6, back in Chicago on Saturday. And you mig from LAM's blog
Our experts weigh in on four of the biggest questions in NASCAR:Turn 1: Did NASCAR make the right call on Martin Truex Jr. College Jerseys Cheap . for passing on pit road?Ricky Craven, ESPN NASCAR analyst: By the letter of the rule, yes. But the primary concern all drivers will have headed into this weekends drivers meeting is this: Where is the line of judgment when it comes to this rule? Because it feels like a gray area in terms of how far it can or cannot be pushed. Steve ODonnell has made it clear that it will be addressed in detail on Sunday. Im eager to hear Martins response.Ryan McGee, ESPN.com: According to the rulebook ... yes? I usually make a sandwich or take a nap instead of pay attention to the prerace drivers meetings. They tend to be a bit Groundhog Day-ish, especially since Jeff Gordon and his weekly questions retired. ?But this week I will pay close attention to how it is addressed, as NASCAR has promised, and what the reaction is to whatever is said.John Oreovicz, ESPN.com: Ultimately yes, assuming that NASCAR consistently makes similar calls in the future. Truex and the No. 78 team didnt break the letter of the law, but they did violate it in spirit, and the advantage he gained was plainly obvious in video replays. Drivers and teams are going to push the limits of the rules, and for NASCAR, this was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back.Bob Pockrass, ESPN.com: NASCAR made a judgment call and it leans more toward the wrong call than the right call. It certainly wasnt horrible and NASCAR rules indicate a driver cant pass to the left. But considering Truex didnt speed, what he did Saturday night could be -- and considering NASCARs no-calls in the past should be -- viewed as in the act of pitting. At worst, NASCAR should have warned Truex, considering earlier in the race it warned Brad Keselowski about laying back on a restart and told him not to do it again. The bottom line is that the leader could have done what Truex did without penalty -- and is that the type of advantage/perk a leader should get? That could be a huge advantage.Turn 2: Does the big lobster in Victory Lane at New Hampshire make you hungry, scared or creep you out?Craven: None of the above. Im a Maine Boy and I dont know a lot, ?but I know this: Never look forward to eating a large lobster. They are tougher than a $2 steak. In fact, never order larger than a 2-pound lobster or you will be cheating your palate. A lobster that size serves two purposes ... photo ops, and making baby lobsters!McGee: I love it. I actually offered to interview it for an ESPN.com story once. However, I have no interest in holding it or eating it. Unlike crab legs, where bigger is better, I have heard that Godzilla lobsters are dang near inedible. But I defer to our resident Mainer, Mr. Craven, when it comes to all things race cars and crustaceans.?Oreovicz: All of the above. Lobster is usually a treat to eat, but Im fundamentally scared of things with stingers and/or claws and the thought of how old such a huge creature must be kind of creeps me out.Pockrass: Creeps me out. Sorry not sorry, this Yankee-born dude just doesnt like seeing live creatures with their claws tied. Yeah, its tradition and its a photo op. But it still is creepy, especially knowing that the winning team gets sent the meat of that lobster in the days following the victory.Turn 3: The trucks race at Eldora next Wednesday. Should there be more NASCAR races on dirt?Craven: I would be in favor of Cup races on dirt. Seems obvious to me fans are seeking something different. Our sport frequented dirt tracks in the early days, and today, short-track racing across the country seems more vibrant on dirt than asphalt. Lets have a dirt-track race beginning in 2017, then add a second at Bristol for the Chase in 2018 (yes, that means hauling in loads of dirt). It will work! Im very open-minded on the subject.McGee: No. This event is special and its the one time the Truck Series really gets to stand out anymore. So leave it be.?Dont let it become night racing or interleague baseball, which used to be special but have been killed by over-repetition.?If Cup guys want to run it, they can file an entry form.Oreovicz: No. Its fun once a year, but dirt-track racing is fundamentally a grassroots sport and should be kept that way. A midweek race on pavement is a better way to shake things up.Pockrass: No. The Eldora race is special and unique because it is the one and only. Tony Stewart wouldnt mind having an Xfinity race at the track, but maybe it would be better if it was an all-star Xfinity event for 20 cars for young drivers whose teams can afford it. Maybe NASCAR should mandate all the car numbers that field a Sprint Cup driver during the season must field a car at Eldora for an Xfinity all-star race for a full-time series regular. That could mean drivers for smaller teams getting a shot in a Cup-backed effort for this one race.Turn 4: Should NASCAR experiment with its 2017 package again this year or were races at Michigan and Kentucky enough?Craven: I have had enough experimenting. Im reduced-downforced to the point of no return. Can we please spend the second half of the year talking about drivers, rivalries, ticket prices or any damned thing other than low downforce, aero change bulls---?McGee: No. Doing it twice is enough. The next time I want to see it in a race is at Atlanta next year. If they want to add a Thursday test day and make everyone run some full simulated green-flag race runs, fine. But theres entirely too much at stake for too many teams between now and the end of the season to be conducting real-time test sessions.Oreovicz: Two races was plenty. Midseason rule changes are never desirable, and its unfair to ask teams to develop a different package for the playoffs because it might give an advantage to those organizations with more resources than others. The two races gave the teams some direction as they prepare for 2017, but it minimizes the distraction that would have come from having to develop two separate setups for the 2016 stretch run.Pockrass: It really should use it at Charlotte, a more traditional 1.5-mile track than Kentucky. NASCAR could have a test at Charlotte between Michigan and Darlington for teams to prepare and hopefully Goodyear could make gains on the tire. It would throw a little wrench in the Chase, but its the second round and first race of that round -- teams would have Kansas the following week to use what theyve learned all season and then roll the dice again at Talladega. The whole Chase is in some ways a roll of the dice with only three races per round. Another twist wouldnt hurt. But dont plan on it happening. Cheap College Jerseys Wholesale . Self was acquired from the Buffalo Bandits in a trade for Alex Hill midway through last season, and made his debut in Rochester on March 16, 2013. Stitched NCAA Jerseys . Team physician Dr. Steve Traina performed the surgery Friday. Robinson was injured in a spill underneath the Nuggets basket during the first quarter of Wednesday nights loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. http://www.cheapncaajerseysbywholesale.com/ . Q: Team Canada announces their Olympic roster three weeks from today. Who is general manager Steve Yzerman watching? LeBrun: Over the last 48 hours, hes taken in the home-and-home between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche with Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene being the obvious targets. CHICAGO -- As we learned again Sunday night at Wrigley Field, it isnt hard to understand how the Dodgers win when the guy they send to the mound is named?Clayton Edward Kershaw.But heres the part of the Dodgers winning formula that America might find a little tougher to understand: How the heck did they win those other 74 games this year? How is it possible that the Dodgers had a better record this season after Kershaw got hurt (50-35) than they had before (41-36)?We ask these things because, now that Kershaw has finished evening up the National League Championship Series at one win apiece -- by becoming the first pitcher to beat the Cubs in a 1-0 postseason game since Babe Ruth -- its time for the Dodgers to go back to doing what they do best until Kershaws turn comes around again.And by that we mean ... um, dont worry, theyll figure out something.There has never been a first-place team in the history of baseball quite like the 2016 Dodgers. You understand that, right? I posed that question to their trusty president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, on Sunday night. Even he didnt attempt to spin it to make it seem as if this teams championship saga was nothing out of the ordinary.I would say the answer is definitely not, Friedman said succinctly, because we set a record for disabled-list placements. So therefore, the answer is definitely not.Yes, the Dodgers placed 28 different players on the disabled list this season. That would be more than any team in the past 30 seasons. And since records for this sort of thing werent kept before then, that puts them in uncharted territory -- at least for that period of history in which territory was charted.And because pretty much everyone except Sandy Koufax and Vin Scully wound up on that disabled list somewhere along the line, the Dodgers also found themselves doing stuff that we can guarantee no other first-place team has ever done. For instance:Never once, at any point over the past 3? months of the season, did the same five starting pitchers go around their rotation twice in the same order. Not once. Over their last 90 games. How is that possible?Well, its possible because this team ripped through 15 different starting pitchers over the course of the season -- after using 16 in 2015. Just so you understand what that means, before last year, only one other team in the history of division play (the 1989 Giants) had made the playoffs in a season in which they had to use at least 15 starters. Now the Dodgers have done it two seasons in a row. Because, well, of course they have.And because they were constantly in some sort of scramble mode, Dave Roberts became the first manager in history to have to remove two different starting pitchers, in the eighth inning or later, even though they were working on no-hitters at the time. Then again, if youre busy reinventing the whole concept of what constitutes a starting rotation, that fits right in, doesnt it?And since all those starters were doing so much coming and going -- especially the going part -- Roberts set another record, making an unprecedented 606 pitching changes. Meaning this guy logged more mileage, just going back and forth to the mound, than your average Uber driver.But it wasnt just the pitchers who were coming and/or going. This team used 55 different players, tying the franchise record for most in a season. It also made 216 roster moves. I know because I counted them all up myself. That comes to more than eight a week. And we remind you, they did that in a season in which they won the NL West. Amazing.You know, we talked about it all during the offseason and spring training, about our feeling that our hallmark of this team was going to be our depth, Friedman said. We just didnt really want to showcase it as much as we did.It was always their assumption, Friedman said, that over the course of any season, things happen. But even they never could have anticipated all THIS would happen. Nevertheless, it was always part of Friedmans team-building philosophy to be ready when those things did happen. And the Dodgers wouldnt be here, still playing, without the forethought that went into that.On one hand, Friedman said, you can say, Oh, we had some injjuries. NCAA Basketball Jerseys China. Woe is us. Or you can have as much depth on hand, to be able to plug in with good, capable major league players.So those capable fill-ins just kept on coming. Unless they were going, that is. So after a while, the few veteran players who somehow managed to stay healthy pretty much got used to the idea that every time they looked up, the last two or three or four players on their roster werent going to be the same two or three or four players who were there last week. Or possibly 15 minutes ago.At least, said third baseman Justin Turner, we knew who everybody was. Probably the only guy who we hadnt really met before he got here was when [Andrew] Toles came up. But wed all heard about him.Then again, there are other teams out there that constantly rotate players through those last few roster spots for the sake of flexibility. But what made these Dodgers especially unique was the fact that, well, they didnt even really HAVE a starting rotation.Asked whether it would seem almost impossible to finish first with a team that never used the same rotation twice in a row over a 3?-month period, Turner couldnt help but laugh.It would, he said. But we did.A few feet away, in his own clubhouse, stood second baseman Chase Utley. Five years ago, he played on a first-place team in Philadelphia in which the same five dominating starters went around the rotation over and over and over again from April through September. And that was the way that team won. Then again, its the way teams have won in baseball for the past 100 years. So if Utley thought thats the way life would always work, who could blame him?Now, Utley plays on a team thats the exact opposite, in which the same five starters never went around the rotation. He couldnt help but see the irony.You wouldnt draw it up that way, he said. But whatever works.But even though it did, improbably, work, Friedman admits there were many days his group sat around the office wondering what pitcher was going to start tonight or tomorrow or next Thursday.We had meetings on it constantly, he said.Asked what he remembered about those meetings, Friedman smiled and reported: They were long. And often.Those meetings went on for months and months and months. As the Dodgers plugged one hole after another -- and somehow kept winning.And then, Friedman said, exhaling dramatically, Clayton came back.Did he ever. When Kershaw rejoined the rotation in early September, no one knew just what he would be capable of the rest of the way. But theyre now finding out. Boy, are they finding out.Kershaw has pitched in four games in this postseason. The Dodgers have won them all. Theyve had to play three games in which he didnt appear. And theyve lost them all.So that brings us to where they stand in this NLCS -- where, barring more emergency relief heroism, Kershaw wont be able to pitch again until Game 6, back in Chicago on Saturday. And you might think the Dodgers know exactly how the three games in between will go. But if thats what you think, we are forced to ask: Are you familiar with their work?Theyre pretty sure they know who is starting Game 3 on Tuesday. Unless, of course, Rich Hills blister has other ideas. And theyre fairly certain who is starting Game 4 on Wednesday. Unless, that is, Julio Urias has to fill in for Hill in Game 3, or has to stomp in to pitch some emergency relief at some point.And theyre absolutely positive that Kenta Maeda will start Game 5 on Thursday. They just cant be positive hell even make it into the fifth inning -- seeing as how he hasnt done that in almost a month.So that about sums up the current state of the Dodgers rotation: non-Kershawian division. But when youve won 91 games during the regular season -- and four more in the postseason -- doing it this way, this is no time to sit back and reflect on how ridiculous that is. Its a time to just keep finding a way to win. And survive. As always.It just goes to show, Utley said, that there are a lot of different ways to win a ballgame.Yep. No kidding. And the most different way ever to try to win a World Series. Wholesale Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Womens Jerseys Stitched Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys 2019 Cheap NFL Womens Jerseys Wholesale NFL Gear Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL White Jerseys Discount Jerseys NFL T-shirts From China China NFL Hoodies Nike NFL Jerseys China ' ' '
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