Hongbit

I know we’ve discussed it before and some people view it as gamesmanship but catcher framing is done solely to deceive the ump. Eliminating it would be much easier to implement and have a big impact on improving an umpires ability to call a proper game.

Do they have an April In The Lou song?

Question: What is the strike zone in a Major League Baseball game? If you said the plate horizontally and shoulders to kneecaps vertically, you are wrong. Answer: Whatever the home plate umpire in that game decides it to be. MLB has created a world where there is little consistency in the rules for each game. Every ump has complete control of what they want to call. If a manager or player disagrees, they are immediately ejected from the game. If they say anything to the media after the game, they are fined. MLB has allowed the stance to exist that as long as the calls are consistent for each team, the strike zone shouldn’t matter. That’s ridiculous if you really think about it. How about they have defined rules and they should do their best to follow them. The strike zone is a pretty important part of the game. Making the situation even worse and what allows it to continue is the lack of accountability on the umps. Their union backs them on everything and while they do keep track of accuracy, very little is done to fire or remove umps that do a poor job. Some of the worst offenders are not only allowed to stay on but even get post season assignments due to tenure (I’m looking at you Laz Diaz). I was glad to see the robo ump experiment in spring training. It worked much quicker than most people expected and was a big success. Yet in typical MLB fashion, they didn’t implement this season for fear of upsetting that big, bad umpires union. Typical Rob Manfred leadership.

Historically Detroit has a 0.0% chance at the #2 pick

Not sure if it really matters anymore. If we found Alien life, they would spend a day in Area 51 and then get immediately sent to CECOT.

This such a no brainer next hire. Vivek is his own President of Basketball Ops & GM. He outsources all basketball decisions to a team of Ivy League Quants and offshore Indian AI experts. He fires everyone else in the front office.

Having trouble deciding if it’s Knicks sweep or if we can get one. They are further along in the rebuild process than the Pistons. We have the best player but they have the better overall roster. The biggest issue is see is that the Pistons physicality is going to be a huge deterrent in this series. We have the physical advantage but they will have the ref bias advantage. I fully expect many egregious fouls called in favor of the Knicks. Any physical advantage that Beef Stew may have over KAT will quickly be exterminated by ticky-tack whistles. I can also see potential ejections and quick technicals against the Pistons, who haven’t done a great job keeping their cool with refs in these situations.

I think it’s a stupid award especially since most quality coaching gets done in the playoffs.

In this new NBA front office world, the Bulls are fools if they don’t fire Billy Donavan.

I ran the numbers on AI and got the same. Pretty even at a 60%post and 40%3. 45% or higher the 3 pointer is the better percentage but you do have to account for a potential and 1 and the pass being misplayed in the post.

Down 14 to start the 4th gives the Bulls a chance.

The numbers say it’s definitely easier to score a two in the paint than a wide open three. I wonder how the math translates regarding points since the uncontested 3 is worth more.

Bulls showing signs of life on defense but still turn it over and giving up too many offensive boards.

I wonder what the percentages look like for a quality shooter when they take a completely uncontested three from a favorable angle.

I thought the plan for the NCAA was to walk away and let chaos prevail so everyone realized how much they’re needed. I’m still waiting for part where they come back to the table to save the day with a plan to govern paid college sports. I’m ready for it.

I still don’t understand the philosophy of consistently doubling to contest a two pointer to give up a wide open three. Even more now I the playoffs when the refs will swallow a whistle in the paint.

I’m not sure you’ll ever see a team play worse defense in a big game than what the Bulls are doing now. Embarrassingly bad.

It doesn’t matter who you are, at some point bankruptcies will damage your credit rating to the point that nobody will loan you money anymore. The only place that’s left to go to finance deals is either organized crime or a foreign government that may have a vested interest in quid pro quo.

If true, the story that he (or his agents) asked for more money before the playoff seems to be turning off most of the top teams. It’s a brutal ask from a football coach standpoint but maybe not from a professional athlete. SEC championship game and potential playoff run could be 4 extra games that he’s not getting compensated.

Forsberg is a solid player but he would be behind Raymond on the LW depth chart. A playoff team looking to take the next step may trade high picks and $8M+ on a 2nd line wing. Don’t think that’s the move for a team that’s been out of the playoffs in 9 years.

Enjoy the **** show, Joe D.

The same people that made rapper Gelo Ball a viral sensation to the point he was playing at Lions games

You guys have heard about Ozempic, right? It’s never been easier for people to lose weight. It absolutely works. 50 to 100 to 209 pounds depending on the individual is possible and wiithin a year’s time. One massive, giant, enormous caveat, everyone who takes it is essentially participating in a clinical trial as the longterm effects are unknown. It’s also tremendously expensive at the moment for people without Diabetes.

Cade needs to stay out of foul trouble. They can’t have him guard Brunson in the first half. I am also terrified of playoff Schröder. He can get so careless with the ball at times. Series comes down to Beasley being hot and the Knicks bench not getting hot. We also need the good Tobias to show up.

We are headed for a war between big diet and big pharma. Weight loss is a massive industry and GLP-1 works better than any other program ever known to man. Diet, Exercise, and Nutrution are much safer and healthier but the shot is much quicker, easier and productive at losing weight. It’s going to be interesting to watch as they battle back and forth about the safety of GLP-1 when it comes to future health issues and possible side effects. I expect a ton of biased for profit studies to come out from both sides.