Leferd

A Brit? Inconceivable! Congratulations to Andy Murray and The Empire.

Yeah, this was after Recchi went to the Flyers. Circa 95.

My memory came back. 1) Stevens-Lemeiux-Tocchet 2) Mullen-Francis-Jagr 3) McEachern-Straka-Sandstrom I remember Ron Francis was saying that he had to be the tough one on his line - which I found funny because he had just won the Lady Byng.

Between Curry's and Bogut's ankles, I think ownership needs to hire the top ankle specialists in the world and design shoes to fit appropriately. Less polyurethane and more rubber!

Slightly off topic: I'm trying to remember the top two lines for the mid 90's era Penguins. Was it Stevens-Lemieux-Tocchet and Mullen-Francis-Jagr or do I Kevin Stevens and Joe Mullen switched? Was Mullen even part of top two lines? Or was Mullen with Martin Straka and Shawn McEachern??? Who am I missing? I was thinking about this the other day and never bothered to look it up.

Sorry, I'm reliving 2001 again (pre Moneyball era) with tonight's exchange. Hahaha! Heated arguments with my my more traditionalist friends. Things were new and sites like Baseball Prospectus and Baseball Primer were at their infancy and lots of research and peer reviewed material was shared: (OBP = life, Runs Created, WARP, Win Shares, k/bb, k/9, BA = overrated, W-L = overrated, 1 run strategies, fallacies of small ball, Ken Phelps All Stars, and playoffs are a crapshoot, Earl Weaver is God and Billy Beane is his prophet, and how could anyone in their right mind actually think that Junior Griffey was actually better than Barry Bonds??? Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics) I was a Giants fan secretly worshipping at the feet of Billy Beane and just furious at Sabaen for not constructing a team that would take full advantage of Barry Bond's talent.

Between Curry, Iggy, Bogut, and David Lee, the ball movement is going to be fantastic for the Warriors. Add in Klay Thompson's shooting and Harrison Barnes' potential, they are going to be really fun to watch. Doom and gloom for the Lakers. Though I like what Ainge is doing for Boston. He sees the big picture and fantastic hire with the coach from Butler.

The 2012 squad hit 103 home runs. Next closest team were the Dodgers with 116. 5 other teams hit more than 200. Posey is legit. Sabaen needs to surround him with better hitters. It's not like he doesn't have a budget to work with. Spending $42 million combined on Lincecum and Zito for this year doesn't help. Considering that's almost the entirety of the A's budget for 40 players. How are the Giants neighbors doing this year?

I'd be impressed if he showed you his wife's panties. Lol. (2010 Giants lore)

Nah. They have decent pitching and three former or present CY young types. I'm dismissive of their hitting.

Some pretty good drama went down today. Dwight Howard to Houston and Andre Iguodala to Golden State. Major power shake ups in the West.

The Giants were compelling. They were literally a team of destiny. It was a fun and wild ride, especially in 2010. Only thing you could do is down a few shots and enjoy these two teams for what they were: Lucky underdog basterds that fans will talk about as some of the flukiest non back to back champions of all time.

In 2012 the Cards were second in the NL in runs scored. This year they lead the NL in runs. Your point?

Yeah. Good for the Giants. That still doesn't take away that they got lucky. They won more than their share of the coin flips.

Did you watch the 2012 playoffs? I watched every pitch, and there was no staff better than the Giants. They embarrassed the Triple Crown winner at the plate. When it comes to baseball I trust the numbers more than the eyeball test. And yes. I watched. The Giants were lucky.

That adage about pitching wins in the playoffs has been debunked so many times by Bill James it's a broken record. This isn't the 1990's anymore. It's about scoring more runs than the other team. That doesn't mean go for all power and no pitching and defense. It means having a lineup and pitching staff that will allow your team to score more runs than the other team.

No they don't. In 2012, the Giants only had the 5th best pitching staff in the NL by ERA. When you factor in park affects and other factors, Giants pitching staff ranked 20th in the Majors. http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2012.shtml

Lack of slugging is not sustainable for a winning team. They won a lot of close games and relied on dramatics in the postseason. I enjoyed the ride for what it was, but they ain't the Miami Heat.

As a former die-hard Giants fan, the Giants were lucky in '10 and luckier in '12. They were really are not that good those years.

Rice Jr. isn't the knockdown shooter Glen Sr. is and Hardaway Jr. isn't the street-tough little super quick firebug Tim Sr. Is. Gods. And I'm not even that old...

That was a crazy draft. And we may see two Canadians going number one in consecutive years.

Oakland fan. To be expected.

Good story about Mullin and Bird. They had a shooting contest after practice one day during the '92 Dream Team run. Both guys were just on fire. No one missed. It was EPIC. Bird barely beat out Mullin. Mullin wanted a rematch. Bird refused, and still refuses to go against Mullin to this day. He does not want to lose.. Haha!

Re: Mullin His Alciholism was well documented. Early in his career he was overweight, moody, and constantly late and or missed practices. Once Don Nelson became coach he looked into Mullin's situation. He didn't like what he saw - seeing it was more awrious than anticipated and staged an intervention with family and friends. It was dramatic and it worked. Mullin was granted a leave of absence and went to rehab. He cleaned himself and dedicated himself to professionalism. He still has the same crew cut as he did when he got out of rehab. His career flourished and he became the hall of gamer he is today. Re: Kobe Great player. And very smart. Just no Lebron.

"When God created a basketball player, He made Chris Mullin." -Magic Johnson 'Nuff said.