The other sports thread

[WildCard]

22 hours ago, LTS said:

You'd be pretty pleased with a podium finish then.  Of course the field did benefit from Leclerc and Bottas dropping out.  There's basically no passing in Monaco so unless you screw up you almost end like you finish.

Yup. Big Red Bull. Verstappen fan so that race worked out as well as it possibly could really. Bottas dropping out was huge for Red Bull. Gotta love Hamilton whining to his team the entire race/post-race.

[Norcal]

58 minutes ago, LTS said:

Monaco is bland.  It's really about qualifying.  Once you are in the race its about not getting boned by a safety car incident, making a mental mistake, or being the victim of someone else's mistake.

Hamilton had a bad qualifier and that was that.  He couldn't get the car up into the top of the group. Only a few positions in the race actually changed from top to bottom. Most drivers finished where they qualified (given the 2 position bump from Leclerc and Bottas DNF)

It was way better two weeks prior when Hamilton's pit strategy worked out and he was able to catch and pass Verstappen.

 

 

I agree. I'm new to the sport but the drama is thick and the storylines are numerous. I am really enjoying learning all I can about it.

That race was a good one. Hamilton storming up the field and overtaking Verstappen was fun to watch and a good demonstration of his dominance. 

[Norcal]

1 hour ago, WildCard said:

Yup. Big Red Bull. Verstappen fan so that race worked out as well as it possibly could really. Bottas dropping out was huge for Red Bull. Gotta love Hamilton whining to his team the entire race/post-race.

He was pissed. As a new fan to the sport,  I'm rather enjoying not rooting for him actually. 

[LTS]

On 5/24/2021 at 2:36 PM, WildCard said:

Yup. Big Red Bull. Verstappen fan so that race worked out as well as it possibly could really. Bottas dropping out was huge for Red Bull. Gotta love Hamilton whining to his team the entire race/post-race.

Yeah, I don't understand why this car can't be faster...  the dude and the team have absolutely dominated F1.. but I guess that level of expectation is what gets and keeps you at that level of dominance.

On 5/24/2021 at 3:33 PM, Norcal said:

I agree. I'm new to the sport but the drama is thick and the storylines are numerous. I am really enjoying learning all I can about it.

That race was a good one. Hamilton storming up the field and overtaking Verstappen was fun to watch and a good demonstration of his dominance. 

The drama is so manufactured as well.  This whole Fernando Alonso thing about his P2's not being as celebrated as Carlos Sainz's was.  Pure rubbish. These drivers all have their own sponsors and they have to continually make themselves relevant (while they finish 15th).  This is how they do it.

Absolute posturing... some of it 100% feels like a soccer player lying on the ground acting like his leg is broken when no one touched him. 🙂

[I-90 W]

Anyone here follow MLS? 

[Wyldnwoody44]

21 minutes ago, I-90 W said:

Anyone here follow MLS? 

Major loser squad? Don't we all follow them on this forum? 😉

[LTS]

1 hour ago, I-90 W said:

Anyone here follow MLS? 

Personally I stopped looking at new houses, but I could see the allure. (Multiple Listing Service)

😉 For whatever reason I feel like I never know when soccer seasons begin and end and the teams always seem to be different with the MLS. 

[I-90 W]

1 hour ago, LTS said:

Personally I stopped looking at new houses, but I could see the allure. (Multiple Listing Service)

😉 For whatever reason I feel like I never know when soccer seasons begin and end and the teams always seem to be different with the MLS. 

It’s April- November which is the opposite of other leagues. The Premiere League (UK) for example just wrapped up a couple days ago. MLS is growing at a very fast rate and I predict that when we’re all old it will be just as popular as NBA/ NHL if not more. Soccer is really exciting I just recently started getting into it and I’m glad I did. 
 

MLS has been expanding a lot but it’s always the same team; there is no promotion/ relegation like in all the other leagues in the world. They even have a playoff system like all the other North American sports. It’s worth checking out. ⚽️ 

Edited May 26, 2021 by I-90 W

[Eleven]

3 hours ago, I-90 W said:

Anyone here follow MLS? 

If the quality of soccer was better, I would.  But it's somewhere between English League One and Championship.  Painful to watch at times.

[WildCard]

4 hours ago, I-90 W said:

Anyone here follow MLS? 

Been to a few NYCFC games

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, WildCard said:

Been to a few NYCFC games

MLS is definitely better live.

 

[WildCard]

10 minutes ago, Eleven said:

MLS is definitely better live.

 

Most sports are, but I would say baseball and MLS are *much* better live. The atmosphere of a soccer game is awesome.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 hours ago, I-90 W said:

It’s April- November which is the opposite of other leagues. The Premiere League (UK) for example just wrapped up a couple days ago. MLS is growing at a very fast rate and I predict that when we’re all old it will be just as popular as NBA/ NHL if not more. Soccer is really exciting I just recently started getting into it and I’m glad I did. 
 

MLS has been expanding a lot but it’s always the same team; there is no promotion/ relegation like in all the other leagues in the world. They even have a playoff system like all the other North American sports. It’s worth checking out. ⚽️ 

MLS has improved a lot in the last few years.  The top teams could compete against some sides in Europe.

What will make a difference is when a star from Europe transfers to LAG, or TFC, who is not almost 40 years old.

There is a Soccer Club in the Club section of SabreSpace and I invite you to join (it's free to join, but it costs you plenty to leave ... 😎).  We try to keep the football talk over there in the club.

47 minutes ago, Eleven said:

MLS is definitely better live.

 

The atmosphere at BMO Field is as good as any in Europe.

[I-90 W]

5 hours ago, Eleven said:

If the quality of soccer was better, I would.  But it's somewhere between English League One and Championship.  Painful to watch at times.

The two leagues I watch are MLS and the Premier League, and there is an obvious difference in the two of course. Still, MLS is light years above the Dlll team at the college I work. I’m actually really satisfied with the MLS product. 

3 hours ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

MLS has improved a lot in the last few years.  The top teams could compete against some sides in Europe.

What will make a difference is when a star from Europe transfers to LAG, or TFC, who is not almost 40 years old.

There is a Soccer Club in the Club section of SabreSpace and I invite you to join (it's free to join, but it costs you plenty to leave ... 😎).  We try to keep the football talk over there in the club.

The atmosphere at BMO Field is as good as any in Europe.

I will certainly have to check this out, thanks.

[LTS]

20 hours ago, I-90 W said:

It’s April- November which is the opposite of other leagues. The Premiere League (UK) for example just wrapped up a couple days ago. MLS is growing at a very fast rate and I predict that when we’re all old it will be just as popular as NBA/ NHL if not more. Soccer is really exciting I just recently started getting into it and I’m glad I did. 
 

MLS has been expanding a lot but it’s always the same team; there is no promotion/ relegation like in all the other leagues in the world. They even have a playoff system like all the other North American sports. It’s worth checking out. ⚽️ 

Well it's clear from your response I simply don't have a damn clue about MLS.  🙂  Appreciate the information.

[ubkev]

Someone mentioned Dave Kingman in another thread recently...

 

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, ubkev said:

Someone mentioned Dave Kingman in another thread recently...

 

Sweeeeet.  Nailed that one. 😉

[ubkev]

12 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Sweeeeet.  Nailed that one. 😉

Right on the money.

[Norcal]

Pretty talented family. His sister's Nelli and Jessica Korda both have wins on the LPGA tour this season as well. 

[Eleven]

9 hours ago, Norcal said:

Pretty talented family. His sister's Nelli and Jessica Korda both have wins on the LPGA tour this season as well. 

Dammit @Norcal I don't start this thread for men's tennis!

 

But I suppose do with it what you will...

Edited May 31, 2021 by Eleven

[#freejame]

On 5/30/2021 at 10:36 AM, ubkev said:

Someone mentioned Dave Kingman in another thread recently...

 

Just for fun I wanted to look at his OPS and OPS+ and compare it to the first two TTO hitters that came to mind—Joey Gallo and Joc Pederson. 
 

Kingman—.750 OPS / 115 OPS+

Gallo—lifetime BA .209 / 37.2K% / 14.4BB% / 6.4HR% / .819 OPS / 115 OPS+ / 60 TTO%

Pederson—lifetime BA .231 / 24.3K% / 11.9BB% / 5.0HR% / .801 OPS / 115 OPS+ / 40.2 TTO%

For reference, the aforementioned Mario Mendoza (that of the Mendoza line fame) batted .215 lifetime with an OPS+ of 45 and TTO of 18.6%.

Oh, and Mike Trout has a TTO over 40% of the time, to go along with a .305 life BA and a 176 OPS+.

Its easy to say TTO baseball is bad baseball, but all three of these players are outperforming league average hitting by a pretty decent clip. Also of note, while many teams have adapted TTO strategies, there is no data to support it showing leading to more wins. Strikeouts, for the most part, just do not matter anymore. Players used to feel shame from strikeouts, that does not exist anymore. 

I don’t remember the poster saying that analytics have had a negative impact on baseball, but if anything it’s shedding more light on who should and should not be a major leaguer. If you tell a scout someone has a 40%k rate they probably won’t take a second look. Then tell them their rate stats are all higher than league average and they are good for an .800 OPS every year and now all of a sudden they are an invaluable member of the organization. These are the types of things we are going to see in advanced hockey data. We’ll have someway say “Reinhart can’t skate for *****, he falls down 10 times a game.” And then we can point to the statcast and tracking data and say well yeah, but he spends a larger amount of time in the corners and in front of the net based on X and his top speed compared the the league is X and his average ice covered during a shift is X. You can take data and make immediate inferences from it or you can take data, analyze it, and then come to a more realistic conclusion. 

[ubkev]

NBA cities trying to make up nicknames for themselves. Alternate jerseys in the playoffs is terrible as it is, but "The Valley" get the ***** outta here! That's almost as bad as "The Land" or "Rip City" 

[#freejame]

6 minutes ago, ubkev said:

NBA cities trying to make up nicknames for themselves. Alternate jerseys in the playoffs is terrible as it is, but "The Valley" get the ***** outta here! That's almost as bad as "The Land" or "Rip City" 

Thank God you stopped short of Cream City. I don't follow basketball whatsoever but ever since the introduction of the Cream City merch they've become my favorite team. Interesting fact about why Milwaukee is called the Cream City. Apparently the clay and mortar  (?) used to construct the city during it's origin left a distinct cream color to all of the buildings. I prefer to imagine it's a town full of orgies with a basketball team fully onboard with the shenanigans. Regardless, Go Bucks! (are they still in it?)

[Hoss]

6 hours ago, ubkev said:

NBA cities trying to make up nicknames for themselves. Alternate jerseys in the playoffs is terrible as it is, but "The Valley" get the ***** outta here! That's almost as bad as "The Land" or "Rip City" 

These are all actual nicknames of those cities.

[ubkev]

2 hours ago, Hoss said:

These are all actual nicknames of those cities.

And they're all *****!

I don't think the Lakers have worn their Los Lakers jersey in a couple years. But come on!? The city's name is already Spanish. 

The Knicks "City that never sleeps" jersey might be on par with the worst in the league. It's black. That's just as dumb as when they wore ***** green.

8 hours ago, #freejame said:

Thank God you stopped short of Cream City. I don't follow basketball whatsoever but ever since the introduction of the Cream City merch they've become my favorite team. Interesting fact about why Milwaukee is called the Cream City. Apparently the clay and mortar  (?) used to construct the city during it's origin left a distinct cream color to all of the buildings. I prefer to imagine it's a town full of orgies with a basketball team fully onboard with the shenanigans. Regardless, Go Bucks! (are they still in it?)

I did know that, because Walt Clyde Frazier tells me it just about every time the Bucks play the Knicks. Lol