Tabe

You were playing what might be the single worst squad in NHL history. Losing to us in any fashion is a disgrace at this point, so you obviously didn't play good enough to win. The loss was a disgrace, no question about it.

And Brady went 16-0 and set the TD record on an all-time high scoring team.

New update to PS4 firmware coming that will enable Youtube integration and Share Play. If you're both PS+ members, you can do local co-op on games with an online friend - even in games with no online option.

IGN really liked Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Detroit is +5. Boston is +4. Pittsburgh is +19. You sure about your stats?

Fair enough. Martin would probably be worth it if you're going all-in to try and win this year. Grow your young staff, win big, blah blah blah. But he's probably going to only play 105-115 games, tops, and you can expect him to drop off pretty hard in 2016 and beyond. Do you really want to drop $50-60m on a guy like that when you aren't winning the Series in 2015? No.

Re: Robertson - since when are closers with a 3.08 ERA all that tough to find? He strikes out a ton of guys, no question, but is he truly elite? Nah.

He was blatantly stood in the blue paint, even your own coach admitted it was the correct decision. Standing in the paint by itself isn't against the rules. You have to actually hinder the goalie which Franzen didn't. No contact at all. That said, if Babcock says it was the right call, I'll concede the point.

A fair point. Point being you expect catchers to contribute at least a little bit and Martin...doesn't. I'll call bullshit on this a bit. Low average, yeah, but works counts, and seemed to adjust out of a power hitting mindset for more of a "put the bat on the ball" swing. Even assuming a .240-.250 average, he generally has a better then 10% walk rate, which would still be about a .350 OBP. And is you wanna get into pitch framing bullshit, Martin is about as good as you can find. Sill not desperate to see the Cubs sign him, but a .350 OBP, +defensive catcher isn't anything to sneeze at. OPS+: 86, 88, 95, 91, 100. That's Martin's his last five years before the contract season. C'mon. The guy isn't a good - or even average - hitter.

A couple more Netflix docs for me: Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage - Good official band-produced documentary tracking the entire career of the band Rush. They start from the very beginning and cover the whole thing in sections and do a very nice job of it. Lots of terrific archival footage and recordings. Each guy is interviewed extensively and they seem to be pretty open about stuff. All the key points of their career are covered nicely. They spend a decent amount of time talking about Neil Peart's famous shunning of fan meet & greets and autograph requests. They also spend a lot of time talking about the hiatus the band took when Neil lost his daughter and wife just 10 months apart. Peart hopped on his motorcycle and rode around for 2 years, driving 55,000 miles in an effort to work out his grief. They also spend a nice amount of time talking about style conflicts in the band in the 80s and 90s as Geddy Lee started using more and more keyboards in their music. Some negatives? Well, there's almost no time spent on personal lives except where it impacts the band (Peart). Lee throws in a "and my wife and kids" comment offhandedly - before that, no mention of his family at all. Also, they spend a fair amount of time trying to defend themselves and their lyrics as not pretentious. Sorry guys, they are and they're full of pseudo-symbolism. Not all the time certainly but...yeah. Own it - it's really OK. Also as part of the doc, they include interviews with other musicians and...Jack Black. Yeah, I get it, he's in a band. But, seriously, the guy is a douchenozzle who detracts from the film. That said, these guys seem like really nice dudes who enjoy working together. They might be the most "normal" rock stars I've ever seen. 8/10. (Lots of fun clips from the band's music videos are also included. Hoooo boy, these guys made some rotten videos...) Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story - Michael Morton was convicted in the 1980s of bludgeoning his wife to death. Central to his conviction was medical testimony that his wife died in the middle of the night - when Morton was still home. Turns out that evidence was unreliable. And that Morton's kid told the police of a "monster" who came in the house and hit his mom. And lots of other stuff. Morton's case was picked up by The Innocence Project (a group that does amazing work in overturning wrongful convictions) and he eventually had his conviction set overturned on the basis of DNA evidence. That DNA led to the conviction of the actual killer. And, amazingly for this type of case, the prosecutor who sent Morton to jail actually did some jail time for his actions. That's incredibly rare. What we get are interviews with Morton and the folks on his side, as well as some of his fellow inmates, as they walk us through the various stages of his case. Good stuff and well done. Morton has an amazingly upbeat look at his life. We should all be so forgiving. Not quite a must-see but this doc was really, really good. 9/10.

Tabe is back to watching Netflix movies on the regular: Standing Up - Came across this one on a "what's new on Netflix" site a few months back and the premise (victims of a horrible summer camp prank go on a journey of self-discovery and stuff) sounded promising so I added it to my list. Last night, decided to give it a shot. it's apparently based on a beloved children's/juvenile book. I wouldn't know. Anyway, admitting that I'm not the target audience, I still thought this wasn't very good. And wouldn't have been when I was 12 either. Howie & Grace are stripped naked and left alone on an island by their fellow summer campers. They decide to find some clothes and wander around for a few days instead of returning to camp. They make some friends at another camp and sort of try to get Grace's mom to come rescue them. I say "sort of" because Grace calls her mom, screaming and crying for mom to come get her but when pushed for a reason why, instead of coming up with something even remotely close to what happened to her, she just says "they're all a bunch of hypocrites". Yeah, THAT will get mom to come take you home from camp. Whatever. It does do a nice job of not having completely ridiculous situations or adults that are over-the-top. And we get a nice feel-good ending. In the end, not quite what I'd hoped for from the IMDB reviews. 4/10. Hit the documentary thread for the rest of my recent viewing experiences and check back for my review of John Wick after I go see it tonight.

A fair point. Point being you expect catchers to contribute at least a little bit and Martin...doesn't.

+10000000000 for this. The NFLPA should most definitely have some public comment on this. Of course, they should also be looking sideways at the Cowboys for playing a guy with a broken back (after previously playing that guy with a collapsed lung)...

I've been run over by a car, torn my ACL, been hit in the face with a thrown baseball and so on. By far, as in not even remotely close to anything, the worst pain I've ever experienced is from the meniscus I tore in my left knee. If the ACL was a 3, the meniscus was like 13. The pain was so bad, it woke me up every 45 minutes every single night for 2 months straight WHILE taking pain medication. I can't even fathom trying to play in the NFL with that injury. The flu? Yeah, suck it up and play through. Not sure why there's this "it didn't really happen in college" thing since there was talk of phantom injuries, Clowney being lazy and out of shape, and all that stuff during his last year in school.

Signing a guy like Russell Martin, coming off his first decent season since 2008 in - gasp - the last year of his contract sounds about right for the Cubs. The guy hit .250, .248, .237, .211, .226 and .290 the last six years. Which of those DO you think more closely resembles the real Russell Martin?

OSJ hit four of my favorites. Here's some more: High Pockets Kelly - Another Frankie Frisch special. Kelly was a good - or even very good - player for a few years in the 20s. And uh...yeah. John Montgomery Ward - A light-hitting guy from the 19th century who stole a bunch of bases and did nothing else. Uh...yeah. Carl Yastrzemski - Oooooh, Tabe gets controversial. Hear me out. And look at his stats again before you get all cranky. Let's do an honest evaluation of Yaz's career. He played 23 seasons. During that time, he had three great seasons (1967, 1969, 1970) and three very good years (1963 & 1965). Hey, that's really good! But...the rest of his career he was a .265/16/72 guy. Hit .300 in his career just 6 times. 30 HRs just three times. So we're left with a "power hitting corner outfielder who hit for a high average" that...didn't hit for that much power and didn't hit for that high of an average. Yaz from 1971-83: 15, 12, 19, 15, 14, 21, 28, 17, 21, 15, 7, 16, 10. Those are his homer totals. Yaz 1961-66: 11, 19, 14, 15, 20, 16. Again, homer totals. So if you ignore the aberration of 1967, 1969 & 1969, Yaz wasn't even close to a power hitter. So we've got a non-power hitter that hit..... .285. Yep, he played in a million All-Star games. And actually deserved a few. Basically, this is a guy who had three years that grossly outpaced the entire rest of his career (shifting his average from 18 HRs per 162 to 22, for example). Those three years are so out-of-character that one would not be faulted for expecting to read a Norm Cash in Sports Illustrated article about him. Yaz ain't the worst HOF'er around but he might have the biggest difference between rep and actual performance. He's not a HOF'er.

Detroit loses a shootout to Buffalo. Not a great effort but good enough to win. Then we get a replay of earlier games - a game-winning Detroit goal waved on a B.S. goalie interference call followed by a typical Jimmy Howard shootout disaster. It's unreal how awful he is in shootouts.

As for Puckett, he was an elite defender at a premium position for over a decade. And a great hitter pretty much the entire time. He was still a great player when he retired. He belongs.

Campbell was an excellent defensive catcher with a lot of power. 8 All-Star games and 3 MVPs in 10 seasons. He's a no-brainer.

That's great news if it means more Jesse Stone movies.

Don Mattingly has no case. None.

I ignored Pete Browning and Dave Orr since they're 19th century guys who had short careers. I'm not sure being behind Albert Pujols offensively is a knock on anybody. Just one 40 HR season? From 1971-77, NO ONE hit 40 in the AL. Plus, he played in Chicago. If he was in another park, he's over 40 easily.

Allen had 11 years as an elite hitter. That's twice as long a stretch as Koufax had as an elite pitcher. Obviously that's not a great comparison since Koufax was a lot better but the short elite career precedent is established. Same with Puckett. Does 3 more average years make Allen a better player? No. He had the career that Jim Rice's supporters (wrongly) said Rice had. Again, career OPS+ of 156. Every guy ahead of him is in the HOF. He belongs.

*awaits Tabe*Yeah, there will be no arguments or eye rolling this time.Sorry, I'm two days behind on national games so just saw this tonight. That seriously is one of the worst calls I've ever seen. Not the worst but...man. And called by the guy 120 feet away. Well done. At least Detroit won the game.

C'mon OSJ, you throw a challenge my way and now you don't respond? Boooo.