Use this thread when you want stuff posted..

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=law_keith#20061004

please post this..

10/4/2006 11:02:07 PM

Quote :

"Randolph's strategy works for nowposted: Wednesday, October 4, 2006 | Print Entry When I saw the Mets' playoff roster, I thought Willie Randolph was nuts. Part of me still does. But carrying eight relievers appears to be part of a strategy to use his whole staff to win games, rather than rely on unreliable starters to go six or seven innings and get the ball to Aaron Heilman/Billy Wagner. It may not work tomorrow, but it worked tonight. As soon as John Maine got into trouble, Randolph went directly to the pen, playing matchup baseball to end the Dodgers' threat in the fifth, using Guillermo Mota for two innings (more on that in a moment), then finishing with the Heilman-Wagner combo. The Mets' five best relievers appeared in the game. Where the eight-man bullpen hurts the Mets is on their bench, where they have just five hitters available, one of whom is the backup catcher and thus isn't someone Randolph will use as a top pinch-hitting option. In the sixth, with men on first and third and one out, the Mets had a chance to blow the game open. The Dodgers brought lefty Mark Hendrickson in to face Shawn Green, and while Hendrickson isn't a real lefty-killer, Green doesn't hit lefties at all (.248/.323/.420 over the last four seasons). Randolph didn't pinch-hit, because his limited bench doesn't include a decent right-handed hitter. Green struck out, the Mets didn't score again in the inning, and the Dodgers rallied to tie it in the seventh. Of course, that rally was made possible by Jose Valentin's brain cramp. With a man on first and no one out, there was a ground ball deep into the second base hole. Valentin threw to second to try to get the lead runner. The Mets had a three-run lead and nine outs to go; take the out at first. Jose Reyes didn't expect a throw from Valentin -- he may have seen it was unlikely they'd get the runner -- and then Valentin's throw was too low for Reyes to have any shot at catching it. Instead of a man on second and one out (if they got the runner at first, which I think they would have), they ended up with first and third and no out. The Dodgers can absolutely look at this game as a lost opportunity. They had a huge starting pitching advantage, and cost themselves the game with a couple of mistakes. The glaring one was the bizarre play in the second inning where two Dodgers were tagged out at home plate in a span of about three seconds. That's entirely on the third-base coach -- I thought for a moment that Grady Little had brought Dale Sveum along with him -- who has to put up the stop sign for J.D. Drew, who couldn't see the play because it was behind him. In contrast to Randolph, Little didn't employ his best relievers, even when the Dodgers came back to tie the game. With Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito both available, Little went to starter Brad Penny in the bottom of the seventh. Penny hadn't pitched in six days, since leaving his last regular-season start after one inning due to back pain, and he's been lousy since the All-Star break. He wasn't sharp, leaving several balls up and allowing the Mets to score two runs before Green came up to make another out with men in scoring position. (At that point, Randolph could have used Endy Chavez as a pinch-hitter and stuck him in right to replace Green, who has less range than a dead Wi-Fi router.) Broxton was obviously available, since he pitched the following inning, but Little couldn't break out of the mental box that had Broxton pitching the eighth and Saito the ninth. Hunter made poor judgment callposted: Wednesday, October 4, 2006 | Print Entry Well, if you're a Twins fan, take heart: You have the A's right where you want them. I'll spare you any rehash of the A's postseason woes from 2000-2003. You'll hear enough of that over the next few days from other folks, plenty of whom will want to blame Billy Beane, Michael Lewis, or Connie Mack. There's almost no overlap between this team and those A's teams, the A's are clearly in the driver's seat, with a chance to close out the series without seeing Johan Santana again. The story of the game was Torii Hunter's misplay of a soft Mark Kotsay liner in the seventh inning, resulting in a two-run inside-the-park home run. Ron Gardenhire managed that inning well, getting the right-handed submariner Pat Neshek out of the game with a left-handed hitter coming up and bringing in a lefty reliever with a good breaking ball in Dennys Reyes. Kotsay was way out in front of the 2-0 slider (gutsy pitch to throw on 2-0, too), and on 2-1 Reyes went to the fastball and threw one right over the plate ... that Kotsay didn't even hit all that hard. Hunter took a risk, probably an unnecessary one with two outs and a man on first. With a man on second, it would have made more sense, since a single there equals a run. Let's not dump on Hunter too much, though -- a great fielder made a poor judgment call. And you know if he made that catch, the announcers would still be raving about what a brilliant play it was. Both starters threw well enough to keep their teams in the game. Esteban Loaiza had a good cutter all day long, but got beat when he hung one in the middle of the plate to Michael Cuddyer. He then hung a slider to Justin Morneau that was meant to go in but was over the plate enough for Morneau to get his arms extended. He gave up homers to two good hitters, one of whom gave him a very tough at bat -- the kind of AB the Twins aren't having often enough against these A's pitchers. The Twins have now drawn just five walks in two games. Boof Bonser also threw very well, and the Twins have to be pleased by the quality start. He did a better job of pitching to the corners for the first four innings, caught too much of the plate against a couple of guys in the fifth, then settled down to throw well again in the sixth. The Twins were asking a lot of a kid who was in the minors for part of the summer, and he gave them a lot in return. • Anything nice I said about Eric Chavez, I take it back. Do you think the advance reports on him say something like, "Throw fastballs at the camera above the backstop"? He needs to make an adjustment. The Twins don't even have to bring in a lefty to face him in the late innings. • ESPN flashed a graphic on the screen that said that Luis Castillo led the AL with 46 infield hits, as if it was something to be proud of. All it does is show you how empty Castillo's batting average is, and that the Twins have too many of those guys who appear more valuable than they actually are because their batting averages are inflated by infield singles. • Credit Jason Bartlett with a great defensive play on Frank Thomas' ground ball in the top of the sixth. Bartlett was already moving toward the hole before Thomas hit the ball there. • The way Kiko Calero pitched Rondell White was textbook -- breaking stuff just off the plate, make him chase. Calero and Justin Duchscherer are a fascinating change from the typical way of building a bullpen of hard throwers. Neither guy has more than an average fastball, but each has a plus breaking ball that misses bats. The Twins play right into their hands -- when you're constantly ahead of hitters 0-1, especially fastball hitters, you can throw breaking balls off the plate and get strikeouts. Those two guys were helped by a strike zone that appeared to extend a few inches outside today, too. • I'd like to know what the thinking was in the ninth when, with a man on second, Marco Scutaro swung 0-0, then tried to sacrifice on 0-1. "

that's today's entries anyways

10/4/2006 11:13:02 PM

this is highly illegal.

10/4/2006 11:19:49 PM

this is highly illegal.

STFU, BITCH

10/4/2006 11:20:54 PM

We've been doing this for YEARS on tww... posting these.


[Edited on October 4, 2006 at 11:23 PM. Reason : ^^^ thanks a lot]

10/4/2006 11:22:23 PM

Well shit, GUYS, the fact that you've been doing it must make it legal! [insert latin legal expression here]

Hey, I thought you were going to be a lawyer some day?

10/4/2006 11:23:28 PM

mea culpa

10/4/2006 11:24:25 PM

wtf who let in the police???????????????

10/4/2006 11:25:31 PM

Of course that's not what I'm saying.. just that no one gives a shit if it's legal or not..

10/4/2006 11:26:00 PM

http://tinyurl.com/of8pn

[Edited on October 5, 2006 at 5:48 AM. Reason : .]

10/5/2006 5:37:55 AM

This one has tables, I'll do my best...

Quote :

"After starting the season 0-2 and scoring a mere 26 points in those two losses, the Washington Redskins' offense has experienced a complete turnaround. The Redskins have scored 67 points in the last two games and Mark Brunell has posted two consecutive games with a passer rating of over 117. The most obvious reason for the turnaround has been the return of Clinton Portis. His presence certainly helps the running game, but has also had a surprising effect on the passing game. One would expect Portis to help the deep passing game, as defenses are more likely to commit an eighth defender in the box to stop him, but his presence has actually helped the short passing game more than any other segment of the offense. Take a look at the Redskins' passing metrics by route depth for the first two weeks of the season (with throwaway passes being factored out of the equation): Weeks 1 and 2 Depth Att Succ Yds TD INT YPA Short 35 29 214 0 0 6.1 Medium 9 2 42 0 0 4.7 Deep 4 3 67 0 1 16.8 Total 48 34 323 0 1 6.7 The short pass yards per attempt was solid (6.1 being the league average in 2005), but the medium yards per attempt was abysmal. The deep pass yards per attempt was quite good, but the figure was inflated due to two long completions late in the Dallas game against the Cowboys' loose prevent defense. Contrast those numbers with the metrics Washington put up in Weeks 3 and 4: Weeks 3 and 4 Depth Att Succ Yds TD INT YPA Short 43 37 423 3 0 9.8 Medium 5 3 46 0 1 9.2 Deep 6 3 126 1 0 21.0 Total 54 43 595 4 1 11.0 The medium pass yards per attempt is acceptable (9.4 yards was the league average in 2005). The deep pass yards per attempt is much improved, but the 68-yard TD pass to Santana Moss in overtime to beat the Jaguars inflated the figure. Prior to that play, the Redskins were only averaging 11.6 yards per deep pass attempt, just above the league average. The real difference for the Redskins' offense the last two games has been an exceptionally efficient short passing game. Offensive coordinator Al Saunders likes to center his short passing game around his offensive linemen, through the heavy use of screen passes. In 2005, the Redskins threw only 41 screen passes, an average of two or three per game. Saunders kept them at that pace for the first two games of this season by calling only five screen passes in those games. The change began in Week 3 against Houston, as Saunders called 16 screen passes. Brunell completed 15 of them for 168 yards, over 10 yards per attempt. Saunders slowed down the pace a bit against the Jaguars, calling only five screen passes, but Brunell completed four of those for 66 yards, over 13 yards per attempt. To put those numbers in perspective, consider the league leader in yards per attempt usually averages between eight and nine yards. The Redskins are gaining more than this on their screen passes alone. The odd thing is that Portis isn't the one catching most of these passes, as he has only been thrown three of the screen passes. Saunders realizes defenses are going to key on Portis whenever he touches the ball, so he is calling plays to make defenses respect the other ball carriers on the team. This should open up more running lanes for Portis. If the Redskins continue to have this kind of success in their short passing game, and augment it with a revitalized deep passing game and the Portis-led rushing attack, they will have all of the ingredients of a Super Bowl-caliber offense."

[Edited on October 5, 2006 at 5:45 AM. Reason : ~]

[Edited on October 5, 2006 at 5:45 AM. Reason : also, TinyURL.]

[Edited on October 5, 2006 at 5:47 AM. Reason : ~]

10/5/2006 5:44:44 AM

^ thanks

10/5/2006 5:49:55 AM

yw

10/5/2006 5:56:11 AM