Champions' League Update

I quit watching Man City and Real Madrid once it went to extra time, because I knew it was going to penalty kicks and I cannot abide penalty kicks.  Sure enough, after dominating play for over 100 minutes, City made only three of its five penalty kicks -- and was eliminated when Real Madrid made four.  Meanwhile, Bayern Munich beat Arsenal 1-0 at home.

So the English clubs are out, and the only game I've wanted to watch all season was decided on penalty kicks.  Anyway, this sets up the following semi-finals:

Borussia Dortmund (GER) v. Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)

Bayern Munich (GER) v. Real Madrid (ESP)

I'm going to root for an all-German final.  But I'm pretty sure Real Madrid will be lifting the Cup for the 15th time overall, and the sixth time since 2014.

Champions' League Update

Borussia Dortmund beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 today, which means that it won 5-4 on aggregate.

Paris Saint-Germain was down 1-0 in Barcelona -- and down 4-2 on aggregate.  But in the 29th minute, one of the Barcelona players got a red card, and PSG ran wild after that.  Paris Saint-Germain hammered Barcelona 4-1, and won the quarter-final 6-4 on aggregate.

So we now have one of the semi-finals:

Borussia Dortmund (GER) v. Paris Saint-Germain (FRA).

1977

I got a book for Christmas23, just a bit late for my observance of MLB76.

I probably checked out this book from the Paducah Public Library 20 times when I was growing up, and I don't know that I actually ever read a word. I'm sure I did read the stuff about the A's and a paragraph here and there, but what I remember looking at over and over and over again were three things: the logos, ...

... the pictures and diagrams of the stadiums, ...

... and, of course, the baseball cards.

The cards are from the 1975 Topps set, and, even by the time this book came out in 1976, there were, of course, hiccups in terms of which teams the different players were now on. That bothered me even then, and now I think I would've replaced the 1975s with cards of from seasons in which the players had landmark seasons for that team. So, for example, in the case of the Padres, I might've replaced the '75 Willie McCovey, Dave Winfield and Johnny Grubb with 1970 Clarence Gaston (for his team-record-going-into-1976 .318 batting average that season), 1971 Clay Kirby (231 strikeouts) and 1972 Nate Colbert (111 runs batted in).

Yes, Wise Guy, I am aware that's actually a '72 Gaston, '70 Kirby and '70 Kellogg's Colbert. I didn't start collecting until 1975, so my collections are spotty before then. I'm not trying to pull a fast one on you.

Oh, by the way, I'd keep the 1975 Randy Jones, because he won a team-record 20 games that season. Or, if the Prentice-Hall publishing deadline would've allowed, I'd slip in his 1976 card, for the season he got 22 wins and broke his own team record.

Yes, this is a good plan.

But why all the Padres? Because I'm going to use this book to accompany me through MLB77 at the HP, at least when the stadium pictures and diagrams still line up with what the teams are using in 1977, and today 1977's YouTube game that I'm working to is Cincinnati and San Diego. Jones, in fact, is pitching for the Padres. 

16 Apr 1977, Sat The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, Ohio) Newspapers.com

Randy Jones was a really big deal in 1977--made one of the Street and Smith's covers and was the National League All-Star pitcher in the Topps set that year.

Somebody should really alert Randy Jones that he's getting so much love at the HP today. Oh, my gosh, he's on Twitter!

Just a note from your Neighborly Lefthander... The next time a team knocks down Fernando Tatis with a inside fastball and our pitcher doesn’t knock somebody on there ass, I’m going ballistic. I’m tired of this shit. Respect...
He deserves it.

— Randy Jones (@RJBBQ35) September 21, 2020

2019 Five Year Draft Scores

The draft is close at hand.  Last year I looked back at the 2018 draft, this year we will be looking at the 2019 draft.  

First let's at the teams who added the most value to their teams from the 2019 draft.  On this front Oakland is the only team that gets an A.  They added 152.51 points of value to their roster over the last five years from the players they drafted.  You might be saying, wait that isn't possible.  We all know the Gruden years in Oakland were defined by bad drafts.  And this is true, but they got two players who have accounted for 89 of those 152.51 points, Maxx Crosby and Josh Jacobs.  They got another 21 points of value from Hunter Renfrow.  Crosby was a 4th round pick and Renfrow was a 5th round pick.  That's great value for those guys.  The problem is the Raiders had 3 first round picks in 2019.  Jacobs was one of their first round picks, the other two were Clelin Ferrell and Jonathan Abram, they provided a total of 22 points of value to the Raiders and only a combined 33 points of value overall in the league.  That's bad.  With three first round picks and hitting on guys in the 4th and 5th round this should have been a 200 point draft for the Raiders.  Still they were the only team to get at least 150 points out of their draft and thus an A.  

This takes us to group two with the 49ers, Giants, Titans, Bucs, Cardinals, Bills, and Football Team.  The Giants had 10 draft picks and like the Raiders had 3 in the first round.  Yet they could only manage 137.36 points added to their team.  The vast majority of their points came from Daniel Jones and Dexter Lawrence who contributed a combined 81 points.  Again it's great to come out of the draft with two big time contributors, but when you have 3 first round picks and 10 picks overall you should do better.  This was Dave Gettleman's second draft and would really be the one that was the beginning of the end for his time in New York.  Washington may have had the oddest draft.  They got a good grade from Bleacher Report A-, but only get a B here and a C on a per player basis because they also had 10 draft picks and two number ones.  Almost all of the value they received was from three picks, Montez Sweat, Terry McLaurin, and Cole Holcomb.  They account for 88 points of the total 106.05.  

So what's interesting to me about this draft is the fact that the top rated teams really didn't do all that great.  Yes they added value to give them a good grade, but not the kind of value that can actually change the path of your franchise which is what you are looking for when you have multiple first round picks.  

There are three teams on the bottom here that we need to discuss because their grades from Bleacher Report were A's.  New England had 10 picks and only managed to add 55.55 points to their team over these past 5 years with these picks.  This would be the beginning of the end for Belichick.  Brady would leave the next  year and the Patriots would really stumble in part because of such a poor roster construction.  Bleacher Report praised the pick of N'Keal Harry, Joejuan Williams, and Chase Winovich in the first 3 rounds.  These players combined added a total of 19 points over 5 years for the Patriots and 21 points to the League.  The Colts are another team who got an A score from Bleacher Report but on a per player bases get a D.  With a total of 10 picks they only added 68.68 points to their team.  Chris Ballard has gotten a lot of love over the years in Indianapolis, but I've always thought he's overrated and when you look at a failure of a draft where you had 10 picks it's not wonder they've been in limbo the last few years.  The last team here is Cleveland.  With high expectations and high post draft grades this class for Cleveland was a D over the last 5 years and was John Dorsey's last year with the Browns.    

One draft I have to point out is Arizona.  They had 11 picks and added Kyler Murray who has accounted for 57 points.  The other 10 picks have accounted for a total of 55 points.  So yes you get a B for drafting a starting quarterback, but this is also the kind of draft that will eventually cost a GM their job.

One guy who you would think had a good enough draft to keep his job was Tennessee GM, Jon Robinson.  Back in 2019 everything was great.  They were the only team to get over 20 points of value per pick in this draft.  By 2022 Robinson would be fired, but at least in 2019 all was good with the Titans and this is the kin of draft you want to see your team have.  They added solid contributors to defense and offense with players like Jeffery Simmons, AJ Brown, Nate Davis, and David Long.  Maybe the problem is that Brown, Davis and Long are all now gone from Tennessee even though they were solid contributors while they were with the team.  

 Here are the grades I have.  The first chart is the total points added for the team.  The second is the per player average.