Poll of the Day > Sports Discussion Topic #176: Welcome back to another edition of the Sports Topi

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been pulling for that mainly because it's the result that would gain maximum saltiness from other hockey fans. A blues fan I went to college with has been posting all year about how Vegas was gonna crash and burn and how they don't "deserve" to win the cup or whatever. I actually liked this guy a lot but he's turned me into a staunch Golden Knights supporter for being such a baby about the Blues perennial underachieving.

That expensive Rockies bullpen sure is good! Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee are shutting everybody down.

Sarcasm aside, Wade Davis has been fine but he'll probably melt down like Holland from needing to be used in two-thirds of the Rockies' wins. This is not a team that blows people out

Vegas is in the Stanley cup final
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Today at Goodwill there was a huge pile of unopened Animal Crossing amiibos for $2 each. I think these are the same ones I kept seeing get marked down all the way to below $3 at my local Target. My thought is why the fuck can't they make that many of the Zelda series ones I actually want?

Or maybe they do make the same amount of each, and I'm severely underestimating the popularity gap between AC and Zelda. But they can't even give these things away, and meanwhile there are several other varieties that are pretty much impossible to get without paying over $50

Now that I mention it, are amiibos even still much of a thing? I know they still make new ones, but it seems like the interest has really dropped. I've always figured I can just sell mine eventually since I'll likely never complete the Zelda collection anyway, but if I ever do that they'll hopefully still be profitable. And if not hopefully the ones I'm missing will drop in price. The worst would be getting stuck with a bunch of worthless ones and the ones I want still being expensive

People love animal crossing but there are like 40 different AC amiibos and they don't do anything for you unless you have amiibo festival or your 3DS has an amiibo reader. Also everyone loves their villagers not the characters who appear in every town.

I bought the Tom Nook amiibo for like $1.49 at Best Buy.

Chewster posted...

That expensive Rockies bullpen sure is good! Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee are shutting everybody down.

That 7th inning was a fun one. The Giants almost batted around and it really pumped up the crowd. During the pitching changes, they were doing songs and showing fans dancing on the big screen, and I actually showed up on the big screen. I wasn't even dancing, but my friends wanted me to hold up a "too sweet" sign (it's a wrestling thing) so I did and then they quickly cut away because they probably thought i was throwing up gang signs.

Now for my routine complaining about beer prices. When I was there 2 years ago I complained that a draft beer was 9.25 and a regular beer was 8.25. Well, they raised those prices by FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS. I was about to get a beer and when I walked up I saw it say $14.25 and I immediately said never mind and walked away. That's ridiculous. I'm going to invest in some plastic flasks or something that I can discreetly sneak in from now on.

Holy mother of god that's obscene. You go to the park expecting to get ripped off for a beer but that's just inexcusable. 14 mother fucking dollars for a beer.

I could actually get a 12 pack for that price

The only twelve packs I've seen for $14 or less are probably macros. How much is Guinness? That's what I'd imagine is around the edge of that price range.

You know what's weird is that I've been to multiple bars were Guinness is one of, if not the most expensive beers they have on tap (even more than craft brews), but at liquor stores it's only the top end of the cheap tier.

I'm in a hellscape, 12 packs are a minimum of $20 here.
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Yeah sometimes a Guinness is like $8 at a bar for some reason, like when I first got one at a bar I thought it was fancy for that reason. I used to drink it a lot too because I thought it looked cool in a glass. Now when people ask me what kind of beer I like I say I like an IPA and I'm not even sure if I do.

Anyway back on topic. $14 is insane for a beer and I too would just not drink on principle no matter where I was. $14 worth of concessions should be at least a beer and something else

Yeah, you could only get a 12 pack of macros for $14 here. Stuff like Blue Moon or Guinness is $16-$18. But I'll take a 12 pack of Bud Lite for $14 over one cup of Guiness for $14.

I think Guiness has a reputation for being much better on tap, but to be honest I don't really notice a difference. I just know if I go to get drinks and I see Guinness and some other micros or craft brews for the same price, I'll get those other ones any day. They say Irish Guinness is way better than what we get here, and I believe it. Our Guinness is an ordinary beer pretending to be fancy.

I've had it here and in ireland and I didn't notice any differences

When my alarm went off this morning I read the part of the date that said Mon as Mom and I thought "why the heck is mom calling me... Oh well, at least it's still the weekend." There's nothing sadder than thinking for a brief moment that you don't have to go to work only to find that you do.

Some wild fans lately have been complaining about how much better vegas' expansion draft was compared to Minnesota's (and Columbus'). These are the same guys who 1 year ago were saying that wild fleeced vgk by giving them Tuch and Haula to protect other players

At least the NHL final is going to be interesting. At this point the most interesting NBA result is the Celtics beating the Warriors which would also be the worst thing ever

Btw after a literal month I finally finished God of War over the weekend and I then tried to set up the Wii U for Donkey Kong as I threatened but it turns out I don't have a power cord for my gamepad at my apartment. I may never play it now, who knows. So as per this topic I started Super Mario RPG on my SNES classic. Seems pretty weird and cool

I'm procrastinating on both God of War and my half-baked attempt at playing FF9 with Super Mario RPG.

I'm sure there is some validity to the complaint about the generous expansion draft, but when you consider that these guys came from a bunch of different teams and few of them had played together before it's pretty impressive. And every team had the chance to protect their best players. It's not like it's the super teams in the NBA where you had the top free agents/trade pieces coming together and (usually) going to a team where there are already successful pieces in place. How many guys did Vegas get that were ever All-Stars, one or two?

We only think the expansion draft is generous because they're in the finals. Everyone was saying that the Golden Knights were gonna be absolutely terrible at the start. This is just overreactionary, and it will all tide over when the Seattle expansion team loses 60 games.
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It's fucking cool is what it is. And all kinds of average hockey fans are pissed about it which makes it way better. There is probably some validity to it being a generous draft as chewy said, and it's also surely true that most of the players they got were underrated/undervalued and not just all randomly having career years, but it's also probably true that there is an element of flukey good fortune at play as well. But when your best remaining argument for a fluke is "they won't be this good next year," you gotta give it up. It's a crazy, impossible to predict story.

Oh, it's definitely cool! I think they'll be a playoff team for sure next year, too. I think what Vegas took advantage of was not a generous expansion draft, however. I think they took advantage of the fact that hockey GMs are dumb.
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That would fit under my second premise of them being undervalued. Obviously my main point of reference is always baseball but you see that pretty often too, just not on an entire roster. Guys like Justin Turner and Charlie Morton had tools they weren't using until an intrepid front office picked them up and pointed it out to them.

Part of their success (not all of it) is their goalie, Fleury. That guy, imo, is the best goalie in the league atm.
They also have a strong defense. Their weakest aspect (and it is still pretty good) is their offense.
You saw that in games 3 and 4 how much weaker it was compared to Winnipegs. But Fleury was just a wall.
I am rooting for them, they are my second favorite team, ans feeling like they will stay that way, unless the Flames move. In which i will become full Vegas
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I think that gives too much credit to Florida's GM. They traded away Jonathan Marchessault--a 30-goal scorer!--for the Knights to take Reilly Smith, whom they gave a $5 million contract to.

However, that definitely does hold water with guys like William Karlsson and Alex Tuch. I think there are a lot of explanations for it, and I don't think it can be repeated. Vegas took what they were given and made a really fun, competitive team out of it.
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I think it's cool too, but I would be interested to peer into an alternate reality where this was happening with a baseball team instead to see how I felt about it. A lot would depend on if I liked the players on the team probably, but of course the sports are so different it's hard to come up with ways that this could work for baseball. There's no equivalent to grabbing an elite goalie, though I guess if they could grab a former ace pitcher that would be a start. Like maybe two years from now Greinke sucks enough for an expansion team to trick AZ into salary dumping him along with some good players and then he's back to his old self

We all know Bartolo would be picked in that draft.
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Before the Cards decided to give him a real shot last year Tommy Pham would have been an expansion draft choice. Who else is really good that could have slipped through the cracks in a random expansion year...

Jose Ramirez
Charlie Blackmon
Daniel Murphy
Cesar Hernandez
Jed Lowrie was born to be taken in an expansion draft

The Phillies got Odubel Herrera in the rule 5 draft. I'll try and think of more

Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion would fall under that as well. As well as J.D. Martinez.

That would be a fun middle of the order.
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Oh yeah those are all good picks. Jose Martinez on the Cards would also be one though it remains to be seen just how good he is. Charlie Morton is pretty good and was twice seen as worthless before reinventing himself.

Verlander also made a nice come back

I know you're making a joke but it's also true. He would have been a better example than my theoretical future Greinke thing earlier

I was making a joke and also not making a joke

That Houston rotation is weird

It's weird and incredibly good.

I don't like Vegas but I'll be rooting for them over the lightning because I'm salty the lightning eliminated my two favorite teams.

This post will be accurate as of roughly 11 tonight.

Hey people like Doc Emrick on NBC, right? I think he calls a very enjoyable game.

He's pretty enjoyable, but is cancelled out by Pierre MacGuire.
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SkynyrdRocker posted...

Hey people like Doc Emrick on NBC, right? I think he calls a very enjoyable game.

he's regarded as the best in the biz by a lot of folks. Can be a real goofball (though not in a bad way). I like him

go cap go

I think he's been paired with Mickey Redmond on some games for the playoffs as well, which is a good call. Disclosure: he's the Red Wings colour commentator, so of course I'm gonna like him.
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MNTwins1991 posted...

go cap go

Game 7 at TB. Can the Caps repeat their magic from games 1 & 2? Hope so!
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Cleveland won and tied it up. I feel like they're just teasing me leading up to the inevitable Boston win

Vegas vs Washington is like the best case scenario for me other than a Blues win. The troll/interesting team vs the team that can't get over the hump. The Lightning wouldn't be bad either but just kind of anticlimactic

At this point I'm hoping Golden State wins the championship again, even if it's going to be a boring victory. I just don't want to see any of the other teams win.

CaptainHammer posted...

Vegas vs Washington is like the best case scenario for me other than a Blues win. The troll/interesting team vs the team that can't get over the hump. The Lightning wouldn't be bad either but just kind of anticlimactic

Even though I'm a Caps fan, I would have been fine seeing Pens vs Knights (mainly because of Fluery having to face his old team)
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Same here.
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Cavs > GS > Houston >>>>> Boston