OldSchoolSnapper

I'm out of town the entire opening week but I agree. When I checked the SSH presale there were entire sections already without pairs of available tickets. It's also a weekday. Just a lot of things adding up make it likely a MKE based crowd.

MLB is allowing 1/3 of the league in the playoffs as it is so I don't get this argument I keep seeing that they need to be like the other leagues and make it easier. Why are we trying to make that 50% so that everyone has a chance? It's the playoffs. It should be hard. You should not be rewarded for being 81-81 by getting a chance at the same tournament as teams winning 95 games. My biggest gripe with the current system is a team like the '18 Cubs winning 94 games and possibly drawing some .500 WC team and losing. At least now that's rare. I'm not really jazzed about reform that makes it an annual thing.

I enjoy the slow burn of the MLB regular season. That it's normal for teams to go 18-25 and finish 92-70. That you can hold first place for 4 months and miss the playoffs. These kinds of changes are going to really mess that up. I feel like they've got it exactly right with the 5 teams and play-in game. The regular season is still frequently coming down to the last weekend and it still feels like a big achievement just to get in. I also don't really buy in to this anti-tanking argument re: late season game Tigers vs. Orioles. This isn't going to change that one iota. The NBA allows over half the league in and has the worst tanking practices of any major sport. The NFL has a nice playoff format by most people's measure and all the teams with franchise QBs basically dominate post-season appearances. You can pick out 7-8 teams that almost always suck.

Siakam was a rising star last year. Lowry is having a nice year and scoring more without Kawhi. I don't think they're a legitimate threat to the Bucks. Nobody in the East is. They will run any of those teams out of the gym. I know that many Bucks/WI fans are accustomed to failure but none of those teams are even close to as good. Last year is still fresh in everyone's minds but this team is markedly better this season. Could the Bucks be even more dominant if Giannis is playing another 8 minutes? Because they can do that in May.

I will add though, the picking of an opponent sounds kinda cool.

If you want to water the regular season down to the point of the NBA this is how you do it. We should probably like this as a small market, but it's awful.

That is true, they haven't taken early round guys there, which is too bad because I believe Nelson, Jennings, Cobb and Adams were all 2nds and Jones was a 3rd. I wasn't saying they shouldn't draft one, just that I don't think it will be enough, and even if they do, there really needs to be a veteran there. I would love for them to get someone like Marvin Jones, just somebody that can run.

The Packers WR problem is certainly not due a lack of investing in the position. They have just been absolutely horrible drafting there. Here's the other thing. If they draft one, even early, there is a 90% chance he is not really a needle mover this year. The DK Metcalfs are few and far between and even he came on really late in the year. With Rodgers age I really think this is a position they need to be active in FA and sign a veteran. It doesn't even have to be someone that great, just an OK established player. Austin Hooper is already a big rumor at TE, which makes sense considering the Packers tried to trade for him. Another position where drafting doesn't make much sense to me since Sternberger looks like a nice player and a first-year guy is not likely to make the difference they need. I don't think there is any chance Bulaga is back. I just can't see them wanting to commit more than one year to someone of his history, and some other team will happily do so. They seem to know how to draft OL so I'm not super concerned there. They need some athleticism at MLB to either replace or complement Martinez. Their DL has to be better, and the draft might be the place to do that since they've already invested a lot of money on the defense in FA, and paid Lowry. You can't spend everywhere, and that may be the spot you just have to hope some guys have better seasons.

Thing is no one plays crazy minutes as it is. They'll hit the franchise record without even really trying. I'm guessing they're going to fall just a bit short. I wouldn't be forcing Giannis to play 40 minutes to get the 68th win or anything, but I wouldn't sit him down for the last 5 games either. I think they're on pace for 70 at the moment though.

I remember a spirited debate at my high school lunch table that we were screwing up picking Bogut and should be taking him. My guess would be DJ Wilson.

Not sure cracking down on sharing will cost them any significant number of subscribers. I give out my Disney and Netflix passwords and if they cracked down I would just say sorry guys, they're mine now. There haven't been enough people using the services for them to be gung ho about cracking down on sharing logins. Three years into Mandolorian and three other Star Wars shows + Marvel and continued original movies etc., people will be hooked on the services to the point that they'll just pay for it. Netflix is still very much in its infancy when it comes to original programming. They were previously nowhere near where they need to be from a loyalty perspective to start locking accounts. I don't know who suggested you should care about irritating streaming companies? The point is sharing logins is not going to be a long term savings strategy. The instant that paying for video protection is financially beneficial it will be widespread with these services. Netflix essentially said this publicly within the last few years. That it just wasn't a concern and they wanted to get their content out there. Last fall they changed their tune and want it to stop. So I think it's coming sooner than later. https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/netflix-isnt-cool-with-password-sharing-anymore-why-piracy-is-about-to-be-next-battle-in-streaming-war.html

Netflix's lowest tier is one screen, that's it. That's one of the reasons they "don't care" about the password sharing, because in many instances that person has a higher-tier account and that negates some of the loss. Disney+ has four screens on its lowest tier. All these places know this is going on. I was reading about this earlier due to this thread and the tech is already there to stop it. There is an entire company doing this, Synamedia, and there are already algorithms that are incredibly precise at determining irregular behavior from an account. It can already detect when a user is on vacation with high accuracy. Of course, using a service like this will come at a cost to the Netflixes of the world so there is some reluctance to jump ship. You can bank on that happening when they've figured out the losses are significant.

The optimism is admirable, but last years team was looking pretty good coming into the year. A healthy Knebel, a good Jeffress, Travis Shaw (and to a lesser extent Aguilar), Cain and Braun being a year younger, Moustakas, Grandal...Corbin Burnes looking like he was going to step into becoming a quality starter, Chacin coming off a career year and looking to repeat...Anderson and Davies as reliable depth pieces. A lot of things went wrong last year and they still made the playoffs. This years team is a bunch of spare parts cobbled around a few all stars and a couple of youngsters. If everything goes right they'll make the playoffs...if things go like they did last year with this roster they'll win 70 games. I feel like you just made the argument for why they'll be good again. Almost all of those things went wrong and they still won because there is more talent and know-how in the FO than what you are giving them credit for. Narvaez and Garcia aren't spare parts. Shaw and Aguilar were useless, ate a bunch of at bats and they still won. It'll be hard for even the yuck factor of Sogard and Gyorko to be as useless as Travis Shaw was. Burnes gave away a bunch of games and they still found a way. Cain won a GG but was clearly hurt all season, was only slightly above useless for much of the year offensively. I often say fans overlook regression and just assume the following year will be like the last, but Brewers fans actually seem to be dismissing development, I guess because they are upset about FA. I don't think you've seen anywhere close to the best of Hiura, Woodruff or Burnes who I still believe in. I like the 2020 offense much more than 2019. I think there will be a lot of depth and exploiting of matchups and fewer dryspells/spots in the order where we get little to no production. I don't really care about the SP as it has never been the oil for the team in any of the last 3 years. They'll hit just fine. They'll sink or swim with whatever they end up getting out of the RP. Things can always go horribly wrong but there's no reason to believe they can't be in the 85-90 range again and I don't think that's just blind optimism at all.

Well his FTs have carried into this season and remain a problem, the point is that 45% from the league MVP shouldn't spell imminent death for a title contender. The Bucks need to prove they can win a series even when Giannis is slowed down, because that is going to happen again, it's not a matter of "if." They can't have Bledsoe going ice cold or Middleton chipping in 11 points on the nights that happens. Giannis was still really productive that series. They didn't lose because of him or because they "gave up uncontested threes," they lost because nobody else stepped up offensively.

Better them, than us! I was an anti RRR fan, one of the happiest days as a Brewer fan was when he left... I don't mean this to be snarky at all, so don't take it that way, but have the Brewers ever had a manager that you've liked? Personally I still think he cost the Brewers a championship. I like Counsell, but every manager before him that they've had during my conscious life left a lot to be desired. My runner up is probably Yost, just because he did seem to keep a clubhouse together. Tactically he was as bad as any others.

Giannis sucking was still putting up stats. He just wasn't as efficient and the supporting cast shot 25%. You can win against the best doing one of those things, but not both. One of the games they won was due to Lopez making it rain and dropping 30 pts otherwise it's plausible they could have won one game. The entire team is better though, they are not running it back with the same team. Matthews and Korver have been nice additions and Middleton is playing like the star they paid for but hadn't quite proven himself to be.

It is the 50th anniversary. They did a ton of bobbles the year they did the 82 team anniversary, 07 I think. 13 minis + 6 bobbles/nesting dolls. It is a lot, but I think we'll be back in the 10 neighborhood next year.

FSN GO/TNT whatever work fine with a Spectrum login, today. I watched the Bucks game last night that way. I was just saying that I would not expect that train to choo choo endlessly. They may not care now, but they will as older traditional customers disappear and they are relying on a younger demographic. They're not just going to eternally let people get 6 subscriptions while one guy pays.

Bob Uecker WWE bobble is the secret item.

They are the perfect example for how big a factor luck plays. They've been run nearly flawlessly for a decade and just can't finish. It'd be possible to run their success through a parallel universe and come out with 5 titles.

No one in the East is even remotely threatening to me. The Bucks are rolling people over so badly that 10 point wins over contenders feel lackluster. Giannis is playing 30 minutes a night. I will be surprised if any Eastern Conference team pushes them to six games. The Raptors needed lights out shooting from a totally random guy to squeak out some games and they're going to do that without Kawhi against a better team? The only teams that concern me at all are the two in Los Angeles. My concern with the Bucks is the same it's always been. Their best player isn't a great shooter, that's it. If someone makes life hard for him they lack a second star, but even that is waning as Middleton has pretty much done that this year.

Braun's deal hasn't been terrible. There have been much worse, and he's probably going to play it out without ever veering far from being an .800ish OPS player. He's also just an extremely popular player that was the only guy any casual fan knew for a couple seasons. He's got his stamp on a lot of big moments. That said, it doesn't make life for MKE easier when you have 1.5 WAR OF making $20 million. Once that option is burned out I'd have no issues with him wanting to hang around a couple years for little money, if he wants to. He's a weird player. If he plays in 2020 like he did in 2019, he's not going to have trouble finding a team. It's reasonable to say the contract was OK, not disastrous, but not want to do it again with Yelich.

It's so odd to me that people are clamoring to pay 35 y/o Yelich $30 million a year like it's nothing. Even if Yelich wanted to sign in MKE long term, the back end of that deal is probably not a good deal for the Brewers in even the best of circumstances. If this team is truly going to be run as well as it needs to be to compete, and as well as it has been for a few years, there's no reason they need Yelich five years from now. They're going to have to hit on way more than that. The whole conversation is just a bit strange, mostly because this is a player essentially signing his last deal. I would understand it way more if he were going into FA at 25, but he's not.

I'm specifically referring to password sharing. There is no way that companies like Disney and Comcast are going to let that slide much longer. It'll get more complicated than just typing in a password. I'm surprised to hear that still works at all as they vowed to be "cracking down" in 2017 per a quick Google search. Edit: They already have some mechanisms in place but have refrained from using them to this point: “We have created some technology that’s in the backend that we will use to understand behavior,” Paull said. “And when we see behavior that doesn’t make sense, we have mechanisms that we’ve put in place that will deal with it.” Article goes on to say they red flag accounts with suspicious activity/unusually long list of devices accessing content. I password share on some stuff too, just saying that monopolies are not just going to continue hemorrhaging millions as their base customer gets younger and does this sort of thing regularly.

Weren't they cracking down on that like 3 years ago to the point of notifying users who were doing it?