Boston won though. The Lakers were epic, becuase they had just won 3 in a row the year prior and then added Malone and Payton? I thought Payton was a shoe in for a ring at that point.
They kicked butt last night....Motter...Segura and Gambill hit well.....I'm glad they sent Zumino to the minors and brought up a new catcher who can actually stop a bad pitch...Zumino was batting about 167 or something....worst job batting I've ever seen by a catcher....Mariners have had problems at the catching position for a couple years...
We had Sucre.. It'll never get as bad as Sucre. And we have had bad catching both hitting and fielding for at least a decade now.. Zunino will be fine in a couple years. He actually did fine the last 1/3 of the season last year. Besides, our problems aren't with our offense, or even our defense. It's our damn pitching and the injuries to them, along with our relief pitching. Haniger being out has sucked, too. Dude was raking both in ST and the start of the season. Bah.
Sucre was horrible...Zumino I thought would be an upgrade but he's horrible too...Ionetta wasn't anything special...the new guy they brought in is looking better than all 3 of those guys...I miss Dae Ho Lee though....they lost Guiterez, Lee, Smith and Lindt as far as big hitters from last season...they got much better baserunners in Dyson and Segura though....I like that they're going younger this season. I liked Aoki too.....but he's no baserunner. Leonis Martin couldn't hit early in the season either ....I think he's been sent to Tacoma too
He can't hit and he can't stop a pitch outside the strike zone...can't throw a runner out stealing 2nd...rarely even tries to field a foul pop up.I think he lacks most of the skills I want in a catcher...catchers should be top notch hitters with their knowledge of pitching...
Yeah remember when the west had all 8 teams winning around 50 games at the end of the season? Now you go into a season thinking "okay well only two of these teams have a chance really". As much as I think Lebron is a top 5 player at the end of his career, kinda started with him in Miami and even coming back to Cleveland he basically wanted love there and complained about the team and who they can get. All of a sudden they have deron Williams,etc. David west hopped to the spurs last season then hopped on the warriors this season. I really like Durant but that was a bitch move going to the warriors. I understand completely why David stern didn't let the lakers get cp3 that one year now. The stars seem to just wanna play together now and even sports media gets everybody going in the offseason about potential trades and signings leading to super teams.
I agree with this. It also kills pickup games, by the way. Now everybody just shoots threes (and bizarrely, everybody sags off and lets them, even though it's the only shot anyone practices and it's worth twice as much as the others). What's the solution? Get rid of the 3-point line? Never happen. Move it out more? Meh. There'll be a couple of season lag as people practice the longer three and then it'll be back to where it was. Maybe move it in, like we had for a couple seasons back then. This sounds counterintuitive, but I think it would make the three easier to defend. And maybe get the illegal defense rules back so you can't double-team in the post so much. But then again, nineties basketball was all 80-79 scorelines, so...
I have to agree with this. The players are setting more and more of a bad president. Before you know it, the top 50 in the league every year will have off season meetings about who they will team up with and where and in the end the bottom 45 will lose because the top 5 agree to hook up and go play together in some big city. It was understandable back in the day to watch a guy like Drexler try here. Payton Try in Seattle and Malone try in Utah, but by the time they made the move to join a superteam, they had already exhausted the best of their years and options with the team they were on. Now players are just hopping around like musical chairs or something.
I think part of this is not the 3 pt shot's fault but the lack of quality post players and guys who drive the lane and finish.....teams have stopped using old school bigs to spread the floor for the most part and now the most important skill it seems a center needs is making a free throw....Shaq would make 3 pt shooters pay by owning the paint and commanding double teams ....now, nobody owns the paint anymore. The league is filled with long ball shooters and seriously lacks guys who can finish in the paint
I don't buy this notion. sorry. The three may not bring the most entertaining form of basketball to the fans, but it is a fad that has been glorified by the fact that there just isn't a dominate big in the league at the moment. A soon as the next ShaQ Or Hakeem, or Chamberlin shows up, the game will change again. The next truly dominant big man will change the game back to an inside out where the three is the second or third option.
I'm not sure what the solution is. I haven't been in favor of moving the 3-pt line out, as it penalizes players for getting better at a fundamental skill. Maybe change the point system, making 2's count as 3's and 3's count as 4's? The game itself would remain unchanged, but the risk-reward balance of each shot would shift. Scoring numbers would explode, of course. You could adjust the point system each year based on the previous year's 2pt:3pt ratio.
Funny enough - except for Piazza and Mauer, most catchers are actually very average hitters, if not poor. Molina comes to mind too. Zunino does still need a lot of work, there's no denying that. But the catcher has always been a defensive minded player more than offensive, even lately. The Piazza's/Mauer/Molinas seem to be more exceptions than rules.
I've always ascribed to more contact hitting than power. More than likely with RISP you just need a knock... and if you have more of those guys that can knock the ball around - it happens at a far better clip, IMO. I mean, if you think about it - a good HR guy is hitting 30 HR a game (The 50/60 HR guy is an outlier, really). You get what, 400 AB in a year usually. Maybe 500 if you're a top of the lineup guy... most players get between 100-125 hits in a season. (very rough averages, doing quick math) You get 30 of those (again, as a good to great HR guy) that can net you from 1-4 runs. Most likely the 1-2 range... but if you can get 70 hits and half of those are for 1-2 runs, with 15 HR as a top line... That's good stuff. Plus you move the lineup. I hope we go back to small ball - it's more efficient, it shortens up swings, takes pressure off of the players.. Glad to see our team has got a good mix of that. Now our pitching just needs to stay healthy...
I have no idea if this is a good idea, just throwing shit on the wall (AKA brainstorming). Each blocked shot without fouling the O player is worth 2 points for the defensive player; 3 points if a D player blocks a 3 point shot.
Couldn't disagree more. In previous years players like Drummond would be taking their teams to the playoffs year after year. Cousins too. If anything changes this "fad" (which is a fad like global warming is a fad in that it's getting exponentially worse each year rather than just being a blip) it will be better defense on the perimeter. And that will only come with a change of rules, I think.
I usually hate the Moneyball dickheads but they are right when it comes to offense. Home runs isn't the best way to build your offense. You want guys who get high OBP and Runs Created. Now I think they go overboard with the stats but there is consistency with guys who get on base and bang runs across. Teams that build around 2 or 3 home run hitters usually go through offense explosion but then dry up for several games. The Yankees were like that with Arod and Tex, 3 run homer and then they'd GIDP a bunch of times. Now the Yanks have Aaron Hicks, Chase Headley, along with Brett Gardner.... So they can hurt you in other ways. Another style of play that I love us the national leave type Stolen Bases and the old Hit and Run. The old KC and St Louis teams were build around that style. Ozzie Smith gets on base and Willie Mcgee hits a double to drive him in. Rinse--Repeat. A great way to play baseball. I dont think baseball would seem as boring if more teams committed to speedsters and slash hitters. It will be interesting when Manfred makes all those game play changes next year. If teams can only make so many pitching changes they may become more likw it to experiment. Double steals. Slash Bunts, The Old even the Fall Down At First Routine!