Jake

It's hard to find fans who think they have a good manager. We're not unique. Especially when it comes to pitching, where the bad ones still succeed more than they fail, every failure stands out while successes are the assumed norm.

My main gripe about church groups as savior of at-risk communities is that religious groups can be among the most divisive groups. Jew? Muslim? Uninterested? Jehovah's Witness? You're not in our club. Do [one of those things that's really frowned upon by group in question but has no effect on other people]? Your entire in-group turns against you. The sorts of relationships I'd want to foster, if I wanted social groups to propel neighborhoods to prosperity, are relationships based on the shared community. That's not to say church groups can't offer other benefits to its members and people outside of their group, but it's too prickly for me to get my hopes up as a recipe for urban renewal. Reaching people based on spiritual beliefs will be highly appealing to some and disenfranchising to others. Everybody has a dog in the fight if you're associating based on the premise of not living in a dangerous s***hole.

Are we talking about whether the Cavs will be the favorite or if they're going to be the automatic Finals representative from the East, don't even bother watching the playoffs?

They'd obviously be good, but I'm not going to say that they will without a doubt make a Finals appearance right away

So, how many runs was the early removal of Sale worth? Would we have won 4-0? Can you justify that? It looks like we didn't have a prayer of making 3 outs before 5 runs scored

The fact that we're quibbling about the potential for the pitcher to get one additional out tells you that the blame for this game lies with the pitchers who came in afterwards

I probably would have left Chris in, but given wide concerns about pitch count, not knowing how he felt to begin the inning (remember how our pitching coach relies on pitcher's subjective feel), and knowing we had our best reliever ready to go for the opposing team's best RHH...I don't think it's a crazy move by any stretch of the imagination. Lots of managers would have done that.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 08:46 PM) He was cruising with their two best guys coming up. It made no sense Kinda like when he was cruising against the Angels and then Robin decided to leave him in with ~105 pitches and we destroyed him

Bad bullpen performance is the bane of any manager

I came here to make sure that Soxtalk, who melts down over Sale pitch counts, was fired up about him getting pulled with 107 pitches

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 08:40 PM) He'll end up with the Bulls. Not sure if I'm being sarcastic. I wouldn't hate it as a basketball move if the price weren't likely to be as high as I think it would be

So if you're Wade, do you want to stay with the Heat? Do the Heat continue to want him?

ESPN has one source saying Melo has not yet made decision and another source saying he hopes to make decision "by the end of the week."

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 04:54 PM) Even with today's 2 strikeout game, Davidson has struck out only 18% this month. Compare that to 27% in June, 29% in May, and 40% in April. And since the magical June 16th date..... 21 G, .262 AVG, 6 HR, 12 RBI, 11 BB, 18 K, which pencils out to a 19.5% K-rate, which is absolutely fine for a power hitter. This is all pretty much what I expected from him entering the season - this is how I would hope his MLB numbers look (not that I mind them looking better)

W-S isn't far from home, relatively speaking

I would be absolutely shocked if Durant doesn't re-up with OKC

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 25s Gregg Popovich has agreed to a contract extension, Spurs say in release. I had been told he was eager to coach another 4-5 years. Surprised about that

Who would have guessed these smiling faces couldn't sell somebody on their product?

His K rate has remained low throughout his little stallout, so I'm not worried

I'm actually okay with guys going for the money. That means it's a league that I can understand. The Big 3 pre-planning to take less cash to go to MIA just blew everyone's mind

I don't blame him for checking things out. If you've never had the ability to look into other teams, how do you know if your team is the right choice?

If The Decision 2010 is any indication, the choice is always what nobody expects LBJ and Melo to LA!

On the bright side, I still like the Bulls in a Heat-less East

All that non-leaking and he blows his own announcement within hours of it happening by telling some guy who ran to the NYDN?

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 4m Several days ago -- and maybe it's changed since but... -- 'Melo hadn't even been able to reach LeBron James, sources tell Yahoo.