There's a March Madness style single-elimination sheep tournament going on over in LOLPOG right now that needs a few more entrants to run.

If some of you could take <5 minutes to enter so that I can be eliminated in the first round, I'd be happy.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/59...9-p-m-1657485/

For months I had been bombarded with ads in my podcasts for The Great Courses Plus. This weekend I finally decided to pull the trigger and sign up for a free month. So far I have not been disappointed.

For those who don't know what it is, it's a subscription site that has video lecture series on a whole wide variety of subjects. History, science, math, cooking, and a whole bunch of other topics. If you are a Discovery or History channel nerd like me, I recommend checking it out

Jim,
You still got the Mariners having a decent shot at the playoffs?

As a casual baseball fan who pretty solely follows the M's and otherwise only vaguely knows of which other teams have populated the playoffs in recent years, I haven't the first clue about how to assess our chances. I gather that we have at least a puncher's chance (again) of breaking the drought this year though.

I see that Vegas gives us the fourth-best odds of winning the AL, so that's something.

Word around here is almost exactly as it has been the last two years. Very talented team, no reason they shouldnt make the playoffs against a tough but not overwhelming West, and yet... who the hell knows. They have performed FAR below expectations the last two years, so its tough to just be like "yep, sweep that under the rug, every year is fresh, etc etc."

Well yeah, "puncher's chance" was my rendition of optimism. Once you pile up the longest playoff drought in baseball it becomes impossible to truly expect success. At this point I'm just thankful to go into a season with more hope than "they'll probably suck, but I guess weirder **** has happened..."

I do. I thought your offseason was an A+ and I already liked the team.

Segura broke out last year with a 20/33 season at 26 and has always had the talent.

In the same trade you got Haniger, who absolutely crushed AAA last year. Dude had 12.5% walk rate, .428 OBP, and .670 slg%.

Picked up Dyson who is good defensively and can get some speed up top in the lineup ahead of Cano and Cruz.

I think a really underrated pickup was Smyly. Dudes only 27, had a k/9 of over 10 his first year and 8.5 last year in a larger sample. His biggest problems were a high walk rate and high hr percentage, but moving from the AL east to the AL west and pitching in safeco should negate that second one a bit imo. He's also due for regression in HR:FB% as its been 14 and 12 in his two years and normalizes at around 10. He's penciled in as your #4, but I think it's very possible he ends up being your 2nd best one.


I don't shed tears for your losses. Aoki is solid, I think Karns still has potential, and Walker did as well (more so than Karns), but the in has been way better than the out.


My unbiased opinion is they win the west with 88-90 wins. They opened at 85.5 and I think that's one of the best bets again this year (recall last year I thought they were the best bet).

Nice post.

I really liked the Segura deal for the M's when it was announced and I didn't even know anything about Haniger. He's now followed up last year with a monster spring training. He's also considered a plus defender in center and could be elite in right field where he's slated to play this season.

I've been a Smyly fan for a while, (and just drafted him in my first draft last night), so here's hoping he puts it together this year.

Thanks for that, Jim.

I won't miss Aoki a bit. It sucks to give up on Taijuan Walker, but from what I read I was okay with the trade. I'm excited for the season to start. As long as Seattle remains shut out from basketball, this period from the Super Bowl to MLB opening day is a slog.

So, I know a lot of you are or were fans of The Office. I was too and started a rewatch of the show on Netflix. I just finished season 5 and have a question. What the hell was Meredith's with Dunder-Mifflin? I know everyone else's job but have no idea what she does. Any help would be appreciated

I was going to say that she was another customer service rep, but supplier relations seems right given her arc in the ethics episode in season 5.

The season 1 thing is whatever since season 1 barely seems like canon. Kelly Kapoor completely changed characters by season two.

I remember the ethics episode, so that sounds right, but I guess with it only mentioned once up to the point where I am, I see why I didn't know. That's a little odd. They have even mentioned Creed's job more than that up to this point

I'm not exactly sure what Ryan is after he falls from grace and then comes back to Dunder Mifflin. He doesn't get kept on as a salesman after the Michael Scott Paper Company buyout.

He is a temp again

Well I know that, but that's an employment status, not a position. He was in sales during his first run as a temp.

Of all of the most hilarious people alive, Norm MacDonald is the most irreplaceable. I don't know of anyone with a style that remotely resembles his.

Yeah I love it. His interview with Stephen Merchant on his youtube channel is unlike anything I've ever seen and I loved it. Stephen knows what's happening but just has no idea how to deal with it.

You dirty dogs!

Gamefly offering me a month for $1 to come back is pretty sweet timing with the latest rendition of MLB The Show coming out on Tuesday. Just going to keep a queue with nothing but that game in it, and hope for the best when they start shipping copies out.

Good luck. I got breath of the wild on Very low availability 1 week after it came out

I haven't played Zelda since Orcana of Time for N64. Great game. Took a while but eventually I beat that ****er. Tempted to get this new one almost based solely on the number of posts in the Zelda thread in the video game forum here.

It's magnificent. This is coming from an OOT fan that didn't play majora, skyward sword or twilight princess.

It's March and nothing will top this for GOTY, I firmly believe that

Play Majora's Mask.

Zelda II on the 8-bit NES was an odd game.

I can't remember where I dropped off during the N64 era, but I didn't finish whatever it was. Not that I wasn't enjoying; I think it just stumped me for long enough that I tapped out.

I've watched a playthrough. I wasn't a huge fan of the gimmick but did enjoy the story so never felt compelled to give it a play myself.

This is what I like about the newest one. There is essentially no stump point. There are some difficult puzzles, but nothing is mandatory at all, so if you get to a stop point you just say **** it and go a different way.