Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Anatomy of the Red Sox batting order - WEEI | Rob Bradford
(www.weei.com)
Interesting stuff.
Read More...John Farrell and Torey Lovullo looked down toward the Twins bullpen. They saw some stirring, as Minnesota lefty reliever Brian Duensing had grabbed a ball and tossed it a few times.
Then Duensing sat down. It was then the Red Sox manager and his bench coach knew they had put the right people in the right places.
“It’s a good feeling,” Lovullo said after the Red Sox’ 12-5 win over the Twins Saturday night, “when all the puzzle pieces fit perfectly.”
The puzzle Lovullo ...
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1 2 3 >More importantly, it's just another PED-related semi-leak. I'm sure he'll say a little more tomorrow -- "It was on a Tuesday. Late on a Tuesday." And a little more than that the next day, and will never actually getting around to saying anything that might make this meaningful. On PEDs we're long past the point at which people either need to say something meaningful or STFU.
@5 - Shhhh.
Schilling and Cowherd. Talk about two peas on a pod.
There are much more efficient ways to say that. Schilling needs more practice talking.
YES
I know, I know: we hate him, we hate people who take anti-PED positions, and we REALLY hate players who do so.
None of which has anything to do with the fact that there's no reason to disbelieve what he's saying.
Ugh, not even close. Schilling may be a blowhard but Cowherd is quite possibly the devil spawn of Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck.
I know, I know: we hate him, we hate people who take anti-PED positions, and we REALLY hate players who do so.
None of which has anything to do with the fact that there's no reason to disbelieve what he's saying.
I like Schilling in spite of his right wing politics and his former laundry, I obviously don't hate people who take anti-PED positions unless they're complete idiots about it, and I don't hate players who speak out against PEDs.
But until Schilling starts naming names and agrees to testify about specifics under oath, we have no ####### way to judge the truth or untruth of what he's saying. One of these days he's going to have to #### or get off the pot.
2. a) I don't "hate" Schilling (don't know the guy). His public persona, though, is as a blowhard, a guy who took the state of Rhode Island for millions and then blamed them when his poorly conceived company went belly up, and hypocritical at every corner. b) I don't "hate" "people" who take anti-PED positions; I think they need to wake up and look at what pro sports has been for, well, ever. c) I don't "hate" players who take anti-PED positions, but a player like Schilling (a star during the depth of the PED "scandal" in MLB) is being a hypocrite to say anything now when he was quiet when he was a player.
If Schilling had come out right then - after MLB had banned PEDs - I, among others, would look at him differently. But it sure looks like he's just looking for a camera and a microphone once again.
Dude is being interviewed and he answered a ####### question. How is that being a hypocrite?
*Meaning 'clammed up before congress', will probably actually be 'Wasn't 100% sure, so he didn't want to lie to anyone'.
And I certainly get why he wouldn't want to name names on these issues, but if he is not going to name names, at this point, he would probably be better off talking about something else.
Well, what's he saying? Perhaps if he'd tell us. Or you can, since you seem to know. His story is so vague as to be uninteresting. Who was telling him to take what? Schilling doesn't say. So I don't know what I'm supposed to do with his story.
What do you take from his story? What is he telling the truth about?
I have no reason to think he is not telling the truth, but the lack of specifics gives me no reason to think he is telling the truth - and besides it is steroids so I don't really care one way or another* (though management 'encouraging' players does seem more than a little problematic I admit).
But hey keep stirring the pot Curt.
* OK this is not really true, I don't care if players use, I am OK with there being negotiated testing and penalties, and I object to the moralism many folks have regarding PEDs and tghe retroactive application of their morality.
The fact that he brings this up for the first time after so many years is a reason. You can say he was never asked directly, but come on, this is a big deal, and he has been asked about steroids and volunteered statements about steroids many times, and only now he drops this bombshell?
The fact that his adventures in Rhode Island cast doubt on his honesty is a reason. You play fast and loose with the facts once, your reputation for honesty may never recover.
The fact that he has declined to provide any details is a reason. Just making a bald statement like this, where there is nobody to contradict you, raises doubts.
Now, I am not saying he is not telling the truth here. But to assert that there is no reason at all to disbelieve him is to take a partisan position for partisan reasons.
pretty silly to hate schilling because he is a republican. so is pretty much every other ballplayer. it's not like he's a racist or wife beater or gay basher. he has a big mouth like a whole lot of guys right here. so he sez what he thinks. you want him to shut up because he doesn't say what you want him to?
liberal is supposed to mean that he got a right to his opinions and if someone asks it is fine to say em. it's not like he's stepping in front of the mic kanye style.
and i disagree that he should out other players. unless they are braying about how Clean And Pure And Sinless they are.
I have little doubt that this story is true. But as Fernigal says in #7, if this is about the roid-dealing assistant to the traveling secretary's trainer, then it's perhaps of mild interest. It could even be about some player's assistant or entourage member or whatever. I assume ballclubs attract lowlifes like that, it might be worth investigating for a story but it's not world-shaking. If it's about Theo Epstein and Tito Francona, it's the biggest roid story perhaps ever. Since Schilling didn't actually say much of anything about the details, it's hard to have much to say about it.
My recollection is that when Thomas retired he was pretty annoyed at what he felt were hitters who achieved their totals through cheating. So his anti PED statements aren't a new thing. And in fact, if he is innocent than it is guys like him whose legacies are tarnished by guys like Raffy et al.
Lisa, I'm not saying that Schilling should rat out other players. But I am saying that until he starts getting more specific, he's not advancing our knowledge with anything that we can put our hands on.
This is pretty much where I'm at on it. My assumption (since the incentives are for both him and Cowherd to do so) is that Schilling is exaggerating for effect here. If it were Francona/Epstein/Lucchino, that would be the biggest bombshell ever and probably warrant whoever it is being blacklisted from baseball.
It was probably a personal training assistant.
Pre-testing, it was in the best interests of front offices and teams to employ roiders, and to know more than their competitors about who in the player pool was roiding and who wasn't. (*)
If we keep that unshakeable principle in mind, and the knowledge that this is a very competitive industry filled with ambitious people who get ahead through succeeding competitively, many things naturally follow -- among them, discussions about roids and roiding between players and senior management. The world will likely never know about those conversations.
(*) Indeed, that knowledge falls squarely within the textbook definition of "exploitable market inefficiency." Was that part of the Moneyball approach to team-builing?
Frank Thomas was 6'5, 275. It was mighty big of him to whine that other players might be using steroids to try to catch up to the massive weight advantage he had over them. Mighty big of him to try to preserve the huge competitive advantage he had over them by preventing them from using steroids to try to level the playing field. Oh, how Moral he is!
also this:
Tweet: Lucchino said Schilling accusation (that someone in organization encouraged PED use) came "out of left field" but it will be looked into.
Note that the vague conversation Schilling refers to took place in 2008, i.e., after testing.
In the midst of a group of people? With others present who weren't involved?
That would be odd.
Don't worry; we won't have to speculate for long. We'll know soon enough, when Esoteric circles back around to the thread to fill us in on what Schilling was talking about.
For probably more than half of the baseball public, this makes somebody look bad. Morally repugnant even, since steroids are the greatest of evils. Who looks bad? The GM? The manager? The trainers? Other ballplayers? We don't know. So Curt has made all of them look a little bad, since the readers will each make their individual judgments of who Curt is supposed to be talking about. Some of those people are innocent. Thanks a lot Curt.
I laughed.
Isn't this sort of silly? How could you even look into this? It was five years ago! I know people love working in baseball, but how many people are even still going to be around from then?
Add in low taxes for the super-rich, and you've pretty much got the current Republican party platform in a nutshell.
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