MLB 23

[acmillis]

Shocked there were 17,500 people on hand to watch.

[These Are The Days]

I didn't get to see the game. Are you fucking serious? It was 17,000 people? Nevermind. St. Pete sucks ass

[Kress]

I didn't get to see the game. Are you fucking serious? It was 17,000 people? Nevermind. St. Pete sucks ass

To be fair, you're picking on other people for not going to the stadium when you weren't even able to put it on TV.

[These Are The Days]

I didn't get to see the game. Are you fucking serious? It was 17,000 people? Nevermind. St. Pete sucks ass

To be fair, you're picking on other people for not going to the stadium when you weren't even able to put it on TV.

I was gonna try to explain why I was busy but screw it. Touche. You win this one Gadget!

[Kress]

To be fair, you're picking on other people for not going to the stadium when you weren't even able to put it on TV.

I was gonna try to explain why I was busy but screw it. Touche. You win this one Gadget!

As it turned out, you are among the lucky ones. It went: disappointing --> maddening --> dumbfounding --> comical --> comical again --> forgettable.

They looked like the first day of spring training out there.

[Bootz]

[mdb1958]

? they flew up to Philly

[Bootz]

The Rays need to come to terms with this: They'll never get further with Kevin Cash as manager. 1-7 in their last 8 playoff games including 2 straight years getting swept. They've lost their last 5 playoff games at the Trop. He simply is not the guy to get them over the hump.

[These Are The Days]

The Rays need to come to terms with this: They'll never get further with Kevin Cash as manager. 1-7 in their last 8 playoff games including 2 straight years getting swept. They've lost their last 5 playoff games at the Trop. He simply is not the guy to get them over the hump.

I politely disagree. Cash ain't that great but what happened to the Rays this year was like telling someone to clap both their hands after you lopped one off. I say stick with him next year and if it happens again then yeah, what you've said is correct. I'm at worst inclined to a vote of sympathy for him. This happened to Jon Cooper of the Lightning over and over and over and over again and now? Now he's got a case for being the best coach not named Belichick in the last 20 years. Save for maybe Steve Kerr.

I'm not putting Cash at that level as much as I've seen this before and am inclined for one last chance

[These Are The Days]

My ire is more towards ownership and upper management. I'm tired of the shoestring budget every year and so is every other Rays fan. I appreciate the constant efforts to make the best team possible every year but you can't keep crossing your fingers and praying you'll moneyball your way to a title. It's been over 15 years and it doesn't work

[Kress]

The Rays need to come to terms with this: They'll never get further with Kevin Cash as manager. 1-7 in their last 8 playoff games including 2 straight years getting swept. They've lost their last 5 playoff games at the Trop. He simply is not the guy to get them over the hump.

You can't put this on Cash. They got swept the past two years because they scored 1 run in 4 games. That's 42 innings, because one game last year had them getting skunked through 15. He didn't mismanage that dogshit, and nobody you put in that dugout can manage guys into hitting the ball.

One run. That's all on the players, and I'm including the opposing teams' pitchers.

[Bootz]

The Rays need to come to terms with this: They'll never get further with Kevin Cash as manager. 1-7 in their last 8 playoff games including 2 straight years getting swept. They've lost their last 5 playoff games at the Trop. He simply is not the guy to get them over the hump.

I politely disagree. Cash ain't that great but what happened to the Rays this year was like telling someone to clap both their hands after you lopped one off. I say stick with him next year and if it happens again then yeah, what you've said is correct. I'm at worst inclined to a vote of sympathy for him. This happened to Jon Cooper of the Lightning over and over and over and over again and now? Now he's got a case for being the best coach not named Belichick in the last 20 years. Save for maybe Steve Kerr.

I'm not putting Cash at that level as much as I've seen this before and am inclined for one last chance

If it takes just 1 more year of "we'll wait and see" you're all but telling me you have doubts yourself.

It's not as if you get to the playoffs and then all of a sudden you remember the injury woes and such. Yesterday was completely inexcusable. 4 errors in 6 innings is embarrassing. This team was 34-19 from August 1st on and in this series looked like a AAA team who had to be an emergency replacement for the big league club.

[acmillis]

So how many of the 4 errors did Cash commit?

[Bootz]

You do realize that highlighting that a manager isn't responsible for anything that happens on the field is the same as saying he serves no purpose.

[acmillis]

You do realize that highlighting that a manager isn't responsible for anything that happens on the field is the same as saying he serves no purpose.

Not at all. The catcher throwing in to CF is on Cash, seriously?

[Kress]

You do realize that highlighting that a manager isn't responsible for anything that happens on the field is the same as saying he serves no purpose.

That's outright false.

Did he set a bad lineup? Play the wrong guys, put them out of position, and yank the starter too soon?

Does he catch the ball for Ramirez, guide Lowe's arm as he throws, or swing Arozarena's bat?

Compare and contrast. Our manager did his job. Our players did not.

[These Are The Days]

I politely disagree. Cash ain't that great but what happened to the Rays this year was like telling someone to clap both their hands after you lopped one off. I say stick with him next year and if it happens again then yeah, what you've said is correct. I'm at worst inclined to a vote of sympathy for him. This happened to Jon Cooper of the Lightning over and over and over and over again and now? Now he's got a case for being the best coach not named Belichick in the last 20 years. Save for maybe Steve Kerr.

I'm not putting Cash at that level as much as I've seen this before and am inclined for one last chance

If it takes just 1 more year of "we'll wait and see" you're all but telling me you have doubts yourself.

It's not as if you get to the playoffs and then all of a sudden you remember the injury woes and such. Yesterday was completely inexcusable. 4 errors in 6 innings is embarrassing. This team was 34-19 from August 1st on and in this series looked like a AAA team who had to be an emergency replacement for the big league club.

I have doubts but that has more to do with the fact that the Rays **NEVER** do anything significant at the trade deadline and are the most predictable team in baseball come October. The difference between the Rays yesterday and the Rays at 13-0 is like 3 guys with Tommy John surgery, Lowe with a broken knee cap, Franco under federal investigation, the return of Pete Fairbanks and Aaron Civale. What do the Rays have to work with that makes a manager better? "Look guys!! We got Jose Siri!!" Yeah. That went well. Civale wasn't that great either and I was over the moon that they got another pitcher. But we roll the same team for 6 months year after year and wonder why we can't win in the playoffs. I mean fine. Say we win the division. The Rays get their faces caved in 3 games to 1 in the 1st round. The Rays went through that legendary baseball voodoo this year. The kind where your team doesn't win a World Series for 80 years. We saw how taxing this year was becoming and did nothing to fix it. THEN we go and lose our 2 best players and it's like "lel whoopsie!"

The shoestring budget BS has to stop. Cash needs to be able to manage a team instead of being forced to worry about how to turn other team's chicken shit into chicken salad every postseason. The team is constructed to win the division and that's basically it because you can manage a regular season that way. But you can't go any further than that unless Randy turns into Babe Ruth in the playoffs. You're not facing crap like the Rockies in the playoffs to float your average back up to a 99 win season.

This is literally what happened to Joe Maddon and we're seeing it again.

[These Are The Days]

Moreover I think the fans are getting burned out on this and I don't blame them. I'm getting tired of the Cinderella Imposter Syndrome because they won't do anything but visit the discount Fairy Godmother. Every year the Rays are built on moneyball hopes and dreams but every postseason goes down with the Rays' carriage breaking down into a pumpkin at 8pm and forcing them to walk the last 3 miles to the castle. They show up sweaty, dirty and dressed in rags and get thrown out by the palace guard as soon as they walk into the building never once seeing the prince.

[_MB_]

Moreover I think the fans are getting burned out on this and I don't blame them. I'm getting tired of the Cinderella Imposter Syndrome because they won't do anything but visit the discount Fairy Godmother. Every year the Rays are built on moneyball hopes and dreams but every postseason goes down with the Rays' carriage breaking down into a pumpkin at 8pm and forcing them to walk the last 3 miles to the castle. They show up sweaty, dirty and dressed in rags and get thrown out by the palace guard as soon as they walk into the building never once seeing the prince.

Poetry

[Kress]

I thought that was when the prince was supposed to bypass the bitch in her ball gown, wander out into the parking lot, and fall in love with sweaty, dirty, raggedy-ass us, instead.

Are you telling me Disney lies?

[Bootz]

Moreover I think the fans are getting burned out on this and I don't blame them. I'm getting tired of the Cinderella Imposter Syndrome because they won't do anything but visit the discount Fairy Godmother. Every year the Rays are built on moneyball hopes and dreams but every postseason goes down with the Rays' carriage breaking down into a pumpkin at 8pm and forcing them to walk the last 3 miles to the castle. They show up sweaty, dirty and dressed in rags and get thrown out by the palace guard as soon as they walk into the building never once seeing the prince.

The "moneyball" excuse doesn't pass the smell test. Since Cash was hired as manager in 2015, the Rays have the 5th best regular season winning percentage. "Moneyball" didn't prevent this team from winning 99 games this season either. It's only mentioned when they get embarrassed. You heard no mention of "moneyball" when they won 13 straight to start the year. Moneyball didn't prevent the Rays from having an batting champion in Yandy Diaz or the pitcher with the most wins in the AL in Zach Eflin.

I've seen enough from Cash to know this team isn't going any further with him. You're already leaning that way, so when you get there this time next year, I'll be waiting.

[These Are The Days]

I thought that was when the prince was supposed to bypass the bitch in her ball gown, wander out into the parking lot, and fall in love with sweaty, dirty, raggedy-ass us, instead.

Are you telling me Disney lies?

To be fair I think that's how the Rays remember the movie going

[acmillis]

Moreover I think the fans are getting burned out on this and I don't blame them. I'm getting tired of the Cinderella Imposter Syndrome because they won't do anything but visit the discount Fairy Godmother. Every year the Rays are built on moneyball hopes and dreams but every postseason goes down with the Rays' carriage breaking down into a pumpkin at 8pm and forcing them to walk the last 3 miles to the castle. They show up sweaty, dirty and dressed in rags and get thrown out by the palace guard as soon as they walk into the building never once seeing the prince.

The "moneyball" excuse doesn't pass the smell test. Since Cash was hired as manager in 2015, the Rays have the 5th best regular season winning percentage. "Moneyball" didn't prevent this team from winning 99 games this season either. It's only mentioned when they get embarrassed. You heard no mention of "moneyball" when they won 13 straight to start the year. Moneyball didn't prevent the Rays from having an batting champion in Yandy Diaz or the pitcher with the most wins in the AL in Zach Eflin.

I've seen enough from Cash to know this team isn't going any further with him. You're already leaning that way, so when you get there this time next year, I'll be waiting.

So who are we hiring that is going to be the Rays' Gruden? What manager wants to come to a franchise that he knows will never spend money?
Cash is our best bet by far.

Your line of thinking has Andy Reid at fault for losing to TB in the Superbowl.....wild.

[Bootz]

The "moneyball" excuse doesn't pass the smell test. Since Cash was hired as manager in 2015, the Rays have the 5th best regular season winning percentage. "Moneyball" didn't prevent this team from winning 99 games this season either. It's only mentioned when they get embarrassed. You heard no mention of "moneyball" when they won 13 straight to start the year. Moneyball didn't prevent the Rays from having an batting champion in Yandy Diaz or the pitcher with the most wins in the AL in Zach Eflin.

I've seen enough from Cash to know this team isn't going any further with him. You're already leaning that way, so when you get there this time next year, I'll be waiting.

So who are we hiring that is going to be the Rays' Gruden? What manager wants to come to a franchise that he knows will never spend money?
Cash is our best bet by far.

Your line of thinking has Andy Reid at fault for losing to TB in the Superbowl.....wild.

Nice change of tune on coaching. Makes you wonder why coaches are fired in the 1st place. Why then did the Bucs get rid of Koetter if coaches aren't responsible for what goes on with their team? Hell why is any coach ever fired?

[Kress]

Nice change of tune on coaching. Makes you wonder why coaches are fired in the 1st place. Why then did the Bucs get rid of Koetter if coaches aren't responsible for what goes on with their team? Hell why is any coach ever fired?

Drawing the line between scheme/management and play/execution is easy.

[Bootz]

Nice change of tune on coaching. Makes you wonder why coaches are fired in the 1st place. Why then did the Bucs get rid of Koetter if coaches aren't responsible for what goes on with their team? Hell why is any coach ever fired?

Drawing the line between scheme/management and play/execution is easy.

While true, that's not at all what @acmillis was implicating. The Reid/SB 55 connection is a strawman at beat because Reid already had a ring and showed consistency in winning postseason. Cash has not. So you're really comparing apples to oranges here.

The irony in what he said is that Jon Gruden was hired for that very reason: He had what it took to get the team over the hump while Tony Dungy did not.

[These Are The Days]

Moreover I think the fans are getting burned out on this and I don't blame them. I'm getting tired of the Cinderella Imposter Syndrome because they won't do anything but visit the discount Fairy Godmother. Every year the Rays are built on moneyball hopes and dreams but every postseason goes down with the Rays' carriage breaking down into a pumpkin at 8pm and forcing them to walk the last 3 miles to the castle. They show up sweaty, dirty and dressed in rags and get thrown out by the palace guard as soon as they walk into the building never once seeing the prince.

The "moneyball" excuse doesn't pass the smell test. Since Cash was hired as manager in 2015, the Rays have the 5th best regular season winning percentage. "Moneyball" didn't prevent this team from winning 99 games this season either. It's only mentioned when they get embarrassed. You heard no mention of "moneyball" when they won 13 straight to start the year. Moneyball didn't prevent the Rays from having an batting champion in Yandy Diaz or the pitcher with the most wins in the AL in Zach Eflin.

I've seen enough from Cash to know this team isn't going any further with him. You're already leaning that way, so when you get there this time next year, I'll be waiting.

The simplest answer is twofold

1. The book on bow to beat the Rays has been written. Teams with talent can exploit their weaknesses and win. The Rays do not address this by going for better talent. They'll do something like trade Brandon Lowe for a guy who will be ready in 2 years. How does that help cash now?

2. We aren't playing the Rockies in the postseason. The Rays have a good team. That's why they have the 5th best record. But there's no runway of a 162 game season to get the island of misfit toys to overachieve. You have 3-5-7-7 games of do or die baseball. And what you're left with is a team that proves why some of players were let go of to begin with.

I don't know what another manager is going to do differently than Cash if all we're gonna do is just trade a bunch of guys who comprised the best team we've ever had and replace them all with Tommy John pitchers and 3 more flavors of Jose Siri. This WAS our year and by the time we got the playoffs we were riding on 3 blown tires with the 4th about to blow out. I just don't put this particular year on Cash because of everything that happened.

A new manager can use our bullpen differently in the regular season and spare them. Maybe even give guys more days off. But come playoff time I don't know how he's going to stop the other team from taking advantage of the fact that every year since Cash took over (except this year) the Rays are always like the 4th best team in the AL in terms of talent that he got to overachieve again


The front office needs to stop pussing out with these $70-80 million payrolls. I'm not saying turn into the Mets, Angels or Padres. I'm saying have some balls for once in your life and land a Scherzer instead of a Civale. A Jason Bay instead of a Jose Siri

The only thing I'll Lord over Cash was pulling Snell like a dumbass. I don't think the Rays would've won game 7 but I know they'd have gotten there had Cash left it alone

[Bootz]

The "moneyball" excuse doesn't pass the smell test. Since Cash was hired as manager in 2015, the Rays have the 5th best regular season winning percentage. "Moneyball" didn't prevent this team from winning 99 games this season either. It's only mentioned when they get embarrassed. You heard no mention of "moneyball" when they won 13 straight to start the year. Moneyball didn't prevent the Rays from having an batting champion in Yandy Diaz or the pitcher with the most wins in the AL in Zach Eflin.

I've seen enough from Cash to know this team isn't going any further with him. You're already leaning that way, so when you get there this time next year, I'll be waiting.

The simplest answer is twofold

1. The book on bow to beat the Rays has been written. Teams with talent can exploit their weaknesses and win. The Rays do not address this by going for better talent. They'll do something like trade Brandon Lowe for a guy who will be ready in 2 years. How does that help cash now?

2. We aren't playing the Rockies in the postseason. The Rays have a good team. That's why they have the 5th best record. But there's no runway of a 162 game season to get the island of misfit toys to overachieve. You have 3-5-7-7 games of do or die baseball. And what you're left with is a team that proves why some of players were let go of to begin with.

I don't know what another manager is going to do differently than Cash if all we're gonna do is just trade a bunch of guys who comprised the best team we've ever had and replace them all with Tommy John pitchers and 3 more flavors of Jose Siri. This WAS our year and by the time we got the playoffs we were riding on 3 blown tires with the 4th about to blow out. I just don't put this particular year on Cash because of everything that happened.

A new manager can use our bullpen differently in the regular season and spare them. Maybe even give guys more days off. But come playoff time I don't know how he's going to stop the other team from taking advantage of the fact that every year since Cash took over (except this year) the Rays are always like the 4th best team in the AL in terms of talent that he got to overachieve again


The front office needs to stop pussing out with these $70-80 million payrolls. I'm not saying turn into the Mets, Angels or Padres. I'm saying have some balls for once in your life and land a Scherzer instead of a Civale. A Jason Bay instead of a Jose Siri

The only thing I'll Lord over Cash was pulling Snell like a dumbass. I don't think the Rays would've won game 7 but I know they'd have gotten there had Cash left it alone

Sounds to me like you're predicting the #1 seed in the AL to be swept, seeing as their payroll is less than the Rays. Would I be correct?

[These Are The Days]

TL;DR,: I'm open to a new manager Bootz. But I don't know what the new guy is gonna do differently. The office needs to stop taking 15 half measures and hope they work and take 4 full measures that will

[These Are The Days]

The simplest answer is twofold

1. The book on bow to beat the Rays has been written. Teams with talent can exploit their weaknesses and win. The Rays do not address this by going for better talent. They'll do something like trade Brandon Lowe for a guy who will be ready in 2 years. How does that help cash now?

2. We aren't playing the Rockies in the postseason. The Rays have a good team. That's why they have the 5th best record. But there's no runway of a 162 game season to get the island of misfit toys to overachieve. You have 3-5-7-7 games of do or die baseball. And what you're left with is a team that proves why some of players were let go of to begin with.

I don't know what another manager is going to do differently than Cash if all we're gonna do is just trade a bunch of guys who comprised the best team we've ever had and replace them all with Tommy John pitchers and 3 more flavors of Jose Siri. This WAS our year and by the time we got the playoffs we were riding on 3 blown tires with the 4th about to blow out. I just don't put this particular year on Cash because of everything that happened.

A new manager can use our bullpen differently in the regular season and spare them. Maybe even give guys more days off. But come playoff time I don't know how he's going to stop the other team from taking advantage of the fact that every year since Cash took over (except this year) the Rays are always like the 4th best team in the AL in terms of talent that he got to overachieve again


The front office needs to stop pussing out with these $70-80 million payrolls. I'm not saying turn into the Mets, Angels or Padres. I'm saying have some balls for once in your life and land a Scherzer instead of a Civale. A Jason Bay instead of a Jose Siri

The only thing I'll Lord over Cash was pulling Snell like a dumbass. I don't think the Rays would've won game 7 but I know they'd have gotten there had Cash left it alone

Sounds to me like you're predicting the #1 seed in the AL to be swept, seeing as their payroll is less than the Rays. Would I be correct?

Not at all. A lot of their players are better than ours. It's a different story when 3/5 of your starting rotation is gonna miss next year and the guy with borderline generational talent is under federal investigation. Baltimore would've whooped our ass. And the difference is when it's time to pay those guys they will. We'll go through 25 iterations in the next 3 years and they'll keep their core

I mostly agree with you about Cash. But just not this particular year. I think we had the formula and spilled on the floor

[Bootz]

Sounds to me like you're predicting the #1 seed in the AL to be swept, seeing as their payroll is less than the Rays. Would I be correct?

Not at all. A lot of their players are better than ours. It's a different story when 3/5 of your starting rotation is gonna miss next year and the guy with borderline generational talent is under federal investigation. Baltimore would've whooped our ass. And the difference is when it's time to pay those guys they will. We'll go through 25 iterations in the next 3 years and they'll keep their core

I mostly agree with you about Cash. But just not this particular year. I think we had the formula and spilled on the floor

So it's not about the money when it comes to Baltimore because "their players are better". Nevermind the fact that they are more moneyball than the Rays are.

Ironically you speak about Moneyball. The Rays playoff roster included 6 of their 7 top earners. Including both starting pitchers who pitched the wildcard games. The players you talk about the Rays missing all earn less than $1mil/year except Lowe.

It's interesting your logic shifts when it comes to Baltimore. Your logic is if there are injuries then coaching no longer matters so they should get a pass.

[acmillis]

Drawing the line between scheme/management and play/execution is easy.

While true, that's not at all what @acmillis was implicating. The Reid/SB 55 connection is a strawman at beat because Reid already had a ring and showed consistency in winning postseason. Cash has not. So you're really comparing apples to oranges here.

The irony in what he said is that Jon Gruden was hired for that very reason: He had what it took to get the team over the hump while Tony Dungy did not.

That's cool and all, but prior to the SB run, Reid was 10-9 in the playoffs in Philly, and when he got to KC, he was an amazing 2-5. He also never one a ring in Philly after making how many playoff appearances and NFCCG appearances. Point being, he didn't get over the hump until he did, which is what I'm saying we should do with Cash. He's young, he's the best manager in club history (Not saying a whole lot, but still), has a better regular AND postseason record than Joe Maddon, and you want to get rid of him for who exactly?

He could be our Mike Tomlin in reverse, winning a ring later rather than earlier...he just needs moar thyme.

[These Are The Days]

Not at all. A lot of their players are better than ours. It's a different story when 3/5 of your starting rotation is gonna miss next year and the guy with borderline generational talent is under federal investigation. Baltimore would've whooped our ass. And the difference is when it's time to pay those guys they will. We'll go through 25 iterations in the next 3 years and they'll keep their core

I mostly agree with you about Cash. But just not this particular year. I think we had the formula and spilled on the floor

So it's not about the money when it comes to Baltimore because "their players are better". Nevermind the fact that they are more moneyball than the Rays are.

Ironically you speak about Moneyball. The Rays playoff roster included 6 of their 7 top earners. Including both starting pitchers who pitched the wildcard games. The players you talk about the Rays missing all earn less than $1mil/year except Lowe.

It's interesting your logic shifts when it comes to Baltimore. Your logic is if there are injuries then coaching no longer matters so they should get a pass.

Bootz. It's a money ball problem every year. This time it actually worked. The blind squirrel found the jackpot of all nuts. We were 13-0 and it had nothing to do with Cash setting the team back. But if Franco doesn't nuke his career, Lowe break his knee cap and 3/5 of our starting rotation go down, we'd kill Baltimore. I would have taken this lineup vs anyone in MLB. But it's not the lineup we finished with. Had we been healthy and this happened I'd be hanging Cash's head from a spike.

A disastrous course of injury is the only reason I'm still defending him. I don't know how anyone was supposed to succeed after what happened to the team. You're right that there's enough cause to fire him already. That's not what I'm arguing against. I just have sympathy for what happened to him this year

I hold the front office responsible for the same reason as 2008..We had the team to do it and they chickened out. AGAIN. I got 15 years of that crap. The blood is on their hands too. We can't keep doing this crap for 15 years and then **AT LAST** we have a team so damn good it can win 100 games with its eyes shut and for $80 million. It's not sustainable

[Bootz]

While true, that's not at all what @acmillis was implicating. The Reid/SB 55 connection is a strawman at beat because Reid already had a ring and showed consistency in winning postseason. Cash has not. So you're really comparing apples to oranges here.

The irony in what he said is that Jon Gruden was hired for that very reason: He had what it took to get the team over the hump while Tony Dungy did not.

That's cool and all, but prior to the SB run, Reid was 10-9 in the playoffs in Philly, and when he got to KC, he was an amazing 2-5. He also never one a ring in Philly after making how many playoff appearances and NFCCG appearances. Point being, he didn't get over the hump until he did, which is what I'm saying we should do with Cash. He's young, he's the best manager in club history (Not saying a whole lot, but still), has a better regular AND postseason record than Joe Maddon, and you want to get rid of him for who exactly?

He could be our Mike Tomlin in reverse, winning a ring later rather than earlier...he just needs moar thyme.

That completely contradicts your position about him having absolutely nothing to do with what happens on the field. Completely.

[acmillis]

That's cool and all, but prior to the SB run, Reid was 10-9 in the playoffs in Philly, and when he got to KC, he was an amazing 2-5. He also never one a ring in Philly after making how many playoff appearances and NFCCG appearances. Point being, he didn't get over the hump until he did, which is what I'm saying we should do with Cash. He's young, he's the best manager in club history (Not saying a whole lot, but still), has a better regular AND postseason record than Joe Maddon, and you want to get rid of him for who exactly?

He could be our Mike Tomlin in reverse, winning a ring later rather than earlier...he just needs moar thyme.

That completely contradicts your position about him having absolutely nothing to do with what happens on the field. Completely.

How so?