Re: General Discussion

7532
Gonzalez and Urshela optioned to Columbus. What the hell they see in Martinez I'll never know. Who gives a crap that he can play multiple positions, the make up of club right now it's not needed. Besides, he's a jack of all trades but master of none. You can knock the bat out of that twerps hands in the box. You have other guys who can run well if needed. C'mon.

Re: General Discussion

7534
Would have been nice to see Diaz in the box for that last out in game 7.
“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.”
-- Bob Feller

Re: General Discussion

7535
I agree with HB. I'd like to see Luis Robert in Cleveland. A potential Cuban connection. Maybe Yandy can put a good word in to the front office.
“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.”
-- Bob Feller

Re: General Discussion

7536
No problem, TFIR. Good to see you. It's been a little lonely around here this winter.

By the way, when you pull that game up you will notice that the Suns are playing as well. FSAZ is broadcasting the Suns and the D'Backs game, one on an alternate. You'll see what I mean on your guide. Just didn't want you to hit 686 and see Suns and think I'm full of crap. :-)

Re: General Discussion

7539
In BA's report:

Yandy Diaz, if, Indians. Cleveland’s No. 11 prospect has made the Opening Day roster after slashing .429/.529/.667 this spring with two homers and four doubles. Diaz, 25, who signed out of Cuba for $300,000 in 2013, could start at third base as the Indians deal with injuries to second baseman Jason Kipnis and right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall.

and need to adjust those numbers upward as he went 2-3 last night, raising the average to 444

Re: General Discussion

7540
And who says spring training doesn't matter??? They go through the motions! There's been quite a few first timers around the leagues that have made the cuts and made the opening day rosters due to their spring training and off season performances!
“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.”
-- Bob Feller

Re: General Discussion

7542
Joez-lol the old "spring training means something/nothing" dead dead horse.

Do we really have to deal in extremes?

It means something to Yandy. Yet it means totally nothing to
Corey Kluber. It means something to Michael Brantley but not to Cody Allen.

Meaningless issue. It's neither.
"I've suffered a great many tragedies in my life....most of them never happened". Mark Twain

Re: General Discussion

7544
You guys remember a week or two ago I mentioned I saw Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn sitting in the dugout during a spring game talking with Terry Francona? Well I finally found out why. This is part of Albert Breer's latest column. (NFL writer)

.

1. First steps back. In a little more than two weeks, the Falcons will welcome back their players to Flowery Branch for the first time since their Super Bowl collapse. And in case you’re wondering, coach Dan Quinn isn’t planning on tiptoeing past the elephant sitting on the Atlanta sidelines. When I asked him on Wednesday if the loss to the Patriots will be the first thing he brings up when he gathers his team on April 17 to open spring work, he answered succinctly: “Yeah, it will be.”

Sometimes in these situations, you hear of coaches either burying or accentuating a bad moment in its aftermath in an effort to either get players to move on or convince them to forget. As he explained it to me, Quinn plans to do neither. The team won’t be watching Super Bowl 51 as a group, and there won’t be quirky reminders of the blown lead strewn about the building. But they also won’t be avoiding it either. Quinn doesn’t plan to remove cutups of the game from the team’s film library for the coming classroom work. In essence, he wants to create a sense of normalcy in the building to help the team turn the page to 2017, while taking all the good of 2016 and growing it. And that is in part thanks to advice he got on moving past hard championship losses over the past two months from San Antonio Spurs GM R.C. Buford, Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

“The first piece I took was, ‘Yeah, you gotta talk about it’,” Quinn said. “You have to talk about what happened, why it happened, and take ownership for it. … What I did learn from them, you go back and you battle again, and when you have a really tight team that helps. That’s the case in San Antonio. That’s the case in Golden State. And that’s the case in Cleveland. The players are so connected, there’s not a lot of ‘I’m the reason’ or ‘You’re the reason.’ It helps a lot. That’s the common thread between San Antonio, Golden State and why they’re playing so well now, and why I bet Cleveland plays well again this year too. It’s not like, ‘I played well, so I’m good.’ They want to battle for one another.”

We all saw the challenge ahead for the Falcons in how their division rival in Carolina struggled last year, after a 17-1 start to 2015 came apart in Super Bowl 50, and bled into a 6-10 season in 2016. We’ll see whether Atlanta can sidestep the issues the Panthers couldn’t, but this much is sure—Quinn’s done all he can to address whatever lies ahead