2019 MLB Season Thread [ARCHIVED] Baseball • Page 1097

Insane.

 

i love that we pretend to know anything about clubhouse dynamics.

arrieta was 100% right too. that’s not a game that harper should be getting thrown out of.

 

I don't think the issue is whether he's right or wrong. You just don't say that to the public. Keep it in the clubhouse.

 

I don’t think it’s a big deal at all or even a small deal

 

I'd say its inconsequential, for sure. I am sure Harper doesn't really care all that much, but its still not pleasant optics. Just doesn't paint Arrieta in a good light.

 

Harper agreed with Arrieta (not sure who was spoken with first but same sentiment). And I’d say it doesn’t paint Arrieta in any sort of light

 

Arrieta is a dick

He's right in this case, but he's a dick

 

(although the inning after Harper got ejected, Quinn made a nice running catch that I'm not sure Altherr would have gotten to, so maybe it didn't matter)

 

I can understand that. I wouldn't call him a dick, or anything. Doesn't really affect his reputation, in my eyes. For me, its just one of those headscratchers. Its moreso about all situation like this, and not this one in particular. Like why say anything? I just don't understand why you comment on others in public, but that just might be my personality.

 

When you’re a kid you can’t understand walls.
Each building in a child’s life
Feels like a monument, built in prehistory
And designed to outlive us. Cinder block
Elementary schools and brick fire stations and
Stained glass windows, houses, homes.

Then you get to be an adult and you learn
What a lie drywall is, how easily we can cut
And gouge and patch it. A drunken fist
Is gone a day later, the local music store
Becomes a fluorescent-lit pharmacy.
You can’t even tell what used to be there. Seamless.

Eventually it’s all torn down, burned, reforged,
Repainted, expanded, reimagined.
Your childhood buildings, like your childhood family,
Disappear overnight. Your father becomes a vape store.
They flatten the building where you watched baseball
And years later, you remember you left something there.

You spend years thinking about this
With your knees in the soil, pulling weeds
In your uneven, average lawn. You never change it
Not because it’s perfect, or even beautiful
But so that when you remember it, you remember
All those lawns at once, a single image, fixed.

Your children play around you and swing sticks
All while a hundred bad baseball players
Who never knew your childhood baseball home
Fly from the radio and embed themselves in the soil:
Figgins. Langerhans. Saunders. The other Saunders.
Invisible, meaningless, inseparable,
Designed to be grass stains on tiny knees
Long after your own walls have come down.

 

Anyone else having a hard time getting MLB.tv to load, or just me?

 

go dodgers

 

Effectively Wild’s discussion today starting at 23:45ish about Yelich was really interesting, roughly about how hard it is to knowingly watch history happen but these last 400 plate appearances of Yelich’s career have seemingly altered his career trajectory and that we’re in the midst of a historic run by him and it’s good to know that so we can better appreciate it while it’s happening. Lot of good info and tidbits in the discussion.

Lasts about 18-20 minutes and well worth the listen

 

I will say that I’m glad not to have to deal with *this* Harper (right or wrong) stuff anymore. (He was called out in DC, though.)

 

My main issue with it is that he did the same thing last year and came out pitching poorly. He has a tendency of not backing anything up. It came off kind of fake tbh.

 

he backed up this, which is all that matters

 

Accusing Arrieta of not being a gamer is weird.

 

JD Martinez just made the best throw of his life.

 

I just happen to think he comes off as one of those fake tough guys. I don't know, I guess I'm just more annoyed he singled out Bryce.

 

i understand thinking a coworker or friend or someone you personally know is fake, but none of us know arrieta at all. i don’t understand how he comes off as fake or a tough guy. he’s just a dude who does pilates a lot and wants to win

 

I guess I'm just more annoyed he called out Harper, I had no issue with Harper getting ejected last night. It happens and I'm happy the Phillies finally have a player that has the intensity that Harper has.

 

I didn’t have a problem with it either. But I’m sympathetic to Arrieta’s comments. The Phillies odds of winning are increased with Harper on the field. Missing him for 5 innings is a significant blow, especially in a tight division at a point where every game is very significant. Not a perfect example, but it’s like Curry being ejected in the 2nd quarter or McDavid in the first period. Those players are both in sports where individuals can control the game a lot more and are also better than Harper but still, not having Harper is a blow. And Harper agreed! But I do appreciate Harper’s flare and his willingness to stick up for his teammates at the plate

 

I was reminded of this today

 

I don't like Jake Arrieta at all but I see no problem with anything he said last night, especially since Harper backed up what Arrieta said about him specifically. As for Arrieta's comments about the team as a whole, that's just a veteran who's been in the league for a decade giving his honest assessment of a pretty young team's performance on a tough night in mid-April. Who cares if the statement is made to a member of the media, his mom, or to a fan--baseball players aren't paid to care about optics, they're paid to play the game. And in Arrieta's case, showing some leadership as a veteran during a team's first rough patch is absolutely part of why the Phillies pay him to play the game. I'd have to go back and look at the transcript to be sure, but I'm pretty certain Arrieta included himself and the runs he gave up in his assessment of what went wrong.

My $0.02.

 

This is my only reason for not liking him. (Don't mind me. Just a bitter Pirates fan )