MLB/NFL Open Thread
By 
“This game is wholly without merit”
- One thing about the Indians that seemed to be under-recognized is that they had the second-best offense in the AL. The closest thing they have to an MVP candidate, Lindor, is more valuable defensively than offensively at this point of his career. But they have a deep lineup with a lot of quietly efficient players: the causal fan now knows about Kipnis and the other Carlos Santana, and you can add guys like Ramirez and Napoli and Naquin. They wouldn’t beat the Cubs over a 162 game season, of course, but this is a really good team.
- Today in the annals of ass-kissing: “Texans coach Bill O’Brien is one of the league’s top quarterback gurus.” Based on what? Getting roughly the same performance out of Ryan Fitzpatrick that Chan Gailey did? Getting mediocre-to-bad work from Belichick’s leftovers? What about the strange decision to sign Osweiler to a big contract and/or his utterly dismal performance so far suggests that he’s “one of the top” coaches at either judging or developing QBs?
- Interesting Tanier evaluation of Super Bowl XL and the silly conspiracy theories that have grown up around it. The one thing I would add is that the officiating (which indeed was quite bad and cut mostly against the Seahawks) seemed to get in Holmgren’s head not only after the game but during it. The Seahawks got some bad breaks but they also just didn’t play very well on offense.
- Two amazing stats from this living eulogy for Gus Bradley’s head coaching career. First, Bradley has never beaten a team with a winning record. And second, while I’ve often derided Sam Bradford for padding his stats in garbage time Bortles makes him look like a piker. In conclusion, as a head coach Gus Bradley is a fine defensive coordinator if he’s working for Pete Carroll.
- Trent Baalke and Smashmouth really are perfect for each other.