artie_fufkin wrote:

The Cardinals continue to play just well enough to stay in contention.

Its almost frusterating but tonight was a good game.

artie_fufkin wrote:

Speaking of bad announcing, i'm, not sure how many of you were awake at 7 a.m. to watch Costa Rica vs. Serbia match, but there was a pretty nasty exchange between pxp guy Derek Rae and color commentator Aly Wagner.
Rae, who is Scottish, was the lead soccer announcer for the BBC and then he moved to the U.S. to work for ESPN. ESPN lost the Premier League soccer contract to NBC and he was basically out of a gig. He became the pxp announcer for the New England Revolution in MLS. He's a miserable, condescending person to begin with, and beating the bushes in a fourth or fifth tier league in America of all places has made him insufferable.
Anyway, Fox hired him to cover the World Cup and he's been paired with Wagner, who is a former member of the U.S. Women's national team and actually a pretty good analyst. They were assigned the aforementioned Serbia/Costa Rica game this morning, which featured this repartie:
Rae: "In both of their qualifying matches, Costa Rica defeated the USA, which to their great embarrassment is not here in Russia."
Wagner: "When was the last time Scotland played in the World Cup again?"
Rae: "1998."
There was about 15 seconds of silence after that. You could practically sense the broadcast booth icing over, like a Dementor from a Harry Potter novel had just shown up.

It’s kinda cute that you really believed any of us might have watched a soccer game.

APIAD wrote:

I guess the frusterating thing is that they are only .5 games out of the wild card. If they would of won the series vs the marlins and padres (two things they should of done) they would be up a game and a half.

I would add an inability to beat the teams they should beat - excepting the Reds - to the mounting list of frustrating things about this team, including but not limited to:
- Carlos Martinez's inability to go from a 2-3 guy in the rotation to an ace
- Matheny's insistence on playing Fowler over Bader
- Mathney's roulette wheel mentality when it comes to the bullpen
- Munoz at shortstop every day. Surely, there has to be someone better defensively in the minor leagues
- Matheny's insistence on batting Carpenter in the leadoff position.
- Mathney's insistence on playing Carpenter over Gyorko
- The inability of the first basemen - plural intended - to catch a thrown or batted ball at a rate of at least 90 percent
- Tommy Pham's tendency toward brain cramps that turn him into a slightly less irritating version of Randal Grichuk, baseball's idiot savant
- Wong taking at least one and usually two home run cuts during every at bat
- Weaver's sudden unwillingness to challenge hitters even though he has a 96-97 mph fastball up his sleeve
- Matheny's penchant for leaving in the starting pitcher for at least five innings to qualify for a win, even if said starting pitcher is clearly out of gas and/or getting clobbered

I'm sure there are more, but this is just going off the top of my head.
 

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

It’s kinda cute that you really believed any of us might have watched a soccer game.

This is why I was so descriptive, but since you brought it up, is anyone else having a hard time rooting for England because there are so many Tottenham Hotspur players on the roster?

I hear Preperation H gets rid of Hotspurs

Only the version that's applied orally.
 

So, clearly, DFA Weaver or trade him for a journeyman first baseman.

Thanks and regards,
Mo

artie_fufkin wrote:

APIAD wrote:

I guess the frusterating thing is that they are only .5 games out of the wild card. If they would of won the series vs the marlins and padres (two things they should of done) they would be up a game and a half.

I would add an inability to beat the teams they should beat - excepting the Reds - to the mounting list of frustrating things about this team, including but not limited to:
- Carlos Martinez's inability to go from a 2-3 guy in the rotation to an ace
- Matheny's insistence on playing Fowler over Bader
- Mathney's roulette wheel mentality when it comes to the bullpen
- Munoz at shortstop every day. Surely, there has to be someone better defensively in the minor leagues
- Matheny's insistence on batting Carpenter in the leadoff position.
- Mathney's insistence on playing Carpenter over Gyorko
- The inability of the first basemen - plural intended - to catch a thrown or batted ball at a rate of at least 90 percent
- Tommy Pham's tendency toward brain cramps that turn him into a slightly less irritating version of Randal Grichuk, baseball's idiot savant
- Wong taking at least one and usually two home run cuts during every at bat
- Weaver's sudden unwillingness to challenge hitters even though he has a 96-97 mph fastball up his sleeve
- Matheny's penchant for leaving in the starting pitcher for at least five innings to qualify for a win, even if said starting pitcher is clearly out of gas and/or getting clobbered

I'm sure there are more, but this is just going off the top of my head.