Any relation to the Pillsbury Throwboy? The Round Mound of Touchdown?
I don’t think so. But I don’t know for sure either.
EDIT: No relation.
Hey @triggercut what’s the deal with this? Fowler had a great reputation in Chicago and the Cards organization isn’t prone to this kind of thing. Any insight?
Fowler hasn’t played well at all. He’s hitting .170. Mo could’ve handled things much better, but there have been times where Dex simply hasn’t exactly gone all-out.
A writer who covers the Cubs for The Athletic wrote a scathing piece ripping the Cardinals for their handling of Dexter, and comparing them unfavorably to the Cubs in a “Well, things have completely switched.” I read it, and it was largely a hatchet job and not what you’d expect out of The Athletic, but there you go. But a number of other writers have waded in since.
I mean: yep, the Cardinals moved Fowler out of CF. They did that because Fowler was fucking terrible in CF last year. Dexter had one really good defensive year in CF in his career and one OK year…and both were with the Cubs in a smaller outfield to cover. He was b-r-u-t-a-l in the field last year.
And the Cardinals played Fowler in his preferred leadoff spot. This year his OPS in that spot is .571. Last year it was .698. Since putting Matt Carpenter back at leadoff, Carpenter is OPSing .991. The math ain’t tough.
Mike Matheny is a terrible manager. He’s awful. But he also put Dexter Fowler out there time and again for the first 10 weeks of the season, regardless of what anyone says. And behind Dexter, there’s Harrison Bader. If you’re trying to maximize your chances of winning and you’re the manager, who are you giving more playing time to? Bader – in part time duty – is a 2.3 WAR player. At any rate, there are a lot of writers who cover the Cardinals who really, really want Matheny gone. I’m a fan who really wants Matheny gone. But these writers – one of whom writes for the Athletic covering the Cardinals and is a bigwig at FanGraphs – have seized on this issue to do their level best to try to form a thing to get Matheny fired. Which…I appreciate the ends, but the means here are pretty gross. (This writer, btw, has ripped Matheny for not using his closer in a tie game on the road in extra innings in one month, and ripped him almost exactly 5 weeks later for using his closer in extra innings on the road. I called him on it on twitter and he said he “probably misspoke” before. OK.)
And Fowler can deny it, and people can stick up for him, but there have been times he hasn’t run out ground balls, and times where he’s taking horribly selfish at bats. Again, if Mo or Matheny were going to call him out, they probably should’ve done it mano a mano…but I also get the feeling they’re getting pretty much their fill of the Dexter Fowler experience. Fowler has always done his own thing (including using his own fitness and nutrition coaches, and his own hitting coach), and it’s all fine and good to tell the team you’re not interested in their offseason workout schedules and plans when you’re OPSing .750. But not when you’re hitting sub-.200.
Right now the Cardinals and Giants are playing at AT&T. Dereck Rodriguez is pitching for San Francisco; he’s Pudge Rodriguez’s son. Ivan is at the game watching his kid pitch. Working as color man in the Cardinal TV booth is Tim McCarver.
So check out this lineup of baseball catching royalty at the ballpark tonight:
Buster Posey
Yadier Molina
Mike Matheny
Bruce Bochy
Ivan Rodriguez
Tim McCarver
If they coulda flown in Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk…
I’m sitting here watching the Royals get clobbered for the umpteenth night in a row, and listening to AJ Pierzynski talk about how Hawk Harrelson deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Because of his catch-phrases.
It’s not my worst Saturday night.
You can put in on the board (but please don’t).
Nobody here in Philly, including myself, is truly convinced the Phillies are for real. But the fact that they are in first place in NL East in the second week of July certainly gives hope in a season when hitting .500 would have been deemed acceptable.
And they sit in first despite getting mixed offensive production - no single position player is having an outstanding year – and despite a wildly inconsistent bullpen. And despite Jake Arrietta’s total suckage in June (zero wins). They’ve won six straight, 8 of 9, and lead the league in winning one run games.
What does all that add up to? Good managing from rookie Gabe Kapler. His quotes are annoying and his early season blunders were infuriating, but he has seemed masterful (and a touch lucky) with many of his on-field strategic decisions.
I’m still skeptical but they’ve been fun to watch.
The Phillies always seem to bounce back from a soul crushing loss, suggesting a good locker room atmosphere and probably something else Gabe can take credit for. It’s bizarre that there are people out there who are still judging him on that awful first week like nothing good has happened since.
I think the bullpen is getting itself sorted now that there is no more Neris. Seranthony, Ramos, Arano and Neshek are all very good. Davis seems like he’ll do a job somewhere down the line although I expect he goes back down when Garcia comes back. You only have to cover your eyes when it’s Morgan or Hunter.
Baseball!
So I have Bauer of Cleveland in my daily head to head league. I got home last night and saw the score and assumed I had probably picked up minus points, what with the final being a 7-4 Indians loss.
But no, Bauer was worth a monstrous 31 points after pitching 8 strong innings, but the Indians bullpen gave up 7 runs in the top of the ninth. That must have been really painful for an Indians fan to watch.
Let’s focus more on the A’s - 'Stros clip than the continuing dumpster fire of Cleveland’s bullpen :(
…especially given the circumstances of this particular melt.
I’m not sure it was the “most unusual ending evar”, but that was definitely pretty amusing.
And, as I hoped, there is a Grant Brisbee paean to that play: https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/7/11/17559186/astros-athletics-error-walkoff-alex-bregman-wat
I’m trying to pretend the 9th inning never happened, personally. So instead I’ll just say that Bauer is well-deserving of his All-Star nod.
Reds are going to win the NL Central this year. You watch.
They can probably take Riggleman’s “interim” tag off too.
They probably ought to worry about catching Pittsburgh first…
Halos announce that Garrett Richards has a damaged UCL. Again. Missed all of 2016 after Tommy John, missed most of 2017 with a nerve injury related to the rebuilt UCL, and now this.