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Post by Zealot on Apr 16, 2019 20:49:38 GMT
Considering how deteriorated their once dominant defense has become?
No, it's not the greatest idea, but at the same time they don't have anyone else to turn to.
The opposite appears to have happened in Baltimore as most of the defense left before Lamar Jackson got paid.
These defensive players want to go to teams where the offense isn't going to consistently go 3 and out every drive.
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Post by El Marsh on Apr 16, 2019 21:15:05 GMT
I think the combination of him having won a Super Bowl there and seemingly getting better by the season (more out of necessity. as the personnel around him gets worse every year) somewhat justifies the high price tag. He's a certifiable top 10 QB that you could make a case for being Top 5. With better offensive weapons around him, he'd probably be Top 3.
It's a hell of hit but franchise QBs don't just grow on trees and ones who have actually WON and (are only 30-31 years old) are like the Golden Unicorn of "let's lock this guy up and keep him" extensions. Him going to market after next season would have completely changed the landscape of the league. Thankfully, Seattle did the right thing. Not like they were going to spend the money on improving the offenese anyway lol.
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Post by Timberwolf on Apr 16, 2019 21:39:11 GMT
Lamar Jackson is a wildcard. We'll see how he does next year after a full training camp as QB1.
Also, NFL schedule comes out tomorrow night. It's confirmed my Packers visit the Bears to kick off the season on Thursday September 5th - on the same day my Brewers host the Chicago Cubs. Gonna be a lot of smack talk between Packers/Brewers and Bears/Cubs fans that week. :D
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Post by NSL on Apr 17, 2019 2:20:32 GMT
The Tampa Bay Lightning have been swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Lightning had won 62 games in the regular season, only the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings had done that previously.
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Post by El Marsh on Apr 17, 2019 2:54:24 GMT
Not really surprising, given that the Lightning are the Eastern Conference's answer to the San Jose Sharks, i.e. they often make it through the season relatively easily only to get booted in the first or second round of the playoffs. I think the Lightning won the Stanley Cup like 15 years ago but it almost sorta doesn't count since that was the same weird year that saw the Pistons beat a much more talented Lakers team in the NBA Finals and the Red Sox break their 85 year drought by winning the World Series; the year was full of wonky champions! xD
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Post by spiderfab4 on Apr 17, 2019 10:40:11 GMT
Not really surprising, given that the Lightning are the Eastern Conference's answer to the San Jose Sharks, i.e. they often make it through the season relatively easily only to get booted in the first or second round of the playoffs. I think the Lightning won the Stanley Cup like 15 years ago but it almost sorta doesn't count since that was the same weird year that saw the Pistons beat a much more talented Lakers team in the NBA Finals and the Red Sox break their 85 year drought by winning the World Series; the year was full of wonky champions! xD You've got a point, now that you mention all that. It was also the same year that the U.S. DIDN'T win the Men's Basketball Olympic gold. Also that was the year of this glory: :D |
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Post by Firehawk on Apr 18, 2019 6:36:26 GMT
Y'know, after years of hearing "Holy shit the White Sox announcer is SO BAD", them suddenly having what seems to be a fantastic booth is kind of surreal.
Screw the Royals, and their announcers, though. The clip in that tweet really shows a major difference in attitudes towards "showboating" in baseball. You hit a big home run, you show it off even just a little bit, and jerkass pitcher decides to hit you the next go-around? Fuck off.
I never saw a single hitter in the entire league get all salty when Felix Hernandez would end an inning with one of his big victory roars, for fuck's sake.
(speaking of the Mariners oh hello regression is it time already? time to crawl back in the hole)
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Post by Zealot on Apr 18, 2019 12:42:23 GMT
A couple things:
1. I love the White Sox commentators. They have to make something out of nothing every single game because the team is just in constant tank mode and they occasionally have good points like they did here.
2. The Royals organization has been in the total doldrums since winning that fluke World Series (Sorry, Marsh. It's true.) and I'm not surprised they would sacrifice obvious strategy and coaching in a tie ball game to "send a message" instead of..you know..getting him out. At least the bench coach got ejected.
3. If Tim didn't throw his baseball bat like a javelin after hitting the home run in a scoreless game in the 4th inning, this wouldn't have been a huge issue. Congrats, Tim. You scored the first run of the game. Take your home run. It's not a fucking walk-off.
4. The fact that Joe West was umpiring this game just made it worse. Why would he eject Tim first for getting hit? Seems counter-productive considering all he was really doing was talking and being held back by Abreu. There was no fisticuffs. There was hardly any pushing and shoving. Tim was fucking surrounded by Royals (great job, coach). Just a concoction of crap.
5. It's kind of hard to retaliate against Felix in his prime considering he's in the DH prominent American League and it's not like line drives straight to the pitcher are easy or intentional. The best way to get back at players being cocky is to actually...play better than them. Give some effort.
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Post by El Marsh on Apr 18, 2019 13:00:42 GMT
I mean, that "fluke WS win" happened a year after they lost game 7 of the World Series. I'd like to think that the team was actually "good" outside of that one championship season.
I'm not really sure why this particular incident deserves the scrutiny. IIRC, this happened with the Reds and Pirates last week and nobody batted much of an eye then. It's one of those silly, pointless things that happens throughout the game. I don't really care for it at all and think it's the wrong thing for a talented 2nd year pitcher like Keller to be focusing on ding. Now that people see it riles him up, it's probably going to happen more often going forward (not that Keller actually gives up a lot of HRs). I loved the fire of the late Yordano Ventura but it was as much a liability as a boon and even though this Royals team isn't anywhere near as good as the teams of 4-5 years ago, it's still a dumb detriment. At least they eventually won the game. Wooo, 6-12! >_>
Also, I love how the dude in the reaction video was like "Heath Filmeyer? I didn't know this guy existed." Well then, why don't you shut the fuck up about him, you ignorant ass?
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Post by El Marsh on Apr 19, 2019 15:19:06 GMT
I saw an interesting interaction on MLB Network's "MLB Central" this morning. The topic was the aforementioned dustup between the White Sox and Royals on Tuesday. The two former MLB players, Mark DeRosa and Sean Casey, seemed to advocate the "it's part of the game" mentality for intentional beaning, though DeRosa did explain that there are obvious limits to it (i.e. don't throw at a guy's head, ever) and concluding that you just can't take the emotion out of baseball on either end. The journalist on the panel however, Robert Flores, said that the mindset shared by those two former players' is "wrong" and that it's being weeded out of the game. Sean Casey got a bit heated at hearing that his mindset was apparently wrong which prompted an obviously flustered Flores to kowtow to Casey's experience while also "re-wording" his opinion while reinforcing it. DeRosa and host Lauren Shehadi had that "whoo boy" looks on their face during the exchange.
As if that wasn't awkward enough, their first guest in the next segment was Royals manager Ned Yost, followed in the succeeding segment by Royals players (stars?) Whit Merrifield and Brad Keller, the latter of which was the guy who threw the beanball that led to the fracas in Chicago. With Yost and the players, there was quick mention of the incident but never any spotchecking about it, which I think was the proper call (Yost has already publicly spoken about the incident twice and players, well, good luck getting them to answer anything about "unwritten rules"). The primary topics were about Yost's now-unusual reliance on base stealing, Keller's unorthodox (yet devastating) sinkerball, and Merrifield's approach to hitting through his recently established Royals-record 31-game hitting streak. I like those segments in general, regardless of the team/players being highlighted but it was especially nice getting to see the Royals get a bit of attention (they're on their annual visit to New York to play the Yankees, so that's the biggest part of it; the timing with the week's events was just pure coincidence).
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Post by Timberwolf on Apr 25, 2019 15:55:33 GMT
NFL Draft tonight. Hopefully we can discuss this over the weekend. As for my Packers, I think they will go the BPA route, but I hope they get a TE, LB, and most importantly, a QB to replace Aaron Rodgers eventually. Rodgers is the same age that Brett Favre was when Rodgers himself was drafted. So it makes sense to draft Rodgers' replacement now, groom him, then start him. DeShone Kizer is not the answer though I'm not dismissing Kizer entirely as chances are, he could flourish under new coach's Matt LeFleur's system. Let's see how that goes. Also, looking forward to Zealot 's commentary on the draft as he always had great input on the draft each year. ;) |
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Post by Zealot on Apr 27, 2019 2:47:25 GMT
Well, where do I start?
While I can understand the Cardinals taking Murray with Kingsbury at the helm and also the idea that Rosen is a sunk cost, I don't feel like they're that much better off. There are still a lot of holes on this team on defense as well as a lack of weapons outside of Fitz and David Johnson to utilize. They also failed to flip Rosen for more picks. It also doesn't help that there isn't a QB for Murray to sit behind so he'll be thrown to the wolves just like Rosen was. Still, I think Murray has much more upside than the next QB taken...
DANIEL FREAKING JONES. Dear God, this was a reach by the Giants. Throw intangibles and size out the window. The dude was mediocre as shit in college. He lost to Wake Forest by 52, went 2 TD - 9 INT against Viriginia, and was 83rd in pass efficiency. I don't understand what David Gettleman thinks he's doing outside of getting fired again for poor decision making. The Giants may definitely be the new "Browns" of the league.
That all being said, on to what were the better picks.
This draft was loaded with defensive line talent and the teams obliged with mostly solid picks along with a couple of panic moves like the Raiders and Texans made when their dude was selected. It's a dead giveaway when the fans are stunned during the TV broadcast that the move makes no sense.
Personal bias, but I loved the Steelers trading up for Devin Bush. Yes, they gave up a bit, but the team needed an identity on defense after Shazier was seriously hurt. This should help out a lot.
I think the main winners so far going into round 3 now has be a tie between the Redskins and Broncos. The Redskins had Haskins basically fall into their laps gift-wrapped due to New York's ineptitude and traded a bit to get up and grab Montez Sweat. A very solid first round and I think Haskins will benefit sitting a bit behind Keenum.
The Broncos meanwhile made way for Pittsburgh to get their guy and grabbed Flacco-approved security blanket in Noah Fant and flipped the 2nd rounders for Drew Lock and a great leader at OT in Risner. Elway definitely swinging for the fences with this draft. He needed to.
To the surprise of no one, the Chiefs were forced to draft a WR in round 2. The stuff coming out about Tyreek Hill is just sickening and it looks like they are planning to move on without him. Hopefully, this Hardman kid can fill the void as I hate to see a talent like Mahomes get put at a disadvantage due to his teammates being shitty human beings off the field.
Other decent day 2 stuff included Cleveland picking up CB Greedy Williams who will fit right in that secondary (Cleveland is getting scary to look at on paper), the Titans picking up WR A.J. Brown, and the Seahawks providing a nice target for Wilson with Mr. 3% Body Fat DK Metcalf.
Overall, I think the drafting is getting a lot better for most teams as they stick to chalk, but there are some obvious gaffes by teams like the Giants and the Raiders (WTF Mayock? Clelin Ferrell?)
I'm enjoying it so far.
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Post by Zealot on Apr 27, 2019 13:03:43 GMT
And it turns out Arizona did end up flipping Rosen to Miami. Not a bad deal for either side really.
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Post by Timberwolf on Apr 27, 2019 13:13:31 GMT
And it turns out Arizona did end up flipping Rosen to Miami. Not a bad deal for either side really. I think Miami could have waited, make Arizona squirm, then get Rosen a bit cheaper. The Cardinals were ready to drop Rosen like a bad habit. |
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Post by Zealot on Apr 27, 2019 13:31:12 GMT
If Miami were a better run organization, they probably could've done that.
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