WicketMaiden

Why did Tiger Man let it go so far? I mean, come on, at the end of the first toe you'd be out of there, surely? And if one bird's-beak-poked-into-a-sausage toe wasn't enough to convince you to bail then surely once you saw the complete paw with only four sausages with beaks you'd be out of there pronto.

Maybe, maybe not. None of us can say. He might have it all worked out in the next start, but he's much more likely to really break out next season or the season after that. It is incredibly difficult to be good at Major League Baseball isn't it? He is pitching to elite human beings who pretty much all have far more experience than he does, so who knows how long it will take for him to adjust to that. The coaches could maybe help him out by pulling him a little earlier now and again, but then again he's got to take his lumps as part of his learning curve, so when is a good time if not now? AAA isn't the answer because it just isn't the same, apples, oranges etc.

Totally agree (apart from the 1 or 2 bit, and I hope I'm wrong, but a solid number 3 for me). Kershaw pitched 327 innings before his breakout season; Gerrit Cole 477; John Lackey had only 55 minors innings before his 100 inning 127era+ rookie season, but then had two years and 400 innings of sub 100 era+ before it clicked for him. There are plenty of good pitchers out there with similar development cyles.

I can see why, Larry, it's awful. The guy doesn't seem very confident with the subject matter. I only lasted about three minutes or so (...that's what she said!) and thought he covered a load of stuff that really isn't important for a newbie to the game. My best advice is just watch a few games to begin with. You don't need to know all the details but you already understand outs and runs, big hits and great catches, so along with the commentary style, which is very informative and insightful, you'll be up to speed in no time with a solid understanding. After that, layer upon layer of nuance will unfold as you get deeper into the game and begin to understand what the captain is doing with the fielders and bowlers to get people out, and how to spot different approaches the batsmen employ to counter that. Basically the game is: man with ball throws at man with big stick; man with big stick tries to hit ball; if man with stick misses ball = bad (mostly); if man with big stick hits ball = good (mostly). The rest is just details. Will post a thread for Major League Cricket when that begins, so that will fill in a few more blanks for anyone watching. I also invite anyone to PM me with any cricket questions, I can talk for hours about cricket (or baseball) so I'm happy to do so.

I've seen a lot of comments castigating Detmers' performances this year and posing the idea that the guy just isn't good enough. I have to ask, what is wrong with you people? Reid Detmers is just 23 years old and has started a sum total of 55 games in professional baseball. That includes all his minors starts and comes out to 268 innings in total. Gerrit Cole pitched 200 innings in the minors before even being called up, Reid pitched just 68. Give the guy a break and give him time to learn his trade. He is far from the finished article and with the stuff he has, once the penny drops for him he's got a great chance of becoming a damn fine pitcher.

He surely can't be stretched out very much, so as much as I'd love a run-fest it could be enough to just work the pitch counts to get him out of there early.

He must have hidden it well, 12 PA's and zero hits so far in AAA. In a hitters' league, too.

Looks like Blanco was a closer and set-up man in AAA. This year in MLB as a reliever he has pitched 12 innings with a WHIP of 1.92, a 4.5 ERA and 7 walks to 16 strikeouts. He has only had 23 career starts in the minors, pitching mostly in relief. Hopefully a few hot Angels bats will get him out of the game early.

Critical

And Shohei is 8th in the AL with .833 OPS. As a comparison (qualified players): Drury 34th - .778 Renfroe 44th - .744 Urshela 46th - .729 Ward 67th - .662

It's well worth the time. Excellent cast and quite gritty in parts, especially for that era in cinema. It does a very good job of challenging the notion of glamour and glory in wartime.

First step is get everything in writing. So in your position I would email HR (copy in your manager) to recap your conversations to date over the phone, and then ask them confirm in writing what they have said. For example: "You advised that contract was given in error. Who is liable for that mistake?" "Can you confirm no other employees have this contract?". That sort of thing. As a general rule of thumb over here, if HR is doing everything over the phone and not in writing, there is something amiss. Good luck with it.

Of a similar type and age, Cross of Iron is pretty good. Another gritty movie from the Eastern Front.

Jo Adell disagrees with this comment

I don't agree, from what I've seen really poor decision making has been the main culprit. By the coaches/management and the players on the field. There was an extended period earlier this year where the team kept beating themselves by doing really dumb things, with the bat and the ball. The Angels stolen base strategy is a mystery, they steal in high risk and low leverage situations and will sit a guy on first with no outs throughout the 9th with the game on the line. Poor decisions have been at the root of a significant number of the errors on defence too. Yes the hitting has also been poor at times, and again often due to poor decision making driving players to swing at pitches they should take. The situational hitting is fairly non-existent. These guys have the talent, but they're losing these games in their heads.

Worst. Thread. Ever.

Robert Hooke

I doubt this lot could catch a spider let alone kill it. I'm now 23 days in and more than half of them have quit already.

Alone: Australia Same format at the US version but the contestants don't seem anywhere near the same skill-level. I'm 4 episodes in and no-one is shelter-building or displaying anything other than the most basic fishing or hunting skills. It's like a parody of Aussie culture at some times and then a therapy session at others, so it's a curious watch with at least a hint of Schadenfreude seeing what seem like amateur survivalists make some pretty basic errors. If you like Alone, it's worth a look for the comparison. Will add more when I've watched the whole season.

If he stays out there much longer that mound is going to be flat.

James Herbert

Aussie crime drama based on real events in Sydney's red light district in the 1970's. It's pretty well made with a really good cast (including some familiar faces from Mr Inbetween), Tim Roth is pretty good but there's nothing new here and at times I found it a bit predictable and formulaic. The show covers a long period of time which unfortunately left them short of time for deeper back-stories on the characters, so it was a little shallow in that respect, but otherwise it was fairly good. No masterpiece but worth a look.

If you can't even be bothered to get the players' names right...

Good for you, @HaloSpurs , I'm glad you're seeing some good games. After the last 20 years of both the Halos and Spurs flattering to deceive so often, I'd say you're due some fun times. How does the beer compare?