Who’s your favorite enemy?

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

is your RB is weak, then you replace him, if your kicker cant kick worth a crap, then you replace him.

Bradshaw was a decent but not great QB, he had fantastic people around him, and they won 5 SBs.

 

There was one team, I forget which one it was, but they won something like three super bowls in a decade with different quarterbacks each time.  For the life of me I can't remember which team it is... I don't follow football that closely.

[eddie83]

1 minute ago, makoman said:

Yeah, I don't really get the point of their argument. All of the team sports are extensively influenced by the team. Even in basketball, which I think is regarded as the most superstar-centric of them all, Jordan won nothing until he got better teammates, same with LeBron. The NFL is incredibly team reliant. I don't get why we have to try and elevate baseball as somehow different. In fact, I think the starting pitcher probably has the most influence of any individual in sports over the outcome of a single game, the only problem is you can't use him every day.

I would argue HOF QB’s in general have a floor of a .500 team most of the time.  

The elites have very few losing seasons. Marino only played in one Super Bowl and played on some mediocre teams but only losing season. 

Biggest difference in MLB especially historically is the lack of playoff teams. Close to impossible for the best NBA player not to make the playoffs. Happens rarely because so many teams make the playoffs. Lakers missed last year I think with Lebron. 

Jordan made the playoffs with some lousy teams early on because of 8 teams making it. 

[HowAboutThat]

12 minutes ago, makoman said:

Yeah, I don't really get the point of their argument. All of the team sports are extensively influenced by the team. Even in basketball, which I think is regarded as the most superstar-centric of them all, Jordan won nothing until he got better teammates, same with LeBron. The NFL is incredibly team reliant. I don't get why we have to try and elevate baseball as somehow different. In fact, I think the starting pitcher probably has the most influence of any individual in sports over the outcome of a single game, the only problem is you can't use him every day.

I don’t really care about a comparison between baseball and any other sport, but I do think that baseball is unique in that in baseball it is hardest to compensate for a weak player, and a single great player is less significant in baseball.

[Moose Milligan]

2 minutes ago, Philip said:

I don’t really care about a comparison between baseball and any other sport, but I do think that baseball is unique in that in baseball it is hardest to compensate for a weak player, and a single great player is less significant in baseball.

What's this based on?

[HowAboutThat]

4 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

What's this based on?

What are you gonna do with a lousy leftfielder?  Replace him. Every time we put Dwight Smith into the game, we had a lousy leftfielder and we had to suffer from that. There was no way to compensate for having a lousy leftfielder in the game, until we replaced him.

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Philip said:

What are you gonna do with a lousy leftfielder?  Replace him. Every time we put Dwight Smith into the game, we had a lousy leftfielder and we had to suffer from that. There was no way to compensate for having a lousy leftfielder in the game, until we replaced him.

Yeah, but why's baseball harder to compensate for a weak player than any other sport?

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

Yeah, but why's baseball harder to compensate for a weak player than any other sport?

You must not have seen much basketball.  When you have the five players it is so much easier to hide one when they are atrocious on defense.  Similarly when one can't shoot at all the other team is still honorbound to defend them as if they could.

[makoman]

11 minutes ago, Philip said:

What are you gonna do with a lousy leftfielder?  Replace him. Every time we put Dwight Smith into the game, we had a lousy leftfielder and we had to suffer from that. There was no way to compensate for having a lousy leftfielder in the game, until we replaced him.

And if you have a bad cornerback the other team will just attack him over and over, get more than half of their yards against him, including the tying and winning TDs. Nothing you can do if you can't replace him.

https://www.espn.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/158585/recapping-rashaan-melvins-rough-game

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, makoman said:

And if you have a bad cornerback the other team will just attack him over and over, get more than half of their yards against him, including the tying and winning TDs. Nothing you can do if you can't replace him.

https://www.espn.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/158585/recapping-rashaan-melvins-rough-game

But in baseball there is nothing the defending team can do to stop the team on offense from hitting every ball to left field.

[Redskins Rick]

39 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

There was one team, I forget which one it was, but they won something like three super bowls in a decade with different quarterbacks each time.  For the life of me I can't remember which team it is... I don't follow football that closely.

Your right, great head coach, coaching staff and quality enough players to get the job done, it was fun to watch, and I miss the crap out of it.

[Redskins Rick]

41 minutes ago, makoman said:

Yeah, I don't really get the point of their argument. All of the team sports are extensively influenced by the team. Even in basketball, which I think is regarded as the most superstar-centric of them all, Jordan won nothing until he got better teammates, same with LeBron. The NFL is incredibly team reliant. I don't get why we have to try and elevate baseball as somehow different. In fact, I think the starting pitcher probably has the most influence of any individual in sports over the outcome of a single game, the only problem is you can't use him every day.

The discussion point, that started this rabbit trail off tropic, was the the believe that Baseball was the one true team sport.

[DrungoHazewood]

42 minutes ago, makoman said:

Yeah, I don't really get the point of their argument. All of the team sports are extensively influenced by the team. Even in basketball, which I think is regarded as the most superstar-centric of them all, Jordan won nothing until he got better teammates, same with LeBron. The NFL is incredibly team reliant. I don't get why we have to try and elevate baseball as somehow different. In fact, I think the starting pitcher probably has the most influence of any individual in sports over the outcome of a single game, the only problem is you can't use him every day.

Thought experiment: what would have to change for pitchers to both pitch complete games every day, and have the same per-inning impact they do today?

My first idea would be put the mound at 45', deaden the ball, and limit teams to two pitchers on the roster.  Idea number two, which I kind of jokingly brought up a few days ago, would be to ban overhand pitching in some combination with #1.

[Redskins Rick]

4 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Thought experiment: what would have to change for pitchers to both pitch complete games every day, and have the same per-inning impact they do today?

My first idea would be put the mound at 45', deaden the ball, and limit teams to two pitchers on the roster.  Idea number two, which I kind of jokingly brought up a few days ago, would be to ban overhand pitching in some combination with #1.

[DrungoHazewood]

25 minutes ago, Philip said:

What are you gonna do with a lousy leftfielder?  Replace him. Every time we put Dwight Smith into the game, we had a lousy leftfielder and we had to suffer from that. There was no way to compensate for having a lousy leftfielder in the game, until we replaced him.

I think baseball is arguably the sport where it's easiest to carry a weak player.  Even as a starter.  I already mentioned that the World Champion '83 Orioles were well below average at three positions, had a starter with a 5+ ERA and their #2 reliever had a 6.00 ERA.

Heck, the Yanks won how many World Series with Derek Jeter "playing" shortstop?!?

[DrungoHazewood]

Just now, Redskins Rick said:

That's funny, but whiffle ball is at least a contributing reason why both of my shoulders are loose and make weird noises.  Throwing a wipeout slider that breaks 12' with a whiffle ball is awesome, but it'll ruin you.