Stinky Stanky

I enjoyed Jason on the call last night. He's better at basketball than baseball, I think. Better than Adam too, sorry to say. The game reminded me of some grindy Bulls defensive teams of way, way back.

I have a serious question here. What causes the late break on a pitch that analysts are always talking about? A pitch leaves the pitcher's hand with a certain spin rate and velocity which determine the size and direction of the break. If a pitch is to start breaking more during its flight, it can't be because the spin rate increases; if anything, the spin rate will decrease slightly during its flight. That would actually cause it to break less. Contrariwise, the velocity of a thrown ball will decrease slightly during its flight because of air resistance. That slower speed would cause it to break slightly more because of less inertia. So the two effects would seem to even out. What then, is the cause of the late break, or is the late break effect an illusion of some sort?

He has a long neck. Is that good for playing basketball?

You're all remembering him when he was on fire. When he isn't, well, he isn't doing much good on either end of the court. Second unit scorer or trade bait. Don'tcha like Ayo much, much better?

I can give you Tuesdays at midnight in my garage. No pay, work for tips. Warning: raccoons are aggressive around here at night. Nah, seriously, you're funny. Me too, but saying this now could be a ruse, as others have posted.

That is one great explanation, thanks. And may I add that velocity in the case of a pitcher who didn't have any to begin with means nothing.

Many of those balls were fielded in self-defense. Joking aside, he does induce a lot of ground balls.

Half a season of competence over the last three seasons is a small sample size too.

Trying to say a kind word about the losers when it becomes inevitable. Announcers do it all the time, but it's not appropriate here. I'm feeling better now.

You saw the root of it all through all the smoke. Better analysis here than anywhere else. Last games of this WS being pitched by bullpens and Wunderkinds. A far cry from us in '05. Fried's established, but he's been a disaster the last two games.

Jimmy was low 1st round but he made something out of himself with a lot of hard work. Something Joakim, a high 1st rounder, also did. Made the departed front office look better than it deserved, those two. Ayo is a PG playing out of position. Didn't he win the Cousy award as best college PG?

I wonder if he's getting more than the "Ambassadors" like Scottie and Joakim. The team's got money to burn. You and I could be Ambassadors too.

He's improved his three point shooting, at least from the corners, the rest of his game is still there, and he's looking for redemption here when he thought he was a Raptor for life. They look like a different team than last season because they are. Thanks to the new bosses. Credit to John Paxson for basically firing himself.

I hope you're not saying that there wasn't plenty of talent there for Thibs, because there was.

That helps. I didn't know what happened there, other than thinking Thibs doesn't react well to being told what to do.

What happened to him in Minnesota that it went sour so soon?

You were right the first time, but he made himself into something he wasn't when they drafted him by a lot of hard work. They could use a few of those old timers back right now to protect the middle and get a few rebounds.

The handoff would have left him one-on-one with enough time for one dribble and a midrange jumper. Better than what they turned out getting, true.

Crazy game. Display of offensive ineptitude second to none. But entertaining.

Just as meets the eye, P Williams looks like he might be a NBA power forward. Someday. Now? Too soon to tell. He has muscled up quite a bit.

The perfect DP candidate. Tries to pull outside pitches, hits grounders to SS and can't run. And the tragedy is that he can go oppo when he's in the right mood.

Ricky fired himself by going off the rails mentally as his team was staggering into the playoffs. Not that you're wrong or anything.

I was screaming that at the screen. Base open, lefty up next. Obvious to anyone with a breath left.

Still need to put the ball in play and hope all those atom balls from game 1 don't find a fielder in game 4. The guy has wicked stuff and great control of it. Maybe Roger Bossard can do some magic with the infield. 😁