Turnovers doom State in home loss to Tech

N.C. State committed a season-high 18 turnovers, didn’t play as smart defensively as they have recently and combined with a questionable coaching move, resulted in a 84-78 loss to Va. Tech Saturday afternoon. The loss dropped the Pack to a 5-2 conference record, with both losses coming on their home floor. At first, it looked [...]

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Mets 2024 top 50 prospects

This is the third year where this top prospect list of mine has been done with a tiered approach, rather than an ordered list. It’s my opinion that a tiered list is more valuable than trying to guess which older reliever is better than the others and should rank higher, only for the best one [...]

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A conversation about top prospect lists and the Mets’ minor league system

One of the mainstays of offseason articles is to create rankings and lists of top players in the minors.  My annual top 50 piece will be published by the end of the week, likely on Friday.  David Groveman is working on his, which will be posted before the start of the minor league season.  And [...]

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Ben Middlebrooks and Mo Diarra give State a big lift in 83-76 win over Wake Forest

My first in-person basketball games came in the upper deck of Madison Square Garden, watching the Knicks. I remember being surprised at how often bigs, like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, didn’t cross half court. Then, when I went to NC State and started to get courtside seats, I was surprised with how physical the games were. [...]

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Mets Continue Omar Minaya’s ‘Legacy’ With Dominican Graduation Ceremony

This was a real nice article on what the Mets do to help the IFAs they add to the system. Every year, the Mets’ Dominican Baseball Academy graduates players and staff that come through the program. In the last 18 years, more than 500 players have come through its ranks. And on Saturday, 164 players [...]

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The Mets should consider Joey Votto to add to their collection of one-year deals

Perhaps the last thing the 2024 Mets need is to add a 40 year old, lefty-hitting 1B who hit .202 last year and put up a 0.0 fWAR. But this isn’t just any over the hill guy. Instead, this is Joey Votto and he should be available for a song. My interest in Votto would [...]

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Remembering the Mets on MLK Day

Growing up, the NL always beat the AL in the All-Star game. It was something that started before me and continued on for many years. The announcers always brought up the record; they just never said the reason why. And it was because the NL embraced integration both quicker and better than the AL did. [...]

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Thoughts on Luis Severino, Harrison Bader and Sean Manaea

On Thursday, I gave my overall take on the Mets' offseason so far. In the interim was this email conversation with ChrisF about that very subject. We started off with this question: So, what grade would you give the Mets this offseason and why? Chris: I’m giving the present state of the off season as [...]

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DJ Horne’s Jekyll and Hyde performances lead to a split in ACC contests

After shooting 2-16 in the loss Wednesday to North Carolina, DJ Horne was removed from the starting lineup for Michael O’Connell in Saturday’s game at Louisville. The move paid off in spades, as O’Connell had 11 points, six assists and a +13 in his 31 minutes on the floor. And Horne came off the bench [...]

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Wild Card picks against the spread

My goal coming into the start of the NFL season was to pick every game against the spread. And for the most part this was a success, as only a few Thursday games were missed. My overall record in the regular season was 137-123-10. That's a pretty solid record for a baseball fan making picks [...]

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