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Post by BigPapaJoe on Sept 24, 2017 5:54:04 GMT -5
Kinda weird watching a Steelers game on FOX. Seems like they rarely get aired that way here. Are they at home? Usually Fox goes to an AFC team's home location if it's a visiting NFC team. Vice versa with CBS. Although now with the recent TV deals you can actually get all AFC games on FOX or all NFC games on CBS I think. I remember hearing about that a while ago.
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Post by Jesse on Sept 24, 2017 11:44:16 GMT -5
Are they at home? Usually Fox goes to an AFC team's home location if it's a visiting NFC team. Vice versa with CBS. Although now with the recent TV deals you can actually get all AFC games on FOX or all NFC games on CBS I think. I remember hearing about that a while ago. Yeah it was there home opener. Interesting first time I'm hearing that. Today my home town team plays Daah Bears on their home turf where they haven't won since 1995 against a team they haven't beat since 2005. One of these 2-0 teams is going home with their first loss of the season.
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Post by Warmonger on Sept 24, 2017 16:21:29 GMT -5
3 weeks into the season...and the Jets are the best team in NY (errr NJ).
Who'da thunk it?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2017 16:38:54 GMT -5
The Magic Number is Zero. Sox clinch the AL East (finally).
-M
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Post by Jesse on Oct 1, 2017 13:04:28 GMT -5
Another tough road game for my hometown team this week in Baltimore.
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Post by Warmonger on Oct 1, 2017 18:51:07 GMT -5
Jets 2-2 and playing the Browns next week
Giants 0-4
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Post by Warmonger on Oct 8, 2017 16:38:48 GMT -5
Jets 3-2
Giants 0-5
Looking forward to the Jets/Pats game next week. Good chance it might turn into a blowout, but I'm hoping for a good one.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 8, 2017 17:16:36 GMT -5
I had no idea I even had Fox Sports One, or ever even knew it was a thing until I went to go watch the Sox today, makes we wonder what other weird channels I'm paying for.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2017 10:18:53 GMT -5
Sigh, time to look to next year.
-M
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2017 14:46:17 GMT -5
Welp they fired John Farrell as their fall guy.
I don't think a new manager is going to make much of a difference next year or in the years to come, and I think if they lose some key members of that coaching staff it will hurt them a lot more than anything a new manager will bring to the table. Hiring managers has not been a strength of Dombrowski over the years, as he seems to recycle his two guys over and over without bringing in a fresh perspective, so I have to hope he looks for a fresh voice and a fresh vision for the role, and someone who can handle all that being associated with baseball in Boston brings with it. I wouldn't mind seeing Varitek get a chance, but he has zero managerial experience and will need a veteran bench coach presence.
I don't see the road getting any easier. The Yanks will be good for a while and arrived a year early. Tampa Bay looks like it will get a lot better fast, and even Baltimore and Toronto have potential to be better than they were this year. The Sox need to address some line up issues, determine if Sam Travis and Rafael Devers are fixtures at the corners or whether they need to add a veteran presence at one or the other corner, and make a decision about Hanley moving forward. They need to address pitching depth (they have good pitchers but it seemed all the starters and bullpen arms ran out of gas at the same time and with injuries there was no depth left to give them a chance to recuperate for the stretch run and playoffs, so they need to address that). Changing manager will accomplish nothing if they don't. Farrell maximized what he could get from the pitching staff, and his ability to do so is one of the reasons they took the division, but he was about 2 reliable arms short depth-wise and he had to overuse his pieces because the offense wasn't good enough when it counted and they had to rely on too many come from behind wins and extra innings games to get it done which wore down those arms even more. Not enough offense meant too many high-leverage pitching situations for the number of arms he had available and it came back to bite them in the end. Losing Wright and Thornberg early in the season hurt. Carson Smith took longer to come back than anticipated, that hurt too. Having none of the top AAA prospect pitchers emerge hurt (looking at folks like Brian Johsnson and others here who they have been waiting for 2-3 seasons to make the jump from prospect to reliable MLB contributor and none of them have). That forced them to get folks like Fister and Addison Reed (both helped, and Reed could help in the future, but neither is the long term answer to what ailed them).
They need to sort out clubhouse leadership (Pedroia didn't seem to step up to fill the Papi gap and seemed to be distanced from his teammates throughout the season from the Baltimore beanball wars onwards), Price led in the wrong direction, Hanley was a cypher, and Sale was too new and too focused on adjusting himself to Boston to lead, and none of the young talent emerged as leader types despite their talent. All of them seemed to lack the will and presence Papi brought to the team when the team scuffled and a voice was needed to right the ship and overcome personal struggles offensively to get the team right. No one can replace Papi, but no one emerged who could fill the leadership role when tomes got tough. Everyone seemed to be looking for someone and no one was there. That might be the biggest indictment of Farrell and a reason he needed to go, but the failures in the post-season were not his fault. He played the hand dealt to him very well, but the hand was a few cards short of a winning hand and Dombrowsky and the front office not only need to find those cards but find someone who has the ability and experience to play the hands at least as well as Farrell did now. They also need to replenish the talent pool for pitching throughout the system. Dombrowksy made a lot of deals to build the roster and fill perceived needs and did a decent job, but now they need to determine which pieces to build with, which pieces to move to get other needs back and how to prioritize building the pitching staff moving forward at both the major and minor league levels. They also need to find a cornerstone bat to anchor that line up and allow the young talent to do what they do well, not try to be what they are not and fill in roles they are not suited for because no one else is there to fill them.
If they can't accomplish those things, it won;t matter who they hire as manager, and if they lose a few key coaches they currently have, doing any of it is going to be a lot harder.
My initial gut tells me the Sox are at best a wild card next season, if that no matter who gets hired as manager unless the other issues are addressed in a major way. Dombrowsky has been good getting teams to the dance initially, but he hasn't been good at retooling them after that first foray into the dance after his initial moves to get them there, so I hope he is up to it this time with the Sox.
-M
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2017 22:32:33 GMT -5
Maybe if the Tribe loses to the Yanks, they'll fire Tito and the Sox can bring him back (looking for any silver lining in that Yanks-Tribe series) -M
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Post by BigPapaJoe on Oct 18, 2017 5:24:37 GMT -5
Unfortunate for Gordon Heyward and the Celtics. Breaks his leg on opening night. That was one of the most gruesome injuries I've ever seen. Horrible.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2017 6:25:50 GMT -5
Unfortunate for Gordon Heyward and the Celtics. Breaks his leg on opening night. That was one of the most gruesome injuries I've ever seen. Horrible. Here's the clip ... I've just watched it.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 18, 2017 15:36:28 GMT -5
Unfortunate for Gordon Heyward and the Celtics. Breaks his leg on opening night. That was one of the most gruesome injuries I've ever seen. Horrible. It's something of a Celtics tradition.
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 19, 2017 12:18:47 GMT -5
My Portland Trail Blazers started the season with a bang - they set a new NBA record for the largest margin of victory on Opening Night. They went thru the Phoenix Suns like a buzzsaw, 124-76. At one point they were ahead by 58; then they rested the regulars and let the rookies and journeymen play and ended up winning by 48. One player, Evan Turner, was +43 for the game.
Tomorrow night they'll have their regular shooting guard back so they should be even better. This is looking like a fun season.
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