grilledcheese

I was in Target today, and the 2016 Topps Opening Day packs were being cleared out at like .74 a pack. I might grab some if they have enough packs that I could potentially build a base set. At 7 cards a pack, that's going to be tough. I'll keep you posted if I pull any wacky chase stuff out of them.

I get that there are no real spoilers for a game like this, but I stopped looking at any of the new reveals like a month ago. I want to go into this with as clean a slate as I possibly can. I can't remember being this hyped for a game in a long fucking time. I've been super amped about since the reveal trailer, and that was almost three years ago, what's another 8 days to wait?

That would be a super fun crowd, I bet. Are there enough Polish fighters under contract that they could crowd the card with them the way they do with Brazilians? I can only think of Piotr Hallmann, but I don't think he's with the UFC anymore.

From one cellar-dweller to another. SD couldn't get rid of Kemp fast enough now that they were responsible for the lion's share of his contract. Olivera was also immediately DFA'd by SD, so that's another little hint on just how badly they wanted out from under Kemp. Two terrible Dodgers contracts getting swapped for each other in the same deal, pretty ridiculous. At least with Olivera, $28MM of the money on his deal was a signing bonus that I believe has already been paid in full.

I can't say I'm too surprised that they haven't retired Carter's number, he was only there for 5 years. Granted, 3 of those 5 he was an All-Star, and he was absolutely beloved there. Hernandez not having his done is especially weird, considering that immediately after his playing career ended he joined their TV team and has been full time in the booth for what, 10 years now? When is the last time anyone wore either 8 or 17? Didn't Desi Relaford wear 8 while he was in NY?

Fucking Loria. I want nothing but the worst for that dude. If I had the dough, I would hire a bunch of goons and dress them up as Youppi! and have them pummel that douchebag.

I am heartbroken that Cobb and Ricochet end up against each other in round 1. I really like Jeff Cobb, and I don't see any way that he gets the W against Ricochet.

I think that has been mostly found to be something that can't be proven in either direction. Not that it's safe to throw it, but no more dangerous than throwing a fastball. The real problem is with young folks not knowing how to throw anything properly. Mechanics need to be the primary focus for anyone trying to develop pitchers. If you have no control of the hard stuff, who gives a shit if you can throw a breaking ball?

I have no idea where you are pulling that 4 hour number from, but at no point in the history of the game have 9 inning games averaged anywhere near that long. Yes, games are getting longer because of the increased specialization in pitching, and I don't agree with all of it, but the goal is to win games. Getting outs helps you do that, hence the reliance on an expanded bullpen. The stuff about how expensive it is to play even at the lowest level of youth baseball is absolutely true. It's madness when you see how much it costs for a kid to play in an organized league. I don't know what to do about that, I pay for my oldest to play ball because he enjoys playing, if he didn't, I wouldn't pay for it and we'd find something else that struck his interest. This winter, he wants to play basketball, so that's what he'll be doing. Then in the spring we'll go back to baseball. That also ties into your other point about the overuse of arms. If you and your kid aren't smart enough to limit the usage at a young age, then I don't know what to tell you. It's not that these kids are getting blown out in Little League, it's that they play year-round now, because travel ball is king instead of playing neighborhood games. I know of kids that will pitch in a Little League game, hit their pitch limit and get shut down, then go and pitch for their travel ball team in what is supposed to be their "no-throw" timeframe, then come right back and pitch in a Little League game after the cooldown period has elapsed. That is explicitly the kid and the parent's fault. Another problem is that guys don't spend any kind of time in the minors anymore. Used to be that for the most part, only the truly injury-proof guys would make the Bigs after a good long run in the bushes, being used exactly as they would be at the Major League level, so if you couldn't hack that kind of workload, you'd never get to the Show. That's something that probably won't change anytime soon.

I don't really understand all the work to shave minutes off the game. I enjoy the pace that baseball moves at. I don't follow why a 3 hour baseball game is such an awful thing, but a football game that runs about the same length is no problem. I realize that I am not the fan that these changes are attempting to please, but it irks me a little bit that so much is being made of the "pace of play".

Holy shit, that Naito card is a thing of beauty. If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for the two boxes? And are we talking about a 36 count box of wax pack type box? Or like a Magic: The Gathering starter deck type box?

Both my wife and I have the filthiest of filthy mouths, and our 7 year old has only used a curse word on a handful of occasions, and mostly when he's trying to make up rhymes and doesn't realize that you can't use an F sound when you are trying to rhyme truck or luck. He gives us a ton of guff about the cursing, but he knows not to use those words. Personally, I don't care one iota about what words someone uses, but I understand and try to respect other people's boundaries, and we teach him the same.

What is the deal on the mail-in/redemption cards? Guaranteed 1/1's or just a chase that for whatever reason doesn't get inserted into packs?

Seconded on both counts. I would always flip my shit for the Cobra Clutch Exploder. I agree completely, both his apron splash and the in ring version I think look super tremendous. It's the height he gets on the jump that does it, I think.

I forgot all about this thread! In the last couple of weeks I have seen Electric 6 and Buckethead here in town. Both were fucking incredible, as always. E6 never fails to disappoint, and Buckethead is one of the most goddamn ridiculous shows I have ever seen in my life. This last time was like the 35th time I have seen him, and there is never a dull moment. He just shreds for like 2 and a half hours and bails. I love it. I'm super bummed because Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans were playing for free in Reno tonight, but the wife and I couldn't get anyone to watch the kids. He doesn't hit these parts very often, so I'm pissed that we had to miss it.

Giancarlo is a destroyer of worlds, man. What a fucking hitter. Longest of the night for him was 497!!

Anyone out there still doing the criss-cross ropes running deal? I've been watching a lot of the "Old School" section on the Network, and that is one that sticks out as having disappeared. Not that it should still be around, I thought it was dumb 30 years ago.

Holy shit, what a fantastic photo. Has there been anything said about if he is in fact coming back to 145?

Does shipping your closer out for 2 A level prospects before the deadline qualify as being "sellers"? Sure fucking seems like it. Granted, I wouldn't be shocked if he ended back in AZ after the season. Who's next to go in AZ? Castillo? Try to get a good return on Jean Segura while he's on his way to a career year? I could see them dealing Clippard, Collmenter, Robbie Ray maybe, probably not Nick Ahmed or Archie Bradley.

I don't give a fuck about any sport other than baseball, but I love cards from any sport, Just a nifty little thing to look at and flip through. I miss the days of buying wax packs and multipanel cellos and building sets over the course of a few months, and then going to the card shop and digging through commons boxes from past years just to see if there was something I wanted to spend .02 on. As the years have gone by and now card numbers per pack have been shrunken by 5 or 6 cards, and the prices per pack are kind of ridiculous, I don't really buy them anymore. I will grab a handful of the discount Topps packs at the dollar store on occasion, because I try to put a Dodgers team set together every year. I still have a decent handful of full sets, both factory boxes and ones I compiled myself. I remember that Topps seemed to always short me at least 20-30 cards in their factory set, so it always seemed like I was writing them a letter and complaining. They were always very good about sending me the missing cards, so I thought that was pretty cool of them. As for wrestling cards, I didn't know that they were still being made. The ones you posted are pretty good-looking, though. My favorite WWF cards were the 1990 Classic sets, I would buy a full set of both series 1 or 2 if I ever came across it somewhere.

Yasmani Grandal had a DAY today, 5-5, 3 HR, 6 RBI. To my great delight, after going deep in his first two ABs, the 3rd hit was a bunt single to beat the shift. The 3 jacks and the single in the 8th were all balls that he fucking stung. Nice to see a guy that started the day down around .185 start to maybe get himself turned around.

Boy, all that pitching talent that NYM has seems to be right on the brink of completely breaking down, huh? Harvey possibly with thoracic outlet syndrome, Syndergaard and Matz dealing with bone spurs in their elbows. Granted, Syndergaard's doesn't appear to be too terribly serious, but the fact that it's there could spell future trouble. Hopefully, everything gets stabilized and all these guys stay relatively healthy, I was pretty stoked at the idea of watching those three plus deGrom staying together for the next few years.

Anyone watching the presser? From that photo, Cormier looks pretty fucking devastated.

Holy shit. USADA violation or late injury?

It doesn't happen too terribly frequently, the last time I remember it happening was in an LAD- SFG game in 2013, and in that instance it cost the Giants, as Posey had hit an RBI 2B batting in Sandoval's spot.