jpa2825

A - not sure this group is really "ACC talent." I love them, but 2 ball handlers are graduate transfers from non-P5 schools. 1 of the others was not heavily recruited and ended up at UofL b/c Dick Vitale urged Rick to bring him in (and I'm happy he did). B - Deuce is right. They have struggled against full court pressure every time they've seen it. I can't believe they haven't seen more of it. I'm sure they will now. Hopefully they fix it before end of season.

I don't want to live in a world where this is not goaltending. Yes, I saw the Gene Steratore tweet and all the other back & forth about whether UK guy "vibrated" the goal and backboard by hitting the net and/or rim. If Steratore and others are right, we're going to get a whole new defensive strategy of big guys / athletic guys who can jump camping out underneath the basket, jumping up and extending their hands outside the "cylinder" or the "cone" or "at the rim" to knock balls away. While the above is actually unlikely, I can definitely see a goofy coach with a tall kid messing with 3 point shooter depth perception by waving their arms around up through the net since it's not goaltending. Why can't the rule be simple enough to state you can't put your hand up through the basket while a shot is in the air (regardless of whether you hit the net, hit the rim, vibrate the basket, ball is "at the rim," etc.)?

Where was Kwan Fore in the last segment?

Single digit loss would be a moral victory.

Challenge accepted. Both are 27 yrs old and have similar service time. There are plenty of ways to slice it to show they are either even or advantage to Tucker. He's NOT literally better in every aspect of the game. SALARY - advantage TB JT - $5.9M in 2019, ARB3 in 2020, FA in 2021 (he's gonna be expensive) TB - $2.5M in 2019, $3.5M in 2020, $3.75M in 2021, $7.5M in 2022 (club option; pays $500k if not exercised) (he's affordable and a known quantity) DEFENSE - advantage TB (no worse than a tie) MLB career Fielding % - JT .993 v. TB .997 - tie MLB career CS% - JT 33% v. TB 34% - tie MLB career Total Zone Total Fielding Runs Above Avg - JT 8 v. TB 22 - advantage TB OFFENSE - advantage JT MLB career batting avg. - JT .279 v. TB .254 - advantage JT MLB career OBP - JT .327 v. TB .328 - tie MLB careeer slugging - JT .442 v. TB .369 - advantage JT Awards - JT All-Star & Silver Slugger (2018) v. TB Gold Glove (2017) - tie Best WAR Year - JT 4.3 (2018) v. TB 3.4 (2017) - advantage JT

Since WWII, the Avg. Time / 9 innings has only exceeded 3:00 2x (2014 & 2017). It has, however, steadily increased over the years. (1946 was a statistical outlier at 1:56.) I am much more concerned with the "pace" of the game than the "length" of the game. Increasing "pace" to remove dead time will result in the "length" being shortened as well, but that is a by-product rather than a goal. 2 big problems with "pace": 1 - strategy of "no action" pitches (i.e., live action where nothing happens outside of P, C and Batter). Pitchers are groomed, selected and developed to throw hard and "miss bats." Batters are groomed, selected and developed with a single swing plane that will provide optimum launch angle for HRs if that swing plane happens to intersect with the pitch path. If it doesn't, so be it. This leads to lots of Ks and BBs and, obviously, lots of "no action" pitches. 2 - Traditional "dead time" concerns (time between pitches, batters stepping out to go through "routine," pitching changes [including specialization leading to more Ps per game and per season], time between innings, warm-up pitches for relievers, replays, mound visits by C, mound visits by INF, mound visits by coaches, 3B coach conferences with batters / runners [much more of a problem in college], etc.). As you can tell, most of the implemented / discussed rule changes focus on #2 rather than #1. Tim Kirkjian says #1 won't / can't change unless it starts at the youth level. If someone wanted to go out and find a Tom Browning / Greg Maddux P or Tony Gwynn / Rod Carew batter, it's going to be finding a needle in a haystack.

After asking the question above, I looked at the stats. While Realmuto appears to be a consensus choice over Tucker, I'm not sure once you throw the contract status into the analysis, particularly for a team like the Reds, that Tucker isn't a better choice right now.

Any recent rumors on Realmuto? Would India, Senzel, Trammell, Greene or anyone else be "off limits" for you? Marlins are claiming they won't allow extension discussions with Realmuto prior to trade. That really hamstrings potential parties as he is only under control for 2 years without an extension. Can the Reds afford to keep Barnhart as a backup or does he need to be included in the deal?

Sort of a running joke. I now go ahead and count the 2 games w/ UVa every year as losses at the beginning of the conference season. Makes them hurt less then they happen. :isurrender:

Go get a win at Wake. 6-3 going into the beginning of FEB blender would be really strong.

But - UofL's best player shot 0-7 from 3. You can play that game all day long.

Good win, particularly with Nwora having an off night (3-12 and 0-7 from 3 w/ 4 TOs [he did have 6 boards and 4 assists]) and Sutton missing minutes due to 1st half foul trouble. Got crushed on the boards and NC State, particularly Beverly, got waaaay too many open 3 point looks. NC State TOs make it look like UofL played tenacious D, but many of those were unforced. 3 guard lineup (Fore, Cunningham & McMahon) to start 2nd half due to Sutton foul trouble was pretty effective. Not sure how many teams you can do that against, but for short stretches it is a nice wrinkle. Broken record here, but I think the key to the season is what you get out of Perry and King: 5 - Williams and Enoch have this under control and both continue to improve. (Wonder if Mack would ever consider playing them together? They played a total of 40:00 together last night.) 3&4 - Nwora and Sutton excel here, but there is no depth forcing lots of minutes and other combos. 1&2 - Fore, Cunningham & McMahon give you solid minutes. Perry played 10:00 with 0-2, 1 foul and 1 steal. (Could've sworn he had a couple of TOs.) King played 5:00 with 1-2 (nice baseline jumper), 1 foul and that's it. Need more minutes and positive contribution from both of them for their own contribution and to take some of the minutes and load off the other 7 playing big minutes.

And sit which 2 of the following? Puig, Schebler, Winker & Kemp (not to mention Senzel if they decide he deserves to come up and can't crack the IF - which I don't think will be a problem before the All-Star break when some players might get moved even if the Reds have improved given that he is coming off an injury) I'm OK with Kemp platooning some and using Erwin as a defensive replacement for him in some games he starts where it makes sense. However, you can't afford to add meaningful innings for Erwin into an already 4 for 3 OF positions logjam (assuming everyone stays healthy).

2019 - $7.5M 2020 - $10.167* (deal was $38M over 4 yrs.; annual splits not yet known; rumor is $10M per w/ $500k signing bonus) 2021 - $10.167* 2022 - $10.167* 2023 - $12M reported club option I like the signing.

Tony Romo

Bravo. If they cared about substance or PR, they'd make sure there was a CCH MLK Day of Service event tomorrow (there probably already is) and they'd make sure an OVERWHELMING # of their students, teachers, parents, administrators, sponsors, alumni, etc. showed up to provide that service.

Same crowd that was "offended" by the Gillette ad last week. Maybe they need to go back and watch it more closely. Those doing it? Don't do it. Those encouraging it (particularly adults), don't do that. Those standing idly by (particularly adults), intervene, de-escalate and make this a teachable moment. For those that don't see this as an extension of the same thing the "crazies" do at sporting events - you are blinded by something. Take a step back and view it objectively. Any "corrective measures" CCH puts in place after this incident (now #trending on Twitter) that doesn't include a crack-down on the "crazies" misses an opportunity and insures that this will continue. The internet is written in ink.

Tom Browning's perfect game. Not sure why, but I listened to this to get the adrenaline going before most of my law school final exams. Pretty sure it was a walkman and cassette tape back then. Can't remember how I got it onto a cassette.

Does it ever - v UNC (w/ revenge on their mind); @ VaTech; @ FSU & v Duke. Being at .500 now (I always put the 2 losses to UVa in the record once conference play starts) is where they should be - albeit with the Pitt and UNC games reversed - and will get them a NCAA birth if they can keep it at .500 in conference (given their ridiculous SOS).

Mack is figuring out who he can count on and for what. Early season, I praised the depth of this squad and pointed out there wasn't a huge separation among the players. That has changed. 1 & 2 - Fore and Cunningham getting run. McMahon playing when you need offensive spurt (although he only played 10 minutes last night and didn't score) and can afford to do without Fore's defense (and live with his defensive shortcomings). Perry is lost in the shuffle. Not sure his decisionmaking can be trusted and his offense is inconsistent. Defense is usually solid. 3 & 4 - Sutton & Nwora are studs and will play as many meaningful minutes as they can. King continues to be an enigma. The +/- for him, McMahon and Perry have to be awful from last night. Take what you can get from him, but he isn't earning any additional playing time. 5 - Williams and Enoch are both progressing well and complement each other. Williams has stepped up defensive and rebounding effort but still takes some ill-advised shots. Enoch is learning to aggressively jump the high screen and get back to his man. His post game is also developing. They both got manhandled by UK so I'd say they are still unproven against size and length. Agau has gone from playing meaningful minutes to spot duty or mop up time. Not surprising. Seems like a good experienced voice in the locker room.

Agree. Particularly how the storm the field even after pedestrian wins. Act like you've been there.

or turned it over via interception ( including a Pick Six) before they reached the red zone.

Every year.

Why is there "no question about that?" Among 14 teams, they have a total of 16 Qual Wins (BPI Top50). 4 of those come from Miss. St. Their highest non-conf SOS (99% of games played to date) is Florida at 40. 9/14 have non-conf SOS > 100. I think the SEC is improving, but the data suggests that it is an open question.

My favorite