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Saturday’s 6-pack
Six lowest payrolls in baseball this season (team record):
30) Tampa Bay $62,636,443 (75-54)
29) Pittsburgh $71,358,858 (52-75)
28) Baltimore $72,659,323 (41-87)
27) Miami $74,587,295 (45-81)
26) White Sox $91,219,660 (58-69)
25) Oakland $93,010,305 (74-53)
Quote of the Day
“From an all-around standpoint, it’s an unbelievable basketball situation in that they’re in a great league right out of the [power conferences], sell out every night, charter everywhere, it’s a basketball-hot area of the country where it means something to people. I would say that’s one of the most underrated great jobs in the country. If you can get Dayton, I’d rather be at Dayton than a mid-level job in the ACC.”
Unnamed college basketball coach, on CBSSports.com
Saturday’s quiz
Since 2010, only one NFL team hasn’t won a Week 1 game; which team?
Friday’s quiz
Steve Spurrier was the starting QB for the 0-16 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976.
Thursday’s quiz
Oregon State’s teams are known as the Beavers.
******************************
Saturday’s List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind…….
13) We start today with a quick story……..
Back in the late 90’s, I coached Little League, 10-12 year olds. Did it for four years, was an interesting experience. Kids were mostly fine; parents, not so much.
My last two years, we had a very good team; there was this one team we always beat, and the guy who coached that team wasn’t happy about it, especially since most of the games were fairly close.
One day, we’re up two runs late in the game, and his third baseman makes a couple errors in a row; teams had 12 kids on them and everybody has to play, so six kids played the whole game, and six played three innings each. His third baseman was a 12-year old who was a pretty good athlete; we didn’t understand why the kid was a 3-inning player, but he was and he was having a bad day.
12) So the coach is getting on the kid pretty good; their dugout is right by third base and he isn’t letting up— we can all hear the stuff he is saying.
Finally, the kid takes a couple steps toward the dugout, looks at the coach and yells very loudly:
“HEY!!! You’re the one who put me here!!!” and goes back to his position.
One of the funniest things I’ve ever heard, just the way the kid said it, with disdain for this adult who couldn’t deal with losing a Little League game. Tremendous.
11) I usually enjoy HBO’s Hard Knocks, but I’m just freakin’ sick of Jon Gruden; he seems like kind of a jerk, and he’s been overexposed on TV. Go coach your team (at $10M a year) and be quiet. Thought HBO would wait until next year to feature the Raiders, since they move to Las Vegas in 2020, but I‘m guessing next year will be the Chargers’ turn.
10) This is coaching in 2019:
— Miami Dolphins’ coach Brian Flores says that veteran WR Kenny Stills hasn’t been playing well enough in camp.
— Monday, Stills ripped Jay-Z about his social justice partnership with the NFL.
— Tuesday, Flores played eight consecutive Jay-Z songs during practice.
— Why would a rookie coach troll one of his better players?
“……So that was the challenge — to get open, catch the football and make plays for this team, regardless of what’s going on outside of this building.”
Flores spent the last 16 years working for the Patriots, but I’m guessing he didn’t get that move from the Bill Belichick playbook.
9) Speaking of the Dolphins, whatever they do is their own business, but why the bleep would they start Ryan Fitzpatrick over Josh Rosen?
— Fitzpatrick will be 37 in November; Rosen is 22.
— Fitzpatrick is 50-75-1 as a starter, will become first player EVER to throw passes for eight different NFL teams. He’s playing for his sixth team in eight years.
— Rosen’s head coach got fired the last two years (UCLA, Cardinals), not exactly a ringing endorsement of the QB, but don’t they have to find out who it is they traded for?
—- Fitzpatrick didn’t even get a football scholarship in college (he went to Harvard) and is old enough that he played for Mike Martz back when Martz coached the Rams.
8) I used to spend a lot of my spring/early summer researching college basketball, because it would pay off in November, but the way the sport is now, I wait until about now to being my research because college basketball has very little continuity from year-to-year now.
The most talented players stay in college for about ten minutes, then bolt to the NBA; kids are always transferring (last year’s average was over two per team in D-I), so coaches are mostly patching teams together one year at a time. The best players from low majors often skip off to bigger-money schools, leaving their old schools in a lurch.
Makes for a very busy September/October, but thats the way things are now. Maybe when they let kids jump from high school to the NBA again, things will become a little more settled, but I wouldn’t count on it.
7) After I wrote #8, I saw an interview with Billy Packer online; the 80-year old former CBS analyst has some different opinions about stuff, but about college basketball he basically echoed what I said, that the better players don’t progress from freshman to seniors, because the better players are in the NBA before they’re 20.
6) One survey I read on-line tabbed Texas A&M (Buzz Williams) and Nebraska (Fred Hoiberg) as the two best new coaching hires in college basketball this season. I’d throw Eric Musselman (Arkansas) into that mix, but no one asked me.
5) Baseball stuff:
— Angels activated SS Andrelton Simmons from the IL
— Bryce Harper is on the paternity list this weekend.
— Tampa Bay 2B Brandon Lowe (hip) is out for the season
4) Kemba Walker scored 23 points as Team USA beat host Australia 102-86 in an exhibition game before 51,218 fans in a soccer stadium in Melbourne.
3) Most profitable starting pitchers this season ($100/start):
— Domngoo German, NYY 17-4, +$1,215
— Ivan Nova, CWS 14-12, +$1,166
— Lucas Giolito, CWS 17-9, +$1,130
— Brandon Woodruff, Mil, 16-4, +$1,097
— Clayton Kershaw, LA, 18-4, +$1,089
White Sox are 31-21 when Nova/Giolito start, 27-48 when someone else starts.
2) Least profitable starting pitchers this season ($100/start):
— Jacob deGrom NYM, 10-15, -$1,443
— Tyler Mahle Can, 4-15, -$1,038
— Max Scherzer Wash, 10-11, -$989
— Matt Boyd, Det, 8-18, -$982
— Jhoulys Chacin Mil, 6-13, -$927
1) Last five years, NFL divisional underdogs are 11-2-1 vs spread in Week 1.
Six lowest payrolls in baseball this season (team record):
30) Tampa Bay $62,636,443 (75-54)
29) Pittsburgh $71,358,858 (52-75)
28) Baltimore $72,659,323 (41-87)
27) Miami $74,587,295 (45-81)
26) White Sox $91,219,660 (58-69)
25) Oakland $93,010,305 (74-53)
Quote of the Day
“From an all-around standpoint, it’s an unbelievable basketball situation in that they’re in a great league right out of the [power conferences], sell out every night, charter everywhere, it’s a basketball-hot area of the country where it means something to people. I would say that’s one of the most underrated great jobs in the country. If you can get Dayton, I’d rather be at Dayton than a mid-level job in the ACC.”
Unnamed college basketball coach, on CBSSports.com
Saturday’s quiz
Since 2010, only one NFL team hasn’t won a Week 1 game; which team?
Friday’s quiz
Steve Spurrier was the starting QB for the 0-16 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976.
Thursday’s quiz
Oregon State’s teams are known as the Beavers.
******************************
Saturday’s List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind…….
13) We start today with a quick story……..
Back in the late 90’s, I coached Little League, 10-12 year olds. Did it for four years, was an interesting experience. Kids were mostly fine; parents, not so much.
My last two years, we had a very good team; there was this one team we always beat, and the guy who coached that team wasn’t happy about it, especially since most of the games were fairly close.
One day, we’re up two runs late in the game, and his third baseman makes a couple errors in a row; teams had 12 kids on them and everybody has to play, so six kids played the whole game, and six played three innings each. His third baseman was a 12-year old who was a pretty good athlete; we didn’t understand why the kid was a 3-inning player, but he was and he was having a bad day.
12) So the coach is getting on the kid pretty good; their dugout is right by third base and he isn’t letting up— we can all hear the stuff he is saying.
Finally, the kid takes a couple steps toward the dugout, looks at the coach and yells very loudly:
“HEY!!! You’re the one who put me here!!!” and goes back to his position.
One of the funniest things I’ve ever heard, just the way the kid said it, with disdain for this adult who couldn’t deal with losing a Little League game. Tremendous.
11) I usually enjoy HBO’s Hard Knocks, but I’m just freakin’ sick of Jon Gruden; he seems like kind of a jerk, and he’s been overexposed on TV. Go coach your team (at $10M a year) and be quiet. Thought HBO would wait until next year to feature the Raiders, since they move to Las Vegas in 2020, but I‘m guessing next year will be the Chargers’ turn.
10) This is coaching in 2019:
— Miami Dolphins’ coach Brian Flores says that veteran WR Kenny Stills hasn’t been playing well enough in camp.
— Monday, Stills ripped Jay-Z about his social justice partnership with the NFL.
— Tuesday, Flores played eight consecutive Jay-Z songs during practice.
— Why would a rookie coach troll one of his better players?
“……So that was the challenge — to get open, catch the football and make plays for this team, regardless of what’s going on outside of this building.”
Flores spent the last 16 years working for the Patriots, but I’m guessing he didn’t get that move from the Bill Belichick playbook.
9) Speaking of the Dolphins, whatever they do is their own business, but why the bleep would they start Ryan Fitzpatrick over Josh Rosen?
— Fitzpatrick will be 37 in November; Rosen is 22.
— Fitzpatrick is 50-75-1 as a starter, will become first player EVER to throw passes for eight different NFL teams. He’s playing for his sixth team in eight years.
— Rosen’s head coach got fired the last two years (UCLA, Cardinals), not exactly a ringing endorsement of the QB, but don’t they have to find out who it is they traded for?
—- Fitzpatrick didn’t even get a football scholarship in college (he went to Harvard) and is old enough that he played for Mike Martz back when Martz coached the Rams.
8) I used to spend a lot of my spring/early summer researching college basketball, because it would pay off in November, but the way the sport is now, I wait until about now to being my research because college basketball has very little continuity from year-to-year now.
The most talented players stay in college for about ten minutes, then bolt to the NBA; kids are always transferring (last year’s average was over two per team in D-I), so coaches are mostly patching teams together one year at a time. The best players from low majors often skip off to bigger-money schools, leaving their old schools in a lurch.
Makes for a very busy September/October, but thats the way things are now. Maybe when they let kids jump from high school to the NBA again, things will become a little more settled, but I wouldn’t count on it.
7) After I wrote #8, I saw an interview with Billy Packer online; the 80-year old former CBS analyst has some different opinions about stuff, but about college basketball he basically echoed what I said, that the better players don’t progress from freshman to seniors, because the better players are in the NBA before they’re 20.
6) One survey I read on-line tabbed Texas A&M (Buzz Williams) and Nebraska (Fred Hoiberg) as the two best new coaching hires in college basketball this season. I’d throw Eric Musselman (Arkansas) into that mix, but no one asked me.
5) Baseball stuff:
— Angels activated SS Andrelton Simmons from the IL
— Bryce Harper is on the paternity list this weekend.
— Tampa Bay 2B Brandon Lowe (hip) is out for the season
4) Kemba Walker scored 23 points as Team USA beat host Australia 102-86 in an exhibition game before 51,218 fans in a soccer stadium in Melbourne.
3) Most profitable starting pitchers this season ($100/start):
— Domngoo German, NYY 17-4, +$1,215
— Ivan Nova, CWS 14-12, +$1,166
— Lucas Giolito, CWS 17-9, +$1,130
— Brandon Woodruff, Mil, 16-4, +$1,097
— Clayton Kershaw, LA, 18-4, +$1,089
White Sox are 31-21 when Nova/Giolito start, 27-48 when someone else starts.
2) Least profitable starting pitchers this season ($100/start):
— Jacob deGrom NYM, 10-15, -$1,443
— Tyler Mahle Can, 4-15, -$1,038
— Max Scherzer Wash, 10-11, -$989
— Matt Boyd, Det, 8-18, -$982
— Jhoulys Chacin Mil, 6-13, -$927
1) Last five years, NFL divisional underdogs are 11-2-1 vs spread in Week 1.
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