Hoping for two things tonight, a Royals win and a game that will let me go to bed after it's over, in other words, 10:15 or so.
wissoxfan83
3027 posts
Looks like a young Fidel Castro pitching.
All the runs have been scored with two outs.
Royals playing some very effective small ball.
There you go, According to Bill James the leadoff walk scores 38% of the time, but even more importantly, in an inning when it happens teams average nearly one run in those innings, which is essentially an ERA of 9.00 when it happens.
The dreaded leadoff walk
I hope Mississippi wins because I think it will be a lot of fun for an undefeated egg bowl.
My wife saw the UNC story and asked me if this goes on at a lot of schools. I presume it does. Even at KU? I'm far removed from the college scene, so I don't rightly know, but students probably do. Did Roy know? He had to. It seems like it's such a culture there at UNC that it was hard to avoid. This saddens me. I have great memories of Roy. In a lot of ways he was a much more colorful and charismatic coach than Bill Self. But I am glad it's his problem at UNC and not our problem here at KU.
I am so pumped because I seriously think KU is going to win every game they play. I don't ever go into a KU game thinking they're going to lose. Now some games give me pause, i.e. Kentucky early on, and I wouldn't be surprised if we lose to them, but i really can't remember the last time I thought we were going to lose a basketball game. Probably Kentucky 3 seasons ago was the last time I thought we'd lose a game.
I look forward to Ellis carrying the team as the seasoned veteran, Conor shooting confidently, and Seldon's game wowing us with his silky smooth polish that he has.
The first year guys I have no clue. I never do. Kirk and Nick weren't 'lottery pick' signees, but impressed right from the start. In some ways I was disappointed in Wigs last year while being man crush like impressed by Joel.
Mason will continue his schizophrenic ways, Brannen will continue to leave us scratching our heads.
I will always be amazed at Jamari who somehow survived homelessness in January in Chicago to become a trusted supersub in Allen Fieldhouse, someone whom the magic of KU basketball is setting him on a positive course for his entire life.
And goodness that picture from @Crimsonorblue22 of the team. Wow, Alexander is going to make some people run away and hide. Look at the size of that young man!
@brooksmd Believe me Brooksy, I know all the nuances of it. And it's stupid. For one, if that game goes extra innings, well, the manager has used up a bunch of arms. And the left v. righty thing is a little overblown to me. If a pitcher blows away a batter and then the manager takes him out after only one batter, well, it's dumb.
Nice article about the Admiral.
Sorry I dropped out of the discussion. I did watch the game in amazement and disgust (I'm pulling for the Royals, but not in a diehard type of way) at SF manager Bochy for using 5 pitchers in one inning. He took out Peavy after two baserunners, next guy got his batter out and he's gone! No one else could get anyone out. Bochy blew that game in my opinion.
@Crimsonorblue22 It sounds like you were saying he's not an athlete since he's rather large. I'm saying, he's athletic even though it may not appear that way. He's a tremendous player, at least in October.
@Crimsonorblue22 I think your opinion is wrong! I would say you don't have to appear to be in peak physical condition to play baseball!
Brandon Belt is a great baseball name.
Sorry, but Cain's got to catch that ball.
Suggested slogans for the T-Shirt
KUBuckets Old Farts Talking Hoops
KUBuckets Talking KU before we kick the bucket
KUBuckets Guardians of the Jayhawk Legend
KUBuckets Phog Allen Ghostwrites Here
KUBuckets We don't often blog, but when we do, it's KUBuckets
Or KUBuckets, when we write, Bill Self Listens because we're the most interesting men on the face of the earth.
In the Beginning God created the heavens and KUBuckets.
KUBuckets John Wooden Read Here
KUBuckets Tom Keegan wishes he was us
KUBuckets @Jesse-Newell Gets His Ideas From Us
KUBuckets If Guy Lewis read us there'd been no Jim Valvano running around the court looking for someone to hug.
KUBuckets James Naismith Invented Basketball We Perfected It
KUBuckets Thankful every day we're not the major school just to the east and just to the west.
KUBuckets The epicenter of the hoops world
KUBuckets We Wish There Was a KUGridiron
KUBuckets Thankful we're not UKBuckets
@brooksmd I was really referring to the fact that KC, as some have pointed out, look tense, swinging at bad pitches, not making contact when it's really necessary.
SF looking like the team that's won WS's on the last two even numbered years.
Believe me @brooksmd, I've dreamed of the day KU comes to Baton Rouge, or heck, even NO again. It's a little surprising NO doesn't have any holiday tournaments. I did see KU's waterski team the other day at a waterski place down the road from my house! Met some nice KU folk there.
Fox is the only free channel on my TV that doesn't show full screen. One other reason to hate Fox sports, which I loathe.
I'm just glad there's baseball on again, seems like it's been a week since there's been a game. SF taking a page out of the Royals book by running on that tag up.
Awesome picture! I might get up there next spring. My daughter wants to make a campus visit! It'd be my first visit to Lawrence since 1989.
What's Notre Dame got to do with KU basketball?
One of my best friends sees my facebook profile pic of the Jayhawk and always calls it a woodpecker. Maybe you should have called it a woodpecker @nuleafjhawk
Or I got a better idea, let's just get out our North American Field Guide to Birds, look up Jayhawk and make it look like a real Jayhawk, then we won't have these silly arguments.
@jaybate-1.0 JB, you been taking your meds? Just wondering :)
@Crimsonorblue22 Maybe I was in a bad mood when I watched it, but it just didn't wow me that much. The shooter was falling backwards, being dragged back to the earth by the force of gravity, and threw up a prayer that had at best, a 50-50 chance of going in the basket. Tarik really should have caught the ball, and easily could have. Don't get me wrong, recognition of former Jayhawks is great, but it just didn't grab me.
One of our hallmarks has been shooting percentage defense. Until last year anyways I think. Instead of the smash ball idea, let's go back to the principles of defense that Self's teams are known for. That's how we win games, make it hard for the other team to score.
I don't think I'd buy one, sorry.
It's interesting that Final Fours are probably the goal for all but about 15-20 college teams. While it's nice to be recognized for it, and we count them as fans, (8 since I came to KU in 86), ultimately they're not real satisfying. 2012 may be the exception, as that team exceeded what was expected.
I really don't see any team standing in our way of playing for the NC this year unless we run into Kentucky.
I don't follow some of the speculation/reading Self's mind/reading Self's comments closely enough to understand, but, why is Devonte considered part of the rotation already? I thought he wasn't considered a sure thing for PT.
@nuleafjhawk He'd have a better record, but you know the refs are always screwing ISU when we play them. If it weren't for the refs, he'd be perfect against KU and probably perfect against all others too.
No, not quite following your drift on the Orioles question.
This is kind of tough.
1 Scott Drew I think he beat us once
2 Rick Barnes I think he beat us a couple of times
3 Travis Ford I think he beat us once
4 Trent Johnson He creamed us once
5 Fred He beat us once
6 Lon He beat us once
7 Tubby I think he almost beat us once
8 Bob He beat us once
9 Bruce He beat us once
10 HCBS The guy lost to all of these chumps. The guy's garbage. He's worse than Weis.
So Brooks you gonna take JNewells role and run the live blog here for the World Series? Should be fun!
Storm the field fans!
Interesting that sans the wild wild card game the 2007 Rockies did the same thing these Royals are doing. Swept their way to the World Series. I hope this isn't an omen however because that team then got swept in an ugly World Series.
My White Sox swept the defending champ Red Sox in 05, then lost a game and then won 8 in a row for the World Series championship. 11-1 in the postseason, but the east coast media yawned because they were wearing the wrong color sox. SI put the patriots on the cover (except in chicago) that week even though it'd been 86 years since we'd last won the series.
So what I'm saying Royals fans is be prepared for a collective national yawn, although I hope I'm wrong.
That bullpen is what's impressed me the most. I've seen Herrera for years terrorize Sox hitters. Davis is interesting. If you look at his stats, he's been a starter 3 different seasons, very average, if not below average stats, especially last year. 3 other years he's been a middle reliever with decent stats, especially this year. Phenomenal.
What if Wilt played in 2014?
Would modern coaches and their sabermetrics mess him up like they do pitchers in baseball with their pitch counts? Probably.
Would he average 50 points a game? Probably not, although I'm not sure why.
Have other players caught up with Wilt in terms of skill and ability to dominate the game?
Would Wilt have 'scored' 20,000 times knowing what we know now about the hazards of such a lifestyle?
@globaljaybird I think that any athlete who transforms his sport deserves the best label. Babe Ruth outhomered entire teams during several seasons. Not a stretch to call him the best ever. Wayne Gretzky scored like no other players had done, but then Lemieux (sp?) showed he could do it too.
Byron Nelson won 11 tournaments in a row, total dominance! I don't know much about track, but Edwin Moses dominated hurdles for a decade I think. Heck, KU's Al Oerter and the discus, 4 golds in a row I believe. So if you look across the sports others have done things. IMHO, Wilt belongs there with these others, but maybe not the best athlete of the century.
Cal is the highest paid minor league coach in the history of all sports. That's all he is. He isn't a college coach. He's an NBA development coach. He can go with all of his kids who could care less about college and play for the cowtown cowgirls in that league. I"m sick of the guy and I'm sick that he has been allowed to do what he is doing to college basketball.
OK Dragon, I should play along. On paper Kentucky is best. Wisconsin, KU, Duke, Arizona, Zaga, Michigan State, Wichita, Florida, UNC, Wake (homer pick), Virginia, Louisville, UConn, 'Cuse, OhioSU, Marquette, Texas, Iowa St, Sooner Boomer, Okie Dokie St, KState, SDSU, Stanford (they beat us, they've got to be ranked, right?)
Or we could say anyone but Kentucky and misery
Kansas, Wisconsin, everyone else
@jaybate-1.0 Shortest JB post ever! PHOF!!
I know Royals-O's fans will watch. But will casual fans commit to 4 and a 1/2 hour games very often? No. I love baseball more than any sport actually, college hoops a close second, and I am very concerned that it is a dying sport. The length of these games is a serious issue. Yesterdays game averaged almost 30 minutes per inning. 11 of the 18 half innings had no runs. That's a lot of time devoted to nothing happening.
Want more evidence of baseball's demise? Tonights NLCS game is on minor cable channel FS1. I'm so aggravated with baseball, I can't stop writing these inane posts!
four hrs and seventeen minutes.....sigh!!!
That stinking game lasted 4 hours and 37 minutes. Think about that. It works out to 28 minutes per inning. Most of those innings neither team scored a run. What in the heck is going on with MLB and the length of these games? The first round of the playoffs average game length was 3:41. Unbelievable. And MLB wonders why the casual fan isn't watching anymore. It's why Fox Sports 1 has most of the NLCS and why none of the Royals/O's series is on free TV.
@KUSTEVE If you look at recent activity on KU Buckets you'll see we've been discussing that article all week! By the way, I don't go back far enough to remember Ted Owens, but I have also been confident we'd win every game since Larry's been here.
@drgnslayr In my illustrious basketball coaching career I had a team of 5th grade boys. We had 10 players. League rules dictated players play even amounts of time. All ten players practiced faithfully, so no need to discipline a kid for not practicing by not playing him as much as others. So I had two teams. They practiced as a 5 man team against each other every day. Come game day, they already knew how their team would react. We went undefeated. The boys ran a basic motion offense that led to unguarded layups when they ran it correctly.
I hope Coach Cal doesn't figure this out. On the other hand maybe I'll send an email to Self and give him a few tips. We could be deep enough to play two 5 man rotations as well!
Been exciting, I don't care that much either way.