Tag Archives: 2016

The GoFundMe site for the 2016 Blogathon For Charity is now up!

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Hey everybody! The GoFundMe page for the 2016 Blogathon For Charity, which starts this coming Friday, is now up. While it is not quite complete yet as far as detailing giveaways (I just need to confirm a few things), it is now open for donations!

So, if you’d like to, please consider donating.

Super-short prediction for the 2016 NFL Divisional Round

Aside

As I said on Twitter, I predict that the Chiefs, Cardinals, Seahawks and Broncos will win this weekend.

Short Predictions for the NFL Wild Card Round (2016)

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Some short predictions for this week’s NFL playoff games:

 

The Chiefs are hot, and have been hot ever since they got out of a very poor start to the season. So much of the NFL playoffs is who is hot at the right time, so I think the Chiefs will beat the Texans.

The Bengals would have been my pick to win against the Steelers… but then Andy Dalton got hurt a few weeks ago. So, I’m picking the Steelers.

Seattle beat up on the Vikings earlier in the year, and even with Marshawn Lynch not available (again) I think they will win again in the freezing cold of Minnesota.

The Packers have been stumbling a ton the later part of the season, but I feel like Aaron Rodgers is ultimately going to wake up (and hopefully be protected long enough) to beat Washington.

 

So… I picked…. all road teams.

Weird.

 

Hall of Fame Day: What To Watch For

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It’s Hall of Fame Day. This year, Ken Griffey will almost certainly get in, and Mike Piazza is pretty likely. Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines also have shots, although it will be close.

Some other things though to watch for:

1) How does Trevor Hoffman do?

The greatest closer in the history of the National League is unlikely to get in on the first ballot, but does seem likely to eventually get on. Held back by the fact he played on some crummy teams and never gaining the postseason glory of his AL opposite number (Mariano Rivera), Hoffman is perhaps not as highly-regarded as he should be. How he does in this, his first year on the ballot, will probably be a good

2) With the balloting list purged, do the PED users and Sabermetric darlings gain?

Many voters- mainly ones who are old or have not covered baseball in a long while- had their votes taken away starting this year. Normally I’m against disenfranchising people, but it was always ridiculous that a person who hadn’t covered baseball in the slightest since 1992 could vote in the Hall of Fame. These voters tended to be older, more traditional, more hostile towards statistics, and more draconian in dealing with the PED era. With them gone, will we see PED users and favorites of the statistical community gain? I feel like we will, but by how much is a big question.

3) What player is most going to get screwed over by the fact that voters can still only vote for 10 people, and then likely fall off the ballot?

Jim Edmonds. I don’t know if he’s a Hall of Famer, but he certainly shouldn’t be falling off the ballot in his first year.

4) Will some idiot not vote for Ken Griffey Jr.?

Yes. There’s always somebody.

5) Will they be brave enough to come forward?

If they do, then they are both brave and foolish at the same time, especially if they have some sort of stupid reason and it isn’t a case of “I knew he was being inducted so I voted for Jim Edmonds to try and keep him on the ballot”. Actually, that’s a stupid reason too, but that more has to do with the Hall of Fame’s continued denial of the BBWAA’s requests to be able to vote for more than 10 people.

 

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So, keep an eye open for the answers to these questions.

World Baseball Classic News for 12-17-2015: Catching Up

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It’s time to catch up on some World Baseball Classic news!

 

Lincoln Holdzkom passes away

First off, though, there is tragic news out of California, where New Zealander-American pitcher Lincoln Holdzkom has passed away after a car accident. Holdzkom, the brother of John Holdzkom of the Pirates organization, was expected to be the team captain for New Zealand in the WBC Qualifiers. Our thoughts are with him and his family and friends.

Mexico’s roster starts to take shape

Jon Morosi has an article on the Mexican National Team that has begun to take shape. Edgar Gonzalez will be the manager for Team Mexico in the WBC Qualifiers and presumably the main tournament as well if they qualify. His younger brother, Adrian Gonzalez, will be on the roster. The team could be pretty deep in pitching, Morosi writes:

Mexico’s preliminary roster will be especially deep in pitching, with Yovani Gallardo, Marco Estrada, Roberto Osuna, Aaron Sanchez, Miguel Gonzalez and Dodgers prospect Julio Urias among the notable arms certain to be included on it. Pitchers Jorge De La Rosa, Joakim Soria and Olivez Perez also are eligible to play for Mexico, as is Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier, who is Mexican-American.

However, there are some problems that could trip up Mexico. For one thing, while MLB teams are very strongly encouraged to allow players to participate in the qualifiers, they are not required (unlike the main rounds of the WBC, where they are only allowed to officially block player participation if they are coming off an injury or there are too many players being picked from their roster). In addition, there is an ongoing feud between the Mexican League and Mexico’s national baseball federation that will make the participation of Mexican Leaguers iffy.

Edwin Rodriguez will begin recruiting for Team Puerto Rico

In a Spanish-language article on Elnuevodia.com, there is the news that Edwin Rodriguez will soon begin to recruit for Team Puerto Rico. While the article mentions how he will try to make an effort to get players of Puerto Rican descent (like Jake Arrieta) to take part, I personally think it’s more likely they’ll have to rely upon native-born Puerto Ricans like Yadier Molina, Carlos Beltran, Angel Pagan, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, and the like. All of them are mentioned in the article. Puerto Rico came in a surprising second in the 2013 WBC.

Other Notes:

So, until next time, this has been a WBC update!

2016 #Blogathon For Charity Update!

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Hello everyone. A few updates on the 2016 Baseball Continuum Blogathon for Charity, benefiting Roswell Park Cancer Institute:

  • Over 40 people have agreed to take part in the Blogathon, meaning we are close to having enough people to have TWO WHOLE DAYS of submitted content here. These people range from relative unknowns all the way up to published authors, and are coming from various countries, fandoms, and areas of expertise. I’ve added many of them (or the places they blog at) to the blogroll!
  • Next off, I’m proud to announce that Out Of The Park Developments, creators of Out Of The Park Baseball, have agreed to contribute three copies of OOTP to be given away as raffle prizes for people who donate! I have also heard from others who will be contributing prizes, which I will reveal as we get closer to the blogathon.
  • I will, however, tell you another thing that I will be contributing to the Blogathon raffle! It’ll be a Andre Dawson Living Baseball Card! The Living Baseball Cards are something I did a review of a few years ago, and I’ve had Andre’s LBC ready for a giveaway like this since then! So this should make a neat little prize to somebody who donates.
  • Finally, remember that if you would like to contribute to the Blogathon- whether in the form of a piece or as some sort of raffle prize- you can contact me at djgwriter@yahoo.com.

Thank you!

World Baseball Classic News for 9-17-2015: Qualifier Pools Announced!

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Well, I told you that more news was probably coming, and today it was confirmed, as the World Baseball Classic qualifying pools have been announced! They are (all qualifiers in 2016):

 

Qualifier 1 (Sydney, Australia on February 11-14th):

Australia

New Zealand

Philippines

South Africa

Qualifier 2 (Mexicali, Mexico on March 17-20th):

Mexico

Czech Republic

Germany

Nicaragua

Qualifier 3 (Panama City on March 17-20th):

Colombia

France

Panama

Spain

Qualifier 4 (Brooklyn on Sept. 22-25th):

Brazil

Great Britain

Israel

Pakistan

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As you can see, they’ve mixed up the locations (only Panama is a return qualifying host), the pools (no pool has more than two teams that were in the same individual pool last time), and also teams (Pakistan has replaced Thailand). Some things to note here:

  • MLB players will be able to participate in Qualifiers 1-3, but not Qualifier 4.
  • It is again a modified double-elimination, meaning it’s double elimination until there are only two, at which point it’s a winner-take-all championship game. I’ve always had a problem with this format and feel a straight-up double-elimination would be better, but I understand how the organizers would like the drama of a winner-take-all game.
  • Qualifier 4, in Brooklyn, is clearly meant to be a pool of teams that don’t have pro-worthy stadiums in their countries. It’s likely Brooklyn was picked due to New York’s diverse nature, with MLB and the other WBC organizers no doubt hoping that the city’s large Jewish population will turn up for Israel games.
  • Looking at this right now, I’d say that Qualifier 2 will probably have the highest level of talent, Qualifier 3 will be the hardest for any one team to get out of, and Qualifier 4 will be the hardest to predict. Qualifier 1, by contrast, looks like it should be a fairly easy draw for Australia.
  • I’m somewhat surprised that the Philippines is in Qualifier 1. I had a feeling they might make it an All-Commonwealth pool and have the Philippines be in New York City. At least, that’s what I thought after reading Jon Paul Morosi’s original post before it was official.

 

So, look in the coming days and no doubt more news will come out and I’ll take a look at some of the teams and other aspects of the qualifying tournament- like Pakistan’s baseball program.

 

REVIEW: OOTP 2016 improves the series even more

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Last year, I said that that year’s incarnation of Out Of The Park Baseball had improvements and new features that weren’t perfect, but opened the way for endless possibilities in the future.

And while there still is room for improvement, the future is most definitely now, as almost every improvement or new feature from last season has been further improved, even more features have been added, and an official MLB license has made the game easier to set-up than ever.

The Good:

  •  Same old, Same old. The core of OOTP is still in place, and that’s a good thing. It’s still about building baseball teams and managing (or general-managing) baseball teams– or simply simulating them if you would like. The settings, options, etc. are the same. And this is a good thing, because they are great. Look up my previous reviews to see screens and comments on those.
  • Logos and Rosters are there from the start, and those that aren’t are easily modded in. With the acquisition of the MLB license, most of the MLB and other logos are now built-in, making it a lot easier to load them up and use them, as opposed to previously, where you had to mod them in. And, don’t worry, it’s easy to mod in those that aren’t there.
  • The 3D stadiums work better now! The 3D stadiums were something of a work-in-progress last year and you often had to do a lot of work to get them working correctly as far as placement of players and ball locations. Now, most MLB stadiums are already installed!
  • Rosters! International! The international and independent leagues have never been better, as more real-life stadiums and rosters are there than ever before. Basically every professional baseball league of prominence- even the super-duper-low Pecos League- is in there. It’s what makes the International Baseball Competition possible, since OOTP provides all of the players, managers and most of the stadiums right out of the box.
  • Better role-playing, clubhouse and front office functions. Remember the Angels’ “30 Teams, 30 Posts” post? Remember this: That’s new this year. You can be given orders from the owner, and you’ll hear from folks in the clubhouse about the chemistry amongst the team. A nice addition that I hadn’t thought of before.
  • Lots of other little changes and improvements, so many that I haven’t run into all of them yet!

The Bad:

  • Lack of (realistic) Winter Leagues. It’s kind of a bummer we can’t have the Caribbean World Series or anything like that our players could take part in during the off-season.
  • No built-in WBC features
  • It doesn’t give you real-world money

Score: 9.7 out of 10.

 

 

 

Full Disclosure: I received a review copy from Out Of The Park Developments for this review.