Dick_Pole

Yes, plus a lot of the tougher matchups the Raptors have had have come when the team was shorthanded or have been on the road. I was following up on a point I made earlier. That this team wins when it is supposed to win. No embarrassing inexcusable off-night losses to teams like the Hawks this year. Though there have been a few close calls. That's a sign of good coaching. Now watch them screw up the Bulls game lol.

Tony Fernandez apparently not doing too well

Double checked this because I was sure they won every game they were supposed to win and yup. 22-0 against sub-.500 teams in the east, 13-14 against everyone else lol

The Raptors did what they needed to do and ran the table on those s*** teams. Securing #2 seed should be top priority. The difference between basically getting a bye for round one and having a battle. If Butler goes into Milwaukee's bracket I can see the Raptors having a reasonably easy path to the Conference Finals. Then after that you just gotta pray but I think that would be considered a pretty successful follow up season.

This thread is shaping up to be the thread of the year in 2020. Who would have thought of that plot twist after reading the first half of page one?

It's gotten to the point where a. DH-only players barely get paid and b. a good roster can be constructed so that a full time DH is never needed. I don't think this is much of a concern any more as it once was.

I guess I'm in the minority that likes the DH split. Then again I'm a fan of an AL team and don't watch too many NL games during the course of a season. I can see how that would get old real quick if I'd have to see Jays pitchers hit in every game. My nostalgia for it goes back to the Jays World Series days.

I dunno man. A white guy with an Asian fetish who doesn't mind small tits and incredibly high pitched weird orgasm noises hits the jackpot in Japan. Guys who go after Cubans and bring them to Canada have to be the dumbest of the bunch. I know a guy who should have the word sucker tattooed across his forehead and he did exactly this. Guess how that turned out. These are the types who start the MRA and incel movements.

Well, I claim to be on Tinder in another thread behind her back so maybe you have a point. She's at least 18 inches taller than you so you probably would look twice like all the bald midgets do (moreso out of jealousy and cursing their bad DNA).

Deadpool's sudden awkward defensiveness makes this twice as fun. I don't give a s***. My Tinder age range settings is 18-100. Suck on that offended motherf***ers.

These two guys having a debate over the age of consent is legit comedy. You know they have been doing their research.

You gotta think of it from the woman's perspective. A Muslim woman who found a white American male who happens to be a Muslim. That has to be like hitting the jackpot in terms of minimal beatings and subjugation. Other things like looks and success are completely thrown out the window. Connor has stumbled upon an even better strategy of capturing a mate for the short balding unattractive white guy than teaching English in Japan. You gotta give him credit for this one.

Imagine those poor aliens who have telepathic powers when they try to play space baseball. How do they deal with this? Are there "unwritten, gentlemanly" rules about opposing players not entering into the minds of the opposing pitcher and catcher?

Telepathy.

What's funny about this is: Working out and taking substances that aren't banned = okay Video replay outside the confines of the game = okay Using video during games = kill 'em all They need to have a baseball game played exactly the way it was played in the 1800's. The makeshift gloves, the underhand pitching, the 5 ball 4 strikes, the calling random dudes off the streets to play OF when your regular guy has too much of a hangover. Maybe they should make one all-star game like that, just for fun. Then people will understand how much this game changes with time. In summary, I agree with tombsy's idea.

Yeah but they are only valuable at these next to impossible grades. A card that still looks good from the 60's with minor wear that doesn't really take much away from it scores a 5 or 6 out of 10 on these condition scales and might bring in something like $1000 instead of $200,000. Don't worry Spanky, you never had a million dollars worth of cards. Even the next day after you got them they probably scored a 6 if you treated them the way any normal 10 year old would.

Other than the BBWAA, it's difficult to find an outside source of a significant size of people who should have a high knowledge of baseball that has reasonable turnover with time. Outside source being key. The fault of letting the players choose has already been noted. I'm not so sure front office employees are the way either. They would probably find a way to develop a computer model that maximizes arbitration outcomes in their favour based on who they vote for. It might not be too popular of an opinion, but in general I think the BBWAA has done a decent job in choosing players for as long as I can remember. It's only since the steroid issue has voting come off the rails. And things like social media being used by the voters to gain attention and stroke their egos. But would either of those things end up differently if another group voted? Outside of the players immersed in the steroid scandal, the biggest controversies have been Walker, Raines and Blyleven, all of them correctly voted in at the last moment according to the consensus of the "smart" stat nerds. Morris who was correctly left off. Schilling and Vizquel where based on vote totals now it's looking pretty good for the former and not too good for the latter. And then some random writer gives a pity vote to someone like Adam Dunn knowing full well he's not going to get in which gets some people's panties in a knot. But as a strict yes/no narrative, I think it's been fine. My biggest complaint was Lofton falling off immediately but he probably doesn't get in anyways if he is considered just a shade lower than Raines.

Not one mention of UFC and the fact that women are a legitimate draw there. It's well beyond the novelty or SJW phase. Big difference being weight classes in UFC. I guess if you stopped looking at other sports as pro women's versus 15 year old boys and looked at it as 15 year old boys against adult women who have comparable heights and weights then the comparison doesn't look so egregious.

Give me something that I can gamble on and win 60% of the time and I'll watch it. Or even better give me a guy with a 60% win rate who posts his picks for free on gaming message boards so that I can tail him, he can watch the games and I can win money. I have never successfully watched a full game of college football, which is definitely more sloppy than the CFL. Yet that is by far my best paying sport I bet on, and people in the U.S. live and die for that s***. So to say that there is not or should not be a market for inferior women's sports is asinine.

RE: slowness of games. Have you not seen an NFL game lately? Every f***ing five minutes there is even extra lag time (compared to the regular lag time between plays) because of injuries, challenge flags, video confirmation or the winning team trying to game the play clock. There is NO WAY baseball is worse than the NFL in terms of pacing. Yet the NFL is doing just fine. Re: stats and players. Without any hard data, I'm pretty sure that there is a high correlation between players who perform well using nerd stats (as well as counting stats) and them being enjoyable to watch.

Powell once again running up the points against the dregs of the league and people are fapping to this. Let's at least wait to the Philly game to see if they can defend against his complex shoot only style.

Easier to see the ball to hit it with their women-eyes.

There is a joke in here somewhere about you and half these other guys not being able to throw as hard as her or any other female but I just can't seem to make that layup today.

Meh. Powell has always been on an up and down ride with this team. People's opinions of him have gone from a strong bench piece to salary cap fodder based on most recent performance. Any improvement in his game has a lot to do with coaching and the players around him. The Raptors have turned d-leaguers and players overlooked in the draft into something that can compete with mid-to-upper level teams while all the starters were out. If Powell is ever traded I don't think he will be a player to make the Raptors regret that decision. Though he has made us all forget about Danny Green this year.

Hitting a baseball at fast speeds and with tricky movement has to be one of the hardest things to do in all of sports. Someone who is able to do that at a high level is a freak to me. No matter what kind of skill level you have, if you are playing soccer, basketball or hockey, you are at least playing those sports. Bush league baseball is softball, which isn't baseball. Also there is no such thing as 3 on 3 baseball or pond baseball. Those are the types of things baseball has to overcome.