Thanks for the baseball reading recommendations folks shared yesterday. It's nice to have new fodder for my RSS reader.
It's amazing the availability of topic-appropriate images for the C'oC each morning
yep. Somebody in the Front Office deserves a raise, too.
Adrian Peterson reportedly out 3-4 months. If Vikings get into the playoffs after losing their starting QB for the full season and last year's leading rusher for 3-4 months, Mike Zimmer should get a lifetime contract to coach.
And the left tackle to IR.
I guess that helps explain why he was getting blown by repeatedly on sunday night.
OK and now they're starting left tackle, Matt Kalil, goes on the IR. That's considered the most important OL position.
Heh, might be better with no one standing there than Kalil. At least you won't be expecting anything to get blocked over there.
I bought a Kalil shirsey at the Nike outlet by Owatonna last year to give to my friend as a gag gift. He wore it to our fantasy draft.
Back in the day, linemen would rarely if ever get hurt, now Vikes have three(?) starters from last year done because of injuries: Loadholt, Sullivan, Kalil.
In my non-medical eye, these guys have gotten too big for their bodies to handle. But the NFL doesn't care. They just have a "next man up" attitude.
If Players could negotiate guarantee contracts in their next CBA, I bet player safety would become a much bigger issue for the NFL front offices.
I think the game would be more exciting if there was a size limit. Much like they should have smaller goalie pads in hockey.
[link to classic SBG post proposing NFL rule changes]
I can summarize:
1. Football sucks and shouldn't be played.
2. Go Bison!
(If this doesn't bait him, nothing will.)
I'm not convinced on a size limit--would you just do it as a strict weight limit or sliding scale based on height? Cam Newton weighs in at 260 pounds, but he's plenty quick at 6'6". Kalil is listed at 306, 6'6". Where do you draw the line between Newton and Kalil in a meaningful way?
Weigh-ins have their own issues. Do you do the weigh-in 24 hours before the game? Then you'll get a lot of guys cutting water weight for the weigh-in and gaining it back for the game. I think there's also some belief that being more dehydrated increases the risk of head injury, so if you did 2-hour weigh-ins, or something closer to game time, you risk having players getting hit repeatedly in the head after cutting weight to make their pre-game weigh-in.
I should add that I share your aim, I'm just not sure that a size limit gets you there. I kind of wonder if they were forced into a 9-man format if mobility on the line would be more valued and such big players would sort of get naturally forced out.
Yes. Like the NBA has gotten a smaller, faster athlete by calling the hand-checking. Less lane-fillers.
Recommended max weights based on position. Weigh-ins at the end of pre-season. Dropped from game eligibility if gaining back >10lbs during the season.
But then you still have to do weigh-ins and you're setting arbitrary limits at different positions (potentially without reference to height.)
Those rules would also encourage different sorts of gaming. If the limit is 275, but my walking around weight would be 265 at the end of pre-season, then the smartest thing for me to do is to get as close as possible to 275 for the pre-season weigh-in, then immediately go back to 265. That way my limit for the season would be 285 and I have more of a cushion in case something goes wrong with my weight.
meh, first world problems -- I don't care in any case, shut it all down. time to go to flag football
Just take away all the helmets and pads. I don't hear about problems with concussions, etc., in rugby. Then again, I don't follow rugby much at all, really.
The helmets might not be helping, but I doubt you could take away the helmets and have a season without concussions.
For instance, the Seahawks just got fined because some players hit heads going up for a catch in a practice that was supposed to be non-contact.
Exhibits E-ZZZZ can be found pretty easily. Many from this list, I would guess.
Now that the Vikes have lost their starting QB, starting RB, and starting LT, are we still clamoring for them to take over the Twins' training duties? [/ducks]
I am ignorant about whether the Vikings trainers are good or not, and I'm willing to admit it.
I also don't know if the Vikings trainers are good or not. I think the best null hypothesis is that all pro trainers are essentially equivalent and as third parties, we have extremely limited ability to rate them.
As frustrated as I get with the Twins' general resistance to the 21st century, I'm not convinced it's so easy to find a training staff that can predictably make a meaningful difference.
I think a large portion of the perception of the Twins' trainers is the team's communication.
I bet that's right.
It doesn't help when they let Trevor May pitch with an undiagnosed broken back.
After three trips to the disabled list and a battery of tests over the past 13 months, Twins right-hander Trevor May finally received a definitive answer on his lingering back issue this week in Los Angeles.
...
“I think it’s just been there for awhile, kind of undetected,” May said Wednesday. “He said it’s been healing and it didn’t look new. I probably had just gone through cycles of healing without addressing the causes of it. I just kept pitching on it and probably shouldn’t have. It was an injury that was a little more serious than I thought it was.”
The Padres' staff made a predictable (if only temporary) meaningful difference! Unethical conduct was the new Moneyball.
See, the actual issues were genetic/poor form, pre-existing* conditions, and being Matt Kalil. It was a miracle they were even on the field, solely attributable to the trainers.
* I was going to blame it on him tearing his ACL and LCL, but that was the left knee. However, he did injure his LCL in his right knee back in 2007.
Much drama today in baseball playoff races. King Felix shuts out Jays for 7 innings today, but Joey Bats tied the game in the ninth with a solo home run. Still tied 1-1 in extras between M's and Jays. Astros also threw out the tying run at the plate to end the game vs. A's.
Okay, the PR department can sure put out some awful nice videos
"Hey, communications intern, go find some of the footage we never used and make something that implies profundity without saying too much."
Add some pretty instrumental. Perfect!
#dontlookatme is trending.
Thanks for the baseball reading recommendations folks shared yesterday. It's nice to have new fodder for my RSS reader.
It's amazing the availability of topic-appropriate images for the C'oC each morning
yep. Somebody in the Front Office deserves a raise, too.
Adrian Peterson reportedly out 3-4 months. If Vikings get into the playoffs after losing their starting QB for the full season and last year's leading rusher for 3-4 months, Mike Zimmer should get a lifetime contract to coach.
And the left tackle to IR.
I guess that helps explain why he was getting blown by repeatedly on sunday night.
OK and now they're starting left tackle, Matt Kalil, goes on the IR. That's considered the most important OL position.
Heh, might be better with no one standing there than Kalil. At least you won't be expecting anything to get blocked over there.
I bought a Kalil shirsey at the Nike outlet by Owatonna last year to give to my friend as a gag gift. He wore it to our fantasy draft.
Back in the day, linemen would rarely if ever get hurt, now Vikes have three(?) starters from last year done because of injuries: Loadholt, Sullivan, Kalil.
In my non-medical eye, these guys have gotten too big for their bodies to handle. But the NFL doesn't care. They just have a "next man up" attitude.
If Players could negotiate guarantee contracts in their next CBA, I bet player safety would become a much bigger issue for the NFL front offices.
I think the game would be more exciting if there was a size limit. Much like they should have smaller goalie pads in hockey.
[link to classic SBG post proposing NFL rule changes]
I can summarize:
1. Football sucks and shouldn't be played.
2. Go Bison!
(If this doesn't bait him, nothing will.)
I'm not convinced on a size limit--would you just do it as a strict weight limit or sliding scale based on height? Cam Newton weighs in at 260 pounds, but he's plenty quick at 6'6". Kalil is listed at 306, 6'6". Where do you draw the line between Newton and Kalil in a meaningful way?
Weigh-ins have their own issues. Do you do the weigh-in 24 hours before the game? Then you'll get a lot of guys cutting water weight for the weigh-in and gaining it back for the game. I think there's also some belief that being more dehydrated increases the risk of head injury, so if you did 2-hour weigh-ins, or something closer to game time, you risk having players getting hit repeatedly in the head after cutting weight to make their pre-game weigh-in.
I should add that I share your aim, I'm just not sure that a size limit gets you there. I kind of wonder if they were forced into a 9-man format if mobility on the line would be more valued and such big players would sort of get naturally forced out.
Yes. Like the NBA has gotten a smaller, faster athlete by calling the hand-checking. Less lane-fillers.
Recommended max weights based on position. Weigh-ins at the end of pre-season. Dropped from game eligibility if gaining back >10lbs during the season.
But then you still have to do weigh-ins and you're setting arbitrary limits at different positions (potentially without reference to height.)
Those rules would also encourage different sorts of gaming. If the limit is 275, but my walking around weight would be 265 at the end of pre-season, then the smartest thing for me to do is to get as close as possible to 275 for the pre-season weigh-in, then immediately go back to 265. That way my limit for the season would be 285 and I have more of a cushion in case something goes wrong with my weight.
meh, first world problems -- I don't care in any case, shut it all down. time to go to flag football
Just take away all the helmets and pads. I don't hear about problems with concussions, etc., in rugby. Then again, I don't follow rugby much at all, really.
The helmets might not be helping, but I doubt you could take away the helmets and have a season without concussions.
For instance, the Seahawks just got fined because some players hit heads going up for a catch in a practice that was supposed to be non-contact.
They are a big problem.
concussions are a problem in soccer too. Not to the level of football, but significant. Ain't no helmets there (save for Petr Cech).
The moral hazard problem is real in football, of course. But contact still happens in sports that lack the armor.
History tells us playing without helmets/pads again would probably be a bad idea.
when was that day?
Exhibit A: Mike Webster.
Exhibit B: Jim Otto.
Exhibit C: Gene Hickerson.
Exhibit D: Curt Marsh.
Exhibits E-ZZZZ can be found pretty easily. Many from this list, I would guess.
Now that the Vikes have lost their starting QB, starting RB, and starting LT, are we still clamoring for them to take over the Twins' training duties? [/ducks]
I am ignorant about whether the Vikings trainers are good or not, and I'm willing to admit it.
I also don't know if the Vikings trainers are good or not. I think the best null hypothesis is that all pro trainers are essentially equivalent and as third parties, we have extremely limited ability to rate them.
As frustrated as I get with the Twins' general resistance to the 21st century, I'm not convinced it's so easy to find a training staff that can predictably make a meaningful difference.
I think a large portion of the perception of the Twins' trainers is the team's communication.
I bet that's right.
It doesn't help when they let Trevor May pitch with an undiagnosed broken back.
http://www.twincities.com/2016/09/21/minnesota-twins-trevor-may-diagnosed-with-stress-fracture-in-his-back/
The Padres' staff made a predictable (if only temporary) meaningful difference! Unethical conduct was the new Moneyball.
See, the actual issues were genetic/poor form, pre-existing* conditions, and being Matt Kalil. It was a miracle they were even on the field, solely attributable to the trainers.
* I was going to blame it on him tearing his ACL and LCL, but that was the left knee. However, he did injure his LCL in his right knee back in 2007.
Much drama today in baseball playoff races. King Felix shuts out Jays for 7 innings today, but Joey Bats tied the game in the ninth with a solo home run. Still tied 1-1 in extras between M's and Jays. Astros also threw out the tying run at the plate to end the game vs. A's.