Cnotes 2020-2021 wnba trends, news, best bets and opinions thru the playoffs !

[Udog]

WNBA

Sunday, August 15

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Trend Report
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Seattle @ Chicago
Seattle
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Seattle's last 5 games
Seattle is 15-2 SU in its last 17 games on the road
Chicago
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Chicago's last 5 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Chicago's last 5 games when playing Seattle

Connecticut @ Dallas
Connecticut
Connecticut is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Dallas
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Connecticut's last 7 games when playing Dallas
Dallas
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Dallas's last 7 games when playing Connecticut
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Dallas's last 5 games at home

Washington @ Las Vegas
Washington
The total has gone OVER in 10 of Washington's last 13 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Washington's last 7 games on the road
Las Vegas
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Las Vegas's last 6 games at home
Las Vegas is 5-1 ATS in its last 6 games when playing at home against Washington

Atlanta @ Phoenix
Atlanta
The total has gone OVER in 7 of Atlanta's last 8 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Atlanta's last 5 games when playing Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against Atlanta
Phoenix is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Atlanta

New York @ Minnesota
New York
The total has gone OVER in 5 of New York's last 5 games when playing Minnesota
The total has gone OVER in 8 of New York's last 9 games when playing on the road against Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against New York
Minnesota is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games

Indiana @ Los Angeles
Indiana
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Indiana's last 8 games
Indiana is 6-1 ATS in its last 7 games
Los Angeles
Los Angeles is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Indiana
Los Angeles is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games when playing at home against Indiana


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[Udog]

Sunday’s 6-pack
Major league leaders in total bases:
260— Vladimir Guerrero, Tor
258— Shohei Ohtani, LAA
241— Marcus Semien, Tor
240— Rafael Devers, Bos
236— Cedric Mullins, Bos
235— Jesse Winker, Cinc

Quote of the Day.
“For me, it’s what Major League Baseball or the game of baseball is all about — as long as you have a uniform, as long as you give the right effort, anything’s possible. It lined up perfectly for him today. We’re all celebrating him.”
Dismondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, on Tyler Gilbert’s no-hitter

Sunday’s quiz
Before last night, who was the last Arizona Diamondback to throw a no-hitter?

Saturday’s quiz
Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner played for the Iowa Barnstormers in the Arena League.

Friday’s quiz
Mark Rypien was Washington Redskins’ QB last time they won the Super Bowl.

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Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports Saturday

13) Arizona 7, San Diego 0:
— Rookie Tyler Gilbert throws a no-hitter in his first major league start.
— Last year at this time, Gilbert was working as an electrician with his father to make ends meet in Northern California.
— Only baserunners were three walks, all to Tommy Pham.
— Last guy to throw a no-hitter in his first MLB start? Bobo Holloman in 1953.

12) Meanwhile, San Diego has lost four games in a row, to Miami/Arizona and is letting lot of teams back in the NL Wild Card race.

11) Last 18 years, defending Super Bowl champs are 11-4-3 ATS in Week 1 the next year.

During same time, teams that lost Super Bowl are 4-14 ATS in Week 1 the next year.

10) Denver 33, Minnesota 6— Probably reading too much into this, but do the Vikings have internal problems, stemming at least partially from the Kirk Cousins/vaccine issue? They asked Mike Zimmer a softball question at halftime, and he was pretty blunt about how terrible the first half had been. Lot of starters sat out, but losing 33-6 at home is never a good thing.

With next week the 2nd/last preseason game, will be curious if more teams play their starters, or will lot of teams just wait until September 12 to get all their regulars on the field.

9) Dodgers 2, Mets 1 (10)— LA wins in extra innings for second night in row; coming into this weekend, they had lost 11 consecutive extra inning games.

8) St Louis Cardinals are 24-11 in games started by Wainwright/Flaherty, 36-45 in all their other games.

7) A reminder that in 2008, Detroit Lions went 4-0 in preseason, then went 0-16 during the regular season. Exhibition games don’t mean a lot, except for the players trying to earn jobs.

6) Chicago Bears are only NFL team that has never had a QB throw for 4,000+ yards in one season; closest they came was 1995, when Erik Kramer threw for 3,838 yards.

With season expanding to 17 games this season, figures that even the Bears will eventually have a 4,000-yard passer, although probably not this year, seeing how Andy Dalton figures to play some before Justin Fields becomes the starter later on in his rookie year.

5) I’m not a fan of Little League games being on national TV: lot of pressure for 11/12-year olds. I’d draw the national TV line at 13 years old and up. Kid screws up a game for his hometown team, and he might wind up like Dennis Hopper’s character in Hoosiers. Not good.

But having instant replay reviews for Little League games is nonsensical, just unnecessary.

4) In his career, White Sox closer Liam Hendriks has pitched 20 innings against the Bronx Bombers; he’s given up 21 runs.

3) A’s 3B Matt Chapman is having a rough year with the bat, but Thursday in Cleveland, he walked five times in a game, scoring three runs. What do you say to your pitchers when they walk a guy five times who is batting .215?

Chapman hit two homers Saturday, after I wrote this, so hopefully he will finish the season strong and help the A’s make the playoffs.

2) Los Angeles Clippers are building an arena for $1B that is scheduled to open for the 2024-25 season. Guy who owns the Clippers is worth $53B; guess he doesn’t like paying rent in the Staples Center.

1) Major League Baseball needs to market its product better; they made a big fuss out of the game in Iowa the other night, they got their best TV ratings for a regular season game since 2005, but fact of the matter is that in Iowa, six big league teams have their games blacked out there. Twins, Brewers, Royals, Cardinals and the two Chicago teams.

End the blackout; expose the game to as many people as possible, so they can see what an excellent game it is. Quit being arrogant jerks and do your job, market your product!!!

[Udog]

Never mind..... no games til Sunday.

[Udog]

Friday’s 6-pack
Six biggest cities in America:
6) Philadelphia
5) Phoenix
4) Houston
3) Chicago
2) Los Angeles
1) New York

Quote of the Day.
“My (6th grade) team was terrible. I got clobbered every game. My dad was like, ‘If you get hit, you’ve got to be the tough guy. You’ve got to take the hit when you’re throwing the ball.’ That season set the standard. You get hit; you get right back up.”
USC QB Kevon Slovis

Friday’s quiz
Who was Washington Redskins’ QB last time they won the Super Bowl?

Thursday’s quiz
Burt Lancaster played Moonlight Graham in Field of Dreams.

Wednesday’s quiz
Joe Girardi has managed the Marlins/Phillies in the National League, and New York in the American League.

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Friday’s Den: Random stuff with weekend here…….

13) White Sox 9, New York 8:
— From all accounts, the Field of Dreams Game was a big success.
— Tim Anderson hit a walk-off HR to right; ball carried really well that way.
— New York scored four runs in top of 9th to take an 8-7 lead.
— There is a tremendous amount of corn behind this ballfield.
— They had Kevin Costner in TV booth for couple innings, which was interesting.
— Must have been one hell of a traffic jam after the game.

12) The great actor/comedian Robin Williams passed away 7 years ago this week; he was so funny, it was horrendous when he died at age 63, way too young.

In 1998, he made a movie Patch Adams, a true story about a doctor who used humor to help treat his young patients. This week, I read a couple Twitter posts by people who are doctors now who said they became doctors because Patch Adams inspired them.

Apparently, the sick kids in the movie weren’t actors, they were real-life sick kids in hospitals, which helped make the movie more authentic— Robin Williams insisted on that.

11) Mets 4-5, Nationals 1-4— New York gets couple of badly-needed wins; the Nationals aren’t big league quality right now.

In their last 55 games, the Mets have gotten five wins from starting pitchers. Five.

10) Sean Nolin started Game 1 for Washington Thursday; it was his first big league game since 2015, when he started six games for the A’s. Since then, he’s had multiple medical issues- he missed all of 2016-17, plus since then he’s pitched in the Japanese League, the Mexican Winter League, in independent leagues, on his way back to the majors.

He had to be pretty freakin’ excited to be back in the majors Thursday.

9) When a pitcher makes an error, it shouldn’t help his ERA; runs caused by a pitcher’s error should still be earned runs— why should they benefit from their own mistakes?

8) New England 21 Washington 13— Washington (+2) is your first bad beat of NFL’s season; Washington scored with 1:24 left to make the game 15-13, they appeared to tie game on the 2-point conversion, but replay overturned the call, so the game ended 15-13, right?

Wrong. Guy on New England runs 91 yards for TD with 1:04 left to cover the spread.

7) Steelers 24, Eagles 16:
— QB Dwayne Haskins threw for 161 yards and a TD; he is competing to be the backup to Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh.

6) Odds to win the CFL’s Grey Cup this season:
Hamilton Tiger-Cats +300
Winnipeg Blue Bombers +400
Saskatchewan Roughriders +500
Calgary Stampeders +600
Toronto Argonauts +650
Edmonton Elks +900

5) Surprising fact: El Paso, TX has more people than Detroit, Louisville or Milwaukee.

4) Kawhi Leonard signed on with the Clippers again; four years, $176M or so, $44M a year, and he’ll miss most of next year while he rehabs from a torn ACL.

3) Few weeks ago, I traded for minor league C Keibert Ruiz in my fantasy league; my team really, really needs a catcher going forward, and I’ve done a terrible job of finding one this year, going through seven different guys.

Ruiz is a highly-touted prospect; he was hitting .311 for the Dodgers’ AAA team when he got dealt to Washington in the trade that sent Max Scherzer to LA. Since the trade, he is 3-26 for his new AAA team in Rochester.

Oy.

2) Rand Paul is a senator from Kentucky who is such a wonderful person that his neighbor once broke five of his ribs in a dispute about raking leaves, of all things. You listen to Paul talk and you yearn for the sound of fingernails going down a blackboard.

From the Washington Post: “his (Paul’s) wife bought stock in Gilead Sciences — which makes the antiviral drug used to treat covid-19 — on Feb, 26, 2020, before the threat from the coronavirus was fully understood by the public….”

This was supposed to be disclosed a long time ago. Are all politicians dishonest scoundrels? Is anyone not on the take? Good grief.

1) BYU has a booster who has a NIL deal with all 36 of BYU’s walk-on football players, which in effect raises their scholarship limit from 85 to 121. All 36 walk-ons will now go to BYU for free.

Utah has no laws against that; about half the states (South Carolina, for one) have rules where that wouldn’t be legal. This NIL stuff is going to have unintended consequences, for sure.

[Udog]

[Udog]

Wednesday’s 6-pack
Major league leaders in runs scored:
72— Ronald Acuna
71— Bo Bichette
68— Vladimir Guerrero
67— Marcus Semien, Fernando Tatis
65— Jose Altuve, Shohei Ohtani
63— Jake Cronenworth, Chris Taylor

Quote of the Day
“Let’s just say you regulated the shift by requiring two infielders on each side of second base. What does that do? It makes the game look like what it looked like when I was 12 years ol.d….It’s not change, it’s kind of restoration. That’s why people are in favor of it.”
Rob Manfred

Wednesday’s quiz
Who was last major leaguer to steal 100+ bases in one season?

Tuesday’s quiz
Dave Parker won the first Home Run Derby, back in 1985.

Monday’s quiz
In 2002, the A’s won 20 games in a row; their 20th win came against the Royals.

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Wednesday's Den: Mid-week musings……..

13) Los Angeles Angels have a good lineup: Trout, Ohtani, Rendon, Walsh, Fletcher, but their pitching sucks. Looks like they finally figured that out themselves.

20 draft picks this week, 20 pitchers, 19 of them college pitchers. Help is on the way.

12) Sounds like 7-inning doubleheaders and starting extra innings with a guy on second base are out the window after this season- common sense may be gaining ground at MLB headquarters.

Commissioner Rob Manfred also seemed that he was in favor of banning shifts, which will create more base hits and less swinging for the fences. Hopefully that will happen.

11) MLB starts the “second half” of the season with one game, Boston @ New York on ESPN; those same teams are on ESPN Sunday night.

Someone needs to tell MLB that these are also big markets:
— Houston, 4th-biggest city. Astros are pretty good.
— Philadelphia, 6th-biggest city. Phillies are NL East contenders.
— San Diego, 8th-biggest city. Padres are a good team, a fun team.

Promote your sport MLB, the whole sport, not just New York/Boston.

10) Washington Nationals drafted Dusty Baker’s son Darren in the 10th round; would be less awkward if Washington hadn’t fired Baker four years ago, after he led the Nationals to 95-67/97-65 records in his two years as Washington’s manager.

Darren Baker is a 22-year old 2B who played four years in college at Cal.

9) Arizona Cardinals were 8-8 last year; they were favored in 12 of their 16 games. No bueno.

8) NFL teams scored touchdowns on 62% of red zone drives LY, the best %age in the last 20 years. Do you think not having fans in the stands helped offenses score more points?

7) Five sets of fathers/sons have both started an All-Star Game:
— Ray/Bob Boone
— Bob/Bret Boone
— Bobby/Barry Bonds
— Cecil/Prince Fielder
— Vladimir Guerrero Sr/Vladimir Guerrero Jr

6) For me, best part of the All-Star Game is the player introductions; you see guys getting introduced as All-Stars for the first time ever and they all look like really excited kids, even though they’re adults who will soon be really, really rich.

5) Imagine how cool it must’ve been for Trey Mancini to be whacking ball out of Coors Field Monday night? This time last year, he was getting chemo treatments, battling cancer, now he is back on the ballfields, and playing well too. Has to be a really great week for him and his family.

4) Three guys have won back/back Home Run Derbies:
— Pete Alonso 2019/2021
— Yoenis Cespedes 2013-14
— Ken Griffey Jr 1998-99

Alonso made more $$$ from winning the two Home Run Derbies than he did playing for the Mets in those two seasons.

3) Three guys have won the Home Run Derby on their home field:
1990— Ryne Sandberg, Cubs
2015— Todd Frazier, Reds
2018— Bryce Harper, Nationals

2) It is good to have a famous dad; two of the kids shagging balls at Home Run Derby Monday were Drew Brees’ sons.

1) This is from writer Rod Beard: Detroit Pistons coach Dwane Casey said in their interviews with draft prospects they ask guys whether they make their beds in the morning. He said it can indicate whether they set the tone for their day and how organized they are.

This also may help explain why Detroit has had one winning season since 2008.

[Udog]

July WNBA Best Bet Record:

Date w-l-t % units record

07/11/2021 7-3-0 70.00% +18.50
07/10/2021 0-2-0 0.00% -11.00
07/09/2021 4-4-0 50.00% -2.00
07/07/2021 4-2-0 66.67% +9.00
07/05/2021 2-0-0 100.00% +10.00
07/04/2021 3-1-0 75.00% +9.50
07/03/2021 5-1-0 83.33% +19.50
07/02/2021 1-3-0 25.00% -11.50
07/01/2021 0-2-0 00.00% -11.00


Totals.........26-17-0...60.46%...+31.00