Just because I'm reading an article about it, thoughts on MLB expansion and realignment based on geography?
Styark on Athletic. Biggest thing on there I didn't realize was he ranked Nashville as #4 city for expansion/relocation.
I don't think there really need to be any more teams (in any of our 4 major leagues, honestly) but I do think the non-Florida South should have more teams than just Atlanta. I'm not sure Nashville could support NHL, NFL, MLS and MLB, but it's growing enough that it's possible. I've thought of Raleigh-Durham as a possibility too, as a (very) fast-growing area that generally likes baseball and only has one other pro team.
Hilarious. Which leads me to this... My freshman year of college I had missed a good portion of the fall/winter from wrist surgery. So I started the season in the pen. Was out of shape bad. Opening weekend we are in Georgia. We stop off Thursday and coach takes us to Ryan’s steakhouse. I eat way too much and apparently some chicken I (and two other teammates) ate made me sick as a dog. I shit like a goose on the back of the bus en route to the stadium the next morning. (You can imagine how the upperclassmen took to a freshmen dropping an atomic bomb in the back of the bus.) Miss the better part of BP on the throne in the clubhouse. And then shit twice in the bullpen. I think I’m ok though and coach knows I’m sick so no way I’m going in. Bottom 7 out comes our third string catcher hauling ass with his mask and shell in hand. “NYY, you’re up.” 15 bullpen pitches later and I’m trotting in from right field and I’m literally squeezing my ass cheeks closed out of pure will. Runners on second and third. 1 out. Tie game. You get 8 warmup pitches from game mound. Pitch number one I snuck out a little fart. Which gave me a false sense of hope. I hadn’t shit like a goose in about 5 innings. So I think I’ve got this. Prior to the last warmup pitch I rear back cut loose which I always did on last one... and shit all over myself. And when I mean all over, I mean filled my panties full. Finish the inning with a comebacker ground ball and a strikeout. Go flying in the dugout and this was when underarmour first came out. Took off my sliding shorts and that shit was halfway up my back. Head coach walks over and said “what the [uck fay] is wrong with you?”
Pretty stupid that the reward for being a 100+ win runner up in the AL East is a 1 game playoff vs James Paxton
Good article about the shift http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24049347/mlb-hitters-explain-why-just-beat-shift
It's mostly guys justifying what they do. "It's completely right for me to keep doing the thing that isn't working very well." WOuld have been more interesting to have talked to somebody who could go the other way, or even a "shifty" manager about what he's afraid of. In the Dodgers/Angels series last week, there was so much room on the left side that I think hitters could have bunted for a DOUBLE. They had 3 infielders between 1st and 2nd and four outfielders, all from left center to the 1st base foul line. Meanwhile, some of those guys explaining how dumb it is to try and slap something the other way were hitting beautiful fly ball outs. Defense has evolved to stop dead-pull hitters, and dead-pull hitters are dead-pulling right into the defense.
If I was manager and I saw a hitter pull into a shift, I would bench him. "Poke it opposite field or you are benched."
