Dick_Pole

I have my doubts about this, considering the weight issue that has been discussed ad nauseam on here. Whatever the Jays are doing with him, they've been doing a piss poor job of it, and giving a day off is way down the list of things they should be doing. If they had to give him a day off because he's so out of shape because the team has done a piss poor job of conditioning him thus far, that's a new level of incompetence.

I get the argument for pitchers, not so for hitters. Muscle soreness maybe? That's what announcing day-to-day or the DH is for. It's as if there has never been a player playing 162 games a year before. Get these guys back on the juice or the special sauce of the 70's if it's that much of an issue.

Raptors are one of three teams remaining in contention for the NBA Championship.

The more Vlad plays = the more exercise he gets = the more calories he burns = the lighter and healthier he is = the greater chance he avoids injuries down the road. Resting a 20 yo position player for rest's sake is complete ********. If he pulled something, announce it and say he's day-to-day. No reason to toy with the fanbase like that.

Here is something I'd never thought I'd say: I miss Paul Beeston. Not the entire man, but elements of him. Under no circumstances would the franchise be intentionally embarrassed under his watch like this. Can the Jays get a President with the brain of Shapiro and the heart of Beeston please? I've got no problem with the long term direction nor what they did prior to this offseason but 2019 is beyond embarrassing. Scott Boras is right, there has to be something in place to give non-playoff teams incentive to win. f*** you Atkins. f*** you Shapiro. You just made me admit Paul Beeston and Scott Boras are human beings with redeemable qualities in the same post.

Get ready to hate a lot more guys this year.

Why are you celebrating this when by now it is obvious that management will just replace him with another piece of garbage? It's not like Atkins is thinking "Damn, we just lost Javy Guerra, let's make a run at Dallas Keuchel now".

This team is garbage. They will probably lose in 5. They need to win the next three in a row to have any chance of winning this series.

You know what, yes. But that play that Powell fouled out on was complete ********. And without that, the game doesn't get into OT anyways. Everything else before that...meh...I don't think the whistles were that badly misaligned.

I was waiting for some guy off Sportsnet in the pre-game show to give me that level of analytical insight. Thanks for ruining it!

Do the metrics account for strength of schedule? The Bucks had one of the easiest schedules ever (with the Raptors not far behind). Naturally, being the best team in a ******** conference.

No, the Raptors played awful defense, at least from a rebounding perspective. Shooting was fine at the team level because Lowry's hot streak offset the rest of the team. If the team grabs four of Gasol's clunkers like Milwaukee seemed to do after half of their missed shots the game might still be going on.

Live betting always helps.

Danny Green is not the problem. He's a three point specialist that rarely takes shots. You don't want a DeRozan type that takes a lot of junk shots and runs up points on volume. Again, I don't see the problem on offense. Whatever weakness Gasol and Siakam were today, Lowry offset that. The hole was on rebounds. What's the point of holding your opponent to under 40% if you're giving them second and third chances?

The rebounding was the problem. Bucks got so many f***ing second chances with offensive rebounds. Good news: Lopez probably won't repeat that game Bad news: Lowry probably won't sink all those threes next game. I have to disagree with Abomination. The Raptors deserved to lose that game fair and square. For the Raptors to win this series, they have to play a perfect game in those 4 wins. The Bucks on the other hand can get away with an imperfect game and still win. Case in point, tonight.

The worst part of cheering for the Raptors, by far, is being constantly exposed to that loser.

That's the problem, because of the juice laid down, there was no enticing bet. The best was the Suns, a 7x return for a 14% chance, basically a fair return. Anyways, that was a good outcome for Raptors fans. The Knicks are still hilariously s***** with no easy out even if they do manage to entice Durant to go there. All the tanking teams in the east got the worst picks possible and New Orleans might have a greater chance at enticing Davis to stay instead of trading him to the east. That's really only a benefit if the Raptors keep Kawhi. If they don't, I would have rather conceded the conference to the Celtics with AD in 2020 in exchange for them crippling a bit of their future when the Raptors are in a stronger position again. LOL at the conversation that if the Bulls or Knicks won that they might flip the pick for AD. NOLA fans are probably thinking, ha we get the pick and get to keep the guy (or trade him for something else), suckers. As someone who is a Raptors fan first and an NBA fan a distant second, I'm fine with seeing a second generational talent waste away in that sad organization rather than having him as part of a dynasty that the Raptors can't beat.

Knicks, Suns and Cavs should all have the exact same chance of winning the lottery tonight. 7 to 1 odds. The lines show: New York Knicks - 4.30 Cleveland Cavaliers - 6.50 Phoenix Suns - 7.00 LOL if the Knicks win we know the lottery is fixed by the mafia. I wish there was some way to take advantage of the discrepancy.

I will not be happy until I see a 1,000+ word essay from Olerud363 discussing the topic of "team soul" in depth and what that means for results on the field.

Agreed. You only ever really bet on a heavy underdog like Portland when the return is so good you think it's worth it. +380 is ********.

There are positive elements to each of the last three regimes: Current FO's ability to stock and develop the farm JPR's ability to manage the 25 man roster efficiently AA's non-stop hustle to make the big deals to bring in top end talent If we combined those three elements into one GM that would be pretty damn good because they all cover off each other's glaring weaknesses.

Just put some money down on the Raps to beat the Bucks in the series Kawhi > Giannis. Fight me you bald little wife-renting (stolen from Spanky) troll. The type of troll that's like 3'6" and lives under a bridge, not an online smartass. I'm laying off Portland. The odds are s***. Basically Blue Jackets/Lightning odds when I was banking on at least 7 to 1. Either Portland has become the entire betting public's darkhorse or they think Durant will miss extended time or both.

Yay Portland. Gonna lay down a few bucks on them in the GSW match, just in case.

Incredible how two people can see things completely differently. I see it as the glass as being 93.4% empty. As in $33 million spent on Morales instead of $500 million spent on Bautista, Encarnacion and Donaldson. You think they misread the market, they could have misread it a hell of a lot worse and received some pressure to extend Bautista although his ridiculous demand may have made it easier on them. We'll never know if AA would have cracked under the pressure.

Whenever it gets a little too negative on these guys I like to bring up imagining a regime that laid down $500+ million for Bautista, EE and Donaldson about 5 minutes before the market for those players tanked. Because that's where the conversation was exiting 2015 ALCS when they came aboard. So yeah it CAN get much, much worse. This FO's main strength has been creating flexibility. My main complaint is that they are valuing flexibility too damn much, in that they are putting out a trash heap team on the field in 2019 when they really shouldn't be. But as other posters have alluded to just above, that flexibility can lead to a busy and productive off-season if things are done right.