OVCChairman

Ya know you're not wrong. me PERSONALLY... I'd rather see Kieboom at 2nd in spring training and if he appears he just can't handle it, you have Kendricks and Difo in pocket while Kieboom goes back down and gets more reps. I would THINK that Dozier gets the 'nod' as far as being better simply because he's somewhat of a known commodity. His 162 game avg puts him at .246 / 28 hr / 83 RBIs. That's OK.. to GOOD for a 2b (we were spoiled with our Wade Boggs 2.0 style Daniel Murphy) when you look at the rest of the roster. I don't know that Kieboorm will give us that, at least not the power numbers.... THIS YEAR. He may get his legs come July / Aug and trend toward these, but I would wonder if he could do 15 hr and 40 RBIs before the all star break. If were confident he can do that, than I don't know why we don't just ride Kieboom / Difo / Hendricks with Hendricks being a utility guy. I agree with you about our rotation, but I also have to tell myself that pitchers are effective later in their careers because they do what Sanchez does and learn to pitch to soft contact. Max and Stras are power pitchers, and Max appears to be a robot so who knows. I want to also see Stras pitch 80% of a season on a regular basis before i'm 'comfortable.' With the contracts of our big 3 starters, that window is now, and buying pitching gets more difficult if these guys dont fulfill 60% of their contracts that remain. This further pushes my concern about signing Harper if it means sacrificing Rendon / Turner, because those two are cornerstone type infielders who could play at a high level for the next 8-10 years.

Same here, but our window is closing. Dozier walks in an is better than Kieboom right now. With the age of our SP rotation, it would appear that the team is looking at 2019 as a WS type season. Dozier likely doesn't sign a 1 year deal, so I think 2 would be the min needed to sign him with the hopes that in that 2 year window, we're celebrating a championship at Nats Park. I also think that's why we went back after Adams and are now pushing harder for Bryce.

Turner would be at SS... Unless something happened that I wasn't aware of. Rumor is were talking to Dozier, that would truly signal to me that ownership is all in if we could land that guy to a couple year deal while Kieboom keeps grooming.

I hope you're right. I'm all for going all in, i wasn't saying I don't agree with signing Harper, just that I sure hope Rizzo is part of it..

I agree, which is why I hope Rizzo is part of this. What I would hate to have happen is the Lerners strike this deal now, then in 6 months Rizzo goes to the Lerners and says "here's the contract for Rendon" and they look at him and say "too bad, we gave that money to Bryce." Then have the same thing happen in another year or so with Turner. I'm not saying it's an either / or, but I could see how if Rizzo is not included now... then it could change the dynamic later. It doesn't HAVE to be, but my personal money is on Rizzo being the smartest person in that front office. If he's involved, it's very likely that him and the Lerners have discussed Rendon and Turner, and that's all I can hope for. If they haven't, then my concern is that when those bridges come, we wont cross them and I think that's a huge mistake. I actually would have a problem sacrificing one of them IF necessary because its a short sided thought process. If you want to go 'ALL IN' to win, then you do it, but to spend that kind of money on 1 player to further bolster an outfield at the complete expense of potentially one whole side of your infield would be a mistake. I'm not dense enough to not understand that Rendon / Turner have a say on whether they stay or not and that's yet to be determined either. I understand that Harper's negotiating NOW so we need to look at the NOW, but I really hope the Lerners don't come out of this telling Rizzo... "too bad" that money is gone now. If we're willing to go over the Lux tax for Harper, we should be willing to do it for the other 8 positions on the field as well.

at the forfeit of a Rendon / Turner-less infield?

I do wonder about Rizzo's involvement here. I hope he's a part of it, and it's not JUST the Lerner's controlling this. i'm worried that he's getting over run with this and left and right aren't working together.

Ya wonder if that wasn't their plan all along, and getting Harper would be a bonus. They could have waited til Harper signed to make the room (or some of it). To do it prior to a contract being signed, then be stuck standing there wondering what happened would be a terrible move.

twitter buzz is that it's fake and it's Boras trying to drive up the price

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2813919-bryce-harper-rumors-nationals-offered-much-more-than-300-million HMM.... apparently I can't read....

but if we bring Harper back, we better not do it at the expense of Rendon / Turner

yeah i've felt the same way through this whole thing.

If we sign Harper to a deal for close to the line in the sand that Lerner drew, we need to be signing Rizzo to an extension before the ink on Harpers contract is dry. He's the anti-Bruce Allen. He gets it. He knows how to get things done, and he knows how to work with the ownership group.

Ribs, wings, and mac n cheese for a football Sunday.

My little one is 2 goin on 16 and she's got a heck of a war face... the best adventure i've ever been a part of. Number 2 is currently still in the oven, the timer hasn't gone off on that one.

Same basic principle. Our grill is Propane so there's an added cost it that comes into play. I also like to glaze them and the indirect heat causes the glaze or sauce to thicken up real well... plus it was freakin cold out side so I didnt want to have to keep walking out there I will say that I'm not a huge fan of them sitting in their residual water that is released during the oven cooking process, as it kind of plays with the flavor and texture of the bottom of them.

The chops I posted a picture of are my tops (I BELIEVE those would be the blade chops cut really thick), but they're hard to find cut that thick and good quality. Those came from Costco. I dont mind New York but if you dont get them just right they toughen up really fast. The best way i've found to cook them that thick is to start them on the grill and finish in the oven. I ALWAYS use a bluetooth meat thermometer now because it's impossible to really gauge it without, and just going a little over causes them to be very dry.

Grilled chops from this past weekend

Oh i may have found my favorite thread....

Abso-freakin-lutely. They tried to do something similar with the color rush on Thur Nights but I've never understood why do that and not just do throwbacks? That doesn't mean that they can ONLY wear throwbacks on Thur night... The only question I can see coming up is that the away team on TNF would have to have a 2nd 'throwback' if their home unis are too close to their TNF opponents home throwbacks.

Nobody on that list thats worth holding the IR designation is going to be ready by the end of the season. The only people I would prefer to bring back I bolded, and none of them have a chance to return. I highlighted Davis, but I don't think he's an enormous upgrade, I would like to see the kid get a shot. The other thing is that I wish we'd activate Sims over Marshall. I still feel like we need help outside and he had a knack for the big play, in the limited role we saw him in. IIRC he wasn't only doing it in the 4th quarter against guys who weren't gonna make the team, he was looking good against 2nd string defenses.

Theyve been practicing.. that tweet reads to me that quinn was activated to the 53 Looking on the teams page, Quinn shows on the roster, Marshall still shows on the Injured / Reserve list.

I don't think anyone else of merit would qualify (although part of me wishes we brought Sims back). It's week 11, so if anyone were to get injured now to the extent that they be put on IR, they likely wouldn't be eligible to return til the postseason... if the rules even carry over to the post season, and its doubtful they would be recovered enough to actually have an impact. I can't find a detailed IR list to save my life right now

I think they've actually officially activated Marshall and Quinn see above article and...

I don't think we've activated Marshall yet.... as one of the other folks on her pointed out, I don't believe anybody has been officially activated off IR.