slikmar

Smith seemed to feel the worst missing hers, but 2 veterans, Rapinoe (a PK specialist) and O'Hara (seemingly subbed in to take a PK) both missed. I feel bad for Smith as she was our best player all tournament. Ertz retires from USWNT, Rapinoe already said retiring, wouldn't be surprised if O'Hara and Morgan not far behind, so let the next generation take full control.

Rapinoe is clearly not the player she once was and even the announcers were trying not to say that they thought she was a bad sub. I would have put in Thompson for 15-20 mins and let her speed worry the back line of Sweden with Smith and Williams, then subbed Rapinoe in for Thompson if came to PKs, which it did.

You forgot that said closer, an All-Star, was 22 for 22 in save situations this season.

Angels problems are multiple, though partly addressed and health might do more, but their young starters can't seem to pitch more then 5 innings and their bullpen are top 5 in blown holds/saves, with the exception till now of the above mentioned Closer. 2nd is that they are 23rd with RISP, take Urshela (broken hip) out and bet they would drop more. They score runs, but a lot by HR, solo ones at that. I joked last week that you might be best suited to just intentionally walk the first 3 guys each inning. Against Toronto last week, we lost a game 4-1, twice we loaded the bases, once with 0 outs the other with 1, we scored 0 runs. We then, the 3rd game, we ended up winning also loaded the bases and we got a run, on a pitch that hit our players face and took him out for rest of the season. Too many players, and sadly includes Ohtani at times, that just want to hit HRs so flail at everything. The game we gave up GS in 9th last night, the starter for SEattle, Woo, is known for struggling badly against left handed hitters, 7 of ours in lineup were left handed, except Ohtani who Unclevlad mentioned what he did, we flailed at pitches out of the strikezone all night. what will be remembered is the GS, but, IMO, that game should have been a blowout by the 5th inning with us in their bullpen.

3 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Hopefully 3 will be better than 2.   Better than 1 would be good too.

2 could have been so good but they wasted Cheetah. Also, I think getting Steve back should have been someone (villain) else's thinking they were giving her what she wanted, but maybe her real want should have been to be able to go home to Themiscyra and see her family (which was written into one of the reboots, the one I think they are using where she is Zeus's daughter*) and then finds out it isn't real, just an illusion to keep her busy. Her greatest wish should NEVER have been wanting Steve back and she shouldn't have needed him to convince her that stealing another person's body was ok.

*I also felt the movies (and comics) missed a major boat. Instead of Zeus's daughter, they could have made her the daughter of Athena (you know, THE warrior woman of the Greek Pantheon and the goddess associated with wisdom, craft, and warfare) shapeshifted (how many times has Zeus pulled that) to impregnate Hippolyta.

Went and saw Haunted Mansion today, better than I expected and worth seeing. All the silliness of the Haunted Mansion done pretty well with an interesting understory of the characters.

Just watched the ends of the Colombia/Morocco and Korea/Germany and props for Korea showing up.

Round of 16, there might be better games but I bet the Colombia/Jamaica will be the most fun.

USA will be without Lavelle for that game so am curious about how they play. Not sold on the coaching right now, they bunch up to much and their offense is one dimensional, or at least feels that way. also the 4321 setup seems to not work and they should switch back to a 433. Their Young speedsters in that setup are sitting too far back and having to dribble the ball too far.

There was a Twilight Zone episode called A Nice Place to Visit that was quite literally that. Great episode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nice_Place_to_Visit

Going to guess you mean the series and NOT the Pauly Shore movie.

On 7/31/2023 at 11:26 AM, Christopher R Taylor said:

I just liked the Death thing a hell of a lot better.

And could have worked in the MCU if you substituted Hel for Death, not a stretch. The reason he stopped looking for the Stones was she wasn't around anymore, as Odin had locked her away. Then she reappeared, but before he could get to her, Thor, with Surtur as his weapon, kills her. So now, he wants the stones to sacrifice half the universe as a tribute to her death.

Angels also got a solid reliever in the Giolito trade. the thing about the 2 prospects they sent. Quero, the catcher, is a top 100 rated prospect, switch hitting 19 year old catcher with power, but with O'Hoppe due back and the emergence of Thaiss as a left handed catcher, their wasn't going to be room for awhile for him. Ky Bush, the pitcher they sent, not sure how he is their number 3 prospect. between rookie and single A, he has a 7.2 ERA this year.

Funniest things about the 2 guys they got from Colorado (trades of need with Taylor Ward needing surgery on his face after being hit by a fastball and Trout still out and a lack of true 1st basemen), Randal Grichuk is the person the Angels took just before Trout in the draft (they had the 24 and 25 picks) and Cron was also an Angel originally, but eventually was blocked by Pujols at first base.

4 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Several circumstances worked against the movie doing well at the box office

The prior D&D movies potentially being the biggest.

I think it goes back to my opinion on certain studios - Pixar maybe being the most obvious. Saw Elements this week, not my favorite Pixar movie, but their "bad" movies seem to be in better then 75% for entertainment value than anything else out there. I feel Marvel is in that category, where I enjoy their movies more then 60% of the other stuff that comes out.

4 hours ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

So shouldn't be long until you are.

First one Flames? forgot they were in Atlanta. Did have to look up the Rockies, totally forgot about them.

3 hours ago, Pariah said:

Speaking of which....

 

         

Harder to believe she is 50 or married to Jerry O'Connell.

6 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I actually had Godzilla invade Chicago in my Champions game.  The supervillain of the campaign was named Cinema, a guy who can manipulate reality, but is fixated on movies and TV, so that's the only stuff he creates with his power.

5 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

That smacks of The Producer, from Aaron Alston's Strike Force campaign world. Deranged android builder who staged "movies" starring androids duplicating actors from the entertainment world of any era, or other celebrities from any field. A Godzilla knock-off was one of his creations.

One of the characters in wildcards had the ability to change into movie monsters and was Kong climbing Empire State Building iirc.

The problem is, MLB set rules to help the game get in motion away from the 3 true outcomes (strikeouts, walks, HRs) and its working, but that means we have a whole generation of players not actually trained for said motion.

Wait, does that mean we can petition to have Florida join the european Union and no longer be part of the United States?

I believe in the axiom that the reason any warning label/sign comes into existence is because someone tried it and then tried to sue the company for not warning them. My hope is they failed, but honestly, not sure that will be true.

15 hours ago, Pariah said:

So, what to watch next? I've been catching the occasional episode of the original series. I'm about a third of the way through season 2, as I recall. Maybe I'll pick up there and finish watching it. And maybe I'll watch a few of the movies as well.

I would recommend The Orville. We don't get to watch the continuation on streaming due to reasons, but when was on normal tv, felt like the best Star Trek (even though wasn't) going.

My thought was that someone once attacked Monica Seles because she was winning against Martina Hengis, and I fear that the fans of riders might be just as crazy.

So, much like her husband John Morrison (or Johnny ? where the ? is based on whatever organization he is in) Taya was brought in to be an uber threat without actually winning a belt or beating anyone but squash targets.

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

 

WOW.  Short TT...35-36 minutes for much of the field, the climbers and such more like 40.  The time difference between 9th and 20th was 31 seconds.  Pogacar blew the field away by more than 70 seconds.

 

Vingegaard scalped Pogacar by almost 100 seconds.

 

The GC just went from close to not close at all.  Vingegaard hasn't won it;  Bad Things are always possible.  There are 2 more nasty climbing stages left, as well...but Vingegaard is the overwhelming favorite now.

So what your saying, barring crazy fan/idiotic paparrazzi/or drunk spectator...

12 hours ago, Pariah said:

Shohei Ohtani is a generational talent. For the love of all that is good and holy, don't let that man go the the Dodgers, Mets, or Yankees..

You obviously have not gotten the memo from MLB. Every generational player should go to the Yankees or Dodgers, otherwise whats the point. My brother got so frustrated sunday with the espn guys talking about Ohtani needing to be in a big market. Hey, idiots, the Angels are in the Los Angeles/Orange county area, one of the largest markets and the same one as the Dodgers. But what they all mean is he needs to be a Dodger or Yankee. They felt same about Trout when he signed his contract.

This weekend was especially painful as an Angel fan. Even after their disastrous 10 games going into the break, they have a 9 game homestand, 3 games against Houston, NY and Pittsburgh. win 2 of 3 against each and you are back in the picture realistically. Some of the IL, most specifically the rookie SS who, without being all-star level, somehow turned your season around before, is back as is the guy who was your early setup guy, Moore. Ohtani to start first game aaaannnnnd blister problem rears its ugly head after being staked to 2-0 and 4-2 leads he leaves giving up 5 runs with 1 out in 6th, and of course person out of bullpen proceeds to allow 2 more runs, in case we might have a comeback in us (our bullpen has been atrocious). Saturday, starter leaves after 6 innings and 4 runs, only down 1 run when reliever comes in and gives up 5 runs so another blown game except Angels come back and score 6 to tie game, but our bullpen not to be outdone immediately gives back 2 in 8th and 1 in ninth. But somehow Angels scrape 3 runs in 9th to tie and then our one consistent guy, Estevez, holds the 10th and on an error by Astros, who don['t make many, angels win in 10. Then sunday hoping saturday can be that type of game that gets a team going, and certainly looked it as Angels take a 7-3 lead into 8th. So our manager, who I think has made a lot of in game WTF moments, brings Estevez, who is 22 for 22 in closing, in the 8th (assuming to face top of order) and he proceeds to give up a 2r HR so now 7-5 and not available for 9th, so in comes Barria - bullpen era under 2, overall over 4 due to some bad starts) and he proceeds to give up 4 runs because we can never just give up 1 or 2 it feels like. Ohtani HR in 9th to lead off and final 9-8. So 26 runs in 3 games against team we are chasing and lost 2 of 3 giving up 28 runs and now instead of 4 out of playoff spot we are 6.

On a note, Angels will not trade Ohtani, the pr hit and the number of fans wanting refunds for tickets will be to huge. Also, I think Moreno thinks he can resign him.

And does anyone want a 3rd baseman who played the most games prior to signing a huge contract with us and has yet to play more then 30% of the games since then or hit over 240?

4 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Diamondbacks have come back down from their June run.  Lost 8 of 11 in July.  Worse, scored 7 once, 5 once...ok...but 3 runs twice.  Yeah, 7 times, 2 runs or less.  Game yesterday in Toronto...the 2 they did score, were by a whisker.  Runners on 2nd and 3rd, 2 out.  Ground ball to second, but the Toronto 1st baseman moves a step or two too far trying to field it.  He tries to get back to the bag, the pitcher's trying to cover.  1st baseman has the ball...his foot is coming down *just* as the runner's foot is, as well.

 

Call went to appeal.  SOOOO close that whatever the call on the field was, was gonna stand, it was way too close to overrule.  Batter called safe.  The runner on 2nd was heads up and scored.  

 

But that was it.

 

Same thing with game 1 of the series, Friday.  Bad baserunning...both sides, actually, but more by the D'backs.  Repeatedly failing to get the key hit with RISP.  Dodgers have now surged into 1st...again.  Next 6 games?  In Atlanta, in Cincy.  Reds might've cooled off some, too, but they're an incredibly dangerous offensive ballclub now, and given the scoring issues...not a good arrangement.  

Wait, are you sure that A doesn't stand for Angels? Sounds just like them.