u/mywifemademedothis2

Spoilers Ahead 😂

First, was Blair infected from early on and hiding it? At the end of the movie, Mac had a major epiphany: The Thing is just fine getting frozen again and waiting for spring. Blair was a smart guy and would have been able to realize this, so why would he smash the chopper up, kill the dogs, and destroy the radio if he knew people would come looking for them eventually? Then on top of that, he uses the chopper parts to try to build a space ship.

Blair was clearly the main "Thing" based on how powerful he became at the end. That makes me think he was infected for awhile. Plus, a lot of the unsolved things happened when everyone else was generally around. Blair would have been in a perfect position to set up Mac or kill Bennings Fuchs because nobody was really paying attention to him. Since the Thing absorbed the knowledge of its victims, it would have also likely viewed both Mac and Bennings Fuchs as its biggest threats.

Last point about Blair: If he was building a space ship, was he trying to leave earth and go somewhere else or go to somewhere on earth? Do we even know that the Thing's end game is to infect all of earth or maybe it just wants to find a host for long enough to leave?

Next thought: We all know the scene where they do the blood test makes no sense because they use the same knife to test everyone. It's even sillier when you consider the fact that he heats up the copper wire they are using to do the test, but doesn't think to blowtorch the end of the knife. This is after he was going off about every part of the thing is its own living organism.

With that in mind, how did Mac make such a blatant oversight?

This leads me to my next point. Was the Thing able to infect humans without them knowing it? Norris began having stomach pains and doubling over when nobody was around. It's not clear to me that he even realized he was infected. That makes me think it could have infected them all without them even knowing. One potential opportunity for this would have been during the blood serum test.

That leaves my last observation. Mac and Childs end the movie together, resigned to the possibility that the other is the Thing. I believe neither of them was knowingly infected, but it's quite possible that both are hosts and don't even know it. Either way, there is zero chance that all of it was destroyed in the exposlosion and there is no way it will not be discovered and brought back to civilization in the spring.

I am going to preface this by saying I am and have been a Javier Assad Stan. He is extremely underrated in my book and deserves to stay in the rotation for now. Ok, with that off my chest, I think the best setup for a playoff run and playoffs is to go with this rotation:

Gausman
Boyd
Holmes
Imanaga
Assad/Ben Brown if/when he comes back

Edward Cabrera dilemma: Let's face it. Cabrera can not be relied on as a starter and is not a guy you look at that will eat innings. He needs to be put into the bullpen when he returns and possibly set up as a high leverage reliever with his stuff. Having starter experience is great because he can potentially come in after a starter and give 3+ innings of nasty stuff come playoffs time. I am begging Jed/Craig to try this when he returns.

That leaves the potential bullpen as:

CL - Palenica (once he hopefully returns)
Setup - Zeferjahn, Webb, Rolison, Thielbar, Thornton
Fighting for playoff roster spot - Cabrera, Assad, Milner, Peterson, Rea, etc.

It's nice to have a few guys who can miss bats now. That was sorely missed in the playoffs last year. Now the tough part is going to be for Counsell to piece this staff together with so many arms. Should be an I interesting end of season run.

My son is 8 and throws right handed. He’s been playing for 3 years and has gotten really proficient hitting, but he started experimenting from the left side and it seems to come fairly easily to him. That got me thinking that maybe he should switch sides while he’s still young.

After considering it more, I figured out that he’s also right eye dominant (common for right handed people) and that his stronger leg is actually his left leg (also common to have your opposite leg be stronger). So with those factors in mind, isn’t it an advantage to bat lefty since your right eye is closer to the pitcher and your left leg can generate your swing power? That’s not even accounting for the inherent advantage of batting against right handed pitchers as you get older.

Anyway, am I missing something? Is it just one of those things that’s so ingrained in the culture that it’s not changing, or is there actually a measurable advantage to having your stronger arm as your top arm?

Without getting too much into specifics, by 8 year old son is ADHD and possibly on the spectrum. He has an insanely difficult time handling losses and failure and this came to a head during our recent league tournament when he melted down multiple times when we were losing. Our team should have made the finals but we ended up collapsing and his meltdowns definitely played a role (along with my own meltdowns handling them as the coach).

I’m feeling really beaten down and am going to stop coaching. I thought I was protecting him but now he’s developed a reputation in the league as a problem child and coaches/parents all have a problem with me/him, to the point where the league has taken notice.

Beyond no longer coaching (it feels irresponsible to put his teammates in that situation with me as the authority figure), does having him take a break make sense? At least until he gets the therapy he needs to process his emotions better? I feel bad because he’s very passionate and loves baseball and is having major self esteem issues with this situation.