By Chris Ryan at
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On this week's edition of the Triangle Podcast, Mays and I talked with Zach Lowe about the Cavs (woof), the Nuggets (yes), and the Grizzlies (yes!). Kirk Goldsberry stopped by in-studio to talk about Carmelo Anthony's incredible season (you can read more about that here) and spatial analytics. Mays and I chatted a bit about the Final Four, and which tournament players we thought could be decent in the NBA. Finally, Jonah Keri called in to talk about the young MLB season, focusing on the Marlins, the Angels, the Nats-Reds series, and the sad fall of Roy Halladay.
Jered Weaver will miss four to six weeks with a fracture in his left elbow. This could be great news for the Los Angeles Angels.
To understand how losing someone considered one of the best pitchers in the game could be a good thing for a pennant contender, we need to start with this: Jered Weaver wasn't pitching like himself even before the injury. In fact, he's been throwing off red flags since last season.
This might seem insane to ponder, given the lanky righty's end-of-year stats. In 2012, Weaver went 20-5, posted a 2.81 ERA, made his third straight All-Star Game, and finished third in Cy Young voting. But there were broader signs of skills erosion at work. Weaver's strikeout percentage dipped to 19.2 percent, the second-lowest mark of his career (his 6.8 strikeouts per nine innings were also the second-lowest total of his career, and also below league average for a starting pitcher). His 8.6 percent home-run-per-fly-ball rate was his worst in his seven big league seasons. Beyond those numbers, you could see a difference in the quality of his pitches. Weaver's average fastball dropped to 87.8 mph, the lowest mark of his career and the kind of speed that will punt most other right-handed starters out of baseball, never mind trying to maintain elite performance with such soft offerings.
There were health problems, too. In his final start of 2012, against the Mariners, Weaver exited after just one inning. "You know what? My body just kind of shut down," he said after the game. "I felt it in the bullpen. My shoulder wasn't feeling up to par. I wanted to give it a go, but I didn't want to push it and have something bad happen and go into the offseason worried. The best thing to do was shut it down."
The Mets also have the misfortune of being bad in New York, where it's hard to escape notice. One of the people who noticed was radio talk-show host Mike Francesa; and, after a sweep of the Mets at the hands of the Colorado Rockies, he went on the air and let fly with pure aural schadenfreude.
Here are the most compelling matchups, stories, and personalities in Major League Baseball for the coming weekend.
The extended All-Star break is officially the worst development in American sports. What am I supposed to do with my life? Actually go outside? No thanks. The only time I want to go outside is if there's an outdoor TV showing baseball. And even then, why not bring the TV inside where there are chips? Baseball players are selfish and should be forced to play tripleheaders for the rest of the season.
Here are the most compelling matchups, stories, and personalities in Major League Baseball for the coming weekend.
10. Zack Greinke's Chance for a Classic F-You Game (Saturday, MIL-HOU)
Let me make my case for Zack Greinke as an All-Star. Bear with me, because I'm going to use a revolutionary stat-comparison technique, where I take certain key stats of Greinke's and match them up against the rest of Major League Baseball. So, compared to every other qualified pitcher in the game, Greinke is: Second in FIP. Second in WAR. Hell, how about we just stop there? By two of the most reliable overall pitching metrics, he's the second best pitcher in baseball. Good enough, right? No? Does the All-Star Game just have one pitcher now? They're only inviting Justin Verlander? Ah, you need more convincing? OK: Ninth in HR/FB rate. Third-lowest HR/9 rate. Top 20 walk rate. Top 20 strikeout rate. Top 20 fastball, top 10 two-seam fastball, enough.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Monday.
The Atlanta Hawks agreed in principle to trade Marvin Williams to the Utah Jazz for point guard Devin Harris, and sources report that they've also reached a handshake deal with the Nets that would send Joe Johnson to Brooklyn for several expiring contracts. "We're cleaning house," said new Hawks GM Danny Ferry, in his first week on the job. Ferry's "blank-slate" philosophy is so extreme that he even traded his wife of 20 years to Dallas owner Mark Cuban in exchange for three used Macbooks and an aging housekeeper who will do "just about anything."
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Monday.
In today's installment, I'll ask a question after each recap, and then answer it in scrambled anagram form. It's up to you to decode the (punny) answer. Throw your answers in the Facebook comments, and obviously don't look down there if you want to avoid spoilers.
Chris Paul scored eight of his 27 points in overtime, leading the Clippers to a 101-97 win over the Grizzlies and a 3-1 series lead. After the game, which libertarian presidential ticket did the Clippers star announce? Lone LA-Burp
Manu Ginobili came off the bench to score 17 points as San Antonio finished a four-game sweep of Utah with an 87-81 win. What did coach Gregg Popovich call Ginobili after the game? On Moms Pure Theft
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Wednesday.
Angels hurler Jered Weaver threw MLB's second no-hitter of the season, striking out nine and walking one in a 9-0 win over the Twins. "Why couldn't you be perfect?" screamed Weaver's mother, who was actually Weaver himself wearing a wig and staring in a mirror. "You're nothing! You'll always be nothing!" Man, Jered Weaver is complicated.
In case you were out living a young person's life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.
This morning we're counting down the ten most significant moments of Tuesday night. They could be great, they could be awful, or they could be "other," but the ranking is entirely dependent on their importance. Kind of like how Time magazine's Person of the Year can be Gandhi, Hitler, or Mark Zuckerberg.
In case you were out living a young person's life of leisure, here are the results and transactions that took place without your approval over the weekend.
