#he is the definition of injury prone and inconsistent get out of here with that bs

[garciapimienta]

I actually kind of hate this club

[harristops]

And you are blind AD stan lmao Portland makes her look "good" btw. Vlatko has made some stupid decisions with this team and phasing out a vet GK with the most experience outside of their #1 before a big tournament was beyond ridiculous. Because he wasn't prepared enough and never thought they'd be put in a position where Neaher couldn't play.

Bro are you okay? If the decision is between AD and Jane for backup GK (because thats who was on the roster), I go AD any day. Ash isn't there for lands sake sometimes y'all are so caught up in your need to defend Ash and I get it but it's irrelevant here. If Ash was there yes I would absolutely go Ash all the way. No idea how she would perform but it definitely wouldn't be as good as Naeher because she doesn't have as much experience as Naeher on the international level. I have said this before too: Ash is the best USWNT keeper when it comes down to individual club performances. AD is great but she has a stellar backline to bail her out if needed. Alyssa is inconsistent but she has attackers who can score. Jane is also inconsistent and the Dash are unpredictable.

But internationally, Ash is injury prone too. She makes diving stops that I don't know she'd be able to sustain on her body for back to back games. Yes I have full faith in her but I also know she has her mistakes and faults. She's been less risky this year I'll give her that but under pressure she might be different. She hasn't got the best distributions of clearances, either. Remember, in club, it's not the best players in the world shooting at you. Here, it is, and they will take full advantage.

Ash wins the mental game yes, every single day, but she hasn't had a serious international match in a long time (none of the back up keepers have, that was the problem with AD) and even if she was selected on the roster for the year she wouldn't have been a backup she'd likely have been the alternate (which in that case, bless it was AD as the #2 and not Jane).

[if-only-we-could-read-it]

( @ava-burton-writing you mentioned wanting to know more about my oc’s, so I hope you don’t mind me tagging you in this!)

It’s occurred to me (or, rather, it did occur to me, twelve days ago, when I started writing this post) that aside from a few responses to asks, I haven’t actually explained what prov is, or who anyone in it is. Which, considering I’m a writblr, and I made this blog to talk about my wips and oc’s, literally makes no sense. So here’s a post on Prov:

What is Prov? 

‘Prov’, short for ‘The Provect Gene’, is my current (main) wip. It’s a YA sci-fi set in a ‘post-dystopian’ society with a (large) ensemble cast. 

It’s ‘history’: It’s been building in the back of my brain for so long I can’t actually remember when I first came up with the idea. I do remember making a wattpad and debating uploading it, but instead using the account to read other people’s works and to make notes and write extracts for other works I had planned (including fanfiction). Eventually, some of my friends discovered and decided to write their own books, so I decided to write Prov at the same time. Initially, it was called Psykes, short for Psysimalae (or something like that), for some reason, was written in first person despite being a multipov book, and a lot of the characters were clearly my attempt at just inserting my friends into the book (I didn’t even… change their names…) instead of the half fleshed characters I wanted. It as nothing like what I envisioned and was so badly planned and written that I literally gave up. I tried several times to come back to it and couldn’t because the quality of writing was so poor and there was so many inconsistencies in the story. Considering I could write pretty well at that time, the only thing I could think of is that my desire to get the book written fast/at the same pace as my friends overruled my ability to write. Eventually, after years of continuing to write the story in my mind, I came back to it and started to write it properly. 

Summary (that started off ridiculous and somehow got serious at the end): Once upon a time, there was a very rich, very smart, but not particularly nice, man named Cyrus. After years of theorising and making calculations, he came to the conclusion he could create a superpowered race of people for an army. Because he was the kind of person who wants to make superpowered armies. Through coercion, manipulation, lying, the occasional murder and other generally unethical means, he brought the people he wanted to experiment on into his labs and began testing. The only problem was that these people were teenagers, and teenagers are in that in between stage where they’re full of rebelliousness and ‘fight the system’ urges, and didn’t appreciate being locked up and prodded with needles. Eventually one of them who’d figured out he had powers used them to blow up a large portion of the lab, killing some people but freeing many others. The main problem – or, in Cyrus’ case, consolation – was that most of them had not learnt about their powers in the lab, and therefore didn’t know they existed. This made it easier for Cyrus to recapture them. He also managed to spread the word that they were ‘dangerous individuals’, which, in a world that’s fueled by paranoia, has a major impact. So now the police and government are after them too, which isn’t good for them. 

The book starts approximately one year after these events, when three small groups of the experiments are forced together, only to discover they have powers. Tired of always hiding and running, they decide it’s time they tried to put a stop to Cyrus and his experiments, and convince everyone that they’re not dangerous. This, along with them trying to figure out their powers, and trying to avoid simply getting caught and thrown back into the tests, make life very hard for them. Along the way, they discover more people like them, and more factors than they ever could have imagined, including corruption that goes far beyond what they thought. Loyalties are questioned, families are torn apart and sanity balances on the edge of a knife. After all, what’s the point of morals if only you stick to them?

Characters

Mains:

Isabelle: Has the power to manipulate light. The literal mother of the group, makes sure everyone eats and sleeps and doesn’t get themselves killed. Knows everybody’s secrets but nobody knows hers. Very sarcastic. Just wants to sleep. Original squad. 

Damian*: Can manipulate electricity. Isabelle’s (slightly) younger brother. Kind of an asshole but it’s not intentional. Actually tries to be nice he’s just not used to other people (or their feelings). Very smart. Basically the tactician. Original squad.

Barry: Psychic. Drinks way too much coffee, he’s probably at least 85% caffeine at this point. Hyperactive. Basically the child of the group. Was sick before being taken by Cyptem and missed a lot of schooling. References TV shows a lot. Original squad.  

Calypso: Can manipulate water. Very into fashion. Is willing to die for the aesthetic. Seems like the kind of person who in any other situation would have her life together. Isn’t going to let a small thing like people wanting to kill her hold her back. Original squad. 

Will: Astral projection. The medic of the group. Wanted to be a doctor. Tries his best. Frequently questions how moral it is to hoard medicinal drugs. The most reasonable of the group. Done with everything. Original squad.

Leo: Can manipulate molecules to cause them to freeze or ignite. Makes a lot of bad jokes. Scared most of the time, but would do anything for his friends. Acts like he knows what’s going on but literally never does. Going through an internal identity crisis. Original squad.   

Pyra: Can manipulate her own molecular structure (basically, shapeshift). Smol but could kill you. Took about a million self-defense and fighting lessons. Always ready to fight. Tough exterior, slightly sweeter interior. Original squad.

Beth**: Relationship detection and empathy. Definitely hates you. Virtually unreadable. Good at manipulating people and situations. Thinks she’s the strategist of the team. Pessimistic. Usually right. Smart. Original squad.    

Lara: Can teleport. Badass. Basically saves everyone multiple times. Probably better than you at everything. Slightly paranoid. Would kill a man. Acts like she doesn’t like you but secretly would probably die for you. Doesn’t need a squad.

Chris: Telepath and telekinetic. Lived in a cave for like a year. Tries to be skeptical of people to protect himself but can’t resist helping everyone he meets. Uses obscure plants to treat injuries and illnesses. Book two squad.     

Matt: Molecular immobilisation. Strong. Good at fighting. Pretends to be quiet and grumpy but is actually a sweet heart. Could crush a rock with his hands. Likes hand-to-hand combat. Finds it funny that people are uncomfortable around him. Book two squad.

Seth: Molecular combustion. Matt’s twin. Not as strong as his brother. Very concerned about Matt’s tendency to get into fights. More prone to panicking in situations. The guy who tries to lean on the wall and act cool only to fall through an open doorway. Book two squad.       

Meg: Pain manipulation. Really a nice person but is being manipulated. Starts off hating everyone she meets but warms up to them quickly. Spends a lot of time being used. Doesn’t need anyone else. Technically book two squad, but also doesn’t need a squad.

Cyrus: Can manipulate shadows/darkness. The villain. Spent years trying to prove that superpowers were possible. Loose morals. A good actor. Could probably be a politician with all the lies he makes people believe.           

Wyatt: Shield manipulation. Literally a child. Was put through a lot before he was rescued from Cyptem. Is basically adopted by Isabelle. Generally distrustful of people, but very protective of the people he cares about.

Sides

Melody: Sound manipulation. 100% done. Not as mean as she initially seems. Doesn’t like people trying to control her. Would probably become a politician if she didn’t hate the government so much.           

Alex: None. Is an intern at Cyptem who discovered what was going on. Is willing to help everyone even though they seem crazy. Has no idea what’s going on most of the time. Spends a lot of his time eyerolling.

Paige: Heat manipulation. Isabelle and Damian’s older sister. Has done very questionable things but is still a good person. Cares about her siblings, but doesn’t show it well. Inadvertently causes drama.         

Renee: Illusion manipulation. Also a child. Spends more time in Cyptem than Wyatt. Likes to draw. Hard to explain without spoilers.

Amara: Fear manipulation. Cyrus’s right-hand women. Cold blooded. Willing to apply whatever force is necessary to get the job done – and in this case that involves helping get the kids back in and figure out how to make them more compliant.          

*The spelling of Damian has been a bit iffy through the years. When I initially wrote Prov, my friends asked if I’d spelled it wrong, and implied it wasn’t meant to be spelled the way it should. eventually, I changed the spelling, but I kept getting muddled up between the two. Then I went, ‘screw it, my character, my spelling’ - except I’d forgotten which was the original spelling. So for a while I just alternated between the two before settling on ‘Damian’. 

**Beth’s name has been subject to repeated change. Initially she was called Beth after someone I knew, and didn’t like, but who was part of my friendship group so I felt obliged to include. When I rewrote it, I changed her name along with everyone else’s, and she became Ellie. Except ‘Beth’ always fit her more so I eventually changed it back, before realising that meant I have a ‘Beth’ and a ‘Seth’ - who also have quite a lot of interaction, which is very important to the plot. I put my foot down at changing Seth’s name, so chances are, Beth is going to become Ellie, or some other not-Beth name. 

Tags: Prov tag, Isabelle, Damian/also-Damian, Barry, Calypso, Will, Leo, Pyra, Beth, Lara, Chris, Seth, and Matt. (Some characters have a lot more information in their tags than others, because I’m inconsistent with tagging. Which is going to change from this post on. Meg, Cyrus, Wyatt and the side characters do not yet have tags.)

So, there, finally: my wip and its characters laid out. So now when I talk about it, people will actually know what I’m talking about.

[radarbrow2-blog]

Eagles Draft Profile: Six things to know about Clayton Thorson

The Philadelphia Eagles selected Northwestern quarterback Clayton Thorson with the No. 167 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

In order to learn more about Thorson, I reached out to SB Nation’s Northwestern blog: Inside NU. Wildcats writer Noah Coffman was kind enough to answer my questions. Here we go.

1) Can you sum up what Thorson’s college career was like?

Clayton Thorson’s career was, well, up and down. His best individual season was as a sophomore, when he put up 6.7 adjusted yards per attempt along with 27 total touchdowns and just 9 interceptions. That was also the only season that he had a solid supporting cast, featuring slot receiver Austin Carr (who is now a depth piece for the Saints) and Justin Jackson, now a running back for the Chargers. His junior year featured a bit of backslide statistically, and in his final season starting, coming back from an ACL tear, he was clearly hobbled early in the year and was constrained to a more game manager-like role.

2) What are his strengths?

Thorson can make all the throws. His arm strength is definitely there, to go along with his physique, and during his time at Northwestern he hit some gorgeous deep balls and tough throws. He also has the arm strength to get the ball into small windows. His mechanics are solid and he doesn’t take too long to get the ball out. When you just look at his throwing ability, Clayton Thorson is pretty much the ideal passer. Despite being constrained by a pretty vanilla playbook offensively, Thorson also showed the makings of a clutch gene in Evanston, engineering key drives with important throws time and again. He suffered from a bland offense that constrained him in a lot of ways, but for the most part, when Clayton Thorson had to make big plays, he made them.

3) What are his weaknesses?

During his time in college, Thorson was pretty inconsistent throwing the ball down the field. Northwestern has never really had a consistent deep threat during his time on the team, but Thorson also didn’t show the ability to replicate great throws over the top, and was a bit more mistake (read: turnover)-prone than one would like. He also really struggled to avoid sacks, despite being relatively mobile, holding onto the ball for too long. The ACL tear made him a bit cautious last year when it came to scrambling, but hopefully with a year of recovery that can return to the strength it was at times pre-injury.

4) Are you surprised where he was drafted? Higher or lower than expected? Just right?

This is about where I expected Thorson to go. He profiles as a reliable back-up who can make the throws NFL teams need him to in a pinch, but needs some time and hard work to be consistent enough to earn a starting look. Some experts had him going at the end of the third round, but most agreed he was an early Day 3 guy. The buzz about him pre-draft was coming from the Panthers and Patriots, two teams looking primarily for a backup with some ability to develop beneath an established starter. That obviously applies to the Eagles, too (although Wentz is a bit younger than Newton and especially Brady) so the pick and placement makes all kinds of sense.

5) How do you see his NFL career playing out?

It would take a couple of breaks and some really good development for Thorson to become a reliable NFL starter, though I don’t think it’s impossible. For a rookie, he’s a relatively high-floor guy who knows the game, and I think he will be a reliable NFL backup for a long time. Thorson doesn’t profile developmentally as a franchise quarterback, at least not developmentally, but I do think that whatever team he is on will be happy to have him around. As a Bears fan, I’d certainly be happy with a developing Thorson as my team’s backup, and I think Eagles fans should largely feel the same if he earns that spot.

6) Anything to know about him off the field?

Thorson is one of the best interviews I’ve had during my time at Northwestern. Just a great guy who doesn’t really get on anyone’s bad side, will crack jokes with the media, and generally an impressive all-around man. He is also a devout Christian, who references his faith a decent amount, and was married at the end of his redshirt-junior season (right after he graduated). He and his wife Audrey will celebrate their one-year anniversary in about a month.

Highlights:

Spider graph:

More reading:

The dizzying highs and terrifying lows of Clayton Thorson

Clayton Thorson 2019 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Source: https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2019/5/17/18629004/eagles-draft-profile-clayton-thorson-six-things-know-big-plays-made-them-quarterback-northwestern-qb

[ascendantly]

tagged by: no tagging, we steal memes and delete them a few hours later like men. tagging: ^ ( tho please feel free to nab this and @ me so i can read it. i lov headcanon posts. )

instructions: fill out the questions about your muse, repost, and tag as many people you want.

1. what does your muse smell like?

varies, but there’s a constant baseline of leather about him, as well as the sharp tang of metal, though its prominence depends on how hard they’ve hit the field that day, what they’ve fought and if it bleeds. even princes sweat, needless to say, so he’s prone to taking up a ripe scent depending on how long it’s been since last they had access to running water ( and that’s any kind of running water; he’s not opposed to dunking in rivers or streams ) --- on particularly bad days, he’ll insist on keeping a number of layers on and his arms down, if he can help it. his diet really does him no favors here.

when he’s lucky, he smells like the ocean, salt breeze caught crisp in his hair from a few hours stolen on the end of a pier.

but perhaps the most curious of all is how he smells after warping. there’s a faint ozone scent to him, like lightning, charged but quick to fade. with the blood of kings strong in his veins, noctis is meant for smooth blinks through the air; he doesn’t burn along his path like those who would borrow the crystal’s power ( @ the glaives get wreckt ), and the scent of it clings to him for some moments after, bright, heady. 

otherwise? motel soaps and shampoos, and stick deodorants of inconsistent brands, though he prefers ones that are ambiguous in fragrance profile ( that is, he’ll opt for something that isn’t too masculine without toeing flowery either ).

2. how often does your muse bathe/shower? any habits?

the shower is noctis’s third favorite place to be, with the first two being the regalia and his bed, respectively. most of the time, though, the preference isn’t so much a matter of enjoying the water pouring hot on his skin as it is about being in a space where he can be alone with his thoughts. no one can reach him with anything requiring his princely attention until he chooses to be done. it’s someplace where he can decompress and just --- center himself.

so if someone ends up using all of the hot water, it’s noctis.

his habits really depend on whether or not it’s a bath or shower ( rest assured that there are no circumstances in which he sings, too embarrassing ). 

if bathing, he’ll massage his bad knee for a while, though in that case he’d like to have epsom salts on hand to make the most of it. he’s not keen on bubble baths because it’s not uncommon for him to fall asleep, slide too far in, and get a mouth- or eye-ful of soap.

if showering, well. aside from blanking out for twenty odd minutes and saving the necessities for when the water starts to run cold and he has to start scrubbing and sudsing furiously, he makes use of the private time.

3. does your muse have any tattoos or piercing?

none. noctis has a strange sense of ownership regarding his body in that he knows it’s his, of course, but wouldn’t dream of modifying it in some permanent way that would reflect poorly on his lineage ( on his father, more to the point ). not that noctis has ever desired to get anything tattooed or pierced, but it’s never actually been an option to him, either.

4. any body movement quirks ( ex.knee shakes )?

he’s dependent on closed off body language for personal comfort, so it’s not hard to find him standing around with his arms crossed, or his shoulders rounded forward, back curved in a noticeable slouch. his idle posture is casual and aloof despite fifteen years steeped in etiquette, and while he hasn’t forgotten all he’s learned, he can’t be assed to break it out unless the situation calls, and rarely does it ever.

his nervous energy tends to manifest in his hands, and to hide it, he’ll most often rub his neck, clench his fists or, again, fold his arms so as to tuck his fingers into his biceps. sometimes he’ll mess with his hair --- his bangs can be finicky for their length, after all --- though this isn’t always a result of unease.

when sufficiently tired or worn down, he’ll get a degree of pain and stiffness in his left leg, and can be seen limping to accommodate for the trouble. albeit his training has more or less ensured that he’s equally efficient with either side of his body, noctis generally favors his right half due to the old injury, even when not acting up, which leads to a bit of predictability in his attacks and movements. it’s something he attempts to be mindful of when sparring. 

5. what do they sleep in?

provided he consciously decides to get ready for bed instead of knocking out the second he goes horizontal ( or sits down or leans against his chocobo ), it’s temperature-based, but as a rule he’ll elect to sleep in just his shirt and shorts when camping, jacket rumpled in a pile somewhere near the mouth of the tent, boots kicked off nearby.

if it’s cold, he may dip into his informal attire for a longsleeve, and if it’s hot, he might remove any shirt he’d gone to bed in, but that’s only if the heat’s too much to sleep through, and it seldom is.

6. what’s their favorite piece of clothing?

“piece” of clothing smh. put broadly, it would be his father’s suit ( royal raiment ), the entirety of it, for reasons that should be obvious. despite not quite loving the feeling of a tie around his neck or the collar buttoned so high, wearing it helps noctis connect with regis, helps him stand a little taller and walk a bit prouder, too, though whether that’s because of the fit or because the outfit inspires in him a comforting blend of nostalgia, dignity, and competence is anyone’s guess.

7. what do they do when they wake up?

try to go back to bed. please let him sleep.

really though, the only time he can wake up without needing five or ten minutes to sit and process everything is when he’s coming out of a nightmare --- which, coincidentally, is the best way to know if he’s had a nightmare, because noctis isn’t a fitful sleeper nor does he feel comfortable announcing his dreams aside from a very basic and implied i wish i didn’t remember them ( episode duscae // prompto: i always wake up before i can remember anything. | noctis: what i wouldn’t give for that. ). 

he’s always the last to get up and ready to go, but unfortunately he can’t bring himself to hurry through ( much less multitask ) putting on his clothes or brushing his teeth, so there’s a definite grogginess that stretches out everything he does in the morning. for example, if he intends to wear his jeans, he might dress one leg, wait a good minute, then move on to the other. 

8. how do they sleep? position?

he canonically sleeps through prompto veering off the side of the road, several peals of phone alarms, being jostled around, etc. --- it’s pretty safe to say noctis sleeps like the dead. if permitted to shut his eyes and stop moving for even the shortest amount of time, there’s a decent chance he’ll doze off, or at least try to.

position is irrelevant. he can sleep on his back, front, side, sitting up --- doesn’t matter. what he prefers, though, is that there is someone nearby when he starts to snooze. noctis has had a distinct aversion to sleeping alone since his youth, and while he’s more than capable of resting by himself as an adult, there’s a simple and invaluable comfort he feels when nodding off in the presence of someone he trusts. helps with the nightmares. 

economically speaking, it’s a necessity that they sleep two to a queen-sized when lodging at a motel or inn. noctis usually lets the guys decide around him after he picks a bed, but of the three, he’s admittedly not the biggest fan of sharing the mattress with gladio. though noctis isn’t the sort to sprawl out anyway, gladio’s rather broad and exudes too much heat ( and body hair ), so noctis’s preferences lie with prompto and ignis.

he doesn’t shift around excessively in his sleep. there are no accidental cuddles, nor is there anything which could resemble them, either. any imperceptible closing of space is intentional solace-seeking and passed off as a product of rest. on occasion, noctis might also leave the bed to scrounge for food ( bad habits are hard to break and he’s a midnight snacker through and through ).

light snoring isn’t totally unheard of where the prince is concerned. drooling, neither.

9. what do their hands feel like?

dry, creased. cool. clammy, when noctis is especially nervous.

he doesn’t take any particular care of his hands, so they may come across as the oldest looking part of his body, knuckles ashy some days, a callus or two hard and peeling on the inside of his palms, while the skin itself appears strangely thin, delicate. 

his hands aren’t rough, per se, but they certainly aren’t smooth or soft, though the gingerness of his touches make them seem so. still, when his grip isn’t tenuous, there should be a strength to his grasp that is paradoxically unsurprising and unexpected.

10. if you kissed them, what would they usually taste like?

what did ignis last cook.

i want that to be a joke but i’m also very serious. kissing isn’t something noctis has done, nor does it really cross his mind, so he wouldn’t be prepared for it in any breadth or scope. it wouldn’t be listerine fresh or cutely flavored, unless he’s been into sweets when he shouldn’t have been ( and he is, constantly ). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[biofunmy]

A Plate Adjustment Helped D.J. LeMahieu With Yankees, and Skeptical Fans

Whenever infielder D.J. LeMahieu has one of the performances the Yankees have come to rely on this season — a multi-hit game with several runs driven in — the tweet officially announcing his signing on Jan. 14 resurfaces as a playful reminder of how much has changed.

“Today, the Yankees announced that they have signed INF DJ LeMahieu to a 2-year contract through the 2020 season,” the first part of the Yankees’ tweet read.

The replies weren’t pretty. “Just gonna leave this here …” read one response, followed by a screenshot of LeMahieu’s statistics from last season that showed his struggles away from the hitter-friendly Coors Field in Denver. Another response read simply, “Lol.”

“That’s a weird way to spell Manny Machado,” Anthony Sessa, a 28-year-old Yankees fan, tweeted.

For many, including LeMahieu himself, his Yankees arrival didn’t quite make sense. They had plenty of infielders, including the All-Star Gleyber Torres at second base, the position where LeMahieu had won several awards for his defense.

“I definitely got a lot of texts, ‘Surprising sign,’” LeMahieu recalled recently. His friends and former teammates didn’t understand why he went to the Yankees.

LeMahieu has not only fit, he has emerged as the catalyst for the team with the best record in baseball entering Friday. His hitting prowess earned him the nickname The Machine, coined by catcher Gary Sanchez, and his defensive versatility rescued the Yankees through all of their injuries.

“He’s been one of the most valuable players in the league,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said earlier this month. “He’s been everything we could’ve hoped when we signed him.”

Entering a game Friday against his former team, the Colorado Rockies, LeMahieu led the American League with a .329 average. He has produced key hits in critical moments. When he started at second base for the A.L. during the All-Star Game earlier this month, it proved he wasn’t just a product of Coors Field.

“That guy rakes,” Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks said. “He’s a true hitter.”

The Yankees lured LeMahieu, the 2016 National League batting champion for hitting .348, to New York with a two-year, $24 million deal. That looks like a bargain now, yet seemed puzzling when the deal was made in the winter.

At the time, the Yankees already had Miguel Andujar penciled in at third base, Luke Voit or Greg Bird at first base, Troy Tulowitzki as a placeholder at shortstop until Didi Gregorius’s return from elbow surgery in the summer, and Torres at second base. But the Yankees, who only briefly considered Machado, knew that depth was vital — and they were later proven right with substantial injuries to Andujar, Bird, Tulowitzki and others.

LeMahieu, though, was a three-time Gold Glove winner at second base, so why would he give up excellence at one position for a multi-positional role?

“Winning a Gold Glove is cool,” said LeMahieu, who had occasionally played first and third base earlier in his career. “But I think showing up to the yard and knowing we’re going to win every day is a pretty good feeling, too.”

LeMahieu, 31, pointed to a deeper reason for his willingness to sacrifice the security of second base: the Los Angeles Dodgers. All those years of facing the Dodgers, who have won the N.L. West six straight seasons and appeared in the past two World Series, showed LeMahieu the value of versatility. The Dodgers’ rosters of late have featured Swiss-Army-knife-like players who can handle multiple positions and pose a daunting challenge to any team’s matchups.

“They weren’t made to just get to the playoffs, but win the playoffs,” LeMahieu said. “You bring in a new pitcher and they have a whole new lineup. It’s annoying to play against. But I saw how it worked there and I saw it as a similar situation here.”

Even though LeMahieu had the chance to play second base more often elsewhere, such as the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees appeared to have the best offer, according to Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, and LeMahieu said he wanted to play for a team devoted to winning. No playing time was promised, LeMahieu said, but he trusted the Yankees.

“There are so many good players here and I just felt like I was going to fit somewhere or another,” he said. “I just didn’t know how.”

The Yankees bet that LeMahieu’s athleticism and drive would allow him to adapt to other positions without issue, and his high-contact approach was attractive for a home run-bopping team.

LeMahieu has displayed a little more edge than expected, from his emotion on the field to his comments off it. Earlier this season, Boone said opponents shouldn’t be fooled by LeMahieu’s quiet intensity. “He’s out there to rip your heart out.”

Before he could prove his worth in New York, LeMahieu needed to tweak his hitting. He was coming off a 2018 season in which he made three trips to the injured list and hit .276 in 128 games, his lowest totals in at least four years. And the difference between his hitting at thin-air Coors Field and on the road was more pronounced than in the past.

An underlying attribute bugged LeMahieu. Because he hit the ball hard yet at a low angle, LeMahieu said the Rockies suggested last season that he adjust his hitting angle to produce more home runs. He toyed with that and hit a career best 15 home runs, but felt inconsistent all season.

“What they were saying is true,” LeMahieu said. “But the best thing for me was that I came back this off-season and I said, ‘The hitter I was last year wasn’t me.’”

So he rededicated himself to being, above all, a tough at-bat for opponents, and using all fields. He is so dedicated to that ethos that he said it bothered him two seasons ago when opponents shifted their defense often against him. Last year, he pulled the ball to left field more than ever.

LeMahieu was reassured during his first conversation with the Yankees hitting coaches, Marcus Thames and P.J. Pilittere. They told him to be the best version of himself, hitting the ball to center and right fields, not necessarily over the fence. “That was the best thing I could’ve heard coming here,” LeMahieu said.

Thames said the Yankees didn’t want to change LeMahieu’s proven right-handed swing. All they did, Thames said, after examining past seasons was suggest that LeMahieu be more aggressive early in the count with runners on base. The result: entering Friday’s game, LeMahieu was second in the major leagues with a .439 average with runners in scoring position.

“He took it and ran with it,” Thames said. “He’s doing a heck of a job.”

What makes LeMahieu one of the best at making contact in an era full of players using home run-focused, strikeout-prone uppercut hacks is his flat swing that sweeps through the strike zone. Any photo of LeMahieu mid-swing shows him dropping his right knee low to the ground.

“His barrel gets in the back of the zone early and it says in there,” Thames said. “I’m a big fan of guys using their lower half and he really uses it to the extreme.”

LeMahieu shrugged off questions about his swing, saying it had evolved over the years and that he didn’t think much about its mechanics. He said he didn’t know why he was hitting for more power this season — his launch angle (6.2 percent), slugging percentage (.508) and home runs (13 home runs through 87 games) are on pace to be career highs — beyond hitting the ball hard.

“I just feel like I’m in a good place right now and my swing is repeatable,” he said.

LeMahieu said his experience with the Yankees has been everything he hoped for, despite the initial skepticism.

“It wasn’t an obvious fit,” he said. “It just wasn’t. But it worked out and it’s working and hopefully it works out in the playoffs.”

And for those fans who have been teased since January for their disbelief, LeMahieu has indeed turned out better than everyone hoped.

“This is better than the best case scenario,” Sessa said in a telephone interview. “I’m never happier to have been wrong.”

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A Plate Adjustment Helped D.J. LeMahieu With Yankees, and Skeptical Fans

Whenever infielder D.J. LeMahieu has one of the performances the Yankees have come to rely on this season — a multi-hit game with several runs driven in — the tweet officially announcing his signing on Jan. 14 resurfaces as a playful reminder of how much has changed.

“Today, the Yankees announced that they have signed INF DJ LeMahieu to a 2-year contract through the 2020 season,” the first part of the Yankees’ tweet read.

The replies weren’t pretty. “Just gonna leave this here …” read one response, followed by a screenshot of LeMahieu’s statistics from last season that showed his struggles away from the hitter-friendly Coors Field in Denver. Another response read simply, “Lol.”

“That’s a weird way to spell Manny Machado,” Anthony Sessa, a 28-year-old Yankees fan, tweeted.

For many, including LeMahieu himself, his Yankees arrival didn’t quite make sense. They had plenty of infielders, including the All-Star Gleyber Torres at second base, the position where LeMahieu had won several awards for his defense.

“I definitely got a lot of texts, ‘Surprising sign,’” LeMahieu recalled recently. His friends and former teammates didn’t understand why he went to the Yankees.

LeMahieu has not only fit, he has emerged as the catalyst for the team with the best record in baseball entering Friday. His hitting prowess earned him the nickname The Machine, coined by catcher Gary Sanchez, and his defensive versatility rescued the Yankees through all of their injuries.

“He’s been one of the most valuable players in the league,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said earlier this month. “He’s been everything we could’ve hoped when we signed him.”

Entering a game Friday against his former team, the Colorado Rockies, LeMahieu led the American League with a .329 average. He has produced key hits in critical moments. When he started at second base for the A.L. during the All-Star Game earlier this month, it proved he wasn’t just a product of Coors Field.

“That guy rakes,” Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks said. “He’s a true hitter.”

The Yankees lured LeMahieu, the 2016 National League batting champion for hitting .348, to New York with a two-year, $24 million deal. That looks like a bargain now, yet seemed puzzling when the deal was made in the winter.

At the time, the Yankees already had Miguel Andujar penciled in at third base, Luke Voit or Greg Bird at first base, Troy Tulowitzki as a placeholder at shortstop until Didi Gregorius’s return from elbow surgery in the summer, and Torres at second base. But the Yankees, who only briefly considered Machado, knew that depth was vital — and they were later proven right with substantial injuries to Andujar, Bird, Tulowitzki and others.

LeMahieu, though, was a three-time Gold Glove winner at second base, so why would he give up excellence at one position for a multi-positional role?

“Winning a Gold Glove is cool,” said LeMahieu, who had occasionally played first and third base earlier in his career. “But I think showing up to the yard and knowing we’re going to win every day is a pretty good feeling, too.”

LeMahieu, 31, pointed to a deeper reason for his willingness to sacrifice the security of second base: the Los Angeles Dodgers. All those years of facing the Dodgers, who have won the N.L. West six straight seasons and appeared in the past two World Series, showed LeMahieu the value of versatility. The Dodgers’ rosters of late have featured Swiss-Army-knife-like players who can handle multiple positions and pose a daunting challenge to any team’s matchups.

“They weren’t made to just get to the playoffs, but win the playoffs,” LeMahieu said. “You bring in a new pitcher and they have a whole new lineup. It’s annoying to play against. But I saw how it worked there and I saw it as a similar situation here.”

Even though LeMahieu had the chance to play second base more often elsewhere, such as the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees appeared to have the best offer, according to Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, and LeMahieu said he wanted to play for a team devoted to winning. No playing time was promised, LeMahieu said, but he trusted the Yankees.

“There are so many good players here and I just felt like I was going to fit somewhere or another,” he said. “I just didn’t know how.”

The Yankees bet that LeMahieu’s athleticism and drive would allow him to adapt to other positions without issue, and his high-contact approach was attractive for a home run-bopping team.

LeMahieu has displayed a little more edge than expected, from his emotion on the field to his comments off it. Earlier this season, Boone said opponents shouldn’t be fooled by LeMahieu’s quiet intensity. “He’s out there to rip your heart out.”

Before he could prove his worth in New York, LeMahieu needed to tweak his hitting. He was coming off a 2018 season in which he made three trips to the injured list and hit .276 in 128 games, his lowest totals in at least four years. And the difference between his hitting at thin-air Coors Field and on the road was more pronounced than in the past.

An underlying attribute bugged LeMahieu. Because he hit the ball hard yet at a low angle, LeMahieu said the Rockies suggested last season that he adjust his hitting angle to produce more home runs. He toyed with that and hit a career best 15 home runs, but felt inconsistent all season.

“What they were saying is true,” LeMahieu said. “But the best thing for me was that I came back this off-season and I said, ‘The hitter I was last year wasn’t me.’”

So he rededicated himself to being, above all, a tough at-bat for opponents, and using all fields. He is so dedicated to that ethos that he said it bothered him two seasons ago when opponents shifted their defense often against him. Last year, he pulled the ball to left field more than ever.

LeMahieu was reassured during his first conversation with the Yankees hitting coaches, Marcus Thames and P.J. Pilittere. They told him to be the best version of himself, hitting the ball to center and right fields, not necessarily over the fence. “That was the best thing I could’ve heard coming here,” LeMahieu said.

Thames said the Yankees didn’t want to change LeMahieu’s proven right-handed swing. All they did, Thames said, after examining past seasons was suggest that LeMahieu be more aggressive early in the count with runners on base. The result: entering Friday’s game, LeMahieu was second in the major leagues with a .439 average with runners in scoring position.

“He took it and ran with it,” Thames said. “He’s doing a heck of a job.”

What makes LeMahieu one of the best at making contact in an era full of players using home run-focused, strikeout-prone uppercut hacks is his flat swing that sweeps through the strike zone. Any photo of LeMahieu mid-swing shows him dropping his right knee low to the ground.

“His barrel gets in the back of the zone early and it says in there,” Thames said. “I’m a big fan of guys using their lower half and he really uses it to the extreme.”

LeMahieu shrugged off questions about his swing, saying it had evolved over the years and that he didn’t think much about its mechanics. He said he didn’t know why he was hitting for more power this season — his launch angle (6.2 percent), slugging percentage (.508) and home runs (13 home runs through 87 games) are on pace to be career highs — beyond hitting the ball hard.

“I just feel like I’m in a good place right now and my swing is repeatable,” he said.

LeMahieu said his experience with the Yankees has been everything he hoped for, despite the initial skepticism.

“It wasn’t an obvious fit,” he said. “It just wasn’t. But it worked out and it’s working and hopefully it works out in the playoffs.”

And for those fans who have been teased since January for their disbelief, LeMahieu has indeed turned out better than everyone hoped.

“This is better than the best case scenario,” Sessa said in a telephone interview. “I’m never happier to have been wrong.”

Credit: Source link

The post A Plate Adjustment Helped D.J. LeMahieu With Yankees, and Skeptical Fans appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/a-plate-adjustment-helped-d-j-lemahieu-with-yankees-and-skeptical-fans/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-plate-adjustment-helped-d-j-lemahieu-with-yankees-and-skeptical-fans from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186410131227

[velmaemyers88]

A Plate Adjustment Helped D.J. LeMahieu With Yankees, and Skeptical Fans

Whenever infielder D.J. LeMahieu has one of the performances the Yankees have come to rely on this season — a multi-hit game with several runs driven in — the tweet officially announcing his signing on Jan. 14 resurfaces as a playful reminder of how much has changed.

“Today, the Yankees announced that they have signed INF DJ LeMahieu to a 2-year contract through the 2020 season,” the first part of the Yankees’ tweet read.

The replies weren’t pretty. “Just gonna leave this here …” read one response, followed by a screenshot of LeMahieu’s statistics from last season that showed his struggles away from the hitter-friendly Coors Field in Denver. Another response read simply, “Lol.”

“That’s a weird way to spell Manny Machado,” Anthony Sessa, a 28-year-old Yankees fan, tweeted.

For many, including LeMahieu himself, his Yankees arrival didn’t quite make sense. They had plenty of infielders, including the All-Star Gleyber Torres at second base, the position where LeMahieu had won several awards for his defense.

“I definitely got a lot of texts, ‘Surprising sign,’” LeMahieu recalled recently. His friends and former teammates didn’t understand why he went to the Yankees.

LeMahieu has not only fit, he has emerged as the catalyst for the team with the best record in baseball entering Friday. His hitting prowess earned him the nickname The Machine, coined by catcher Gary Sanchez, and his defensive versatility rescued the Yankees through all of their injuries.

“He’s been one of the most valuable players in the league,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said earlier this month. “He’s been everything we could’ve hoped when we signed him.”

Entering a game Friday against his former team, the Colorado Rockies, LeMahieu led the American League with a .329 average. He has produced key hits in critical moments. When he started at second base for the A.L. during the All-Star Game earlier this month, it proved he wasn’t just a product of Coors Field.

“That guy rakes,” Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks said. “He’s a true hitter.”

The Yankees lured LeMahieu, the 2016 National League batting champion for hitting .348, to New York with a two-year, $24 million deal. That looks like a bargain now, yet seemed puzzling when the deal was made in the winter.

At the time, the Yankees already had Miguel Andujar penciled in at third base, Luke Voit or Greg Bird at first base, Troy Tulowitzki as a placeholder at shortstop until Didi Gregorius’s return from elbow surgery in the summer, and Torres at second base. But the Yankees, who only briefly considered Machado, knew that depth was vital — and they were later proven right with substantial injuries to Andujar, Bird, Tulowitzki and others.

LeMahieu, though, was a three-time Gold Glove winner at second base, so why would he give up excellence at one position for a multi-positional role?

“Winning a Gold Glove is cool,” said LeMahieu, who had occasionally played first and third base earlier in his career. “But I think showing up to the yard and knowing we’re going to win every day is a pretty good feeling, too.”

LeMahieu, 31, pointed to a deeper reason for his willingness to sacrifice the security of second base: the Los Angeles Dodgers. All those years of facing the Dodgers, who have won the N.L. West six straight seasons and appeared in the past two World Series, showed LeMahieu the value of versatility. The Dodgers’ rosters of late have featured Swiss-Army-knife-like players who can handle multiple positions and pose a daunting challenge to any team’s matchups.

“They weren’t made to just get to the playoffs, but win the playoffs,” LeMahieu said. “You bring in a new pitcher and they have a whole new lineup. It’s annoying to play against. But I saw how it worked there and I saw it as a similar situation here.”

Even though LeMahieu had the chance to play second base more often elsewhere, such as the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees appeared to have the best offer, according to Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, and LeMahieu said he wanted to play for a team devoted to winning. No playing time was promised, LeMahieu said, but he trusted the Yankees.

“There are so many good players here and I just felt like I was going to fit somewhere or another,” he said. “I just didn’t know how.”

The Yankees bet that LeMahieu’s athleticism and drive would allow him to adapt to other positions without issue, and his high-contact approach was attractive for a home run-bopping team.

LeMahieu has displayed a little more edge than expected, from his emotion on the field to his comments off it. Earlier this season, Boone said opponents shouldn’t be fooled by LeMahieu’s quiet intensity. “He’s out there to rip your heart out.”

Before he could prove his worth in New York, LeMahieu needed to tweak his hitting. He was coming off a 2018 season in which he made three trips to the injured list and hit .276 in 128 games, his lowest totals in at least four years. And the difference between his hitting at thin-air Coors Field and on the road was more pronounced than in the past.

An underlying attribute bugged LeMahieu. Because he hit the ball hard yet at a low angle, LeMahieu said the Rockies suggested last season that he adjust his hitting angle to produce more home runs. He toyed with that and hit a career best 15 home runs, but felt inconsistent all season.

“What they were saying is true,” LeMahieu said. “But the best thing for me was that I came back this off-season and I said, ‘The hitter I was last year wasn’t me.’”

So he rededicated himself to being, above all, a tough at-bat for opponents, and using all fields. He is so dedicated to that ethos that he said it bothered him two seasons ago when opponents shifted their defense often against him. Last year, he pulled the ball to left field more than ever.

LeMahieu was reassured during his first conversation with the Yankees hitting coaches, Marcus Thames and P.J. Pilittere. They told him to be the best version of himself, hitting the ball to center and right fields, not necessarily over the fence. “That was the best thing I could’ve heard coming here,” LeMahieu said.

Thames said the Yankees didn’t want to change LeMahieu’s proven right-handed swing. All they did, Thames said, after examining past seasons was suggest that LeMahieu be more aggressive early in the count with runners on base. The result: entering Friday’s game, LeMahieu was second in the major leagues with a .439 average with runners in scoring position.

“He took it and ran with it,” Thames said. “He’s doing a heck of a job.”

What makes LeMahieu one of the best at making contact in an era full of players using home run-focused, strikeout-prone uppercut hacks is his flat swing that sweeps through the strike zone. Any photo of LeMahieu mid-swing shows him dropping his right knee low to the ground.

“His barrel gets in the back of the zone early and it says in there,” Thames said. “I’m a big fan of guys using their lower half and he really uses it to the extreme.”

LeMahieu shrugged off questions about his swing, saying it had evolved over the years and that he didn’t think much about its mechanics. He said he didn’t know why he was hitting for more power this season — his launch angle (6.2 percent), slugging percentage (.508) and home runs (13 home runs through 87 games) are on pace to be career highs — beyond hitting the ball hard.

“I just feel like I’m in a good place right now and my swing is repeatable,” he said.

LeMahieu said his experience with the Yankees has been everything he hoped for, despite the initial skepticism.

“It wasn’t an obvious fit,” he said. “It just wasn’t. But it worked out and it’s working and hopefully it works out in the playoffs.”

And for those fans who have been teased since January for their disbelief, LeMahieu has indeed turned out better than everyone hoped.

“This is better than the best case scenario,” Sessa said in a telephone interview. “I’m never happier to have been wrong.”

Credit: Source link

The post A Plate Adjustment Helped D.J. LeMahieu With Yankees, and Skeptical Fans appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/a-plate-adjustment-helped-d-j-lemahieu-with-yankees-and-skeptical-fans/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-plate-adjustment-helped-d-j-lemahieu-with-yankees-and-skeptical-fans from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186410131227

[weeklyreviewer]

A Plate Adjustment Helped D.J. LeMahieu With Yankees, and Skeptical Fans

Whenever infielder D.J. LeMahieu has one of the performances the Yankees have come to rely on this season — a multi-hit game with several runs driven in — the tweet officially announcing his signing on Jan. 14 resurfaces as a playful reminder of how much has changed.

“Today, the Yankees announced that they have signed INF DJ LeMahieu to a 2-year contract through the 2020 season,” the first part of the Yankees’ tweet read.

The replies weren’t pretty. “Just gonna leave this here …” read one response, followed by a screenshot of LeMahieu’s statistics from last season that showed his struggles away from the hitter-friendly Coors Field in Denver. Another response read simply, “Lol.”

“That’s a weird way to spell Manny Machado,” Anthony Sessa, a 28-year-old Yankees fan, tweeted.

For many, including LeMahieu himself, his Yankees arrival didn’t quite make sense. They had plenty of infielders, including the All-Star Gleyber Torres at second base, the position where LeMahieu had won several awards for his defense.

“I definitely got a lot of texts, ‘Surprising sign,’” LeMahieu recalled recently. His friends and former teammates didn’t understand why he went to the Yankees.

LeMahieu has not only fit, he has emerged as the catalyst for the team with the best record in baseball entering Friday. His hitting prowess earned him the nickname The Machine, coined by catcher Gary Sanchez, and his defensive versatility rescued the Yankees through all of their injuries.

“He’s been one of the most valuable players in the league,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said earlier this month. “He’s been everything we could’ve hoped when we signed him.”

Entering a game Friday against his former team, the Colorado Rockies, LeMahieu led the American League with a .329 average. He has produced key hits in critical moments. When he started at second base for the A.L. during the All-Star Game earlier this month, it proved he wasn’t just a product of Coors Field.

“That guy rakes,” Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks said. “He’s a true hitter.”

The Yankees lured LeMahieu, the 2016 National League batting champion for hitting .348, to New York with a two-year, $24 million deal. That looks like a bargain now, yet seemed puzzling when the deal was made in the winter.

At the time, the Yankees already had Miguel Andujar penciled in at third base, Luke Voit or Greg Bird at first base, Troy Tulowitzki as a placeholder at shortstop until Didi Gregorius’s return from elbow surgery in the summer, and Torres at second base. But the Yankees, who only briefly considered Machado, knew that depth was vital — and they were later proven right with substantial injuries to Andujar, Bird, Tulowitzki and others.

LeMahieu, though, was a three-time Gold Glove winner at second base, so why would he give up excellence at one position for a multi-positional role?

“Winning a Gold Glove is cool,” said LeMahieu, who had occasionally played first and third base earlier in his career. “But I think showing up to the yard and knowing we’re going to win every day is a pretty good feeling, too.”

LeMahieu, 31, pointed to a deeper reason for his willingness to sacrifice the security of second base: the Los Angeles Dodgers. All those years of facing the Dodgers, who have won the N.L. West six straight seasons and appeared in the past two World Series, showed LeMahieu the value of versatility. The Dodgers’ rosters of late have featured Swiss-Army-knife-like players who can handle multiple positions and pose a daunting challenge to any team’s matchups.

“They weren’t made to just get to the playoffs, but win the playoffs,” LeMahieu said. “You bring in a new pitcher and they have a whole new lineup. It’s annoying to play against. But I saw how it worked there and I saw it as a similar situation here.”

Even though LeMahieu had the chance to play second base more often elsewhere, such as the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees appeared to have the best offer, according to Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, and LeMahieu said he wanted to play for a team devoted to winning. No playing time was promised, LeMahieu said, but he trusted the Yankees.

“There are so many good players here and I just felt like I was going to fit somewhere or another,” he said. “I just didn’t know how.”

The Yankees bet that LeMahieu’s athleticism and drive would allow him to adapt to other positions without issue, and his high-contact approach was attractive for a home run-bopping team.

LeMahieu has displayed a little more edge than expected, from his emotion on the field to his comments off it. Earlier this season, Boone said opponents shouldn’t be fooled by LeMahieu’s quiet intensity. “He’s out there to rip your heart out.”

Before he could prove his worth in New York, LeMahieu needed to tweak his hitting. He was coming off a 2018 season in which he made three trips to the injured list and hit .276 in 128 games, his lowest totals in at least four years. And the difference between his hitting at thin-air Coors Field and on the road was more pronounced than in the past.

An underlying attribute bugged LeMahieu. Because he hit the ball hard yet at a low angle, LeMahieu said the Rockies suggested last season that he adjust his hitting angle to produce more home runs. He toyed with that and hit a career best 15 home runs, but felt inconsistent all season.

“What they were saying is true,” LeMahieu said. “But the best thing for me was that I came back this off-season and I said, ‘The hitter I was last year wasn’t me.’”

So he rededicated himself to being, above all, a tough at-bat for opponents, and using all fields. He is so dedicated to that ethos that he said it bothered him two seasons ago when opponents shifted their defense often against him. Last year, he pulled the ball to left field more than ever.

LeMahieu was reassured during his first conversation with the Yankees hitting coaches, Marcus Thames and P.J. Pilittere. They told him to be the best version of himself, hitting the ball to center and right fields, not necessarily over the fence. “That was the best thing I could’ve heard coming here,” LeMahieu said.

Thames said the Yankees didn’t want to change LeMahieu’s proven right-handed swing. All they did, Thames said, after examining past seasons was suggest that LeMahieu be more aggressive early in the count with runners on base. The result: entering Friday’s game, LeMahieu was second in the major leagues with a .439 average with runners in scoring position.

“He took it and ran with it,” Thames said. “He’s doing a heck of a job.”

What makes LeMahieu one of the best at making contact in an era full of players using home run-focused, strikeout-prone uppercut hacks is his flat swing that sweeps through the strike zone. Any photo of LeMahieu mid-swing shows him dropping his right knee low to the ground.

“His barrel gets in the back of the zone early and it says in there,�� Thames said. “I’m a big fan of guys using their lower half and he really uses it to the extreme.”

LeMahieu shrugged off questions about his swing, saying it had evolved over the years and that he didn’t think much about its mechanics. He said he didn’t know why he was hitting for more power this season — his launch angle (6.2 percent), slugging percentage (.508) and home runs (13 home runs through 87 games) are on pace to be career highs — beyond hitting the ball hard.

“I just feel like I’m in a good place right now and my swing is repeatable,” he said.

LeMahieu said his experience with the Yankees has been everything he hoped for, despite the initial skepticism.

“It wasn’t an obvious fit,” he said. “It just wasn’t. But it worked out and it’s working and hopefully it works out in the playoffs.”

And for those fans who have been teased since January for their disbelief, LeMahieu has indeed turned out better than everyone hoped.

“This is better than the best case scenario,” Sessa said in a telephone interview. “I’m never happier to have been wrong.”

Credit: Source link

The post A Plate Adjustment Helped D.J. LeMahieu With Yankees, and Skeptical Fans appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/a-plate-adjustment-helped-d-j-lemahieu-with-yankees-and-skeptical-fans/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-plate-adjustment-helped-d-j-lemahieu-with-yankees-and-skeptical-fans

[spursroundup]

Ranking all Tottenham signings since the sale of Gareth Bale

Hey everyone! It's a very slow day at work and I've been daydreaming about actually signing someone in the upcoming transfer window which led me to thinking about all the past incoming transfers. Selling Gareth Bale was the point that I believe Tottenham started to move into the next phase to where the club is at now. So here you have it, every signing ranked since the summer Bale left for Real Madrid:

.30) Vincent Janssen

Poor guy... It's tough to put him at the very bottom as he has shown brief glimpses of quality here and there (especially in his first year). However, going from a 25+ million pound signing and top scorer in the Netherlands to not even having your name or number on the match day program is pretty awful.

29) Clinton N'Jie

Someone who had so little impact on Spurs that it's tough to even say anything about him here. Never really showed what he was capable of and was sold fairly quickly after being bought.

28) DeAndre Yedlin

Strange signing even when it happened. Never showed that he had the quality for a side at Tottenham's level at any point during his career. However, he was fairly cheap, brought in some new fans from America, and is still doing a passable job at Newcastle.

27) Federico Fazio

He should feel hard done by with this transfer. Honestly he is a fairly capable CB on his day. He was just so slow and with the way Spurs play with the high line was just never going to do a good job.

26) Roberto Soldado

It hurts me to put his name so far down this list as he showed more heart than many others. He just never could quite get the confidence he needed and couldn't score from open play. We'll always have that goal against Everton though :')

25) Pau Lopez

Forgot we even signed this guy to be honest. I can't even remember if he made a single appearance for the first team. He was cheap (or even signed on a free?) though so he isn't in dead last. Yay.

24) Vlad Chiriches

The most terrified I've ever been watching a Tottenham CB. You never knew what he would do next whether it be lob it over an oncoming attacker's head or give away a PK in the 3rd minute of a game. Was never a stable part of the Tottenham back line.

23) Benjamin Stambouli

Nothing much to say about him. Never was quality enough and it was tough to understand the transfer at all.

22) Etienne Capoue

Another one in the similar vein to Stambouli, but Capoue did show good flashes here and there. Still doing a solid job for Watford so good on him.

21) Georges-Kevin N'Koudou

Similar to N'Jie in that he came from France as a pacey winger and never did much. He did jump like 5 spots in this final ranking though for that cross to beat Fulham this year. What a guy.

20) Kevin Wimmer

Was an absolute world beater that one season filling in for an injured Vertonghen, then never found form again. Strange career with Spurs and still hasn't been able to pick up form again at Stoke. While I was sad to see him go, I was mainly heartbroken that Son lost his best friend.

19) Michel Vorm

I guess you could call Michel Vorm a serviceable backup to Lloris? Never made any huge blunders from what I can remember, but a lack of game time and major positives put him far down the list.

18) Paulinho

Won't ever forget his inspired half against stoke before the dirty prick Charlie Adam put him out for a few months. More of a problem of AVB's brand of football than Paulinho's actual ability (as evident by him being pretty good for Barcelona of all teams), but he never seemed to show up for Tottenham.

17) Paulo Gazzaniga

Ok honestly, I made this list and I think he should be ranked higher. But, it's hard to justify with the very limited time he's had so far. He's been as good of a backup as you could hope for but there just isn't a large enough sample size to justify ranking him higher, especially with Lloris still being as good as he is. If this list is re-made in two years it's very possible Gazzaniga is ranked much higher.

16) Juan Foyth

Young but with lots of promise, Foyth is one to watch for the future for sure. Very prone to errors but is energetic and pretty skilled from what I've seen thus far.

15) Serge Aurier

Not quite the RB replacement we have all been clamoring for, but been good enough to be a solid rotation option with...

14) Kieran Trippier

Trippier just edges out Aurier in these rankings by virtue of being with Tottenham for longer. Neither are quite strong enough to be the first-team RB for Spurs (and I hope RB is something that's addressed this summer) but either is a fine choice.

13) Nacer Chadli

Again, partly a fault of AVB's system, but Chadli showed flashes of excellence while also being a consistently decent player. Never one to really be the star of the team, but had enough goals and assists to justify his price tag and was a solid staple of the squad for a few years.

12) Fernando Llorente

Yes he runs like a newborn giraffe but you can't deny that he has scored some CRUCIAL goals for Spurs this season. He was signed to come in and show experience and class when Kane can't play and he has done that as much as he could.

11) Ben Davies

People sometimes forget that there was a time when Ben Davies was regularly keeping Rose on the bench due to his consistency and defensive quality. Never quite as good as Rose at going forward but he has picked up the odd goal and assist here and there. I hope Davies stays with the team as long as he's happy to rotate with Rose.

10) Moussa Sissoko

Holy hell if this list was made even a year ago I think most people would have put Sissoko toward the very bottom. But dear god has he pulled through for us this year. What a player he is turning out to be.

9) Victor Wanyama

Injuries are unfortunately starting to take their toll on Wanyama and it seems like his time with Spurs is probably coming to an end this summer or next... but in his prime he was absolutely unplayable. Unbelievably strong off the ball, fantastic defensive work rate, and who could ever forget the rocket against Liverpool.

8) Lucas Moura

On his day, Lucas is absolutely immense. His pace, dribbling, and skill is untouchable if he hits form. His form is wildly inconsistent though. Against United and Huddersfield this year he was the best player on the pitch by a mile. He works hard and runs blindingly quick but does seem to have a tendency to go invisible at times. Also don't forget that when signed in January, did almost nothing that spring part of the season.

7) Eric Dier

Another player that seems to have fallen off a bit this year but Dier has been a very solid midfield option for us since Poch moved him from CB. Great player to add depth to the team and best friends with Dele on top of all of that.

6) Erik Lamela

Signed as a direct replacement to Gareth Bale, Lamela never reached even close to the highs that we were promised...... at first anyway. While I may be blinded by my giant bias for him, I don't think any other player works as hard off the bench as Lamela and he always injects a bit of creativity to the game. Most would probably rate him a bit lower but fuck it I love Erik.

5) Davinson Sanchez

Woo-hoo top 5. Sanchez is still so young, but is slowly starting to cement himself as a very solid option at the back. Whether it's filling in for Toby or Verts, or slotting into a back 3 with them he rarely puts a foot wrong and is going to be a CB of the future for Spurs.

4) Heung-Min Son

Honestly, any of these top 4 could have a case for #1. But Son gets the 4 spot here from me as early in his Spurs career he really wasn't living up to his hype. Obviously in the past two years he has been absolute quality though and as his time at Spurs continues he will only rise further up this list.

3) Dele Alli

Creative, clinical, and hilarious as well, Dele Alli is a player I hope to see at Spurs for his whole career. Changes the game when he is playing and is a positive influence on and off the pitch. Happy he has cut the shithousing out of his game a bit, and oh did I mention he only cost 5 mil and is better than Ozil?

2) Toby Alderweireld

Formed one of the best CB partnerships in the world with Jan Vertonghen by his side, helped turn the old WHL into a fortress the final season, plays diagonal balls to the wide forwards with pinpoint accuracy. Legend.

1) Christian Eriksen

The heartbeat of the team. Whether it's placing a cross perfectly onto Kane's head or Dele's boot, smashing two free-kicks in the same game, or scoring from 30 yards out in the final minutes, Eriksen is one of the best Spurs signings of the modern era. Please Levy, have him sign it.

There you have it! I almost definitely could have found something more constructive to do in my down time but I think this was a good call. Feel free to rip apart my decisions, I was going solely based on memory and researched almost nothing. COYS.

submitted by /u/fearthyfiori [link] [comments]

[buddyrabrahams]

15 key questions for NFL Week 15

It’s go-time in the NFL playoff race, with three games to go for each team bar the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers. Several teams are essentially facing must-win situations, realistically if not mathematically. One game, a matchup between two longtime AFC powerhouses, could have huge implications for both teams depending on the winner. With numerous teams fighting for their playoff lives and others for positioning, it promises to be an exciting week.

Here are 15 key questions to keep in mind for Week 15.

1. Can Pittsburgh avoid a full-blown crisis at home to the Patriots?

For the Steelers, Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots is essentially a must-win. They’ve lost three in a row and have an even more difficult trip to New Orleans looming next week. If they lose to New England, it’s entirely possible they could go onto the final game of the regular season at 7-7-1 on the back of five consecutive losses. The Patriots are coming off a brutal loss themselves and haven’t been great on the road this year, so they have the opportunity to answer some questions of their own while really hurting an AFC rival.

2. Are the Browns ready to continue playing spoiler?

Cleveland is fresh off a win over the Panthers that may have been the fatal blow to Carolina’s playoff hopes. The Browns have a chance to land a similar blow to a different opponent in Week 15 as they travel to Denver to face the Broncos. Still alive at 6-7, Denver suffered a loss to San Francisco that significantly hurts their playoff chances. It’s unlikely they would remain in contention with a loss to Cleveland at home. Baker Mayfield has been playing well, and the Broncos will have their hands full.

3. Will a new offensive coordinator change anything in Minnesota?

The Vikings are hosting a Dolphins team that has won just once outside of Miami this season, so the matchup is there for Minnesota to get back on track quickly after an awful Monday night loss to Seattle. The question is whether Kevin Stefanski, the new offensive coordinator, will have any tangible effect on Minnesota’s offense. Kirk Cousins was awful and also had weak protection, and nothing went right against the Seahawks. This is a more forgiving matchup, and they must show progress, especially with Ryan Tannehill hobbled.

4. Does Aaron Rodgers have another run in him?

The 2016 Packers started 4-6 before winning six in a row to end the season in unlikely fashion, making the playoffs. It’s fair to say that a run is even more unlikely now. They’re 5-7-1 and have yet to win a game away from Lambeau Field this season. The task to stay alive would be to win at Chicago, which just came off a game in which they completely stuffed the Los Angeles Rams. Rodgers faces an extremely tall task if he wants to get this team anywhere close to the playoffs. The road has to start this weekend.

5. Will the Rams’ offense get back on track to end Philly’s season?

The Rams were taught a lesson by the overwhelming Chicago Bears last week and now get to go back home against a Philadelphia Eagles team fighting for a playoff spot without quarterback Carson Wentz. All eyes will be on Jared Goff and the L.A. offense to see how they respond to their worst game of the season. The Eagles’ defense hasn’t been airtight this season, so the expectation is that the Rams will rebound here, especially at home. They could really stand to get the good feeling back as quickly as possible.

6. Is Lamar Jackson ready to get back on track against Tampa Bay?

Jackson produced a mixed bag against the Kansas City Chiefs, and it will be interesting to see how he deals with a Tampa Bay defense that is also a bit prone to quarterbacks who can make big plays. Jackson avoided an injury scare against the Chiefs and is set to start for Baltimore with the team in need of every win it can get to solidify playoff position. This should provide an easier test and give Jackson the chance to make some plays.

7. Can Carolina pull off a shocker to keep themselves alive?

There appears to be no end to Carolina’s freefall, and Sunday might be their last chance to stop it. The good news is they are still 5-1 at home and not out of the playoff picture yet. The bad news is that they’re facing the New Orleans Saints, who enter as the top seed in the NFC. Carolina is going to have to dig deep and find something, especially with an ailing Cam Newton struggling under center. A loss here and they’re pretty much done.

8. Will a visit from Dallas mean the potential end of the road for the Colts?

The Colts recovered nicely from a disappointing loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars to beat the Houston Texans a week ago, keeping them in the playoff race. They are home again this week, where they’ve won four of six, but they’re facing one of the hottest teams in the NFC in the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys have had their road struggles, but they’re on a winning streak. A loss to Indianapolis would leave them with a pretty tough task the rest of the way. This is a big one for them.

9. Will Seattle continue to quietly roll through the NFC?

They can’t win their division — such is the problem with being stuck in the same group as the Rams — but the Seattle Seahawks are rolling right along and can clinch a playoff bid if they beat the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners are capable of springing a surprise — ask the Denver Broncos — but Seattle is well-poised and should clinch their spot sooner rather than later. This is definitely a team to watch in the playoffs, as their defense is sturdy and Russell Wilson is a good quarterback.

10. Will Tennessee avoid the trap game that the Giants seem to pose for people?

The Giants are pretty bad this year and have long been a non-factor in the playoff race, though they’ve won 4 out of 5. They’re capable of upset wins as the Chicago Bears found out the hard way two weeks ago. The Titans will have to be on alert. They’ve battled inconsistency this season but can still move to 8-6 with a road win. Tennessee is probably the better team, especially without Odell Beckham suiting up for New York, but that hasn’t always mattered with the Giants on the field this season.

11. Is Washington capable of winning another game?

Fresh off a total disaster against the New York Giants, the Redskins have to regroup behind new quarterback Josh Johnson. They head to Jacksonville to play the Jaguars, who are 4-9 but favored anyway in this one owing to the travesty Washington turned into. Washington might not win another game all season, as their injury-depleted roster just doesn’t have the talent to trouble many teams unless they don’t show up. Jacksonville is certainly capable of falling apart, so there’s some intrigue here, even if it’s the bad kind.

12. Will Atlanta avoid looking like a disaster for a week?

Another hugely disappointing team in 2018 is Atlanta. The Falcons are 4-9, with a defense hit by injuries and an offense that hasn’t produced in any meaningful way. They’ll face the Arizona Cardinals, who are afflicted with many of the same problems, particularly on offense. This may be a chance for the Falcons to pick up an increasingly rare victory — if they even want one — and make their season look a little better than it has been.

13. Can the Texans avoid a late-season slide?

After their nine-game win streak was snapped last week, the Texans will want to ensure that it isn’t followed up by any sort of losing streak. Luckily for them, they get a forgiving opponent in the New York Jets. The Texans are still well on their way to the playoffs, but they’d like to get the division wrapped up as early as possible, and getting back on track with another win is imperative. They could even clinch if they win and Indianapolis and Tennessee both lose, so the incentive is there.

14. Will Derek Carr continue his resurgence against the lackluster Bengals?

It took quite a while, but Carr is starting to look at home under center again for the Raiders. He hasn’t thrown an interception since Week 5, but the problem for several weeks after that was that he wasn’t throwing for much else, either. That has changed. In his last two games, Carr has thrown for five touchdowns and 607 total yards, completing three-quarters of his passes. The Raiders are done, and so are the Bengals, but it could be another exhibition for Carr against a weak Cincinnati defense.

15. Can Lions-Bills be any more exciting than Detroit’s Week 14 game?

The Lions are fresh off a 17-3 win over the Arizona Cardinals. It had less to do with the defenses being great as it did with the offenses being on the inept side. The Bills have lost two straight, and they continue to average fewer than 20 points per game. In other words, this one could be a slog for both teams, as neither offense has played well at all in recent weeks. Perhaps the Bills will pose more of a challenge to Detroit, but this has a good chance of being Week 15’s ugliest contest.

from Larry Brown Sports https://ift.tt/2USLP1w

[flauntpage]

Four in a Row! Five Takeaways from Flyers 4, Maple Leafs 2

  The two teams most hockey experts were lining up as potential Stanley Cup Final opponents this season were the Edmonton Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And while the hockey media bias always skews Canadian when it can, there was at least some rationale for it. After all, the Oilers and Leafs feature two of the sport’s youngest and brightest stars in Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews.

Both teams were on the come last season and were hard outs in the playoffs. They are well managed and coached and are definitely teams who this league will see in the Cup Finals in the very near future.

And the Flyers are 4-0 against them this season.

Go figure.

To the Flyers credit, they played perhaps their most complete game of the NHL season to this point last night, defeating the Maple Leafs 4-2 and extending their winning streak to four games  – the first time they have won four straight in regulation since February, 2014. Yeah… almost four years.

They continue to get great goaltending from Brian Elliott (although the first Leafs goal was as unsightly as a big juicy whitehead on the side of your nose), Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier keep dazzling and production keeps coming from further down the lineup.

And for once, they won the possession battle, something that’s been eluding them for some time.

But, they did get a little fortunate. Matthews missed the game with an injury. Toronto, for as talented and well-coached as they are, turn the puck over a ton and are not a good possession team and the Leafs are in the middle of a five-city, five games in seven days stretch while the Flyers have been home resting for four days.

So, a lot of extraneous stuff does play into it.

Still, this was a good win for the Flyers. The most impressive of this winning streak so far. And there’s a lot to takeaway from it, so, as Kyle likes to say, let’s hit it:

1. Captain and Ginger

Come on, it’s a good mix, and you know it.

And the Flyers have found through 30 games that this is a combination they have waited far too long to try.

Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier have a special chemistry right now. Everything they are touching is turning to gold.

We’ve talked about Couturier being the breakout star, not just for the Flyers but in the NHL this season. So much so that he’ll be given All-Star consideration. So much so that he’ll finally get mentioned in the Selke conversation.

He had another goal and an assist last night. Ho hum.

But Giroux, he’s playing at a level not seen in about four years.

Giroux has been hovering around the top ten in scoring leaders in the NHL all season. With his two points last night he now has 34 this season in 30 games, which is good for 12th in the league.

Lets compare this to his two best seasons through the team’s first 30 games:

2017-18: 13-21-34 (on pace for 93 points)

2011-12: 16-23-39 (finished with 93 points, 4th in MVP voting)

2013-14: 5-15-20 (finished with 86 points, 3rd in MVP voting)

The captain is quietly on pace to match his career high in points and could potentially sneak into MVP conversation if he keeps up this pace over the course of a long season.

And he’s doing it methodically. He’s not dominating games – like he did at times in both those previous seasons.

No, he’s pacing himself well and is simply playing an all-around consistent game.

He scored a goal on a set play he said never works. He set up the game-winner with elite vision that only a few players in the sport have.

He’s been special, even if the team around him is as inconsistent as runny eggs.

And because of that, we have Couturier’s breakout season.

Couturier matched a career-high in goals last night with his 15th and he’s got 52 remaining games to break it.

His 30 points have him sitting just outside the top 20 in the NHL, but he’s a point-per-game player. His career best in points for an entire season is 39. He’s on pace to break that by January 4th. If he keeps this up, he’ll best his previous career high by more than 40 points, and that’s quite rare.

“They’re a real good combination,” Dave Hakstol said. “I think those two guys, they’re in sync. They’re working hard together and we got a good result with the game winner tonight.”

Here is that game-winner. Pay particular attention to the number of legs Giroux passes this puck between… and without looking:

Everything about this goal was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. Giroux with the crispy apple between the legs and Sean 1Couturier with the sniiiiiiiipe http://pic.twitter.com/FphfIWj0jG

— Jordie (@BarstoolJordie) December 13, 2017

“The D did a good job of getting it out and I saw Coots in a foot race and usually he doesn’t beat the other guy,” Giroux said, trolling Couturier who was standing right next to him but oblivious to the gentle jab from his teammate. “But he was able to beat him there and he got a great shot, too. He’s been playing great hockey and it’s fun to be on his line.”

It was a return of favor for Giroux, who scored the opening goal of the game after a clean faceoff win by Couturier:

Coots win the draw, then G slaps it home. http://pic.twitter.com/2hBapK9w5C

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) December 13, 2017

Couturier won seven of nine faceoffs last night. He is a respectable 21st in the league this season in faceoffs won (among players with at least 300 faceoffs), winning them at a clip of 54.1%

Which brings us to the next reason the Flyers are finding success:

2. Faceoff success

It’s not just Couturier. Giroux is seventh in the NHL at 57.4% in this department.

“It’s an area of this game, that really, [Couturier has] really taken a lot of pride in,” Hakstol said. “If you look at the numbers on both face-off dots, he’s done a real good job. And that’s in both zones, as well as the neutral zones. Sometimes we forget about the neutral zone, but if you win that draw, you get to start with the puck.”

And that’s imperative. If you want to be a good puck possession team, you have to have the puck, and winning faceoffs more than the opposition assures that. Or, at least it should.

Overall, the Flyers are the fourth best faceoff team in the NHL, winning 52.5% of their draws. Only Carolina, Nashville and Winnipeg are better. Nashville and Winnipeg are two of the better teams in the NHL so far this season and Carolina is an analytics darling – it’s a team that a lot of stat heads think is about to emerge as a dominant force in the league because of how strong they are by advanced statistical measurements.

However, it hasn’t always translated into good possession numbers for the Flyers, who still rank in the bottom third in the NHL in Corsi.

That means the Flyers are prone to turning the puck over between the time they first get the puck and before they can shoot it, which would indicate their neutral zone play leaves a lot to be desired.

Still, winning faceoffs as the Flyers do (and did again last night, claiming 56% of them) is a good first step to getting the puck and doing something positive with it.

3. Better discipline

Quite simply, the Flyers have gotten past their seemingly never-ending frustration with the officiating.

In the four game winning streak, the Flyers have only been shorthanded seven times total. It was just once last night (and Toronto scored, as former Flyer James van Riemsdyk got the goal), but compare being shorthanded 1.75 times per game to the 10-game losing streak when they were shorthanded 39 times (3.9 times per game, more than double the winning streak) and in those 39 shorthanded situations, the Flyers let up 11 goals.

I asked Hakstol about this after the game, and this was his response:

“I think we’ve had the puck a little bit more and that’s probably the first place to look,” he said. “We had a stretch there where stick penalties were getting us and those kind of penalties happen when you’re chasing a game, when you’re defending a little bit too much and that was the case during that stretch.

“So it’s not necessarily the discipline side of it, that’s the first place that I would go to and say we’ve had the puck a little bit more, we haven’t had to defend as much in our own zone, and usually that leads to a less number of penalties against.”

His answer was an astute hockey answer. It’s not completely correct (although it was for last night’s game) as the Flyers were on the wrong side of puck possession in the three games previous, but it’s a fair point.

The fact is, the Flyers are controlling the puck more time-wise. It may not be showing up on Corsi charts, but the Flyers do seem to have the pucks on their sticks more.

The negative is, it’s not leading to shot generation, but there is a sense that the Flyers aren’t running around in their own end chasing the other team and trying to get the puck as much. So, that’s a positive.

4. The Honey Bees

Well, that’s Scott Laughton and Taylor Leier. The third member of the band keeps changing about as often as a member of Yes, but they may have found the right musketeer or amigo to make their three-man band perfect.

Travis Konecny was excellent last night. It was his best game in quite awhile and it showed. The Leafs had no answer for Konecny’s speed, and with Laughton and Leier being plus skaters as well, the Bees were buzzing.

Finally, they scored this goal to tie the score early in the third period:

In his 100th career game, Travis Konecny ties this game at 2. http://pic.twitter.com/g90YmSHm9G

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) December 13, 2017

The goal was originally credited to Leier. Leier even said he thought the puck hit him. A slow mo, up-close replay showed the puck hit two Leafs – Dominic Moore’s stick and Roman Polak’s body – and never came close to Leier before going in.

But hey, the Flyers will take it.

It was an effort goal. Those bounces go your way when you are humming like this line was. It got fourth line minutes, which was a surprise since it had been getting third line minutes, but Hakstol said it’s part of the gameplan – and it was effective against the Leafs.

“I think Laughts, Leiersy, and TK played very well tonight,” Hakstol said. “Again, you guys can label them whatever you want. They’re just one of our lines. We thought that line combination made sense with the speed and pace that all three of those guys play at. It was one small tweak to our line-up that we made coming off of the road trip out West. Those guys, as well as others, played well tonight and played hard together.”

I expect we’ll see them stay together against Buffalo tomorrow.

5. The curious case of Nolan Patrick

Nolan Patrick has now played 21 games in the NHL. He’s played all of 205 minutes. Easy math shows you that he’s averaging less than 10 minutes per game – and this is for a guy who was a clear No. 2 Center for a good portion of the season.

He has two goals and three assists for five points.

His Corsi For percentage (CF%) is 39.00. It’s the worst of any player on the Flyers who has played at least five games this season.

It’s the fifth worst percentage of any player in the NHL who has played at least 20 games so far this season.

In short, the heralded rookie is struggling mightily.

Which begs this question – why the heck wouldn’t Ron Hextall let Patrick go play for Team Canada in the World Juniors?

I mean, there’s still time. He still can. But, he won’t.

And that’s where I don’t understand the hypocrisy.

We hear Hextall preach patience and development with so many young players. And yet, here he is, with the prized No. 2 overall pick, throwing him to the wolves night in and night out, and draining the rookie’s confidence.

I don’t know why the nurturing prospects mentality applies to some players and not others. I get it when you have a kid like Ivan Provorov who has the ability to just come into the league as a teenager and be very good.

But, once you see Patrick is struggling, don’t you try to find a way to build his confidence and have him improve his play?

Look, when he was “concussed,” I know for a fact he was being held out longer than usual (he missed nine games) because the Flyers were at a point where they could still send him back to his Junior Hockey team and it was being discussed.

They decided to keep him rather than send him back.

It was probably the right decision. Playing another full season of Junior hockey wouldn’t help him develop further. He dominated at that level and would simply dominate again.

No, he needs to experience the difference in competition, play against men and learn how to adapt so that he can deliver on his overwhelming potential.

But he’s barely getting a chance to play. He’s being babied at the NHL level and he’s getting killed out there – and primarily, I’m told, because he’s not a confident player right now.

The World Junior Championships are coming at just the right time then.

What harm would there be in loaning Patrick to Team Canada for a couple weeks, let him play in some high-intensity, high pressure games against the best players in the world in his age group, and maybe regain a lot of the confidence he has lost by being overwhelmed in the NHL?

Is it better for him to toil along on an unproductive line playing less than 10 minutes a night (OK, he played 12 minutes against the Leafs. They were still 12 uninspiring minutes)?

If there was even the hint of deliberation about sending him back to junior when he was recovering from his concussion, and the decision was not to send him because it would waste a whole year, isn’t this a great alternative?

It’s only two weeks. The Flyers can fill in Patrick’s empty minutes while he’s gone. They can always trot out Jori Lehtera again.

Or, maybe, they give Oskar Lindblom a chance. He scored another goal last night, making it three in four and posting 16 points in the last 21 games after going pointless in the first seven games of the season.

It’s a win/win. An audition for Lindblom and a mental rehabilitation opportunity in some pressure-packed games for Patrick.

Otherwise, the Flyers are doing himno favors by keeping him in the lineup as a third or fourth line center (which he’s not) playing very few, if any, meaningful minutes.

  Four in a Row! Five Takeaways from Flyers 4, Maple Leafs 2 published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[junker-town]

There is no set of expectations Navy and Ken Niumatalolo won’t defy

Bet against the Midshipmen. Ever. I dare you.

This preview was originally published April 28 and has since been updated.

Technically, I was right.

Technically, when I said in last year’s Navy preview that “Navy's facing more retooling than normal, and Keenan Reynolds was special. You don't simply replace him,” and “I find it difficult to imagine Navy remaining in the S&P+ top 50,” I ended up proven correct. I was right that defensive regression would be an issue, and I was right to think that turnover at QB would impact that win total. Technically, you can chalk one up for the ol’ numbers guy.

The numbers guy, however, definitely needed some technicalities to be right, though. Some quarterback injuries, too.

In 2016, Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo produced his most inspired coaching job yet. He lost the greatest Navy QB in five decades, then lost said QB’s heir apparent in Week 1. He had to deal with turnover and youth in the front and back of his defense. And yet, despite this, his Midshipmen won the AAC West title and began the year 9-2. From the perspective of Off. S&P+, they improved offensively. It was mind-blowing.

It took another quarterback injury to finally drag the Midshipmen down. Will Worth, the backup’s backup in 2015, had rushed for 25 touchdowns and thrown for nearly 1,400 yards out of Niumatalolo’s option attack when he got hurt early against Temple in the AAC title game. His team was already off to an awful start in the game, but Worth’s injury assured there would be no bounce back in an eventual 34-10 title game loss to Temple.

The next week, with sophomore Zach Abey, the third-stringer, behind center, Navy fell to Army for the first time since 2001. And despite an inspired Abey performance (278 combined rushing and passing yards), the Middies lost an Armed Forces Bowl shootout to Louisiana Tech, too. The exhilarating 9-2 start became a 9-5 finish.

Sticking the landing is hard sometimes. All the skills that it took to send you hurtling through the air with grace and elegance — the power, the speed, etc. — are worthless to you, and suddenly the only factors that matter are balance and ankles and geometry. Navy hurtled through the air with unexpected explosiveness, then fell to the ground. What I expected to become a mulligan year of sorts, technically became one. But now Abey’s back with a year of prep time. The offensive line is dealing with a little less turnover than normal. The defense returns almost all of its back eight. And somehow offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper hasn’t been hired away to become a head coach somewhere yet. Niumatalolo and Jasper have mastered every nuance of the triple option, and if they hadn’t proven it before 2016, they had after it.

In last year’s Navy preview, I also said this:

Long-term, Navy will be fine. The program kept Niumatalolo despite interest from BYU, and recruiting and depth of talent probably haven't been this strong in a long while. If there is a step backward, it won't be permanent.

There’s more turnover to deal with, to be sure, but Navy proved its upside last fall. Assuming the Midshipmen haven’t lost any sort of psychological edge following their first loss to Army in a generation, they should again play at a top-50 or top-60 level. They should again frustrate the living hell out of most of the opponents on the docket. And hell, they might even improve offensively once again. Who would bet against it at this point?

(Of course, they might want to figure out how to get that defense under control.)

2016 in review

2016 Navy statistical profile.

With help from the aforementioned injuries, Navy was about the team I expected in the first four games and final three. In the middle seven, however, the Midshipmen established a ridiculously high level of play.

First 4 games (3-1): Avg. percentile performance: 42% (~top 75) | Avg. yards per play: Navy 6.3, Opp 5.6 (plus-0.7) | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: minus-0.5 PPG

Next 7 games (6-1): Avg. percentile performance: 70% (~top 40) | Avg. yards per play: Navy 7.3, Opp 6.9 (plus-0.4) | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: plus-19.3 PPG

Last 3 games (0-3): Avg. percentile performance: 44% (~top 70) | Avg. yards per play: Navy 6.2, Opp 5.9 (plus-0.3) | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: minus-7.8 PPG

All things considered, the iffy start and midseason surge were perfectly timed. The MIdshipmen began the season with three straight teams that ranked in the triple digits in S&P+ — FCS’ Fordham, then UConn and Tulane — and managed to start 3-0 despite inconsistency and a couple of close calls.

Granted, they lost to Air Force, but beginning with the October 8 visit from Houston, this surge in quality coincided with a surge in schedule quality. Navy played five straight teams that ranked 55th or better, and the team that eked by UConn went 4-1 in this stretch.

Of course, any talk of good timing goes out the window when you think about the importance of the games at the end. Navy was already in the process of laying an egg against Temple when Worth got hurt, then completed a winless year against fellow service academies by falling to Army. Still, the midseason surge reinforced Navy’s position within the AAC and took a couple of steps toward further dispelling the notion that joining a conference would be in any way bad for the Midshipmen. Two years in, the AAC partnership has been a rousing success.

Offense

Full advanced stats glossary.

In my recent Air Force preview, I said this about turnover:

My annual S&P+ projections are derived from three factors: recent performance, two-year recruiting, and returning production. Two of those three factors don’t really apply to the Falcons; recruiting matters, but AFA’s rigorous process filters out a lot of commitments before they see the field, and returning production has an almost inverse relationship with Air Force. For the Falcons, losing a ton of last year’s production means the process is working. If you return a lot of last year’s important players, the previous senior class didn’t do its job.

There are obvious parallels between Navy’s and Air Force’s recruiting and retention. And there are obvious reasons why my method of projection for S&P+ is going to automatically downgrade service academies.

Navy has ranked an average of 52nd in S&P+ over the last four years but is projected to fall to 71st this year in part because of drastic offensive turnover. But turnover is just part of the game. The Midshipmen had to replace three of their top four rushers, three of their top four receivers, and three offensive line starters in 2015 and improved from 37th to 23rd in Off. S&P+. The next year, they replaced Keenan Reynolds, four of their top five backs, three of their top four targets, and all five line starters and improved to 17th.

Here’s what Navy has to replace in 2017: Worth, five of the top seven running backs, three of the top four targets, and three all-conference linemen. By comparison, that almost seems too easy. Time for the next batch of juniors and seniors to take over.

No matter the names of the starters, Navy’s attack is relentlessly efficient.

Navy’s success rate was more than five percent higher than anyone else’s in the AAC, and this wasn’t exactly an offense-unfriendly conference.

It would be easy to simply say that Navy’s offense will probably be very similar despite turnover, and such a statement would probably be right. But let’s take a moment to at least look into what might be unique aspects of the 2017 attack:

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Zach Abey

Zach Abey. Abey was thrown into an impossible situation. His first action came with his team down three touchdowns in the AAC title game, and his first start was in the rivalry game of all rivalry games. But his bowl performance against Louisiana Tech was intriguing — among other things, he went 4-for-6 for 71 yards on passing downs, which almost seems unfair in an option attack — and in a small sample size, his rushing nearly matched Worth’s from an efficiency standpoint while his explosiveness (9.1 highlight yards per opportunity) was off the charts. He took too many sacks and threw four picks to one interception, but the potential is obvious.

Running back depth. Does Navy have any? The Midshipmen are used to losing their starters, but last year’s backups are gone, too. Not including sacks, last year’s top nine rushers gained 4,109 yards on the ground. Those responsible for 2,913 of those yards are gone, and only one returning fullback (Chris High) and one returning slotback (Darryl Bonner) rushed for more than 71 yards. This will test the plug-and-play aspect of Navy’s backfield, perhaps especially from a blocking perspective.

Chris High. That said, the Middies still have a uniquely awesome talent in Chris High. We’re used to explosive slotbacks and fullbacks who average about 5 yards per carry, but High averaged 6.4 last year, and while carrying 224 pounds. Assuming new explosive slotbacks emerge — and it’s worth mentioning that Malcolm Perry and Jahmaal Daniel combined to average 9.4 yards per carry in reserve time — High and Abey should assure that the run game is as dangerous as ever. At least, they will as long as losing the aforementioned all-conference linemen doesn’t hurt too much.

Depth will be tested this fall, especially at slotback. But any offense run by Niumatalolo and Jasper gets the benefit of the doubt.

(Seriously, Every School Looking to Make a Head Coaching Hire at the End of 2017: take a long, hard look at Jasper. He’s ready.)

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Chris High

Defense

When you’ve got a relentlessly efficient offense capable of eating the ball for half a quarter at a time, your opponent is prone to getting restless. According to Niumatalolo’s philosophy, that’s the perfect situation for a bend-don’t-break defense to have success. When you don’t have the natural talent and athleticism to make a ton of plays, let your opponent’s impatience act like a 12th defender. Let them force the issue, and be prepared to take advantage of the mistakes that follow.

Air Force’s Troy Calhoun takes the opposite approach — his Falcon defense is aggressive as hell and has ranked in the Def. S&P+ top 70 for two of the last three years and six of the last 10. But to each their own. Both teams have won 28 games since the start of 2014, so either can work.

Navy’s approach didn’t really work last year, though. After surging to 51st in Def. S&P+ (their first time higher than 83rd since 2009), the Midshipmen plummeted back to 100th. The run defense was effective, but with a freshman and sophomore safety in the back, the pass defense was lacking. Navy ranked 121st in Passing S&P+ and 118th in Passing Downs S&P+. There was no pass rush, and the young safeties were not quite ready to pounce on mistakes in the back. Opponents produced a 156.8 passer rating, Navy picked off only seven balls in 14 games, and five opponents (including Connecticut, of all teams) completed at least 67 percent of their passes.

Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports

Tyris Wooten

That’s not going to cut it. Luckily, 2016’s uncharacteristic youth in the secondary could become 2017’s uncharacteristic continuity. Six of last year’s top seven defensive backs return, and they could get a jolt of competition from a pair of former three-star cornerbacks, junior Elijah Jones and sophomore Noruwa Obanor.

In theory, the cornerback position should be fine, especially if Jones and Obanor indeed make a push. Senior Tyris Wooten had plenty of sketchy moments, but he also defensed 12 passes, more than twice as many as anyone else in the secondary.

The safety position, however, faces the onus of improvement. And honestly, improvement should come. Defensive coordinator Dale Pehrson asked a lot of freshman Alohi Gilman last year [update: Gilman has since transferred to rival Notre Dame], and he responded with five tackles for loss (combined, Navy’s safeties had 0.5 TFLs in 2015) and five breakups. If he and junior Sean Williams are steadier, the pass defense could at least improve to closer to 100th. And the return of outside linebacker D.J. Palmore could be key to rejuvenating the pass rush a bit.

If opponents can’t pass as well, they might be forced to think about running. That would be excellent for the Midshipmen. Granted, the defensive line has to replace three of last year’s top four, but end Jarvis Polu is a keeper, and I’m really intrigued by younger players Jackson Pittman (a 315-pound sophomore nose guard) and Anthony Villalobos (a three-star junior end).

The linebacking corps should be capable of cleaning up a lot of messes, too. Six of last year’s top seven return, including Palmore and leading tackler Micah Thomas. Navy’s defense was definitely younger than normal in 2016, and the effects were obvious. But those effects could wear off now that this is again a defense dominated by juniors and seniors instead of sophomores and juniors.

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

D.J. Palmore

Special Teams

Navy’s absurdly precise offense was the main weapon for overcoming defensive issues, but special teams helped. Navy ranked 31st in Special Teams S&P+, either average or excellent in every single category. Dishan Romine was the most efficient kick returner in the nation, and Calvin Cass Jr. wasn’t that far behind in the punt returns department. Alex Barta’s kicks were high and relatively long.

Romine, Cass, and Barta are all gone in 2017, however. That’s a little scary, though there’s reason for hope — backup return men Craig Scott (PR) and Tre Walker (KR) were nearly as effective, and before losing his job in part because of a blocked punt, Erik Harris was booming punts at a 45.1-yard clip. He could be excellent in both the punt and kickoff departments, and place-kicker Bennett Moehring is at least decent: he missed three PATs and two shorter field goals but also boomed in both of his longer field goal attempts. This should still probably be a top-50 unit.

2017 outlook

2017 Schedule & Projection Factors

Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 1-Sep at Florida Atlantic 99 5.5 62% 9-Sep Tulane 94 9.5 71% 23-Sep Cincinnati 75 3.7 58% 30-Sep at Tulsa 77 -1.1 48% 7-Oct Air Force 116 14.1 79% 14-Oct at Memphis 61 -6.5 35% 21-Oct Central Florida 78 4.0 59% 3-Nov at Temple 67 -5.3 38% 11-Nov SMU 81 6.3 64% 18-Nov at Notre Dame 17 -18.3 15% 24-Nov at Houston 49 -7.9 32% 9-Dec vs. Army 102 8.9 70%

Projected S&P+ Rk 71 Proj. Off. / Def. Rk 50 / 93 Projected wins 6.3 Five-Year S&P+ Rk 2.1 (59) 2- and 5-Year Recruiting Rk 83 / 85 2016 TO Margin / Adj. TO Margin* 2 / 7.6 2016 TO Luck/Game -2.0 Returning Production (Off. / Def.) 53% (32%, 74%) 2016 Second-order wins (difference) 7.2 (1.8)

You’re not supposed to lose an all-timer at QB, lose two more guys to injury, and produce a top-20 offense. You’re not supposed to recruit at barely a top-90 level but feel disappointed with a No. 52 final ranking. You’re not supposed to win nine games at a service academy and feel underwhelmed. But this is where Ken Niumatalolo has set the bar.

Figuring out where to set expectations in a given year basically requires starting with the S&P+ projection but then applying the Navy adjustment. Returning production doesn’t impact this team the way it does most, and recruiting rankings aren’t in any way as predictive.

Then there’s the Niu adjustment. Based on win expectancy and second-order wins, Niumatalolo’s Navy wins more than a game per year than expected, and that average was calculated before last year’s 1.8-win overachievement.

There are concerns; there always are. The turnover was a little more significant than normal at running back, which could lead to inconsistency and depth issues. And we probably shouldn’t just assume that experience alone will cure what ailed the defense.

Still, this is Navy. Adjustments are necessary. The Midshipmen return only 32 percent of last year’s offensive production? That probably means falling all the way to about 30th, not 50th as projected. And the Midshipmen are projected to win about six games? I’ll set the over-under at 8 then.

Team preview stats

All preview data to date.

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Fantasy QB sleepers 2017: Criminally overlooked Rivers ready to rage

Draft Philip Rivers this year and you’ll throw up exclamatory fist pumps all season long. (AP)

“Sleeper” is a seducing fantasy term with multiple definitions. For the purposes of this column and clarity’s sake, we’re featuring undervalued players largely available outside the overall top-60. To ensure full accountability, we also included our big hits/misses from 2016. Tuesday’s topic: Quarterbacks. 

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Philip Rivers, LAC (116.9 ADP, QB15)

Producing QB1 numbers nine of the last eleven seasons, Rivers has been one of the most consistent and underrated gunslingers in the league. Closing out last season among the top-eleven fantasy producers at the position, the veteran signal caller passed for 33 TDs, which was the fourth most among QBs. He also averaged nearly 5 deep ball attempts per contest, fearlessly testing defenses with a cadre of unproven tyros. Considering the carnage that the Chargers’ offense suffered last year, the numbers that Rivers was able to put up was nothing short of heroic. Hotter than a bolo tie at a square dancing convention, Rivers is the best value at the position heading into the fall. For more on Rivers and rest of the Chargers’ fantasy future check out Pressing Questions. (Liz Loza)

Liz’s big QB hit in ’16: Matt Ryan; Big whiff: Eli Manning

Andy Dalton, Cin (124.5 ADP, QB16)

Dalton is an absolute gift at his Yahoo ADP (128.0). It was just, like, 20 months ago that we were discussing Dalton as a plausible Player of the Year candidate. He already has a 33-touchdown season and a pair of 4200-yard campaigns on his resume, and he’s set up for success in 2017. In fact, it can be easily argued that no player gained more value than Dalton during the offseason, following the additions of Joe Mixon and John Ross. He gets a healthy A.J. Green and a second-year Tyler Boyd, too. No one should be surprised by a career year (4400-35) from the Rifle. (Andy Behrens)

Andy’s big QB hit in ’16: Philip Rivers; Big whiff: Ryan Fitzpatrick

Dak Prescott, Dal (113.4 ADP, QB13)

After Tony Romo went down with an injury, Prescott took over and never looked back, quickly going from fourth-round pick to winning Rookie of the Year. He became just the third rookie quarterback ever to finish with an 8.0 YPA or better while producing a 23:4 TD:INT ratio (and adding 282 yards with six scores on the ground as well). It’s a safe bet his 0.90 INT% regresses some, but Prescott is clearly the real deal, and he has a ton of fantasy upside entering his sophomore campaign. Imagine if he gets a full healthy year out of Dez Bryant, and with all of Ezekiel Elliott’s off-field problems, it’s entirely possible Dallas will throw much more in 2017. Prescott is ready for the challenge and should comfortably finish as a top-10 fantasy QB. (Dalton Del Don)

Dalton’s big QB hit in ’16: Kirk Cousins; Big whiff: Blake Bortles 

Marcus Mariota, Ten (95.2 ADP, QB8)

Aloha au ia ‘oe. English translation: I want to frolic hand-in-hand on a sunset-lit beach with the native Hawaiian. Recall in 2016 he was the third-most valuable fantasy passer Weeks 5-12 (67.4 cmp% 259.1 pypg, 29.8 rypg, 25:3 TD:INT). In general, his red-zone and deep-ball tosses were stunningly accurate. Yes, he often bombed after halftime (87.5 QB rating) and struggled in losses (80.1 QB rating, 6.7 YPA), but inconsistency is typical with any developing star.

Well-protected, flanked by a pair of stud running backs and likely to operate in more three-WR sets with Corey Davis and Eric Decker on roster, Mariota has all the ingredients needed to plate delicious numbers in 2017. If he experiences no setbacks in his broken leg recovery, investors are looking at a top-five passer (FF: 4,000 pyds, 300 ryds, 31-33 total TDs). Roster him, and celebratory Mai Tais flow. (Brad Evans)

Brad’s big QB hit in ’16: Dak Prescott; Big whiff: RGIII

Matthew Stafford, Det (115 ADP, QB15)

The quarterback board is like the best donut shop in the city. The amount of delicious options at every price point is tantalizing, to the point that it’s even a little anxiety-inducing. Paradox of Choice is a real thing, amigos.

Stafford should be a name brand and a fully-vested guy, but for some reason he isn’t. I suppose it’s the leaguewide depth talking. Here’s his standard scoring finish the last six years: 5th, 11th, 7th, 15th, 9th, 7th. Last year’s haul came without Calvin Johnson; no Megatron, no problem. Stafford had a silly injury-prone tag tied to him early in his career, but he hasn’t missed a game since 2010 — and he’s played through some significant maladies. He’s one of my favorite value picks in the middle of the draft — you’re getting him at his floor, but there’s still upside present. (Scott Pianowski)

(I had the last pick in this thing. I could have easily endorsed any of the fine picks my colleagues selected. It’s a buyer’s market! It’s a perfect year to be agnostic.)

Scott’s big QB hit in ’16: Philip Rivers; Big whiff: Blake Bortles

Follow the Yahoo fantasy gang on Twitter: Brad (@YahooNoise), Andy (@andybehrens), Scott (@scott_pianowski), Dalton (@DaltonDelDon) and Liz (@LizLoza_FF)

[buddyrabrahams]

Each NFL playoff contender’s biggest concern

We’re slowly beginning to whittle down the list of NFL playoff contenders as teams begin to fade and fall out of the race. That still leaves us with plenty of potential entrants, though, some much more likely than others.

Even the best of these teams ave weak spots; there are, after all, no unbeatens in the NFL anymore. There’s going to be a lot of gameplanning for these weaknesses, and a lot of efforts to exploit them. Some of them will likely cost their teams a playoff game.

Here’s a look at the glaring flaw for each of the NFL’s major playoff contenders.

Los Angeles Rams (11-) — Run defense

For a team with such a talented defensive front, the Rams actually sit just below the average among run defenses this season. They’ve allowed about 118 yards per game this season, good for a modest 18th in the NFL. The worrisome performances are there; both Rashaad Penny and Chris Carson went for over 100 yards against them for the Seattle Seahawks this season, and it would probably be worse if teams could afford to run more against them. Even the team’s own players have highlighted their run defense as a weak spot.

New Orleans Saints (10-2) — Protecting Drew Brees

It only took Terron Armstead’s removal to demonstrate just how fragile the New Orleans offensive line can be. Drew Brees was limited against the Dallas Cowboys as a makeshift offensive line left him under a lot of pressure for much of the game. Armstead should be back by the playoffs, but Dallas demonstrated that a talented pass rush can get at Brees and disrupt the entire New Orleans offense. That’s a real danger in the playoffs.

Kansas City Chiefs (10-2) — Pass defense

The Kansas City run defense isn’t airtight, but it’s really rather remarkable to see a 10-2 team’s defense posting the worst set of passing numbers in the NFL. The Chiefs are permitting 295 yards per game through the air, a full 15 yards worse than the Cincinnati Bengals, who are second-worst. They have an incredible offense, but if they keep getting stuck in shootouts, it’s entirely possible that something very bad could happen to them in the playoffs.

New England Patriots (9-3) — Pass defense

From a pure numbers standpoint, the Patriots are very nearly a bottom-ten passing defense. A lot of those numbers were inflated in some early-season defeats where the team really struggled, and they have improved lately — see their excellent handling of the Minnesota Vikings’ passing attack on Sunday. However, there is a unit here to be taken advantage of by some of the league’s best passing attacks — attacks that New England will likely have to go through to win a Super Bowl.

Houston Texans (9-3) — Offensive line

The Houston offensive line isn’t elite and can really be overwhelmed by a solid pass rush. The Texans have fallen victim to 41 sacks this season, with only two teams surrendering more. Part of this is the fact that Deshaun Watson can run and extend plays, but the Texans are also vulnerable to a heavy, committed pass rush. The good news is they don’t share a conference with the Aaron Donald-led Rams, but it’s an issue that is going to come up at some point.

Los Angeles Chargers (9-3) — Kicker

Doesn’t this always seem to be their problem? The Chargers have settled on a kicker for now after releasing the struggling Caleb Sturgis and looking elsewhere. It’s led them to rookie Mike Badgley, who has only missed one field goal and extra point so far but remains an untested commodity on the biggest stage. Special teams has been a problem for the Chargers before. In the playoffs, one bad kicking game can end a season. This is a very good team with a defense that’s getting healthy at the right time. They just have to avoid a letdown here.

Chicago Bears (8-4) — Pass offense

Mitchell Trubisky should be healthy again soon enough, which will come as a big help to a Bears team that surprisingly lost to the New York Giants last time out. Defensively, they’re very sound, and they have quality offensive weapons. However, Trubisky is a second-year pro prone to bouts of inconsistency, and the Chicago passing offense is in the league’s bottom half in terms of yardage. If they fall behind and have to push for a comeback, it could be bad news for them.

Pittsburgh Steelers (7-4-1) — Turnovers

Turnover ratio has been a problem for the Steelers all year, but it’s really been exacerbated lately. The warning signs are everywhere, in fact. Only six teams have given the ball away more than Pittsburgh has in 2018, and none of them are playoff contenders. Their turnover differential is -8, which is the worst of any current playoff team. Ben Roethlisberger, with 13 interceptions in 12 games, has particularly been prone to this. These are the sort of mistakes he and his team can’t make in the playoffs.

Dallas Cowboys (7-5) — Road form

Can the Dallas Cowboys beat a quality team away from home? They’ve lost just once in Arlington this season, a surprising defeat to the Tennessee Titans. They’re just 2-4 on the road, however, and have spent a lot of the season looking like an entirely different team in that setting. The good news is they’ve won two straight on the road, including one at Philadelphia. The bad news is the other was against a Falcons team in freefall. At just 7-5, the Cowboys will almost certainly have to play on the road in the playoffs. Whether they can win there remains an open question.

Seattle Seahawks (7-5) — Beating the elite

The Seahawks appear to be the definition of a team that’s good enough to beat bad teams but not good enough to beat the really good ones. As it stands, the Seahawks are just 1-4 against teams that would be in the playoffs if they started today, and 6-1 against everyone else. That’s good enough to get them into the field, but losses against the Bears, Chargers, and twice to the Rams suggests that success is unlikely once they get there.

Baltimore Ravens (7-5) — Unsettled quarterback situation

It’s not often that you have a potential playoff team with a muddled quarterback situation, but that’s where the Ravens sit as they enter Week 14. Lamar Jackson hasn’t been lights-out, but he’s won all three of his starts and brought a different dynamic to the Baltimore offense. That doesn’t really settle the Joe Flacco situation. He’s set to come back from a hip injury and may not get his job back. The decision will have ramifications — the defense here is excellent, so much will come down to quarterback performance.

Minnesota Vikings (6-5-1) — One-dimensional offense

The Vikings have underachieved for a lot of reasons — their secondary, for instance, hasn’t been as good as it was advertised to be — but one major issue is how predictable and one-dimensional they’ve become on offense. Their leading rusher, Latavius Murray, only has 466 rushing yards. It’s not a coincidence that they’ve already lost once to the Bears, who are able to use their fearsome pass rush to get Kirk Cousins off his game, pressure him, and not have to worry about being victimized by the run.

Philadelphia Eagles (6-6) — Lack of run game

The Eagles have the same problem as the Vikings, except even more pronounced. Philadelphia’s leading rusher is Josh Adams, who has only 376 rushing yards on the season. Not coincidentally, when the Eagles rush for 100 yards as a team, they’re 6-1, with the lone defeat coming in overtime. When it’s fewer than that, they’re 0-5. Adams has been better in the last two games, both wins, and that has to remain the same if the Eagles want to get back in the playoffs.

Tennessee Titans (6-6) — Offensive inconsistency

It’s incredibly difficult to nail down the Titans, particularly on offense, which kind of sums up the biggest problem. This is a team that has beaten the Patriots and the Cowboys, becoming the only road team to win in Arlington this year. They’ve also lost to the Buffalo Bills and turned in abject performances against the Colts and Texans. Nobody knows which Titans team is going to turn up on a weekly basis, and that’s not a recipe for long-term success.

Carolina Panthers (6-6) — Cam Newton’s play

Newton is fresh off a four-interception game and was replaced on a Hail Mary attempt against Tampa Bay. He made clear that his shoulder is an issue. Carolina’s current four-game losing streak was preceded by three straight wins in which Newton was steady, efficient, and didn’t throw an interception. He’s been picked at least once in each of the four losses since, and was held below 300 yards in two of them. Newton’s inconsistent play is a big reason Carolina keeps falling just short, and may miss the playoffs after looking like a sure thing not long ago.

Apologies to fans of the 6-6 Broncos, Dolphins and Redskins for not considering your teams playoff contenders.

from Larry Brown Sports https://ift.tt/2AUH1Q1

[buddyrabrahams]

Seven teams poised to challenge for the Premier League title

A year after Leicester City surprised everyone with a shocking championship run in the Premier League, the order of the high-powered teams was restored. Chelsea took the crown last season, book-ending Leicester City’s improbable title with two championships in the past three years. Can they repeat as champs? Or will familiar faces like Manchester City or Manchester United claim the crowd.

With the 2017-18 Premier League set to get underway on Friday, here’s a look at seven clubs poised to challenge for the league’s title.

1) Manchester City

After winning their first six league games under Pep Guardiola, Manchester City looked like heavy title favorites. They promptly hit a poor run of form, slipped to the point where Champions League qualification was in some doubt, and then finished the season losing just one of their final 16 games — and that loss came at Stamford Bridge to the eventual champions, Chelsea.

Still, a third-place finish was not what City’s ambitious owners were looking for after investing over $200 million into the squad and bringing in Guardiola, who had been the most sought-after manager in world soccer. As such, even more money has been invested this summer — to the tune of $275 million and counting — with the intention of winning the club’s first title since 2014.

They have brought in three new full backs after not buying any for six years. They brought in what they hope will be a long-term answer at goalkeeper in Ederson, admitting that the Claudio Bravo experiment failed miserably. They added yet another attacking talent in Bernardo Silva to go along with Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, already two of the most dangerous players in the league. Rumor has it they’re still in the hunt for another defender and keen to sign yet another forward, be it Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez or Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe. In short, another trophy-less season will not be tolerated.

If anything holds City back, it will be the same thing that has held them back in years past. They still have yet to sign a new center back, meaning they’ll again rely on injury-prone captain Vincent Kompany, unproven talent John Stones, and the occasionally rash Nicolas Otamendi. New full backs Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker should help, but City are definitely taking a risk relying on the same unit that got them into trouble far too frequently last season. If it improves, City might be favorites for the title — their attacking play will be something to behold.

2) Chelsea

Have Chelsea done enough to retain their title? While reigning champions like to make a statement of intent that is as psychological as it is adding talent, the Blues have mostly settled for replacing outgoings.

Young midfield destroyer Tiemoue Bakayoko enters as a replacement for Nemanja Matic, while striker Alvaro Morata is in to replace Diego Costa, who is soon to depart the club after falling out with manager Antonio Conte. They’ve also brought in Antonio Rudiger. But none of these players are enough to make you jump out of your seat in excitement. Losing out on striker Romelu Lukaku after looking to be in the driver’s seat all summer was also an embarrassing affair for Chelsea. They’ll also have to contend with the Champions League this season after not appearing in Europe last term, which could have a profound impact on a squad that didn’t have to rely much on depth as they marched to the title.

The summer, plagued at one time by rumors that Conte could depart after leading the club to the title, has not been what Chelsea was looking for. Still, writing off the Blues would be a big mistake. This was a historically great team last season — their 93 points was the second-highest tally since the Premier League came together in 1992 — and that core of players led by Eden Hazard remains in place, with a manager who has a penchant for winning. There’s still an odd feeling around the club, and with the Manchester clubs spending so freely, expect Chelsea to come back to the pack this season, though they’ll still easily qualify for the Champions League.

3) Manchester United

After a surprising and disappointing sixth-place finish, Jose Mourinho managed to lead Manchester United to a Europa League title, ensuring they’d appear in this season’s Champions League. It was a vital moment for a club that have been missing from Europe’s premier club competition far too often since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. The finish meant United were prepared to heavily invest in the squad with the intention of making a run at multiple titles in 2017-18.

The signs were there for United last season. Only Tottenham lost fewer games in the league, as United’s problem was easy to diagnose — not enough goals. 54 goals in 38 teams actually gave them one fewer than Bournemouth, and a string of home draws to lesser squads led to a lot of points dropped. United’s defensive effort was second only to Tottenham in the division, but their league-leading 15 draws cost them a title challenge.

Romelu Lukaku has been brought in to rectify that. He scored 25 goals for Everton last season, and United were happy to spend nearly $100 million to bring him into the club. The other signs are good, too — Marcus Rashford looks poised to break out, goalkeeper David De Gea leads a strong rearguard, and the hope is that players like Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was inconsistent in his first year with the club, will really be settled in and ready to roll now.

Still, United have not, on paper, improved quite as much as City have, though their improvement is clear. They should find themselves in a close title race with City and Chelsea. Remember, Mourinho has won the title in his second season at every club he’s been at — and he knows it, too.

4) Tottenham

Tottenham’s lack of summer investment — to date, they have yet to sign a single new player — definitely looks very bad on paper. Sure, this was a squad that collected 86 points last season, a tally which would have won them the league a year before. They have also kept the team pretty much intact, with right back Kyle Walker the lone notable departure, a player with a ready-made replacement in Kieran Trippier already at the club. However, as with Chelsea, it’s easy to look at Spurs, then at their rapidly-improving rivals, and be disappointed.

In doing so, you also have to remember that Mauricio Pochettino is one of the best managers in England; Harry Kane is a two-time Golden Boot winner; Dele Alli has attracted interest from the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid for a reason; and no one, not even Chelsea, scored more goals or allowed fewer than Spurs did in 2016-17. Over the last two seasons, they have comfortably accrued more points than anyone else in the league, and that talent and successful bond forged between teammates should be enough to keep them in the top four.

One important thing to note — Tottenham will spend the season playing their home games at Wembley as they await the construction of their new permanent home. The Spurs played their Champions League home games at Wembley last season and struggled in them, never looking comfortable on that stage, which could be a factor this year.

5) Arsenal

The inevitable finally came to pass in 2016-17 — Arsene Wenger could no longer drag Arsenal into the Champions League. It was the first time in the Wenger era that Arsenal had finished outside of the top four, but it’s unlikely to be the last.

To their credit, the Gunners, plagued by a reputation of being too miserly, went out and spent a big sum of money on French striker Alexandre Lacazette, but that will not be enough to help them. The rest of the club has more or less stood still. Arsenal have won a staredown with Alexis Sanchez over a potential move to Manchester City, a scenario in which the club would have folded many times in the past. Still, Sanchez is indisputably Arsenal’s most vital player. He is entering the final season of his contract and appears to have no desire to sign a new deal right now, having spoken publicly about his desire to play in the Champions League. There is a very real chance that they lose him for free next summer, which would be a body blow to the club. Couple that with Mesut Ozil’s future also being up in the air, and you have a recipe for lots of distractions and incessant questions that Wenger will not like.

Already coming off a fifth-place finish, they’ve likely fallen behind Manchester United now as well. Wenger, back for another year, has lost the support of portions of the fanbase, often coming off as aloof and indifferent to the problems that plague the club. Once a revolutionary, Wenger has failed to adapt along with the sport, and while their decline is certainly not all his fault, Arsenal are paying the price for years of questionable decisions.

6) Liverpool

Liverpool finished in the top four for the first time since the 2013-14 season and, as they did after that year, look set to sell one of their best players in response. Reports are indicating that the Reds are poised to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona to replace Neymar — just as Luis Suarez went to the Spanish giants in 2014. Couple that with the fact that Liverpool have spent the summer in doomed pursuits of defender Virgil van Dijk and midfielder Naby Keita, and you have a lot of red flags.

Liverpool still have talent in attack, with a unit that dazzled at times under manager Jurgen Klopp last season. When Sadio Mane was on the team, Liverpool were a different beast, and it’s fair to say his absence in January to play in the Africa Cup of Nations had a palpable impact on the club’s form. Mane, Roberto Firmino, and Divock Origi will once again join together to create a frightening attack, joined by new signing Mohamed Salah, who should have a much better time of things at Liverpool than he did at Chelsea in his previous Premier League spell.

Liverpool’s defense conceded 42 goals in 38 games, the second-worst mark of any top six team, and they’ve done little to address that over the summer. Klopp’s intense style of play seemed to wear on the team after the new year, which could become an even bigger problem this season with Liverpool having added little in the way of depth and now having to balance Champions League obligations with league games. These factors could keep them from finishing higher in the table.

7) Everton

Everton probably don’t have a realistic shot at winning the title, but could make a run at a Champions League spot if they have an excellent year while one of the bigger teams has a bad year. Everton lead the charge among this group, having reinvested the money they got for Romelu Lukaku into three major signings: creative midfielder Davy Klaassen, defender Michael Keane, and young goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. All of these players are young — Klaassen and Keane are 24, while Pickford is 23 — and Everton clearly have an eye on building a successful core for years to come.

The trick for Everton will be replacing the goals they lost when Lukaku moved to Manchester United. The Wayne Rooney signing will provoke a lot of sentimentality for the club, but he’s not the player he once was and will not be able to do it all by himself. They’ve also brought in 22-year-old forward Sandro from Malaga, where he scored 14 goals in La Liga last season, but the adaptation to the Premier League will be difficult. If Everton can find enough goals, they’ll be okay, but Lukaku won’t be easy to replace.

from Larry Brown Sports http://ift.tt/2uo3e8C