Frayed Knot

Forcing someone to 'Click Here' for the entirety of the article being sampled is hardly "homework", and it's certainly less homework than having to read an entire article first and then trying to figure out what that poster who threw it up there found interesting/controversial/newsworthy/blasphemous or whatever about it in the first place. Instead, how 'bout reprinting what you think is the salient part of a piece, ex: Here's what Peter Gammons said about the Mets reluctance to sign Cespedes -- sentence - sentence - sentence [click here for full article] and here's why I think this move has Jeffy's fingerprints all over it ... That's a helluva lot better for a lead in to a discussion than is boring old (and illegal old) cut 'n paste jobs of someone else's work.

Vic Sage wrote: Totally agree -- the reposting of other's work en toto is not cool. It's also boring. The idea here is not just to plaster the board with the writings of others but to post your ideas on a topic backed-up, if you choose, by the facts or opinions of outsiders.

Missed the playoffs? Hell, they were relegated and now we gotta open next season in freakin' Pawtucket!!

30 - deGrom 29 - Harvey 28 - Granderson 27 - Murphy 26 - Familia 25 - Syndergaard 24 - Cespedes 23 - Duda 22 - Colon 21 - d’Arnaud 20 - Niese 19 - Flores 18 - Tejada 17 - Conforto 16 - Lagares 15 - Robles 14 - Cuddyer 13 - Wright 12 - Matz 11 - Gilmartin 10 - Clippard 9 - Plawecki 8 - Verrett 7 - Goeddel 6 - Uribe 5 - Johnson 4 - C Torres 3 - Campbell 2 - Reed 1 - Nieuwenhuis

It's not really that the film takes dramatic license (well it does, but of course all films are going to toss in more drama as compared to a documentary) it's that it concentrates at least as much on Omalu the person -- his style, his personal life, his motivations -- as it does on the results of his work. And rather than expanding the story they actually shrink it somewhat as the film strictly deals with Omalu's part in the whole concussion and after-effects issue while including nothing on the concurrent and follow-up work done by the crew in Boston that was so much a part of that Frontline doc and the 'League of Denial' book. Edgy MD wrote: Well, considering there's strong evidence suggesting the NFL got to make some personal cuts, that makes a lot of sense. Reportedly the pressure from the NFL came in the form of making sure that no one specific in the NFL was seen as the bad guy, based I guess on the old theory that if you spread the blame around enough then no one person is saddled as being the guy who's responsible. What might say the most about it was that the most direct condemnations of the actions of the NFL and its media partners comes not from the script directly but via a montage of video clips which include a (HBO's) 'Real Sports' interview where a league spokesman mimics a tobacco exec of a generation earlier as he answers "Absolutely Not" to a series of questions on whether he believes there's any connection at all between football and concussions, and also from the (since discarded) ESPN feature 'Jacked Up!' where Chris Berman and his cohorts would cackle at a re-showing of that week's most violent hits. I'm actually surprised they were able to use that last part being that ESPN was a late pull-out from co-sponsoring the PBS doc due, it's widely believed, to ... wait for it, NFL pressure.

Considering that my main complaint about Tarantino movies is that they generally run on longer than his ideas for the plot do -- a condition which often leaves him with nothing else than to have everyone shoot everyone else for the final 20 minutes -- the idea that this one starts slowly isn't a good sign, nor is the 2 hour 48 minute listed running time. Jeez, even Judd Apatow doesn't make comedies that long!! I'm on the fence about whether I want to invest the time in this one.

Yeah, I came away disappointed - particularly so because I had been looking forward to it. With a timely and important topic on their hands, the script focuses more on Omalu the person -- with undertones of how his search for the truth in these cases reflects his search for paradise in America -- which winds up turning the movie into at least as much of a soap opera (like I care how his dating life is going!) as it is about his work and the blowback from it. Smith is fine in the lead role as is his acerbic boss Albert Brooks, and even Alec Baldwin's southern accent is only occasionally annoying. But the movie has some odd editing moments (wait, do we know who this new character is?) and the script (adapted apparently from a magazine article rather than say the more encompassing 2013 book by the Fainaru/Fainaru-Wada brothers 'League of Denial') leaves a lot to be desired and leaves a lot of untouched meat on the table as far as what I assumed was going to be the film's main topic. It's not bad, it just could have been much better.

Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the Nigerian-born forensic surgeon who uncovered the link between football and long-term cognitive impairment. Not surprisingly, the NFL is not all that appreciative of his conclusions. also: Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks, David Morse

It appears that that all-LHP Dodger rotation quirk may be on hold as reports have them signing RHP Kenta Maeda -- the latest Japanese hurler to go all Int'l FA on the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) -- to an 8-year deal. Dodgers have yet to confirm the signing.

Based on the subject heading I was afraid that I was going to open this and find out that we switched back to the Julian Calendar (maybe via an Obama 'Executive Order', who knows?) which would have totally sucked as I am completely unprepared for it.

Nymr83 wrote: where are you getting those numbers (other than thinking of teams that had lots of lefties and looking them up one at a time) Made em up!! ... same as I do with all my "facts" around here. Actually they were in a short article on MLB.com about the Kazmir signing. The only thing I looked up on my own were who the LHPs were who made all those starts for the '83 Yanx. I obviously knew Righetti & Guidry but wouldn't have come up with the others no matter how much time I was given.

That Kazmir deal contains the currently popular opt-out -- although this one is after just one season so he could be a FA all over again next winter. It also potentially gives the Dodgers an all-lefty starting staff: Kazmir, Kershaw, Alex Wood, Brett Anderson, and, if recovered from surgery in time, Hyun-Jin Ryu - the 1983 Yanquis have the record 127 games started by LHPs: Shane Rawley (33), Ron Guidry (31), Dave Righetti (31), Bob Shirley (17), Ray Fontenot (15). Oddly they got less than 40 IP that season out of LH relievers - In 2008 Oakland started 19 consecutive games by LHPs although that was late in the season when some injuries cropped up. - this past season the White Sox had exactly 2/3 (108) of their game-starts from southpaws

Plus look at his likely role(s): back-up/insurance policy for Trea Turner at SS and a sub for Murph at late-inning defense. They don't need him to be good, just decent.

I miss the assumed attitude that the ball is live unless stated otherwise instead of the other way around. Two plays from last year’s post-season point out how this thinking has morphed. One was Murphy’s SB of 3rd base on the walk. It was a rare heads-up play by Murph to his credit but the real fault was with the Dodger IF (J. Turner in particular) who, after ball four, were just casually strolling, heads down, back to their positions from the shift they were in as if nothing need concern them until the next batter dug into the box. The other was when Russell Martin’s throw back to his pitcher deflected off the bat and allowed the runner to come in from 3rd with what could have been a series-clinching run (until Texas’s defense royally fucked up the next half inning). The big thing about that play was that even the HP ump’s first reaction was to declare a dead ball and send the runner back, as if even he also was conditioned to think that once one pitch is made everyone is required to freeze in place until the next one is delivered. Only after a lengthy confab did the men in blue realize that what had just happened was perfectly legal because it was nothing more than part of ongoing play. Those two plays, particularly coming as they did during the post-season rather than during some sleepy July road trip, show how conditioned the sport has become to acting as if it consists of a disconnected series of events rather than as the continuous action game it was mostly designed to be. Baseball needs to take a cue from futbol more so than from football.

Hank Azaria at least provided some thoughtful complete sentences to the film. Still probably a bit overused, but at least his comments added to the story instead of distracted from it.

I don't believe there's a set number written down anywhere since 'domestic violence' can run the gamut from somewhat scary to serious felony and anywhere in between, so the commissioner has a lot of leeway on how he chooses to act although I suppose there's always a grievous process for the player if he and the union thinks the punishment is too extreme. There are currently no charges being filed in this case as there were conflicting stories on exactly what went down and it'll be tougher to make a case for a lengthy suspension if charges never are sought. Joel Sherman in the Post is guessing 10-25 and also points out that 40 or more would be enough to kill his FA qualification at the end of this season - which is something that might get the union's attention also.

Battle of the AL East Bullpens: IPERAWHiPK/9K/BBSVAndrew Miller622.040.8614.65.0036Dellin Betances841.501.0114.03.289Aroldis Chapman661.631.1515.73.5233-----------------------Craig Kimbrel592.580.9113.23.9539Koji Uehara402.230.9210.55.2225Carson Smith702.311.0111.84.1813 Those are the 2015 stats for the back-end of the bullpens for the Yanx and BoSox. The only non-marquee name in there is Carson Smith, a second-year man the Sox got from Seattle last month in exchange for starter Wade Miley So as if Yanx/Sawx games weren't long enough to begin with, next year's contests could feature the managers mixing and matching six different closers.

seawolf17 wrote: Aroldis Chapman to the MFYs, allegedly. Stay classy, Yanx. For four prospects - no word yet on which four although the fact that Chapman is both damaged goods (from a pr viewpoint anyway) and can be a FA after the 2016 season implies that it's probably not for their top level guys. This will basically give them a three-headed closer situation [Miller, Chapman, & Betances] which seems to be all the rage these days. It's hard to imagine that they'd trade for Chapman NOT to use him as the titular closer (assuming he's not arrested, indicted, or suspended of course) and there have been rumors all winter about Miller being traded to fix up things elsewhere so you figure it'll be Betances setting up for Chapman. oe: "The team later announced that those minor leaguers will be RHP Caleb Cotham, RHP Rookie Davis, INF Eric Jagielo, and INF Tony Renda." FK: Jagielo appears to be the only appealing prospect and even he's a bit of the way down the list for them.

Everybody of course remembers Henderson. But even outside of the '86 post-season he was just a fun guy to watch because he always looked like he was having so much fun out there - even if we saw him only sparingly because he spent most of his career on the left coast. I remember O'Toole vaguely. He had a string of strong years pitching for some good Cincy* clubs in the early/mid-60s -- going 69-43 from 1961-'64 -- even if often while playing second banana to staff-mates Joey Jay and later Jim Maloney. But those four years also consisted of 131 starts plus 7 relief appearances and 2 WS games adding up to nearly 1,000 innings pitched. And, like most stories about how real men back in the day 'finished what they started' etc., those kinds of stories generally fail to add in the part about how this 'real man' had his last good year at age 27 and was out of the game completely by 30. Maybe that was from heavy use, maybe not, but that part is inevitably left out of the story when tales of pitchers of a certain era are told; see also: Koufax, Drysdale, Marichal (done, or virtually so, at 30, 31 & 33). * Reds averaged 92.25 wins/yr from '61-'64 but won just one pennant ('61) before losing the WS to the Yanx in 5 In '62 they won 98 games but finished 3rd!! (LAD & SFG tied at 102), and then in '64 they lost the pennant in the final weekend by losing 4 of their final 5 games right after leaping into 1st place by sweeping the Mets in a five game/three day series (DH's Fri & Sun). Mets scored just 4 runs over the five games.

Edgy MD wrote: His Christmas gifts to his entire family? Matching Bartolo Colon tee-shirts. Like that wasn't everybody's go-to gift this year!

'Tears of Joy': A bit too much Jim Breuer for my tastes and somewhat skimpy on actual hi-lights (possibly because FOX didn't own enough of them) but still worth seeing.

Al Jazeera likes to portray themselves as a real grown-up news organization with independence and integrity, but they meet that standard only occasionally. That said it will be interesting to see how quickly the football world and attached media join hands to close ranks around Peyton. As I've said before, it would take unambiguous photos of Brady and one or both of the Mannings with a syringe in their ass before a real conversation would take place about PEDs in football and this report doesn't appear to come anywhere close to that even if it does turn out that there are pieces of truth in it.

An investigative team for a newspaper undertakes a task to take on a very large and powerfully entrenched institution - and predictably more stonewalling than hi-jinx ensues.

You can watch the evolution of his nose via these cards.

Pell-Free Pell-Free