SB Nation User Blog: tcon125

HAHA Matt Stairs after he hits his homerun in the playoffs. He got his ass hammered.

tcon125 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:22:07 -0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqZDe4364BI

HAHA Matt Stairs after he hits his homerun in the playoffs.
He got his ass hammered.

This shouldn't have to be repeated or even said, but yes natalie portman is hot. Cute, hot, pretty...

tcon125 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:45:38 -0000

This shouldn't have to be repeated or even said, but yes natalie portman is hot. Cute, hot, pretty whatever your fetish attractive word is she fits.
You would kill yourself if she was your pretty friend because that means you are just on the friends ladder and can't get off. (ok dual meaning there...but see this link for the ladder theory.)
www.theladdertheory.com
no back to the regularly scheduled programming

Using the closer in none close situations

tcon125 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:13:02 -0000

Using the closer in none close situations

Hey NY Royal and others, I know it was mentioned by someone (i thought it was NY that's why i mentioned you) that the team's best pitcher should come in in the hardest situations of the game, regardless of inning. We were talking about soria at the time and trying to figure out a way to max his positive affect on the team. I know this was a couple of days ago but did you see Papelbon come in in the 7th against Tampa, shut them down, and the Sox eventually came back and won. That was a great move by Francona, and I'm not just saying that because they came back and won. Papelbon, the best pitcher on the team came in the pressure situation and closed the door. I don't think Hillman would ever do this but I wish he would.

"This is Iowa State's superbowl. I mean Iowa can lose this game and still go win the big 10 like...

tcon125 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:34:31 -0000

"This is Iowa State's superbowl. I mean Iowa can lose this game and still go win the big 10 like they have in years past. Iowa State can't go win the big 12!"

Some Hawkeye fan on that local sports show on sunday nights.

If that doesn't say that the big 12 is way better than the big 10 i don't know what will. ISU regularly beats Iowa, because Iowa isn't that good. And the big 10 is TERRIBLE.

The Big 12 is year in and year out is stacked! 3 top ten teams. 5 top 15. Colorado, Nebraska, ISU, KSU, OSU all looking at bowl games. Ha one of these years Iowa fans will take a course on logic and comparing strengths, until then they will continue to make our points for us.

Go State!

Royal Reduction and MLB.tv blackouts

tcon125 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:06:49 -0000

As it has been stated, probably more than needed, the royals used to be popular, and now aren't so much. Well most of this has to do with the fact that they are not winning like they used to. But there are other major major factors in my mind.

The unusual radio stations post sparked my memory on some things and also lead me to the Red's article linked in that piece.

This quote was given as to why the Red's radio affiliates have dwindled. He contributed it to the fact that the Red's radio network was no longer run in house.

"When (Reds broadcasting director) Jim Witers was alive, it was all run in-house," Brennaman said. "The teams with the biggest radio networks in baseball were the Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals. "

Notice our club was on that list of biggest radio network?

Those three teams were three of the most popular teams in the country. Why because of winning and mainly exposure. They were on the radio and were easy to follow. Families planned trips down to KC to see their favorite team play.

Which teams are the most popular now? I'd have to say Cubs, Braves, Red Sox, Yankees. The first two primarily because of their large tv network. People like the teams they are familiar with. People support the team they are familiar with. People travel and pay money to see the team they are familiar with. More exposure, more people tuning in is a good thing for mlb.

Which brings me to my single biggest sore spot with MLB.

Obviously I am a Royals fan. I go to school in Ames, IA. WGN has the Cubs and White Sox. FSN has the cardinals and sometimes Twins. TBS has/had the braves. ESPN has the Red Sox/Yankees. So realizing I couldn't see my favorite team I got on MLB.tv only to find something horrible out.

The White Sox, Cubs, Royals, Cardinals, Brewers and Twins are in Iowa's Local region. Meaning that all their games are blacked out from MLB.tv. How dumb is that? Does MLB expect me to drive down 4 hours for a weekday game? They claim allowing these teams to be on mlb.tv hurts their ticket sales because people will stay at home and watch instead of go. But who the hell is making up this theory.

1. People who know the players and watch the team play on tv will be MORE likely to go down to KC and watch. Therefore there would be a net gain in ticket sales if they allowed the Royals to be shown.

2. Who cares if they watch instead of go to the game. The service is still over a hundred dollars a year, take the money as a source of revenue and move on.

If that doesn't piss me off enough, here is the real kicker. The emergence of the tv network structure and mlb.tv blackout has KILLED royals support in Iowa. Iowa is home to tons of gereral baseball fans who want teams to follow and know about. When the Royals were the easiest team to follow the state had a large contingent of KC faithful.

But now the Royals are screwed because they are no where near easy to follow as compared with other teams or otherwise. They aren't on tv, over the air or cable, which means they attract no new fans just looking for a team and baseball on the tube. They are doubly screwed because fans they already have are not able to watch the Royals, but are able to see 3 or 4 other teams. What do you think a large number of these fans do? They switch favorite teams. I know it has been much harder to follow the royals with no tv games, and nothing on the news. And I can see how a much lesser man would make the switch to the cardinals after such prolonged torture.

MLB has way to much power over tv networks and is extremely unfair to fans and teams. Let fans have the ability to see their favorite teams. This is fair to the fans, makes the playing field more level for teams to attract fans, and for God's sake is good for the bottom line of MLB franchises. How can they be against that.

Best player of All-time, Mike Sweeney

tcon125 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:46:36 -0000

Best player of All-time, Mike Sweeney

I'm not sure if any have seen this, but it is quite humorous.

Greg Mac getting too much slack.

tcon125 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:12:11 -0000

Hello clone fans, I'm new to the blog, but a current ISU student. I'm down in Australia at the moment, but trying to keep up with the cyclones.

Greg McDermott has been a huge huge disappointment for me. When I say this to other ISU supporters I usually get tongue lashed saying I am not understanding the "building a program process" and the problems that come with it. But in honesty, that is not why I'm upset. I'm not upset because in his first two years we aren't competing with KU for the Big 12 crown. I'm not even upset about our record! Wins and loses have nothing to do with my criticism. I'm upset in our horrible, and I mean horrible, gameplans and offense sets. It is not a good coach without the talent scenario. It is obvious to see when a player is doing the right thing but an opposing player is better and steals the ball, blocks the shot, etc. But when a team is not even assembling to do anything worthwhile that falls on the coach.

I've played a little, and coached at the high school level, but I have never seen an offense as "grade schoolish" as the one used at ISU. 3 wing players and cross screen in the post is used almost exclusively. I've never seen a team consistently look that bad at offense and put up so few points. And it is not the talent level. It is not the players attitudes. It is not the players execution. If anything, they are executing too well by just standing in the spots Greg tells them to.

Mike Taylor was pretty much pegged as a ball hog who jacked up shots during his short tenure at ISU. I admit myself I hated his high turnover ratio and high shot attempts, but then I realized...Mike Taylor was trying to make plays. He often had 4 other players standing around in some BS offensive set and the shot clock was winding down and he had to make a play. That or he had a semi-fast break opportunity and was so giddy to take advantage of it because he didn't want to have to deal with another horrible half court set.

I wish I had the tape of the UNI game this past year. Mac's game plan was "we're taller", "we're better", cross screen and throw it inside. Occasionally swing the ball and shoot a three. Zero penetration. I remember vividly when Peterson put the ball on the floor and got to the lane. The first time he passed the ball for a basket, but the second time he turned it over. Mac stomped his foot and did his finger come here thing and lashed into Peterson...needless to say Peterson did not attempt to split the gaps and penetrate anymore...which by the way is what nearly all college offenses thrive on. (Duke doesn't even run a true offense anymore. They just tell players to drive gaps, rotate to open spots etc.)

Well UNI realized our offensive set after a few inside baskets, bumped the screen hard, fronted the post with a weakside help, and Jiri was severely limited after that. He still got his points, but only because we kept jamming the ball inside, at the expense of running a better game plan.

Greg recruited 5 players in 2006. All 5 are out of the program. He took the all-time leading scorer in Minnesota history, a 6-8 power forward who's greatest asset was his shooting touch and bringing a big man out to guard him, and put him in the 3 sometimes 4th string center position. ISU had three true centers last season, gray, hiri, and marsden. Why would you have all three on the bench and put Cory Johnson into center?!?! Mac had Johnson guarding Gred Oden when the team played OSU. That is just insanely poor management of players. Mac continually, and absurdly played Cory Johnson out of position this season, which hurt Johnson's numbers dramatically. Now he's gone. But of course Mac is thinking, who cares he wasn't that good. Well he wasn't good because you horrible mismanaged him coach.

Our best player, gets up and leaves the team. Wes Johnson, the final of the 5 players gets up and leaves. He doesn't even tell the staff. Can you say "Coaching staff obviously was not well connected with their star player". One player leaves no worries, two or three we should look into it, all 5....something is wrong.

Add on Vette, Brister and that is 7 players out of the program from two recruiting classes....something is wrong with this picture.

I can't think of something to say positively about Greg McDermott in the terms of basketball coaching, let alone program management. ISU fans have long long long been the most loyal and forgiving of fans. But this isn't middle school basketball and McDermott isn't a volunteer. If you are making big money, performance should be a criteria, and your performance should be scrutinized. Mac will get way too many chances, he is already getting too many with the "this is his first year" crap.

I don't care if this is your first year ever coaching basketball you should have a more dynamic offensive gameplan.

I hope I'm wrong, but I would be willing to bet when Greg McDermott is fired he will never have enjoyed a winning season as the head man, and the team will continually shuffle players in and out with transfers abound.

Before this year I cannot remember a time when the Royals wore blue on the road. But they are this...

tcon125 — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:55:45 -0000

Before this year I cannot remember a time when the Royals wore blue on the road. But they are this year and they are doing so a lot, especially of late.

Has the team adopted a favorite jersey, are the starting pitchers continually choosing the blue, or are they sticking to always wearing the alternate on game day? I'm not sure at all, but thought it was interesting to see the blue in all 4 games in NY. (I believe it was all four anyways)

Ignoring Omaha

tcon125 — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:25:03 -0000

I am new to Royals Review and having reread this post I've realized that it is overly negative, and that is not the direction my future posts will take, but this is what happens sometimes when your mind gets going. I'm currently studying in the hell hole that is Newcastle, Australia where it's 3:18 A.M. so I apologize in advance for the rant which is about to transpire..

The Kansas City Royals don't need their AAA ballclub in from our little brother, Omaha. Seriously. The Royals in recent years have completely and I mean completely ignored all contributions their AAA players have been making to their club.

The Royals have become a "direct high draft pick AA to the bigs" pipeline. Alex Gordon made the big jump most recently and famously. AAA has become the "if one or our catchers has a baby and we need a back up" team. (Belated Congrats to Mr. Buck) What I am saying is hell if we aren't going to even pay attention to the team, and if KC only needs a player to occasionally sit on the bench we might as well bring up a AA player or hell some kid from Blue Valley West.

What does a player in Omaha have to do to get called up and play for the big club? I'm sure Craig Brazell is still wondering in Japan. (How funny is it that the Royals have been prolifically poor power hitting franchise while Omaha has had some of the best power hitters in the Minors) It would have been nice to have some of his 32 homers come be for the big club. Mike Aviles finally got the call up but will he ever see the field for a consistent playing time? I doubt it. It's not like guys from AAA would be replacing the irreplaceable. Tony Pena is not making major dollars and is not hitting particularly well. Mike Aviles is hitting quite well in AAA and will probably never get the shot to see if that translates in the Majors. What if Aviles is the middle infielder who can actually hit the Royals have been desiring since...I don't even know who the last was, Greg Gagne maybe?

The Royals seem to be so invested in their current players that they are afraid to make changes. Why? The Royals have a core group who has played in the big leaugues for multiple seasons, non of which have been at a high level. Honestly the young player with the best year in the bigs is in AAA playing SS. Teahan has underperformed. Gathright...well I like him sitting on the bench as the 4th outfielder so he can stay. Buck is consistently a poor hitter. Gordon and Butler have less service time and more potential, although I hate the word potential, and I will not go after them for the time being. If a player consistently underperforms in the majors while a player consistently overperforms in AAA shouldn't the club at least look at the switch. Why is Tony Pena so near and dear to the Royals hearts, simply because he put on the big clubs uniform before Mike Aviles. And that is stupid.

AAA has become a zone where no player wants to go. AAAA was once the label for a player who was not good enough for the majors but too good for AAA. That is no longer the case. If a player even plays AAA he is looked at as a decent player, but doesn't have that superstar potential. What the hell is up with that! Hello!!! The Royals have ZERO superstars! No player on our roster will become one! Our offense is filled with below average hitters! If AAA has players who right now could hit for a higher average but were deemed by some scout in 1999 to have less of an upside than Ross Gload was in 1989 I don't care! My goodness when will this team realize that just because years ago one player was not sought after, but this player was a number one pick eventually means nothing. If you give no rewards to successful players in the form of promotion, then why even have the club. I find current minor league stats much more compelling than scouting reports from high school. If a A ball player is dominating, AA should be the next step and so on. Just because a player was a high draft pick doesn't mean he should get an easy pass to the big leagues. Who cares about money invested!! The best players should play.

Mitch Maier is having an excellent year as is Shane Costa. Billy Butler just flat out should not be in AAA but that is a different story.

Everyday I wake up and say a prayer that the Royals have traded David DeJesus, Mark Teahan, Ross Gload, TPJ, John Buck and Grudz for a player. Others will get bent out of shape about this comment, but the truth is non of their stats are spectacular and most are below average. But because we hold our players to such a low offensive standard that batting .275 with 11 homers is a Royals Player of the Year season.

If we traded ALL those players for just ONE player with power, how could our team be anything but better. Who cares if we lose Teahan, Maier is now in the OF probably doing better than Teahan was before him. German or Callapso is now at second. Butler is back at first and Costa can DH or OF. Olivo is now the starting catcher. Berroa can be the new backup infielder.

Because the Royals have plenty capable guys to fill their spots in AAA, why not try and create an opportunity to get a truly above average player with our expendable talent.

Hell even Angel is hitting for average and power again. Do you ever think Pena will be as good as his counterpart in AAA? I don't. The front office got so mad at Angel for not being more disciplined at the plate that they forgot to realize that he is still better than TPJ!!! Do you think Mark Teahan will hit more home runs than any of the outfielders in Omaha? I don't. I'm completely rambling now, but it is frustrating to see good performances wasted because of over commitment to certain players for whatever reason.