cabiness42

If he can keep his OPS over .800, then he is a candidate to slide to 1B/DH next year.

I think the big difference between Suarez' handball and the other types of 'shenanigans' is that Suarez did not try to hide his blatant violation of the rule, rather he made a determination that the breaking of the rule and the subsequent punishment still provided his team a better chance to win than not breaking the rule, which was absolutely correct. A player taking a pure dive in the penalty area, or to extend the analogy to baseball in a corked bat, are examples of players trying to get away with breaking the rules.

I am using stats. He has slipped a bit recently but for most of the season his OPS has been in the 800-850 range. That is a good year. Not a great year or even a really good year, but a good year. I also don't see a lot of options to get anything better than .800 out of the DH spot next year, so having Dunn back makes sense if they don't get the kind of deal for him in July that I expect they will.

Didn't really need a bunch of statistical analysis to tell us that, did we?

If one of the IF prospects is ready, maybe a Gillaspie/Viciedo DH platoon is the answer once Dunn leaves. Yes, Alexei is the biggest trade chip, but he is also the most difficult to replace. Beckham has a well above average OPS for a 2B along with good defense. That is easily worth what he will make in arb next year unless you are planning on a Marlins-esque payroll.

Taking off work, though I literally have no friends down here who care enough about the game to also take off work so I may end up at a bar by myself.

Not really a bulls*** penalty call. Whether intentional or not, he tripped a guy in the box and that's a penalty. Also, Costa Rica won a group containing Uruguay, Italy and England. The US may win a group containing Germany, Portugal and Ghana. Yes, Columbia looks awesome right now but Ivory Coast had a group with Greece and Japan and couldn't get out.

I listed Beckham, Ramirez, and Gillaspie. I don't think any of them is untradeable if the right offer comes along, but all three of them are hitting significantly above league average for their position. Given how difficult it is to find good defensive infielders who can also hit, it would take a pretty nice offer to get me to part with any of them. I know that the minors is deep in the infield right now, but there's no guarantees that any of those guys can produce like this. If you assume that AGarcia comes back next year and is at least a little bit above average offensively for a RF and Eaton continues to improve, you're really only three spots (LF, C, DH) away from a really good lineup. Dunn is having a good year and I'd like to see him back, but I think that he is exactly the kind of guy that a contending team will overpay for in July and the Sox can't turn that down. There are also three quality starters and three quality bullpen arms (plus Jones coming back next year), so while this team is bad right now it isn't far away from being very strong.

Yeah, good luck getting a drink with ice in it anywhere in Europe.

Through Tuesday: Confederation W D L CONMEBOL 12 1 3 CONCACAF 5 3 2 UEFA 13 5 14 CAF 3 2 7 AFC 0 3 7

I wouldn't worry about the other game. Cameroon getting even a point off Brazil is not realistic.

He usually does vs LHP. Not really a better option.

I think the Group A and B winners will both be favorites to get through to the semifinals. Groups C/D aren't terribly strong.

8 days into the Winter Olympics, NBC Sports Live Extra got added to the blocked websites list at work. Now, 11 days into the World Cup, Watch ESPN has been added to the blocked websites list at work.

Cameron's turnover that led to the first goal was awful, but Portugal also got very lucky with all the shots they dodged. Had the keeper completely out of the net and got one saved off a defender's knee.

Watch the full 5 second clip here instead of just the screen shot. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/world-cu...at-we-did-draw/ Bradley got a very high pass that is not easy to control with one touch. The screen shot shows the ball on his foot, but the screen shot doesn't tell you that the ball had just come down at a high angle with pace. Now, his first touch got farther away from him than he wanted and that lost him the ball, but it wasn't like he was making a bad decision. The bad decision was not having two guys glued to Ronaldo, with at least one of them fouling him as soon as the ball headed his way. Free kick would have been too far away to be much of a chance to score.

40/1 right now is a terrible price, but 80/1 yesterday was actually a decent price. If I had known that I might have put down $20 on that. Based on Nate Silver's SPI, actual odds right now are around 80/1 and yesterday they were around 100/1.

They will never go so far as to blatantly collude, but if the game gets past the 60' mark and is tied, I do believe that both teams will become much more conservative. Especially Germany, since even a fluke late goal to give the US a 1-goal win won't hurt Germany unless Ghana manages to blast Portugal by 4+ goals. Most likely outcomes (draws and one goal wins) and what they mean: US/Germany draw, any Portugal/Ghana outcome: Germany wins group over US on goal differential tiebreaker, US second Germany beats US 2-1, Ghana beats Portugal 2-1: Germany wins group, US second over Ghana on head-to-head tiebreaker Germany beats US 1-0, Ghana beats Portugal 2-1: Germany wins group, Ghana second over US on goals scored tiebreaker <--- worst possible outcome that has a reasonable chance of happening. Germany beats US 2-1, Ghana beats Portugal 1-0: Germany wins group, US second over Ghana on goals scored tiebreaker Germany beats US by any score, Ghana/Portugal draw: Germany wins group, US second Germany beats US 1-0 or 2-1, Portugal beats Ghana 2-1, 1-0 or 2-0: Germany wins group, US second over Portugal on goal differential tiebreaker US beats Germany 2-1, 1-0 or 2-0, Ghana beats Portugal 2-1, 1-0 or 2-0: US wins group, Germany second over Ghana on goal differential tiebreaker US beats Germany by any score, Ghana/Portugal draw: US wins group, Germany second US beats Germany 2-1, 1-0 or 2-0, Portugal beats Ghana 2-1, 1-0 or 2-1: US wins group, Germany second over Portugal on goal differential tiebreaker Less likely outcomes: Germany beats US and Ghana beats Portugal and at least one of the games is decided by more than one goal: Germany wins group and Ghana second over US on goal differential tiebreaker Germany beats US and Portugal beats Ghana and the combined margins in the two games is more than five: Germany wins group and Portugal second over US on goal differential tiebreaker Germany beats US and Portugal beats Ghana and the combined margins in the two games is exactly five: Germany wins group and US-Portugal go to goals scored tiebreaker. If that is the same (for example, Germany beats US 3-0 and Portugal beats Ghana 2-0), then a coin flip decides who gets second place. US beats Germany and Ghana beats Portugal and the combined margins in the two games is more than five: US wins group and Ghana second over Germany on goal differential tiebreaker US beats Germany and Portugal beats Ghana and the combined margins in the two games is more than eight: US wins group and Portugal second over Germany on goal differential tiebreaker

Anyone else have their screen go black on ESPN right before half?

Asia is just downright terrible. Going to be 5 losses and 3 draws in 8 games. 1) There has been talk that qualifying spots need to be reallocated to give Europe another spot and that it might come from CONCACAF. Hopefully this kills that talk. It's pretty much impossible to argue taking a spot away from CONCACAF before Asia. 2) It continues to be patently unfair that the CONCACAF teams don't ever get a chance to be drawn into groups with Asian teams. This really needs to get fixed.

Russia keeps getting called for offsides. Seems they have a hard time staying behind the border line.

Make that 2-0.

French speaking country 1, partially French speaking country 0

Probably a combination of weather and travel. Even if you arrive a week or two early, having to be 5+ time zones from home really sucks. Big advantage to CONCACAF teams even though they aren't all that close to Brazil.