PLAYOFFS?
Holy crap that season went by quickly. TOB looked up and all of a sudden the season ends in two days. Maybe it was hard to notice between the hockey playoffs, basketball playoffs, pro and college football. Nope, it was probably the WNBA that stole my attention. Go Mystics! (Editors note: TOB is unsure if the Mystics are a team or if they are currently still in play for whatever format the WNBA is doing, it just feels like I’ve seen that team name before in some cross promo). Glad to see the Big 10 and Pac 12 are going to fire up the season after all, welcome back from Mount Pius. Turns out that giving something a try is better than just sitting back and hiding behind how the science is currently interpreted. “Wait, the SEC, Big 12, and ACC are making this work…and they’re getting how much money for this? Um, maybe the science says it’s okay to play football now…” The Pac 12 really doesn’t need to bother, they aren’t making the playoff anyway, just play amongst yourselves on Fridays at 9 pm when no one is watching. The only two reasons to watch the Pac12 in the past (Mike Leech and Lane Kiffin) have infiltrated the state of Mississippi – be on the lookout for pirate gear and Tommy Bahama visors.
Hope you’re all being safe out there and not getting caught up in any umbrella schemes. They are running rampant these days with everyone working from home. (Editors note: Did you mean pyramid scheme? – Yes she did).
Fantasy football drafts are back and TOB had a whopper two weeks ago. A veteran in the league decided against a keeper this year, just wanted a clean slate. TOB respects that, but with this league you lose the pick from the round you drafted the player, so value is everything. TOB kept Lamar Jackson as a 5th round pick, but probably wouldn’t have if he was a first or second rounder. Said veteran member chose not to keep Cortland Sutton of the Denver Broncos, as a 15th pick, instead he drafted him in the 6th round, thereby losing 9 rounds of value. It’s difficult to know why this person keeps coming in last place. TOB’s advice was also ignored for the first overall pick. The Pooper Dumps took Saquon Barkley #1 overall despite TOB’s urging that Zeke Elliot was the safer pick. Five fantasy points into the season Barkley is out for the year. Hate to see it.
TOB loves the Zoom happy hour mix up commercials. Keep them coming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=negeco0b1L0
TOB does not love Charter, or their commercials. There is an interview style commercial currently running in the St. Louis area where the Charter representative (whom I can only assume is named Karen) is telling people how much faster and better Charter is than their current provider. As a charter customer, I can confirm those things are not true, also, this lady was at best a 4 (in her prime, if she had one). She most closely resembles the female principal from South Park. Aren’t you supposed to be attractive to be on TV? That’s why I’m sitting here writing a blog, no visuals!
General Observations:
TOB cannot stress enough how fast this season went. Difficult to even get in the flow of things, though the vast amount of double headers the Cardinals had to play have been a lot of fun to watch. Not used to the 7 inning format yet, but I don’t hate it. Eight teams qualifying for the playoffs, now that TOB does not enjoy.
Various Team TOB observations:
St. Louis Cardinals: Well, we were mostly right. They are 2 games above .500 with 4 games to play. Win two more and they are in the playoffs for sure. Lose 3/4 and they probably miss out. Unfortunately the play here is to win exactly two and drop to the 6th or 7th seed so they don’t have to play the Padres in the first round. Save that for Miami or Cincinnati.
Trevor Bauer: A TOB favorite, he may be on his way to the Cy Young. Two weeks ago, personal rival and legal council, Steve Gerring had all but given the award to Yu Darvish. While his season has been impressive, Bauer is leading the NL in ERA, strikeouts, and WHIP (with two shutouts in there, very impressive in this day and age). He’s been pitching on three days rest to push the Reds into the playoffs, if he gets another quality start in he’s likely your winner. Also, he’s already given himself the award, so there’s that.
Shane Bieber: The more famous Bieber brother, Shane has all but locked up the AL Cy Young. Leads the AL in all of the same categories and is likely done for the regular season. Impressive year, would have been nice to see him make about 20 more starts to see if he could sustain.
Luke Voit: Currently leading the “Former Cardinal All-Stars” contest. Voit has 7 fewer homeruns this year (21) than the Cardinals regular starting line-up COMBINED (28). He certainly didn’t have a place on the team when Goldy came over to play first, however with the DH now in place he would be a welcome bat hitting 4th instead of Pauly D. St. Louis’s own, we miss you Luke…
Yadier Molina: Collected hit number 2,000 last night. Only the 12th catcher to have 2,000 hits. That was hard to believe but with a position that does so much damage to the body it’s not surprising that those guys just don’t have very long careers. Even a guy like Joe Mauer who was routinely collecting bathing titles finished his career with 2,123 hits. If a man on the street had asked TOB how many hits Joe Mauer had, the guess would have been closer to 3,000 than 2,000. While national media seems to think he is a fringe HOF candidate, this hopefully puts him over the edge. The defense alone would make him on the fence, that he has become a very competent offensive player (five seasons over .300 average) should make him a shoe in, if not first ballot.
Astros Watch:
Oh, it looked for a brief time that the ‘Stros were going to miss the playoffs and TOB was delighted. Limping in as the 8 seed to hopefully get smashed by the Rays or Twins will have to do. Also, why do they get abbreviated as ‘Stros, that’s much more of a pain in the ass to type than Astros (Editors note: Can confirm). Just another reason to dislike this franchise. Let’s see how some of these All-Stars are faring this year without the aid of trashcans:
Jose Altuve: .225/.288/.628 – Wow, what a fall for a former MVP. Apparently knowing what’s coming is more valuable than just being a little “Spark Plug.”
Carlos Correa: .256/.321/.685 – What a turd (though he would be about the 2nd best hitter in the Cardinals line-up, even with these stats).
Alex Bregman: .254/.361/.819 with 5 HR and 20 RBI – Stretched to a full season that’s 15 HR and 60 RBI. A bit of a departure from 41 / 112 from just a year ago. I wonder what happened???
Further Astros Watch:
As noted, TOB has a bet with Robert the Cheech about how many time Astros players will be hit. TOB has found it interesting how many players the Astros pitchers are hitting in a weird form of pre-retaliation (that may not be a thing, maybe TOB absorbed that from a conversation with the special lady, either way you get it, so we’re sticking with it). Let’s keep a running tally:
Astros HBP: 22
Astros Pitchers Hitting Opponents: 26
Outrageous! Not really, but may as well play up the bit…
Best Moment of the Year (to date):
As we reported earlier, Molina recorded his 2,000th hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajv1WZh6N3A
Classic Molina single, two strike pitch that he drives to right center field. They may have to bring him back again next year, he’s still quite productive. He and Wainwright found the way back machine.
What’s Annoying TOB this Week:
If you’re playing from the front tee boxes, do not hit into our group. You’re not good, as evidence by your tee box choice, so just take your time. TOB is not good either, but dodging your errant shots isn’t helping.
Bowling League:
TOB has become a man of leisure. Moving on from the golf league to the bowling league…nice. Week one in the books and there is no way to tell how we did (handicaps haven’t been established yet), but it was great to get back out on the lanes. Two great places to lose your temper, a golf course and a bowling alley. TOB does both very well.
-Tony on Ball
