Lurker > Reg

Crescent-Moon posted...

So both pitchers are going to be pulled in the first, this is gonna be an interesting one after all!

So, you have anything accurate to say, or you just gonna be a jackass?

And, having said all of that

I am completely and totally expecting this team to let me down in the most painful way possible tonight

If you want a reason to be optimistic, Eovaldi got shelled in his first start coming back from injury without a rehab stint in the minors (Against Houston, coincidentally enough) and has been fantastic since. Game 3 was Scherzer's first start coming back from injury, without a rehab stint in the minors and the man has been generally very good for the Rangers, if you ignore injury-related games. If you believe in history repeating itself, Scherzer could do quite well.

But yeah, the Rangers are running on Montgomery, Eovaldi and then whatever they can get from the Heany-into-Dunning + whatever they can get from Scherzer. It'd probably be Gray instead of Scherzer if he didn't get hurt too, but he's been relegated to the pen because he's fresh off injury too.

Ultimately though, the most important thing is that Sborz has been much better than I expected him to be all playoffs long, and Leclerc has been mostly good too. Chapman is a huge concern, but his stats are massively better when he has at least a day off between appearances, compared to when he appears in consecutive games (13 appearances on no days off and 8.68 ERA vs 13 appearances on 1 day off and 2.13 ERA and 15 on 2 days off with 2.45 ERA) and he didn't pitch yesterday.

His stats in the 8th vs 9th inning are similarly different (32.1 IP in the 8th with an ERA of 1.95 compared to 17.1 in the 9th with an ERA of 4.15). I'm never going to be confident or relaxed with him being on the mound but tonight will basically be the ideal scenario for him, if he has to come out.

More importantly than the pitching, Semien showed solid signs of life last night (2 hits, 2 walks). If he's coming out of his slump, and if Seager can at least show plate discipline, there's hope.

Tag Anywhere promotes it from "bad" to "OK"

Still way too over the top even with that, imo

Football posted...

Bad rangers showed up tonight.

Specifically, Scherzer went to shit after hitting Alvarez (But looked good in the first tbh). And the offense just can't get anything going.

The lineup can definitely put up 5+ in a single inning if they catch a bit of momentum, so it's hard to call the game over, but there's really no reason to think they'll find that spark tonight.

https://i.imgur.com/xunXVoB.png

I find it silly that every single not-Jordan GOP vote was for somebody that voted for... Jordan

Leonhart4 posted...

If you beat the Astros, just make sure you finish the job if it's the Phillies in the World Series.

At this point, I'm very firmly in "anything can happen" territory. The Rangers bullpen consistently holding small leads (especially against good teams) is new to me.

I didn't have them favored against the Astros going in, and I wouldn't have them favored against the Phillies in that matchup. But they are explosive enough on offense, and the starting pitching + fielding defense is more than good enough that they absolutely can't be counted out against anybody, in any game.

That said, their biggest problem in the playoffs so far has been a strong offensive start that falls totally flat in the second half of the game. That almost cost them today's game, and I definitely still expect it to cost them at least one against Houston.

Also I've been hurt by this team too many fucking times to get super optimistic and hopeful for things before they're actually happening.

Fuck the Astros.

Leonhart4 posted...

I do kinda hate having to play teams from the same division in the LDS. I'd be okay with them changing that if they changed nothing else.

Reseeding with an explicit clause that this can't happen (Outside of the case where one division gets two+ WCs and it can't be avoided, which would've happened in the ALDS this year even with reseeding if both WC series went the other way) sounds good to me.

Best of 7 LDS can go either way imo.

But even with that said, I still very firmly believe that the broadcast structure is far more harmful than anything about the format itself. Even if it doesn't necessarily impact the games themselves unless you want to get into arguments about scheduling.

The current structure of broadcasting MLB games, even (especially) in the playoffs, is by far the worst thing about the league right now

Won't vote for "David Duke Without the Baggage" but will vote for Jim Jordan sure says a lot.

Rangers >>> Orioles > Twins > D-Backs > Marlins > Brewers > Rays > Phillies >>> Jays > Dodgers >>> Braves >>> Fuck Houston and their shitty fanbase and cheating asses.

The Os and Twins are the favorite teams of some people I'm close with, so they get a bump, but Os would be my second pick team regardless.

Houston fanbase has managed to hit new lows in the past couple days, and fuck them forever. I wish them eternal reruns of 2000

I'm really mad that the Rangers lost the AL West on the last day by losing 1-0 in game 162

After they had the worst fucking bullpen ever for 161 games
And had one of the best goddamn offenses in baseball for 161 games

I'm actually mad about it.

There are other games that you can point at too, but that's gonna stand out and sting hard because literal last one.

PeaceFrog posted...

Just to correct your usage here, reg, it's actuArial.

I like the sentiment but averages across slices of the population doesn't feel that much more accommodating than a strict static age limit.

Whoops, sorry. Going fast on phone with no autocorrect. Get the wrong spelling in your head once and boom. I often misspell calendar for the same reason.

But the other upside to a non-static approach is that you don't need congress to change it later as circumstances and quality of living change. We get some mega breakthrough in 15 years that instantly pushes typical retirement age to 100 and average life expectancy to 130? It's built in.

Also, yes, on that metaphor I am very much in favor of taking the keys from all the grandmas.

LightningStrikes posted...

The thing is, the US actually in theory has one of the better mechanisms to block this as both parties can still claim to be mass movements unlike most parties (due to the different way membership is counted) and there are open primaries. There is a very democratic way for the parties to step in when a candidate is not fit. The problem as Thorn says is that voters dont care. The most effective way is to just let the party apparatus deselect people for being too old (as happens in many countries) but again this is anti-democratic, though not as anti-democratic as a blanket ban even of the more lenient method Reg suggests.

On which point, what if theres another pandemic or other crisis? That would drop life expectancy for the duration and lock people born during that period out unfairly. Honestly while term limits would need to be implemented correctly they are a much more equitable way of achieving the same thing. So not sure why the focus isnt there.

Life expectancy (in the acturial tables sense) has nothing to do with when you're born, and everything to do with your current age.

LightningStrikes posted...

Honestly while term limits would need to be implemented correctly they are a much more equitable way of achieving the same thing

Legislative term limits have been repeatedly shown to prevent institutional knowledge buildup, incentivize seeking a lucrative job after being termed out, and increase the power of lobbyists more than solve problems. Age limits reduce the impact there, even if they do hypothetically lead to some of the same. We at least wouldn't have people angling for lobbyist and board positions that they won't age "into" before they're like 80+, and we won't have people in their 50s or even 60s aging out and taking their knowledge with them before others can learn it.

I said it before, but everybody wanted to argue other points of the debate instead.

Age limits, but the limit is tied directly to life expectancy (use the Social Security acturial tables or something). Your life expectancy less than X years at the time you'd take office? Not allowed to run for/hold the office.

Then again, my core thinking on age limits is trying to force longer-term thinking by cutting out people who are currently in position to make decisions that they benefit from short term and literally won't be around to see long-term consequences of. Cutting out shit like Feinstein, McConnel, etc who are clearly (albeit subjectively) unfit for health/mental reasons is a (admittedly welcome) side effect. And cutting out "good" old people like Sanders is also fine tbh, even if it is sometimes a negative.

Up.

Umineko manga is quite solid. However, it's lacking in the S+ soundtrack.

It's much better than not experiencing it at all, if you don't want to read a VN for whatever reason. But the VN is still the best way, even if it has its flaws (Mostly in length/verbosity)

The anime, meanwhile, is definitively worse than not experiencing it at all.

Absolutely please do not watch the Umineko anime ever.

Please don't.

I prefer physical where possible, which seems basically impossible for PC in particular these days

I wind up almost exclusively digital unless it's a console game that I'm pre-ordering.

thekitchensink posted...

Browns went from playoff contenders to last in their division tonight with all the injuries

With Chubb out of the picture, couldn't have happened to a better team/organization.

Incredibly awful situation for Nick Chubb specifically though

I almost certainly would've gotten to it at some point even without B8, but Persona 4.

Paratroopa1 posted...

Wow, I can't believe that after years of everyone bitching about how Biden's too old, everyone thinks Biden is too old and not a competent president. Interesting! I have absolutely no idea what people people are seeing in these polls that they didn't expect to see.

The "too old" poll is of no interest to me.

Better job responding to a national crisis: Trump 51% Biden 44%

This one is absolutely fucking comedic in the "if I don't laugh about it I'm going to fucking cry because wtf" sense though.

We've seen how Donald Trump handles a national crisis as president (And I would say it played a significant role in him not getting reelected in 2020). And 51% of voters are literally, in 2023, like "Hm, yes, more of that please"

Umbreon posted...

Aren't Twitter polls blue checkmark exclusive now? There's no poll I trust on that site anymore.

The linked tweet specifically says both polls were run by Quinnipiac, not twitter polls.

Kenri posted...

Yeah I 100% believe that death threats happened and 0% believe that they were the actual reason anything was canceled.

kevwaffles posted...

I do not see them as above being performative to gain sympathy.

These.

This sort of thing is why I use Firefox on mobile in addition to desktop.

Doing any sort of web browsing on any site without ublock origin is a mistake.

Lions

Oh, I remember watching that one when it aired. It was fun enough. Don't remember too much about it though, honestly.

ViolentAbacus posted...

Kaiji

Gonna second this recommendation. Forgot it was on Crunchyroll too

th3l3fty posted...

Baccano!

catesdb posted...

preferably on streaming platforms that normies have?

I think you failed this one lefty sorry

At any rate, Code Geass is on Crunchyroll, and seems like a good next thing to try.

ExThaNemesis posted...

I am just so anti VNs that it would be so difficult for me to sit through it. I don't want to have to click and make decisions for this. I just want the story presented to me like an anime.

Then yeah, watching UBW next and the Heaven's Feel movies after is the way, and anything beyond that is, uhh, highly questionable until/unless the coming Strange Fake anime turns out good.

ExThaNemesis posted...

Kiritsugu the mf GOAT

This topic was worth opening just for this

(Though, admittedly, by the end of F/Z I only thought Kiritsugu was third best in the series. But I'll let you judge that for yourself)

YoBlazer posted...

I use Discord (infrequently) and have no complaints, but can someone point out any major differences between Discord and AIM circa 2004?

You don't have to be actively online and in the channel to get message history.

ZeroSignal posted...

Also for the record, taking the high road isn't pathetic. It's called being an adult.

No, but lying about it is.

XIII_Rocks posted...

Saying "OK, I'll take hosting responsibilities back except I'll give it to someone else" but not saying who that someone else is when you know it's going to be the guy that is the root cause of the whole debacle is just so clearly a shitty and insidious move.

Without really caring strongly about this issue because I planned on skipping pick'em this year regardless (Though, admittedly, would 100% drop from it if Ulti is hosting even if I wanted to participate)

Yeah. This is fucking awful and ZSig deserves to be given shit for this. And pretending that he's "taking the high road" with this is fucking pathetic.

(Bumper Stickers is a custom-made-for-AP match 3 type of game. Keep that in mind when looking into it/deciding whether or not you want to play it)

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Reg I will miss you forever. Thanks for being in the league as long as you were!

No problem. It was definitely good times.

My interest in the NFL as a whole has waned pretty significantly over the past year though, so it didn't feel quite right to force myself to continue on here instead of giving you guys the chance to get somebody who's actively interested (Case in point: Kaelee, checking on the topic without actually being in the league, is likely to be a great addition to the league)

What is the primary argument against age limits for politicians? Is it just that it's "discriminatory", or is there something else I'm not seeing (and have probably been told before but forgot about)?

To be clear - Term Limits, I get the reasoning against, and am mostly against them myself on account of preserving institutional knowledge. But for age, specifically? Especially if set to a number that's reasonably above the traditional retirement age?

I'm also in the "Galaxy S9, haven't run into any issues that made me feel the need to consider upgrading" bucket.

This is a throwback to, like, 2008

You're in for a hell of a ride, and if you somehow stumbled into it without knowing, this is legitimately 18+ and that's putting it gently.

hombad46 posted...

If you're gonna play both P5 and P5R anyway then yeah definitely do vanilla first.

This is also true. And if you are dead set on playing both, play Vanilla asap, so that you don't grind through both anywhere close together, let alone back to back (game's fucking long, especially if you're going for plat trophy)

Cavedweller2000 posted...

Why not? I know Royal adds an extra semester or something, but surely I can still enjoy the original?

You can. The original is still a fantastic game. It's just 100% and completely made redundant/irrelevant by Royal. There's not a single thing it does better. If you have other good options, pick those instead until you have access to Royal (whether through you buying it or it coming to PS+ or whatever)

Cavedweller2000 posted...

Although I will be playing the vanilla version as I don't believe Royal is on PS Plus.

Do not play P5 Vanilla.

The 23rd is good with me.

Moving up to the 16th if (And only if) the update is out sooner is also good with me, since I would mostly like to play Terraria next month if at all possible.

redrocket posted...

The genre option doesnt seem to fit this poll at all. All the other options are like, I would be interested in this normally but.

^

I mean, I voted for it, but still. If you remove it, easy vote for
MZero posted...

Mandatory online connection out of principal

Hollow Knight is a great game. I just suck at it to the extent that I'm demotivated to try to finish.

On a different kind of note, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are very, very well put together. I can tell at a glance. But they are 100% not for me, and not a genre I at all like, so I haven't bothered.

Ravens

Don't want to forget to make a pick so I'll just get something in now

I'm actually gonna drop this year, sorry.

One more bump for visibility

Got about 18-19 hours before the cutoff and I start rolling.