aznhockeyguy

I'd stay away from both. They're not game changers IMO.

The better question, for me at least is, which critically acclaimed movie did you see and didn't like as much, as I don't really watch a lot of movies. And to answer that question, only one I can think of right now is No Country for Old Men, didn't really get into the movie. The acting was great and it was really suspenseful, but just couldn't really get into it other than that, plus I hated the ending.

This season's LF has been below average, thought we were discussing this season, but you are correct. 2B absolutely, but most teams are not concerned about a 2B's bat. Even for Espinosa, we expected a low .200 batting average and double digit HR's. So while he did suck, I wasn't betting for him to produce. Right and Left field, I wouldn't classify as atrocious, below average for sure. 1B and DH is where one of the team's best hitters should be. Albert is producing like a below average middle infielder (.672) while this season's middle infielders' OPS have been around .735 and he's the DH where the average OPS is .752. Valbuena and Cron and whoever is playing 1B has been worse with a combined .627 OPS, where the average is .837!

When you've had absolutely atrocious production from 1B and DH where most teams have their best hitters, you're bound to struggle to score runs.

Did anyone else got a small kick that Blanton was kicked around last night? I sure did.

Call me crazy, but go look at Randy Johnson's age 27 season and look up Alex Meyer's stats for this season. Small sample size caveats aside, it wouldn't surprise me if Meyer starts figuring it out next season and lower his walk rate and a have a very good season. Randy Johnson had a very wild streak in his early career much like Meyer. Johnson didn't really figure it out until his late 20s and then absolutely dominated for the next decade and pitched till he was 45 to become the Hall of Famer that he is now. Johnson and Meyer are very similar in height and build, but obviously Johnson's stuff was much better and Johnson's career arch isn't very typical as he had his most dominant run in his mid 30s. Meyer has shown the same type of ability to completely fool hitters and has the stuff to miss bats and avoid hard contact. Can he be the next Randy Johnson? Most likely not, but what I'm saying is that he could be a very effective pitcher and have a very solid career if he ever figures it out. I also wished Scioscia left him in there to try and get the shutout, 7-0 lead and pitching at home while only giving up 1 hit and 1 walk with a reasonable pitch count, what more does a guy have to do to try and get the shutout? https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/johnsra05.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/meyeral01.shtml

I've been watching Seinfeld as I was a bit on the young side when the show was on.

Vlad, dude just swings hard every at-bat.

Just remember guys, Thaiss was highly touted early too, but this season he's fallen off a bit due to his struggles. Just temper your expectations.

When you try to out think a lot of other smart people, you make yourself look like a fool.

FYP, the last one was Hamilton.

LOL, Angels rewarding success with demotions. Parker pitched pretty solidly while on the rotation though his stuff and peripherals did say he was super lucky.

Well he learned his lesson, because the last time he did well he got sent down. This time he figures hey stop hitting, it'll get me promoted. It did work!

I am unsure how WAR is calculated either, but it takes into account how other players in the position are performing. Nolasco has been a 4.5 ERA pitcher through 100 IP's while Birdwell has been a 3.3 ERA with 1/3 of the IP's of Nolasco. Nolasco is right around the league average ERA, where as Birdwell is significantly better at 3.3. If Birdwell continues to have this ERA as he continues to pitch more, his WAR value will rise at a higher clip than Nolasco. For reference, see Craig Kimbrel, he's pitched 36 innings at 1.23 ERA and has a 2.2 WAR. So it isn't necessarily about how many you pitch, it's about how well you pitch.

And if we have Newcomb we wouldn't have Simmons. What's your point? Yes, Segura and Newcomb are good players, but it's not like the Angels didn't get back what they thought they were getting back. Grienke gave the Angels a great starter down the stretch and the Angels thought they would resign him, but it didn't work out. Simmons has been better than advertised, what more would you want? Sometimes prospects pan out and sometimes they don't.

The Braves traded Simmons because they wanted to go into a full rebuild mode and compete in the next 3-5 years. Starting next year, they'll probably start trending upward in the wins total. Angels traded Segura to get Grienke as a rental for a playoff push. He was also blocked by Aybar and Kendrick in the middle of the infield, very few people thought he would turn into the player he is but that's the risk with prospects or that Aybar would fall off a cliff. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Yep this in a nutshell. Paul had an opt-out for the final year of his contract, making him an unrestricted free agent. Paul's agent informed the team he was going to sign with Houston once free agency begins which is usually around July 7-8. Either team or CP3 said, hey opt-in for your final year and we'll trade you to Houston. Clippers get some assets back and Houston gets Paul's bird rights to get the financial advantage to resign him to a 5 year 205 million dollar contract at the end of this upcoming season instead of signing a 4 year 140 million dollar contract now. So it was a win-win in a sense as Paul gets more money to the destination he prefers and the Clippers get a few assets instead of losing him for nothing. Houston is making a big gamble that Paul resigns with the team.

Never expect the GM and manager to speak the truth. It would be refreshing but they never will. I still hate the fact they use RBI's to justify his position in the lineup. Yes a lot of his hits have come with men on base, but he's still an awful hitter now.

D'Angelo Russel IMO wasn't going to be an elite PG talent. He's not an efficient scorer and his assist total and vision is sorely lacking to be a true point guard. He's not that great of a 3 point shooter, and his defense is above average but nothing special. So unless he improves drastically which is a realistic possibility as the 3rd season for most players is where it starts to really "click," I don't think the Lakers will regret trading him away. Obviously, the Mozgof contract was a disaster from the start and it would take a very attractive piece to attach with to get rid of in a salary dump. The Lakers get a bonafide starting center in Brook Lopez, but he's the poorest rebounding center I've ever seen in my life. He scores at a pretty good clip and has a 20 PER rating with a 2.0 VORP. The key thing is, he has only 1 more year left in his deal instead of the 3 in the Mozgof contract. For a rebuilding team like the Lakers, cap space is very important, especially if you believe that PG13 is signing with the Lakers during next summer. If I was the Lakers' GM, I would NOT trade for PG13 and stay the course and develop the younger players of the roster and wait to sign him during next year's free agent signing period. I would also keep Randle as he has shown a lot of improvement during this past season, especially in the scoring department and continues to be a man-beast on the boards when he's engaged. However, he has to show consistency to become an All-Star caliber player.

I think he will struggle in the majors if he doesn't have better control as a starter. He may be a future reliever.

I've been watching Two and a Half Men, I'm on season 8 right now. The show is hilarious.

I used to get the 7-11 nachos all the time. Their cheese and chili sauces were so good and I used to basically douse them on my nachos.

What, fries at Costco! *Mindblown*

With today's emphasis on the walk and OBP and elevating the starting pitchers pitch count, I don't think it'll be very likely that anyone will break the record.

Yea Catching Hell was awesome too. King's Ransom was pretty informative, but didn't think it was anything special. Pony Excess was solid, but having that blowhard Skip Bayless ruined it for me. Once Brothers was excellent, but a notch below my favorites. Guru of Go was average IMO, informative, but pretty meh.