slikmar

Cosplay done right. 
 

Walk Judge and you have runners on 1st and 2nd, none out.  What's the run expectation in that situation?  OTOH, *if you can get Judge out* you're in great shape.  That's the analytical though process...and its flaw, to overvalue the self-validating outcome and undervalue all others, and to lose the individual player impact in the sea of numbers.  
 
Now...what was the actual strategy?  I was loosely watching.  The pitches weren't that close.  So, was it a semi-pitch around?  Pitch carefully, don't give him anything to hit, if you walk him...not great but manageable?  That's just a recipe for disaster.  And when you get to 3-1, WALK HIM.  Because at 3-1 the hitter's waiting for a mistake.  Was it pitches just missing from the start?  Still get to the point that at 3-1, disaster's looming, and the worst-case scenario is becoming too likely.
 
The Twins are not a good team, either.  Yeah, fine, they're fighting for a division, but in a bad division.  Cleveland is 5 over...8 over against the division.  Minnesota is 3 over...and 9 over versus the division.  They're staying alive by feasting on Detroit...23-38 in the division.  KC to a lesser degree, they're 26-30.  The division as a whole is a collective 50 games under .500.  311-361, .462 win percentage.  That would slot them between the D'Backs and Angels.  (The NL Central is about as bad, tho, because they've got 3 very bad teams.)
 
So, yeah...I'll agree that stupidity is the norm in sports.  Or maybe brainlock.  The numbers are used badly.  And they got burned.
 
 

MLB wants Judge in a major market, but they're not gonna worry about *which* that much.  Plus, is anyone else really viable?  How many teams can afford him?  And what would be wrong with Boston?  Hey, the buzz!!!! Reverse-Ruth man!!!  Dodgers are likely out...not necessarily, but with their massive payroll already, the luxury tax hit would be crushing.  Cubs, no.  I don't see Judge going there, but again...MLB would be happy.  Big PR there.  
 
It simply does not make enough difference that MLB would risk the *entire integrity of the sport* to do this.  If anyone could PROVE MLB was complicit?  My god, it would make Black Sox look like tampering over a minor leaguer.  It would be a crushing blow that would damage the game for *years*.
 
A recurring comment from the people on MLB Network has been that the managers have little or nothing to do with the game, on most teams.  All decisions are driven by the analytics people.  I'm an analytics guy.  It's just way, way too easy to fall into traps...in basketball, the Rockets fell into the massive trap in the past, of layups or 3-pointers only.  They don't realize that the mid-range threat improves the 3 point looks.  In football, it's stuff like the pitch play in the FSU-LSU game that gave LSU the ball back.  In poker, always making the mathematically correct play does NOT win...because it gives too much info to your opponent when you fail to vary your play.  Analytics can be extremely short-sighted and miss nuance because it fails to shape the question properly.

I really hope there's a Scarlet Witch / Daredevil crossover in the future of the MCU. That way, maybe Matt Murdock can teach Wanda how to cope with her loss of Vision....

Yeah, but your not hiring an actress as talented as Tatiana Maslany to play half a part.

Yeah, but your not hiring an actress as talented as Tatiana Maslany to play half a part.

Yeah, but your not hiring an actress as talented as Tatiana Maslany to play half a part.

Yeah, but your not hiring an actress as talented as Tatiana Maslany to play half a part.

All Out 2022
A mystery man won the Casino ladder match for a future heavyweight match.
Most existing champions retained including Jade Cargill, Hook, PAC, Swerve in our Glory, Sammy and Tay.
The Trios belt went to the Elite.
Toni Storm won the Interim Women's Belt
Wardlow and FTR defeated Jay Lethal and the Motor City Machine Guns
Eddie Kingston defeated Tomohiro Ishii
Christian Cage defeated Jungle Boy
Powerhouse Hobbs defeated Ricky Starks
Jericho defeated Danielson
Darby Allin, sting and Miro defeated the House of Black
C M Punk defeated Moxley. And then the mystery man from the Casino ladder match was revealed to be MJF who is challenging Punk for the title.

Yeah, that's not unusual.  Different stages play out differently, especially as the race moves into the middle and latter stages.  Winning the overall event is much more important than winning the stage, so the team with the overall leader can be perfectly content with non-contending riders breaking away and winning by 5 minutes...when no one in the breakaway is closer than 30 minutes, it doesn't matter.  Flat stages generally end with a bunch sprint, and the winner there can be a bit of luck of the draw.  Not to say there isn't skill;  there's a lot, but sometimes the best sprint teams get caught out of position, or misjudge the last few hundred meters.  
 
And yeah, losing 20% of the riders will affect things.  It can be argued that Pogacar lost the Tour to Vingegaard because Vin had stronger support throughout...partly because Pog's team lost some of its key support riders.  

It depends on the Grand Tour. Sam Bennett won two of the earlier stages as did Jay Vine here. The withdrawals have affected the field. Also there are different terrains which favour some cyclists and penalise others. For example mountain stages favour the climbers but can be the end for sprinters. Mark Cavendish was out of the Tour de France for missing the cut on a mountain stage some years back. I don't know of any tour with a different winner on each stage and multiple winners are usual.

The original is a classic. 

I sympathize with this guy. 
 

Slept in my John Fogerty T-shirt and woke up in center field. 
 
Slept in my Johnny Cash T-shirt and woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
 
Slept in my Rush T-shirt and woke up in a subdivision.

"He was apparently very determined to commit suicide.  He managed to tie himself to a chair, shoot himself twice, stab himself four times, throw himself down a flight of stairs, and still leapt through the window."