CNOTES 2021-2022 NBA TRENDS, NEWS, BEST BETS AND OPINIONS THRU THE PLAYOFFS !

[Udog]

DALLAS are 9-1 ATS (7.9 Units) as a road underdog of 6.5 to 12 points over the last 2 seasons.




NBA
Dunkel

Thursday, May 26

NBA

Thursday, May 26

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
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Dallas @ Golden State
Dallas
The total has gone OVER in 14 of Dallas's last 20 games when playing Golden State
The total has gone OVER in 9 of Dallas's last 13 games on the road
Golden State
Golden State is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
Golden State is 9-2 ATS in its last 11 games at home


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The Mavericks are 1-5 ATS in their last six road games.
The Warriors are 4-1 ATS in their last five games.
The total has gone UNDER in six of the last nine Mavericks' games.
The Mavericks are 12-6 ATS in their last 18 matchups against Golden State.
The Warriors are 10-0 SU in their last ten home games.
The Mavericks are 5-15 SU in their last 20 road games against Golden State.
The total has gone OVER in 14 of the last 20 matchups between Golden State and Dallas.

 

[Cnotes53]

THURSDAY, MAY 26

DAL at GS	09:00 PM	DAL +6.5 O 215.5	+500 +500

 

[Cnotes53]

MAY NBA PLAYOFFS BEST BETS & OPINIONS

Date .......................W-L-T.....................%...................Units

05/26/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............-0.50
05/25/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............-0.50
05/24/2022.................0-2-0..............00.00%.............-11.00
05/23/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............- 0.50
05/22/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............- 0.50
05/21/2022................0-2-0...............00.00%.............- 11.00
05/20/2022................2-0-0............100.00%..............+ 10.00
05/19/2022................2-0-0............100.00%..............+ 10.00
05/18/2022................1-1-0..............50.00%.................- 0.50
05/17/2022................1-1-0..............50.00%.................- 0.50
05/15/2022...............3-1-0...............75.00%.................+9.50
05/13/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/12/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/11/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/10/2022...............1-3-0...............25.00%................-11.50
05/09/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%.................-1.00
05/08/2022...............3-1-0................75.00%................+9.50
05/07/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/06/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/04/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/03/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/02/2022...............4-0-0...............100.00%...............+20.00
05/01/2022...............0-4-0............... 00.00%.................-22.00

TOTALS...............37-35-0.................51.38%..................-0.50


BEST BETS:

05/26/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............-0.50
05/25/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............-0.50
05/24/2022.................0-2-0..............00.00%.............-11.00
05/23/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............- 0.50
05/22/2022................1-1-0...............50.00%.............- 0.50
05/21/2022................0-2-0...............00.00%.............- 11.00
05/20/2022................2-0-0............100.00%..............+ 10.00
05/19/2022................2-0-0............100.00%..............+ 10.00
05/18/2022...............1-1-0...............50.00%.................-0.50
05/17/2022...............1-1-0...............50.00%.................-0.50
05/15/2022...............3-1-0...............75.00%.................+9.50
05/13/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/12/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/11/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/10/2022...............1-3-0...............25.00%................-11.50
05/09/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%.................-1.00
05/08/2022...............3-1-0................75.00%.................+9.50
05/07/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/06/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/04/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/03/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/02/2022...............4-0-0...............100.00%...............+20.00
05/01/2022...............0-4-0............... 00.00%.................-22.00

TOTALS...............37-35-0.................51.38%................-0.50


UPDATED ON 05/26/2022

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Friday’s 6-pack
Odds to win NFC South:
— Tampa Bay -300
— New Orleans +275
— Carolina +1200
— Atlanta +1600
Odds to win NFC West:
— LA Rams +140
— San Francisco +190
— Arizona +300
— Seattle +1000

Quote of the Day
“Never mess with a civil servant, my friend.”
Lenny Briscoe, Law and Order

Friday’s quiz
Tony Romo, Sean Payton, Jimmy Garoppolo all played their college football at the same school; which one?

Thursday’s quiz
Aaron Donald played his college football for the Pitt Panthers.

Wednesday’s quiz
In the great TV show The West Wing, Tim Matheson originally played the Vice President.

******************************************

Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here…….

— NFL teams with the most completions LY on passes that went 20+ yards in air:
38— Arizona, Tampa Bay
36— Dallas
34— Minnesota
33— Las Vegas, Seattle
32— Buffalo
31— Green Bay, LA Rams

— NFL teams with the fewest completions LY on passes that went 20+ yards in air:
12— NJ Giants
14— Carolina, Tennessee
16— Detroit
17— San Francisco
19— New Orleans
20— Pittsburgh

Golden State 120, Dallas 110:
— Warriors advance to NBA Finals for sixth time in eight years.
— Golden State led this game 69-52 at halftime.
— Klay Thompson was 8-16 on arc, scored 32 points.

— The father of Cincinnati Reds’ rookie P Hunter Greene is a private investigator with some famous clients, one of whom was lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who became famous during the OJ Simpson trial in the 90’s.

— Been quite a while since I’ve seen a movie promoted as hard as this new Top Gun movie is being pumped up; its been 36 years since the original Top Gun came out, which makes me feel old(er).

— Boston Celtics are 6-3 in road playoff games this season; over the previous ten years, Boston was 12-27 in road playoff games.

USFL Week 7 notes:

New Jersey vs Tampa Bay
New Jersey Generals (5-1)
— Won last five games, scoring 24.5 ppg in last four.
— Have only four takeaways, have minus-2 turnover ratio.
— Outscored last four foes 50-22 in second half.
— Last three games went over the total.

Tampa Bay Bandits (3-3)
— Scored 27-28 points last two games (19.3 ppg in first four)
— Minus-7 in turnovers— have only three takeaways.
— Three of last four games went over total.
— Scoring 11.8 ppg in first half, 6.8 ppg in second half.

Michigan vs New Orleans
Michigan Panthers (1-5)
— Last three games, they’re minus-6 in turnovers, giving up 28.7 ppg.
— 0-3 in games decided by 5 or fewer points.
— Outgained four of their six opponents.
— Their only win was 24-0 over 1-5 Pittsburgh.

New Orleans Breakers (4-2)
— Scored 23+ points in their wins, 13-17 in losses.
— Last three games went over the total
— Last three weeks, ran ball for 137.3 yards/game.
— Trailed three of last four games at halftime.

Birmingham vs Pittsburgh
Birmingham Stallions (6-0)
— Trailed at halftime in four of six games
— Outscored opponents 98-34 in second half.
— Outrushed last three foes 456-206
— 6-0 against spread

Pittsburgh Maulers (1-5)
— Have been outscored 88-32 in first half of games.
— Last four weeks, allowed 165 rushing yards/game.
— Four of their last five games went over total.
— All five losses are by 7+ points.

Houston vs Philadelphia
Houston Gamblers (1-5)
— Lost last five games, last three all in last 0:05.
— Led all six games at halftime
— Last five games went over total
— Outscored 85=32 in second half.

Philadelphia Stars (3-3)
— Last three weeks, they’re +5 in turnovers.
— Gave up 23+ points in all six games (over 4-1 last five).
— Have been outgained in every game (1-4-1 ATS).
— Scored 30-26-35 points in wins; 17-16-17 in losses.

— Reds 20, Cubs 5— Cincinnati SS Farmer homered twice, knocked in five runs, also had a sac bunt; not often a guy has a sac bunt and two homers in the same game.

— Portland Trailblazers hired Mike Schmitz as an assistant GM; he had been on ESPN for few years, traveling all over the world to evaluate talent for the NBA Draft.

— Rangers 4, A’s 1:
Good news for the A’s; they’re 14-6 if they score 4+ runs.
Bad news for the A’s: they’ve scored 4+ runs in only 20 of 47 games; they’re 5-22 when they score fewer than four runs.

— MLB and the players’ union are allowing teams to still have an additional pitcher through June 19; it is looking more and more like the 14-pitcher thing might last the whole season.

— Tigers 4, Guardians 3— Miguel Cabrera went 3-4, had a walk-off single.

— Reds 20, Cubs 5…….Red Sox 16, White Sox 7— Rough day in Chicago; they both get Friday off, before playing each other Saturday-Sunday on the South side.

 

[Udog]

BOSTON is 10-0 ATS (10 Units) after scoring 95 points or less in the current season.




NBA
Dunkel

Friday, May 27

NBA

Friday, May 27

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Trend Report
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Miami @ Boston
Miami
Miami is 11-4 ATS in its last 15 games when playing on the road against Boston
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Miami's last 7 games on the road
Boston
Boston is 15-5 ATS in its last 20 games
Boston is 18-6 SU in its last 24 games at home


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The Celtics are 15-5 ATS in their last 20 games.
The Heat are 13-7 SU in their last 20 games.
The total has gone UNDER in five of Miami's last seven road games.
The Celtics are 4-11 ATS in their last 15 home games against Miami.
The total has gone UNDER in 11 of Miami's last 16 games.
The total has gone OVER in ten of the last 15 matchups between Boston and Miami.

 

[Cnotes53]

FRIDAY, MAY 27

MIA at BOS	08:30 PM	BOS -8.0 U 202.5	+500 +500

 

[Cnotes53]

MAY NBA PLAYOFFS BEST BETS & OPINIONS

Date .......................W-L-T.....................%...................Units

05/27/2022.................0-2-0..............00.00%.............-11.00
05/26/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............-0.50
05/25/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............-0.50
05/24/2022.................0-2-0..............00.00%.............-11.00
05/23/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............- 0.50
05/22/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............- 0.50
05/21/2022................0-2-0...............00.00%.............- 11.00
05/20/2022................2-0-0............100.00%..............+ 10.00
05/19/2022................2-0-0............100.00%..............+ 10.00
05/18/2022................1-1-0..............50.00%.................- 0.50
05/17/2022................1-1-0..............50.00%.................- 0.50
05/15/2022...............3-1-0...............75.00%.................+9.50
05/13/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/12/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/11/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/10/2022...............1-3-0...............25.00%................-11.50
05/09/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%.................-1.00
05/08/2022...............3-1-0................75.00%................+9.50
05/07/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/06/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/04/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/03/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/02/2022...............4-0-0...............100.00%...............+20.00
05/01/2022...............0-4-0............... 00.00%.................-22.00

TOTALS...............37-37-0.................50.00%..................-11.50


BEST BETS:

05/27/2022.................0-2-0..............00.00%.............-11.00
05/26/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............-0.50
05/25/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............-0.50
05/24/2022.................0-2-0..............00.00%.............-11.00
05/23/2022.................1-1-0..............50.00%.............- 0.50
05/22/2022................1-1-0...............50.00%.............- 0.50
05/21/2022................0-2-0...............00.00%.............- 11.00
05/20/2022................2-0-0............100.00%..............+ 10.00
05/19/2022................2-0-0............100.00%..............+ 10.00
05/18/2022...............1-1-0...............50.00%.................-0.50
05/17/2022...............1-1-0...............50.00%.................-0.50
05/15/2022...............3-1-0...............75.00%.................+9.50
05/13/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/12/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/11/2022...............2-2-0...............50.00%..................-1.00
05/10/2022...............1-3-0...............25.00%................-11.50
05/09/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%.................-1.00
05/08/2022...............3-1-0................75.00%.................+9.50
05/07/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/06/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/04/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/03/2022...............2-2-0................50.00%..................-1.00
05/02/2022...............4-0-0...............100.00%...............+20.00
05/01/2022...............0-4-0............... 00.00%.................-22.00

TOTALS...............37-37-0.................50.00%................-11.50


UPDATED ON 05/27/2022

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Saturday’s 6-pack
Major league leaders in batting average (min 100 AB’s):
.379— JD Martinez, Bos
.363— Tim Anderson, CWS
.357— Manny Machado, SD
.354— Taylor Ward, LAA
.353— Manuel Margot, TB
.349— Luis Arraez, Minn

Quote of the Day
“Jimmy Butler’s competitive will is as high as anyone.”
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra

Saturday’s quiz
Milwaukee Brewers came into existence in 1970, a year after they played one year as an expansion team in Seattle; what was the team’s name when they played in Seattle?

Friday’s quiz
Tony Romo, Sean Payton, Jimmy Garoppolo all played their college football at the same school; Eastern Illinois.

Thursday’s quiz
Aaron Donald played his college football for the Pitt Panthers.

************************************

Saturday’s Den: Clearing out a cluttered mind…….

13) Miami 111. Boston 103— Jimmy Butler played a GREAT game, scoring 47 points, with nine rebounds, eight assists. Game 7 is Sunday night in Miami.

Boston’s Al Horford has played in 140 playoff games without ever playing in the NBA Finals, most of any player without making the Finals. That can all change Sunday.

12) Los Angeles Lakers named 48-year old Darwin Ham as their new coach; Ham has been an assistant in the NBA for 11 years, most recently with Milwaukee (they won the title last year).

Ham played in the NBA for seven years, won a title with the 2004 Pistons. This will be the first time he is a head coach. His mother used to be mayor of Saginaw, Michigan.

11) Last three years, first half under is 55-21-1, in Eastern Conference playoff games in Games 3-7 of a series. Teams get to know each other’s plays so well, the deeper you get into a series, the harder it is to score— very few easy baskets.

10) Cardinals 4, Brewers 2— St Louis is using pitch-com more; they’re trying to get Dakota Hudson to work faster when he is on the mound- they think it’ll help both his pitching and their team’s fielding behind him.

In this game, Hudson threw 97 pitches in only 4.2 IP, but he didn’t allow any runs.

9) Atlanta Braves’ TV Friday night, Chip Caray/Jeff Francouer broadcast the game from the bleachers in right-center field, which is pretty cool. They’re a good broadcast team.

Chip Caray is Skip Caray’s son, Harry Caray’s grandson, but he isn’t funny like they were. He has made himself into a good broadcaster; upbeat, prepared, fun to listen to. He’s worked very hard at his job; tough to follow in the footsteps of his famous relatives, but he is doing it well.

8) I enjoy fantasy baseball (except for weeks when my team gets killed, like this week) so this is interesting to me. Bryce Harper can’t play the field because he can’t throw— his elbow is messed up— he DH’s every day, but that means JT Realmuto can’t DH when he doesn’t catch.

So if you have Realmuto on your fantasy team, you’re losing 20-25 games where Realmuto would likely be the DH- lot of at-bats. If there was no DH, Harper wouldn’t even be playing.

7) Coming into Friday’s baseball, San Francisco Giants’ hitters in the Blogs spot in the order were hitting a combined .166, with only 8 RBI, which is terrible.

6) Last weekend, Josh Donaldson got int a kerfuffle with Chicago’s Tim Anderson; MLB said he was suspended for a game. Then he missed a game with COVID. Now he has a bad shoulder.

If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d suggest his suspension might’ve been longer than one game, they just don’t want to make a big deal out of it.

5) Mariners 6, Astros 1— Both starting pitchers faced 30 batters in this game, which almost never happens these days. Pitchers seldom face the same batter four times in a game, but three batters on each team did it in this game. Unusual.

4) Orioles 12, Red Sox 8— Boston led 8-2 after six innings; their bullpen imploded. This game was 6-0 in second inning.

3) Reds 5, Giants 1— San Francisco reliever Jake McGee wasn’t allowed to pitch in this game, because his name wasn’t listed on the Giants’ lineup card, which is given to umpires.

Whoops.

2) In the NL East, New York has a 7.5-game lead.
In the AL East, New York has a 6.5-game lead.

Think the TV networks that show postseason games are excited about this?

1) There was an ad in a San Antonio newspaper Friday, which said “The summer sale you WON’T want to miss” The sale is for all kinds of rifles, all weekend long, a few days after 19 kids were murdered in a 4th grade classroom, two hours west of San Antonio.

What is wrong with people; why do they need all these assault rifles?

Remind me never to go to Texas again. Ever.

 

[Udog]

No games today.... play resumes tomorrow.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Sunday’s 6-pack
Major league leaders in ERA, minimum 45 IP:
1.60— Martin Perez, Tex
1.70— Nestor Cortes, NYY
1.77— Alek Manoah, Tor
1.80— Tony Gonsolin, LA
1.86— Joe Musgrove, SD
1.96— Miles Mikolas, StL

Quote of the Day
“I saw a study that said speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person. Number two was death. This means to the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Jerry Seinfeld

Sunday’s quiz
Before they moved to Raleigh and became the Carolina Hurricanes, where did the NHL team play its home games?

Saturday’s quiz
Milwaukee Brewers came into existence in 1970, a year after they played one year as an expansion team in Seattle; they were the Seattle Pilots for that one season, before moving to Milwaukee.

Friday’s quiz
Tony Romo, Sean Payton, Jimmy Garoppolo all played their college football at the same school; Eastern Illinois.

***************************

Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports Saturday

13) There is a Twitter account called Umpire Scorecards which grades the home plate umpire after every game; it shows where they missed calls, what %age they missed and which team was helped by those calls.

Friday night in Cincinnati, in a game whose start was delayed by rain, Hunter Wendelstedt had the plate. Of the 108 pitches he called balls, only two were strikes. That is very good. Of the 51 pitches he called strikes, 12 were actually balls, mostly borderline high pitches. No bueno.

76% accuracy on called strikes isn’t good; when robot umpires become a thing in a couple years, stuff like this won’t happen anymore. I’m not in favor of robot umpires, but they’re going to be a real thing fairly soon.

12) New Orleans 31, Michigan 27 OT
— First-ever overtime game in the new USFL.
— They use a 2-point conversion shootout for overtime games; Breakers converted both of theirs, Michigan went 0-2.
— New Orleans is 4-3, Michigan 1-6, with five losses by 7 or less points.
— Michigan’s kicker made a 60-yard field goal; they lost a game earlier this season when a different kicker missed a 21-yard kick at the gun that would’ve won the game.

11) New Jersey 20, Tampa Bay 13— Generals clinch a playoff berth; Tampa Bay didn’t score a TD in any of their three red zone drives. Bandits were minus-3 in turnovers, are minus-10 for the season. Thats a losing number in any league.

10) FS1 showed a picture from 1991, when TV analyst/former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett was playing QB for the San Antonio Riders in the World League of American Football. His coach was Mike Riley, who is currently the New Jersey Generals’ coach.

Garrett spoke very highly of Riley, who has had an interesting career in almost every pro football league there has been, plus a couple college leagues— he is Oregon State’s all-time winningest coach.

9) Reds’ OF Tommy Pham and Giants’ OF Joc Pederson got into a pre-game scuffle Friday; now Pham has been suspended for three games. Apparently the dispute was over a fantasy football league they were in last fall; there was an actual dispute about putting a player on injured reserve and well…..you would think this wouldn’t result in a fight, but it did.

Two rich guys in a fantasy football league; there must’ve been lot of money at stake for things to carry over to May of the next year, but now Pham loses $111,111 for his three-game suspension, making it a very expensive fantasy football season.

8) They were talking on couple of different ballgames Saturday how catchers who use pitch-com are putting it on their knee pad instead of their wrist. Teams are paranoid that signs could still be stolen by seeing where the catchers presses the key pad, if it was on his wrist.

7) Someone kept track of this at a Tigers-Guardians game this week; they used a total of 115 baseballs in that game.

6) UCLA 25, Oregon State 22 (10)— Bruins tied game with nine runs in bottom of 9th inning in this Pac-12 tournament game, then won it in extra innings.

— This is the first year the Pac-12 has a postseason baseball tournament.
— Game lasted 5:44
— Kid on UCLA had seven RBI and he didn’t start.
— Beavers later beat UCLA 8-7 in another game, eliminating the Bruins from the double elimination event- they play Stanford for the conference title Sunday night on ESPN2.

5) Red Sox 5, Orioles 3— This was Nathan Eovaldi’s 211th career start; it was his first complete game. By way of comparison, Greg Maddux threw 109 complete games, Rick Langford 85. No one throws complete games anymore.

Last time a pitcher threw consecutive complete games? Corey Kluber, in 2017.

4) Golden State is 21-4 in playoff series since Steph Curry has been on the team; they’re 89-39 (.695) in playoff games in the Curry era, the best playoff winning %age of any MVP in NBA history.

3) NY Rangers 5, Carolina 2:
— Carolina is 7-0 at home in the playoffs, 0-6 on the road.
— First five games in this series stayed under the total; this one went over.
— Game 7 is Monday night in Raleigh.

2) Someone posted a picture on Twitter of a Pistons-Cavaliers game from 2004, when Lebron James scored 43 points. The guy guarding James in the picture was Darvin Ham, who is now going to be Lebron’s coach with the Lakers.

1) Former Iowa State guard Tyrese Hunter not only transferred away from the Cyclones, he bolted to Texas, a conference rival of Iowa State’s. He was the best available transfer out there; big loss for Iowa State.

Other schools trying to poach Hunter were Gonzaga, Kansas, Louisville, Purdue, Tennessee; last year, Purdue was one of the few top 50 programs that didn’t poach any transfers.

This is where college basketball is headed, free agency. It is what it is, even if it does suck.

 

[Udog]

BOSTON is 40-24 Under (13.6 Units) revenging a straight up loss vs opponent as a favorite in the last 3 seasons.




NBA
Dunkel

Sunday, May 29

NBA

Sunday, May 29

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boston @ Miami
Boston
Boston is 11-1 ATS in its last 12 games on the road
Boston is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games on the road
Miami
Miami is 10-2 SU in its last 12 games at home
Miami is 9-3 ATS in its last 12 games at home



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The Celtics are 14-6 ATS in their last 20 games.
The Heat are 13-7 SU in their last 20 games.
The total has gone OVER in four of the last six Heat' games.
The Celtics are 11-1 ATS in their last 12 road games.
The Heat are 10-2 SU in their last 12 home games.
The Celtics are 4-1 ATS in their last five road games against Miami.
The total has gone OVER in 11 of the last 16 matchups between Boston and Miami.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Monday’s 6-pack
Where the USFL’s starting QB’s went to college:
— Birmingham, J’Mar Smith— Louisiana Tech
— Houston, Clayton Thorson— Northwestern
— Michigan, Josh Love— San Jose State
— New Jersey, Luis Perez— Texas A&M- Commerce
— New Orleans, Kyle Sloter— Northern Colorado
— Philadelphia, Case Cookus— Northern Arizona
— Pittsburgh, Vad Lee— James Madison
— Tampa Bay, Jordan Ta’amu— Ole Miss

Quote of the Day
“I feel completely normal. So I think that’s where it’s going to be like, do we push it? Do we not? That’ll be the discussion over the next few days, and when we get on the mound, what is the safest way to go about this?”
Jacob deGrom, talking about his health on Saturday

Monday’s quiz
Who was manager of the Mets, last time they made the playoffs?

Sunday’s quiz
In 1997, Hartford Whalers moved to Raleigh and became the Carolina Hurricanes.

Saturday’s quiz
Milwaukee Brewers came into existence in 1970, a year after they played one year as an expansion team in Seattle; they were the Seattle Pilots for that one season, before moving to Milwaukee.

************************

Monday’s Den: Happy Memorial Day

13) Boston 100, Miami 96:
— Boston never trailed, leading 32-17 after first quarter.
— Miami had ball in last 0:10 down two points, but missed a 3-point shot.
— Jimmy Butler played the whole freakin’ game, scoring 35 points.
— Other than Butler/Adebayo, Miami shot 12-43 from floor.
— Celtics advance to meet Golden State in NBA Finals.

12) Over/under for this game was 198, lowest total for a playoff game since Game 7 of the 2018 series between Celtics-Cavaliers.

Since 2015, under is 57-50-1 in NBA playoff games with totals lower than 200.

11) Atlanta Braves promoted outfield prospect Michael Harris from AA to the major leagues this weekend; why do some teams have a prospect skip AAA altogether?

Harris is only 21 years old; he hit .305 in 41 games in the Southern League, but is he ready for the big leagues, and if he struggles at the plate, how will he react to that? Harris is a local kid from the Atlanta area; he made a great catch in centerfield the other day, but hitting has to be a struggle, jumping from AA to facing Sandy Alcantara in his first MLB game.

10) Next season MLB will use a different scheduling format; every big league team will face every other team, so the stars of the game will face every team, and traditional rivals will play each other less than they usually do.

Here’s the problem; baseball SAYS they want more scoring but when hitters see pitchers fewer times, it makes hitting a lot more difficult, and with this schedule, hitters will not see the same pitchers nearly as much as they do now.

9) White Sox star SS Tim Anderson is headed to the injured list after hurting his right leg in the field Sunday; Anderson is hitting .356; he is having an MRI Monday to see how severe the injury is. White Sox are going to miss their leadoff hitter.

8) Birmingham 26, Pittsburgh 16:
— Unbeaten Stallions clinched a playoff berth here.
— Game was 23-16 with 5:00 left; the Pittsburgh coach got upset his QB’s body language during a timeout, and yanked him, putting in a QB the team signed five days ago. Not ideal.
— Pittsburgh also wasted a timeout early in third quarter when they were trying to draw the Stallions offside— they should’ve taken a delay of game, kept their timeout.

7) Philadelphia 35, Houston 24:
— 1-6 Gamblers led 17-13 at halftime; they’ve led every game at halftime.
— Stars outgained Houston 315-200.

6) Giants 6, Reds 4:
— Giants scored six runs in 8th inning, after getting one hit in first six innings.
— Reds had won 29 games in a row when they led from 7th inning on.
— Despite the loss, Cincinnati is 13-9 in its last 22 games, after starting out 3-22.

5) At one point in his career, Sonny Gray went 48 consecutive starts without allowing more than six hits in any start. That is an all-time record, 16 games longer than the second-best streak.

4) 42-year old Rich Hill is pitching for Boston Monday; Red Sox are his 11th team in an interesting 18-year career. Betcha he could write a hell of a book.

3) Odd golf stat: Last time a golfer won a PGA Tour event without getting a birdie in the last round was 2014 in Memphis, when Ben Crane won the Fed Ex Open.

2) Harold Varner was tied for the lead on the 12th hole Sunday at the Charles Schwab Challenge, then his day got ugly; Varner shot +10 on the back nine, wound up tied for 27th.

1) Memorial Day is a day set aside for mourning the military personnel who died while serving our country, protecting us. We’re lucky to live in a democracy where we can do as we please, and our military does a lot of great work, which often goes unappreciated, which isn’t good.

So thank you to all military personnel; you’re doing very important work.

 

[Udog]

No games today.... finals begin Thursday.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Thursday’s 6-pack
Pointspreads for some NFL games this season:
Week 1— Chiefs (-3) @ Arizona
Week 2— Bengals (+2.5) @ Dallas
Week 3— Ravens (even) @ New England
Week 4— Broncos (even) @ Las Vegas
Week 5— Chargers (-2) @ Cleveland
Week 6— Buccaneers (-6) @ Pittsburgh

Quote of the Day
“I’m not talented enough to be unprepared.”
Monroe Stahr

Thursday’s quiz
Which stadium was the first domed stadium in the major leagues?

Wednesday’s quiz
Buck Showalter was the first manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Tuesday’s quiz
Wilt Chamberlain was the Warriors’ center, last time they played the Celtics in the NBA Finals, way back in 1964.

************************************************

Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud……

13) Teams’ records in series openers:

(home-away/total)
National League
Arizona 6-4, 2-4/8-8
Atlanta 3-6, 3-4/6-10
Chicago 3-5, 5-3/8-8
Cincinnati 3-4, 4-5/7-9
Colorado 3-6, 1-6/4-12
Los Angeles 5-2, 8-1/13-3
Miami 3-4, 1-8/4-12
Milwaukee 6-1, 5-5/11-6
NY Mets 6-2, 7-1/13-3
Philadelphia 4-5, 3-4/7-9
Pittsburgh 3-5, 2-6/5-11
St Louis 6-4, 4-3/10-7
San Diego 5-2, 7-2/12-4
San Francisco 3-5, 6-3/9-8
Washington 2-6, 3-5/5-11

American League
Baltimore 3-5, 4-4/7-9
Boston 4-4, 5-3/9-7
Chicago 2-6, 3-5/5-11
Cleveland 4-3, 4-5/8-8
Detroit 7-2, 2-5/9-7
Houston 4-2, 6-4/10-6
Kansas City 3-4, 4-6/7-10
LA Angels 5-4, 2-5/7-9
Minnesota 5-4, 4-3/9-7
New York 7-2, 6-1/13-3
A’s 1-7, 3-5/4-12
Seattle 5-2, 4-5/9-7
Tampa Bay 4-5, 3-4/7-9
Texas 5-3, 3-5/8-8
Toronto 6-2, 3-5/9-7

12) Mets lead the NL East by 10.5 games; since 1969, only two teams have had a bigger divisional lead on June 1st:
— 2001 Seattle led by 14 games— Wound up 116-46; last time they made the playoffs.
— 2017 Houston led by 11 games— Won World Series that year

11) Back in 1983, a relief pitcher named Tippy Martinez picked three runners off in the same inning, thought to be the only time that has ever happened in the major leagues.

10) Tuesday night, Adam Wainwright got 32 called strikes from home plate umpire Adam Segal; that’s a lot of called strikes for one game. Wainwright blanked San Diego for seven innings; he faced only 24 hitters.

9) Word has it that Cleveland QB Deshaun Watson will now be facing 24 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct during massage parlor sessions. 24!!!!

Watson’s agent must be having a nervous breakdown; he just negotiated a 5-year, $230M contract; 3% of $230,000,000 is $6.9M; that would be the agent’s take, but Watson is going to be suspended, probably for at least six games. I’m wondering if the agent’s fee takes a hit when Watson gets docked those games via the suspension.

8) Random fact: There has been one no-hitter thrown at Coors Field in Denver, by Hideo Nomo of the Dodgers in 1996.

7) Phillies 6, Giants 5— Philly scored four times in 6th inning, then their bullpen tossed three perfect innings to snap their losing streak. So far this season, Phillies have been outscored by 15 runs from the ninth inning on- they’re 4-10 in one-run games.

6) Tampa Bay Rays occasionally use four outfielders, with the 2B in short right field, giving them basically five outfielders. Hopefully this will be the last season they can do this— baseball needs to ban shifts, to increase offense.

5) Atlanta 6, Arizona 0— Braves are still only 6-12 in day games.

4) Something I learned a long time ago; if you’re quiet and you wear glasses, lot of people assume you’re smart. They may/may not be right, but they do assume that.

3) Pirates 8, Dodgers 4— Pittsburgh sweeps 3-game series in LA; in those games, the Dodgers were -345, -370, -263. Never lay more than -175 in baseball, people.

2) Rays 4, Rangers 3 (11)— How would you like to be the GM of Texas, the guy who convinced his boss (the owner) to shell out $57M for Marcus Semien/Corey Seager?
Today is June 2…….
— Semien is hitting .193 with one homer; he hit 45 homers last year.
— Seager is hitting .236 with a .738 OPS; his career OPS is .860.

Rangers are 24-25, eight games out of first in the AL West; they’re 2.5 games out of the last Wild Card spot. There is still plenty of time, but the Rangers need more production from their $57M a year double play combination.

1) Detroit 5, Minnesota 0– Tarik Skubal is 3-0, 0.84 in his last five starts.

 

[Udog]

GOLDEN STATE is 9-1 ATS (7.9 Units) in home games revenging a loss vs opponent of 10 points or more in the current season.




NBA
Dunkel

Thursday, June 2

NBA

Thursday, June 2

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boston @ Golden State
Boston
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Boston's last 5 games when playing on the road against Golden State
Boston is 12-1 ATS in its last 13 games on the road
Golden State
Golden State is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Golden State's last 5 games when playing at home against Boston


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




The Warriors are 5-1 ATS in their last six games.
The Celtics are 6-3 ATS in their last nine games.
The Warriors are 9-0 SU in their last nine home games.
The Celtics are 8-1 ATS in their last nine road games.
The Celtics are 7-3 ATS in their last ten matchups against Golden State.
The total has gone UNDER in eight of the last ten matchups between Boston and Golden State.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Friday’s 6-pack
Pointspreads for some NFL games this season:
Week 1— Steelers @ Cincinnati (-6)
Week 2— Dolphins @ Baltimore (-4)
Week 3— Packers @ Tampa Bay (-3)
Week 4— Vikings (-1) @ New Orleans
Week 5— Colts @ Denver (-3)
Week 6— Cowboys (even) @ Philadelphia

Quote of the Day
“A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”
Confucius

Friday’s quiz
Where did Steve Kerr play his college basketball?

Thursday’s quiz
Houston Astrodome was the first domed stadium in the major leagues.

Wednesday’s quiz
Buck Showalter was the first manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

**********************************

Friday’s Den: Random stuff and Week 8 USFL notes

Celtics 120, Warriors 108:
— Golden State led by 12 after the third quarter.
— Celtics outscored them 40-16 in 4th quarter, including a 17-0 run.
— Boston was 21-41 on arc; they made their first seven 3’s in 4th quarter.

Brewers 5, Padres 4:
— Milwaukee scored four times in bottom of ninth.
— Andrew McCutchen walked it off with a one-out single.
— This was Milwaukee’s first home game this year where the game-winning run scored from the 7th inning on— they’re 8-4 in such games on the road.

Mariners 7, Orioles 6 (10)
— Jesse Winker had three hits for Seattle, which blew a 6-3 lead in sixth inning.

— Mets’ SS Francisco Lindor missed the game in Los Angeles Thursday; he slammed his right middle finger in a hotel door.

— Portland Trailblazers aren’t for sale, but Nike boss Phil Knight put in an offer to buy the team anyway. Nike headquarters are in Oregon, so that makes sense.

— Ryan Fitzpatrick retired this week, after a 17-year NFL career that spanned nine teams. He is expected to sign on with Amazon to be part of their NFL TV crew.

— October 5-6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Lakers are going to play couple of exhibition games, against the Suns on the 5th, against Minnesota the next night.

Week 8 USFL games……..
Pittsburgh vs New Jersey (-9)
Pittsburgh Maulers (1-6)
— Have been outscored 98-38 in first half of games.
— Last five weeks, allowed 172 rushing yards/game.
— Five of their last six games went over total.
— Covered spread three of last four weeks (3-3-1 ATS for year).

New Jersey Generals (6-1)
— Won last six games (4-2 ATS), scoring 23.6 ppg in last five.
— Generals held last six opponents 15 ppg.
— Outscored last five foes 53-32 in second half.
— 2-2 ATS as a favorite
— Three of their last four games went over the total.

First meeting:
— Generals (-9.5) 21, Maulers 13 (Week 4)
— Total yardage: 313-256, New Jersey
— Pittsburgh completed only 15-32 passes.

New Orleans vs Birmingham (-3.5)
New Orleans Breakers (5-2)
— Scored 23+ points in their wins, 13-17 in losses.
— Last four games went over the total
— Last five games, they’re minus-5 in turnovers (5-10)
— Won their only game this year as an underdog.

Birmingham Stallions (7-0)
— Trailed at halftime in four of seven games
— Outscored opponents 114-44 in second half.
— Outrushed last four foes 656-335
— 6-1 against spread

First meeting
— Stallions (-5.5) 22, Breakers 13 in Week 3
— Total yardage: 316-313, New Orleans
— Birmingham was +2 in turnovers; they led 10-6 at halftime.

Michigan vs Philadelphia (-5.5)
Michigan Panthers (1-6)
— Have four losses by 5 or fewer points- lost in OT last week.
— 0-4 in games decided by 5 or fewer points.
— Outgained five of their seven opponents.
— Their only win was 24-0 over 1-6 Pittsburgh.
— Last four games went over the total.
— Michigan is 1-3 ATS as an underdog.

Philadelphia Stars (4-3)
— Won three of their last four games, are 1-2-1 ATS as favorites.
— Last four weeks, they’re +6 in turnovers.
— Gave up 23+ points in all seven games (over 5-1 last six).
— Have been outgained in six of seven games (2-4-1 ATS).
— Scored 30-26-35-35 points in wins; 17-16-17 in losses.

First meeting:
— Stars (+1) won 26-25 (Week 4); Michigan missed 21-yard FG on last play.
— Total yardage: 301-293, Michigan
— Stars were +2 in turnovers; game was 17-17 at halftime.

Tampa Bay (-5) vs Houston
Tampa Bay Bandits (3-4)
— Bandits lost three of their last four games.
— Minus-10 in turnovers— have only three takeaways.
— 2-2 ATS as a favorite.
— Scoring 10.6 ppg in first half, 7.3 ppg in second half.

Houston Gamblers (1-6)
— Lost their last six games (2-4 ATS)
— Led all seven games at halftime, won only once.
— Last six games went over total
— Outscored 107-39 in second half.

First meeting:
— Tampa Bay (-2) 27, Houston 26 in Week 3
— Gamblers led 23-14 at halftime.
— Total yardage: 400-365, Houston- they ran for 160 yards.

 

[Udog]

No games today.... playoffs resume Sunday.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Sunday’s 6-pack
NFL teams with most room under the salary cap:
$40,965,823— Cleveland
24,761,087— Carolina
22,629,843— Las Vegas
22,552,602— Dallas
22,242,500— Chicago
20,696,961— Pittsburgh

Quote of the Day
“I didn’t know anything about fronts, route combinations, defenses, footwork…..I didn’t know anything about that.”
Luis Perez, QB of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, explaining how he learned a lot about playing QB from watching videos on YouTube

Sunday’s quiz
Mets have played in five World Series, under five different managers; who are they?

Saturday’s quiz
Mark Jackson was Golden State’s coach before Steve Kerr.

Friday’s quiz
Steve Kerr played his college basketball at Arizona.

*****************************

Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports Saturday

13) Our fantasy baseball league is 18 years old; it is a keeper league. We have 14 teams now, started out with 18 teams. Our first draft took 87 days to complete; it was a running draft, the person whose turn it was would text me their pick, and I would post it. It went the whole damn winter, just about.

My first three picks that year were Matt Holliday, Brandon Webb, Adam Dunn; I bring this up because Matt Holliday’s son is expected to be a first round pick in the amateur draft next month, another thing that is making me feel old(er).

12) Phillies 7, Angels 2— Joe Girardi got fired this week, because teams with lousy pitching don’t win much, especially when they don’t field well. Phillies spent lot of $$$ this winter on couple of sluggers, Schwarber/Castellanos, but they aren’t good fielders.

Enter the Angels, who have a similar approach; outscore your opponents. Well, the Angels have now lost 10 games in a row; they’re 27-27 and Mike Trout hasn’t had a hit in a week. Think Joe Maddon is on the hot seat?

11) Dodgers have a payroll of $310.6M, will be subject to a tax of $47M or so, which would be a new MLB record. Dodgers are 36-17; they’ve been in the playoffs nine years in a row- they sell out a lot of games, and by the way, their pitching, when healthy, is pretty good.

10) Mets sent 1B/OF Dom Smith to AAA this week; it took him a few days to catch up with his new team, but he’s gone 3-9 in his first two AAA games, with 2 runs scored, 3 RBI. It figures that sometime this summer, Smith will be dealt for a pitcher.

9) Former big league catcher AJ Pierzynski does games on FS1; he is a good analyst, speaks his mind, which isn’t always the case. He was talking last night about how catching foul tips is mostly luck, no real skill to it. He should know, having caught in the big leagues for 19 years.

8) There are three current big leaguers with a career .300 average and 100+ stolen bases:
Jose Altuve, Mike Trout, Trea Turner

7) Albert Pujols played in his 3,000th career game Saturday, quite a milestone. He is only the 10th big leaguer ever to play in 3,000 games.

6) Cardinals 7, Cubs 3 (10)— Chicago is 0-25 when it trails after six innings.

5) Las Vegas sportsbooks are posting odds on football games already; SouthPoint opened UNLV as a 33-point underdog at Notre Dame. Golden Nugget posted that game at 26; wonder how many people played the middle in that game, taking UNLV +33, Notre Dame -26, hoping the game falls in between those two numbers.

4) Yordan Alvarez signed a 6-year, $115M deal with the Astros this week; he celebrated by hitting couple of home runs Friday, off a pitcher on my fantasy team. Awesome.

3) Auburn-USC will play a home/home basketball series this year and next; this fall’s game is at the Galen Center at USC December 18.

2) Game 2 of the NBA Finals is tonight; Game 1 was Thursday. I understand that they don’t want games on Saturday, because fewer people watch TV on Saturdays, but shouldn’t they play Game 1 on Friday- you don’t need three days between games when there is no travel.

1) Not sure I’ve ever seen this before, and if I have, its been a while:

Bottom 4th in LA, Mets lead 6-4. Dodgers have guy on 2nd, two out, Mookie Betts is up. Betts hit a 3-run double in his last at-bat, off starter David Peterson, but they leave Peterson in.

Betts hits a vicious line drive down the left field line, just foul. 0-1 count; Buck Showalter had seen enough. He takes Peterson out, brings in a righty reliever, who strikes Betts out looking.

Not often a pitcher is removed during a count.

 

[Udog]

GOLDEN STATE is 7-0 Under (7 Units) in home games playing with 2 days rest in the current season.




NBA
Dunkel

Sunday, June 5

NBA

Sunday, June 5

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boston @ Golden State
Boston
Boston is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Golden State
Boston is 13-1 ATS in its last 14 games on the road
Golden State
Golden State is 11-1 SU in its last 12 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Golden State's last 8 games when playing at home against Boston


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




The Warriors are 5-2 ATS in their last seven games.
The Celtics are 4-1 ATS in their last five games.
The Warriors are 11-1 SU in their last 12 home games.
The Celtics are 13-1 ATS in their last 14 road games.
The Celtics are 5-0-1 ATS in their last six matchups against Golden State.
The Warriors are 1-7 SU in their last eight matchups against Boston.
The Celtics are 5-0 SU in their last five road games against Golden State.
The total has gone UNDER in 11 of the last 14 matchups between Boston and Golden State.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Monday’s 6-pack
NFL teams with least room under the salary cap:
$1,007,383— New England
4,754,181— San Francisco
5,278,202— LA Rams
5,663,870— Buffalo
6,649,869— NJ Giants
7,369,070— Houston

Quote of the Day
“I’m so happy for (Bryson Stott), man. What an at-bat. What a situation for him. Being able to put our trust in our young guys the last couple days, and really let them just play. It’s been great. And it paid off today………The thing about Bryson is he’s got to play. He’s used to playing every day. From high school, to college, to minor league baseball, to now. He’s used to playing every day, and that’s what we’ve got to do for our young guys…”
Bryce Harper

Monday’s quiz
In the movie Last Vegas, what hotel do the four old friends stay in for the weekend?

Sunday’s quiz
Mets have played in five World Series, under five different managers:
Gil Hodges, Yogi Berra, Davey Johnson, Bobby Valentine, Terry Colline

Saturday’s quiz
Mark Jackson was Golden State’s coach before Steve Kerr.

********************************

Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend……..

13) Golden State 107, Boston 88:
— Warriors outscored Boston 35-14 in third quarter.
— Celtics shot only 15-43 (34.9%) inside the arc.
— Series heads east to Boston, tied 1-1.

12) Phillies 9, Angels 7:
— Angels led 6-2 in 8th inning.
— Harper hit grand slam in 8th; Stott walked it off with a homer in 9th.
— Phillies are 4-0 since they changed managers.

11) Meanwhile, Angels have now lost 11 games in a row; Mike Trout is 0 for his last 26, and if Joe Girardi got fired this week, can Joe Maddon be far behind? Angels are 27-28; much like the Phillies, they don’t have enough pitching, no matter who the manager is.

10) Mets 5, Dodgers 4 (10)— In 12 career games at Dodger Stadium, Pete Alonso is hitting .360, with 7 homers, 16 RBI, 11 runs scored. Mets blew a 4-2 lead in ninth inning here, but scored in 10th inning and split this four-game series.

9) Dodgers messed up a new rule in Saturday night’s game; trailing 9-4 after eight innings, LA wanted a position player to pitch the ninth inning, but there is a new rule that says a team has to be behind by six runs to use a position player to pitch.

Dodgers had no idea about the new rule; all of this caused an 11-minute delay in the game; they let the regular pitcher take his normal warm-ups, which greatly annoyed the Mets’ TV crew.

8) Why do people discuss the MVP race on June 5th? Season still has over 100 games left, long way to go, but talking heads on TV have to speculate who the MVP will be. Come up with better things to talk about, such as………

While the Dodgers are going to pay a $47M payroll tax this year on their $310M payroll, the entire payroll of the Oakland A’s is $48,411,301. For the whole team; that seems fair.

Week 8 of the USFL……..
7) New Jersey 29, Pittsburgh 18:
— Generals have won seven in a row.
— Pittsburgh has been outscored 121-45 in first half of games.
— New Jersey outgained Pittsburgh 379-290.
— Maulers had a pretty good QB in Vad Lee, but benched him; not good.

6) Birmingham 10, New Orleans 9:
— I’ve been upbeat about the USFL, but this was a sloppy game.
— Both teams turned ball over three times.
— Stallions kicked a field goal with 1:48 to keep their perfect record (8-0) intact.
— Breakers scored 23+ points in their wins, 13-17-9 in losses.

5) Philadelphia 46, Michigan 24:
— Stars outgained Michigan 25-6 in second half.
— Philadelphia averaged 8.8 yards/pass attempt.
— Last five weeks, Stars are +9 in turnovers.
— Michigan is 1-4 ATS as an underdog.

4) Tampa Bay 13, Houston 3:
— Gamblers have now lost seven games in a row.
— Houston outgained Bandits 244-214; Tampa threw for only 69 yards.
— Neither team scored in second half.
— Tampa Bay is 4-4 despite their minus-11 turnover ratio.

3) Quin Snyder quit as coach of the Utah Jazz after eight years there; he had a 372-264 record in regular season games, 21-30 in playoffs. Apparently the Utah front office tried to talk him out of it, but Snyder believes the Jazz “……need a new voice”

2) Is it my imagination, or do more hitters swing at 3-0 pitchers now, figuring that might the only time they’re ever going to see a fastball?

1) Orioles pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez has a Grade 2 lat strain, could miss the rest of the season. Rodriguez is listed as MLB’s #5 prospect; he was expected to make his major league debut this summer. Now next spring looks more likely.