Place Player Points
1 MagUidhir 17
2 Beau 16
3 Philo 16
4 The Dread Pirate 14
5 Freealonzo 12
6 nibbish 11
7 hungry joe 9
8 Zee German 9
9 Daneeka's Ghost 7
10 davidwatts 6
11 Jeff A 6
12 Scot 5
13 Homer Dome 4
Well that doesn't seem correct.
I think the biggest thing you need to jump nibbish is to have Arsenal win and Spurs lose. If they swap positions, it's a 3 point swing to you in the standings. You gain a +/- 1 position one pointer, and he goes from a 3 point "dead on" to a +/-1 one pointer. Bournmouth jumping up to 12th also takes a point from nibs, but isn't strictly necessary. I'm sure there's other stuff in the middle of the standings you could tweak to not get me so many points, but I feel like I've done enough of this for right now. I should get some actual work done.
It is pretty remarkable how low the point totals are this year.
Since I had Leicester City as literally my bottom pick, it makes a lot of sense that I'm winning.
Well I won twice in a row, so clearly this whole thing makes a lot of sense.
I will add: I still can't say I follow soccer, but I linger a good while longer when I see a game on, and I've read an article or three throughout the season. This whole thing is good fun. Thanks for setting it up Mags.
Dido. I wouldn't have even known about the crazy happenings this season without this little game. Thanks, Mags.
It's funny you guys say that, because this is probably the least soccer I've watched in years. Now that WatchESPN has all the Super Rugby games, soccer has taken a back seat. But I'm glad you guys are enjoying the season and the contest. You're very welcome.
I didn't help the contest, but since I can stream epl games on the NBC app, I've watched way more in than any non-WC/OLYMPICS year. I may have to try to get in on the competition next year.
If the NBCSN app integrated Chromecast, I'd enjoy it more. I don't like being deprived of my tablet while I'm trying to watch stuff. I may have a problem.
Time to get a Roku, then.
Dead last. horray.
Semi-related: Roberto Martinez has been fired. The only place work worse defense than the Everton penalty area this spring is the Twins outfield.
The exuberance of his first season seems so far away, it is going to be an interesting off-season for Everton. Have to think teams will be coming hard for Lukaku and presumably Stones again.
Semi-related question…
All of my daughters play soccer and I'd like to get it on the television from time to time. We only have antenna for television. Any hope that I could consistently have games on in the background once or twice per week?
NBC will air a game on over-the-air sometimes during the day Saturday. And if you can get Fox's secondary station over the air, it looks they're showing some Bundesliga (German top league) on Saturday.
Edit: It's on the main feed. 8:30 AM
Thanks! I think I'll just have to remind myself every Friday evening to look at the TV schedule (http://www.tvguide.com/listings/) and then set little reminders for myself all weekend for when games are on. It seems there are four or five games available this weekend between FOX, NBC, WUMN, etc.
There will be a lot of soccer on this summer with Euro2016 and Copa 2016. Not sure what will be on terrestrial tv but I think some will be.
Not that this helps anyone, but I'll be at all the Copa America games in Seattle. Hoping for US vs. Brazil in the A1 vs. B2 quarterfinal, though those are probably long odds considering the US would need to win its group and Brazil would have to finish second in their group.
Brazil fans are great at tailgates.
I like that in the US, interactions with away fans can be fun (at least at times) and we don't need to be separated off into strictly different sections like we're the Jets and the Sharks.
When the Sounders play teams from Mexico, there are always lots of away fans in the stands having a great time. Some of those games have been my favorite, including their recent game against Club America in CCL quarterfinals, and their epic win against Tigres in 2013 CCL quarters featuring long-range goals from both a young DeAndre Yedlin (I think that was his second-ever pro game?) and an old Djimi Traore (if you're only going to score one goal in a 14+-year career, I suppose that's a good one to score) .
Big contrast to when I went to the Barcelona Derby (at Espanyol) and our section was escorted to our seats by police in riot gear.
DAY GAME ALERT: Rochester hosts Gwinnett at 12:30 Central time today.
That was a well put together combination of stats and coaching to explain the 'why' behind Mauer's improvement this year. I hadn't heard of strobe glasses before.
I had seen them talked about earlier this year, back when they were also talking about Mauer wearing sunglasses at the plate in day games. Not sure how much actual benefit there is from strobe glasses considering Buxton has supposedly been training with them as well, so it would seem the results have been mixed at best.
FSN has a graphic that said Mauer, Buxton, and Rosario use(d) them. It's clear that what actually happened is that Mauer sucked out their youth hitting prowess and added it to his own.
The idea of Mauer as some sort of baseball vampire earns you:
Dude, Mauer sucks.
That would explain why they give him day games off.
Note how well Buxton is doing away in AAA too. He's had time to recover.
He's also been working on adding a leg kick. I hope it does for him what it did for Kirby.
I agree with everything in that article but one thing. Park is pudgy?
Mauer has been a rare bright spot amid the gloom of this season, as have Nunez and Park. And that's about it. Arcia shows flashes of talent at the plate but expands his strike zone way too much and plays comic defense. Our old catcher can't hit and our young catcher (for whom we traded a perfectly capable center fielder) can barely conceive of hitting. Our highly touted young center fielder is back down on the farm, trying again to figure out why he can't hit major league pitching while a middling middle infielder takes his place. Sano is a failure in the outfield despite his "athleticism" and strong arm (which you don't get to display until you actually field a ball in play) and looking less and less like the anti-Delmon at the plate. Nolasco is the only starter to show improvement this year, but he was starting with a pretty low bar given his injury-riddled tenure. Our old closer may well be done as a closer and our new closer isn't very good at closing right now, something about not having the feel for his change-up yet according to Bert, and the rest of the bullpen is in a state of disarray. I could go on, but what's the point? Total system failure sounds like a pretty reasonable diagnosis.
Fernando Abad has been a nice find. But with the fickle nature of relief pitching we all know its not going to last.
He has, and we've seen some pretty good innings from Tonkin and May, too, so the bullpen's not a complete shambles.
Through May 4, Hicks was hitting .067/.125/.067 in 32 PAs. He finally broke out after that and brought his line up to .216/.263/.353 entering today.
.067 is a rough month.
That's not many PAs for a full month.
I missed the 32 PA part of Sean's letter.
Are there advance directives for sports franchises?
I'm not one to panic, but....
Anyone else here been to Big V's Saloon at Snelling and University in St. Paul? I think this is my new local. Just my type of place.
Been by it a few times as my daughter lives not far away, but never been in. I'll have to remedy that.
Hmm ... that's a very different response than I had after visiting. I was there a few times (like twice) though that was before the light rail went in, so I suppose it could have cleaned up the hypodermic needles between then and now.
Not gonna lie, there was a dude asleep at the bar yesterday at 5PM. Pretty sure it wasn't sleep sleep, but drug-induced.
I have so far only been in broad daylight, to be honest.
The Twins (8) are 5 wins behind the Yankees (13) for fewest wins in the American League.
oof.
The goal from here on out for a successful season is to be better than the Yankees.
Can we get a link to the EPL Prediction Spreadsheet heading into the last weekend. Thanks.
Jeff A picked Leicester to win (seriously), so he's champion for all time.
Random.org comes through!
I added a link to it in the Achievements page when I updated it a while ago. At the moment nibs is in the points lead.
Here you go. Current standings
So somehow by the end of the weekend I'm in first and Nibs is in second, that's how this works, right?
I concocted a scenario wherein you jump nibbish, but I end up even further ahead.
Wins - Arsenal, Bournemouth, Leicster, Liverpool, Man City, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton, Sunderland
Losses - Villa, CP, Everton, Chelsea, ManU, Swansea, Spurs, Watford, WestBrom
Draw - Stoke, WestHam
Place Player Points
1 MagUidhir 17
2 Beau 16
3 Philo 16
4 The Dread Pirate 14
5 Freealonzo 12
6 nibbish 11
7 hungry joe 9
8 Zee German 9
9 Daneeka's Ghost 7
10 davidwatts 6
11 Jeff A 6
12 Scot 5
13 Homer Dome 4
Well that doesn't seem correct.
I think the biggest thing you need to jump nibbish is to have Arsenal win and Spurs lose. If they swap positions, it's a 3 point swing to you in the standings. You gain a +/- 1 position one pointer, and he goes from a 3 point "dead on" to a +/-1 one pointer. Bournmouth jumping up to 12th also takes a point from nibs, but isn't strictly necessary. I'm sure there's other stuff in the middle of the standings you could tweak to not get me so many points, but I feel like I've done enough of this for right now. I should get some actual work done.
It is pretty remarkable how low the point totals are this year.
Since I had Leicester City as literally my bottom pick, it makes a lot of sense that I'm winning.
Well I won twice in a row, so clearly this whole thing makes a lot of sense.
I will add: I still can't say I follow soccer, but I linger a good while longer when I see a game on, and I've read an article or three throughout the season. This whole thing is good fun. Thanks for setting it up Mags.
Dido. I wouldn't have even known about the crazy happenings this season without this little game. Thanks, Mags.
It's funny you guys say that, because this is probably the least soccer I've watched in years. Now that WatchESPN has all the Super Rugby games, soccer has taken a back seat. But I'm glad you guys are enjoying the season and the contest. You're very welcome.
I didn't help the contest, but since I can stream epl games on the NBC app, I've watched way more in than any non-WC/OLYMPICS year. I may have to try to get in on the competition next year.
If the NBCSN app integrated Chromecast, I'd enjoy it more. I don't like being deprived of my tablet while I'm trying to watch stuff. I may have a problem.
Time to get a Roku, then.
Dead last. horray.
Semi-related: Roberto Martinez has been fired. The only place work worse defense than the Everton penalty area this spring is the Twins outfield.
The exuberance of his first season seems so far away, it is going to be an interesting off-season for Everton. Have to think teams will be coming hard for Lukaku and presumably Stones again.
Semi-related question…
All of my daughters play soccer and I'd like to get it on the television from time to time. We only have antenna for television. Any hope that I could consistently have games on in the background once or twice per week?
NBC will air a game on over-the-air sometimes during the day Saturday.
And if you can getFox's secondary station over the air, itlooks they're showing some Bundesliga (German top league) on Saturday.Edit: It's on the main feed. 8:30 AM
Thanks! I think I'll just have to remind myself every Friday evening to look at the TV schedule (http://www.tvguide.com/listings/) and then set little reminders for myself all weekend for when games are on. It seems there are four or five games available this weekend between FOX, NBC, WUMN, etc.
There will be a lot of soccer on this summer with Euro2016 and Copa 2016. Not sure what will be on terrestrial tv but I think some will be.
Not that this helps anyone, but I'll be at all the Copa America games in Seattle. Hoping for US vs. Brazil in the A1 vs. B2 quarterfinal, though those are probably long odds considering the US would need to win its group and Brazil would have to finish second in their group.
Brazil fans are great at tailgates.
I like that in the US, interactions with away fans can be fun (at least at times) and we don't need to be separated off into strictly different sections like we're the Jets and the Sharks.
When the Sounders play teams from Mexico, there are always lots of away fans in the stands having a great time. Some of those games have been my favorite, including their recent game against Club America in CCL quarterfinals, and their epic win against Tigres in 2013 CCL quarters featuring long-range goals from both a young DeAndre Yedlin (I think that was his second-ever pro game?) and an old Djimi Traore (if you're only going to score one goal in a 14+-year career, I suppose that's a good one to score) .
Big contrast to when I went to the Barcelona Derby (at Espanyol) and our section was escorted to our seats by police in riot gear.
DAY GAME ALERT: Rochester hosts Gwinnett at 12:30 Central time today.
A rather advanced statistical look at Mauer's improvement this season on the Twins website. No, really!
That was a well put together combination of stats and coaching to explain the 'why' behind Mauer's improvement this year. I hadn't heard of strobe glasses before.
I had seen them talked about earlier this year, back when they were also talking about Mauer wearing sunglasses at the plate in day games. Not sure how much actual benefit there is from strobe glasses considering Buxton has supposedly been training with them as well, so it would seem the results have been mixed at best.
FSN has a graphic that said Mauer, Buxton, and Rosario use(d) them. It's clear that what actually happened is that Mauer sucked out their
youthhitting prowess and added it to his own.The idea of Mauer as some sort of baseball vampire earns you:
Dude, Mauer sucks.
That would explain why they give him day games off.
Note how well Buxton is doing away in AAA too. He's had time to recover.
He's also been working on adding a leg kick. I hope it does for him what it did for Kirby.
Vice Sports declares Joe Mauer is back.
I agree with everything in that article but one thing. Park is pudgy?
Mauer has been a rare bright spot amid the gloom of this season, as have Nunez and Park. And that's about it. Arcia shows flashes of talent at the plate but expands his strike zone way too much and plays comic defense. Our old catcher can't hit and our young catcher (for whom we traded a perfectly capable center fielder) can barely conceive of hitting. Our highly touted young center fielder is back down on the farm, trying again to figure out why he can't hit major league pitching while a middling middle infielder takes his place. Sano is a failure in the outfield despite his "athleticism" and strong arm (which you don't get to display until you actually field a ball in play) and looking less and less like the anti-Delmon at the plate. Nolasco is the only starter to show improvement this year, but he was starting with a pretty low bar given his injury-riddled tenure. Our old closer may well be done as a closer and our new closer isn't very good at closing right now, something about not having the feel for his change-up yet according to Bert, and the rest of the bullpen is in a state of disarray. I could go on, but what's the point? Total system failure sounds like a pretty reasonable diagnosis.
Fernando Abad has been a nice find. But with the fickle nature of relief pitching we all know its not going to last.
He has, and we've seen some pretty good innings from Tonkin and May, too, so the bullpen's not a complete shambles.
Through May 4, Hicks was hitting .067/.125/.067 in 32 PAs. He finally broke out after that and brought his line up to .216/.263/.353 entering today.
.067 is a rough month.
That's not many PAs for a full month.
I missed the 32 PA part of Sean's letter.
Are there advance directives for sports franchises?
I'm not one to panic, but....
Anyone else here been to Big V's Saloon at Snelling and University in St. Paul? I think this is my new local. Just my type of place.
Been by it a few times as my daughter lives not far away, but never been in. I'll have to remedy that.
Hmm ... that's a very different response than I had after visiting. I was there a few times (like twice) though that was before the light rail went in, so I suppose it could have cleaned up the hypodermic needles between then and now.
Not gonna lie, there was a dude asleep at the bar yesterday at 5PM. Pretty sure it wasn't sleep sleep, but drug-induced.
I have so far only been in broad daylight, to be honest.
The Twins (8) are 5 wins behind the Yankees (13) for fewest wins in the American League.
oof.
The goal from here on out for a successful season is to be better than the Yankees.
Hasn't that always been the goal?