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pint4punt · 3 months

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All You Need is Love:

How the Packers’ 2020 Gamble Finally Paid Off

Ok the title of this one may be ‘cringe’ as the kids say (right?) but the message rings true regardless. We finally have to come to terms with the fact that the Packers’ run of star Quarterback play looks set to continue with Jordan Love. While it’s high school prom night premature to anoint him as their third straight hall of famer at the position, his growth throughout the year and playoff debut seem to have validated the Packers’ ballsy selection that sent Aaron Rodgers into a dark ayahuasca fueled bender.

NFC North rivals may want to turn back now as today we will be taking a look at how the Packers once again seem to have manufactured a franchise Quarterback and how they look poised to make a run at the NFC for years to come. We apologize to Lions’ fans in advance who so graciously gave us the only compelling playoff game of Wild Card Weekend en route to their first postseason victory since O.J. Simpson was primarily known as an NFL Hall of Famer. As fun of a story as they are and as much as we are pulling for their dream run to continue, the North may not belong to them for long. So how did we get here?

Not Getting Caught Up in LaFleur’s Early Success

It would have been easy to be blinded by the immediate success Green Bay experienced under then first year Head Coach Matt LaFleur. In his debut season, LaFleur led the Packers to their first Conference Championship since the famous ‘Run the Table’ campaign. To give context to how impressive that feat was, the Cowboys’ last 6 Head Coaches haven’t made it to the NFC Championship. Unfortunately, both campaigns ended virtually the same with blowout losses to Shanahan orchestrated offenses. Nonetheless, winning your division along with a Conference Championship Participation Trophy in the first year installing your system speaks volumes about a Coach, even with a Hall of Famer under center. It would have been easy for LaFleur to live in the moment and push his chips to the table in a loaded Receiver draft in the subsequent offseason.

Instead Packers’ brass could not have pivoted further, opting to look over the steering wheel at a post Rodgers’ world and trading up to draft Jordan Love with the the 26th overall pick. For years, Rodgers made them look like absolute fools for making this move as he posted back-to-back MVP campaigns and back-to-back no. 1 Playoff Seeds. Despite this success, Green Bay’s starter was pushing 40 and the LaFleur/Rodgers partnership yielded zero Super Bowl appearances. Cheeseheads may always wonder what could have been if they’d drafted a key contributor on the heels of an NFC Championship appearance, but franchise QBs don’t come around every year and sustained success is an art form few organizations have perfected. This move appeared to be aging horribly until

Love Demonstrated Progress

In the early throngs of the season, long standing proclamations of the Love experiment being an abysmal failure seemed to ring profoundly true. Green Bay started the season 4-6 heading into Thanksgiving and has been about as predictable as what is going to come out of Joe Biden’s mouth at any given moment. Love’s completion percentage has yo-yoed anywhere from 50.0 to 67.5. Even after a Turkey Day thrashing of the 3 Seed Lions and a subsequent ass beating of the defending Super Bowl Champion Chiefs, this team shit the bed against the Giants and Bucs before eeking out a win against Bryce Young and his pee wee football squad.

Despite a Jekyll and Hyde year, Love himself finished strong down the stretch with his Passer Rating never dipping below 109.1 the last four games of the season as he led Green Bay to the playoffs in his rookie* season.

Playoff Debut

With the Packers being so hot and cold most of the year and the annually anointed Dallas Cowboys achieving their highest playoff seeding since Dak Prescott’s rookie season, Love’s squad appeared to be an inevitable one night stand. While lots of fun, not someone you took seriously enough to make it work for the long haul. That’s where we were hilariously wrong. We blame ourselves really as, stupidly, we thought this Cowboys’ team was somehow different than the last 28 Cowboys’ teams that have blown their load early in the playoffs and gone home in short order.

Dallas disappointing after talking a big game really isn't surprising in hindsight, in fact it’s pretty on brand for them. What was surprising, was the stark contrast between the teams that showed up in the Wild Card Round. A Packers’ Defense that generated seven turnovers all year forced two in this game, while Dallas’ DPOY candidate and brick shithouse of a game wrecker, Micah Parsons, was held to one pressure (lowest of his career) and zero sacks.

On the other side of the ball it would be very easy to conflate who was making their playoff debut as Jordan Love surgically eviscerated the Cowboys’ much lauded Defense for a 157.2 passer rating while Dak Prescott gave hope to every armchair QB at the bar out there who swears he could play the position better. Wild Card Weekend was the undoubtably the pique of the Love era to date. Now we turn the page as we look to

The Road Ahead

As fate would have it, today Love will have to attempt a feat even his Jedi Master couldn’t achieve. Beating the 49ers. The Niners have tormented the Packers in the postseason over the years winning the last four straight and often in emphatic fashion with record breaking performances from the likes of Raheem Mostert and the long since cancelled Colin Kaepernick. To make matters worse, the Packers have to go into Levi’s Stadium on short rest against arguably the best Niners’ squad since 1994.

It would be fool’s gold (hehe get it?) to count out a team playing with house money coming off the performance they just had, but we’re not exactly betting our life savings on the upset today either. Regardless of the end result, if Love at least makes this interesting (here’s hoping on a Saturday night otherwise occupied by The Office reruns, strong drinks, and inevitable reflection of life decisions to this point) the Packers will have the ultimate affirmation that they will be ready to make a legitimate run at the NFC for years to come.

While they are going to have to figure out a long-term contract for Love, there is plenty of reason for optimism. The Aaron Rodgers’ dead money comes off the books in 2024. They have the youngest roster in the NFL that is producing well beyond their years with standouts such as Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, and Luke Musgrave to complement key veterans such as Aaron Jones and Jaire Alexander. They have five draft picks in the first three rounds next year. Matt LaFleur’s stock has never been higher. And god dammit for the rest of us when it comes to the Quarterback position, Love is all you need.

#nfl #nfl playoffs #green bay packers #jordan love #matt lafleur

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thetoxicgamer · 1 year

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Evil Geniuses Round Out 2023 LCS Roster With Two All-Pro Pick-Ups From 100 Thieves

As a result, North American teams can now formally lock in their rosters for the 2023 campaign. Evil Geniuses, one of the most intelligent teams in the LCS to date, is up first. Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho, a former top laner for 100 Thieves, and AD carry Victor "FBI" Huang will join the team in 2023, according to EG. https://twitter.com/EvilGeniuses/status/1595552785273360386 https://twitter.com/EvilGeniuses/status/1595582980403171329 The 2022 LCS Spring Split champions already had star mid-laner Jojopyun, All-Pro support Vulcan, and reigning MVP Inspired under contract for the foreseeable future. Add on the fact all three of those players performed well in 2022, helping the team to an LCS title, reaching MSI semifinals, and participating in a Worlds run on home soil, and Evil Geniuses had a solid foundation for upcoming LCS splits. The one big question mark that loomed over EGwas at the AD carry position. Star bot laner Danny missed much of the 2022 LCS Summer Playoffs and EG’s Worlds run due to mental health issues. As Nov. 21 and the start of free agency approached, no one knew if Danny was expected back for 2023. With Danny’s future uncertain and Kaori heading back to Europe with Karmine Corp, EG had a void in the bot lane. Then, about a week out from the start of free agency, reports suggested Evil Geniuses might’ve found their future AD-carry in North America. Those reports were then validated today when former 100 Thieves bot laner FBI officially joined Evil Geniuses for next season. The move makes complete sense on paper. FBI gets to go from one top LCS team to another, Evil Geniuses grabs a third team All-Pro bot laner, and 100 Thieves can now bring Doublelift in for 2023. The more shocking move from EG’s off-season comes in the top lane. Impact was not only the longest tenured member of Evil Geniuses at the time, but still one of the best top laners in North America in 2022. For whatever reason, EG decided to make a switch, and initially went after Academy prospect Tenacity before the move was blocked by 100T. Not being able to grab the 100 Thieves Academy top laner, EG was able to switch Impact out for the starting 100T top laner, Ssumday. Impact is reportedly moving on to FlyQuest⁠—who are building quite the interesting roster⁠— and Ssumday is now officially set to start in the topside for EG. Regardless what fans make of the moves, the matter of fact is EG has now essentially formed an LCS All-Pro team. Every member of their starting five for the 2023 season finished last split on an All-Pro team. What’s even crazier is despite losing Danny, the team is still comprised of four first teamersthanks to Ssumday. FBI is the only non first-teamer, finishing as the third best ADC in the LCS last split behind Danny and Cloud9’s Berserker. With the free agent window officially open, now is time for teams across all regions of professional League to begin locking in their rosters for 2023. In the LCS so far only two teams, Golden Guardians and EG, are set for next split, so expect a ton more announcements from NA teams as 2022 comes to a close. Read the full article

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ramesadoll9-blog · 4 years

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Patriots sign veteran running back Lamar Miller to one-year deal, per report

The New England Patriots are toting Dolphins vs Patriots up some veteran severity in the backfield, inking government avowal occurring going on Lamar Miller to a one-year conformity, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. This comes after the 29-year-out of date visited considering the club concerning the subject of Monday, per the transaction wire. Miller missed all of the 2019 season due to a torn ACL but is said to be thoroughly recovered from the offend and is ready to deed 2020.

Miller is a former fourth-round select of the Miami Dolphins gain 2012, so he is no stranger to the AFC East. He played four years in Miami and conventional himself as the starter during his sophomore season in the league. Over that stretch, Miller totaled 2,930 yards concerning the auditorium and 19 hurrying touchdowns even if catching 117 passes for 887 yards and three more scores. His period considering the Dolphins came to a close in 2016 after signing a four-year concurrence gone the Texans. In Houston, Miller started in 41 of his 44 games played.

The last period we proverb him during the regular season came backing in 2018 subsequent to the 5-foot-10, 221 pounder totaled 1,136 yards from scrimmage behind six touchdowns. He tore his ACL during the Texans' third preseason game last summer, which sidelined him for every 2019 be in be lackluster.

Miller now joins a definitely crowded New England backfield that consists of James White, Sony Michel, Rex Burkhead, Damien Harris, and J.J. Taylor. Michel, who led the club when 912 yards rushing in 2019, is currently upon the PUP list as he is still recovering from offseason foot surgery. Veteran dealing out urge a propos Lamar Miller has found his showing off abet to the AFC East.

The New England Patriots intensely to terms when the former Miami Dolphins draft out of the undistinguished upon a one-year pact Monday, his representation, Rosenhaus Sports, told ESPNs Adam Schefter.

The promise is pending a monster for Miller, 29, who missed the 2019 regular season due to a torn ACL suffered last August.

The Miami Hurricanes product has join together 5,864 rushing yards, 1,565 receiving yards and 40 quantity touchdowns previously entering the league in the fourth round of the 2012 draft. Miller spent the adding four campaigns once the Houston Texans and was named a Pro Bowler in 2018.

He has appeared in 105 career games even though twice eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark upon the auditorium.

New Englands nimble backfield intensity chart includes Sony Michel, Damien Harris, James White, Rex Burkhead and undrafted rookie J.J. Taylor after Brandon Bolden opted out of the upcoming season.

Michel, who underwent foot surgery in the spring, remains upon the physically unable to sham list.

The Patriots initial practice of training camp will arrive Wednesday. Full-pads do something will follow upon Aug. 17.The New England Patriots knew in mid-March or as a upshot that they would have to begin planning for moving picture without Tom Brady, he of the book six Super Bowl rings and arguably the greatest NFL artist in archives. What the Patriots didn't, know, however, until recently was that they as well as would have to intention for computer graphics in 2020 without a whopping eight players who opted out, including starters in linebacker Dont'a Hightower, safety Patrick Chung and awful dispatch Marcus Cannon.The eight opt outs were on extremity of double any count NFL team except for Cleveland (five) and accounted for 10 percent of New England's training camp roster (those are all along to 80 this year) by now there was even a first practice.

This season could be Bill Belichick's greatest coaching challenge in addition to the Patriots as he looks to extend their NFL-folder remoteness winning streak to 12 in a dispute. However, the whole those opt outs did decline the Pats into a co-favored role in the AFC East past the Buffalo Bills. In put in, the Under is now a stuffy favorite upon New England's Over-Under win quantity of 9.5.The Patriots did make a attain of a boost via the model and the William Hill oddsmakers as soon as than they signed former NFL MVP Cam Newton to a one-year accord. Belichick has flat-out said that Newton will have to destroy out second-year Jarrett Stidham in camp to win the Week 1 quarterback job, but it would be a terrible calamity if it's not Newton taking the first snap upon Sept. 13 vs. Miami.

For what it's worth, former long-time Patriots detestable origin coach Dante Scarnecchia doesn't think it will be a near accomplishment, either: "I think (Newton) has a supreme edge, because of what he's over and finished together in the middle of in the league. The boy was an MVP [in 2015]. We played adjoining him a number of time, have a loud adoration for him as a artiste and leader, and the things he's done. This boy, from a accomplish set, a lot every choice from guys we've had in there at quarterback more than the years. Stidham has to your liking feet and gaining to pretend to have and avoid the hurry, and create and function a lot of same things. I don't think he's to Cam's act-set, but this guy is a beautiful pleasurable artist."

It's not sure if New England will have summit outlook guidance Sony Michel to right of entry the season as he began camp upon the nimble/PUP list as soon as offseason foot surgery. Michel had a immense rookie season in 2019, especially the playoffs, but disappointed last year in averaging just 3.7 yards per carry.

Going by their opponents' 2019 cumulative winning percentage, the Pats have the NFL's toughest schedule this year as those foes were 137-118-1 (.537) in 2019. While the Dolphins and Jets are still rebuilding in the AFC East, the Bills see following a force and the Pats have deeply tough trips to both Los Angeles teams, Seattle, Kansas City and Houston and a habitat game vs. Baltimore.

New England hasn't been a regular-season underdog past Sept. 11, 2016, but will be sufficient in 2020 in front projections have the Pats as dogs in as many as seven games. They are 6-lessening house favorites for Week 1 vs. Miami.

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vmheadquarters · 5 years

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It’s become old hat for a cult TV show to get revived in some capacity now, but rare is the TV show that gets two different revivals across different mediums. Veronica Mars is that rare show. First, it was brought back from the dead because of a passionate crowdfunding campaign that led to a movie released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the spring of 2014. Now, Veronica Mars is back again with an eight-episode fourth season airing on Hulu starting on Friday, July 26. Where the Kickstartered movie felt haphazard and mildly uninspired, this revival is incredibly well-written and conceived, a return to form at least as good as the show’s second season.

For the uninitiated, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) is a hard-nosed private investigator in the Southern California hamlet of Neptune, where the richest of the rich rub elbows with the lower classes. On the original show, airing on both UPN and the CW, Veronica is a high-school student whose dad Keith (Enrico Colantoni) had once been the city’s sheriff before accusing one of the richest men in town of having murdered a teenage girl (who happened to be Veronica’s best friend). After his fall from grace, Keith became a PI, with Veronica as his aide and a sleuth of her own, trying to solve the case of her best friend’s death and figure out who date-raped her at a wild party. Over the show’s three seasons, Veronica graduated high school, solved various murders and other crimes, went to college, had numerous romantic entanglements, etc. The show, created by Rob Thomas, was always at its best in balancing Veronica’s distinctively witty, charming personality with a neo-noir sensibility.

SPOILER BENEATH CUT

And the fourth season of Veronica Mars (I’ve seen all eight episodes) is a remarkable, bracing reminder of why the show is so rightfully beloved. Veronica and Keith are still at Mars Investigations in Neptune, but a lot around them has changed. After the events of the movie, there’s literally a new sheriff (Dawnn Lewis) in town, who’s clearly a good detective despite still disdaining the presence of PIs like Ketih and Veronica. Our heroine and her paramour Logan (Jason Dohring) live together, but Logan, a Naval Intelligence officer, is often away on classified missions. He returns from his latest, at the same time as Neptune celebrates another hedonistic Spring Break season, with a surprising question for our heroine: a marriage proposal.

Veronica can only distract herself from that shocking offer when a bomb goes off at one of the local motels, leading her down a rabbit-hole conspiracy where she and Keith are tasked with figuring out who set off the bomb and why. And, in Veronica Mars form, the question of who the bomber is involves a lot more figures than would be expected. There’s a Muslim Congressman and his rigid family, a true-crime obsessive (Patton Oswalt), a Neptune entrepreneur and his enigmatic fixer (J.K. Simmons), Mexican hitmen, and more.

The era of streaming has made it so even a revival of a beloved show doesn’t guarantee it will feel the same as the original did. As was the case with the show’s third season, the case here doesn’t span the course of 20-plus episodes. There’s also not a lot of side cases for Veronica to investigate, just the spate of bombings and their unique aftereffects, as detailed in the eight 50-minute installments. And unlike in the original series, there are only three regulars in the opening credits: Bell, Colantoni, and Dohring. (This credit choice is interesting because you could make a very solid case that Oswalt, Simmons, and Clifton Collins, Jr., as one of the aforementioned hitmen, have at least as much to do as Dohring does. Oswalt, too, appears in every episode.) A number of the show’s supporting characters from the old days do show up, but often very briefly and sometimes in ways that make you wonder why they’re there to begin with. (As a longtime fan of the show, I was very happy to see Percy Daggs III as Wallace Fennel again, but the character serves very little purpose in these episodes.)

That said, within the first hour, it becomes exceedingly clear that Rob Thomas and his writing staff — including, in a delightfully inexplicable twist, legendary NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — have an exciting, novelistic story to tell that demands to be told in ways that simply weren’t the case with the recent film. The world has changed in the 15 years since the show premiered, but those changes all are logical within the framework of the new season. Oswalt’s character, who convenes a group of fellow “Murder Heads”, is as solid a way to skewer the rise of true-crime shows, podcasts, etc., without actually turning him into a would-be podcaster. And the presence of a politician of color introduces the inescapable element of how the world looks today. (Though the current president’s name doesn’t get mentioned, there are enough references to him that make you smile at how much Veronica must loathe him.)

Somehow, it all largely works, though a few of the subplots and new characters work better than others once you look at it all in hindsight. The new cast — also including Izabela Vidovic as a teenage girl with a connection to the bombing who might as well be Veronica Mars 2.0, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as a local club owner — all acquits themselves quite well. Simmons, as an ex-con who seems like the obvious bomber from the outset, is the MVP. He and Colantoni have a loose, lived-in chemistry, as Keith and this new guy try to feel each other out and end up with a shared mutual respect despite being on two sides of the law. But Howell-Baptiste, who some will recognize from a recurring role on the third season of The Good Place (making her time onscreen with Bell even more enjoyable), is a lot of fun too. And Oswalt especially, who’s close to the third lead of the season, proves his dramatic chops in a role that could’ve easily been a source of mockery.

Where the season stumbles (and only slightly) is in its finale, both in revealing the truth behind the first bombing and subsequent bombs set around Neptune as a morbid way to punctuate Spring Break parties, and in revealing what will happen next for Veronica. Being a neo-noir show implies that Veronica Mars can’t ever truly be all sunshine and rainbows — our hard-bitten heroine would likely blanche at such a fate. However, the events of the last 30 minutes of the season, despite technically playing fair logically, feel a bit reverse-engineered (and one specific choice is probably going to alienate a lot of fans).

These spoilery quibbles are just that, though: quibbles. Largely, the streamlined focus on having an eight-episode story spread out over the course of 400 or so minutes makes for the kind of season a streaming service like Hulu must be salivating over: this is an exceptionally bingeable revival, with each episode structured both as its own thing and offering enough teasing excitement for the next installment that you just want to keep watching. More to the point, the story mostly feels true to the Veronica Mars world; it’s the truly singular revival that proves its existence almost instantly and is one of the best TV returns to date.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10

#veronica-mars #veronica mars #vm spoilers #veronica mars S4 #veronica mars S4 reviews

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beersfromthebleachers · 5 years

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Fist Month of Baseball Stat Leader

We are officially one month into the 2019 season of baseball and we are already taken by surprise. The fans and writers throwing around the, “It’s early.” argument can only take in what their team is doing as a whole. For now, what I plan on putting the primary focus on are the best position players through the first month of baseball statistically. This will also take into consideration what the players are doing via fantasy baseball and what their stats are there. Be aware that this list will NOT contain All-Stars you see on highlight real from your phone notifications, but we will give you an update on how some of those players are doing. Let’s go ahead and dive into the list:

Catcher: Yasmani Grandal, Milwaukee Brewers - Grandal is the newcomer to this ball club, but he is no spring chicken to the high octane competition that this team got a taste of last season. Grandal is sitting at a .333 batting average with .623 slugging percentage and having more at bats than any other catcher in the majors, except Yadier Molina. He is also has hit 6 home runs and is tied with Wilson Contreras in leading all catchers. His edge factor where he is leading the competition is leading with 23 hits and 15 runs, the most among all other catchers. We will see if he holds the commanding position as the season continues to move on through summer.

First Base: Cody Bellinger, Los Angeles Dodgers - Bellinger would also be qualifying for best in the outfield due to the platoon role he shares the position with Max Muncy. Bollinger is leading the majors entirely in batting average with a .424. He is also leading all first basemen in hits (36), home runs (11), and RBIs (28) with the advantage of more plate appearances than his entire teammates get to experience on a regular basis. Bellinger is well on his way to challenge reigning MVP Christian Yelich for his title, who is more than happy to be his competition as they have gone back and forth on the home run leader board in the same game! In his age 23 season, Bellinger continues to display great team leading statistics and will be even a bigger star playing two major positions for the Dodgers.

Second Base: Jose Altuve, Houston Astros - Coming off of a year of reigning as MVP and the first franchise World Series, Jose Altuve immediately got to work in the 2019 campaign. He is leading all second basemen with 8 home runs and 17 RBIs so far through the first month of baseball. He is collecting just as many hits, but remains in the top five behind Whit Merrifield, Jeff McNeil, Jonathan Villar, and Dee Gordon. Altuve had a hard time being at this pace early in the season last year dealing with injury in his right knee; but after bringing attention to it during the offseason, he is the same lethal ball player we all know well. If the Astros are going to be in the heat of the competition, have the expectation that Altuve will be the head of it all.

Third Base: Anthony Rendon, Washington Nationals - Fun fact: Anthony Rendon was the first overall draft pick in my fantasy baseball league this season after the keeper pics were locked in. Rendon is leading a tight knit group of third basemen with a batting average at .371. He is tied along side Maikel Franco and Yoan Moncada for the same amount of RBIs with 18. Rendon is only trailing behind home run leader by one (6) with Hunter Dozier leading the pack with seven. Dozier and Rendon are the only two third basemen in the league that have an OPS statistic over one. The competition at this position is very thin, so expect a new name to be taking over for Rendon as we progress further along in the season.

Shortstop: Tim Anderson, White Sox - All hail the man about causing a ruckus on the South Side, bat flips and all! Tim Anderson is finally coming into the mold of being a star player for the franchise. He is leading the American League with a .403 batting average, that is second only behind Cody Bellinger. He is also leading all shortstops by swiping the most bags in steals with 9, all successful attempts as well. Anderson is a guaranteed man on base, with his OPS calculated at 1.052. Anderson gained a great deal of attention last week after a bench clearing tussle with division rival Kansas City Royals. Anderson hit a home run off Royal’s pitcher Brad Keller and celebrated with a bat flip, in his defense, it was his first ever hit off of Keller which led to the pitcher hitting Anderson his next at bat. As much as we love the heated drama in baseball, let’s just hope Anderson stays on the right side of it moving forward.

Left Field: Joc Pederson, Los Angeles Dodgers - Welcome back to being a big part of the Dodgers primary arsenal, Joc Pederson. The 27-year old was the first of many talents brought up from the Dodgers next generation of youth and took some time to get back from a lethal rookie once before. Pederson is leading all left fielders in home runs with 10, the highest slugging percentage with .716, and the highest OPS of all left fielders in the league with 1.105. Pederson is in the top three in WAR for 2018 behind Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Eddie Rosario. Along side Bellinger, Pederson makes this Dodgers team a lot more fun to watch this season.

Center Field: Austin Meadows, Tampa Bay Rays - There is only one man doing extraordinary things at the plate (and his name is NOT Mike Trout) and that is Austin Meadows. Meadows is leading the majors with .351 batting average and 19 RBIs this season. He is currently tied with Trout in hitting home runs with 6, and that is only one behind the leader, George Springer. Meadows is also right behind Trout in OPS almost by one whole tenth of a point with 1.097 adjacent Trout’s 1.211. Meadows is the focal point of the Rays’ success on offense this season, the team plays even better together when this man is in the starting line up.

Right Field: Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers - The only man that was a part of my top draft list has come out of the gate hot and running with his official MVP reign. Yelich is crushing it leading the majors overall as home run leader with 13. He has the highest OPS out of all right fielders with 1.259, along side having the most RBIs in the majors, and leading the position in slugging with .820. Yelich has made himself personally into a “Cardinals Killer” with having 8 of his 13 home runs come from the St. Louis Cardinal’s pitching staff. If that does not strike fear into the rest of the National League Central’s pitching staff, then they are going to learn fast.

Pitching:

ERA Leader: Max Fried, Atlanta Braves - Fried has recently joined the Braves rotation from the bullpen to a starter and has been displaying some amazing stuff on the mound. Starting in 4 of his 6 games, he has an ERA at 1.38. The 25-year old is slacking in the strike out column amongst pitchers in the majors, however he remains perfect with 3 wins under his belt and has not loss a game yet. As Mike Foltynewicz will ease his way back into the the starting rotation for the Braves, Fried looks to hold a strong presence in the back end of the rotation.

Strikeout Leader: Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals - Before I continue with the praises to Max Scherzer, it is to be known at the time of writing this that Gerrit Cole is tied with Scherzer in strikeout in the American League; however, Cole’s statistics are not as impressive at Scherzer’s. Scherzer is seeing more innings and his ERA is lower, a reasonable statistic that could be measured with veteran leadership. In his age 34 season, Scherzer has commanded this statistic over the past few seasons and has always qualified him in the talks to always be nominated for a Cy Young. Scherzer is having difficulty sealing the win in his match ups only going 1 for 3, but is holding up his end with having 4 quality starts in his 5 total appearance this season.

Best Closer: Shane Greene, Detroit Tigers - Greene has been dealing some filth in the close games for the Tigers and is leading the league in saves with 10. He also has the best WHIP statistic for closers at 0.58, just behind the leader Robert Osuna with 0.21. Greene is not leading too much into the strikeout category for closers (12), but he makes up for it giving out the second least amount of hits with 4, only behind Osuna who has given up 2. Greene is a fan favorite that escaped the New York Yankees system of over saturated relief pitching that was replaced by All Star relief pitching….but hey, a “fully operational” Death Star has a weakness somewhere, right?

These are some strong leaders through our first month of the 2019 season. It will be far more than impressive if we can see any of these names hold these leading spots down as the season progresses further more into summer. We can only hope some of these new names become future All-Stars of their clubs and are the part of the next generation of legends of the game. There is plenty of baseball left to be played and we are not even through our first third of the season. We will wait to see what is left to unravel and see if there are brand new leaders at their positions, so stay tuned!

#journal #baseball #Fantasy Baseball #statistics #leaders #major league baseball #yasmani grandal #cody bellinger #Jose Altuve #anthony rendon #tim anderson #joc pederson #austin meadows #christian yelich #max fried #Max Scherzer #shane greene

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hotelsongs · 5 years

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i'm (finally) catching up on critical role (just finished episode 27, rip). what is the ideal time point to consume "true believers"?

(oh fuck yes oh fuck yesssssss)

anon! you are catching up at an ideal time! i mean—nonideal, in that you have precisely ten episodes before you arrive in My House, which is admittedly a lot of critical role, but you are just where it starts to get rollin’. lemme break down what you have to look forward to:

eps 27 - 29: incredible rp processing the sad shit of ep 25. (marisha mvp as per.) some of my favorite guest stars ever: sumalee montano pls be my firbolg therapist? ashly burch as a bi dwarf? spoilers but keg and beau do kiss. (MARISHA MVP AS PER.)

eps 30 - 31: closure in zadash, ophelia mardun stays hot, leads are dropped for us to pick up all the way in ep 36 (keep an eye on fjord...)

eps 32 - 35: they meet JESTER’S MOM (SHE’S GOT IT GOIN’ ON)

eps 35/36: they steal a fucking boat. please do not ask me to explain further; this, you need to experience yourself.

AND THEN YOU HIT EPISODE 37 AND SHIT STARTS TO ROLL.

i am massively biased—this is my favorite cr arc ever! it’s about my fav and built from the skeleton shipwrecked bones of all my shit—but this is when the season snaps together, i think. i was impressed with the layup and have loved this campaign deeply from the beginning but this is an unequivocal leveller: it’s not farfetched to call it this campaign’s briarwood arc: it’s rare that cr tightens this closely around a character (here fjord, as briarwoods to percy), and it makes the story both incredibly fraught and incredibly syncretic.

and, neat! all my fanfictions slot in neatly after specific episodes, two canon compliant (one “yes that happened” and one “that could’ve happened”) and one... written as prediction-to-be-jossed, now very much au.

so, a self-absorbed walkthrough of the m9 sword snake piracy arc by ao3 user marketchippie, focusing on her (my) bad interests:

ep 37: you meet my wife, avantika. (you are invited to return to my inbox when you meet my wife, avantika. you, reading this, anon or no, are invited to slide into my inbox whenever you encounter my wife, avantika.) you learn more things about the big sea snake talking to fjord through his sjord. the ep is fucking called “dangerous liaisons” because... this arc is gift-wrapped for me.

ep 38-39: they explore a snake temple

ep 40: aka (its real name:) “dubious pursuits”. snake sword intrigue thickens. my fic, third eye, takes place at the end of this episode. it describes a situation that very much happens.

ep 41: the gang does piracy! the gang also discusses several moral quandaries and considers how things are going so far, with the piracy and fjord co-captaining in the name of the sea serpent and so forth. my fic, comedy of masks, takes place hereabouts, based on a comment jester makes in this.

ep 42: pirate island! CHAOS. WILDLY STRESSFUL. ENDS ON A RED-HOT CLIFFHANGER, PUN INTENDED.

this is the point where you read true believers, which was written in a stressed-to-hell fever of “how the hell are they gonna get out of this one?” slanted heavily toward “how the hell is avantika gonna get out of this one”. obviously, challenging myself to write a ‘good ending’ for all involved ended with devastation, which i hope you enjoy

ep 43: the gang does not take my suggestions. things end “better” for them. certain aspects of this arc “end”. (much, imo, as the briarwoods were “over”, but... i can be patient.)

ep 44: the gang goes under the sea to visit fjord’s old ship and drowned dad. fjord and caleb do blood magic together for no reason other than it’s fun.

and that brings us to the present!

keep me posted, pls & ty. you will have fun.

#i need more people yelling about the precise slant of matt’s jaw when he’s playing avantika #the light he can summon into his eyes? fuck outta here matt #also @ anon: read true believers before ep 44 so you can know how prescient i was about certain convos in ep 44!#i am a genius and a prophet ty ty ty #critrole

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