Homebrewer

Yep!
Only thing they are missing is a creative manager who isn't stuck in his patterns.
There is a reason SF didn't renew him after losing in the WS in 02.
How many managers get released after taking a team to game 7 ???
Lucky for us that they had Dumbsty making the pitching moves in 02, or we probably wouldn't have a ring in Anaheim yet.
He went on to lead a stacked Cubs team to "close" and he will again lead this good Reds team to "close".
The comparisons between Baker and Scioscia are astounding in likeness.
Lefty-Righty matchups, even when the numbers say differently.... allegiance to vets with better young players available, leaving pitchers in too long, or pulling them when cruising...poor bullpen management..
The list goes on and on.
These two managers came up through the ranks joined at the hip, and are twins in their baseball mentality.

Take a look at the free agent class of relief pitchers last year.
 
Rafael Soriano: $28M, 46.1IP, 2.91 ERA
Jonathan Broxton (DL): $21M, 27IP, 4.33 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt (DL): $18M, 33.1IP, 3.51 ERA
Mike Adams (DL): $12M, 25IP, 3.96 ERA (shoulder surgery)
Kyuji Fujikawa (DL); $9M, 12IP, 5.25 ERA (TJ surgery)
Sean Burnett (DL): $8M, 9.2IP, 0.93 ERA (elbow surgery)
 
So 5 out of the 6 top paid free agent relief pitchers are currently on the DL. None of those 5 have come close to earning their contracts falling short by either effectiveness or innings pitched. Soriano has pitched well but at $14M per season he's no bargain for his production. His K/9 is way down to 6.8 which doesn't bode well for next year either.
 
Good luck trying to buy a pen. The teams with the best pens built them from the farm or supplemented them by picking up "projects" and getting big production from them. Sometimes both. The sack of shit we have impersonating a pitching coach could try for 30 years without having the success of a Maddux, Young, Hickey, Price, Duncan etc. Tampa quickly saw that they had a lemon and let him go after one season. We're stuck with him for 7 years now. It might be hard to find a more apt name for a pitching coach than "Butcher". Why does a team that aspires to be the best have to settle for someone's "good buddy" with no track record (and now a terrible 8 year track record)?
 
Would any of the arms that Dipoto traded really be helping this pen right now? Pena (5.19 BB/9 in AA), Hellweg (13BB, 3k's in 10.2 IP with the Brewers) or Roach (5.24 K/9 in AA)? I doubt it. Would Chatwood be anything other than the erratic walk/hit machine he was with the Angels? He had almost as many walks (71) as strikeouts (74) with us. A strikeout rate of 4.69 K/9? Someone taught him how to pitch.
 
This problem wasn't created in a short time (and certainly not in the less than 2 years of the Dipoto GM) and it won't be fixed in a short time. Drafting almost exclusively pitchers in a pitching heavy draft seems smart and a good start. Bringing in pitching coaches with a long track record of success handling young pitching should be the next step. It's not as easy or quick as opening the checkbook and purchasing one or two decrepit old arms on the free agent market.

Didn't know he ever had anything else in his repertoire.

Didn't know he ever had anything else in his repertoire.

Who would have thought that banning these two guys could actually help the team.

Dammit, I normally only like to write less than 240 characters but...
 
This x100.  Everything said has come true in essence because...he was mostly telling the truth.
 
Problem with what Canseco said at the time is:
 
1)  MLB couldn't (and wouldn't) acknowledge anything for obvious reasons regardless of them looking the other way
2)  He came off as sour grapes and already had some credibility issues so I don't blame anyone for not taking him seriously (source: Me)
3)  Active players wouldn't say !@*# and those out of the game didn't want to back him up since it would only bring ridicule and shame - it was a lose-lose situation
 
We'll never know how bad it was - or how bad it still is. 
 
It just makes for fun message board fodder.
 
With the MLB having such large, long, guaranteed contracts - they will just get smarter and more careful.   When you can put your family and their family and their...on easy street for generations, you know they will keep using because the risk in this case might be worth the reward.
 
Only way it changes now is change the !*@ contracts.  And you can never ever have 1 strike and you're out because of the miniscule chance of false positive.
 
<3 NFL.
 
P.S.  I know I'm in the extreme minority and don't mind the flak but as with some other posters, I feel a bit bad for A-Rod.  Not feel bad for him in general, eff that.  He's set for many afterlives.  But if you believe what all those close to him say about the extreme lack of self-confidence and a large feeder for his addiction to PEDs, it's sad.  I'm sure his childhood/father issues didn't help his confidence.
 
Imagine being one of the best and not walking around each day on cloud nine with confidence for eternity - but instead the opposite. 
 
Bonds abused PEDs because of his ego. 
 
The more I hear daily (if true), the more A-Rod seems like that incredibly hot older woman who knows she is defined by her looks - and despite being the best looking in the room, feels completely inadequate and is addicted to plastic surgery.
 
Aaaaaaaaand he's a doosh.  But I still feel a little bad for that side of him.
 
Come at me.

How many kids want to be big league players?
Millions is the answer.
If these drugs were legal, and everyone was using them...how many kids who thought they were good enough to be ML players, would be using them?
Most is the answer.
These drugs are bad for the body, worse for the brain (has everyone forgotten "Roid Rage"?)
WHY are they Illegal?
REALLY???
Stupid f'n question.

We got Frieri and Blanton, we don't need him.

Well at least Butcher didnt get to him.

The hypocrisy of league attempting to clean things up while ESPN gives A-Rod the MLB marquee attention.

Everyone knows that Cowgill is the future of this team, and that these games are MUST WINS if this 2013 team is ever going to see  500.
Oh well, I don't watch the games anymore anyhow.
Won't until Scioscia is fired, either.

A five team mid-air plane crash.
Hey, it could happen.

How many kids want to be big league players?
Millions is the answer.
If these drugs were legal, and everyone was using them...how many kids who thought they were good enough to be ML players, would be using them?
Most is the answer.
These drugs are bad for the body, worse for the brain (has everyone forgotten "Roid Rage"?)
WHY are they Illegal?
REALLY???
Stupid f'n question.

Lifetime that's not going to happen anytime soon. Things will quiet down for a while until the next scandal hits. The integrity of the game for the past 20 years is flushed down the toilet because nobody cared to flush away the huge profits on both sides.

Links to all of the discovery and discipline over the last several years? Only last year did we see Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, and Yasmani Grandal receive suspensions.
 
Your post is a little naive in thinking that MLB has been actively working on the issues up until the last two years. This time around the New York Yankees have a $35 million dollar interest in having MLB enforce it this time.
 
They (meaning the MLB and the Yankees) are doing their best to shame A-Rod out of baseball because of a LOT of money. They have been aware of PED use throughout baseball for years but when it has impacted them in such a large monetary fashion they suddenly take mammoth action.
 
I can do without the BS from MLB. They had their chance years ago to make these grand announcments and didn't do so.
 
Yes A-Rod deserves to be punished I said that in my original post. But I can do without the 5-day wait to announce it (on the day that A-Rod returns to action) and I can do without MLB's feigned shock and awe campaign.
 
Just hand out the suspensions and move on.

Just imagine how bad they would be if we didn't have a top notch coaching staff.

Does anyone here actually believe Walden would have delivered these numbers w/ Butcher as pitching coach?

These kind of posts are bullsh*t and should not be tolerated. Not to mention, Troll dadddy, 99% of your posts are a waste of bandwidth and provide no usefull content. 
 
 
What? Actually, I see great bunting situations a lot and the team doesn't utilize them well at all. 
 
Especially Aybar. Holy effing hell. If you're going to bunt in that situation, angle the freakin bat to bring it down the 3rd base line. Not hard at all. Every time the guy bunts it's like he's never done it before. This has been going on for years now.
 
So sick of Aybar and his constant poor performances when we really need it.
 
Hate to say it but Texas has balls and heart and you see it when they play. This team is a freaking joke and it's obvious day in and day out.
 
Need somebody to light a fire under this teams ass, that's for sure.

You are aware that the major leagues are filled with All Stars that Beane has traded away, right?

Does the Angels have anyone to start at third now?
Dunno...does they?

We got a live human being for Callapso!!!
I'm headed outside to yell, and do a few Ozzie Smith back-flips

Even if Green doesn't pan out in the long run, it only cost them Callaspo. Good trade.

I am done with this team till Scioscia is gone. He is great only in his own little mind. The poor managing decisions have been the undoing of this team for the last three years. Arte and Dipoto need to wake up and realize where the change needs to be made.

Unlike Madson, Wilson waited until he was ready to come back, before coming back. Guess he didn't feel it would be right to rob some team of millions and then sit on the sidelines until he could pitch again.
Imagine that.

Lee Lives!