grilledcheese

Does Hoffman get in on the first ballot? I say that he should, without a doubt. You know that Mariano is going in on the first ballot, so why wouldn't the only other guy in the history of the game with 600 saves get the same treatment? I would hate to see Hoffman get the bone like Biggio did. 3000 H? HOF, first ballot. Unless you are Rose or Palmeiro, obviously. Same deal should go for such a ridiculous SV total.

I agree completely, which is why I think he will probably take the QO. In listening to him talk in interviews, he has always been pretty up front about his frustration with the constant injury throughout his career. Obviously, if someone offers him 3 at $45MM, he's not going to turn it down, but I have gotten the feeling from him that he understands his limitations and might want another healthy year under his belt to prove to himself that it wasn't just a fluke. He has also been pretty vocal about how he has enjoyed his time in LA so far, so that could be a factor as well,

Teams in smaller parks with good hands around the infield could do a lot worse than Anderson if he stays healthy. GB rate of 67% on balls in play. He turned out to be an excellent acquisition in a year that really needed a solid third guy in that rotation. I'm not sure that anyone would be chomping to throw 3 or 4 years at him, but I could see him getting 2 @ 30 or $32MM.

Anyone take the QO this year? I figure Brett Anderson might be a good bet. Kendrick won't, he should catch on somewhere quite easily. Might be LA if Peraza isn't ready.

I hope MIA stays in the cellar forever. Loria is such a dirtbag. I hate that there are so many guys there that I like, but I'll just root for them after they get dealt or sign elsewhere.

I am all for the ridiculous variant covers Marvel does aping hip-hop records. I think they are super funny. The latest I have seen might be the best yet. Venom: Space Knight #1 takes on one of my favorite albums ever: Spoiler for size

Darin Erstad to be interviewed for the vacant job in Los Angeles. He's been the skipper at Nebraska for the last 4 years and done pretty well with them, record of 139-91 in his time there. Probably not going to get the job, I figure it's Kapler's, but I like that they are making it look like they are really searching for someone.

Their mascots were revealed today, and they are fucking glorious. Chompers on the left, Chew Chew on the right.

I totally agree. Unfortunately, it won't have the impact of banning the all time hits leader, but fuck him and anyone tied to any sort of behaviors associated with manipulating the outcomes of games not involving a bat, ball or glove.

Fucking Dykstra, man. I loved the shit out of him as a player, but he is some kind of godawful human being. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/10/lenny-dykstra-says-he-hired-a-private-investigator-to-blackmail-mlb-umpires

I support this idea completely, as long as it isn't on anyone's broadcast team, so I never have to hear him again. I really enjoy SEA's TV, so with my luck he will go and fuck that up for me. Seriously though, I would assume he is locked into that MLB Network deal for a good long time, typically the main national broadcast team stays together for a pretty decent spell. Send him to the South Side of Chicago. Hawk 'n Harold! Best possible idea. CHW is the one television broadcast I avoid, I always run the opponent's feed instead. The Hawk and Reynolds together would be so fantastically hard to sit through.

So, that Aftershock festival was this past weekend in my neck of the woods, and I had previous commitments that I couldn't escape. Damn them for making me miss NXT and Faith No More!!! Did anyone go? And if so, were the shows taped at all? I just read that Corey Taylor and Baron Corbin had a small interaction, but I wouldn't figure on that being something that would get brought up on TV. You don't really want a dude that much smaller than Corbin cracking him in the face with no retribution.

Yeah, my wife is big on the whole Santa gimmick, so that one was out of my hands. But I wanted him to be able to watch wrestling with an appreciation of what they do, but not be worried that his favorites are getting the fuck beat out of them every night. I can remember how worried I was about Steamboat after the larynx crushing incident, so I would like him to understand that in a situation like that, he need not worry. Luckily, he has gravitated towards Brock Lesnar as his main man, so he doesn't have to worry about the beatdown aspect too much. He has also tied his wagon to The New Day, because he likes Woods playing the trombone, and he caught me watching UpUpDownDown a few months back, so he is super geeked that the guys from his favorite team are into video games.

Have you informed your children that pro wrestling is a work? In the last 8 or 9 months, I have started to let my 6 year old watch RAW / SD and PPV. He figured out that it wasn't quite legit, and asked me straight out if "these guys were actually fighting". I try not to lie to him, even about trivial bullshit, and I clued him in on the fact that while it is a contact sport, it is not truly combat. It has not taken away from his enjoyment of it at all, and I have been trying to wrap my head around if someone had told me it was worked at that age. I'm pretty sure I would have been destroyed. I figured it out when I was like 10 or 11, and I stuck with it for another 25 years and counting. Weirdly, before he saw whatever it was that made him think it was theater, he never had any doubts about the validity of the little bit of lucha he has seen, which I always thought was a style that sort of allowed you to understand it was more performance than combat.

I support this idea completely, as long as it isn't on anyone's broadcast team, so I never have to hear him again. I really enjoy SEA's TV, so with my luck he will go and fuck that up for me. Seriously though, I would assume he is locked into that MLB Network deal for a good long time, typically the main national broadcast team stays together for a pretty decent spell.

I think Donnie lands in MIA, they have repeatedly been mentioned as having interest in him, to the extent that I though the clubs might work out some sort of agreement that allowed Mattingly to walk and go over there. Gabe Kapler somehow seems to be the frontrunner to replace Donnie so far, I guess that stems from his knowledge of advance metrics and relationship with Friedman? I am hoping for Wallach to get at least some consideration and maybe Dave Martinez, but I don't see Martinez leaving CHC.

This dude is fucking unconscious right now.

I have a hard time getting through the condensed show on Hulu, I couldn't fathom having to watch it live. I would definitely be making use of the FF button after DVR'ing the show.

Except the other two teams involved obviously can't handle them, so I would say that NYM - KC is a far more appealing matchup. I personally was hoping that TOR was going to show up and do some damage, but that's not the case so far. 3-1 isn't unfathomable, but it's going to be tough.

And it was discovered when he was optioned to AAA back in April, so his doctor obviously didn't think that they needed to do anything more than monitor it if he was allowed to keep playing, sounds like he shouldn't have too much trouble beating it. He's a super young kid in top-flight physical condition, I'm sure that will help.

That's the kid that road tripped his way to Spring Training in a Westfalia, correct? That's really unfortunate, but as Oyaji said, most folks survive it, and they don't typically have the advantage of access to the absolute best in medical treatment. Here's hoping everything goes well for him.

As much as I love his cover of "Carmelita" I never thought I would hear someone say that it led them further into Zevon's catalog. That is fucking awesome.

Are they really a secret? I always thought they were pretty well known. I saw them after the reformation in 2001, I was going to see my friend's band, and the guy I went with couldn't remember who the headliner was, it turned out to be The Mentors. It wasn't all that impressive. I was always under the impression that it was all a gimmick anyway. Not that it excused any of the shit that El Duce said, but it seemed like people took that dumb shit way too seriously, same as GG.

Yeah, I'm not sure there was any question once he started putting together those numbers this year that he was going to opt out. I figure they will resign him, but Friedman has shown some opposition to putting together multi-year deals for pitchers over 30. I really hope they can come to terms, he's 51-15 since coming over to LA. With the questions at the back end of the rotation, I feel like he is a must sign. Anderson was passable and I was really happy to see him stay healthy and eat innings and be productive, but McCarthy is still a big question mark, and we will see how Ryu fares when he comes back. I wonder if they will go after Darren O'Day, that bullpen needs help, and I feel like he would be a good addition.

Boston is going to have a whole lot of trouble getting out from under those two. I figure they will be able to offload one, but not both. My assumption is that the eat a bunch of money and give up a couple of decent prospects and knock Hanley off to someone, as I feel like Sandoval has a higher upside because of his defensive play being so much better than Hanley.