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Hank Chinaski

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Everything posted by Hank Chinaski

  1. I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic (I assume you are based on the “damn awesome”) but yeah, they should have had a front office plan in place before throwing money at old players that they’ll be on the hook for for multiple years. Montero was expendable if he wanted a lot of money. There should have been zero urgency to lock him up.
  2. I agree with you; and what you’re describing - a disjointed org structure in which the GM/front office is neutered and the manager reports directly to the owner - is a clusterfuck situation unconducive to success. And nobody wants to hear it (again) but the org has been a clusterfuck since the WS. The result has been: signing a guy to a $60mm deal who has turned into the worst everyday player in baseball; signing a fine (not special) RP to a $40mm deal; singing a guy who was injured (with no timetable for returning to health) to be a starting OF; and allowing the manager to create seemingly random, incoherent lineups and regularly play inferior players with apparently no oversight. Why even have an analytics dept? And you nailed it - the club seems to operate like it has a 10-game division lead. It would not be that surprising at all if they don’t make the playoffs this year. They’ve been mediocre from start to finish so far (going 6-0 against a glorified AAA team doesn’t mean anything). This looks exactly like a 85-90 win team, meaning they may or may not get into the postseason, but almost certainly won’t skip the first round. There are all kinds of warning signs about the future of the franchise, and there have been since November. They’re not doomed to irrelevance or anything, but they’ve looked like a shitshow since the WS, and it is increasingly looking like it’s all pointing back to the owner.
  3. This happens maybe once a week. Dusty actively reduces the probability of winning almost every day with his lineups. Apparently Brown thinks that’s fine. It was cool when the Astros were an analytically savvy franchise.
  4. 22 K/1 BB last 2 nights. Christ.
  5. Surprising that Dusty’s lineup failed to produce. Maybe don’t start a rookie who can’t hit in the minors.
  6. Not really. We’re talking about a guy who’s never been a good offensive player in the minors.
  7. I think context matters on things like how funny we perceive a film to be - your age upon viewing, hell even your environment and mood. I thought Animal House was great, but I also first saw it when I was 11 or 12. I may not have thought so if I first saw it as an adult (I need to really be in the mood for sophomoric humor to even kinda enjoy it). Same with anything Monty Python. I also think Caddyshack is terribly overrated, though Rodney always made me laugh. In my older age, I have realized that the height of comedy necessarily combines deep irony, dark humor, desperation, human suffering, hyperbole, pathos, and yes, a splash of juvenile whimsy. Which is why - and I am 100% serious here, because this transcends age, mood, environment - I have come to realize that the zenith of all comedy is TexAgs screenshots.
  8. Beyond that, the Rangers as a team are running a smooth .334 BABIP right now. That’s not necessarily 100% about luck, but it’s mostly an indicator of luck, and .300 tends to be right around the league average every year (including this year). They’re unlikely to sustain that over an entire season, but they’ve already banked 2 months of it. (Of course, a team’s BABIP is largely irrelevant when it posts a K/BB ratio of 16/1 in a given game. Good effort, fellas.)
  9. Abreu shouldn’t be in the lineup at all.
  10. Wasn’t the “beginning of the end” signaled a year ago when USC and UCLA announced they were leaving? Isn’t this more like the next phase of the conference’s deterioration process? I guess that’s not as interesting a tagline.
  11. Yes! 2018 Chris Davis is the modern standard here! I know Abreu can do this. Davis hit 16 HR; Abreu on pace for about 3. And we have just the manager to keep running him out there every day! It’s all coming together.
  12. Look, Jose Abreu is the worst player in MLB and it isn’t close. A -3 WAR season is almost impossible to pull off, but if anyone can do it, it’s Abreu. Harris, Manoah, and everyone else is just vying for second place here.
  13. I got the baseball tee too; the collar has a gaping opening and the sleeves are…really short. Is that how all the home field tees are made?
  14. That shouldn’t be much of a problem; RPs are usually available with some degree of abundance at the deadline.
  15. This fucking season, man.
  16. Oh I’m not saying the window is closing or that nothing can be done to keep it open; just that the more albatross contracts teams have, the less well positioned they are for sustained success. The Astros have been great at avoiding those until now. Certainly Crane has the money, it’s more about his willingness to spend it (which he seems willing to do). The bigger problem with Abreu is the opportunity cost, in that he takes up a roster spot and there are no real alternatives to him right now, and with his contract he’ll continue to get every chance to turn it around (probably at the cost of not acquiring alternatives). But there’s a decent chance he is done as a productive MLB player despite being compensated like one (and getting the playing time of one). But point taken on McCullers - not sure how the insurance thing kicks in or affects luxury tax, etc. That could be helpful.
  17. You can hope in one hand and shit in the other… My man, the Whitley dream is dead…
  18. We’ll be paying a lot of money for Abreu and McCullers to produce nothing the next couple of years. That’s going to be problematic (it already is and will continue to be). And the guy who isn’t playing at all is actually a better value than the one who is. I would write something like “this is exactly how windows close and dynasties end” but I don’t want to be too negative for a Friday.
  19. I’ll say this - I never really wanted Texas to go to the SEC, mostly because I have more respect for B1G and Pac schools and would have selfishly preferred those (as institutions and travel destinations, not as football programs; I also understand that that has nothing to do with it and acknowledge that Texas did the objectively right thing). But goddamn, I gotta say, their collective, ongoing tantrum about our arrival, their childish worldview, and their desperation brings me a lot of joy and daily entertainment and has made me more enthusiastic about the sec. I mean…did they really, truly, ever believe that there was a world in which the motherfucking University of Texas doesn’t get to join any goddamn conference it wants? Do they really see conference alignment as some sort of brotherhood or best-friends club, and not all it really is - a business arrangement? Christ, grow up. Actually, don’t - it’s better this way.
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