Junkballer

As long as they don't update the open wheel roadster. If they do that I'll never buy another Monopoly set again. LOL, Monopoly is the worst game ever. I would never buy one unless they came up with an authentic ghetto version.

Gotta add Bruno Sammartino and Superstar Billy Graham for the 70's. Hulk Hogan was almost a clone of SBG.

Can't help but to root for humble, team-oriented dudes. Hope he does well for the Angels sake and his own. Getting used to the idea that the closer doesn't have to be your best bullpen arm so with that I hope he rebounds enough to keep the closer role for the entire season.

How do players relate to the newer metrics like tunneling, spin rate, exit speed etc.? How does this data impact their approach or coaches approach, if at all? It seems to me that they are primarily evaluation tools for the GM's staff but how does it change the way things are done on the field?

I don't have a problem with this for the minor leagues as its a different environment and its good to try things out in the minors and see how things actually play out. No way it works in the majors as stats are too hallowed, tradition etc, and besides, how many really long (>12 innings) games occur in mlb anyway? It would be interesting though for them to introduce "hurry-up" rules in extra innings though; pitch clock, no mound visits unless to remove pitcher, etc.

They are supposed to determine the zone each time as the batter is prepared to swing so that would be immediately before they begin their swing. Obviously a lot of room for interpretation there. A fixed zone seems too contrary to the historic customs of the strike zone. I'd prefer a zone based on standing anatomy. Quite simply, something like so many inches above the hipbone and so many inches below the top of the knee measured standing. This eliminates any advantage a player can get from stances, as zones are slightly different based on bent knees and wider stances, while keeping zones fairly proportionate to the height of the player. They can have every player measured in spring training and require the measurements prior to call-ups & enter those into the Ump-o-matic.

Mound visits are more disruptive than IBBs. I'm fine with just signaling the IBB but I'd like to see mound visits drastically curtailed, with injury exceptions of course. In a pro game, signals and strategy should be worked out in advance and why give a pitcher time to gather himself?

I do the typical workout supplements (whey/casein protein, glutamine, bcaa's) but the thing that helps me more than anything is melatonin and getting enough quality sleep. I was having trouble concentrating at work and feeling fatigued until I stopped watching tv late in the evenings, at least during the week, and taking melatonin.

Optimistic in the sense of improvement. Still feels like a bridge year setting up for next year though. Happy about filling in the major areas of deficiency and adding a lot of depth and flexibility with position players. Still feel pitching can end up being what keeps this team from competing for a playoff spot though.

UCLA definitely addressing a future area of need with 5 OL. Considering our record last year and Klemm's firing late in the cycle, they did very well there. We could definitely use some JCs or graduate transfers for more immediate help. Quality group of DL to build off last years class (Tagaloa, Osa O.). Nice DB group as per usual. It's a top 20 class even with only 18-19 recruits. Using star average, they should be 10-13th. Now if only our coaching staff gets its act together...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/raiders-lose-major-las-vegas-backer-but-still-plan-on-relocating-there-from-oakland/ar-AAmrkkx?OCID=ansmsnnews11 That's 650 million that the Raiders are going to have to find an alternative funding source for.

Patio table lover.

I agree it was a good movie. It was well done and I felt it may have been Scorcese's most personal film. It can be appreciated or analyzed from different perspectives, historical, metaphorical and theological, among others. On a historical level it covered an era and social setting that is rarely, if ever, portrayed in western film and I loved it. As a metaphor for the societal norm's unrelenting will to tear apart that which it perceives as threatening, it was quite thought provoking. The protagonist's dilemma was exacerbated by Roman Catholic theology, so it is an opportunity to do some theological & ethical wrangling vis a vis your particular Christian or other viewpoint. I like that you termed it honest and I would add respectful as it allows a lot of room for the viewer to fill in the blanks.

Colonial Williamsburg. Tell the kids this is the ideal that the family will be working towards in the upcoming years. You'll never have to buy another electronic gadget for them ever again and they'll work like hell to be ready to leave the house when they're 18.

It seems like every single article about the F-35 are just puff pieces. When you try to make a magical swiss army knife of a plane no wonder that it does no one thing better than its predecessors. Dogfight, hell no. Ground support, no. Stealth, advances in lower frequency VHF radars make it questionable and it is very likely that they will need to fly with E-2's with more advanced technology than what they currently possess to remain truly stealthy. As ground support the A-10 carries 1174 rounds of 30mm and can survive flying low and slow. The F-35B (Marine STVOL) carries only 220 rounds of 25mm in a external pod which along with wingmount hard points and munitions make a jaw-droppingly expensive and vulnerable NON-Stealthy aircraft. It is so expensive and so vulnerable that it has to stand off from the fight lest a $500 shoulder fired weapon take down a 200 million dollar aircraft. At minimum, they need to hold back any additional funding and derail the schedule on this program so that Lockheed is required to fix the over 270 combat performance problems, some of which are enormous problems, before they declare the current developmental phase complete and move on to the Operational Test Evaluation phase in August which they are planning to do whether any of those items are fixed or not.

" In the midst of a contentious power struggle with Angels manager and animated tomato Mike Scioscia..." I wonder what vegetable the writer would compare say, Dusty Baker, to?

Nice that the ACC has bragging rights over the SEC this year. Happy for Coach Swinney who seems like a good dude that really loves his players. This game and Clemson-Louisville were the two best college games of the year.

I agree with this 100% as a fan perspective. Not being a lawyer, but sleeping at a Korean knock-off Holiday Inn Express last night, I think that a legal perspective may differ. He would be exercising his rights and fulfilling his contract with a California employer under California law, not breaking it. Contract provisions not in accordance with laws are not enforceable. Bad faith would be trying to interfere with his ability to negotiate a subsequent contract after legally fulfilling the previous one. Obviously it would take years of legal wrangling to see if either argument is true Trout wouldn't be the one to be the test case for this and its hard to envision all the headache and uncertainty one would have to go through to make it worthwhile, but some players, not Trout, have enormous egos. An interesting speculation would be if a disgruntled star player who is at odds with team management and felt he didn't have anything to lose, a Josh Hamilton whose talent didn't drop off a cliff type, opted out.

Am I doing it right?

This year maybe but not next.

Blackballing = Collusion. The player who opt out in this scenario has no doubt that they will make more money for doing so. A player like Trout would never be blackballed because he could prove collusion without even hiring a lawyer. He'd just have to address the jury by saying "C'mon, I'm Mike Effing Trout" and drop the mic.

I tend to think that Trout is an east coast guy and that will be a factor that will, to an unknown degree, sway how he feels about the Angels when he is free to choose from any offer. That being said, there isn't much the Angels can do about that other than do their best to make playing here fun for him. I doubt if he'll be looking at the health of the farm system, up and coming talent and he won't give a damn about the economics that limit Eppler to an internal 165m-ish cap. I think he'll remember the years 2018-2020 for whether, in his mind, the Angels went all out to win a title. I'm not advocating reckless spending nor am I advocating anything in this post but I do think that the Angels are handicapped by Trouts New Jersey roots and family location and will have to try to erase the memory of the clean peanut finding years by becoming somewhat of a powerhouse in order to keep him.

I'm not understanding the reasoning behind the discrepancy in projected Command & Control, with Command projected 10 pts higher. A pretty big difference. I know that although they are related but different, it seems to me that Command is more difficult to attain than Control. My understanding is that Control is mostly consistency of location, being able to throw strikes, and Command is both location and pitch movement, being able to make the pitch move or break in a repeatable advantageous manner while still making location. If that is close to correct, and I'm sure its an incomplete understanding, wouldn't Control be a much easier category to project highly in? If so, why would Command be projected so much higher than Control with Gatto? What am I missing?