cabiness42

It resets on every hole. Player A tees off on all odd holes and Player B tees off on all even holes. Doesn't matter who made the last stroke on the previous hole.

As I noted in my OBP thread, Ramirez and Viciedo are two of five guys who are collectively dragging the offense down with poor OBP. I stopped short of saying exactly which two need to go because I don't know what trades and FA signings are realistic. I think in a perfect world AJ stays because his offense is so hard to get from the catcher position and Alexei stays because his defense is so damn good. Beckahm is the biggest offensive liability but then he's also the least expensive and plays a position that seems very think league-wide right now. If you can't make reasonable upgrades at two of the five positions, then might as well get what you can for all five and start from scratch.

These are connected issues. High OBP guys are more likely to either get a hit or a walk with RISP. Someone like AJ, Tank, Alexei, and to a lesser extent Rios, is going to be more likely to strike out or pop up in any given at bat, even though they might be fairly productive over the long term.

Looks like it's going to end up 2-2, with all four matches won outright and none of them halved. I don't recall that happening very often, if ever.

Yeah, a couple guys whose .350 OBP is driven by a .290-.300 BA would be nice, but at this point, any way the OBP adds up to .350 is better than nothing.

Mickelson/Bradley have finished off Donald/Garcia 4&3. USA 1 up and Europe 3 up in two of the matches and the other is all square.

Europe 1 up in all four matches right now.

Are there really? I'm not certain of that. Please let me know who is available to provide that kind of OBP for less.

If we don't hit 5000 before October 1, my wife is going to sign up.

USC, Oklahoma, and Stanford have now all been upset. ND's strength of schedule just went down the drain. A month ago, 10-2 would have seemed like an amazing accomplishment. Now not so much.

A lot of basketball players, especially ones going to Catholic high schools in Indiana, are huge ND football fans. The appeal of getting to be a part of that, even though it's not the sport you play, is a big selling point by ND for basketball recruits (and soccer, hockey, etc.)

With me having strong ties to my family in Indiana, Chicago and Indianapolis are the only big cities I'd actually consider living in, but if that weren't a factor, here's how I'd rate cities that I have spent significant time in, based on cost of living, climate (I'm more of a cold weather person), traffic congestion, crime, politics and entertainment: 5-star: Dallas, Denver 4-star: Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Nashville, San Diego 3-star: Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Houston, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Phoenix 2-star: Baltimore, Detroit, Jacksonville, New York, San Antonio, San Francisco, Washington 1-star: Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Seattle

I think the Tigers will do no better than 4-2 in their last six, but I see no chance of the Sox winning 6 in a row, or even 5 of 6.

On a scale of 1 to 10 on defending Kenny Williams, with 1 being Greg, I generally rate about a 9. I generally think KW has done a good job with what he's had to work with. I think his moves involving pitchers have been especially good. His epic failure is in putting together a lineup that works. I don't mean the manager's job of making out the lineup card, I mean the job of getting 9 position players who can be arranged into an effective lineup. A free-swinging, low OBP, decent SLG, good glove player isn't by himself a bad thing, but the last 10 days are the prime example of why having a lot of them is a terrible idea. Guys with low OBP are either not good at working walks, not good at slapping a good pitcher's pitch the other way for a single, or both. They don't have the skill to find a way to get on base when that's what is really needed. They strike out a lot and hit lots of popups, which isn't a good thing when they are batting with the bases loaded. They fall victim to no-name, no-stuff pitchers who have ERAs that begin with 5. Alexei Ramirez is never going to have a good OBP. Dayan Viciedo is never going to have a good OBP. Beckham had a very good OBP his rookie season but hasn't been close since. AJ Pierzynski and Alex Rios had career years and their OBPs are still only in the .320s, which is decent but not great. Dunn rebounded to have a .338 OBP which is good for most guys but nowhere near Dunn-like. Three guys have had a good year at getting on base: De Aza (.350), Youkilis (.354 with Sox), and Konerko (.371) This lineup needs a major overhaul, but not in the way I expect most people think. Youkilis needs to be back, and if paying his $13M option is the only way to do it, then do it. You can't afford to get rid of a .354 OBP from a team that is sorely lacking in OBP. From the block of Rios-AJ-Viciedo-Ramirez-Beckham, at least two of the five need to be gone. It won't be an easy decision to make: Rios and AJ just had career years, Viciedo is cheap with tons of upside, Ramirez and Beckham provide gold glove defense. I don't know the trade value of each player and who is available to replace them, so I can't really say which two need to go, but the reality remains that this team is not going to win a championship with all five of them in the lineup. Also, it isn't that KW hasn't tried to get guys with the needed OBP. He did get Swisher and Quentin, but for reasons of chemistry and recurring injury, those guys didn't work out.

Even when they're slumping, Youk and Dunn are getting walks, so they need to be at the top. I could see moving Rios above Konerko, and Beckham and Wise above Ramirez, though. So maybe: DeAza 7 Youkilis 5 Dunn DH Rios 9 Konerko 3 AJ C Beckham 4 Wise 8 Ramirez 6

It really depends on the OBP and SLG that go with those totals. If the guy batting .210 is getting a ton of walks and some doubles, then he's more valuable than the second guy if that guy is not walking much and the hits are mostly singles.

At one point, the Big Ten did decide to go to a 9-game schedule. This prompted Michigan and MSU to tell ND that they would be unlikely to continue playing every year. This (along with massive defections from the Big East) got the ball rolling on ND talking with the ACC. In the meantime, the Big Ten un-decided to go to a 9-game schedule, but then ND completed its deal with the ACC and it became necessary on their end to cut back on those games. Playing a game in California every year is a bigger priority than playing a game in Michigan every year.

Andy Williams, 84.

OK, I should have said wasting was has been a tremendous bullpen recently. Although blown saves as a stat is worthless for anybody except the closer. If a bullpen enters a game with a 3-2 lead in the 5th inning with the bases loaded and one out, gives up a sac fly that ties the game, and then retires every hitter the rest of the game, that's a tremendous game by a bullpen that still gets tagged with a blown save.

Question: Does anybody here bet regularly on NFL games? Are the replacement officials causing you to reduce/eliminate your betting? I heard that over $150M was won/lost on that last play Monday night.

Is that a rule change I missed? I know in college the defense can score 2 points on an opponent PAT, but I'm not aware of the defense being able to score on a PAT in the NFL.

Someone said that ND would drop all the Big Ten Schools and I said that they are not dropping Purdue. ND wants to play Purdue every year and then have one other rotating Big Ten opponent that would include a heavy dose of UM/MSU. Michigan seems to want all or nothing though, so we'll see what happens down the road.

Well, Cy Chen did his part, but Gordon/Butler and gang did not.

The Sox don't need to just win today. They need to put up crooked numbers in two of the first five innings on Masterson in order to get some confidence back, or else Tampa's pitchers are going to blow their doors off. A 3-2 win won't give me any semblance of confidence.