varaven45

Especially for us homers drinking a little purple kool aid in the pre-season.

DC, We can agree to disagree. Machado is a franchise player, a rising star and so the organization needs to keep out in front of character issues. He doesn't need a shrink, just a strong mentor to give him valuable guidance and how to be a pro athlete. No more, no less.

Machado is your prototypical modern, misguided athlete who needs a strong mentor before he turns into another A-Rod. Otherwise, the organization, Buck, etc need to sit Machado down right now and teach the young lad humility, professional etiquette, and general sportsmanship. This kid has a lot of talent; I d hate to see him squander it.

We needed Gausman II today vs A's. OMG. Where was the starting pitching today ? At least the pitching only gave up 1 touchdown instead of 2. Man !

Oldno. All good points, especially in 2nd para, which lends credence to my guesstimate of 6-8 wins. The running game gives me the shakes this season. Imagine how Joe F must be feeling ?

I am thinking 6-8 wins, mostly on the failure to address the OL situation and RB position in the draft. The offseason shenanigans signal bad karma for this season. If all the planets align, Rice puts the legal stuff behind him, the players stay out of jail, and the key playmakers don't have major injuries, we might eke out 8 wins.

Yep. The team is stepping backwards and needs to get out of this funkorama.

The boys have settled into another funk- filled with uninspiring play and crappy results. What happened to this scary offensive lineup we kept hearing about in the offseason? The only guy that's scary right now is Cruz and he can't do it alone. The pitching is incredibly inconsistent and the situational hitting is absent once again. It's time, before the season starts to slip away, for Buck to pump their arses up and get their collective crap together. There's time to pull it together - it's still May - but this team need to finds its mojo pretty dang soon.

Time for Harbs and the boys to tighten up and turn this ship around quickly.

I'm telling you if these guys get suspended they can snag bit parts in Adam Sandlers next sequel to the Longest Yard . They've already auditioned and have the part down !

Indeed. Our pitching is incredibly average and inconsistent too

We are going to need bigger, better bats- judging from tonight's flat hitting performance against another mediocre pitcher in Milwaukee. It's amaZing how sometimes our offense can make the most mediocre pitchers look like Sandy Koufax. Golly jeez !

In the famous words of SNL's Church Lady, "isn't that special ". What is Goodell going to do with all these knuckleheads ? They just don't get it.

My $ is on 4 games. Goodell will lay down the hammer on Rice.

Lets hope this whole ordeal becomes a "rite of passage" for Ray. He might respond like Ray Ray after his trial in 1999/2000. He played with a sense of purpose and urgency the whole season. Maybe Rice follows suit. Hell, what has he got to lose ?

Awesome big stick tonight !

1. I don't have any problems with Flacco playing in a golf tourney; hell, he's enjoying a hobby during the offseason. 2. Joe doesn't know diddly about Rice's legal situation and his opinion is no more valid than anyone on this board. I do like but don't share his optimism. 3. The Team needs to gird itself for a multi game suspension. All indications point to a 4 game suspension. What's more, the team knew this at the draft and should have drafted a bonafide RB; instead of an oversized Blocking RB from a small college. This team failed to significantly address the running game in the offseason and, unless through some miracle after the June 1 cuts we acquire a legit back, our running game will be mediocre at the very best.

Who in the heck are these castoffs. From Jax no less. Yikes

split with Royals - a .500 team much like the Os . Maybe we get out of This funk in Pittsburgh or next homestand. Playing some mediocre ball . Lucky it's still May.

Runner on 3rd & 0 out or 1 out - this team does this all the time. Hindsight is 20/20 but could we just once have tried a suicide with 1 out and Jonesy up ? No one would have expected it. Might have changed the outcome. Instead, we let the Yanks pull into 1st place tie and now we face Shields tomorrow - can't feel good about that one.

Tough loss tonight . Duffy pitched a heck of a game and Holland pitched a Tommy Hunter like 9th. For a minute a thought it was Hunter. Too bad we lost tonight . I expect Shiields to shut us down tomorrow - the dude owns us Tied up with Yanks for 1st place.

Tillman !!! And no closer !!! And a bunt by Machado. Buck playing a little small ball. Can you believe it ? That is what I m talking about !!!!

For what's its worth : http://m.espn.go.com/mlb/story? storyId=10944548

That's pretty dang telling right there. I don't know what they are thinking long term but they have got to land a righty somewhere to replace Homerun Hunter.

Yep as long as we get a Jim Johnson like performance from our savers this year.