ten ocho recon scout

@Lou I know you have a lot on your plate right now, and are probably too busy to worry about checking in on the group of nerdy knuckleheads that take baseball way too seriously. But I hope you're seeing this. I hope you're seeing how much of an impact you made on a bunch of people you may have never met. And I hope some of the takes and ideas on the main board aren't making you feel worse.

To be fair, he's an American competing against Japanese in math (ERA equations). So you have to cut him some slack there.

For once, Lou is not a maybe. And we all agree

Still shaking my head at this. Had to dig through old IMs between him and I. He was a good friend when I had some bad times. I'll never forget it.

This hit. Perfectly said.

The "I agrees" are about as much of a staple on this board as anything ever. And the "I'm a maybe" posts.

Sonovabitch. @Lou messaged me a while back to tell me and I didn't see it until now. This is an absolute gut punch. Lou is by far and away one of my favorite people on here. He reached out to me several times when things were bad on my end. He's an absolute good guy. Maybe not everyone is an fan, but his wit and sense of humor were top notch. Lou, if you're seeing this, you hang tough brother. We love you. All us idiots are pulling for you, my friend.

And in fairness, Game 2 they were right there until a hiccup. Today we just got stomped. It happens. Atlanta is f*cking stacked. On to the next.

Salt Lake Shitty! Hard to choose from those three.

That's pretty much me. I've been "trade Ohtani" for the past year. And in trading him, flip a few more pieces. But we didn't. And screw it... water under the bridge. Since we didn't do that, have to at least try now.

The funny thing is that it actually was looking good at that point... compared to where it went from there. "Remember the good old innings? Down by 4? Man... good times."

Sounds Japanese

Is there a lemon law for trades?

I take back what I said about wanting to see Gio. I meant Urshela

That was nice

Aside from Adams, want to see how Giolito does. Olsen is a big hulking dude.

Holy crap, it's already on? Shit, here we go

Burn Atlanta down like Sherman.

The Salt Lake Dees (like the grade). Or the Salt Lake Trash Players.

I'm probably just daydreaming, but part of me thinks there has to at least be some indication that Ohtani "wants" to stay. Not "I'm staying" as much as "I'm totally good with staying, but cmon, make me think it's the right choice". The public and the media have heard nothing, but I'd think there's quiet talking going on in the team to make Moreno think it's doable. Can't see why he decided against selling in the first place unless there was some communication between both sides.

Of nothing else (playoff race aside), this is something to tune in for today.

It's a valid point. I've read a few others giving the Angels an A. So shoulder shrug. That said, he's off with Ohtani fetching 6 top 20 prospects. The Mets did well for Verlander, for sure. They got 2. And I doubt anyone would have been jumping up and down for that for Ohtani. Ohtani in theory is worth more than Verlander. But what team who's in it this year, who would move on Ohtani, has a slew of bona-fide can't miss prospects? Maybe there is a team, I have no idea. But looking at the top 100 prospects list, they're all spread out over 30 teams.... not like one or three teams, who are in the playoff race, with like 5 guys in the top 100. The time to flip Ohtani for a massive return was a long, long time ago.

This might be true. But it's already started, more or less. We need a 1B (sigh, Walsh). But hopefully that shan.... sham?... shamwow guy works out. 2B, but Drury is here for a bit and Paris is coming up. Neto is young at SS. We need a 3B, unless of course Rendon suddenly plays. Trout is here for life. We need 2 corner OFs, depending on how Ward recovers and Adell. (Adell, sigh). Ohoppe at C. Detmers, Sandoval (2 more years?), Canning, Silseth(?) And Anderson are all here for awhile. You could improve on a lot of those guys. But I don't think it's a huge rebuild.

I think the issue is we don't have enough to trade for a silver bullet type. And for what was available in trade, there wasn't a super clear area to upgrade. (A big time RP would have been nice). But I think everyone needs to remember that aside from Giolito, the other moves we made the past month weren't "Let's go for it!" as much as "we lost another one." Had Rendon and Urshela been healthy, for example, we wouldn't have traded for Escobar and Moustakas. Ward getting his face broken obviously forced the Grichuk move. We got screwed bad by injuries.