Jake

Quite the overreaction to the Dunleavy foul. Was a bad foul, but not remotely dirty. He hit the dude's arms for Christ's sake

Yeah, Mirotic is looking really promising - and most importantly, confident. Big contrast with McDermott when it comes to confidence. Portland is having one of those nights so far. They're just making everything, regardless of how well they are defended.

I'm not going to talk a bunch of s*** about LBJ, but Kyrie sucks.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 03:59 PM) There are more variables than size and strength in the power equation. Speed of the bat is more important than either of the other two in the physics of a swing. With the increase pitch velocity, you need to swing even faster to make up the difference. Personally, I think the increased pitch velocity is mostly from the pitchers trying to throw harder all the time. With the decreased expectation of innings pitched and analytics, pitchers throw harder more often. There is absolutely no correlation between muscle strength and pitch velocity. The PEDs allowed the pitchers to maintain thier pitching within games but moreso allowed relievers to recover faster and pitch more often. Of course changes in the ball and size of the ball parks made a difference as well. I think the Internet and greater interest in international scouting has made it easier to find pitchers who throw hard as well. Mix that with modern health practices that make pitchers throw only when well-rested, and that's probably a good reason for the velocity increases.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 18, 2014 -> 11:12 AM) Thanks for this. Isn't .18 seconds a lot in the NFL though. I know when talking about 40 times there's a big difference between a 4.40 and a 4.58. Real surprised he was pressured more last year. Though he is throwing a lot more quick passes which could make that % drop quite a bit. When trying to do anything other than those quick passes it seems like there's always pressure. I say that the difference in time isn't super meaningful because so many different things influence that time. Not just protection, but play calling, decision-making, etc

There's always something odd when a guy was never very good, then got really good, then got busted for roids, then kept being good.

DeMarcus Cousins is extremely unlikable

Jimmy averaged 13 points on 39% shooting last year. This year, he has scored at least 14 points in every game and has had only one game in which he shot below 44%.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 12:58 AM) One ref says and one the other says charging. In their defense, charging was the right call. BTW, Jimmy Butler is god

Aaron Brooks is easily my favorite "tiny backup point guard that scores" so far. Best all-around game IMO. He even plays pretty good defense, especially 1-on-1 with smaller guards

Some yucky officiating going on. Kings are dangerous, but they aren't that good

To me, Quintana is one of the top 10 or 20 most valuable players in baseball when considering salary/contract. He'd be a triple figure guy if he reached the free agent market right now. If we consider a trade, it better be insanely advantageous for our on-field product. And while I like the targeting of Bruce in principle, there are some weird trends with his numbers. Walk rate has gone down for 5 straight seasons, K rate has gone up for 6 straight seasons. Defense seems to be falling off. Looking more and more like this other former Cincy LHB that I know

This just seems like basic and harmless self-expression. If you can't see the guy's ass, leave it alone. I'm actually surprised somebody hasn't challenged this sort of thing on first amendment grounds - maybe they got thrown in jail when they tried to.

I once watched Ben Wallace make 20 consecutive threes before a Bulls game. He then left the court, never having missed. I only believe what I see in the games anymore

Yeah, we all know that incarcerating these guys makes them more likely to clean up their act. In no way could jailing someone for saggy pants actually ERODE one's respect for authority

xFIP is only useful if you suspect the player has given up more or fewer home runs than would be expected of him normally. Otherwise, FIP is better - it is especially better for relievers. The more innings pitched, the better ERA is (some folks think for evaluating career numbers, ERA is the better metric)

I'd start him off in Charlotte getting starts. Gives you a little chance to see if your back-end rotation guys are going to implode (and more importantly, which ones) and it gives Rodon some seriously needed experience. He seems great, but he's relatively untested. You don't want to start him in the majors and have him really get beat up. I wouldn't put him in the bullpen, but I don't absolutely hate the idea. I prefer that to beer vendor. I do think that it's a difficult transition in both directions for a lot of guys, though. The Sox would have to really feel confident that he can adapt to that change in addition to all the other ones he'll be dealing with.

I love that for the Marlins. If he opts out, he only makes money if he does better than 7 years, ~$220 million. Now, if his skills regress, that makes the contract harder to trade every year, so they have that to worry about.

The crazy thing about Jo is that during his rookie year, I grew to hate him. I loved the pick, but then he just looked lackadaisical out there. He was a hustle guy who was constantly caught napping and didn't look like he took things seriously. I'm glad he grew up (but kept having fun)

I can tell that I'll be a little less enthused about the weather now that my commute is a bit more involved, since I have a bit of riding/driving in addition to a half-mile or mile of walking to do. I try not to sweat it too much. I dislike complaining about the weather because there's nothing I can do about it. I'll b**** about things for which my b****ing might change things. Too little time in my life to constantly worry about the weather. Anyway, I'll show myself out of the weather complaint thread...since I am not making any complaints...

Joc Joc Joc Joc Joc Joc Joc

I actually love winter. Having lived in a cold place (Illinois) and then the South, where there MIGHT be a single snow all year, I realized that I actually want the seasons to change and to have a real winter. I'm especially ready to make that trade when it means avoiding brutally hot summers.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 17, 2014 -> 05:28 PM) PFFers can you telll me how long Jay has had to throw this year vs last? He seems to consistently have no time and it wasn't until yesterday that he really started to create time with his feet. Why it took so long for that to happen is beyond me. Perhaps Trestman wanted him to be more of a pocket passer, for whatever reason, and he stuck to it to a fault. I'm going to preface this with the fact that there's no good way to definitively say how much time he averages - every time he throws, we don't know whether he had to do it right then to avoid a sack or might have had several more seconds. Likewise, we don't know if the plays he is sacked are just like every other play - with the exception that he held on a split-second longer - or if he gets sacked because the rush was much faster. You'll notice that the best QBs tend to have the lowest times. Anyway... 2014 averages times: To throw - 2.57 (7th fastest out of 29 QBs, Peyton Manning fastest) To sack - 3.36 (13th fastest, Matt Ryan and Peyton Manning fastest) To scramble - 4.65 (9th fastest, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning fastest) 83.0 NFL QB rating on plays that take 2.6 seconds or more before throw/sack/scramble. 102.5 NFL QB rating on plays that resolve quicker than 2.6 seconds. In terms of pressure, he's at 30% of drop backs, making him only the 20th most pressured QB out of 29. 2013: To throw - 2.75 (13th out of 27, Peyton Manning fastest) To sack - 3.81 (9th out of 27, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning fastest) To scramble - 4.59 (5th out of 27, Eli Manning fastest) 80.3 NFL QB rating on plays that take 2.6 seconds or more before throw/sack/scramble. 99 NFL QB rating on plays where one of those things happens before 2.6 seconds. Was pressured on 39% of drop backs, 8th most out of 29. By most indications, not much has changed in terms of pass protection. Time to sack is the only thing that has really changed in terms of timing, but it's hard to make meaning of it when the line is allowing fewer pressures per drop back.

Notes from PFF: Worst cumulative day of grades for the offense this year, ironically enough. Alshon and Brandon both had strong positive grades, nobody else shined. Cutler was harmed by turnovers, penalty. Brian De La Puente had the worst grade, but the entire line short of Long had a bad game. Defense has its best game of the year, grade-wise. Zero players fell into the strong negative grade range. Jared Allen with top grade of the day on strength of pass rush. Lance Briggs, Tim Jennings, Ryan Mundy all had strong showings as well. Everyone else was in the okay range, basically. We had 16 hurries on 33 passing downs, which is pretty impressive. For the season, in terms of rank, the offense and defense are converging. Defense has 19th best team grade now. Offense 15th. Our offense doesn't have any particular weakness by these measures. For the defense, we ironically have a strength in run defense, ranking 10th in that. Unsurprisingly, special teams ranks dead last. Worth noting that Shea only played 18 snaps yesterday (also note that MIN only managed 47 snaps, by far the least our defense has faced this year).

I don't know how you think that a good offense for Jay is one where he is given less structure. He's had the most success in offenses that most resemble west coast offenses, and for good reason. He can't think on his feet. The more thinking that is done for him by the play design itself, the better. He sometimes makes fabulous plays when things break down and he has to get creative, but that's also when he comes up with inexplicably bad decisions