unclevlad

Does that say more about the pitching staff...or the plate umpire? Well, ok, I suppose with 29 hit batters, it's plausible that the 65 walks was more about lack of control..... My gosh, that game would've been horrible to watch, or to play in.

The record for no-hitters in a season is 7. If the scoring rules are changed so that Bumgarner's counts, it'd be...#5. Even without, we still have 4. With now, right at 20% of the season having been played. Tonight it was Wade Miley...a serviceable starter, but his career W-L is 88-87. We're not talking a Kershaw or deGrom. John Means is off to a hot start this year; his career W-L is actually below .500, but hey, he's an Oriole. 3.60 ERA in 155 innings in 2019 isn't bad at all...but it's not world-beating. Joe Musgrove's career ERA is over 4. Rodon's no-hitter is perhaps less of a surprise, but still...3 out of 4 are from, overall, just average pitchers.

Man...India pulled a 4 and 4 that you DON'T want, today. 400,000+ new cases 4000+ deaths Tragically, the new case numbers are still climbing; slower than before, but still climbing. So, even if the curve flattens in, say, a week, then starts to turn around...and it's back to, let's say, 300,000 in a month...that's about 16-17 million more cases, and something like 200,000 more deaths. If not more.

Nope, you weren't. Was more aimed at N-B.

If it's going to be that short, then why not simply buy the Entangle in such a way that it will be broken quickly? I'm never a fan of trying to duplicate the SFX from a video game. The game designed within the extremely narrow constraints of the game. Does the Scorpion Attack even have a breakout potential? What's the downside, in the game, of trying to use it? Games often involve recovery times between attacks...which Hero can support, but only to a degree. Combat in Mortal Kombat is always at very short range; even a 1d6 Entangle has 100m of range unless you limit it. MK combat is always one on one...in-game combat isn't. "I completely disable you for 2 segments!!" translates to "DOGPILE TIME!!!!" potentially.

Comprehend Languages would very likely be a Special Power, and therefore not legal in a VPP, at least in 6th. As for the point with UT, and Cypher with the New Mutants...in books and comics, translator devices are either plot devices or sheer, unadulterated author LAZINESS. Translation powers are no different; they're just a lot less common. OR, it's one of the character's little tricks...Threepio, for example, so he's got a niche to fill. I will grant that languages don't offer great returns on their costs...but part of this can also be over-buying. My background concepts, especially for a current-day setting, often include bilingual...English and Spanish is the most obvious. When I'm buying Linguist, I'll buy Imitate Dialects with my native language because it'll be free. I'll buy Idiomatic for the bilingual language because I treat it, by and large as a 2nd native language. But how often do you really *need* more than Fluent? It's a level for lawyers, for diplomats, or for infiltrators. Between the language familiarity chart and the general cost reduction for Linguist, you can get a LOT of languages for 20 points...or even 10, if you're judicious. I am not a fan of any of the Universals...UT, or the universals in APG...per se. They're TOO broad. Every human language, every *alien* language? Every piece of written text, even in another language using an alphabet with a totally different basis? Yeah, ok, there's rules for penalties to the roll, but it's still too much. Recognize that it's a Stop talent for a reason...it's NOT something that should be routine. (Or on the flip side...if a tech solution can be provided easily, then it becomes a no-cost campaign feature. I can think of at least 2 fictional universes where this is used...and in both cases, it's the authors preferring to duck the issues, IMO.) So why does the character want UT, and what justification does his power set offer for it? There are some mentalist types where I'd allow it...but with a -0 Limitation that it doesn't work against someone with Mental Defense, for example.

But consider. Anti-vaxers will still tend to get these mutating versions more often. Do you really want a bunch of anti-vax mutants? I'll concede the exceptional irony, but a horde of them with powers is beyond terrifying....

A possible knock on Trout in a GOAT discussion may be durability...he only played 114, 140, and 134 games in the 2017-2019 seasons. He's never played the full 162, but that might be the modern game and "scheduled days off" mentality. But that's a fair number of games to miss that young. GOAT discussions have always been breast-beating exercises, as far as I'm concerned; eras have *rarely* been comparable enough to make any discussion meaningful. How do you compare Trout's 310 HRs to date, with some of the others...when HRs have been climbing SO much? The HR per game rate for the 2016-2021 seasons comprise 6 of the top 7. Conversely, a .300 batting average is a LOT more impressive in these last few years than in, say, the 1930's when the league average was in the .270 to .280 range.

WARNING: VERY DISTURBING VIDEO https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/05/07/florida-school-mother-daughter-paddle-eg-orig.cnn This *may have been legal* under Florida law, BTW. Corporal punishment is allowed but the circumstances and personnel are somewhat discretionary. But doing this to a 6 year old seems above and beyond reasonable.

What's worse is that the sheer extent of the outbreak in India is now raising concerns that it will imperil containment world-wide, because this will be a little Andromeda Strain situation in itself, with the virus free to mutate to its little heart's content, making vaccination much less certain.

Ratzafratzasnigglefranga!!!!! (memory serves, it was the cuss of choice for a cartoon character, but I don't remember which)

Technically, Trout's WAR average from 2012-2019 is only 9. Only. That rates First Ballot HoF LOCK. It's insane that the worst he finished in the MVP race during those 8 years was 4th. Won 3, 2nd 4 times. On teams that only reached the playoffs once in that period...and lost in the division series. He's won MVP twice on teams with losing records. Ohtani is fun to watch. My lord does he MOSH; he crushed another tonight. (Rays-Angels on MLB Network right now.) He's a big factor for DFAing Pujols, as he's clearly the DH as long as he's healthy, and they've got a kid they like for first base. Pujols was never gonna be offered another contract, given the numbers of the last several years and his age. Yes, well, Jared Walsh is the kid at first, and his slash line so far this year is just .333 / .410 / .589, and his OPS is just .979 .......

PIFFLE!!!!!

Come to think on it, a gimmick you sometimes see for a safecracker is...a stethoscope. The notion was, the stethoscope picked up the sound of the tumbler clicking into place. Alternately, I remember a few cases where some form of scope was used to observe the wheels/tumblers, for the same objective. Keypads that require a combo have been vulnerable to sequence generators. These'd all be examples of foci giving bonuses. And from a roleplaying perspective, this would reward research..."what kinds of measures are we likely to face, and what kinds of tricks do we need to pack?" It's book legal to define skill bonuses as powers, and from there, it's rather easy to argue for limitations. (I *love* alternate Desolid from APG. One aspect I sometimes use is levels to Stealth and possibly Contortionist, linked to the Desolid...Stealth because you're lighter, Contortionist because your body's not rigid.) I'd argue that OAF doesn't work; O doesn't work if they can be concealed until their needed. The act of e.g. lockpicking presumably has to be discreet. A is largely the same. It's only A when you're doing something that you can't do with others attacking you, or quite often, knowing that you're doing it at all.

I hadn't heard that, but yeah, that's what I'm wondering. But the numbers don't support it. Go to Baseball Reference: his WAR (wins above replacement player) has been +1.5, -1.8, +0.3, and +0.2 (2016-2019). It was -0.1 last year, but last year was weird anyway. It's -0.5 so far this year. Granted that WAR i a funky number, but that is simply Not Very Good. Here's a quick summation from FanGraphs. On this basis: staying with Pujols isn't a very good move; if nothing else, he's blocking a younger player from making progress. For position players and starting pitchers, here is a good rule-of-thumb chart: Scrub 0-1 WAR Role Player 1-2 WAR Solid Starter 2-3 WAR Good Player 3-4 WAR All-Star 4-5 WAR Superstar 5-6 WAR MVP 6+ WAR

Professional skills in general require the tools of the trade to be usable. There's some exceptions like PS: Singing or Dance, but it's largely the case. Some listed skills act a lot like PS's...electronics, lockpicking, computer programming...because the character is acting through a medium...a lockpick, a keyboard, various tools for electronics, rather than executing the skill directly, a la acrobatics, breakfall, conversation, etc. Will the player have those tools? Well...it kinda depends. Lockpicks are readily concealable. A keyboard isn't; oh, sure, it might fit into a backpack, but on a stealth mission, the backpack itself would often be suspicious. So I'd treat them a little differently. On a stealth mission, it's probably fair for the GM to ask, "ok, you know you need a bunch of gear. How do you plan to get this in?" Or if the security in a given place is exceptionally tight. "You know the security is Really Good at this lab. How do you plan to sneak in your gear?" But if this isn't the case, then I treat it like Weapon Familiarity, at least in Champions. If I buy an HKA, I don't need to buy WF with swords to use it. If I buy Lockpicking, presuming I don't have a power that obviates the need for tools, I get the tools. Skills can be hard to get full value for the points spent. I absolutely don't want to discourage buying them by adding additional hoops to using them.

Thanks. I wanted to say that but my brain's misfiring today, and it never came out coherently.....

Also true, most likely, that I'm being cynical and distrusting Hollywood. One can argue that the biggest movie event of 2020 was the night ABC showed Black Panther, after Chadwick Boseman's death. Black Panther wasn't a great diversity movie, it was a great movie that incorporated diversity elements. Now add in that Hollywood generally is being hammered for lack of diversity So...why are they *really* releasing a black Superman movie? What is going to make a gay Green Lantern a better choice than another straight Green Lantern?

At first I was shocked, but the numbers ain't there. It's being reported that the Angels have designated Albert Pujols for assignment. Which is almost certainly a prelude to releasing him. Yes, the numbers are poor, and they've been poor for several years. (There is a reason why the Angels were criticized for giving him the deal they did. But it's still surprising that it ends in this manner, as Pujols is an absolute LOCK for first ballot HoF, and *could* be the second unanimous choice. 667 HRs, over 3200 hits, #2 in career RBIs, 3 time MVP and 6 other times in the top 5 for MVP, 2 Gold Gloves, 2 World Series rings.

Another thought about what DC is trying. Remember the Black exploitation films of the early 70s? Stereotype driven would be one of the kinder things to say about them, generally. "We're putting black people in this and making it seem like a black story because it's so cool to do so!!" Yes, well, an article pointed out that DC's doing Diversity...black Superman, Latino Blue Beetle, gay Green Lantern. (Well, the last certainly doesn't violate any kind of canon because there's a lot of them.) I smell Diversity Exploitation.

Alternate universes are fun diversions; sometimes they're compelling in their own right. But it's not the paradigm for good storytelling because, when "it's all just one possibility of many" is the paradigm, then nothing matters. Nor can we grow attached to the characters, because, well, they won't change either. The MCU worked because we *cared* about the characters. Actions had consequences. People grew, and changed. Sometimes we disliked the changes (Hulk, wastrel Thor) but hey, the story was there to do that in. DC's messed this up *constantly* and if they're gonna do a scattershot multiversal paradigm, they're only repeating the same mistakes.

Well, if the Jags don't win, there will be one, and only one, person to take the blame. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31394234/jacksonville-jaguars-fire-four-long-staff-members-part-overhaul-coach-urban-meyer-source-says Urban Meyer's replaced most of the prior on-field-related staff. 27 (!!!) assistant coaches, too!!! To me it screams "this is my fiefdom and I am lord absolute!!" which...we'll see how that plays, eh? This line really bugs me: Translation, to me: "I'm used to squeezing boosters for every last time I can get from them. Business aspects be hanged, there's no limit to the pool he's used to drawing from. To be sure, I dislike Meyer greatly, so rather obviously, that's coloring my opinion. I don't think I dislike him as much as I disliked Potato Chip Kelly, but Meyer might be getting close....

Intro to https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/bolsonaro-faces-criminal-investigation-possible-impeachment-over-covid-response-in-brazil Let me say: reading the story will probablly make you angry. Bolsonaro's quoted once; ok, one can argue it's cherry picking, but...to say it's callous and heartless is a *gross* understatement. Let's hope it works out, but it sounds like, at best, it'll take a while. Meanwhile, the virus continues to wreak major havoc. In less than a week, the number of dead per capita will pass 1 per 500 people. The new case rate fluctuates somewhat, but levels climbed in December and have generally, with some short-term declines, continued up. So, yes, new cases are down somewhat...about 20% from the highest rates in mid March...but that's still an extremely high rate. And 20% drop in 6 weeks isn't that great, since that was their peak so far. By comparison, in the US, new cases dropped 60% during January, then 50% (on top of that) in February. Oh, and I think most experts believe Brazil is seriously undercounting *anyway* so the situation's even worse than the numbers present.

4 no-hitters now, and we haven't even hit Mother's Day. Yes, I count Bumgarner's...the definition of a no-hitter say it isn't, but he pitched a complete game (by the rules) with no hits. Ergo.... #4 was just now. Only batter to reach base was on a strikeout on a wild pitch, and they couldn't get the batter at first. (EDIT: interesting side note. First Orioles solo no-hitter in over 40 years. That goes with Joe Musgrove threw the Padres' first no-hitter ever...and the Padres date back to 1969, which is the same year of the O's prior solo no-no.) And earlier...White Sox, top scoring team in the AL. Reds, top scoring team in the NL. Playing at Great American Ballpark in Cincy, the ballpark with the highest average number of runs per game (both teams combined). Reds win in a walk-off, driving in the runner placed at 2nd in the 10th. Score...1-0.

Good thing this isn't the Year of the Rooster, or the Chicken Little jokes would be fast and furious.