Feb Night Crew . . . Spring Training?!

...so with Mookie getting traded with only 1 year left on his contract its inevitable LA signs him long term. Should we discuss how much the contract will be, or how much the tablecloth cards sell for?!

I think the contract will be 10/375, and the tablecloth cards will be 30% more than Machados, plus a 1/1 superfractor "cloth mode" card. ::facepalm::

I'm not sure where the dodgers are going to find money to keep everyone happy over the next 5 years but I'd say Mookie is going to get 10 years somewhere and it will likely be somewhere 350-400. It's hard to imagine he will be the superstar that doesn't get paid and I can't see him not getting close to trouts deal.

...and here I thought Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was a silly name . . . bring on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of Montreal. :benson:

The French like fish too ya know.

finestkind said:

The French like fish too ya know.

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The new logo should be a mean looking sting ray with a baguette and a bottle of Chardonnay under its flipper. :lol:

JVHaste said:

...and here I thought Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was a silly name . . . bring on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of Montreal. :benson:

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:lol:

To be even more accurate since their current stadium isn't even in Tampa: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of St. Petersburg and Montreal

Are they going to use the same stadium in Montreal that was built for the 1976 Olympics ?

RyanHowardCollector6 said:

:lol:

To be even more accurate since their current stadium isn't even in Tampa: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of St. Petersburg and Montreal

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Haha yes, and I guess it could even be worse than this! See, they aren't sure if its a stingray anymore or a "ray of light" They also disagree if Tampa "Bay" is good for marketing or not... so maybe it's best to add parentheses.

The Tampa (Bay) (Devil) Rays of St. Petersburg of Montreal.

Btw, this team sharing stuff is comical bullsht. What if they make playoffs, do they split home games for that too? Imagine a 7 game series where you go 2 games @ Oakland, then at "home" Tampa (Bay) for 2 games, then another home game all the way in Montreal, then fly all the way back to Oakland for 6 and 7.

Did anyone else watch the AJ Hinch interview with Tom Verdouchey? I am convinced after hearing it that there is much more to be uncovered, he was ridiculously evasive. '****** was trained not to press either. Its also clear he is going to be rehired in a year by the Astros as he was sucking up to the organization. Sadly the Dusty Baker funtime parade will only last 1 year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU3sK2kImKs

I read parts of the interview. If it's not Houston he will be in a dugout somewhere in 2021. I still have no idea why everyone seems so shocked at this. Perhaps the Astros and red Sox took sign stealing to another level but honestly every team does something like this. Every team.

I wonder how many more teams will be busted then, since they should be easy to spot if they cheated at Houston's level. The Astros actually had people on payroll whose sole job was to decipher the signs and coordinate with the team. :lol: This is when the "player driven" narrative got blown up, the higher ups had to know to get the right people in there.

One funny thing that finally clicked into place was the answer to the question "why did Hinch destroy 2 cameras if but didn't tell players to stop?" It was because those were times it didn't work, and they mixed up the signs. Can't believe I didn't think of that before.

Good thing we have you around to think of stuff like this Jesse.

finestkind said:

Good thing we have you around to think of stuff like this Jesse.

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:lol:

Unfortunately Tom Verdoucheydouchesuit didn't think of that, instead doubling down on the "he wanted to send a message but then did nothing" angle. :|
It reminds me of the Howard Lederer interview, except we at least got a cool music vid out of that which corrects his statements. (0:53)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PngHldUW-Os

Hinch's interview...yeah.

I realize he and his team are not the only cheaters in MLB. But this was particularly egregious, and now it's blown into the highest profile cheating scandal in years. So what does he say? He tries to say he wasn't really on board with it, and he kinda wanted to stop it but wasn't confident enough or what the hell ever, and he's not proud, and it happened on his watch, and he coulda shoulda woulda handled things differently, and he didn't "nudge" his players enough in the right direction, and blah blah blah.

This sh!t makes me sick. And I don't even mean the sign stealing. It's his complete refusal to say what is obvious to even the most casual observer: he knew exactly what was going on, and he was just f'in fine with it.

I also realize that this kind of mealy-mouthed self-preservation is nothing new either. We had Reagan with his "I know in my heart I did nothing wrong, but the facts say otherwise", Clinton's whole "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is", and every single word uttered by The Donald. And so on and so forth. But I honestly believe that accountability and acknowledgment of reality are at a low ebb in this country. This Hinch thing, and the whole Astros debacle, is irrelevant by itself. It's sports after all. But it's a revealing little microcosm that shows where we're at.

I'm actually curious to know NC thoughts on this. Maybe nobody gives a crap about this stuff, but if you do...am I wrong here? Has it always been this bad? Or, is it not really a problem at all? Another valid take would be that FCB member banjar is a raving crackpot

That Howard Lederer video is friggin brilliant BTW.

I would agree with all of that. Not only is he so vague and obtuse but it seems like the interviewer also enables this bad behavior, which shows they have either given up as well or are personal friends.

We can take it a step further and say its not only the worst scandal baseball has had in years, but the most BORING baseball can be. When a player knows what pitch is coming its one step closer to golf. Just go play golf. . . don't watch golf or semi golf.

I watched a clip of Merwin Gonzales know a breaking pitch is coming and time it perfectly.. man it was mundane and annoying at the same time. The guy has big garbage every year except for one. (I will let you guess)

banjar said:

That Howard Lederer video is friggin brilliant BTW.

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party party very hard. :lol:

Did you ever see the original Lederer interview? It was similar to the Hinch but 5x long, so its like watch Hinch on loop.

No, I never saw it. Or even heard about it. And if I had, I probably wouldn't have watched it. Eating a light bulb would be a more enjoyable way to spend my time.

JVHaste said:

party party very hard. :lol:

Did you ever see the original Lederer interview? It was similar to the Hinch but 5x long, so its like watch Hinch on loop.

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