The A’s still have a slim chance; the Mariners realistically don’t, so that’s 20 seasons, since 2001, for them without reaching postseason.
(BTW that’s some nice background music for whatever else you might be doing; jam band music that everybody would like.)
I suppose they have some incentive to finish ahead of the A’s for what that’s worth, as they have only three second place AL West finishes over that span (2003 which was Bob Melvin’s rookie year as a manager, 2007 and 2016).
The Mariners throw three lefty starters in the four games, so here’s a series for the Khris crew.
Monday at 5:15: Jared Goff vs. Aaron Rodgers. Oh wait. But no spoilers please; I’ll watch it tomorrow.
Monday at 6:40: Manaea vs. Tyler Anderson
Tuesday at 6:40: Blackburn vs. Marco Gonzales
Wednesday at 6:40: Irvin vs. Chris Flexen
Thursday at 12:37: Bassitt vs. Yusei Kikuchi
It’s pretty annoying that this inferior Seattle team has taken 8 of the first 12 in the season series. It’s also pretty annoying that I don’t really expect that to turn around this week.
Andrew Chafin, Oakland’s Ubermensch, could pull off the Nietzche stache.
Yes, he could. Although this is who he reminds me of most.
Bob melvin counts his bullpen in grams of heroin
I promise not to spoil the football game for you
I bet tonight’s home plate ump has nice things to say about Larry Elder.
Is it Rob Drake?
Did you see the thing about Treinen?
It is rob drake. and treinen we already knew he was maga, but this is a whole new level.
“his Instagram bio…contains two links: one to Mike Lindell’s website and another to an apparently imminent Project Veritas “bombshell.”
This will probably never happen but I wish fans would start mocking players with insane beliefs. It is not the acceptable range of discourse. Lunatics and white supremacists need to be shamed back into the shadows of society.
Imagine if teams colluded not to hire players for being racist rather than anti-racist.
Regardless of any Covid-related explanation, the attendance for a team that’s two games out of a playoff spot makes me sad.
its the season ticket decision
The startling lack of single-game sales, which we’re seeing again tonight, screams “community apathy” to me. I certainly get the feeling that “if you like your ‘parallel path’ so much, why don’t you lace up your boots and take a hike”. Even with that though, seeing this little interest in the team considering where they are in the standings is alarming.
I agree it’s alarming, but Ed’s point is still right, in years past the base of maybe 5K season ticket holders made the #s on sparse nights look better. And the barrier to single game entry has maybe never been higher, in terms of ticket price, online fees, parking gouging, etc.
Online fees are infuriating, yes. As to parking gouging, I noticed BART is half-price this month, and they are now running trains later than any extra-inning night game would go, so BART is my solution for tomorrow and Thursday.
I may yet change my mind, but as of now I am not intending to visit the Coliseum again this season. The price gouging is the main thing, my hopes generally being beaten down by ownership over the last year is 2nd, COVID risk a distant third.
Actually I am violating a previous promise and coming down Wednesday and Thursday. Particularly hoping to see Bassitt. The ticket prices are down compared to my last trip. Also Highway 50 is reopening tomorrow which makes it easier for me. I thought, could either do a couple more A’s games with guaranteed nice weather, or some crappy Cal game, and chose this.
The promo for the upcoming astros series is telling me that tickets are going fast, are you saying they are lying?
Well, I don’t know about the Astros series, but I’ll be in the familiar 117 R13 on Wednesday night. Didn’t seem like I was trying to outbid anybody for that.
Again, Berman sums it up neatly.
thinking a low 90s fastball is not going to get it done in toronto for the wildcard game
Manea just booked a great Oct vaca and he will make sure he doesn’t have to cancel.
Could have been worse, but it might be bad enough.
That rally sure died quickly.
Braden gushing over Elvis bunting the runner to third, which
1) is only reasonable because of how bad Elvis is otherwise
2) still didn’t result in the run scoring.
why would he bunt in a non double play situation
ouch chris townsend doing luzardo low lights
Sounds mean. It’s OK to wish Luzardo well.
Yeah. 0 wishes of anything bad for Luzardo. Did he ask to be traded?
it is mean, and uncalled for
vince was plugging that NFT linked in the last thread, candy dot com? how much did they buy that for and why that? seems like a dumb thing to buy
I didn’t understand the point of NFTs, and then I read some article about what they actually were and how they worked (I think it may have been from something AV tweeted at some point), and I really didn’t understand the point of them.
it’s the same point as a banksy. or a kahlo. there is no point the point is individually creative there is no point the point is the perception of art there is no point the point is how much someone is willing to pay for it there is no point.
or, digitally jamming some benjaminian aura back into the age of mechanical reproduction.
see also, the definition of art is the perpetual and continuous negotiation, all meanings included, of the definition of art.
Sure, supply and demand, with supply usually constrained by some kind of scarcity (whether “real” or “artificial”), is what sets the price of a Banksy, or a Picasso, or the only copy of a Wu Tang Clan album, or an old LP. But generally in return for that price something tangible is exchanged, a Banksy, or a Picasso, or a digital file, or an old LP, that the buyer can then look at or display or listen to or burn to keep himself warm.
When you buy an NFT, what is exchanged is not, say, a digital file of an image (what I would normally think of as the piece of art), but (and here’s where my understanding is still kind of fuzzy) an entry in a digital ledger somewhere that associates the buyer’s name with a URL, and that URL is supposed to have a copy of the image at it, but there isn’t really anything guaranteeing that it does, or will continue to.
So in a sense the thing that you’re really buying is just a record of the transaction itself.
And when I put it that way, maybe it’s analogous to donating to a museum and having your name on a plaque somewhere as a patron of the arts.
Or, I remember reading about an artist who (and this is kind of fuzzy too) does little drawings while at a cafe and then offers to pay his bill with them (no, not the spider guy), and if they are accepted, collectors then go around acquiring the drawings from the waitron, and the change and receipt from the artist, paying thousands of dollars for the whole thing.
That still seems a lot more interesting to me than the NFT economy, but de gustibus non est disputandum, etc.
Oh right, J.S.G. Boggs where the drawings were drawings of money itself.
yeah,him!
So, cards on the table, I can’t imagine ever buying an NFT.
But, at the same time, people don’t think it’s the least bit weird to value a painting by Picasso dramatically higher than an exact replica of that painting that would require extreme expertise to differentiate. An NFT is essentially a statement by an e-artist that “this is the thing I made, other copies of the file are copies.”
“digitally jamming some benjaminian aura back into the age of mechanical reproduction.”
Ehhh. The difference for me is that the Picasso is truly a 1 of 1. There is no way even the best forger or the most advanced technology can replicate it exactly, whether that is apparent to the casual observer or not. Human nature gives that original some inherent value over the replicas.
The digital art isn’t that. The replicas are absolutely identical to the original. The NFT is trying to create scarcity where none really exists.
you get both the ledger entry and the image (sure, not always offered) in digital and/or physical.
but anyway, some kinds of art are not physical, can be conceptual or performative, the question is how to assign value to them. sometimes it’s a ticket to see the ballet. so you could think of this as a ballet for an audience of one.
yes, this is the conceptual artist you’re thinking of. created a physical thing but didn’t consider the drawn object itself the piece of art, only the entire transaction after completion. and he wasn’t happy till he got change back and there was a receipt and someone collected all parts to frame together.
i’d go with the analogy of patron of an individual artist. that first link is a guy who a year ago made some looping lava lamp looking gifs, sold them as NFTs, and with the dough bought the amazing camera that linked SF image came from. and he puts a lot of work into them after shooting, too.
this is making me think that paying to name an asteroid is an act of art, and now i see the point.
codemonkey is NFTing the 3 times he got RT’d by trump, if you’re looking to invest.
laugh. i meant if you’re looking to laugh.
I mean, you should always ask for a receipt
I thought this one was part of some all-30 teams MLB deal. and @andeux yeah I’m clueless about it and am pretty sure I should stay that way.
Are they trying to create property?
Same. I also barely understand bitcoin, which I think I need to buy an NFT.
On the plus side I still can sort of explain what a money order is and get mad when someone tries to make me pay with one and says I can’t use a check or cashier’s check.
Thank goodness Dad died this year. This business of “we don’t accept cash” was about to kill him anyway.
Sometime after vaccinations a friend came over and noticed a five and a ten on my counter. He pointed at it and asked me what that was all about.
Maybe your dad needed to move to an area with a corner store where there is a $.55 charge for cards.
not bitcoin. you’re thinking ETH.
and you know, i could really get behind ETH if it successfully transitions from proof of work to proof of stake, though i’m sure t that’s fraught too.
Could I actually mean cryptocurrency, of which both of those are parts of?
Serious question-I dont know diddly about any of it so not sure how they all fall exactly.
most NFTs are on the etherium blockchain.
I recognize all of those words now!
Still my favorite explanation of cryptocurrencies is that it’s like if leaving your car on idle would solve sudokus you can then use to buy crack
Howdy stranger! Long time no ici!
Howdy yourself. Now that tennis season is over, I’ll try to come around more
That slide by Seager was, generously, “tentative”.
We’re not sure how to score if they’re not spotting us 6 free passes per game.
Best thing about this game is that it won’t be the bullpen’s fault.
And Pinder will be hitting in the middle of the lineup every day next year…
“Any chance the A’s have to come back, they have to hold the Mariners in this inning.”–Ken. And who do you turn to there but Sam Moll?
gm is furiously trying to remember who he is
Well now he’s a candidate for Closer in the final 10 days.
Sam Moll has five appearances this year, 5.2 innings pitched, zero earned runs allowed.
I hope Jed sees it clearly and goes off on his photo safaris. He’ll probably take a non-roster invite with somebody though, just hope it’s not the A’s.
If there’s anything to the late/clutch reputation this would be an excellent time to see it.
Delayed response to andeux: I didn’t literally mean the A’s need to win 12 of the last 13, I was throwing out a number to illustrate a teAse. However…if the A’s don’t come back tonight, and then were to lose tomorrow, I’d call those the final two nails in the coffin. Contention, we would see you in 2026. So let’s git er done, guys.
Five minutes and three really feeble outs later, BANG, there’s one of the nails.
Thank God it’s almost Fat Bear Week. I need a rooting interest that won’t let me down. A fat bear will never let you down, even if they don’t advance in the bracket.
Miguel Romero spent 14 days on the big league roster without appearing in a game. He has, in fact, still never played in the majors. This has to be some kind of record.
LOL at all of this, especially “I hope I didn’t offend anyone, or anything like that.”
Well then don’t drop it. Not much sympathy from here; I would gleefully pick that thing up and run it back to the dugout.
General Lee said the same thing about special Order 191. Hopefully the Rays do a bit better than McClellan did with the info.
If I were the jays, I’d say, “We are going to hit kiermeir.”
And then don’t
Kiermeir is an ass, 100%. His statement is 100% ass.
If he says, “I saw it, I thought I dropped it, I picked it up. I’m keeping it, deal with it,” that is a perfectly acceptable position. but he is trying to say I am not a bad guy, I didn’t even want it, It was so quick, I can’t be responsible for anything.
He isn’t responsible. his actions are fine. but he thinks they weren’t and he is trying to have it both ways.
that said, I did try to stop action the video. The paper was in kirks right hand. I am guessing he reached in his pocket to study it when he thought the play was dead but Kiermeier leeps running through the stop sign (Probably because he saw kirk looking down at the paper instead of at the ball or runner.
I am astonished that kirk left the field. he had to know the paper had been in his hand and later was not in his hand
Kiermaier should have tried for jury nullification.
I can agree with this. I think it is total fair play to take it and crush every 1st pitch FB you get (or whatever the plan was). But why are you telling people and stop trying to be the innocent.
I’m assuming he doesnt want to get painted with an ASStros brush. But to me this is not the same thing. And honestly Kirk should have known real quick that it was missing and the plan should be completely flipped.
Right.
“Damn right I took it, this is the pennant race” is a fair position. But “I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was theirs, so I gave it to a clubhouse guy. It all happened so fast.” is just full blown bullshit.
Excellent. Tonight would be a good night for Blackburn to pitch the Game Of His Life (he won’t be getting many more opportunities) to make that meaningful in the playoff chase.
Urge to call in sick rising…
Bassitt is just like us.
Olson had the card on how Gonzalez was gonna pitch him.
That seems pretty good.
Now would be a good time to start playing their best baseball.
That run sucks but man gotta appreciate the amazing baserunning choice by Bauers in a microsecond.
We can win this with three more solo Olson homers and only two more runs allowed by Blackburn and the bullpen. Also I could lift my minivan over my head if I had to.
I still can’t understand how the umpire standing 3 feet from the play gets that wrong to begin with.
Alternative facts.
hey o
Rob will announce that tonight’s attendance at the Coliseum is 68,000.
Damn, Blackburn almost escaped that.
I see we’re doing last night’s game again.
This team just needed to synch up we could have had a month where we gave up 10 every day and scored 1. Then had a month of wins and be set.
If all our remaining games were against the Angels we’d still be in decent shape right now.
I’m glad I didn’t save my visit for a weekend that looks like it will include an Astros division championship celebration on the Coliseum field.
It’s about at the point where they would need to win 10 straight in the regular season plus the wild card game. On the brighter side…hmmm…well they could squeeze in three more starts for Bassitt.
he needs 11 innings to qualify
Yeah, these two games were when slim turned into basically none, even if it isn’t official for a few more days.
Ugh. It’s really just a battle for second place now, and looking at the records and schedules the Mariners look like a heavy favorite there.
yup. its a few thousand dollar difference in payout I think. It’s meaningful to every single A
Continuing their FKtheFans marketing campaign, we’ve just received notice of a 37% increase in the front row seats season ticket prices.
I was just looking at the prices for the smaller packages.
Field infield (only rows 21+ available) are $75 each in the 20-ticket flex pack, $70 in the 30-ticket flex pack, and $65 in the 40-ticket flex pack or the 24-game quarter season ticket.
Plaza infield are $65/$60/$55.
Discounted parking ($20) available for the 24-game package as well.
Expect a lot more of those 5K crowds.
This is outrageous. Jack prices up, remove the discounted concessions that were a major part of the incentive, eliminate packages of fewer than 24 games, and (from all appearances) field a non-contending team while flirting with another city. Fuck those guys. I will buy my seats off stubhub for the 5-10 games I maybe attend in 2022, a 50-75% decrease on my pre-covid attendance rate.
must be signing seagar!
extending the matts!
and Chris bassitt!
Definitely not extending Olson, because the season ticket package includes his jersey.
They should have a promotion where they give away all of Elvis’ equipment.
It’s not like he’s using it.
Jim Bowden over at The Athletic has this drum he likes beating that the A’s should deal Olson for Gleyber Torres and Luke Voit. So clearly not extending the Matts.
That idea has actually made me consider cancelling my subscription to their site.
This got me looking at Reds season ticket prices, which are… better
(but it is pure masochism to commit to day games in Cincinnati July/August weather)
81-game bleacher package went from $1100 with $10 parking in 2019 to $2050 with $20 parking in 2022. We are getting reserved seats though….so at least we don’t have to turn up hours early, but can loaf and drink in the parking lot until we hear the National Anthem.
That is utterly insane.
Turning the 24-game package into a “quarter season package” with a preselected slate of games is also very weird.
I guess the idea is that this includes the most marketable games (Opening Day and all the games against the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Giants), and you can swap to less desirable games if you want, but still odd.
I was told a couple years back that the A’s had shifted their marketing to maximize big crowds for selected games rather than somewhat larger crowds at many games. Combining fireworks with the Yankees series, that sort of thing. I wonder if this quarter package idea is in line with that, and in particular meant to limit the dates they need extra staff for parking, security, ushers, and concessions. Saving on minimum wage salaries feels quite on-brand.
It means the cocaine is good.
I didn’t look, do they still have those anti transfer measures that led us to giving up the FK package?
I don’t know, but I’m considering dropping my group ones. It’s REALLY poorly explained, and I can’t even get prices for various options online.
And you know they’ll understaff those games too.
Given their irreplaceability once relinquished, it looks like we’re holding on to the front row seats. Just a heads-up …
Since I won’t have A’s Access I’m likely to request a few more FRS’s in 2022.
excellent
That’s just about the only reason to commit to season tix at this point: if you have some of the small handful of amazing seats that are worth overpaying to keep longterm. Maybe if they could promise postseason or Howard Terminal priority they could get a bigger group of people to sign up for this price hike + perk reduction, but for now all they can do is soak the exclusive group of people who are pot committed.
Doesn’t seem like a great business strategy to me, but I guess that’s what happens when you cut your staffing to the bone and the one guy left is spending most of his time FKing around in Las Vegas.
Nominally this package does come with postseason and new ballpark priority, but there’s no information on what that actually means.
As long as they are in this recent posture of being careful not to say anything that could give the impression that HT is actually happening, new ballpark priority isn’t going to be a great selling point.
And until they do anything that shows they are not about to blow up the team and look for a new “competitive window” the postseason rights are useless.
They probably thought they’d time these increases to the excitement of a pennant race as the A’s stormed into the postseason once again, but then the team decided to fall flat on its face and no one unscheduled the announcement.
I imagine the marketing department is a bunch of 35 year old bros that only stick around for the cocaine.
I think any such bros would have been released into the wild by Fisher last year, and as far as I know they never replaced Chris Giles either. It seems to me that Fisher and Kaval are reenacting this scene.
Dental plan!
Looks like Matt Kawahara will be doing a piece on the price hike for tomorrow’s edition (or possibly over the weekend).
And the end of 50% concessions, I hope. Fascinating how a brilliant idea that worked brilliantly dies that way.
The A’s did not make officials available to comment as of Thursday.
such a bad look
The team obviously knew they’d get this kind of blowback. They chose not to put smiling Dave Kaval out front with some kind of rationale, true or not (COVID, signing the Matts, jeans not selling, etc). This is a tactical choice to blow off bottom end of the dollars-per-visit fans, recoup some on the higher end prices, and point to crappy attendance to justify a hard line posture with Oakland on HT, and Vegas. It’s arguably a reasonable business calculus, if you don’t care whatsoever about your current fans.
Absolutely. And since Baseball ownership is at the pleasure of the league, I can’t imagine it’s not was the acquiescence of Manfred. (See, “go forth and explore options young david!”)
But this is a good take too
Shayna Rubin with another disgruntled fan article; still radio silence from smiling Dave.
Ann Killion piles on: How to lose a fan base in 12 steps. Not just for conspiracy theorists or Charlie Sheen fans any more.
A’s Access is officially dead, it would appear.
The epidemic of managers cutting the sleeves off their hoodies has to stop.
Driving west on 50 today, it’s not nonstop destruction all the way down to Kyburz as some of the maps would suggest. In lots of areas it looks like it was mostly ground cover that burned, so my amateur forestry says maybe a lot of the trees have a chance to recover in a few years. There are some areas of major incineration, particularly near the Sierra at Tahoe ski resort.
I’m heading out to the Coliseum in a little while. It feels a bit like the point after some disaster when the Chief Emergency Responder says “We’re no longer in the Search and Rescue phase; this is strictly a Recovery operation now.” But, no baseball for six months after this, so why worry about the standings, just enjoy these last couple of games.
not only was that the first at bat by the clean up hitter sponsored by chevron, the foul ball off the bat of lowrie was the DRIVE of the game by nor cal honda
I would say out but it likely stands
That would have made sense.
Does scott Kazmir have a kid?
As frrance hits a home run, kazmir gets out of a bases loaded situation with zero runs
The hitters must have taken pity on the bullpen and decided not to let them blow any more leads.
Also making the fans feel better about not seeing this team in the post-season.
This umpiring crew seems not very good.
I get missing the foul, that’s ok, they can talk about it or not.
but gibson doesn’t get to call time to let kelnek get back to second. he was out at first, full stop
Right. Either he is back at 1st on the foul, or he is out when he ran backwards. Letting him stay at 2nd doesn’t make sense.
gibson can’t call time with he is running back
Gibson is now claiming the pitcher asked for time first.
he can’t grant time if the player is off the bag
Bob is just sick and tired of watching this crap.
I see we’re doing the last two nights’ games again.
There were two thumbs there and I take it one of them was Christenson because he took the walk too. Kotsay getting managing practice now.
did they play the foul tip in the stadium to show gibson how wrong he was
Well no, they never show plays like that on the board unless it goes to New York. Gibson never called it a foul and Bob’s argument was presumably that he should have asked for help.
I thought they got rid of the Steinbrenner rule altogether. Does it still apply on calls that aren’t reviewed?
I think that’s part of the agreement with the umpires union.
it was clearly foul
they best be replaying the foul ball in the stadium
I hate accusing them of “mailing it in” but that’s about what it looks like.
You would think the 2nd place money would keep them motivated
Fuck this guy.
“The doctor explained the suffering and deaths she has witnessed in patients who contracted the coronavirus, sources said, but [Warriors forward Andrew] Wiggins remains unmoved in his decision against vaccination.”
Best baseball of the season tomorrow.
At least it’s Bassitt, even if he gets bombed for 6 runs in the first inning.
Revised Soaker Day will be the day of the 75th loss. It would affirm my thought about being a .500 team outside of the 13-game winning streak. They need to go (as you’d expect) no better than 5-5 to get there, which doesn’t look too challenging.
The A’s this year have six streaks of five or more consecutive Ws or Ls. Could well be working on the seventh such streak now. No idea how to contrast that vs the norm but if feels like a lot.
And the different ways! We bash, we have good pitching that lets our offense do just enough, we have hitting that is just not quite good enough, we have Team Dynamite 2.0.
It really feels at times like it has been 2-3 different teams showing up.
If every game were a coin flip, expected number of 5 game streaks (counting longer streaks multiple times) would be around 10. We have 20 counted that way, in large part because the 13-game streak counts as 9.
Expected number of 5+ game streaks (the way you are counting) is around 5, so we are only a bit above average that way.
The main thing has been the opponents.
Opponents in our 5+ game winning streaks:
Houston (2), Arizona (2), Detroit (4), Minnesota (3), Baltimore (2)
KC (3), Angels (3), Yankees (1)
SD (1), Texas (3), Cleveland (3)
KC (2), Angels (3)
4 out of those 32 games against teams with winning records (and none in the middle of the streaks)
Opponents in our 5+ game losing streaks:
Houston (4), Dodgers (2)
Giants (2), Seattle (2), Yankees (2)
0 out of those 12 games against opponents with losing records
So really this is mostly about having consecutive series against either good or bad teams.
And, to Soaker’s point, if we are a .500 team outside of the 13-game streak, we also will have played a tougher than average schedule outside of those same 13 games.
Thanks for bringing the mathy knowledge as always. Now at a >50% chance we add our 6th such streak with a loss tomorrow to a good Houston team, so somewhat above average streakiness. The point about scheduling is probably more relevant than the rest of course.
Oh yeah, you can cherry-pick every team’s season ever and say “they sure sucked when they weren’t on one of their winning streaks”. That streak being long and so early in the season makes the effect here a bit more pronounced.
I don’t have my BR subscription any more, but the Mariners +14 over their Pythagorean expected W/L feels like a pretty extreme outlier too (and the Jays -8 is just frustrating).
I am shifting the money saved by riding BART instead of parking here to a likely needed noon Denogginization.
Since when does BART have onboard fare inspectors? And those new cattle cars with the middle door, ugh.
I have never seen a fare inspector
They have handheld scanners. I have seen that on light rail, sure, but not on fare gate operations.
Relatively new. Response to passenger complaints about increase in homeless who ride BART around all day long, seeming crazy/dangerous/smelly.
That was an issue when I was commuting 15 years ago, especially the smelly part. Never sit in the end seat in a car.
I thought we were headed for a 14 walk no hitter. Would have been an appropriate cap to the season.
Nice Cactus League vibe out here today.
Can you be comeback player of the year if the reason you came back and the comeback happened in the same half of a season?
The inspirational Chris Bassitt start that turned the season around.
It’s not cool to be pissed he is done after 3 right? I need to cool my jets??
I am not happy about it. 4 would have been fine.
I believe he is qualified again
154 IP in our 153rd game.
3rd in the AL in ERA, about 2 earned runs behind Cole at #2.
Also gives us 4 of the top 10 in ERA (out of only 17 qualified).
If he manages to go 4+ on the 28th, I do hope they would bring him back in game 162 to qualify.
refresh the twitter
Pinder happy The Hound is out so he can go back to sleep.
It’s like the Mariners are suddenly in contention for something and they’re petrified in fear.
they never thought they would catch the bumper
They arent the only ones.
Their whole season has seemed like that. Every time I’ve thought “wow, the mariners are kind of in the race now” they lose 6 of the next 8.
they guy in from of fisher’s seat it not going to make the 6th inning
Romo, Diekman, Chafin and Lou were standing in a row 6 feet in front of me in that inning. Was so tempted to bop them all on the head.
Should have Kerriganed Diekman on his pitching hand.
He wouldn’t be allowed to press charges.
Good FKing Grief.
At least it’s getting less likely they pick up his option.
This guy hits a buck 70 and both of his HRs are off of us I believe.
I mean, Kap wasnt throwing great, but 2 innings and only 40 pitches? And you need 4 innings from the rest of these guys? This is the stuff that makes me go get my tinfoil hat.
I was typing a “see that’s a foul ball with the runner going, greg” but seems dumb after…all this
Everyone on this team not named Chris Bassitt should be embarrassed.
I still feel bad that I didn’t make it there to cheer on CBass, but then I might have walked out in disgust in the 6th.
Canha is costing himself a fair amount of FA money.
I came for the Best Baseball Of The Season and just couldn’t have asked for more. Oh yay, here’s Lou for one final inning.
Keep Fighting, Ray!
well that was a worse series than I anticipated
There was a coda besides the Olson HR.
In the bottom of the ninth Harrison hit a pop foul. It smacked a woman in the next section one row behind me on the thigh and rolled across to the two guys my age who were sitting right behind me.
I waited 2 or 3 pitches, nothing. So I politely, unaggresively turned around and said “You really ought to give that ball to that woman. It would mean something ro her.”
He did, immediately. He got applause, “Thank You!”, “That was a classy thing to do.”
You’re welcome.
I was too busy to consider attending today, and as it turned out also too busy to watch or listen in the background. Perfect fucking ending to a collapse you could see coming for a month or more. Like 2014 in that respect, though with nowhere near the high expectations or first half success. So it’s all over for the home season, except for Fan Appreciation Weekend which I assume features rabid Dobermans in the stands and slashing all the tires in the parking lot.
This team isn’t as talented as 2014, so I guess this collapse should be less maddening. But this collapse is more maddening, because it was so much the result of diabolical cheapness by ownership. The Semien decision was the original sin of this season, and the bullpen construction that relied on the old and the just never that good came from the same pathetic place.
yup, one player who is worth 7 wins would be meaningful
And without much more cash outlay considering.
Yeah, I was going to comment along the same lines.
There are always surprises good (Olson, the back of the rotation, Kemp) and bad (Luzardo, Laureano suspension) and in-between (Canha great in the first half bad in the second, Chapman to a lesser extent the reverse).
But ultimately, the biggest problems ended up being exactly what we thought in the spring: the bullpen, the dumpster diving at SS (Elvis) and DH (Moreland), and the third OF spot (Piscotty et al.), and the failure to address them comes down to ownership. And of course Semien is especially galling because he was already here, wanted to stay, and ended up taking a short-term deal elsewhere.
I’ll be very interested to see if the mid-season rumblings of unhappiness in the baseball operations part of the organization turn into a major postseason earthquake. I certainly couldn’t blame Forst or anyone else for seeing greener grass elsewhere.
this is melvin’s last year, I wonder if the mets job will beopen for him
What, they didn’t have an outfit for Bauer?
If anyone else wants to spend the rest of the weekend/month/year/Biden administration thoroughly depressed about the impending and near-certain death of American democracy, I highly recommend this long WaPo opinion article.
Come for baseball, stay for the end of democracy in the USA