Winston

Especially since today is already a holiday...

Judge saved my ass :)

His BABIP is .426 this year. That's nuts. For comparison, Trout pretty much led the way last year and his BABIP was .371 I think Judge could stay up there with the league leaders like Trout, because he hits the cover off the ball. But look for his BA to drop big time as luck runs out.

Ryan Howard is 6'4" 240lbs. I think that's what's up with Judge. Guy is just huge. I think his natural strength combined with bat speed give him an epic combination. He's been very lucky with his BABIP and HR/FB%. I think both will regress a little, and he'll still be a stud. Now, could the balls be juiced this year? I'm not privy.

Who's taking the HR derby tonight? Any guesses? My picks: Stanton over Sanchez Moustakas over Sano Judge over Bour Blackmon over Bellinger Stanton over Moose Judge over Blackmon Judge over Stanton in the epic showdown everyone deserves.

19 players at development camp are older than Jack Eichel. Chew on that tidbit for a minute. For the matter, 13 players at development camp are older than Reinhart.

Oh yeah, I'll be there for the inspection, following them around and soaking everything up like a sponge! Planning to learn a lot, and lean on my dad to fill in my homeowner knowledge gaps. Hey, when rent is $15,000 a year, you're pretty quick to sign away your life and start building some equity! We plan to stay in Columbus 5-6 more years. Probably no more and no less. My wife will finish out her PhD program, and then we'll flock to the east coast and settle where her industry is booming. From a financial standpoint, buying a home makes a lot of sense for us right now.. That is, until you factor in my desire to go back to school for a teaching license this fall :P

Thanks! Yeah, that'll be the toughest thing here.. We've been so frustrated that we're missing out on house after house, even ones we aren't super into. Now the one we loved falls right into our lap, so it won't be easy to accept that there might be major concerns revealed in the inspection. We shall see!

Yesterday I complained how hard it is to tour a house, let along make an offer, before it goes into contract. The market right now is just scorching around here. Well yesterday afternoon, the home we reallllllly wanted came back on the market. We hadn't seen this one, but knew from the listing and pictures that it had everything we wanted and more. Quite literally twice as nice as some of the comps we have seen. We got in just a couple hours after it was relisted and we liked it just as much in person, so we submitted an offer. This morning our offer was accepted. Still some hoops to jump through with inspection regarding a few disclosed issues, and of course need to get finances in order with the bank. All of which is a whole new world for this first-time home buyer. But I'm excited and optimistic this'll all work out.

I've been following your updates on your sister, but I didn't put two and two together that she was in the Columbus area. Should have because I know of your Ohio roots and then you said she works with Honda (presumably in Marysville?). My BIL works for Honda up there. In a roundabout way, it's why I'm living here now. If you are down here, definitely shoot me a PM. Happy to meet up and grab a well deserved beer with you. Sounds like mixed news on the surgery- not good that they found so much, but good that she's already well enough to head home and feel okay. Hoping to hear some positive updates of recovery!

Trying to buy a house in Columbus... Houses we have seen: 2 Houses that have gone into contract the first day listed before we could even get there to see them: 7 One of the homes we did get to see was on Lehner Road. I thought that was neat, but let's just say that the house looked more like Lehner in a shootout. Hard pass on that one.

Here's a quick chart I put together (sorry for the gap, going Excel to PDF). Maybe it'll lend some insight into what Kane is worth relative to his peers. It shows all LW that scored more than half a point per game during the 2016-2017 season. Each player's contract information is to the right, including years, average annual value, and the year it was signed. At the bottom are some averages. This is no fancy math, but it also isn't Hammy-math. When I have a bit more time, maybe I'll add what age these contracts were signed at. Also would be valuable to see what their season immediately before looked like. Of note, four deals were struck this offseason. Drouin signed for 5x6.5 in Montreal. I think he's better and has more upside than Kane. Then again, Marleau got $6.25M per year from Toronto. Pearson got 4x3.75 from LA. Teravainen got 2x2.86 from Carolina. Right now, Kane makes $5.25M per year. I would be in favor of extending him, but I don't think he has earned a big raise. 5X5.5M is probably where I would aim. Take it with a grain of salt, but the averages say 5x5. Of painful note- our 5x5 LW didn't make the 0.5 PPG list :P

Forums are really cool. My dad used to own a couple powersports forums while I was growing up. He met all sorts of people from all walks of life. Today we met up with an old internet pal of his. He hasn't seen this guy in 15 years (meaning I've never met him because I was a youngin back then). But we met up at a brewery, and he was like an old friend. We talked for hours over good beer and pretzels. Big hockey fan too!

I LOVE today's trade. From a hockey perspective, I won't miss Foligno too much. I believe he is fairly easily replaceable from one of our prospect forwards. But from a fan perspective, I'll miss him. If he winds up getting flipped to Columbus (where I attend a handful of games each year and casually root for the Jackets), and he gets to play with his Brother, well that would be pretty neat.

Scandella-Ristolainen McCabe-Bogosian Beaulieu-Antipin is my guess for d pairings. If Antipin proves he sticks and Bogo proves he stinks, then flip flop them. With all these lefties, it sure seems like Antipin will have to play his off side. But he has before for Russia with some success, right? The additions of Scandella and Beaulieu to the left side probably ensure that Guhle stays down and develops the Pittsburgh way. Nothing wrong with that.

McKenzie reporting Ennis and Foligno to Min. Gotta be picks involved??

:P https://www.google.com/amp/www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/look-bills-create-highlight-video-with-no-tyrod-taylor-fans-go-nuts-on-twitter/amp/

Found a new favorite local brewery near me called Pigskin Brewing. They had their Vanilla Porter on tap, which is generally my favorite variety of beer. Theirs was very good. Neat part is that they also had the same porter on tap minus the vanilla. That's something I do with my beer when brewing- leave a small portion aside when adding the flavors at a transfer. That way you can taste your creation both "plain" and "flavored." At the brewery I tried them side by side, and also had a delicious teriyaki chicken flatbread that paired surprisingly well.

The extension he reportedly turned down during the season was 7 years, $42M. That's right about what I think he'd get on the open market. Last year I wanted Yandle, who got 7 years, $44.5M. Yandle was coming off seasons of 53, 52, and 47 points. He was 29 years old when signed. Shattenkirk is coming off seasons of 44, 44, 56 points. He is 28 years old. It's one of those two-sided contracts. Do I want a 50 point Dman added to our offensively challenged blue line? Hell yeah. Do I want to pay Shatty $6M when he's 35? Hell no. Would I take the production now and deal with the latter when the time comes? Probably, because good teams find a way to make those things work and I'm hoping to become a good team.

Welcome back! One of my groomsman was also observing Ramadan, and my wedding fell right in the middle. I was actually a bit concerned for him on the wedding day, because it was HOT outside. We took our pictures before, so we spent a lot of time running around outside before the ceremony, which was also in the bright sun. But of course he is accustomed to the fasting, so he was just fine. We set aside food and dessert for sundown.

I'm with you, for sure. You won't catch me arguing that it makes any sense. At the start of the year, there were plenty of rumors about Hamonic's unhappiness. He seems like an incredible guy, so I find it hard to believe he'd be a negative influence in the locker room. But maybe it was best for the player and obviously the return was good, even if the timing isn't sensical.

I think Eberle is a shiny new toy to convince Tavares to stay

Minnesota will be in Columbus twice in December to play OSU. I'll try my best to get to both games and catch him live!

I envision him as Jack's LW of the future. So I don't think he will muddy the Reinhart situation any. But that's just my guess

"Slick Mitts" is what I'm gonna call a guy named Mittelstadt who can dangle like he does.