Riggo#44

Extremely low bar, but I agree. I have no problem with Macaffe

How popular is First Take? Being popular doesn’t make it good. The Screaming Idiot is excruciatingly vapid. He just spouts asinine drama into the microphone because, like Two Minute Rick, his sources have dried up. Audicy is only doing well in the ratings because they have no real competition. They are broke, so they recycle the Screamjng Idiot, his equally unintelligent Loud ass Windbag (Willingham), Doc Walker and other low-budget crap. It makes me crazy how few on that station are a fan of the teams they cover. This does not happen in NY, Chicago, Philly…

This is a fun goddamned team!

Think we can move Elijah Green?

I think people are really sleeping on House. He turns just 21 in 3 weeks. He has cut Ks, about 22% right now, and has an outstanding 12ish% walk rate. Has an .833 OPS right now. I am loving what we have coming. Also, Jarlin Susana: cut BB/9 in half from 5.7/9 last year to 2.8/9 this year, while striking out almost 4 more batters per 9: 8.9 to 12.7 this year. SO/BB ratio is up to 4.6. His ERA is high (5.55) as his his BABIP: .432! Huge improvements this year--he keeps this up, he'll be on the top 100 by the All Star Break.

We play so well against the Dodgers, O's...what do you want to bet we lose two of three to the White Sox--who are ****ing terrible. We are only going to win so many games running Meneses, Gallo, Weems, Corbin, Rosario (until lately). Ruiz needs to figure it out--he's be awful since coming back from being ill. I think they need to get Riley more ABs. But it's going to be so exciting the next couple years as we see Wood, Crews, House, Hassell (hopefully he keeps this up) work their way up to the bigs.

I love the Scrapitude of this team. Coming back from two runs down, twice, almost a third time, against the best team in the AL right now. Staring pitching held a very good line up to 2 runs, on solo homers, is also really encouraging. Despite the bomb Harvey gave up to Montcaslte, him and Finney are fantastic at the end of the pen. Just need to replace the dreck like Meneses, Weems, etc. Good times are close. And Kimbrel sucks.

This is where we need to spend next year--a big, .500+ SLG, mashing 1B/DH type. Overspend.

If all goes well, 2025 looks like: Abrams SS Hassell LF Crews CF Wood RF House 3B Morales 1B Garcia 2B Ruiz C That would be entirely home-grown starting cast, with a boatload of money to spend.

Rizzo has done a very good job rebuilding this team in a short time. The Soto trade was painful but wholly necessary--and jumpstarted this effort. I think the biggest thing he did was go hire personnel directors from teams that draft and develop very well: Brad Ciolek from the O's, Danny Haas from Arizona, and Reed Dunn from the Braves. We'll see how it goes, but it's looking very good so far.

Adding Parra and Doolittle have apparently paid big dividends. I’m wondering if Doolittle takes over full time as the pitching coach next year, with Hickey retiring? Just a hunch. But the pitching staff has leapt forward.

I don't think we will--our offense is worse than Taylor Heinike running a Bill Callahan scheme. But the pieces are coming--Abrams is awesome, Garcia is breaking out (hopefully, finally). House, Crews, Wood, and Hassell give a lot of promise. I love seeing Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker (who has been a great surprise) being competitive, competent starters. You'll see Parker tomorrow. We are really 2 years off.

We prefer "Scrappy"