Hot Carl

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So it is good for basaball to take away coaching strategies?

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It’s changing them, not taking away necessarily. Taking some away, but adding others is more accurate.

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increasing the size of the bases,

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I almost brought this up. I don’t know if the MLB throw over limit and the increase in size of the bases were implemented the same season, but close enough. It was the combo of those 2 things that lead to the uptick in stolen bases.

So without the bigger bases, stolen bases may not drastically increase. Or they might. College has worse catchers than the bigs (pop time and arm strength/accuracy). And college pitchers don’t have the control to be giving free balls on pitch outs like MLB guys do. And, in certain situations, like 0-2 on a hitter with a runner on 1st and after having already thrown over twice, coaches may not be as willing to call breaking balls in the dirt. Will probably see more upper fastballs to try to get guys to chase. And teams with good scouting analytics will figure out pitcher’s tendencies on when they use their pick offs. Some will save them longer and stolen base attempts may come more often BEFORE the 1st pickoff attempt than after the 2nd. Who knows. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I agree with you that it’s not necessary at the college level, which see plenty of action already. And their intent is misguided. I’m not sure it will speed up the game much, if any at all. Hell, it could lead to some clusterfricks that could actually make games longer.

But I disagree with the takes that it gives the offense an advantage over the defense. Or an unfair one. Every team has an offense. If anything, it will help the better defensive teams, especially ones with really good catchers. And the ones who spend a little extra practice time on rundowns between 1st and 2nd with the pitcher busting his arse to 1st base after picking over and catching a guy.

And teams that self scout their tendencies and change them up. Like, if after 3 SEC starts, William Schmidt hasn’t had a pickoff attempt until after his 1st pitch in the 7-8 times he’s had a runner on 1st only, teams might start running on 1st move on 1st pitch. If we notice the tendency too, he starts throwing over before his 1st pitch with guys on that are threats to steal. Probably catches a guy or 2. Then it’s back to a guessing game and teams will go more conservative again.

But the good coaches aren’t gonna want to establish tendencies at all. All pickoffs may be called from the dugout in SEC games next year for some teams. (Relayed with pitch comm.) In the end, the better teams with the better coaches who pay fantastic attention to detail, with the better staffs, and the better players will eventually be the ones who benefit from this the most. On both offense and defense (by limiting the opponents’ offenses benefiting).

Again, we’ll just have to see. Could be a bigger deal than I originally thought. Could be a slight deal. Could be no deal at all. But the more I ramble on about it, the more I think some analytics nerd GAs we’ll never know of, might affect how this manifests on the field more than anybody. Figure out tendencies and how to exploit them and how to prevent from being exploited. And be constantly reevaluating as tendencies change. The forward thinking, cutting edge HCs should have interviews lining up for next week. The ones with MLB ties should be talking to their guys to see how they handled the 2 pickoff rule change analytically to begin that season and how they’ve adjusted with new data.

And instead of taking the solo lead at -5 into the clubhouse, little known American golfer Alex Smalley doubles the 18th to finish at -3 and a current T3. Tough break.

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Shefflers putter still his achilles heel.

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Helluva tee shot on that par 3 15th. Let’s see if his putter can get him back to T2 here.

Main broadcast just gave Scottie the graphic “1st bogey of the week.” It’s the 7th hole on Thursday. :lol:

This may “work” for a very select few, but I don’t see it being profitable. Isn’t the business model of most of these sites to keep people on there? What incentive do they actually have to create lasting matches that just lose them users?

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McKinley
Blockton
Green
Geralds
Anderson
Washington
Possibly Lamar?
I think we can get a good rotation out of that.

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I think we can too. But OP is right about it being unproven. The “proven” guys have proven so far to be just that—guys. Hard to see them developing into playmaking “dudes” in their 3rd or 4th years. Dudes would have flashed by now. So we are asking at least one of the true freshmen to do a lot of heavy lifting as far as playmaking goes.

Geralds sounds like he may that dude, but we can’t count on that based solely on limited spring practice reports. Especially considering his size and the fact he’ll be going against a bunch of 4th and 5th year 22/23 year olds on the OL. He’d have to be just a super strong and explosive freak. Reports suggest he may just be. I just hate that he almost has to be for our DTs to go back to being playmakers with sacks and TFLs instead of just eating blocks for the back 7 to clean up.

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At DE, Prince proved himself to be an elite and productive pass rusher

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No doubt. He’ll benefit from a stout DT group, even if they wind up being mostly block eaters. But how well does he play the run? Does he do a good job setting the edge and playing disciplined? I think Dottery playing behind him is huge. In fact, Dottery is probably the most underrated portal addition we made. Especially considering Weeks’ injury history.

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Losing Reliford hurts, but there are plenty on options that could step up here.

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I think losing Reliford hurts way more than most are admitting. He could play the run and rush the passer equally. Probably the most well rounded DE on the roster. I don’t see “plenty of options” that can replace what he can do. It’s not going to ruin our season—and I’m glad it didn’t happen in season—but it does limit us some and will make it harder to absorb another injury there, especially to Prince or Ross.

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sooner or later someone will find a hack.

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I’m not sure you can hack the expanded playoffs. Unless you lower your definition for “dynasty.”

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The text novel is the absolute worst.

It's like, "oh shite what am I gonna have to deal with now?"

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That or the vague accusation text sent 30 seconds before a shift at work that requires mental focus dealing with other people. My ex had such a knack for this.

I taught high school history when we 1st got married. Had an infant that kept both of us sleep deprived, but I’d still get up at 5 and go over the material I was teaching that day. Was lucky enough to have my planning period 1st hour, so I used it to finish everything up, have my notes ready, etc…

2nd hour starts at 9:10. I’d get a text at 9:09 saying something ridiculous like “I know what you did. Me and the baby won’t be here when you get home.”

Awesome. Zero idea what she was referring to, but had to suppress it and the accompanying butterflies as I got up to teach a bunch of 17-year-old assholes—who could not have cared any less about anything coming out of my mouth—about the beginning of WWI for the next 5 hours, unable to address the accusation. And had to do it with a smile on my face and a pit in my stomach. Had a lot of those days. Good times.

And my “sins” usually turned out to be forgetting to take out the trash, not dropping off a daycare check on my way to work instead of after when I picked up our kid. Or my favorite—having the audacity to allow a 180 pound married woman I hadn’t seen or spoken to since high school, like a photo on my FB page. That my wife shared with me.

Projection has a name, OP, and thy name is “Woman.”

However, in her defense, we get what we allow. So after the 1st or 2nd time, that shite was on me. So careful what you allow, especially in the beginning. Those goalposts are eternally moving as long as you let them. And that works both ways. We’re all always teaching people how to treat us whether we are aware of it or not.

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What is that 4 top 5 picks in 4 years?

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Yeah

Berry
Skenes
Crews
Curiel

Can’t make myself pull for him to fall, but of all the guys on both lists (save for Curiel and Brown), I think Sheerin coming back would have the biggest impact on the 2027 team. I realize chances are slim to none, though.