Colorado Rockies 1976

Yeah Rodgers actually does want to PLAY. Guys like Cespedes, Irving, Simmons, Harden…not so much. That being said, some guys retire and basically enjoy the newfound quiet and almost disappear. That won’t ever be Rodgers. He won’t know how to deal with not getting enough attention.

So Christian Scott is having the oddest kind of season at AAA...he's pitched 20.2 IP so far and allowed just 11 hits and 4 walks. And he's K'd 34. BUT, somehow he's allowed 6 HR.

Just hope no one gets hurt long-term. Last thing the 2024-25 Devils need.

Pats did what pretty much everyone expected. Every single thing pointed to Maye being their guy. That being said, the two biggest wastes of time, re: the draft...mock drafts, and draft grades. Mock drafts have always been a joke, because so often some move happens that no one sees coming, which throws the other picks out of whack, and the only picks that are usually gotten "right" are the extremely obvious. And draft grades are also a joke...until these guys get ON THE FIELD, who knows for absolute sure what's going to happen...especially when it comes to QBs? I'm obviously hopeful with Maye...the Pats figure to be so bad next season that I won't be surprised if Maye sits for the upcoming season, while the Pats take their lumps with Brissette and win 3-5 games, get another Top 5 pick, and hopefully by the end of 2025-26 begin to have enough of a young nucleus to begin a climb to respectability. I'm actually OK with Maye not being rushed, if it turns out that he needs time before he's thrown to the wolves. Pats have a TON of holes to fill; a rookie QB on a bad team isn't going to move the needle much.

Happy for those players. Even though the building as is will need some work, must be nice to have such an enthusiastic fan base, as well as playing in an arena that can actually seat five figures' worth of fans. The situation in Arizona was a joke. Sucks for the fans there that were into the Coyotes, no doubt, but ask Chico and he'll tell you that there was a fair amount of Rockies fans who were actually pretty into their team too. In the end, can't make everyone happy, and Utah feels like it has a real chance to work out. Kinda cool for a place like Salt Lake City to have two major franchises call that city home. They also have the Salt Lake Bees (AAA affilate of the Angels); their home stadium (Smith's Ballpark) boasts the largest capacity stadium in AAA; it can seat 14,500. EDIT: Well, looks like the Bees are playing their last season in their current building; they're moving to a new (smaller) stadium that's supposed to be ready by 2025: Bees plan move to Daybreak; Salt Lake City seeks to 'reimagine' Smith's Ballpark | KSL.com

Getting Huberdeau at the time seemed like a solid recovery move, but he’s been incredibly disappointing for them, no question.

Don’t try to continue a debate or force a narrative that no one started. Like jag just said, no one is equating him to any all-time coaches. But he does check off a lot of boxes and he seems like a good fit. At any rate I’ll happily take him over Green.

Given that Marchand has 100 less points than games played at this point in his career, he’s not finishing with anything near 1200 points in 1200 GP. The questions that can’t be answered today: How much longer does he plan on playing? How much longer can he still put up offensive numbers? Will he become one of those players who reinvents himself, once he’s no longer capable of being what he was offensively? Guys like Andreychuk and others have done that, even though that caused some of their rate numbers to take a hit; they were still useful, but in a different way.

Elias has played in 211 more games so far...that's more than two and a half seasons' worth, and that's a significant edge (definitely not "about the same amount of games", to be fair). For their careers, Elias averaged 0.827 PPG, and Marchand is at 0.903 PPG. Like I said before, for the balance of their careers Marchand's played on better teams, but over Marchand's last 575 GP alone he's averaged 1.113 PPG. Elias does not have a stretch like that at any point in his career, so I'd have to consider Marchand the more productive player overall based on these numbers. BUT If you want to look at a "career within a career", Elias did put together a stretch somewhat similar to what Marchand's entire career has been. From 1999-00 to 2013-14, Elias played in 989 games and put up 356 goals, 535 assists and 891 points...basically 30 G and 44 A per 82 GP...for this stretch he's put up 0.901 PPG. For Marchand's career, so far he's put up 32 G and 42 A per 82 GP, with a slightly higher PPG (the aforementioned 0.903). Like Marchand, Patrik's overall PPG average was hurt by development years; unlike Marchand, Patrik's PPG average was also hurt by decline years. We haven't seen those full-on decline years from Marchand just yet, and of course when we do, who knows when he decides to call it quits. He's only signed through the end of next season, and will be entering his Age 37 season when that contract expires. It will be interesting to see how Marchand declines, to see if he can reach 1000 points, and to see if he decides to keep playing beyond 2024-25. One last note about Marchand...he really found another gear offensively over the latter half of his career...insanely so. In his first 6 full seasons, he averaged 0.664 PPG (16:38 TOI per game)...over the next 6 seasons, it was 1.204 PPG (19:25 avg TOI). Over the past two seasons, it's been 0.865 PPG in 18:50 avg TOI, so maybe he is starting to slow up. But in those six "peak" seasons, Marchand's PPG was higher than Elias' best single season (1.17, set in 2000-01).

Marchand has played in 1029 games and has scored 401 goals and notched 528 assists for 929 points. He’s also put up an insane +292 for his career, and has put up 640 points over his last 575 games. Marchand has played on better teams than Elias but Marchand is clearly the more productive player. Not sure where you got Marchand’s numbers from, but they’re simply not correct (Elias did play in 1240 games and finished with 1025 points, so you’re correct there). If you look up Marchand’s stats on Hockey Reference, you’ll see that they don’t match yours. https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/m/marchbr03.html

Re: Manaea, yet another Met pitcher who throws way too many balls. Why is it such a struggle for these guys to throw fvcking strikes?! Big day for Lindor. Hope he’s truly past the crappy start. Because Nimmo is still in a funk and Alonso’s numbers look a lot better than they feel. 3-3 road trip, and that’s all I was really asking for. Hopefully they can put together a good homestand.

It must be maddening to try to shop for a pitcher these days. These fvcking guys cannot stay healthy. But pitch counts and by the book and rules...they've really helped 🙄

David Quinn out as the Sharks head coach. Not sure how anyone could've expected anyone coaching that team to win much. Mike Grier should fire himself at this point.

He's put up a .378 BABIP, which suggests some regression is coming. Problem with McNeil now is that he needs to hit well over .300 to be of much use...he doesn't drive in runs and he doesn't hit with much power. The Mets NEED him to be close to what he's done over the last 15 games...that can't just be a temporary burst.

The Mets have been held to 3 runs or less in 12 of their games...they've gone 5-7 in such games, which probably is better than we should expect. But only scoring 3 or less about half the time...the league average for RPG is 4.37. Mets are actually above average in RPG for now (4.57), but they need to become steadier. Too much all-or-nothing, and some guys really need to pick it up with the bat. And yeah anytime JD.

I’m partial towards Blizzard myself. No “Hockey Club”…that’s way too soccer-like and I really don’t like soccer.

33 regulation wins for the Devils, 32 for Calgary

Regulation wins.

Or another way to put it, re: Luke and Simon…Luke will be more dynamic and have more memorable moments, and will put up bigger glamour numbers. Simon will be so damned good at just about everything that he’ll almost be easy to take for granted, and on the rare occasion that he makes an egregious mistake, it will come almost as a complete shock. One guy will mature into being that player that can begin to make something out of nothing when you really need him to (but will occasionally have you shaking your head). The other one will settle things down and help to snuff the other team out. Both will be special in different ways.

As long as voters don’t obsess over point totals. I think Nemec is going to be an excellent all-arounder, but won’t ever be a pure points beast.

Not surprised one bit. Nemec will be the complete package, in just about every possible way.

I’m sure the Rangers are thinking “Hey, we got off to a 2-0 series lead last season, we looked great, and then we blew it…we can’t let that happen here!” Would live to see Washington win a game, but it’s hard to see them pulling it off. Last night felt like their best chance.

It would be nice if Nimmo and Lindor would start to look like…well, themselves. I know Lindor has been a bit better lately but hardly great (and is now hitless in his last two games). Hope the Mets can avoid a loss today. They did manage 9 hits yesterday, but all of a sudden the runs have just stopped coming…outscored 20-3 in their last three games. Real bummer after winning the first two games in LA.

Kahkonen is a UFA and so far it doesn't seem like Fitz has much interest in bringing him back, so he's not going into next season with a tandem of Allen and Kahkonen. He's made it very clear that he's planning on going after a bigger name, with Allen to serve as the backup (and with Montreal retaining money, Allen's deal is very reasonable...under $2 million for 2024-25). Of course, Fitz has to actually follow through on getting that bigger name. If he were to ever circle back to Kahkonen or go with someone like Markstrom or Gibson or Binnington, I'd be disappointed as fvck.

No hindsight involved; I was up for Palms being extended until his walk year, which flat-out wasn't good, and at that point, it absolutely made sense to reconsider. I would've been open to bringing him back on a one-year "show me" deal, but obviously Fitz wasn't interested in anything long-term (he and Palms' agent did talk prior to Palms being dealt to the Isles, but the talks didn't go far, mostly because Palms' camp clearly wanted something for 4+ years). My daughter and I met Palms (meet and greet) and he's definitely a nice dude. I liked the fact that I think he got the most out of his ability while he was here, and it felt like he fought for everything he got, but some Devils fans definitely weren't, well, fans of his...I remember the posts complaining about him falling too much or not being consistent enough (though for most of his time here, his rate numbers were incredibly similar by each season's end). My contention was that he was what he was...a guy who was hot and cold but good for 50-60 points and about 30 G per 82 GP. He finally got there again, but I'm glad that it wasn't the Devils who had to watch him slog through three meh seasons to get back there.