is a demonstration of why

Canha deposits the BP fastball in the stands.... wow

Wow, TORK sucks, send him to Toledo lol

Man, Skubal versus this lineup isn't a fair fight.

I would have drafted Mayer, if all else were equal, but one can acknowledge logic behind what were doing and that there were extenuating factors (ie. slot bonus considerations). The point is that the Riger types aren't really capable of that level of nuance.

I'm gonna guess that Riger also used to name drop Marcelo Mayer a lot at one time lol

I don't know that it's 90-100%. I suspect a large majority who rate the issue highly are MAGA, but not everyone. So the concern is legitimate. Regardless, with issue polling, it's important to keep in mind that they aren't polling just swing voters, they are polling everyone.

In general, I agree, although the partisan composition of the 20% matters quite a bit.... and I suspect, at least to an extent, that as perceptions of the economy improve, some Trump partisans are shifting their #1 issue away from that and toward immigration.

'Democrats for Border Security' task force seeks to redefine the party on immigration This is a pretty good example of how border security isn't just being ignored by the Democratic Party, fwiw.

I don't really buy the premise that immigration, literally the most discussed political issue of the moment, is being slept on or downplayed here or anywhere.

You would be correct.... that gaffe likely had a far bigger impact on the election than Fetterman's performance did. Despite the overwhelming media attention given to Fetterman's performance at the time.