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Allow me to bitch and moan during this post.
I'm especially grumpy today.

The more I hear baseball announcers, the more I want to have a tv option in which we can still hear the crowd noise but mute the broadcasters.
Is there anything more reliable than hearing announcers say that a pitcher HAS to go five innings to save the bullpen?
Yesterday, it was the Brewers announcers praising Jeff Nelson for 'gutting it out' for five innings.
Gut it out?
He threw like crap and his manager left him. He didn't gut anything.
And why are announcers so concerned with a team's bullpen?
Except for the final two in the bullpen, most bullpens are fodder. If expended, they can simply option one and send for another from AAA.

Maybe it's the Olympics broadcasting that's doing this to me.
Carrie Walsh Jennings had two shoulder surgeries a couple of years ago.
How do I know that?
Because there is not a match that goes by that we're not told a dozen times!
They're athletes, fer crissakes!
They get hurt and have surgeries.
It's part of the game.
Crap!
They don't need to be put on a pedestal over surgeries two years in the rear view!
Do you think some 75 year old man is being cheered or put on a pedestal because he made it down stairs after two hip replacements?
It's called life.
We all live it.
The volley ball player is no more special than that 75 year old man.

I saw a four pitch walk called a 'great at bat'!
Are you serious?
He literally stood and watched four wild pitches.
I COULD HAVE DONE THAT!
A dead body propped up could have done that!
My Aunt Bertha could have done that!
Give me a friggin break.

Players can't lose in broadcasters eyes.
When Billy Hamilton crashes into a fence to get a ball, he is' giving 100 percent' or 'going all out' for his team.
When Ichiro plays the carom off the fence for the same type of hit, he is 'smart in not getting hurt' or forsaking one hit so he can play many more games.
The flip side of those scenarios would be that Hamilton is a dumb ass and Ichiro is a panzy, but we never hear that, do we?

If a player is looked at by a trainer on the field and stays in the game, he is automatically tough.
In most cases, it's like a burger flipper getting burned and not asking to go home.
For some reason, we like our athletes 'tough'.
Ummm.
What does that make Rich Hill?
"Mr. McDonald?"
"This is Rich, your burger flipper. I know I've called in for over a month now, but I've STILL got a blister".
"Fired?....Ok."

The other day an American League hitter tried to put down a sacrifice bunt late in a game with the score tied.
He couldn't do it.
The announcer went on about how he is an American League hitter and as such, didn't need to bunt often.
Since Little League, we were ALL taught how to bunt.
ALL OF US!
When a professional ball player goes through every rung of the minor league system with bunting drills after having those same bunting drills in high school and College, does the American League magically take away those fundamentals?
C'mon!
Bunters do not take their job at the plate seriously.
They look disinterested.
There is no bonus in their contract for moving a runner along or even in winning a game.
The money comes in hitting, not bunting....
And of course, we never hear announcers say that!

We'll hear announcers say what a great clubhouse presence a player can be.
Dustin Pedroia
Buster Posey
David Ross
And if missing these clubhouse attributes, they'll focus only on the talent.
Yasiel Puig
Yoenis Cespedes
Chris Sale
Until they can't.

And then there is hype like this....

'Yulieski Gurriel went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Wednesday in his second game with Triple-A Fresno.
But that comes after a big 3-for-4 debut at the Triple-A level on Tuesday. Gurriel, signed last month to a five-year, $47.5 million contract, is batting .283/.294/.500 with two home runs, four doubles, and 14 RBI through 15 minor league games. The 32-year-old Cuban third baseman should join the Astros' major league roster within the next few days.'

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!
What fun is writing that Gurriel went 0-4?
So, lets go back to a good night!
No sense in slowing down the hype machine!
Tyler White, AJ Reed, and Bregman have all been through the process.
Now, each are considered disappointments.
Gurriel can be a disappointment too.
We don't know.
But writers have sure made it hard for him to live up to the expectations.
And heck, we don't even know if he's 'tough' 'a team guy' or 'a good clubhouse presence' yet.

just an aside on the olympics- we did get to watch a women run about a mile with a torn acl, a wrecked mcl and a torn meniscus. please discuss what a few of these wussies would have done there. i also got to watch, with my daughter, some french "man" bawl over something trivial at the track. my daughter (who played soccer) said- if he cries long enough some men's soccer team will pick him up- because in men's soccer it is all about the crying.

Those women were cool and the epitome of what sports should be.
There was no monetary or personal reward for finishing.
Just the innards of knowing they had to.

Rich Hill's blister felt damned ashamed watching.

Another thing....

I am drafting in some fantasy football leagues.
Have you seen the rotoworld updates for football?
"So and so is having the best camp of his life"
"So and so has caught everything in camp!"
"So and so is looking fast in camp!"

Wait, isn't 'camp' just practice?
With your own teammates?
It's practice!
Realistically, baseball players have two weeks of 'practice' before spring training starts. Nobody cares.
IT'S PRACTICE!
Writers reporting on a two hour practice is as productive as attending a two hour meeting on safety in the workplace.

the best part? NONE of these guys are actually AT these camps. they are in moms basement trolling other trolls and writing what the other troll wrote. i have been to 3 bear camps in my life #1 was when dikta took over- and i thought "now we are getting somewhere" and #2 greg olsens 1st camp- urlacher could not stay with him. and i just had never seen anyone look so fast just jogging like hester did. so the bears do not throw the ball to olsen hardly at all- and eventually trade him - like poor teams do things. at least lovie could figure out to let hester do punts and kicks. 3 was last year to see how awful they would be- and they were. ps- the difference in camps now and in dikta's camp is striking- they hit in dikta's- a lot. now the union says they can't hit at all. it really isn't tackle football anymore- not soccer yet- but getting close.

and dan- just to be clear- spring training is practice also.

I'm clear,,,but at least they see different players in Spring Training.

Quarterbacks may as well wear skirts now. I know thats been said before, but each passing year it becomes more true.
Quarterbacks slide, run out of bounds, throw balls to the seats on the run.
A different game.
Bobby Douglass is somewhere laughing out loud.
Not lol.
Really laughing out loud.

It is a game that has been dumbed down.

Blurbs like these make me laugh.....

'Dez Bryant said his "mind is right" leaving training camp.
"My confidence is sky-high right now," Bryant said. "I think it's the best it's ever been."

You never, ever see blurbs like these for guys like Aaron Rodgers or Mike Trout.
Or real life people for that matter.
Because fans and those players KNOW that Rodgers and Trout's minds as well as their own, are right.
The very fact of saying that 'my mind is right' evokes doubt in the person saying it, not confidence.
Go ahead, tell a friend of yours that " My mind is right, now."
Look at their first expression. Priceless.

Man, I am grumpy today.

LOL doughy!!!!!

One more and maybe I'll be done.....

Slow, online drafts.....
Why, in the name of the Fantasy God of Fantasia, do some people get into these things!?
Is it really just their way of pissing the world off?
I had a fellow who was on the clock for three hours and he came back with this...."Sorry, meeting"
There is one thing in the world that is never productive when several people are involved.
A meeting.
Whether it's a safety meeing, a student council meeting, a protest, any freaking meeting!
A meeting is a thing important people do to still feel important.
And like it or not, 14 drafters were part of that meeting because NOTHING happened in the draft room.
A meeting is your problem, Pal, not mine!

By signing up for these drafts, we should have the impetus to check in, in a timely manner.
We don't want to be 'That Guy'.
But, That Guy' seems to be freakin everywhere!
They sign up for a draft that starts at 1 P.M. and show up at 8 P.M.
WHO DOES THAT !?!?
Be excited for something you signed up for, you Dickfor!
Everybody else is!
Football needs 'well paced' drafts.
'That Guy' is everywhere.
The bastard.

And yes, still grumpy.

Here are some of my RotoBlurbs...

'Justin Upton pinch-ran today and scored.
It was the first time Upton has been useful this month.'

Clay Buchholz shut down Tigers pitching for six innings, giving up one run.
A blind squirrel found a nut today.
Because only blind squirrels would have started Buchholz.'

'Sandy Leon hit a homer and is hitting .382
There are some things we ask ourselves.
Why are the Kardasians, celebrities?
How is the sun just the right distance away from us?
Why are we choosing between two weak-ass candidates for President of the World?
Why is Sandy Leon hitting .382 is like one of those.'

Jake Arrieta walked his dog today.
No wait, he walked seven Brewers batters instead.
My bad.
The total batting average of those players walked was just above .200
We used to call that wild.
Now, issues with his command'.

Probably shouldn't write when grumpy.

Well...since you are in such a good mood, I thought I would add a little salt in the wound...

Sandy Leon homered and drew a nine-pitch walk Thursday against the Tigers.
The Red Sox have debated for two years whether Blake Swihart or Christian Vazquez would be their long-term catcher, but at this point, it's become realistic to think that Leon will be the starter on Opening Day next year. He's always been a fine defender, so it's not like he needs to keep hitting .382 to be a quality starter. Which is good, since he surely won't.

Must be good hitter...

Now you've done it, Wayne!
Sabrs have crowned walks and OBP, King. It is purely an offensive (that's uhfensive to me) statistic now.
It's not a pitcher gone wild, it's not a hitter avoided by a pitcher, it is offensive Godliness.
And if you can foul off a ball, this is also considered wonderful.

The other day a hitter had a three-two count with seven pitches thrown.
The announcer said, "No matter how this at bat turns out, it's a great at bat!"
Bulllllllllllshit !!!!
That's like a football team having a 12 play, 80 yard drive to the one yard line and having a moron announcer say, "No matter how this drive ends, it's a great drive!"
YOU HAVE TO FINISH!
In ANY sport, you have to finish.
The at bat means nothing without finishing well.
Nobody cares after the game how many pitches an at bat took. What they DO care about is results.
SABRS have infiltrated baseball in every way.
And some times, that is not a good thing.

(Still grumpy)

DOUGHBOYS wrote:Now you've done it, Wayne!

Couldn't help it....in my nature...