Baldkin

That's a problem when you only allow people to vote for 10 guys while the ballot is backlogged with viable candidates. There's no reason for it and informed voters should be able to vote for as many people as they want. The same thing happened to Jim Edmonds (and others).

Yes, he's not one of the 10 best pitchers of all-time. He was every bit as good as Schilling and Smoltz and Glavine. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_P.shtml 29th all-time in Jaws.

Walker's numbers are heavily aided by Coors field. 278/370/495 are his away career numbers. Very good numbers, absolutely...but should that stat line be in the hall? Mussina I can understand to some degree due to longevity and postseason success, but he was never really THAT good. He never won a Cy Young, finished in the top 5 a bunch but man the field was weak when he did. His best finish was 2nd in 1999 with a 3.5 ERA, he must have the worst ever stat line for a 2nd place CY young candidate. He also finished 5th with a 4.81 ERA in 1996. Mussina was simply a very good player for a long time, he was never an elite pitcher in the game. Schilling is probably more deserving than Mussina, but won't get in for off the diamond reasons. He had better career numbers and greater postseason success, including a world series MVP and the whole bloody sock thing. Schilling was very close to an elite pitcher, and definitely was exactly that during the postseason...when it mattered most. You greatly underrate how good of a pitcher Mussina was, and using ERA to do it, when he pitched during the highest run era ever, is a terrible way to judge a guy. He probably should've won the Cy Young in 2001, but he went 17-11, while his teammate, who gave up more runs, had a worse ERA+ and had less K's and more BB went 20-3, so he ran away with the Cy Young award. Nolan Ryan has a career ERA of 3.19. His ERA+ is 112. He was 12% better than league average over his career. Mike Mussina has an ERA of 3.68. His ERA+ is 123 for his career. 23% better than league average. He's every bit a deserving HOF, his 10 year stretch from 1991-2001 was incredible.

Gotta get Hostess involved!!

Kind of like the 2018 Brewers, and it worked pretty well for us... Exactly.... but the Reds don't have the coaching staff to do what the Brewers did... oh... wait a second....

This has nothing to do with headphones or earbuds or whatever. People have been oblivious in grocery stores for 100 years. Some people are oblivious dicks, and they will always exist.

Bluetooth is a standard, and I have not heard of any vendor putting proprietary limits on what can connect -- but I could be wrong. Troubleshooting steps: 1) Can you see the bluetooth device (soundbar) when you scan for bluetooth connections via your phone or laptop? 2) What about when you scan for bluetooth devices from the TV? 3) Can you connect the soundbar to your phone via bluetooth and play music? 4) Nothing else can connect to a device via bluetooth once something is connected. So if your phone or laptop is connected you will need to turn off bluetooth (and forget that device) to make sure it can connect to your TV

Albers was incredible last season before he got hurt. He was never right after that. I hope he comes into Spring healthy and with his mechanics figured out.

I think the next big thing will be a forced salary floor for teams. It's something the NBA does - you can be below the floor, but the guys who played for you that year just get paid out based on roster-time whatever amount you're below the floor. Right now, teams who are rebuilding have no reason to spend any money -- and if the big markets are going to dip under the Luxury tax every 3-4 years to avoid that 50% penalty, that's a huge amount of revenue that isn't going to the players (even if the Luxury tax funds only go to them indirectly) -- if they are aiming for that 50% number. The Yankees last year had ~650M in revenue and spent 165M on salaries.

It's a cultural thing. Saying "No" in the midwest is viewed as rude and people will do anything they can to avoid saying it. "I can't be there." is like this taboo thing to say. My friends from New York call people out on this crap all the time (and I've started doing it too). We live busy lives, it's okay if it's not your thing or you can't be there!!

So true. It shocks me every report I see about how little minor leaguers make.

Well, this isn't true. Don't buy the propaganda from anti-union billionaires. MLB player salaries as a percentage of Revenue have plummeted between 2002 and 2008 and are hovering just below 40% currently. That's a BILLION dollars the players were shorted in salaries this season. https://deadspin.com/the-mlbpa-is-failing-its-players-1822305159

The one guy I'm hoping comes back healthy is Albers. It's easy to forget, he was really, really good last season before he got hurt. Through June 8th, he was sitting at a 1.93 ERA, and 6 BB and 23 hits through 28IP, for a 1.04 WHIP

Haha. That's funny. There is even a hard water too. Just regular water. Not even sparkling. I call that Vodka.

I always loved Keon. Shame his bat never came around. Could he ever move in the outfield.

To be fair, Bud has had the luxury of sitting starters (including Giannis) very often in the 4th quarter due to blow-outs. I don't think their minutes would be any less this year if they had mostly close games. 2017-18 Breakdown for Giannis: 40+ minutes: 17/75 = 23% 38+ minutes: 13 more = 30/75: 40% 2018-19 breakdown: 40+: 2/34 played ~6% 38+: 3 more. 5 total out of 34. 15% They haven't won by blowout in 1/2 their games. Bud is simply better at managing players minutes, setting player expectations and having guys in a fixed rotation to prevent in-game fatigue. Giannis comes out with 4 minutes left in the first quarter every game.

First time since 70/71 they'll have the best record in the league going into the new year.

That's simply not true. Maker bangs with everybody and will throw is body into anyone down low. He's the annoying try-hard that guys absolutely hate to play against. The problem is, it doesn't matter. He weighs about 210 lbs at 7'1". By comparison, Giannis is 2 inches shorter and weighs about 40lbs more. He has no base nor center of gravity to stop anyone from moving him where ever they want. Plus, he has a sweet flying kick in case anyone tries to fight him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU2V-2cV4rg

Defense and.... baserunning. (I just really wanted to post this video again)

1991 AL West and the 2005 NL East were both divisions where all the teams finished at least .500. Both had one team at 81-81 exactly.

We're gonna have some names on the team this year. That's for sure.

It was the 25th anniversary of the film in 2018. 1994 was a huge year for baseball movies, including such amazing classics as Little Big League, Angel's in the Outfield, Cobb, The Scout and of course, Major League II.

I'm not against your argument as it would certainly add competition in a market saturated with fans, but I'm pretty sure there exists some sort of territorial agreement between the Yankees/Mets and MLB. It's not unique to NYC, either. When the A's wanted to relocate to San Jose, the Giants objected saying that was part of their territory. I remember Peter Angelos objecting to the relocation of the Expos to Washington (not sure if he was compensated or just had sour grapes). They still don't play home series on the same weekends as part of that agreement.

I cannot get enough of the Bulls drama. This stuff is absolutely incredible.

Has to be fake news. Sounds like a craft beer. A full bodied sour, with hints of raspberries and mango, the Tuffy Gosewisch is the perfect beer to sip on a crisp spring afternoon.