I was a big advocate last winter for signing Arrieta. Still feel he would have added greatly to us, both in his contributions on the mound and as a mentor to the younger arms.
all this, of course, before his inevitable TJ surgery in August.
Probably the best thing about this season for me is that my daughter has had a resurgence of interest in going to ball games again. We've been to four so far and have another one coming up in August against the A's.
I also got a new hat.
our coaches always focused more on fielding/defense. we took ground balls in the infield for what felt like hours after practice. worked a lot on "where will you throw the ball if it's hit to you?" stuff, too.
we would occasionally do hitting things like you described. it was a cardinal sin to watch strike three, and that was always clear to us from day 1 to day 100.
let me be the first to say that i don't care who's on the roster if it means we're winning a world series or two or three. if trading trout can guarantee a couple of WS championships, count me in.
right now, i don't care about the righty-lefty thing. if ohtani is gonna play here, he needs to make himself hit against lefties. throw him out there and let/force him to work it out.