CubinNY

That was cool as hell. oh FFS You have bad takes on everything no matter what direction of the compass you want to point toward, so I'll take that as a compliment. How do you make a tribute to the fans that come to Wrigley by showing an empty Wrigley Field? The video was neat, the same way the bowling alley one that was done, what 4 years ago?

I'm going to have to politely disagree. They made the video without very many fans. The same shots 30 minutes before 1st pitch on a sold-out day, it's a different video.

Of all the weird things you post, this wins the award.

Maybe the NFL should seriously consider no more Thursday games.

His brain is scrambled eggs right now. I hope there is no permanent damage.

Thompson is a weapon at the back end of the pen.

Nelly needs more time to develop in the minors. He's overmatched.

Sutt whishing Reyes to respectability at the plate.

Time to get Asaad.

Working and watching and wishing Suttcliffe was not in the booth.

Madrigal/Mckinstry I'm hoping either/or not both. I'd lean toward Madrigal, but his inability to stay healthy is a problem, to say the least.

Where does Darius Hill slot in here? He had an outstanding season. Edit: For the Cubs, not all prospects.

He's showing his grip in frame two That windup kind of screams Tommy John.

Heyward is meeting with the media this morning. I admire that he's doing it. I don't know if I could do something like that.

Ok, as a Cubs fan you have to love the smile and joy with which he plays the game. However, Morel has been slumping badly for most of the 2nd half of the season. But now he has 2 big HRs in two days and has 16 HRs in about 3/4 of a season. He is capable but not outstanding in both the infield and outfield. He seems like he may have more value to the Cubs than as a trade candidate. I see him as a middle-class Ben Zobrist type who they can plug in multiple places almost every day rather than locking him into one position. I think he is very useful and valuable moving forward.

It's so funny that every 2 weeks we have the same conversation with people pretending that a game with Wesneski(and Alzolay, and Hughes, and Rodriguez) pitching well with Morel hitting a home run is catastrophic because they'll have marginally worse odds at getting a good player in the least predictable draft(that's now lotteried!). Agreed. There is always a shiny new toy in the draft, no matter where one is drafting.

Thank you, Navin! Go Smokies!

So LIV is basically doing an infomercial on Fox Sports 1 for their shitty version of golf. They are PAYING to have their tourney televised. Supposedly the people at Fox nixed it until Murdoch's son told them they had to do it.

It will undoubtedly take some adjustment but look at tennis. It's not even a thing anymore. All the stuff you mentioned is not relevant. Tennis is also a stationary, two dimensional zone with clear in/out lines that you can see. It doesn’t adjust based on who is playing. The width of the zone in baseball is the same but the height is different for every batter. I’m firmly pro robo-umps but it is more complicated than tennis. It is more complicated, but the point is that people will adjust. As long as the technology is up to the task, they should do it tomorrow.

No I think the Sox plan is to convince the fanbase that all they need is a new manager to get them back on track, not spending more money in FA. If he can spend $4m for a Bochy/Maddon type and keep the stands adequately filled, its better than spending $20m a year on like Trea Turner to get the same return on attendance. Bochy would be a great choice for them. For that reason, I could easily see them choose Maddon.

I don't really get having challenges instead of just going full-automated. In all sports, I am generally in favor of being able to challenge bad calls, but the actual review process sucks. Having the game pause for the review isn't fun. There are even times when I have wondered if I would rather just go back to no reviews (especially in basketball, or when football first started reviewing every touchdown). But with balls and strikes, I feel like it is the one situation where you can just immediately have the call be correct and we won't have the need for challenges. The thing I'm worried about is the unintended consequences of robo-umps. I'm absolutely deaf ears on "the human element" but some pretty smart people have voiced some valid trepidations about jumping over to the automated strike zone in one fell swoop. - The super-imposed zones on TV aren't actually totally accurate, getting the actual calls takes a little bit of computer processing time - Umps don't actually call the rulebook zone. It's more oval than square, if we jump straight to the rulebook zone what does that do? Or do we want to codify a more practical zone? - Relatedly, the zone expands/contracts based on the count and the score. Does eliminating that all at once break anything? - Does completely eliminating framing do weird/undesirable horsefeathers to the catcher position? We definitely need to move towards automation. But I think an intermediate step is a good idea. Though I 1000% agree it needs to be fast. No sauntering over, putting a headset on, waiting 90 seconds, disseminating the info, etc. Just like flash something on the scoreboard or give the 2B an earpiece and appeal to him a la check swings or something. I don't watch tennis but my understanding is it's pretty quick and painless there? It will undoubtedly take some adjustment but look at tennis. It's not even a thing anymore. All the stuff you mentioned is not relevant.

Don’t know if this is true

"If MLB ever went to a fully automated ball-strike system, it would eliminate a skill MLB umpires have spent years (decades in some cases) perfecting. And the first month of the transition would assuredly be rocky, with plenty of discussion of how the strike zone has changed, highlights of the strangest ball and strike calls and plenty of disruption." Who cares?

He’s got easy power. Just a normal swing and boom!

How does the Giants' secondary grade out? They need to find some holes to exploit.