DCAngelsFan

That's why they invented El Yucateca habanero sauce - a little bit will put a nice zing on your dish - for a string cheese omelet, I'd just drink it right out of the bottle until your taste buds have been vaporized. Then throw the omelet away, and see if you have any dog biscuits in the cupboard. Should probably throw the string cheese away, to preclude the possibility of ever eating it again.

If he throws in Trout's" cloning rights", well, get it done, Eppler ...

Yeah, these guys couldn't reach those levels if they were soft or didn't care - there's just too much competition. It's definitely one of the downsides of "fandom" that so many take it as a personal affront and think its ok to insult players who aren't perfect. The only thing I'll ever "boo" is a lack of effort or a lack of class. Most of us have fallen short of the heights he's reached - (whether in baseball or in other professions) a lack of talent, an injury, bad luck, whatever. So, most of us can empathize - it's a little raw to hear him speak this way, but it's real and honest - thanks to you for writing this, and thanks to him for sharing. All that said, I'd like to buy him a beer

Season over.

Sadly true - basically, I stay away from DC to the extent possible from the Cherry Blossom Festival to Labor Day - the tour groups are unbearable. These aren't local bus trips, they're flying in from all over the planet, so they don't leave at 2:00 pm. So yes, best to take in those "landmark" places early in the morning before they can get those boorish children organized and onto the metro or a bus. (and the Lincoln is a common meeting point in the afternoons for bus pickups.)

This - Holocaust and Changing of the Guard at the tomb of the unknowns - my wife is buried there, and when I visit will still watch the ceremony - I find it very moving. If you like the whole Air and Space thing, I recommend you take in the Udvar-Hazy instead of the mall musuem (if you have to choose one) - that's near Dulles - much better building, larger collection and less claustrophic. Could even do on the way out of town (they run shuttles from Dulles.) You said you were doing LOC - by the way, you can get a library card and actually go into the reading room - otherwise, you just look through the aquarium glass - https://www.loc.gov/rr/readerregistration.html - not a big thing, but you know ... There's a spot near the Tidal basin / Jefferson memorial that was (and still is) the Maine Avenue Fish market - called the Wharf - the fish market is there, and there's some relatively high end places to grab some food and take a break - not far from L'Enfant. Speaking of which, the international spy museum is building a brand new space at L'enfant, looks pretty awesome - ah, wait, it opens May 12th. Can still take in the original, very popular. Take a detour to Freer-Sackler, they have some cool Buddist art, and Whistler's Peacock room - kind of cool. https://www.freersackler.si.edu/exhibition/the-peacock-room-comes-to-america/ Shoot, the editor just ate a bunch of what I wrote. Hmm, visit Eastern Market or Union Market for some food shopping. Visit Great Falls park. Kayak the Potomac in Georgetown. Take in a Nats game. Catch some nightlife - lots of theaters and clubs - depending on your musical style - the federal area gets boring at night. Happy hour oysters at the Old Ebbit Grill. The botanical garden next to the Capitol is cool for a break, and the National Arboretum is nice, if you're into that kind of thing - great bonsai museum. Lot of people like the building museum, but haven't been. Anyway, lot of specialty museums and things to do. Check out the Washingtonian magazine for lists of restaurants - https://www.washingtonian.com/ - I tend to prefer the "Cheap Eats" list Oh, actually, this isn't a bad list of things to consider: https://www.washingtonian.com/2015/03/18/50-things-every-local-needs-to-do/

I'm like the 1% who had problems - you know the microkeratome- that's the bit that flattens your corneas with a "glass", I guess, then cuts a flap with a laser? That glass scratched my corneas. You know how many people say they got off the table and magically could read the clock for the first time in years? I was so looking forward to that experience! Instead - I was practically blind - I wandered into the waiting room, and my ride was 10 feet away from me, and all I could see was a brown blur in the midst of a white mist. That night, I was in agony, my eyes were pouring tears, had two black eyes, both eyes completely full of blood, and in the sunlight, I couldn't bear to open my eyes - basically, was completely blind. They put soft contacts on my eyes to allow them to heal. That helped a lot - but I was in a rage for days as my vision wobbled at 20/100, and still hurt like hell most of the time. Eventually, my eyes settled in at 20/15 and the pain faded- yay, right? Well, the scratches and scarring are permanent - my optometrist says I still have 20/15 vision - but it's like looking through a dirty window. I can "see" well, sort of - but letters and such are blurry - will probably need an early cornea replacement. Oh, the trade-off can be trading correcting near-sightedness for far-sightedness. I now need reading glasses, and doing any fine work like with small tools or what have you? Forget it. They warned me - but it's a bigger pain than I expected. Probably would have been worth it if it wasn't for the other issues. But it's a pain not to be able to read something like a check without glasses (before I could just hold it up to my face.) So, most people, it's awesome - but for me, it was a mistake. I had relatively thick corneas, so that wasn't the issue. The surgeon had done like 10,000 procedures - it wasn't in the back of some guy's van. Your mileage will vary.

Recently went to a concert that demanded e-tickets only. Was denied entry, said they were already used. No, didn't buy them off of craiglist or whatever, right from the venue, ticketed by ticketmaster. TIcketmaster provided refund + compensation a few days later when they admitted there was a problem with them - big deal - sold out show so wasted time and money on what was supposed to be a special occasion. I've had problems with almost every e-ticket-only show I've been to.

I found out indirectly when I saw this from Weave:

Trout signing an extension has just deprived Heyman and others fodder for a couple of thousand articles in the coming 2 years - guess now they may have to write about, you know, actual things. Who's running the pool on these media types first use of "albatross" to describe Trout's contract?

The whole privacy thing is probably an under-appreciated consideration - I recall a few years ago how some guy bothered the Trout family at the Philly airport - got angry when they were like "This is family time" - and that kind of thing would've been endless - the fans would force him to live in a bubble. And Philly in the summertime, a bubble's not a bad place to be - when you smell Center City on a hot summer day, you're immediately reminded that Philly is over 300 years old, and so, probably, is its sewer system. ? I'd say he'd have hated playing there - I don't think that's quite true - but it would've definitely been harder to play there than in Anaheim, for lots of reasons.

We all know nothing will be said of interest - but I'd go if I could, just to "be there." Trout's appearance at his draft, and my joy that we drafted him will always be etched in my mind - I wonder what 2009 Trout would have said if you told him what was coming in 10 years?

Trade? From everything I've read, Philly is *entitled* to Trout, so I think we just had to give him to them ...

Yes, his velocity (such as it is) is consistent - not sure where that canard is coming from. However, last season saw a decline in his K rate, increases in contact rates, and his WHIP, which isn't great at 1.31. His GB% rate is way down (53.7% in 2018 vs. 66.8% in 2017) and the percentage of hard hit balls was up significantly. It's one season, but ... Problem with a guy like Keuchel is he's like Weaver - he's very reliant on command, and as it declines, one day, the camel's back will break, and he'll suddenly be a bp pitcher. When that happens - next year, 3 years from now - that's the gamble.

No. If he were the last piece to making a run this year - but he's not. And while I don't see much evidence of any huge declines in him, age, a soft tosser, and rising contact rates all - in my mind - point to a Weaver-like sudden decline in the near future. I think he'd provide some reliability in the starting staff for awhile - another year, maybe two - but I'm not sure he's the priority right now.

Heh, re-reading what I wrote, kinda lost my train of thought - but you got what I was on about - while I don't have direct knowledge, I get the impression that those foundational, nuts-and-bolts aspects of the organization have been rebuilt - and again, no direct knowledge, but I had the feeling that under DiPoto those areas were neglected. I thought, perhaps, it was Arte being cheap - but if Eppler has made those improvements where DiPoto didn't, well, maybe it wasn't Arte. The scotch tape and baling wire is more a reference to the major league roster, with payroll and, uh, "positional" limits we have in the form of an albertross contract as well as the dead farm that gave him almost no capital with which to trade for impact players in positions of need. He's managed to improve the roster, incrementally, to be sure, while still rebuilding what we all hope, at least, is a pipeline of talent from the minors. Time will tell - the number of things that can still go wrong seem to outnumber the things we hope go right. This time next year, I think there will be a much stronger consensus on Eppler.

To be honest, I almost overlook Eppler's trades and signings to a certain extent, and am more favorably impressed by his ability to fix organizational issues. For example, before DiPoto came in, the international operation had been gutted - and it seemed when he brought Servais, he was going to focus on rebuilding the international scouting and development operation. But DiPoto's horrendous mismanagement of the Baldoquin signing was beyond embarrassing - if nothing else, once in penalty, we should've signed as many players as we could - like the Red Sox and Yankees did. Pretty much his entire stamp on out international system - Baldoquin. Eppler landing Ohtani makes him look like a genius by comparison. Similarly, his drafts look more solid than DiPoto's - though that can be a bit difficult to be certain of - I make fun of the draft room's reaction to Ward being drafted, but it's not like a bunch of guys behind him are lighting up the majors, either. It just seems that when DiPoto left, there was nothing - no internationals or talent in the farm, no flexibility in the payroll, and much of the nuts and bolts of the organization, like player development, seemed underfunded and floundering - seriously, no reason to be optimistic forever. Now, through scotch tape and baling wire, he's managed to improve our talent overall, and at least given us some reason for optimism. He's not a magician, but things *feel* better these days.

I dunno - breaking balls, well, "don't" in SLC - not really the best place for a pitcher fine-tuning their repertoire for a call-up to be.

This. I think it helps to remember that Miller and Maybin were top 10, or top 20 prospects, sure. It also helps to remember that that same year, Brandon Wood was a top 5 prospect. Trout is a singular player; his value is so high, even teams that can put together enough talent in a package would choke on letting them go. edt: I meant to say, it all-but makes him untradeable, in the sense that his value is so high, it's hard to imagine a team having enough expendable talent they'd be willing to part with that we'd take for him. Any trade involving Trout has the potential to be labelled "The worst trade in MLB history"

Machado: Phillies - 8/264 Harper: Cards - 10/350 Keuchel - Houston 4/88 Kimbrel - Red Sox 4/76

Is that like "Analyst / Therapist" -- or "AnalRapist" ....? Coincidentally, "43" is precisely the percentage chance that I give Kikuchi finishing year 1 without shoulder surgery.

Or play chicken with him and get him to badly overpay - either outcome is fine with me.

I'm concerned about the shoulder and drop in velocity - shoulder injuries in their various forms are career-enders for pitchers - it's not TJ. Anyway - I have to wonder what Otani would feel like if we dumped a bunch of money on another Japanese player, one not as good as he is? Would he feel like we're rubbing his face in the fact he came "early?" Also recall that, apparently, a factor in Ohtani's choosing the Angels was *not* having had a Japanese star before. Never got what his issue with that was . . ? Or still is? Of course, getting some talent that doesn't *cost* us talent is a great notion - but think we'd better pay respect to Ohtani's feelings on the matter. And also, let's MRI Kikuchi's shoulder until you could use him as a refrigerator magnet...

RIP, Luis. I'm glad he got a taste of the dream of playing in MLB - loved the obvious fun he had playing the game. Gone too soon. And the manner is just awful - I mean, putting a rock in the road to rob people is bad enough. To take their property - to go through the pockets of men as they lay dying from an accident you caused?? I just can't ...

I think whoever loses the bidding for Harper and Machado will be more relieved than the "winner" will be ecstatic. The thing about Trout is his value isn't entirely defined by his play - he's a good guy, a face of the franchise, fans *like* him. *And* he's produced at historic levels. Harper and Machado, not so much on either count. I think teams are less likely to commit to historic contracts for "superstars" who aren't particularly "super" - not that likable, and their production isn't particularly "historic." So, I think there's a very good chance the contracts they ultimately get will be on the low range. Of course, now that I've written that, someone just tendered Harper a 20-year $1B contract, payable in bags of diamonds ...