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M's 5, ORCs 8
Just offhand kibitzes without the detail descriptions. Don't quote me. And we assume this won't get to twenty lines, since Scribner was half of the yellow legal pad, but the tables pre-set as far of the number of rows you get.
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WARMUP PHASE STRETCH THOSE HAMMIES DO THOSE SUN SALUTATIONS
Thought we'd be sleeping 40 of the next 48 hours. But then, I found out that I could fairly seamlessly do Comments from iPhone voice dictation. Talk about a monkey toying with a watch.
Question: Does it get old, Dr. D replying to so many comments? You want to return serve to newbies and to great ideas, but you don't want to be the 300' dude in the middle seat of the airplane row :- )
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EVAN SCRIBNER ON MARCH 21
Scribner came out for the 7th inning. First guy was out. Second guy, Scribner quickly fired a 1-2 count. But! Ryan-Rowland Smith made a weird comment and Dr. D looked up from the riveting SSI threads on his iPhone. He said, "That low-away fastball, that's 'is bread and butter. He can go 0-2, 1-2 EVERY SINGLE COUNT if he wants to."
Dr. D chuckled, because you're describing a pitcher who makes some loooonnnnng greeeen if that were literally true.
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intro - can't get to a computer much today or tomorrow, so all apologies that I'm not thumbs-up'ing all the new bleacher bums. Will return to that shortly, but in the meantime muchas gracias very much! - Jeff.
We were just getting a baseball-comments tsunami going and please don't let this distract. :- ) The last 4-5 threads are really hoppin'. Please enjoy them on Wednesday. But for those who enjoy the "Life Is Sports" aspect to SSI:
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ROHRSCHACH (INKBLOT) TEST
BPJ asked us to put up a column on the Mandela Effect. His comment was the first I'd heard about it, which is cool, because it's always fun to hear about a new sci-fi / paranormal subject that has anything to it but silliness.
80, 90% of the topics that are worth a look, wind up going into the wry smile area for me. Those that wind up (for me) being in the "Truth is Stranger than Fiction" category ... Double Slit Experiment, Yoro Fish Rain, Deathbed Visions, Precognition (in very limited applications), N'Kisi the telepathic parrot, a few others ...
HERE COMES THE -LIFE IS SPORT- THINGY
"Skeptic" should mean that --- > you're in extreme doubt about a thing. But you are going to investigate. Like a scientist should: wanting VERY convincing evidence, but with a reasonable openness to the idea that it might be true.
Science is a method of inquiry. Period. It is not a worldview that says nothing exists apart from the periodic table and the laws of physics. Science is not materialism.
"Skeptic" on Wikipedia has been appropriated to mean that --- > you know before you start that the hypothesis is hollow and false. You go through the motions of investigating, but any data that is suggestive is suppressed. It's the worst possible mindset to be in, to be pretending to investigate a thing.
La Liga essentially remained static this past week, with the top three of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla all remaining in their order atop the league table, although Sevilla did fall farther behind after a 3-1 to Atlético Madrid over the weekend.
Now with two week to go until the quarterfinal round of the Champions League gets underway, and three of Spain's top four are still battling for the trophy. Real, Barça and Atleti will be playing the week of April 10th, and as one would imagine all drew tough opponents.
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The News Tribune's Bob Dutton has a fun article up about the 7 questions he had back on Feb. 20th. Now we have a good idea of where each is going, though conclusions on few of them. Let's follow along his 7 questions.
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CAN VOGELBACH PLAY 1B?
The TNT says: 'Bach is a slight favorite to make the team. Like, 60-40, I guess.
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THINK TANK as LOCAL-NEWS AGGREGATOR? Dept.
KingCorran had a comment that stopped me short:
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... now I'm trimming the fat from my online reading as I prepare to move into satellite-fed internet land where the megas are costly, but pretty much every decision comes down to, "How much of this information do I not need because it's going to come up and be discussed MORE thoroughly at SSI?"
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"LOW-QUALITY COMMENTS"
1. It IS as easy as one line.
The threads read better with a 1:2, 1:3 ratio of 1 Wishhiker, Sherminator essays to every 2-3 offhand one-liners. I promise it will read better. As it is, comments threads are like hacking through essay jungles with a machete.
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2. Take Silentpadna and RockiesJeff as icons here. You enjoy their short Hellos, doncha?
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3. Have heard this for 20 years. By 20 we mean, "twenty years." The regulars leave nothing for the occasionals to say! But! YOU like it when the occasionals post, right? So post anything. I hate, hate, hate the idea of somebody deciding not to join the convo because they think it's trite. It's NOT trite; it is your scout cross-check from your section of the stadium. It is "flavor text" from a unique person.
By the way, if you're not registered, your comment goes into the spam filter but I'll approve first thing, next time I sit down.
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So, bring it! :- )
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OK, 2 pm. Is it about lunchtime?
Was a little tired last night, around 4 am, but sighed and sat down to get the mornin' macchiato up last night rather than this afternoon. Hoping to read some M's stuff rather than write it. The Denizens graciously threw 14x chips at the dealer ... well, actually they probably were thinking more in terms of talking baseball :- ) but you know whutuhmean.
but before we get to the roster battles
EVEN MORE ON THAT DREW SMYLY GAME
Wednesday brought the end of arguably the most successful era of University of Washington basketball. Although it did not feel that way the past five years, missing out on the NCAA Tournament each of those five and making some token appearances in the NIT and CBI. But we don't hang banners for those tournaments, and appearing in them don't go on the resume.
IceX linked us to this Fangraphs article, warning that Drew Smyly could be up for a breakout year. Great link IceX thank you viddy much. Any Denizen who didn't click thru Ice's link gotta go get it right Now. From Sullivan no less. He is sticking to just the fa'ax, ma'am, and he calmly underlines the fact that when established pitchers gain any significant velocity, they have big seasons.
Because Sullivan was confining himself to "pure sabermetrics" (MPH-vs-ERA) he didn't even touch on the key to the VENZ game, though Sullivan would have been well aware of it. Dr. D's big thing was that Smyly threw pitches in on the hands of righties. And that Smyly threw the fastball with purpose at knees and shoulders, changing the eye level (which he doesn't even really need to do, given his curve). And the attack-rhythm thing.
In any case, here's the takeaway for SSI Denizens: --- >the fact that Smyly has (so far in 2017) had extra panache on the ball across his starts, and that it is ON HIS CUTTER TOO, well, that --- > MUCHLY increases the chance of 2017 rainbows and ponies. Rick (who promptly roto-swapped for Smyly following the VENZ game) should almost as thrilled at this news as he was at the original VENZ performance.