jpa2825

Congratulations on Rendezvous!

Could he seek a redshirt for last year? Assume no way he'd have 2 yrs. left to play at UofL, right?

Just curious. As I understood it, you're basically "buying" the beers you leave the stand with each time. At the end of the night, you took $400 in product, you pay the man his $400 and if you sold those beers for $600, you keep the $200. Other than the #s , is that anywhere close to right? Obviously, they want continuity so they require you to sell the product at the same prices. Just wondering why they care if you take a credit card or Venmo or Bitcoin for the beers you "bought" from them so long as you have the greenbacks to pay them for the beers at the end of the night. I would think you have some regulars that would wait for you to come around and Venmo or credit card their beers b/c it is easier than paying some other vendor cash. You'd lose something in the credit card transaction, but hopefully make up for it in volume and/or higher tips.

Not sure if it has aged well, but Bob Costas' book "Fair Ball" was a pretty deep dive into this. As I recall (it has been a while), Costas' main point was that you have to have both a salary cap AND a salary floor to make it work (and to have any hope of getting the Union to go along with it). In MLB, teams figured out that they can spend $60M (or whatever the # is now) and finish in 2nd or 3rd behind the $100M Yankees / Dodgers / etc. OR they can spend $30M and finish 4th or 5th. A lot of owners pocketed the $30M and dealt with the backlash from their fan base (if there was one) and talked about rebuilding. Currently, you have a few clubs that can / do have the resources to compete every year (Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs (yes, they tore it down, but now they reload), Nationals (sort of - what they do next year will be interesting), Mets (but they are run soooo poorly, they don't overcome it), Angels (see Mets), Giants, etc.). You have other clubs that try to catch lightning in a bottle. You have other clubs that do the tear down and rebuild (or tell their fans they are doing that). Finally, you have clubs that just don't really plan to compete in the current structure. MLB & NBA both have large % of teams entering the season with no legitimate chance of winning the title. In the NFL, that # is very few. It's not good for the long term health of either game (although the NBA and its current "super teams" obsession seems to be working out).

Really like Schofferhoffer and Stiegl Radler grapefruit. Good stuff.

As we get closer, let us know potential impact on UK v. UofL baseball in Lexington on TUE night.

He's wherever he is to sell tickets / generate interest. This will be true even if he shows up at Citi Field.

Smells like a platoon for Duvall. If he sits tomorrow against Strasburg and starts against Gio on SUN, gonna smell a lot more like it. If you're trying a 4 person OF rotation, Duvall plays against all LHPs and occasionally against a RHP. Hamilton is anemic from both sides but has speed & defense. Maybe the rotation will include pinch run and defensive replacement innings for Hamilton?

Finnegan appears to be on the 25 man roster and @HammerTime says Reed is starting on TUE (although not 1 of the 13 Ps currently listed on the 25 man roster?). That said, your overall point that the 3 Ps acquired from KC have "underwhelmed" is accurate.

Any chance his reference to his wedding reception in New Albany, IN was an homage to Romeo Langford?

I assume a Home & Home with XU will be on the schedule as soon as availability allows. XU would be silly not to take a chance to boost non-conference schedule. Would be a classy move by Mack.

Widely reported now.

The McD suggestion doesn't ring true. Jurich locked him up in JUN 2016 with a 10 yr. $10.6M deal making him the highest paid coach in baseball. Maybe Tyra is going to sweeten and extend that deal a bit, but the foundation was clearly laid by Jurich. CRAWFORD | Louisville makes McDonnell nation's highest paid coll - WDRB 41 Louisville News That said, I support Tyra and thought Jurich had to go in order to get things fixed and a clean slate to start from.

Agree. This is the tension of Cal's system. He is able to recruit the top talent because his greatest selling point is NOT winning a national championship, it is getting them to the NBA. For the kid and for Cal, you can hardly blame either of them. For BBN, it leads to constant "reloads" as kids cycle through the program largely 1 yr. at a time. They're happy when the slot machine turns up jackpot and a group like Davis or KAT are able to dominate and win / get close to winning a banner while they are there. They are apoplectic when the recruiting dice come up snake eyes and they end up losing at Robert Morris in the NIT. They are somewhere in between in years like this (glass half full - "They made the Sweet 16 which is more than I expected from them mid-season"; glass half empty - "They beat 2 teams they should have and lost to a team they should have beat in the NCAA Tournament.").

A few will go because they know Cal has a complete new group coming in having heard the same promises they heard in their living room about grooming them for the NBA. It has worked extremely well for Cal to get top talent because so many of them have gone on to succeed in the NBA. It does, however, make it much more difficult to develop players over 2-3 years.

If you are going to get TSA Pre-check, think about Global Entry. As mentioned, it is only $15 more and will help if you travel internationally. HOWEVER, Global Entry requires an interview and the slots can be VERY hard to schedule. There is a center near CVG but they schedule a few months in advance. You can't use the TSA Pre-check (which is included in Global Entry) until your interview is complete. Another thing to consider is a high annual fee credit card like the Business Platinum AmEx. Annual fee is like $450 but pays for global entry, $200 in purchases on an airline you pick (baggage fees, food on the plane, etc.), 10 WiFi passes per year, access to the Delta Sky Club and a few other perks. Most of these also have a huge points bonus if you spend a certain amount with them within a certain time period (e.g., $5k over 3 mos.). You can sometimes get $400-$800 worth of points to use from that signup. You can also get Global Entry reimbursement for additional cards that have less perks. I think AmEx is $45/yr. The $450 is much less attractive for YR 2 since you already have Global Entry, but if you play the game right for the 1st year, it can be pretty profitable.

TSA Pre - 60 minutes (45 if you have low anxiety) No TSA Pre - 90 minutes (60-75 if you have low anxiety)

Under contract for next 2 yrs at $6.5M. They basically give him an extra $10.5M in those 2 yrs. and agree to pay him $26.2M for 2020-2024. I would've thought you could get a better discount for giving him a long term deal with 2 yrs. under control. This seems like a PR move more than a pure baseball move. Maybe he told Astros "Give me a long term deal now OR I won't sign here after 2019." Even so, with guaranteed contracts that takes up a huge chunk of their salary for the next 7 yrs. regardless of how well he plays.

Was pleasantly surprised to hear him. Wonder if that means he will be back with the Bats this summer?

Cards were bad this weekend. That's a rarity for McD and I suspect he's very motivated to get things changed. Poor fielding, undisciplined ABs, inability of many Ps to throw strikes and challenge hitters is frustrating. I don't care how good your stuff is, if you can't control it it's largely useless. SUN 1st inning was a great example. Thompson walks the leadoff guy, Mann makes an E on a sure DP ball (no clue why they scored it a hit - it was hit hard but right at Mann who fielded to his side rather than getting in front of it), 3rd guy was grazed by an inside fastball, Thompson gets behind 2-0 to their cleanup guy and has to come with a fastball that Aiello turned on and the Cards were immediately down 4-0. It was a nice comeback on SAT, but relying on comebacks rather than playing well early (winning the 1st 3 inning segment is how McD refers to it) is a recipe for long term failure. @WKU won't be a walk in the park mid-week and then Clemson at JPat will be another sturdy test. If they don't get it together quickly, which I think they will, they will be chasing the rest of the ACC season. Wolf is the solid FRI night starter. After that, it's a bit of a mess. Smiddy pitched well in his 1st career start against UNC but was bad against Wake. Thompson pitched very well against UNC but went only 2 innings SUN. Other candidates to start include Bennett (not sure how healthy he is to pitch several innings), Hoeing (pitched great in relief on SAT), Detmers (good stuff, but same control issues and is a true FR which can be tough), Martin (has been used solely in relief last 2 yrs.), Jenkins (control issues aplenty so far) and Miller (pitched great in relief against Texas Tech but true FR so same issues). My guess, he'll find someone who will challenge the zone and give him a chance. Not sure if McAvene is injured. Don't think he's appeared yet in 2018.

I'm looking more for a "wow, they got hosed" example rather than a "they probably don't deserve to be in, but they're as good or better than these other hacks they let in." Although the ND example warrants consideration. Say ND played great in non-conference (they didn't - losses v. Ball St. and @ IU), then Colson got hurt right at the beginning of conference play and they struggled, then Colson returned at the end of conference play and they returned to their prior great form over a few games, including the tournament, but still ended up at 8-10 or 7-9. Maybe that would be worth an exception to the hard rule. For me, I like the certainty and knowing what you have to do to even be considered. I also like some objective criteria limiting the pool of teams the Committee can screw up with!!!

That's where we disagree (which is fine and healthy). Given the awful job the committee has proven it will do, I want as many reasonable "guardrails" on them as possible. As to when a team under .500 in conference DESERVES to be in, let me know when it happens and I will re-think.

A few years ago there was a discussion that some parents wanted to just go ahead and get their 1st TJ surgery out of the way during HS (almost like elective surgery) so it didn't come at an inconvenient time. Crazy discussion and ridiculously misplaced priorities, but reflects the perceived high likelihood of it happening anyway and the perceived routine nature of the surgery and how most kids come back from it.

When was the last time a sub-.500 OVC team was in the disussion for an at large bid? Remember, being .500 or above doesn't automatically qualify you OR even help your argument. Being below .500 in conference simply makes you "NCAA tournament ineligible."

Just trying to put some objective criteria into a system that is brutally flawed currently. (Although, many will argue that the media loves the flaws so they can generate so much content about the flaws - just look at all the OU, ASU, etc. discussion.) Even with an unbalanced schedule where you play UVa, Duke and UNC 2x and Pitt and GaTech only 1x, do you really belong in the tournament if you are UNDER .500 in your league? Show me a team that truly "belongs" / "belonged" in the tournament that was UNDER .500 in conference. Also, knowing this requirement in advance would expand the "bubble" into FEB and late JAN and make conference games more exciting. ("X team is 3 under .500 going into their last 7 conference games. In order to be postseason eligible, they'll need to go 5-2 on those games.")