DTroppens

The four-point field goal is an awful idea. In 10 years people will be losing yards on a third-and-17 play to set up their field goal for 60 yards, or just snapping it a yard further back to make it 60 yards. Ditto on the 50-yard punt. If it's third and 17 at the opponent's 49, you may be better served in some cases just to lose two yards. But, again, in 10 years 60-yard field goals won't be that much of a challenge, so maybe that won't happen. Teams may keep two kickers if their accurate FG kicker can't make boots from 57 or further back. One foot - too many rules already support offensive play. I love seeing how athletes keep that second foot in play. They are some of the most amazing plays in sports. OT - I know I'm the only idiot that thinks this, but I'd just go back to 15 minutes, flip a coin and go with it. Or, force the team that tied the game the latest to have to kickoff to their opposition. This way you may promote more people going for 2 or maybe TDs over game-tying field goals, especially if it's the fourth quarter. You know, I just thought about that as I was typing this. I really like that idea.

History repeating itself.

What does everyone think about the expanded format? I have one thing to say. If the US can't advance to the with most of the field advancing they have no one to blame but themselves. The expanded field also means it's going to be a lot tougher to fill your World Cup sticker book. I still have about 12 stickers to go from the last cycle.

My mind doesn't even think of LeVert being on this team right now. On a team of great depth, he just seems to be the invisible generic guy in the rotation that has never made me care enough about him this season. He 100% is a candidate for a salary dump. Who? I'm not that deep in the weeds with it to this point. That's what message boards are for though, thinking out loud. Honestly, how attractive would Stew and LeVert be for any team getting both in any package? They'd have to be going to two separate teams probably in the three-way or four-way trade.

Pitchers more successful than batters? I would've guessed the opposite considering where both are on the field. Not shocked catchers have the highest success rate. In fact, by the time the season is over I bet catchers will have a great grasp on what is being considered a strike and probably will up their percentages to about 75%. Actually probably all three will go up, but just a hunch tells me it will spike for catchers more than the other two. Maybe batters spike higher than pitchers. I'm amazed the pitchers are about 5%

I don't think Stew will be back next season. It's been a gut feeling I've had since basically the start of the season. He 100% has value and is a great fit to the team's mindset. He is under contract for two more seasons, but the second season is a club option, so it could as quick as one more season. There's a lot of reasons to think there is little chance he's going anywhere, but for some reason I just have had that feeling all season. The one thing is if the Pistons made a splash trade in the offseason, there would have to be some big salary dumps to do that. It's not like $15 mil is a super huge amount, but it is one of the Pistons' highest salaries and he certainly could have value to a team in trade. I guess it's not just a willy nilly out of the blue gut feeling. He is making $15 mil, isn't really even a starter and does miss games with injuries frequently, including last season during the playoffs.

I'm not a fan of Benetti. He's going to make a list of about 10 things he has listed on a piece of paper fit in regardless if it does or not. And too often the broadcasts go off on crazy tangents that we just don't need them to go on. During last year's losing skids you'd hear Dirks and Benetti yucking it up almost pretending the squad wasn't falling apart almost trying to bring up any subject they could. And I don't know who's doing this was, but having JK Simmons on every other day as a surprise guest wasn't much of a surprise after awhile. I'd rather they had selected a Tiger fan of 60 years and brought that person in the booth and talk about that person's memories. In fact, why don't they do that. Maybe designate Wednesday games as surprise fan day - someone that isn't a corporate sponsor, a celebrity or a politician. Find people that have had season tickets for 50 years and find some of the "real" fans that never get to a game because their finances can't afford it but watch or listen on the TV or radio "all the time." I'd love this. The last two seasons in preparation of cable eventually losing the Tigers (yes, I still have cable) I've really transitioned to radio broadcasts again. Until the 1990s that's how I followed most games early in life, and I figured I'd see if I can do that if we decided to get rid of cable or the broadcasts ended up off cable. I've really enjoyed it. I sit on my front or back deck with the radio and our pet parakeet, read some of my old Sporting News newspapers or do whatever. Sometimes we'd be out there until 1 a.m. if the game was on west coast. I even listened to a couple of playoff games this way last year. I didn't feel like I was missing out. Sometimes when I came back in I'd watch the replay on in the background of the room as well and maybe see some of the plays I heard and not saw. It got to a point that there'd be times I'd come in from outside midgame and hurry to turn on the radio so I could listen to it in there forgetting I could actually turn on the television. 🙂 I am not going to lead a riot for his firing, but if Benetti was gone tomorrow, I wouldn't miss him.

Hi everyone! GOOOOOOOOOO PISTONS!!!! What a fun season this has been to this point! Deleterious with the Kool-Aid man. Gosh, it's been probably more than a decade since I've seen that combo on the message board, but it feels like yesterday right now.