caulfield12

Wow...the whole city of Buffalo must be in disbelief.

Bucs really missed Antonio Brown and Godwin...almost felt sorry for Brady at end of first half. Before the Rams almost flubbed it away. Rams might be the most talented team overall, but hard to go against Mahomes if the Chiefs get back again. (Although those four points given away by Butker will likely come back to bite them.) Still, KC just has so much speed at the skill positions... And boom responds Buffalo. Might need the best weekend of playoff football in decades, if ever.

From Athletic.com headline... "We are just 26 days from the start of spring training and 70 from Opening Day, two dates that feel as artificial as ever. It’s possible we don’t see much of spring training, and as each day passes, the likelihood of missing games soars — something our Ken Rosenthal says will be a stain on MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s entire career. Ken articulates something that’s largely been missing from the overall narrative: how lopsided this negotiation really is in favor of owners. There is a tendency for all of us, media included, to both-sides a dispute like this, when it’s far from even. Here’s Ken: “The players actually occupy something of a high ground in this dispute, perhaps even in the view of certain fans who continue to view them as spoiled and overpaid. Many fans historically side with owners, who earn far more money than players, stay in the game longer and make their financial records public only when legally required, as is the case with the publicly traded companies that own the Braves and Blue Jays.” Manfred, who made his name negotiating collective bargaining agreements, will only face more pressure as the days dwindle. The league took 43 days to offer any proposal after locking the players out. If baseball has a shortened season, fans will turn away. For now, Manfred must somehow satisfy both large-market and small-market owners without, oh, tanking the entire sport. The players, meanwhile, just want to recoup some of what they lost in the last CBA. Good luck, commissioner.

Someone in the article mentioned the last thirty minutes...although technically not a pure baseball movie.

Is that about Nick Madrigal or the one with Tom Selleck?

https://www.mlb.com/news/pirates-2022-international-prospects?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage&partnerId=zh-20220119-530988-mlb-1-A&qid=1026&utm_id=zh-20220119-530988-mlb-1-A&bt_ee=j%2BK5IBeaLYr3a8STVw9O%2FtwV8%2BOK3%2FTM21jeestcuEddIeAw%2FBquSCWVv8lkxe7A&bt_ts=1642604114972 No idea why in God's name they picked "For Love of the Game" as the third film to compare. I guess Field of Dreams was inevitable with the Yankees/Sox game this past summer and then announcing it will be a yearly addition to the MLB schedule. Off the top of my head, you have The Sandlot, Little Big League, The Bad News Bears, Major League (especially the first one with the suicide squeeze down the 3B line and Berenger's character collapsing after lunging for the 1B bag), Bang the Drum Slowly, Eight Men Out, Bull Durham, The Pride of the Yankees, Moneyball, 42, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battered_Bastards_of_Baseball I found this one searching online, has really positive reviews and had never even heard of it....

https://www.mlb.com/news/pirates-2022-international-prospects?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage&partnerId=zh-20220119-530988-mlb-1-A&qid=1026&utm_id=zh-20220119-530988-mlb-1-A&bt_ee=j%2BK5IBeaLYr3a8STVw9O%2FtwV8%2BOK3%2FTM21jeestcuEddIeAw%2FBquSCWVv8lkxe7A&bt_ts=1642604114972 Pirates signed 19 with about a $6.6 million bonus pool, including #11 and #12 on MLB.com Top 50 list.

I'm not sure the Rays would have traded Franco for the entire White Sox minor league system (at the end of the season)...Vaughn and Crochet wouldn't be enough to get it done. Not even close.

If his Massachusetts gaming business was the successful equivalent of Activision Blizzard or NetEase, would he still be in, regardless of politics? Feel like the fallout there was the final tipping point. And no Jeff Kent fans are outraged? He was another one of those 2B for most of his career many fans assume was eventually going to be enshrined. Finally, Gary Sheffield yet another seemingly held back by personality and difficult historical relations with the media, not unlike Jim Rice back in the day.

https://sports.yahoo.com/why-does-baseball-hall-of-fame-voting-make-people-so-mad-001733032.html “Social media is an environment for moral outrage and strong moral opinions. That's what gets shared. That's what gets light,” he says. “If you have a nuanced opinion, it doesn't travel very far as a tweet.” This is obvious to anyone who has ever been on Twitter, but it’s also born out in the literature. Studies have shown that the design of social platforms and the psychology of the humans who use them creates a cesspool where content that includes “moral-emotional” language gets amplified. “And in fact,” Van Bavel says, “there's some evidence suggesting people say an opinion that's stronger than the one they privately hold, because of the way it's reinforced.” Some of this is just pathologizing the whole point of subjective sports accolades, which is to inspire conversation. For instance, tracking the candidacy of historic greats who are Hall shoo-ins is cool and all, “but they're sort of not the funnest part of the Hall of Fame discussion,” Thibodaux says. The borderline guys, whose cases will provide content fodder for years to come as our analysis evolves, are the backbone of offseason coverage. So could everyone just be a little nicer? “I think the debates are supposed to be fun,” Jaffe says, “but they can veer into the very unfun.” Schilling led all candidates in last year’s voting with 71.1 percent. To gain election, a candidate must receive 75 percent of the vote by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Sosa received 17 percent of the vote last year, the highest percentage he’s gotten. Schilling, Sosa, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are all in their 10th and final year of eligibility. Bonds received 61.8 percent and Clemens 61.6 percent. Schilling, Bonds and Clemens, all polarizing candidates, were the top three finishers last year, an election where no candidate received 75 percent. Schilling’s political comments caused a number of voters to oppose him, and he even petitioned the Hall of Fame to excluded him from this year’s ballot. That was denied. Then you have the case of former Sox minor league manager Omar Vizquel. Right now, among the publicly-known ballots, you have David Ortiz #1, Bonds and Clemens with almost identical numbers and currently over 75%, Scott Rolen 4th, Schilling 5th, Todd Helton 6th, then Andruw Jones/Gary Sheffield/Billy Wagner all kind of bunched up together. Sosa at just 24.6%. VIzquel at 11.1% when he seemed a shoo-in a decade ago. Manny Ramirez at 38% and A-Rod 41% in his first year of eligibility.

NBA point guard/distributor...or winner of "hot potato" games every where.

Or Mussina getting so much credit simply because he pitched for the Yankees, went to Stanford and can do the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle.

Seems like AZ has been struggling for the past six weeks, if not longer. All the OU QB's (Mayfield, Hurts, Murray) not having the greatest endings to their seasons. On the plus side, setting up four really interesting games next weekend. Would think that SF/GB is the only game that could be pretty one-sided, but the 49ers have been one of the hottest teams in football down the stretch and Deebo Samuel is the most dangerous player in the league right now, unless you go with Tyreek Hill or JaMarr Chase. Fwiw, nice to see Odell Beckham having fun playing the game again. The Rams have so many stars on that team. Kupp, Stafford, Donald, Von Miller, OBJr and Jalen Ramsey.

At first I read this as Pito/Abreu, lol. Hopefully he's much better than one of the first Cubans, a famed pitcher named Ariel Prieto.

It was a mess. Stems more from a fear of Moore leaving, being snatched up by another team...losing out on the next McVay type of mentality. Seems the last 24 hours, things have shifted to either Quinn or retaining McCarthy for one more season. Kind of like the 2020-21 White Sox, putting up huge numbers beating up on their own division, but struggling (I think the Cowboys were .500) outside of it.

How does he have a better arm if Com as was consistently at 93-96 mph as a pitcher? More accurate? Because of Yoenis' reputation for that? And Coles was really putting up excellent times to first after he lost all that weight. Did anyone get accurate times on Cespedes in Birmingham...first to home, stealing, on triples and v scoring from second on a single? In the outfield?

He can't possibly be any worse than Iowa's QBs... https://www.rockmnation.com/2020-mizzou-football/2020/10/16/21518672/how-does-connor-bazelak-compare-to-missouris-recent-quarterbacks Didn't realize Missouri had five QB's in the last couple of decades who played/started in the NFL, if you include Blaine Gabbert to the names listed in this article.

Poor Greg775.

I'll happily go on the record saying any MLB games of Burger at 2nd will endanger either himself or other Sox players. Moreso than Jimenez in LF and Sheets/Vaughn/"Palka" in RF place Robert in jeopardy...or run the risk of him overextending himself trying to do too much to cover for them.

McCarthy has to be gone, with Kellen Moore likely to take his place before he gets snatched up by another team. Cowboys continue to underachieve in the post-season...although SF almost handed them back the game which seemed like a blowout at 23-7. Continues to seem a possibility that ANY of the 8 remaining teams can the Super Bowl at this point. Will be happy with any match-up other than TItans and Packers.

Conversely, is his additional positional flexibility MORE LIKELY to get a White Sox SS (see Anderson, Tim) or even 1B injured? One can easily imagine it happening, due to general unfamiliarity the position, covering on steals or double plays, where to be on the field for cut-offs. We're already worried enough about this with Jimenez and Sheets in RF (of course, Robert by extension), let alone Abreu at 1B...with the pitching more LIKELY to be down this year compared to last, it really doesn't make sense not to just have a competent defender at that spot as the primary back-up (or starter).

We tried to "improve" all those guys by moving them their off initial positions. Leave Burger at 3B/1B/DH. Would have been better to just run Hernandez out there and hope for an offensive rebounds. You're just going to get him hurt again. We keep saying it's so easy to find corner outfielders, DH's, 1B...heard over and over again that Madrigal would be easily replaced, too. The only sort of logical thing is they're trying to play up his versatility to boost potential trade value.

Why can't Moncada do the same?

Worked well with Beckham, Viciedo, Josh Fields and Teahen. Can add Marcus Semien.