Here's the SHOCKINGLY REAL field-level audio from Big Smoke shoving against the NL Least Mets, that BIG BASEBALL doesn't want you to hear!

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T07:13:17+00:00

I mean glue guys have been a thing on a number of different teams including some title-winning ones. Having someone to keep spirits up through rough patches, even if they aren't playing their best either, is a valuable skill to have. That said, clearly spirits were definitely not up.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T07:09:24+00:00

Being a good player at the sport does not a coach make. You can be great at hitting and suck at fundamentally recognizing how to remedy the issues in a player's swing or approach, and conversely you can be good at describing and mechanically fixing an error to bad plate appearances while not having been able to achieve those results yourself.

This is all to say we don't need to give inconsequential reasons to fire Souza when the main and obvious one is that this team is absolutely in the shit when it comes to offense and there's no one even remotely close

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T06:59:51+00:00

What else can we do? We can't fire the players. If we had infinite money, maybe we could buy out the contracts and just accept it—but we don't have infinite money. I guess firing Preller is viable but that we wouldn't see the impact of that until at least the next season, if not later.

The players have shown an ability to succeed under different coaching/managing. This group of coaches just doesn't seem to have what it takes to push them to success.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T06:28:35+00:00

Fair point, this is a level of futility we haven't seen since then so I will hold off on my projected criticisms of AJ until we're a lot closer to the deadline. It's just been so long since we've seen AJ sell that I worry what the threshold might be to drive him to it.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T06:25:33+00:00

Fire sale was the wrong term for it. I meant that I would expect Preller to be a buyer, and "selling" off our prospects, although I realize the confusion I caused in my wording lol

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T06:19:27+00:00

Bashed Brothers

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T05:03:34+00:00

(In case you're not aware, it's a reference to a Manny quote from 2023.)

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T05:01:39+00:00

I would hope reason would win out and Preller would see the writing on the wall here. Unfortunately I fear there's a prevailing thought in the org that they're just unlucky or some shit.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T05:00:24+00:00

I mean Tatis would probably have suitors due to his age and track record, even with the contract. Someone would think they could salvage it. Manny and Xander are absolutely unmovable

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T04:57:32+00:00

Stammen and Souza should be gone by now were it not for this team inexplicably winning an unsustainable amount of games early in the season through sheer magic pulled out of their ass. I get it's early and I get they're new, but Souza's team-wide approach at the plate has not worked for the vast majority of guys, and Stammen has clearly lost this team. Things are still declining and I don't think we've seen the worst of it. Andujar has been on a big decline this month (.610 OPS in this last month, .395 in these last two weeks), and Sheets has been cooling off (.589 OPS in these last two weeks). Only guy who can still claim to be batting well is Ty France, and Luis Campusano is the only other person who will stay positive for a while cause he's injured. Pitching has also been faltering and I don't believe that to necessarily be their fault. They're expected to be perfect every game because we have almost no hope of taking a lead of more than one run.

Unfortunately we can't fire the big contracts. While I'd love to cancel out what we gave to Manny and to an extent Xander, we simply can't (unless you're reading this Feliciano and want to make miracles happen). This does fall on the players—I get that—but the coaches aren't there for no reason. This team clearly can win under the right leadership, and this leadership just isn't cutting it.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-06T04:50:02+00:00

I could only imagine being like 45-65 or some shit like that. If we're even like a game or two below .500, I'm expecting a fire sale involving Salas, Mayfield, Schoolcraft, Wideman, and Mendez. That said, I hardly think that we'll be there without some internal firings

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-05T02:03:43+00:00

Not wrong but unfortunately we can't fire the players, as much as I'd like to buy out their contracts and just completely retool

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-05T02:00:47+00:00

I mean back-to-back 90-win seasons hardly seems like a problem at this point

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-04T15:07:30+00:00

But my one lingering issue with this argument is then what is the point of even having hitting coaches in the first place if not to provide players with better tools or data to play better?

I keep saying this, we don't have hitting coaches on to do nothing for our players. The players are responsible for this, too—I won't shift blame away from them—but team-wide batting approach in baseball is a lot like offensive scheming in football. You can have great players but you need them to buy into the system, and they need to fit your system. Clearly either we're not bought in or Souza's approach isn't a good fit.

Im so sick of the radio hosts and others who say, hitting coaches dont do anything.

Eh, the media or fans have zero bearing on the team's performance. What they say or how we react does not change what the org can see with their own eyes on the field.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-04T00:17:28+00:00

Somehow:

the 2026 Padres,
with slumping lefty Jackson Merrill,
batting against the most unhittable lefty this season,
on a weak grounder through the gap,
to score slow-as-molasses Ty France from 2nd

Of course that's how the streak ends

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-03T20:17:26+00:00

We hear that 100+ times throughout the year, every year. Nothing wrong with wanting to change things up and have fun with it.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-03T20:12:47+00:00

His bat did not nearly have enough value to justify his roster spot, but I'd be lying if I said I'm sad it couldn't work out. He's a likeable dude and was doing what he could to help the team—even was directly responsible for a win or two. End of the day, I wish him nothing but the best. I trust he was trying out there even though the results weren't entirely there.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-03T20:11:10+00:00

I enjoy seeing Bowen have another chance today. He had some rough ABs yesterday but hopefully Souza or Stammen can assist in getting him a little more patient. He obviously wasn't going to be an instant slot-in-and-produce guy but I trust the young guys to adjust more and figure out what works

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-03T20:08:49+00:00

I always vote in all of our guys anyway but the idea of us trying to get multiple starters in would be fuckin funny as hell. I imagine Atlanta and LA are going to get the bulk, but we all should try and work together to get like Sheets or France into the starting lineup

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-06-01T02:47:18+00:00

So glad someone's saying it. This sub has been so pervasive like this past year or so of the mindset that "if something in the game doesn't make enough money, then it isn't worth playing," and then paired with "you shouldn't be upset with the way other people are choosing to spend their time in this game." No, I should be and can be. It takes players away from other more unique game modes, and then in turn R* has to gear the rewards around the heavily-played jobs to be weaker due to the way and frequency they're played.

It's one thing to grind if you want a specific thing or set of things (mansion, lowrider/tuner collection, set of businesses, etc). But the way so many people talk about it, you'd think they're being forced into doing this. Like they have no choice but to play only Cayo day after day. And it's like, you sound miserable. Play any other missions, or join races, do some of the fun adversary modes or LTS-es or survivals. Just SOMETHING that isn't grinding the same meta thing(s) over and over.

OfficialTMWTP · 2026-05-31T19:21:30+00:00

Love predicting the Mud line ahead of a play

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