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Baseball’s reality
You guys started the conversation about the Evil Blue Empire and how it’s bad for baseball.
But is it?
Let me ask this: When are team sports, especially professional team sports, more compelling than when there is a dynasty?
The only answer is when there is a dynastic organization that generates unintentional emotion — good or bad — among the casual sports fan.
That is a description for the current Dodgers.
And that is a great thing for the sport.
But the gripes to me — admittedly, I have cheered for the Dodgers since the infield was Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey with Steve Yeager (who was great in “Major League”) behind the plate — ring a bit hollow on a lot of fronts.
The rules allow the Dodgers to do all of this. And in truth, the Dodgers are not the only team that violates the competitive balance ethos in MLB.
Tons of teams spend more. The Dodgers just spend it better.
Tons of teams spend extremely less — and know that there are almost a third of the MLB teams spending wicked less just to chase the revenue and not chase the rings — who do not want a salary cap either. Because the only sliver of hope of a true cap in MLB will come with a salary floor that close to a dozen teams will oppose.
Bigger picture, aren’t other rules and regulations about competitive balance almost always done in reactionary modes?
And then I’ll ask this: What would have happened if the NCAA — back when its dentures, not teeth, mind you, but dentures — decided, “You know, Nick Saban is getting too many five-star recruits at Alabama. We need to cap the number of five-star 247.com recruits at four per class.”
Poll returns
The coaches poll was released Tuesday.
THE Ohio State was a clear 1, followed by Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Notre Dame.
Here’s our discussion from Southeastern16 on the topic from yesterday.
I concur with that top five.
And if you are viewing this as the potential title contenders, know this: The analytics love Notre Dame’s chances, and list the Irish as the favorite to a) get into the playoff, and b) make the quarterfinals of the playoffs. The number-crunchers tell you Notre Dame’s schedule — its over/under is 11.5 in a 12-game schedule — is set-up to be a dunk for a top-four seed.
That matters.
So is Notre Dame underrated at 5? Kinda.
Is Indiana — and we know Curt Cignetti’s history — overrated at 6?
Also think that is true.
And know this: The swing scale of where Indiana landed on the ballots is pretty telling.
THE OSU got almost 40 first-place votes. The defending champion Indiana Cignettis were second in terms of first-place votes with 14, which was twice as many as Georgia’s seven.
So there were a lot of ballots with IU in the teens and maybe 20s.
And the questions in terms of replacements and whether the Hoosiers are ready to be the hunted rather than the hunter are fair.
Some other quick overrateds and underrateds.
LSU is underrated at 13. I believe this and think a lot of coaches voted them lower because of who is calling the shots.
Alabama is overrated at 11. Teams with monster QB1 questions actually should be around the 17/18 range, where Penn State and Tennessee sit, respectively.
Michigan is overrated at 16. Too much has happened.
Ole Miss is likely underrated a touch at 10 considering it has the best QB1 and best RB1 combo in the game.
Thoughts?
Falcons flaw
OK, keeping your best player is never a bad thing, right?
But building an NFL team in the salary-cap era rarely works by building the pieces and hoping to find the QB rather than building around the QB.
That’s what they did with the deal for Bijan Robinson.
Look Robinson is tremendous. And letting talent walk is scary.
But finding value is not as easy as finding talent.
Thoughts?
This and that
> Speaking of the Dodgers, newly acquired Tarik Skubal pitched well but lost in his debut in blue against the red-hot Cubs on Tuesday.
> Rules, people. Here’s Paschall with clearly the biggest story for the Vols in preseason practice, possibly the biggest storyline across all the SEC this preseason practice and arguably the biggest storyline in Josh Heupel’s career of preseason practices in Knoxville.
> More rules, people. Here’s Hargis with a preseason look at the team that is the class of 1-A football Tennessee — the South Pitt Pirates.
> Enjoyed Ruby Raynor’s informative work this morning in the Chattanooga fish wrapper on the record turnout in early voting across Hamilton County. I voted.
> What a great night for the Lombard family. George Lombard Jr. homered in his second MLB at-bat with the Yankees with his parents looking on. His brother Jacob hit a homer in his second professional at-bat in the minor leagues at roughly the same time Tuesday night. That’s pretty cool.
> Braves played. Braves won. They look pretty excellent right about now.
Today’s questions
Which Way Wednesday starts this way.
Which team is underrated in the coaches poll? Which team is overrated?
Which day is the end of summer, the start of school or Labor Day?
Which way you going — Dodgers or the field to win the World Series?
As for today, Aug. 5, let’s review.
William Wallace was executed on this day in 1305. Great flick. “Freedom.”
“American Bandstand” debuted on this day in 1957.
Rushmore of music-based TV shows.
Go.