SB Nation User Blog: Nighthawk at the Diner

Tug no more

Nighthawk at the Diner — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:03:29 -0000

I know you're all busy cramming fowl into your pumpkin pie holes, but where is the speculation, analysis, and dissection of the Tugger for a PTBNL deal with the dreaded BoSox? Anytime GMDM deals with a team who obviously possesses a superior analytic, fiduciary, and common sense edge over our beloved Royals (Theo AND Bill James? We're screwed), I feel queasy. Curious if anyone has an educated guess as to what pool of PTNBL's we might be looking into in return for one of the Royals many sporky types? I know its Thanksgiving, but come on people, Tugger's gone and tumbleweeds are blowing around here..........

Notes from Surprise - Shealy Swears, Apologizes

Nighthawk at the Diner — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:44:04 -0000

I was at Surprise last nite for the A's game, and was delighted to see George Brett working in the batting cage with Mike Jacobs and Joguie. He had some crazy assed tool I'd never seen before, basically a bat with a ball mounted on it......then he'd have Jacobs swing with the bat/ball mount and try to hit a ball off a tee.....Brett was talking about how it helps with muscle memory and learning to square up the ball on the bat, etc....also mentioned that Robin Yount introduced him to the batt/ball thing, and Ortiz currently uses it. Anyway, Jacobs struggeld making good contact. So Brett stepped in and whack, whack, whack, it was just like 1980 all over again. My first time at ST, I couldn't recommend it more to baseball fans. Great atmosphere. Ryan Shealy was swearing in the batting cage (I'm guessing that happens a lot more without Rev Sweeney prowling the grounds like an assistant principal at a jr high sock hop) and John Buck half seriously scolded Shealy. "Ryan, check out this chain link fence. It has holes in it. The fans can hear you." Then he apologized to my wife and told the small group around the batting cage that they'd wash out Shealy's mouth with soap after the game. Greinke had a nice game, trouble locating his off speed stuff early, but he got on top of it and dominated the last 3 or 4 innings. A vile Snow had a line drive HR to center. And Bloomquist was always the first guy in/and off the field between innings.

Greinke/Francouer Swap?

Nighthawk at the Diner — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:30:20 -0000

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/12/royals-braves-t.html

Dearest God above...........Nooooooooo! As the rock solid and well respected MLB Trade Rumours.com points out, this seems highly unlikely. However, it still scares the beejesus outta me and Soren Petro. MLBtraderumours posits that the Braves would likely need to add pitching to balance out this deal and make it more palatable for the tin eared palate of Dayton Moore (Dinty More?), but unless the arms added include Tom Smoltz vintage 1998, then I'm going to piss and moan until I'm powder blue in the face.