stitchface

Heh, I kind of agree with you, but there are also triple play considerations...which depending on your outlook, are a reason against or for the IFR. I've discussed this with my friends for 4 minutes and it's become my number one demand for baseball rules. Also a triple play would be almost impossible. yea, how would you turn it unless the batter doesn't run? in any case, there is no rule to protect teams from a ground ball triple play.

Can you explain how the infield fly rule works to everyone here, too? the infield fly rule is idiotic and should be abolished. why do you get punished for grounding into a double play but you are protecting from hitting a weak pop-up? Stupid rule.

I'll agree with this. The risk of making him change his approach may lead to a Starlin like downfall. Poor guy was never the same after they tried to get him to take more pitches and pull the ball more often. Corey Patterson MLB has a history of very good players who were not patient hitters. I think this is a case where Sabermetrics has made some things more complicated than they should be. Bobby Grich was undervalued because patience was not valued highly as his time. Jim Rice was probably over valued, but Jim Rice was still a very good hitter that added value to his team. I think its misunderstanding of sabermetrics or over-simplifying rather than complicating. Walks are great but it's really not making an out that is important. If you have a choice between a player with a .400 obp and a .390 batting average or a player with a .400 obp and a .290 batting average, you take the former. The only reason to care if Javy takes a walk or not is his lack of strike zone judgment is impacting his out percentage and slugging percentage. Hard to know if that is true or not - if he walked more often, would his obp go up substantially? What about his slugging percentage? Calculated runs is actually very simple runs (per inning)=plate appearances-LOB-3 - you increase plate appearances by not making outs. You decrease LOB by hitting for power and baserunning.

It sure seems like every U-20 cycle since Ramos took over is producing 2-3 potential stars and another 2-3 solid pros every cycle, which is the way it should be but hasn't really ever been for the US. This is a great run down of the fringe national team prospects: https://theathletic.com/1106395/2019/07/30/parchman-nine-gold-cup-absentees-who-could-be-usmnt-regulars-by-2022/ Mendez is going to Ajax and Gloster to PSV. Netherlands is the new Germany.

we'd probably all feel a lot better if the brewers had only won 86 games last year.

so he's going to tell the manager how to construct the lineup?

regardless of moves, the cubs season is quite confusing. How do you have a positive RD on the road and yet have the worst road record in the league? That seems almost impossible.

blowing a 7-0 lead will be the only way to make this weekend worse.

happy now? I guess I look at production rather than hasn't taken a walk or hasn't hit a home run in so many days. His obp leaves something to be desired but he is generally productive.

horsefeathering maddon.

Really? Am I the only one who saw this? Could start minor league stint this weekend. https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/ben-zobrist-to-rejoin-cubs

no Junior Lake love?

I was impressed with Altidore in the more false 9 sense holding the ball up at midfield. In all honesty, US wins the Gold Cup if they could finish. They had four point blank opportunities that couldn't find the net. McKennie wasn't sharp either. I definitely feel a lot more optimistic after that tournament. I was starting to wonder if we were even the third best team in concacaf.

Awesome!

Need better forwards. How many times did Pulisic have to do something creative due to lack of options. Morris was awful.

that was a great game.

I have rationalized this to the following: The US "knew" that France prefers to not have possession and play on the counter. So they gave up the ball and Ellis thought Mewis was the better defensive option. Now Horan is rested for England. Crappy schedule for US where in both quarters and semis opponent gets an extra day of rest.

wow, catching up on costa rica - mexico after watching USnore vs curacao So much more entertaining.

hamels felt something in left side

Mewis was bad.

that would be really cool! bad result for the men yesterday but way too much hand-wringing over it. Hopefully the women can distract us from the calamity that the Gold Cup is going to be.

The reasoning they've given is that Sargent has already proven himself at that level last cycle, and even if he just missed the cut(Berhalter's comments sounded like he might've made it if not for Lletget's injury hurting his planned roster flexibility) that opened the opportunity for other people to shine in the U20 WC(like Soto has). well then get him experience at gold cup with an eye on 2022. I really have no interest in seeing jozy, gyasi, or jordan out there, with perhaps a little exception the latter.

huge win over france for the U20s. Good to have younger age group success. But why the hell is Sargent not there if he isn't playing in the gold cup?

hell, you could also give a direct free kick from the spot rather than the penalty. I would be in favor of reducing the size of the penalty area to something like the width of the goal box extended to the 18 but also allow a penalty to be called on a clear goal scoring opportunity (doesn't hockey have a rule like that?) the world cup final was also ruined by a stupid handling call.

Have you ever known anyone to like Ted Nugent’s music? Not much of a fan of his music but I like his politics Never liked Ted horsefeathering Nugent but Damn Yankees . . .