You’d think this would make me happy and turns out it does very much.
I like seeing them struggle and quite frankly that’s because it’s so rare.
The fundamentals say Keep Your Head Down
I’ll be straight up.
It bothers me the Cardinals have owned most of my life and never suck and are always good.
I got them flanking my south and Packers fans lurking to the North.
Anyone born from 1982-1997 mostly knows pain in Chicago and now I’m getting away from the point.
I can simultaneously love-to-hate the Cardinals while acknowledging it comes from a deeply insecure place.
Some more acknowledgements on this:
Tyler O’Neil is crafting one hell of a message.
Never in my life has anyone primarily intersected Personal Health w/ Maximum Effort.
Normally you’re only allowed to pick one.
The fluidity in his speech pattern here makes me think he would make a decent attorney.
The ones where you have to do heinous shit but tie it back to corporate goodwill.
That’s where his skillset plays.
Knowing the Cardinals, this will actually get Tyler O’Neil to run hard the rest of the season.
And good because he should.
Miguel Cabrera and Sal Perez come to mind.
Don’t you dare put Tyler O’Neil in the same sentence as those big fellas.
Some other stuff as we finish one week of games today:
11 day games today.
That’s an alarm.
This is the first day of heavy travel and it sneaks up quick.
You could get home and expect to catch a game.
There’s only one tonight so get the apps out early today if you want some action.
Ron Kulpa Ruined Yesterday
MY APOLOGIES
I wrote a separate blog for this incident trying to understand Ron Kulpa.
Here’s a fact.
You don’t toss Manny.
Brooks Raley is a fuckin LEGEND.
Dude was a big prospect out of Texas A&M.
The Cubs grabbed him in the 6th round for a large bag of money as a draft-eligible sophomore.
it at the top of the order.
Started on Friday nights.
Starred for Team USA and was good enough to generate Two Way talk long before his time.
He flew through the minors and got to the big leagues in 2012.
Baseball and Golf deliver those stories more than any other sports and they always feel good.
Even if it comes on the heels of Brooks getting his shit rocked by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Now he’s in Seattle with a small taste of the playoffs and the man is cooking.
Hard: 11.2 innings, 3 hits and 12 strikeouts in 2 starts against 0 earned runs.
There should be some crazy good road value against the Phillies or Blue Jays.
Dodgers HR Celly
It’s just so good.
Dodger Stadium is like going to the Flamingo in Vegas.
Like it could be a little nicer, but they’ve maxed it out.
They try as hard as they can.
That should yield a lot of draft prospects or even better headlines.
Or Even Better Last Names?
Some are too aggressive.
Others too curt and crunchy.
Personally I find Mastrobuoni to be the perfect balance.
I’ve got to maneuver my body to read it fully.
I have to try a little harder just to remember the U precedes the O in BUONI.
Caesar bottled up the same energy to conquer his known world.
Can Mastrobuoni use it to slash .260/.340/.380?
Nobody cares right now.
It’s just a good looking last name.
Nobody Cares About The A’s
I’m 2-0 on the A’s this year.
I’m not living in Vegas moving lines, but there’s a takeaway.
Late night games in Oakland under atypical circumstances are good times to bet the A’s.
Opening Day against the WBC superstars is an example.
Next game after a bad late loss.
Whether Shane Bieber did or didn’t go to wine country is irrelevant.
I know they suck but it’s Major League Baseball.
It doesn’t take much to lose a baseball game.
The Dodgers do this shit all the time.
And this could be interpreted as dramatic but it’s not.
Anyone who remembers Justin Turner as a Met knows what I’m talking about.
Pick A Catch:
VS.
I’ll take #2.
Jumping and catching is harder than Catching and Running into something.
Difficulty scores are marginal, but I’m scoring this one in favor of 2.
The Minnesota twins never go to Miami and are loaded with veterans.
Those are the guys that go out to dinner and then accidentally come back at sunrise.
“I didn’t know you had to pay for that” becomes the theme of the trip.
On the other side is Sandy Alcantara, humming upper 90’s with polish and poise.
You’re not fucked so much as you never stood a chance.
HOUSEKEEPING
I’ll be in Detroit tomorrow with Wild Thing.
We’re gonna be crushing Pepsi and watching Tigers opening day baseball.
You really can’t be any worse than the Brewers fans that tried on Monday.
Then we got Cubs/Rangers in Wrigley on Friday and some college baseball over the weekend.
One day at a time fellas.
Next week we should have a new short-form panel-style show on YouTube with a mix of baseball guys.
