gatling

Don't forget about Steve Bono!

Well, ones that requires you to give up a draft pick to sign were more scarce. Maybe the Braves are looking for a new market inefficiency?

I say go watch a bunch of Ports games and give me some scouting reports on A's prospects. ?

@CSC I'm so sorry for your loss.

@NikoBaltimore covered most of this with the quoted reasoning, but I thought I'd go a step further in that vein. Let's use your Denny's example. If you're eating a Denny's, are you ordering an appetizer before your meal? Dessert? It's certainly possible and available, but I think for most in a fast casual type establishment like that you're ordering a Grand Slam breakfast or a sandwich and fries and that's it. You're also ordering a cup of coffee or a Coke or something of that ilk, things the server will refill on their own. How many trips to your table is the server at Denny's making? Initial greeting and drink order, bring the drinks take your food order, deliver food, check on food/refill drink, drop off check. That's five trips on average, give or take a trip or two if you're a regular/in hurry or you're talking after finishing your meal and having an extra cup of coffee, etc. In the upscale restaurant(and yes, the "refined steakhouse experience" is going to qualify as upscale, it's not top tier or anything but a clear step up from Outback and Texas Roadhouse I'd be willing to bet) example you've ordered appetizers and desserts, and if drinks means mixed drinks or beer and anyone had more than one we're talking multiple trips to table, POS system, bar, and back to the table for each round, plus extra trips is anyone had coffee with their dessert/after dinner(or maybe a second cup?). You've easily doubled the number of trips your server is making to the table and in most restaurants of that level the server is at minimum tipping out a bartender but quite possibly also a bar back and a busser(or multiples of each of those positions, though the rate would probably be a bit lower then). A server at Denny's isn't tipping anyone out most likely, what they get goes in their pocket...unless they are required to report some or all of their tips as income and get taxed on them, but that's another issue. So even if the quality of the service was equal at Denny's and the steakhouse, your server at the steakhouse probably made twice as many trips to your table and had to tip out a bartender and possibly more people, so they do deserve more of a tip to begin with. The percentage based system might not be perfect but it's easy to figure and be consistent with. The only other thing I'd say is that having a range of just 15% to 18% doesn't allow much room for above average or better service. Even on a $300 tab, a 3% increase in tip is only $9 so if a server goes above and beyond and delivers excellent service you're not allowing yourself much wiggle room if you're sticking to that range.

Sunday, December 29 NY Jets at Buffalo New Orleans at Carolina Cleveland at Cincinnati Green Bay at Detroit LA Chargers at Kansas City Chicago at Minnesota Miami at New England Atlanta at Tampa Bay Pittsburgh at Baltimore Washington at Dallas Tennessee at Houston Indianapolis at Jacksonville Philadelphia at NY Giants Oakland at Denver Arizona at LA Rams San Francisco at Seattle Tiebreaker #1: winning pargin in SF/Sea 7 Tiebreaker #2: Dak Prescott passing yards vs Washington 245 Tiebreaker #3: Josh Allen rushing yards vs NY Jets 80

Saturday, December 21 Houston at Tampa Bay Buffalo at New England LA Rams at San Francisco Sunday, December 22 Pittsburgh at NY Jets Jacksonville at Atlanta Baltimore at Cleveland Carolina at Indianapolis Cincinnati at Miami New Orleans at Tennessee NY Giants at Washington Detroit at Denver Oakland at LA Chargers Dallas at Philadelphia Arizona at Seattle Kansas City at Chicago Monday, December 23 Green Bay at Minnesota Tiebreaker #1: more passing yards, Aaron Rodgers or Kirk Cousins Tiebreaker #2: Ezekiel Elliott rushing yards vs Phi 124 Tiebreaker #3: total points in Oakland-LA Chargers game 63

Thursday, December 12 NY Jets at Baltimore Sunday, December 15 Seattle at Carolina New England at Cincinnati Tampa Bay at Detroit Chicago at Green Bay Denver at Kansas City Miami at NY Giants Houston at Tennessee Philadelphia at Washington Cleveland at Arizona Jacksonville at Oakland Minnesota at LA Chargers LA Rams at Dallas Atlanta at San Francisco Buffalo at Pittsburgh Monday, December 16 Indianapolis at New Orleans Tiebreaker #1: Total points in Ind/NO 63 Tiebreaker #2: Dak Prescott passing yards vs LA Rams 247 Tiebreaker #3: Interceptions thrown in Miami/NY Giants 3

Thanks for the heads up! Ordered that and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles so I don't have to spend $4 renting it next Thanksgiving like I did this year.

Thursday, December 5 Dallas at Chicago Sunday, December 8 Miami at NY Jets Carolina at Atlanta Baltimore at Buffalo Cincinnati at Cleveland Washington at Green Bay Denver at Houston Detroit at Minnesota San Francisco at New Orleans Indianapolis at Tampa Bay LA Chargers at Jacksonville Pittsburgh at Arizona Kansas City at New England Tennessee at Oakland Seattle at LA Rams Monday, December 9 NY Giants at Philadelphia Tiebreaker #1: Total points in KC/NE 42 Tiebreaker #2: Aaron Rodgers passing yards vs Wash 348 Tiebreaker #3: Winning margin in Den/Hou 21

Great series of articles about the 10 Modern Era Candidates by the tremendous Jay Jaffe can be found here.

Greg Valentine? He and Beefcake split at WM 3, around the same time Condrey left. Valentine didn't like teaming with Bravo, maybe he'd have been more comfortable teaming with Bobby?

Happy Birthday Eddie!

My wife watches Raw, Smackdown, NXT and NWA Powerrr with my daughter and I. She grew up watching WWF with her dad and brother. She's even watched a couple of AAA shows with me this year when I've checked them out.

I don't see Manny as a weak candidate at all as @supremebve laid out an excellent case for him already. I wouldn't call Jones or Helton weak choices either, but I definitely understand people considering them borderline choices unless you're an extremely small hall type of guy(which I don't think you are). Neither were on my ballot last year(Jones would have been eleventh) but with four guys from my ballot getting in last year that opened up room for Helton, Jones, and Wagner. Helton is above the 7 year peak for the average HOF first baseman and less than one point of JAWS from the average--and as Jay Jaffe mentions here Helton ranks top 15 in JAWS for first baseman and had a top 10 peak. I think much like Larry Walker, many actual voters hold Coors Field against Helton. If memory serves you were a Fred McGriff supporter and his career OPS+ of 134 just ranks ahead of Helton's 133 mark(McGriff has the slight edge in wRC+ as well at 134 to 132)--but Helton brought much more defensive value. He's not a slam dunk candidate and I don't think he comes close to getting in this year, but with a less crowded field I think his percentage climbs. While Helton has more longevity to go with his great peak, Jones as a candidate for me is mostly about his peak and his defensive prowess. From 1998 to 2006 the only two players to average more WAR than Jones were ARod and Barry Bonds. He dropped off quickly after that, but that peak puts him as the highest ranking human center fielder not currently in the Hall of Fame--I'm mostly sure the guy with the actual best peak not in the Hall of Fame yet, Mike Trout, is some sort of demi-god. He posted more defensive runs saved than any other outfielder, 51 more than Willie Mays--even though Mays played in almost 800 more games. I also just realized I somehow missed Scott Rolen on the ballot, he easily makes the cut for me and would rank ahead of Wagner, Helton, Jones.

Barry Bonds Roger Clemens Todd Helton Derek Jeter Andruw Jones Manny Ramirez Gary Sheffield Billy Wagner Larry Walker I've got one spot open and while Schilling probably has the numbers, I can't put him on my ballot. I'd think being a Nazi sympathizer would fall under the morals clause. Jeff Kent has the most HR at second base in history, a very shiny triple slash line and an MVP award but even with all that he's well below the average career WAR, 7 year peak WAR and JAWS scores for the average Hall of Fame second baseman.

Thursday, November 28 Chicago at Detroit Buffalo at Dallas New Orleans at Atlanta Sunday, December 1 NY Jets at Cincinnati Washington at Carolina Tennessee at Indianapolis San Francisco at Baltimore Tampa Bay at Jacksonville Philadelphia at Miami Green Bay at NY Giants Cleveland at Pittsburgh LA Rams at Arizona Oakland at Kansas City LA Chargers at Denver New England at Houston Monday, December 2 Minnesota at Seattle Tiebreaker #1: Kirk Cousins passing yards vs Seattle 294 Tiebreaker #2: Winning margin in NE/Houston 14 Tiebreaker #3: Longest field goal kicked in Chargers/Denver 56

I thought it was short of an hour, I think it was 8:42 ET when the intros started and it was over before 9:36. Close to an hour, but I don't think it went a full hour.

I loved the women's War Games match. Dakota turning was something you could see coming from a mile away but I was expecting her to come in last and attack Rhea. When she came out of the cage and turned around and attacked Tegan it caught me off guard(maybe I'm alone in that). I think Dakota's turn was handled really well and setting things up as a 4 on 2 match the rest of the way was a great twist. By far the best match of the night IMO. Kay Lee Ray took a couple of nasty bumps I thought, but all the women had their working boots on and really turned in an outstanding performance. Three way match was probably the weakest on the card but was still very good. I was hoping KO was the mystery partner but expected to be let down, I nearly jumped out of my recliner when his music hit. I hope he's moving to NXT full time.

Currently watching "The Castaway Cowboy" starring James Garner with Robert Culp as well. It's not great but it stars James Garner so there are definitely much worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

Yeah, Grandal just gets three extra years guaranteed and an extra $2.25 million from the buyout with the Brewers. Good add for the ChiSox. Played 153 games last year for the Brewers, starting 140 between C and 1B, could easily hit 150+ again with the DH as an option.

Thursday, November 21 Indianapolis at Houston Sunday, November 24 Oakland at NY Jets Tampa Bay at Atlanta Denver at Buffalo NY Giants at Chicago Pittsburgh at Cincinnati Miami at Cleveland Carolina at New Orleans Detroit at Washington Seattle at Philadelphia Jacksonville at Tennessee Dallas at New England Green Bay at San Francisco Monday, November 25 Baltimore at LA Rams Tiebreaker #1: Aaron Rodgers passing yards vs SF 237 Tiebreaker #2: total points in Bal/Rams 58 Tiebreaker #3: interceptions thown in Pit/Cin 5

Interesting question. I think they have already been to "Castle Cornette" to film him for season 2, not sure if they'd just scrap that--would they have someone that could fill that slot in the show otherwise?

Circling back to this, my wife was in Indy today for a business lunch and afterwards she stopped by the Murat to get parking pass for Friday only to find out the show has been moved to March 29th of next year. About an hour later I got an e-mail letting me know about the postponement. I guess WWE put out a statement over the weekend saying the talent might be needed for Smackdown like I was concerned about. My daughter is a little bummed, but we're going to go see Frozen 2 on Friday now instead so hopefully that will make up for some of it.

Here is JJ Dillon sitting with Jeffrey "The Booker" Bowdren last Friday night at the IPW Hardcore wrestling show in Port Richey, Florida. This was after JJ went to dinner at Culver's with about 10 to 12 of us (attendees of CWF Legends FanFest 6, which was held the next day).