Rex Buckingham

But if you're 44-48 it will take you 4 wins to get to .500. yeah, I guess I was just thinking in terms of end of season records.

Does anybody else hate how games above/below .500 is calculated/referenced? If you finish 85-77, you're not 8 games above .500, you're 4, because you are exactly 4 games better than a team at 81-81.

I don't think being made public will improve ballots, after all ballots like these were made public:

Yeah, I think it will be more likely that the weaker teams will get weeded out sooner, because you'll have the top 16 teams seeded (rather than the 8 currently) and will avoid most "group of death"scenarios. That means that the top teams will likely go through on top of their groups and have easier routes through as weaker teams advance. I agree in some ways, but I see these two scenarios. If they don't do any differentiation among the top 16 seeds, it makes it more likely that two of the best teams in the tournament could meet in the round of 16 even if both teams win their group. Second, with only two group games, it only takes one bad game to finish 2nd or even a risk of being 3rd in your group. You don't necessarily need a group of death anymore to have potential of at least not finishing 1st in the group, and if they don't finish 1st you could see two top 10 teams meeting in the round of 32 (one group winner versus the 2nd place of the next group). So while I think the odds are greater of a top 8 team making it out of their group, I think their chances are smaller of making the quarterfinals than they were before. They have to win two win or go home games instead of one, and one of those games could easily be one of the other top 8 teams. The teams that it help most are the 9-16 teams. Their chances of getting out of the group get better as they will now be the best team in the group, and they have an almost 50% chance of avoiding a top 8 team until the quarters even if all the top 8 teams advance. Good points, could make some of the knockouts really interesting

Seems to me this will make it easier for the 8 best teams to make it through to final 8 as potential cinderellas will be knocking each other off along the way. Interesting but flawed teams who stand a chance at upsetting the best teams will find it harder to get to the final stages as they will be beat by some weaker teams that really don't have a chance of a major upset. Yeah, I think it will be more likely that the weaker teams will get weeded out sooner, because you'll have the top 16 teams seeded (rather than the 8 currently) and will avoid most "group of death"scenarios. That means that the top teams will likely go through on top of their groups and have easier routes through as weaker teams advance.

College QB ypc numbers are skewed by the fact that sacks are counted as rushing attempts and negative rushing yards, so if he's sacked 3 times for -15 yards in a game, it can take a game of 4 carries for 20 yards to 7 carries for 5 yards. So in an instance like that, the true ypc would be more like 5.0, not the 0.7 that shows up in the stats

I felt like he floated too many throws last night, though maybe that was kind of intentional because he knew that either Williams could go up and get it or nobody was going to get it.

Yeah, this is stupid. Yeah, don't think we really need 16 more bad teams in the field. Also, seems to me that qualifying is way less important now for the better teams, more teams = less pressure to get in.

I know Illinois is one of the lower ones, maybe one of the ones in the 20s, and Indiana is 120 I think... Is Rutgers a way lower number than they should be also? Oh, and I'm pretty sure Indiana will be Illinois by about 20 this Saturday, but then Illinois will inexplicably beat a good team and the Groce era will continue as it has until it inevitably ends after a First Four or NIT loss.

I'm not saying I wouldn't vote for him, but with more than 10 worthy candidates I'm fine excluding him for a year Yeah, that's absolutely a fair perspective.

I think the character thing with Schilling is laughable. Is he a moron (of whatever other term you want to use)? You bet. Does that mean his playing career was not HOF-worthy? By no means. Plus, the amount of fantastic racists and segregationists in there should kill that argument.

Yeah, not getting the whole "Let's get upset about guys who stand to make millions skipping a meaningless bowl game." Let's ask Jaylon Smith if he wishes he would have skipped the Fiesta Bowl last year. That injury cost him millions already due to the drop in the draft, let alone what long term effects it might have on his career. Nobody is going to care if McCaffrey played in the Sun Bowl or if Fournette played in the Citrus Bowl. If it were one of the playoff games, sure they would play, but these games are meaningless for their purposes.

What are everyone's thoughts on McGlinchey and Cam Robinson (if the Bears can trade down)? Tackle seems to be a glaring weak spot for us as well as DB. Staying put at 3 or 4, I would hope Pace would sacrifice a limb for Allen or Garrett to be available.

Seriously, they may have screwed themselves out of some of the best years of the biggest international star since Ichiro.

pleased that he is in the AL rather than going to the Nats. Good deal for the WSox too I think, can't imagine a prize much better than Moncada that would have been available.

The Houston #Astros getting poised to pull off a #Cubs season by adding Beltran, Reddick and McCann this winter, and still pursuing Sale ^ Bob Nightengale tweet. Can't get it to link on my phone. But is he comparing McCann, 39 year old Beltran, and Reddick to the Cubs getting Zobrist, Lackey, and (what we expected out of) Heyward? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm just glad we're going to get to see guys like Benny again, will know what to expect from game to game, and can be done with things like playing a fresh-off-injury JJ in Hex games, playing Ventura Alvarado against anyone, moving Fab anywhere and everywhere on the field, playing formations we've never played before in Hex games, and hearing how stupid we all are because we dared to criticize Jurgen.

I hope he was still in Germany and Sunil texted him, "Hey, you can take your time coming back, because you're fired."

Klinsy out!

Well, it's the Nets, so it only partly counts.

Just as everyone expected, a left handed reliever acquired by trade from an American League team closed out the World Series win for the Cubs.

Just realized that Ross's last official AB was a HR in Game 7 of the World Series. I hope like H horsefeathers that Carl Edwards Jr. can close it out.

Well, let's hope it lasts long enough to make them take Shaw out, right?

I can breathe for another half inning

The Chicago Cubs have won a baseball game 113 times this year. The Cubs have faced starters on short rest 4 3 times this postseason, let's check in on the results: Clayton Kershaw, NLCS Game 6: 5.0 IP, 7 H. 5 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 HR, (not on short rest, but bears mentioning that it was an ace the second time around and his workload in the postseason may have affected him; thanks Billy_Buck for the correction) Cubs Win, some guy named Hendricks shuts down LA Corey Kluber, WS Game 4: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 HBP, Cubs Lose 7-2 Trevor Bauer, WS Game 5: 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 HR, Cubs Win 3-2 Josh Tomlin, WS Game 6: 2.1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 HR, Cubs Win 9-2 to force game 7 against Corey Kluber, who is pitching on short rest against the Cubs for the second time this series. This time, Kluber faces a lineup, for the third time, that is red-hot and looking to close out the first World Series for the Cubs in 108 years. Let's do this!