I thought these two quotes supported each other nicely:
"It’s hard for a guy making $80,000 to tell a $15 million pitcher he needs to get off his butt and do some work," one source said.
"We have to hold ourselves more accountable," Pedroia said. "That has nothing to do with the manager or coaches. On the great major league teams, players police each other, so we’ll get back to doing that."
So much is often made of the manager "losing" the team, but it seems that once you start paying the players so much more than the coaches, the coaches/managers aren't ever really going to have that much sway over the players, so you'd better be careful when you're handing out eight- and nine-figure contracts.
The gift of leadership also eluded Adrian Gonzalez. On the field, Gonzalez’s overall production was superb, but he provided none of the energy or passion off the field that the Sox sorely needed. His most unfortunate act in September was grousing about the Sox schedule, which required the team to play five getaway games on Sunday nights.
“We play too many night games on getaway days and get into places at 4 in the morning,’’ Gonzalez complained. “This has been my toughest season physically because of that.’’
ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball killed the Red Sox season! You see, ESPN was angry that they didn't get any playoff baseball, so they decided to keep the Red Sox all to themselves. (I actually do find it hilarious that this was an issue, since so many of us hate that the Yankees and Red Sox are so often getting the national games.)
I'm on the way to the bus. Check in with you guys from Chicago.
I knew it would be bad, but checking out the postseason brakef was pretty painful. At least a lot of us messed it up...
It may be time to remove the "Great" from the title of the spreadsheet.
In our defense, I doubt any other outlet would have done much better. In fact, most of them would have done worse, since the Yankees would certainly have been a more popular pick nationwide than they were here...
I drove Linds to a hotel last night. This morning (right around now, actually) she and her mom will board a plane and go to New York for the next week.
Since she hasn't been further out of state than Fargo in the entire time I've known her (going on 10 years, now), she is very excited for this vacation.
My power cord for my laptop started glowing very brightly and smoking this morning. That was an exciting half-second before I disconnected it.
Lunchtime today will be a hunt for a new power cord.
My Lord, Paul Allen is laying out scenarios where the Vikings could be the 2nd Wild Card team. I want to turn it off but it's like looking at a train wreck.
Wouldn't that be "listening to a train wreck"?
Actually it felt like being in a train wreck.
I assume he only says crap like that to keep people listening, so it appears he's done his job for the day. It'll be a lot harder if the Vikings are 1-8 or so, though.
I think for most people, that would be true, but one gets the feeling that P.A. actually believes it. He did say that if Vikes lose Sunday night everything is "negative ass" and there's no chance for playoffs.
I haven't listened to him in years, so I have no insight to his tone. If he was being dishonest I could understand this, but if he's being honest, I feel sorta bad for him. His realization that we aren't very good is still to come.
Fun fact, though: the Vikings have outscored their opponents!
Especially in the first half!
Okay, why not:
First half: Vikings 89, Opponents 19
Second half & OT: Vikings 22, Opponents 87
Shouldn't the fact that the Vikes have outscored their opponents be more relevant than that fact that they're 1-4? C'mon, they're not that bad.
They're not as bad as 1-4, but certainly, they've conditioned me not to be happy about any kind of lead.
Well, they played three relatively close games and blew out a crappy team at home.
by pro-football-reference.com's Simple Rating System, they rank 6th in the NFC and tied for 12th in the league (0.0; Lions are first at +12.3; Rams last at -16.8).
0.0 is supposed to be "average". Also, I think maybe there are some kinks in their Strength of Schedule measure (average quality of opponent), since every team but the STL Rams has a negative SOS (which has a 0.0 SOS), indicating that the opponents they've played are cumulatively below average.
Fooutball outsiders has them at 11th overall, 4th in the conference.
I think he got some of what Dubay is having.
Cubs do the expected-for-a-while thing, and hire Epstein.
so they decided not to "wait for next year"?
I wonder if he will hire Ryne Sandberg as manager
From the Beloit Snappers facebook page:
Big News! We have a new GM! Vohs steps down after 11 years and [assistant GM Matthew] Bosen named new GM!
Six hours later:
For those of you that were wondering, Theo Epstein was our #1 choice as GM. Had to settle for Bosen instead.
Fascinating reporting on the collapse of the Red Sox season.
fried chicken worked for Wade Boggs
That article surely deserves a like bomb.
I thought these two quotes supported each other nicely:
So much is often made of the manager "losing" the team, but it seems that once you start paying the players so much more than the coaches, the coaches/managers aren't ever really going to have that much sway over the players, so you'd better be careful when you're handing out eight- and nine-figure contracts.
ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball killed the Red Sox season! You see, ESPN was angry that they didn't get any playoff baseball, so they decided to keep the Red Sox all to themselves. (I actually do find it hilarious that this was an issue, since so many of us hate that the Yankees and Red Sox are so often getting the national games.)
I'm on the way to the bus. Check in with you guys from Chicago.
I knew it would be bad, but checking out the postseason brakef was pretty painful. At least a lot of us messed it up...
It may be time to remove the "Great" from the title of the spreadsheet.
In our defense, I doubt any other outlet would have done much better. In fact, most of them would have done worse, since the Yankees would certainly have been a more popular pick nationwide than they were here...
I drove Linds to a hotel last night. This morning (right around now, actually) she and her mom will board a plane and go to New York for the next week.
Since she hasn't been further out of state than Fargo in the entire time I've known her (going on 10 years, now), she is very excited for this vacation.
My power cord for my laptop started glowing very brightly and smoking this morning. That was an exciting half-second before I disconnected it.
Lunchtime today will be a hunt for a new power cord.
My Lord, Paul Allen is laying out scenarios where the Vikings could be the 2nd Wild Card team. I want to turn it off but it's like looking at a train wreck.
Wouldn't that be "listening to a train wreck"?
Actually it felt like being in a train wreck.
I assume he only says crap like that to keep people listening, so it appears he's done his job for the day. It'll be a lot harder if the Vikings are 1-8 or so, though.
I think for most people, that would be true, but one gets the feeling that P.A. actually believes it. He did say that if Vikes lose Sunday night everything is "negative ass" and there's no chance for playoffs.
I haven't listened to him in years, so I have no insight to his tone. If he was being dishonest I could understand this, but if he's being honest, I feel sorta bad for him. His realization that we aren't very good is still to come.
Fun fact, though: the Vikings have outscored their opponents!
Especially in the first half!
Okay, why not:
First half: Vikings 89, Opponents 19
Second half & OT: Vikings 22, Opponents 87
Shouldn't the fact that the Vikes have outscored their opponents be more relevant than that fact that they're 1-4? C'mon, they're not that bad.
They're not as bad as 1-4, but certainly, they've conditioned me not to be happy about any kind of lead.
Well, they played three relatively close games and blew out a crappy team at home.
by pro-football-reference.com's Simple Rating System, they rank 6th in the NFC and tied for 12th in the league (0.0; Lions are first at +12.3; Rams last at -16.8).
0.0 is supposed to be "average". Also, I think maybe there are some kinks in their Strength of Schedule measure (average quality of opponent), since every team but the STL Rams has a negative SOS (which has a 0.0 SOS), indicating that the opponents they've played are cumulatively below average.
Fooutball outsiders has them at 11th overall, 4th in the conference.
I think he got some of what Dubay is having.
Cubs do the expected-for-a-while thing, and hire Epstein.
so they decided not to "wait for next year"?
I wonder if he will hire Ryne Sandberg as manager
From the Beloit Snappers facebook page:
Six hours later:
Apparently there were no rally beers in San Francisco.
that tells you just about everything you need to know about the credibility of Fox tv analysis, doesn't it?