iWiN4PreP

Let's go with Yoan Moncada

Kinda funny given Abreu's recent performance, but we must also recall how dominating he was for a month or so prior. So, congrats to Abreu -- but lets hope he corrects himself soon.

Avi Garcia

Yoan Moncada

HOU Kyle Tucker being promoted to the league! Woohoo

Jose Abreu

Glad I get to watch this game tonight, first game I get to see in a couple of weeks due to work. JV vs. CR should be really fun.

Yoan Moncada

This year? The Minnesota Twins CF Byron Buxton. Love this guy, but man does he fucking suck at hitting the ball.

Avi Garcia

This is beyond awful, this is troll level LOL. When I saw the news I almost shit myself laughing.

Tim Anderson

I lived in Florida most of my upbringing and went to many Rays games... I also plan on moving there in October again for the forseeable future, so I'll be going to plenty of Rays games. I can't believe they are doing pretty well (over .500), but that's just how the Rays have always been. Bunch of no-name players coming through playing fundamental baseball and seemingly winning games with players that have no use in fantasy baseball. It's truly a weird thing these days. Maybe i'll try watching some more Rays games if they continue making noise.

I'm very anti-Roman, but a heel Roman taking over the title from Lesnar is at least palatable. Roman has made strides over the years (as is to be expected when you are the highlight of the show constantly), but is still a charismatic void and a very bad wrestler. His moveset flat out sucks and every single time he gets momentum and the stupid-f***ing superman punch comes through I lose all respect for his match. The superman punch + spear combo is the worst finisher/signature set I've seen in ages. At least with The Rock he had the Rock Bottom and Cena has the F5 (Rock's peoples elbow and Cena's 5-knuckle shuffle were also very bad moves like the superman punch). With the People's Elbow, it actually worked as a heel. It was such a sassy move that as a heel the fans could boo it and really hate it. I'd give Reigns another try with a full-blown heel turn, but I'd expect it to fail.

Wow. Did not see him signing before other moves were made. As it stands, the Lakers are in no way to compete with the other West teams with just an aging LeBron. I wonder which other star(s) will be joining. Gotta imagine DeMarcus Cousins being there, I'd think, or K. Leonard.

Still interested to hear if anyone on Soxtalk plays Fortnite on XBOX. Plus, let's get some more talk going -- what games are we playing these days? I really want to get Ni No Kuni II for the ps4, but i'm just too addicted to fortnite.

This is really getting indefensible: http://rajah.com/node/63143 If these reports are true, namely that Lesnar will NOT be wrestling at Summerslam and that they still plan on trying to get Reigns over as a babyface to dethrone him, then my GOD. They've spent 1.5-2+ YEARS on this. They've crippled the main event division on Raw and they STILL intend to put Reigns over when the fans do not want to see that. Thinking optimistically, hell -- they could put over Rollins here. I was not a big fan of him initially, but he has been red hot fire as of late and his matches have become fantastic. He's the true people's champ right now. 1.5 years and going here... how many good title feuds have we missed at this point? Meanwhile players like Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Braun Strowman, and the like wander aimlessly into matches. Which brings me to point number 2... Where are the *good* storylines? There hasn't been any. WWE is a drama show that should focus on fantastic storylines leading up to memorable moments. There hasn't been any. It's not that hard! Sasha/Bayley may be the best thing going storyline wise but that has been an overall train wreck, yet the two wrestlers are fantastic and fan favorites so it still works out.

I guess I'll go with Slumping Jose Abreu

I used to think that the whole Lesnar reign would lead to a very important winner, but at this point I do not feel this way. I don't feel like it will mean a lot more when Lesnar loses, because he's not here frequently enough for the title to even matter (as you alluded to in your second paragraph). Besides, they are just going to annoint Reigns over Lesnar... I mean, it would be kind of cool to see Rollins take down the beast, that might make the moment mean a lot. I guess it depends on who ends up taking it off of him. Raw is without a head right now. When you don't have the main title, what are their guys fighting for? Owens is being bullied by Braun because.... ??? Finn is doing what again? There's just no direction without the title. I agree that the whole you deserve shit and hot potato of the title are not good things.

I have no idea how a player like Lavine is commanding big bucks. The guy is a good athlete and an interesting player, but he is no where near a centerpiece to a championship team.

Haha, I remember back in 2005/2006 when it was a very special honor to create a game thread :p.

Moncada

One other thing: Seriously, what the fuck are they doing with Brock Lesnar and the Universal Title scene on Raw? They *cancel* their Extreme rules #1 contendor match because of complications with Lesnar? This had to be Vince/Booking's doing the entire time to get heat on Lesnar and away from Reigns, but my god, what an abomination. There's no winner here. We, the fans of the product, lose big time either way. We get more months of a faceless Raw scene and then we will likely have a Reigns triumphant victory (which no one wants to see) followed by a Strowman Cash in to win the title (which is cool, but he does not need). You'd think that after Lesnar surprisingly beat Reigns at WM that they would have had a much better plan to all of this... ... but alas here we are in July without seeing Lesnar since WM (other than the GRR event build up). It's truly remarkable in the worst possible way.

Nia is downright horrid. She wouldn't be *so* horrid if it wasn't for her booking, but she would still be pretty bad. One thing I want to note is how WWE ruined Nakamaru. Jesus. This guy loses to Jinder a couple times then gets owned by Styles 3 PPV events in a row. He's now become a joke.

I didn't think it was a terrible article however the idea that there is a stats-wave trend vs. old traditional style is really stupid to me. All the extra analytics has opened up baseball to more strategy based gameplay. Unfortunately, the outcome might not be greeted in favor by the fans, but that's not the stats fault. The stats are what they are and if it means pitchers will get more K's due to advanced scouting reports/going to bullpens earlier/using more arms, then there will have to be a change in the hitters approach. So far, it seems the hitters have decided to go for the all or nothing approach. Thus, more home runs, less overall hits... a more boring experience for the fan. The one thing that can change the experience a bit is eliminating the tanking teams. However, that will take a longer cycle of time to do. I think a playoff expansion scenario (as discussed in the other thread) would help a bit....and there has to be other ways of damaging tanking... but money rules over everything so not much hope there.