Just about all of you are weighing in on the Deshaun Watson controversy and the hiring of the new head coach. I expect Watson, or his people, to make an official trade demand soon, and we’ll see where it goes from there. They can trade him or let him sit out, if it comes to that. I hope it doesn’t get James Harden ugly.
If you’re venting and don’t ask for an answer, I’ll just run your comment.
The Watson controversy could drag on for a long time. Meanwhile, general manager Nick Caserio is getting closer to recommending a new coach to Cal McNair, who’ll sign off on it.
There’s a good chance the next head could be a coordinator in the AFC Championship Game — Buffalo defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier or Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. I think Indianapolis defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus is a strong candidate, too.
Q: Does anybody really know what’s going on with Watson? No doubt he is a tremendous talent and I have always gotten the impression a stand-up guy. All the news/ESPN hype aside why hasn’t he stated his position. What the news is reporting is second- or third-hand information. I don’t believe in Twitter, etc., to communicate in a situation like this. The owner, GM and Watson needs to sit down and talk. If there is a problem or issue, lay it out on the table. They all need to man up. If Watson doesn’t want to be a Texan after they gave him the contract and money, Watson needs to move on. McNair owns the club, you may not agree with how everything is done but he is the owneboss. I hope Watson decides he wants to be a Texan, but that is his call. If not he is a distraction and remember there is no I in team. — Bill B.
A: Sitting down and talking makes too much sense, Bill. So far, Watson hasn’t said what he wants. It’s all come from unnamed sources close to Watson.
Q: The rhetoric around Deshaun displeasure seems to be escalating. My personal opinion is that Deshaun shows a lot of audacity demanding that the owner of the company he works for must consult with him on who he hires to be his boss. Any other industry and he would be in the parking lot with a pink slip in his hand. But then I'm an old guy and not in tune with today’s youth. My question is in regard to his contract. If he stays mad and won't play and demands a trade are the Texans obligated to trade him, or can they not pay him for showing up for work and hold him accountable for the length of the contract? — Eric R.
A: Times have changed, Eric. Some agents and players in the NFL want it to be like the NBA, where the agents and players control so much, like who goes where. If Watson sits, he doesn’t get paid. If he sits out the season, he loses credit for the season and has to start over in 2022. He can do like James Harden and make it so ugly they have to trade him, but I can’t imagine Watson doing what Harden did. That’s not the Deshaun I’ve covered since the day he was drafted.
Q: Does McNair’s decision to keep Easterby send the message to Deshaun (and the others in the locker room that consider Jack toxic) that Easterby is more valuable to the Texans organization than Deshaun. Cal called the Easterby criticism “unjustified.” I get it — it’s unjustified, to Cal. But isn’t it totally justified to 85 to 90 of the locker room (if the Sports Illustrated article and interviews are accurate). — David M.
A: I don’t know what the other players think. Charles Omenihu said at a charity event this week he didn’t have a problem with Easterby. Brandin Cooks, who met Easterby at New England, has praised him, too. What McNair is saying is that nobody is going to tell him to hire or fire, like the owner of most businesses I know.
Q: I know you keep reassuring everyone Watson isn’t going anywhere, but the situation seems to be escalating. The Texans are finding more and interesting ways to keep the fans churned up. It is like a tempest in a teapot. One issue you touched on is will the Texans be able to attract the right candidate if they don’t get this Watson situation fixed. McNair seems to be willing to win the battle at the cost of the war. I am so disgusted with that organization for being so out of touch. One question about Easterby. Is it his ties to OB or is he doing things in the organization to create divisiveness? I can’t understand how somebody can be this polarizing to so many people within the organization and so popular with management. None of this makes sense! — Randy S.
A: You’re right about it not making sense, Randy. I think players and fans believe every bad decision OB made was also made by Easterby. I know many don’t like that Easterby has his fingerprints on so many parts of the organization rather than staying in his lane like he did with the Patriots. But McNair has given him that authority, and Easterby answers to only one person.
Q: I don’t really understand what Easterby did that was so offensive to Watson and Andre Johnson. It’s like the teacher going to the superintendent and telling him to fire the principal. But in this case, Easterby doesn’t directly work with Watson. You’ve been at the Chronicle a long time and are highly respected, but you don’t tell the publisher what to do or you wouldn't be there much longer. — Joe T.
A: You’ve got that right, Joe, but times are different today. Players and agents want control. The Texans negotiated a contract in good faith for $156 million, and they don’t want to trade Watson. They’ve done nothing but praise him to the high heavens. But if Watson is determined to get traded, it’s going to deteriorate. McNair apologized to Watson for the miscommunications on the Caserio hire. McNair and Caserio assured everyone they’d keep Watson updated on the coaching search. ESPN reported Sunday that Watson won’t return their calls. If that’s the case, how does he keep up with their coaching search?
Q: Why do people not like Easterby? Evidently McNair is one of the few who support him. Watson deserves to have some input. We wasted too many years with O’Brien. — Carole R.
A: I’m not exactly sure why they don’t like him, Carole, other than his close association with OB, being part of a total collapse in a disastrous season, having Watson and Andre Johnson taking public shots at him. Nobody has detailed what they don’t like.
Q: Watson's feud. Another employee that wants to be boss. And a rich one at that. Really never heard about Easterby until lately. Let's not forget that Cal McNair let O'Brien take over. O'Brien along with McNair, will never be forgiven here in Houston for giving Hopkins away. Hiring a coach means more to your readers/fans than anything a guy like Caserio could. You've been here. You know as much as anyone, maybe more. Can anyone point McNair in the right direction? Let's see. Caserio has been here a week! Please continue to keep us aware. — Lyn B.
A: Caserio has been in personnel for 19 of his 21 years in the NFL, Lyn. There was no personnel director more deserving of getting a chance to become personnel director than Caserio. It’s going to take a lot of work, starting with the new coach and his staff.
Q: Once again I enjoyed your Mailbag this week. Under one of the Chronicle pictures of Deshaun Watson in said he was unhappy with his lack of involvement in searches for GM and coach. How can he be unhappy when his paycheck hits the bank each week. Someone should remind him that he was hired to be the QB, not the GM or coach. And I do mean sit him down for a little owner-to-QB session and remind him who signs those paychecks since he wants to talk to McNair so badly. Sounds like another entitlement issue to me. Quite frankly, I think he gets too much credit and week after week he makes his share of mistakes that contribute to losses. Not sure why the masses are willing to look beyond that. How could the Texans give him any more than they have already? As far as his no-trade clause, the backup quarterback position might just show him a bit of humility or appreciation for where he is and what he has. Time for someone to put these prima donnas in their place. With a good GM and a good coach in place the Texans can do better without him as the starting QB. Let him watch a few Texan wins from the bench for awhile and let’s see how much input he thinks he should have in GM and head coach hires. — Will W.
A: Will, Watson won’t be sitting on the bench. If he’s here, he’s starting. If he’s not, he’s starting somewhere else.
Q: I am a Chronicle subscriber, have read your column for years. I read how the Texans re-did Andre's contract. Then he was an assistant (or similar) in recent years. I understand Andre taking up for Deshaun but I do not understand such sharpness being tweeted out. That seems completely unlike the Andre that the public knows. How was Andre so wronged? — Ed K.
A: He wasn’t wronged, Ed. I think when he suggested that Watson stand his ground and then ripped Easterby, he was telling us what he thinks.
Q: Watson not happy? Let's kiss his butt to make him happy. Last time I checked he was an employee, not a part owner. Many employees are not happy with certain things in their workplace, but they get over it. Show him the door. — Gene C.
Q: OK, it’s crunch time. My opinion, hiring Bieniemy or possibly Frazier is the only thing that keeps Watson. — Scott M.
A: I’m guessing it’s got to be more than that, Scott.
Q: I think I’ve finally reached my tipping point. That is saying a lot after a year like 2020. The Harden situation was surprisingly easier. I’m a die-hard Rockets and basketball fan. I’ve had season tickets or have been buying tickets since 1991. And yet when it comes to Harden, good riddance. Take it somewhere else. Watson is a whole different deal. While the old-school part of me laughs a little at the Gen Y and Gen X demands and attitudes, that train has left the station. When you give a “kid” $100-200 million it’s hard to expect the maturity or experience of someone in their more developed years. That said, how could McNair let this get so bad? Not sure what to believe in this world of blogger news, but where there is smoke, there is fire. I guess as long as Cal believes we will keep buying tickets and watching on TV then he too can do what he wants. I will say if Watson goes, I will be remorsefully selling my PSLs at first opportunity. Even if our new GM pulled of a Herschel Walker-like trade. I believe in loyalty. It’s important in life. But there is nothing Easterby can be providing that outweighs the damage that seems well documented in and out of the organization. It’s just unbelievable to me and frankly bums me out. I handled the Astros. I’m OK with the Rockets. I’ve accepted the mask. I’ve accepted the election. I just can’t get my head around the situation with Watson. — Keith C.
A: I imagine many of us feel like you do, Keith.
Q: By the way, I’m tired of the sophomoric name-calling in many of your e-mails. You should be able to make your point without stooping to name-calling, right? Thank you. — Mike A.
A: The e-mails have been better this week, Mike. Thank everyone for ditching the name-calling. I’ve deleted several e-mails because I don’t want to take the time to edit out the name-calling.
Q: Congratulations on the Cal McNair interview about Easterby. National media giving you credit for it as well. The news about McNair being so entrenched was nauseating at best but at least it provides certainty. Let's hope the players can convince Caserio to wall him off from them so he isn't a distraction. I sincerely hope fans are allowed in the stadium next year so they can provide direct feedback to McNair and his boss. I can think of no other situation in American business when a subordinate has withstood this much hostility and venom. Maybe in a cult, but not a business. How terribly unfortunate. Thanks for being the messenger. — Ray M.
A: Thanks very much, Ray.
Q: I read your articles and watch your videos. Cal McNair apologized for his actions or communications that created mistrust. Few hours after that Deshaun Watson puts another cryptic tweet about 2 and 10. Why does such a smart player and good person put out such tweets that hurt the reputation of the team and ownership? Is he misguided? Wish tweets could be used to spread positivity, awareness on social issues instead of riling public opinion against team ownership. Why is it hard for players to sort out differences directly as grown-up adults instead of washing dirty linen in public? I want Deshaun to stay in Houston but these cryptic tweets and media leaks (anonymous sources) are beginning to damage his reputation as well. — Jeevan R.
A: It’s a new era, Jeevan. That’s just the way a lot of people operate today. One-on-one communication seems to be a thing of the past.
Q: If Easterby was such a help to the organization here are some suggested comments McNair might have made:

You know we could not have pulled off the trading of Hopkins without his help, this was a really successful moment for our franchise, he advised O'Brian perfectly on this trade.
Why would people question the decision to keep Easterby, after all who would listen to Andre or Watson, they were just players and you can never get enough advice for someone who has been in New England
Our new GM needed to have friends around to support his decision making and Easterby is that guy
Why should I listen to a quarterback or a retired wideout when choosing a GM, after all I have Easterly to advise me, let Watson vacation in Cabo
Andre simply has not gotten to know "Jackie" like I have.
You will see when our team advised by my close buddy Jack Easterby chooses our head coach. No I do not think a quarterback of a losing team should have any say, why would I think of that? After all he is not Elway or Manning or even Blanda. You will see Easterby's worth when we choose the new coach.

Sorry David Barron is retiring, you now have to be the old wise owl. — Don H.
A: We’re all sorry Barron is retiring, Don. He leaves a huge hole in our sports coverage and will be missed by so many of us.
Q: On the coaching search by Texans, this year it seems the new slogan for teams looking for the HC is a leader of men. In a football world of Alphas, not all coaches and players are Alphas. Bill O'Brien wasn't necessarily an Alpha. Mike Vrabel was an Alpha, as evidenced by the many complimentary comments from Texan players during Vrabel's time here. It's been no surprise to me that the Titans have excelled under Vrabel's stewardship. He's supported by a good GM who has had some recently productive drafts. I won't be surprised when the Titans go Super Bowling. How does an NFL owner or GM identify that Alpha quality in a HC candidate? — Roy S.
A: It’s pretty easy to identify, Roy, if you know what you're doing, have a lot of experience in the NFL and have a lot of contacts to investigate candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.
Q: It seems like almost everybody has agreed that Watson will be traded. I don’t think Caserio will do that, but what do you think it takes for Watson and the Texans to get their relationship back on track? And do you think this has hurt the search for a new HC? Med venlig hilsen. — Kristian S.
A: I don’t think it’s hurt the search, Kristian. There are only 32 of these jobs in the world, and they’re coveted by so many. Not to mention the new coach will probably get about $5 mil a year — lots more than an assistant coach. Med venlig hilsen to you, too.
Q: If Watson does not trust Easterby, and Caserio has said that they have a long-term relationship, don't you think it's just better for them to part ways? Get someone who wants to be here and can buy in to what Caserio is building, otherwise there will always be some kind of drama. Watson seems to be a great guy, but he wants to be at a place where he feels like he's respected, clearly he feels that he has not been, right or wrong! I don't care how much money you make, nobody wants to go to work looking over their shoulder every day. Sounds like a clean break is needed. I'd hate to see him go, but hey they traded Olajuwon! — Robert T.
A: Why would Watson have to look over his shoulder every day, Robert? Perhaps they will make a clean break. Perhaps it’ll get real ugly like Harden. Or maybe they can work it out if Watson wants to work it out.
Q: With Cal "running” things, Texans deserve what they get. But the fans don’t deserve this crap. Jack Easterby is now a known problem — nationwide — but Cal can’t see it. Respected SI writers go on for pages about his crap. Cal: unjustified and we own it in the building. It's beyond reproach that the building is an abject disaster. Did Cal say why he is retaining JE? Did he say why, when it's jeopardizing the team, Deshaun, the fans, etc; was he asked to address and respond to the litany of the events outlined in the SI article? Was he asked if 20 percent of that is true, all is probably true, Why is JE being retained? Did he answer why he is being retained when, according to O’Brien, he was intimately involved in all the horrendous decisions since he arrived? If he wasn’t asked these things, then why not?? These are the questions that 90 plus percent of Texans fans deserve answers to. And last, was he asked why, in view of all of the press and backlash, locally and nationwide, he hasn’t had a press conference so that he can field questions from a variety, not just insiders? Cal is damn lucky he’s here in Houston, and not another city where the media and fans demand performance and are exacting in their review. See Philly! Firing a pretty damn good coach who Texans ought to consider, but JE won’t approve, so no chance. Not to mention not even interviewing Saleh and asking for Bieniemy 2 weeks late. The ticket holders should boycott! Once Cal’s cash train comes to a grinding halt, maybe things will change. — Steve C.
A: Steve, I guess you missed McNair answering every question the media had about Easterby on the Zoom call with the media. I guess you missed what’s been reported over and over: It’s Caserio’s search and hire. As soon as he got here for his first day on the job, he notified the league he wanted to interview five coaches, including Bieniemy. And I guess you’ve missed all those times it’s been written, broadcast and tweeted: McNair says Easterby is here because the owner thinks he does a good job. No other explanation is necessary.
Q: Shades of the Houston Oilers. Reminds me of the yesterdays when Bud Adams didn't know what he was doing. McNair standing up for a man that was totally bamboozled and steamrolled by Bill O'Brien is a joke. It just tells me that the owner doesn't have a clue about football management. Mr. McNair seems to be a good man, and a man that knows how to make money. But his personnel skills are lacking. By standing up for Easterby, he has endorsed the failures of the past 5 years under O'Brien. The man that dismantled the Texans and left them non-competitive. But Deshaun knows Easterby is zero help. Why didn't Deshaun say something before or after he signed his huge contract? Why did J.J. Watt wait so long to speak out? Easterby was there to listen to them. I predict the Texans will continue to lose for the next 5 years. New coach? Who wants this job? Texans will have to beg to get a coach. Interviews mostly with retreads Jim Caldwell, Marvin Lewis? Are you kidding me? Losers. Watt will be gone to a potential championship team like Green Bay. The Texans will not beat the Jaguars again. You will see what real coaching does. Watson will remain unhappy and frustrated fans will still buy tickets, based on a sales pitch. Easterby will get it done. Seen it all before. Thank God I don't have season tickets with a seat license. — Kelley J.
A: I disagree about failure for the last five years with OB. Winning four division titles in five years and two playoff games isn’t failure. Let’s be fair. The Texans have interviewed eight candidates, including five who’ve never been a head coach. By the way, some other retreads who’d been fired: Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, Tony Dungy, Marty Schottenheimer, Dan Reeves, Andy Reid, Jon Gruden and Gary Kubiak, just to name a few.
Q: I'm from Boston and subscribe to Texas Sports Nation to read your stuff. We had a sportscaster named Bob Lobel who would show highlights of former players and say, "why can't we get guys like that." I hope Nick and Easterby (who reminds me of Rasputin and I'm glad he's Houston's problem) ship him (Watson) to New England. Stranger things have happened. More likely the Jets for Darnold and great picks. — Vic L.
A: Vic, what do you have to offer for Watson to go to the Patriots to work with Belichick and Josh McDaniels.
Q: I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but in my view, regardless of how his role evolved, a critical part of Easterby’s position was to maintain a good relationship with players. Most of all, the team leaders such as Deshaun Watson. If he has not done this, he has failed at a significant part of his job. Just like with any other job, I don’t really think it matters what the reasons are. He has obviously failed at it. Personally I try to form my opinions from the information I have available to me. There is a lot of information out there regarding Deshaun Watson, from his childhood, to college, to NFL. He does not appear to be someone to me that is unreasonable or difficult to deal with. If he was, then maybe this breakdown with Easterby would be excusable. I think where there is smoke, there is fire. And there is just too much smoke around players having problems with Easterby. So, in my opinion, McNair keeping him around may not be the easy way out, but it also may not be the right decision. I just don’t think it should have been that hard for Easterby to maintain those relationships. Sometimes in life if situations degrade then it just needs to be changed, regardless of the perspectives of those involved. — David G.
A: David, Easterby’s job has nothing to do with his relationship with players. That was at New England. He’s the executive vice president of football operations who works closely with the GM who has final say on all football decisions.
Q: McNair’s every word, action and decision show he is simply not intelligent enough to be an NFL owner. The smartest thing Cal McNair could do is find someone smart enough to operate the Texans football franchise and step out of the way. Maybe that person is Nick Caserio? Maybe that is the new real question? — Deanne N.
A: The idea, Deanne, is for Caserio to hire the coach to be the face of the franchise, and McNair and Easterby slip into the background.
Q: Texans fans badly need to understand the what and why the Texans have completely fallen apart since the playoff game last year against Kansas City. While Bill O’Brien had not won a Super Bowl, he had considerable success and seemed on the brink of winning the big one. The crazy trades, the demise of any defense, all this attention of Jack Easterby, etc. What does he do that is good or bad? It appears that with the passing of Bob McNair, things have deteriorated greatly. The Chronicle needs some in-depth reporting on the matter to the benefit of those paying the tab. No diatribe from the two columnists, please. — Charles M.
A: Charles, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve written about the demise of the Texans dating back to the second quarter of the Kansas City playoff game I could buy out Cal McNair.
Q: I take it you watched the Bills vs Baltimore playoff game. The Bills beat Lamar Jackson badly. That drops the stock of Balt's OC. They couldn't do that against Watson. That game only made Watson more priceless. There's not another QB in the NFL capable of the DW4 heroic plays. But what does Houston gain by declaring him untradeable? If the D can't improve substantially during his contract, he's going to leave Houston when it expires. Doesn't it make more sense to ask for a king’s ransom now? Hypothetically speaking, if Houston were to trade him, where does Chicago rank as a trade partner? All things considered, can Houston rebound defensively and compete for the AFC crown next year? — Juan B.
A: Watson has a no-trade clause. I doubt seriously he’d agree to be traded to the Bears. I don’t think the Texans can compete for the AFC crown next season, Juan. If they trade Watson, they’ll compete for the first pick in the draft.
Q: What would happen if J.J. Watt and Deshaun Watson both say they don’t want to play for the Texans as long as Easterby is in the building? What would happen if the Texans hire a coach that Deshaun Watson isn’t happy with? Easterby knows that he is toxic amongst the best players on the team and Cal knows that. What if Watson says I’m not coming unless Easterby is gone or if J.J. Watt says I’m not coming back to camp unless Easterby is gone? I feel bad for Caserio. — Glen K.
A: I feel bad for Caserio, too, Glen. He’s waited 20 years for a chance to become a GM and he starts with this mess.
Q: Hard to imagine the hold Easterby has on McNair. His background purportedly was as a character coach when he was brought in. Instead he has apparently done only one thing right — ingratiating himself with McNair and Caserio. It’s hard to imagine we may lose an unbelievable talent like Watson because of a character like Easterby. His skill set was supposed to be building team chemistry. He has done a tremendous job of doing the exact opposite. It sounds like players see him for what he is, a poser. Amazing! Casserio could salvage everything by calling Bieniemy and offering him the job immediately. Watching KC’s offense and the higher level creativity is just too good to pass on. Or we can take the safe route, dawdle and get stuck with whomever is left and have that as an excuse. Fortunately, it will probably be a defensive coach and we will need a great D without Deshaun here. — Mike D.
Q: I am a daily reader. I just got through reading the Sports Illustrated article online about Easterby. I'm trying to figure out other than the fact that he prays, what is the specific issue. Maybe everybody's avoiding coming right out and saying it due to a legal liability, but I have been unable to find anything other than vague references to the fact that Easterby's being here has somehow caused the Texans to play terribly. I also have not seen anything in the media that says a billionaire has to run his business according to public opinion which may not even represent the majority. I'm not a defender of either person, it just seems that there's a lot of smoke and not the whole lot of specific fire. No one wants to lose so maybe that's the biggest thing. Why Deshaun Watson at 25 thinks he should be able to dictate to the people who pay him a hundred and fifty million dollars is still a puzzle to me. According to SI online when asked why Caserio wasn't on their list, Korn Ferry said they knew that he was already on the Texans list so they did not add his name. I have not seen this detail in any local media, which seems to make the issue of Caserio not being on Korn Ferry list something that we should think about. — Charles W.
A: Charles, I don’t give a damn about Korn Ferry. Jed Hughes recommended they hire Brian Schottenheimer as their head coach, and he was fired by Seattle. A search firm is paid to compile information and make recommendations. This was the third time the Texans tried to interview Caserio dating back to 2017 when they had to replace Rick Smith. Caserio is one of the most respected personnel men in the NFL. That’s not debatable. Who gives a hoot if he was on the Korn Ferry list?
Q: I have no insight into the operation of a football organization. My Ph.D. is in management and have a very good understanding of organizations outside of football. I don't understand the upset QB and I am guessing many of his supporters. Let me frame my question. The CEO runs the company. His/her direct reports are probably VP's, then there are managers and report to them are various staff. I was once a college president. If a hot shot staff member had demanded that he/she be part of the selection of a VP or their direct boss I would tell them they have no business selecting senior members of my staff and I would guess that other CEO's would tell the staff member the same thing or would no longer have a job. Here is my question. Why does Watson think he should be in or hiring Caserio or the next head coach? — Rudy S.
A: That’s the way it is in just about every business, Rudy, but not the business of sports.
Q: I have not written to a newspaper writer in my 71 years on this earth, but I am highly disappointed in what is going on with the Texans. I have been a season ticket holder since 2003 and have stood by the team each year be it good or bad. Deshaun Watson has lost my respect as a player and a person. He has lowered himself to acting like a spoiled NBA player. He is paid to play football not manage the team. People are down on Jack Easterby but no reasons have been put forth for their dissatisfaction. So what is the story? The McNair family owns the franchise and funds it so that makes them the boss. I would like to see Deshaun play for the Texans but what he is doing right now is destructive and stirring up trouble for the team, fans and ticket holders. This kind of behavior is going to drive away ticket holders. A sad season ticket holder. — Jo Ann C.
A: Many feel as you do, Jo Ann. Unfortunately, times are different. Agents and players have a lot more power than they used to.
Q: It’s sad that a premier QB is now executive management. He should do his job and improve like not throw 1 interception ever again. So now we’ve established no one’s perfect, lets address coaching. Texans hired great GM, let him do his job. — Stephen G.
A: I agree, Stephen, to let Caserio do what he was hired to do.
Q: I'm heartened by last week's Mailbag participants whose concerns I shared about religion and hiring within the Texans organization. And thank you for your enlightening information in that regard. Should Deshaun Watson (or anyone) have been angered that Bieniemy wasn't interviewed before Caserio was hired to search for a coach? That confusion seems like an easy thing to smooth over. If not and Watson leaves, the organization would no longer be qualified to represent the great city of Houston. Especially after the excellent season Watson had. I'm not sure which he needed less, the support of a running game or Bill O'Brien calling plays. Am I wrong in thinking if Jamey Rootes resigns, as he was rumored to want to after all the reported GM hiring chaos, it means all that reported chaos is true? In which case, aside from Watson leaving, Rootes departing would also be a strong indictment of Cal McNair's management. If the Texans hire a defensive coordinator as head coach, does that mean Tim Kelly has a chance to stay on? — Tim K.
A: I should point out, Tim, that you’re not the Tim Kelly. I’ve said all along I thought it was a waste of time to interview a candidate before the GM was hired. Caserio is running the search, and McNair will sign off on his recommendation. I think Kelly has a chance to stay no matter who they hire. Watson wants him, and he helped Watson have his best season.
Q: What value does Jack Easterby bring to the Texans organization? How much value does this man hold if keeping him around could cost the team the one thing an NFL team needs to succeed - a transcendent quarterback. With the SI articles, it's clear there's something rotten in NRG. You keep saying Watson won't be traded, but every day that goes by is a day that the possibility increases. Firing Easterby would be the beginning of mending fences. I don't think McNair and Caserio are willing to do it. Houston seems to have got lucky to be able to interview Eric Bieniemy due to the bad press about the lack of Black coaches being hired this offseason. Although there's a limited number of these jobs, it seems to be less desirable with Easterby in the building. Can you just explain, what does that man do? If it's to provide comfort, it ain't working. It would be better the Texans bring in rescue puppies and kittens in to pet once a week. — Louis E.
A: His job isn’t to provide comfort, Louis. He’s the executive vice president of football operations. He does things on the football side to help the GM, who has final say. Easterby’s involved in everything on the football side and some things on the business side.
Q: Instead of being a reporter, how about being the GM of the Texans for a day. Granted you aren’t able to interview the coaching prospects or D4, but if you had the chance to pull the strings what would you do for coach, QB and other positions you feel need to be addressed. — Mike P.
A: I’d bring in the two or three finalists for in-person interviews. Then, I’d make my recommendation to McNair. After he signs off on it, the coach would be hired. The coach and I would sit down and figure out a way to get Watson to communicate with us. We’d offer to fly to where he is for some one-on-one communication. I might even bring my OC, Tim Kelly, along since Watson was adamant he wanted to keep Kelly as the play-caller.
Q: You have certainly added logs on them. Marketing fire to help Caserio maintain the less than stellar historical glow of the burdened mid market Texans! Honestly, in my 35 years living my life in Texas, which I continue to celebrate; for the life of my I still wonder how we get mid market and Houston disproved as in the same sentence! Stay strong John! — Bob B.
Q: The history of the Texans success is directly related to their players injuries each season. Recognition of this should be the team’s primary goal for its future. Miami coach Don Shula installed a program to prevent player injuries, and that likely played significantly in their success. If ever a team needed such a program, it's the Houston Texans. — Don S.

Is Bill Russell's legacy perhaps hurt unfairly by the fact that there wasn't a Finals MVP trophy when he was playing? (and some other thoughts regarding Bill)

I only say this because being a 8/9/10/11 x Finals MVP sounds a lot more impressive than having simply won 11 rings.
Winning 11 championships is such unfathomably vast achievement that many fans, myself included, can't wrap their minds around it and as a result, some choose to basically ignore it entirely when stacking up his greatness compared to the other GOAT candidates, chalking up his monumental success to simply his "stacked" rosters and pooh-poohing his relatively mediocre counting stats (especially offensively-speaking) compared to other greats.
Having 8-11 Finals MVPs, on the other hand, was a definite possibility and immediately vaults him into rarefied air in that specific statistic, even ahead of Jordan, who already laps the field with 6. Bill was by far the biggest driver of the Celtics dynasty, as detailed below: "When he retired in 1969, along with Sam Jones — who was down to 26 minutes per game by then — the Celtics dropped a whopping 8 points in SRS, AKA from a 59-win full-strength pace to a 36-win one, despite returning the rest of their eight-man rotation"

Anyway, here's some miscellaneous Bill Russell facts, or takes that others have made, either arguing for or against his legacy:

1. AGAINST: "But Bill Russell played with like 10 other HOFers, it's no wonder he won 11 rings!"

This is confusing causation and correlation - some of these former Celtics, like Cousy (13-time All-Star, 8-time AST champ) and Havlicek (13-time All-Star), would definitely have become HOFers regardless of Russell's presence. Others, however, almost certainly became All-Stars because they were multiple-time champions as a result of being on Russell's title-winning teams - e.g. Tom Heinsohn (6-time All-Star), Clyde Lovellette (4-time All-Star), Satch Sanders (0-time All-Star).
Also - Wilt had talented rosters as well! The linked article (<-) has Russell with a 5-4-1 "talent" advantage in the 10 years they shared from 1960-1969, which is far from overwhelming, yet Russell's Celtics stilll won 9 rings while Wilt's teams won 1
(For reference, Basketball Reference's Hall-of-Fame tracker studied former player seasons and found that All-Star Game selections and NBA championships were by far the most important predictors for HoF-induction. For example, 7 x All Star, 0 x NBA Champ LaMarcus Aldridge is given a 51% change of making the HoF; it can be assumed that players with a similar or worse resume likely won't as well)

2. FOR: Bill Russell had a 10-0 record in game 7s

Bill Russell thrived in the toughest settings! He averaged 18.6 points and 32.3 rebounds in these crucial, do-or-die games

3. AGAINST: "Would Russell even have won that many Finals MVPs? His rosters were really talented..."

There is overwhelming evidence that Russell was the backbone of those Celtics teams, and would've won the vast majority of those awards.

An Excerpt from Bill Russell's Backpicks Profile, by Ben Taylor of Thinking Basketball fame, which I think everyone who either likes Russell or is willing to keep an open mind about him should give a read (there's a ton of film study that I didn't quote below)---

3.1. FOR: Russell's impact on winning was Immense

There’s a lack of granular data on Russell, which makes it hard to ballpark his defensive impact. Was it worth 5 points a game (MVP-worthy) or something unheard of like 7 points (GOAT-season worthy)? It was clearly immense, and combined with his passable offense, left a considerable impact footprint.
He didn’t miss much time in his career, so WOWY numbers are hard to come by. Journalists and teammates always claimed that the Celtics fell apart without him; Boston was a 35-win team (-1.9 SRS) in 28 games he missed from 1958-69, and for the other 915 games of his career they played at a 59-win pace (6.4 SRS). This is a tiny piece of evidence – the years are spread out, teams change, and so on — but it echoes the same story as Russell’s other value signals.

3.2. FOR: Russell was by far the most important cog in the Celtics dynasty's wheel. Other stars missed games and the Celtics simply chugged on behind Bill

For instance, when his teammates missed time, Boston rarely missed a beat. In 1958, Bob Cousy sat for seven games and the Celtics played far better without him. In ’59 and ’60, Sharman, Cousy and Tom Heinsohn missed a few games each, and the machine kept on ticking. In ’61, Sharman missed 18 games and the Celtics were (again) better without him. In ’62, Cousy missed five and, yes, the Celtics were better without him (portending his retirement years).
But Russell missed four games in 1962 and Boston’s differential fell by 22 points. Four games is infinitesimally small, but all of these stories point in the same direction. It was only when Russell was hampered by injury (in the 1958 Finals) that the Celtics fell short of a title — the single time a Russell team failed to win in a 12-year span dating back to college.
This trend would hold throughout most of Russell’s career. In ’66, Sam Jones missed eight games and Boston’s performance didn’t budge. Jones missed 11 more contests in ’69 and the team was about 2 points worse without him. All told, as the roster cycled around Russell, his impact seemed to remain. A more detailed calculation of his game-level value has Russell at the top of the impact-heap in his era, while similar studies have him behind only Jerry West and Oscar Robertson (who both had the fortune of playing on dominant teams during the most watered-down years in NBA history).

3.3. FOR: Russell's Celtics were dominant, and their defense, by far the most important reason for their success, became leaps and bounds ahead of the field when Russell entered the NBA, before immediately cratering when he left

At the height of their dynasty, the Celtics were comically dominant. From 1962-65, their average margin-of-victory (MOV) was over 8 points per game. During the same time span, only two other teams even eclipsed 4 points per game – the ’64 Royals and the ’64 Warriors. And all of Boston’s separation was created by its historic defense, anchored by Russell:

Graph: CELTICS DEFENSIVE RATING COMPARED TO REST OF LEAGUE --- Before, During, and After Bill Russell

Russell didn’t join the team until partway through his rookie season, and before hopping aboard, Boston looked like an improved club (playing at a 58-win pace for 19 full-strength games). Still, what transpired in the ensuing years cannot be attributed to teammates or a defense-first strategy.
Boston platooned different players around Russell while he anchored the greatest defensive dynasty in NBA history. At its height (1960-1966), Russell played 43 to 45 minutes per game while only Sam Jones topped 35 per game (once, in 1965). During the 1963 season, no other Celtic played over 31 minutes per contest.

4. FOR: Russell's Celtics relative defensive ratings stack up very well compared to the rest of NBA history

To put Boston’s defensive dominance into perspective, let’s zoom out and revisit the above graph, but this time using all defensive seasons since 1955:

Graph: CELTICS DEFENSIVE RATINGS WITH RUSSELL, vs. NBA History

As defensive stoppers ramped up their minutes in the ’60s and Russell evolved, Boston lapped the league. 1964 and ’65 were the two best defensive teams ever by this measure. (Amazingly, in Second Wind, Russell calls out the 1964 team as the best defensive team of his time without knowing any of the efficiency metrics.) He captained four of the top-five and five of the top-10 relative defensive seasons in history.

5. FOR: The 60s Celtics were never a dominant OFFENSIVE team. Their success started and ended with their defense, captained by Russell

Despite a smattering of famous names, the offenses were never anything to write home about. In ’55 and ’56, Cousy, the sharp-shooting Sharman and the hyper-efficient Easy Ed Macauley powered attacks that were 2 to 3 points ahead of the league. With Russell in for Macauley in ’57, Boston’s offense dipped to around average, where it would hover until 1960. In ’61, Sharman trailed off in his final season, Cousy slowed further and defensive notables like KC Jones and Tom Sanders saw more time. During the heart of the ’60s, the Celtics finished about 3 points worse than the league in offensive efficiency based on our best estimations.
Yet Boston was viewed as a squad of offensive stars because they played at a high pace and scored a lot of points at a time when raw scoring was emphasized. Russell was certainly flanked by some offensive talent in the early years (Cousy and Sharman) and in the later years (Sam Jones and John Havlicek). Even his own offense was relevant; for instance, in 1962, he led the team in postseason scoring and efficiency and finished second in assists. But Boston wasn’t out of the ordinary for having a few good attackers, nor were they winning with their offense.
Tom Sanders, KC Jones and John Havlicek made up an excellent supporting cast of defenders, although Boston lacked a second big man to play next to Russell. When he retired in 1969, along with Sam Jones — who was down to 26 minutes per game by then — the Celtics dropped a whopping 8 points in SRS (from a 59-win full-strength pace to a 36-win one) despite returning the rest of their eight-man rotation. So while Boston fielded a strong team around Big Bill, there’s nothing indicating that they could sniff the same heights without him.

6. FOR: Russell's Celtics rarefied defensive excellence continued in the playoffs, as well

In the postseason, the defensive domination rolled on. Below, I’ve compared Russell’s playoff defenses to those of other all-time big men. The gray bubbles in Russell’s column are the Celtics individual performance in each year. Note that Boston never had a subpar defensive postseason with Russell, and that its worst playoff runs were clustered at the end of his career as a he slowed down:

Graph: ALL TIME BIG MEN, TEAM PLAYOFF DEFENSES, vs Bill Russell

When pundits wax about old-timers dominating, these are the kinds of outlying result we should see from an ahead-of-his-time star. Boston’s best five-year defensive rating (1961-65) was 9.2 points better than league average. No other team in history has been 7 points better than the league over a five-year stretch. Even this understates the Celtics’ defensive dominance because the league average was pulled down by Boston’s presence.

7. Not only was Russell's Team Defensive impact immense, he was also likely the most prolific MAN defender of his era:

Finally, there’s Russell’s total lockdown of other All-Star centers. He was so complete as a defender that he was likely the best team and man defender of his era. Here’s what he did to All-Star pivots during his career:

Graph: THE RUSSELL EFFECT - All Star Centers vs. Russell

All of these players declined in efficiency, and only Thurmond improved his scoring (although on dreadful accuracy). Willis Reed and Zelmo Beaty were vaporized by Russell. The numbers are particularly compelling because, unlike today, Russell played most of the game and Boston did not double-team frequently.

8. Russell slowed down the great Wilt Chamberlain more than anyone else, ever:

Of course, his most notable conquest was Wilt. While one might think that Chamberlain’s line against Russell was exceptional — he averaged 33 point per game on +4 percent efficiency — adjusting for pace yields a scoring profile comparable to ’89 Roy Tarpley or ’10 David Lee. The sample above comes from Wilt’s volume scoring years only, but even in 1967, arguably Chamberlain’s most revered season, Russell slowed him down significantly. Against the league, Wilt averaged 24.6 points per 36 minutes on 64.9 percent true shooting (TS). But in nine games against Russell, his scoring dropped 4.3 points and his efficiency plummeted 10.8 percentage points.
In Wilt’s 1962 50-point season, he faced Russell 17 times and the rest of the league 75 times (he played Boston twice without Russell). Chamberlain averaged 50.9 points and 53.6 percent true shooting against the league, but 37.2 points on 50.1 percent true shooting against Russell (with 4.3 fewer free throw attempts per game). Russell shaved 14 points per game off Wilt’s average and his drop in efficiency — from 1.07 points per attempt to 1 point per attempt — is the full-game equivalent of a GOAT-level offense regressing to average.

9. FOR: Russell's scoring was far from bad... Combine that with all-time defense and decent playmaking, and we get a deserving multiple-time MVP

So, we can safely crown Russell as defensive royalty. His offense pales in comparison to other greats, but he was not a poor offensive player – in many ways, he was above average for his day, although it’s unlikely his contributions moved the needle much. Between 1959 and 1965, he finished in the top half of centers in points per 36 twice (’60 and ’62), while falling between the 61st and 71st percentile in true shooting (efficiency) in both years. His scoring regularly improved in the playoffs before trailing off in his last four seasons.
The impact studies we have for that era suggest he’s, at worst, a player with MVP-level lift, and at best, view him as one of the most valuable players of all time. The noisiness of that data and Russell’s outlying status as a defender make it difficult to confidently pin down his value. But, the restrictive dribbling rules, poor spacing and sheer volume of possessions played make it likely that his pre-3 point impact was well ahead of today’s best defensive scores.

10. FOR: Both Russell's floor-raising and his portability (his ability to fit with other stars) were immense. His overall impact on the game, over his 13-year career, easily fits alongside the other greatest players of all time

His portability was superb – any team at the time would have exploded defensively by adding him, and his passing and finishing would provide bonus value for any competent offense. He has excellent era longevity, and I consider his peak among the better ones in NBA history. Shaving my valuation of his defense by 5 percent per season — a plausible but conservative estimation — would drop him a spot or two in these rankings while keeping his per possession impact in line with the modern defensive juggernauts.
On the other hand, there’s a viable argument that he was even better than I give him credit for. Like Jordan and LeBron today, his prime was an onslaught of MVP-level seasons and, relative to his era, he might have been the most valuable player ever. Yet for this exercise, his ambiguity leaves enough doubt that he lands at No. 4, narrowly edged out by the man in front of him.

GRAPH: All of Bill Russell's seasons, and how they stack up impact-wise, AKA All-StaAll-NBA/Weak MVP/Strong MVP

Baylor Bears vs. Texas Longhorns 2/2/2021 Game Preview: Predictions, Free Picks, Matchup Odds, Spread and Betting Trends

Biggest 2020 NBA free-agency, draft and trade decisions for the Utah Jazz:

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/insidestory/_/id/28953850/biggest-2020-nba-free-agency-draft-trade-decisions-all-30-teams
Offseason focus

The rookie extension of Donovan Mitchell: blank-check approach at the start of free agency? $15.8 million cap hold in 2021 vs. a $30 million cap hit, though Utah is not projected to have space to use
The expiring contract of Rudy Gobert (extension eligible)
The $34.5 million expiring contract of Mike Conley
The cost of free agent Jordan Clarkson

Draft assets

First: No. 23
Second: None
Future: The Jazz will send Memphis a 2021 pick that is Nos. 1-7 and Nos. 15-30 protected. The pick has top-six protection in 2022, top-three protection in 2023 and top-one protection in 2024.
Cash: $5.6 million (to receive) | $5.6 million (to send)

Cap space breakdown

Including its first-round pick, Utah has 14 players under contract and $123 million in committed salary, $9 million below the luxury-tax line.
The Jazz have five players -- Nigel Williams-Goss, Miye Oni, Juwan Morgan, Georges Niang and Rayjon Tucker -- on partial or non-guaranteed contracts.
The Jazz will have the $9.3 million midlevel and $3.6 million bi-annual exceptions available.

Team needs

Jordan Clarkson or his replacement in free agency
The bench: point guard, shooting guard and small forward

Extension eligible: Donovan Mitchell (rookie), Tony Bradley (rookie), Mike Conley Jr., Rudy Gobert (super max) and Georges Niang
Free-agent status

Jordan Clarkson | Bird
Mike Conley | ETO | Bird
Emmanuel Mudiay | Non-Bird
Jarrell Brantley | Restricted | Non-Bird
Justin Wright-Foreman | Restricted | Non-Bird

The rookie extension of Donovan Mitchell

Even before his 57-point performance in Game 1, Mitchell was in line to sign the most lucrative contract in Jazz history, for a projected $158 million over five seasons.
The question is if an agreement will be reached on Oct. 18, the first day a player can agree to a rookie extension, or if the Jazz will wait until the 2021 offseason.
Mitchell is an All-Star, a franchise player, one of the top players under age 25 and durable, having missed only 11 games in three years.
However, the decision on whether to extend is not that simple, and here is why:
Because he was drafted outside of the top 10 (the No. 13 pick in 2017), Mitchell will have a $15.9 million cap hold in 2021, a projected $11.3 million less than where his new salary would start.
The $27.3 million starting salary could increase if both sides negotiate All-NBA language and also if the cap in 2021-22 increases from $109.1 million (where it was in 2019-20 and possibly will be in 2020-21).
With the $34.5 million Mike Conley contract set to expire, the Jazz could have between $25 and $30 million in room before offering a new contract to Gobert (more on that below). That number could decrease if free agent Jordan Clarkson is brought back.
The virtue of waiting is giving Utah the flexibility to sign free agents. But it should be noted that before Bojan Bogdanovic signed a four-year, $72 million contract last summer, Utah had taken a conservative approach in building its roster, focusing more on internal development of its draft picks and the trade front.
Meanwhile, if the Jazz do wait until 2021, they will be walking a fine line with their star player. Of course, the Jazz can pitch Mitchell on the benefits of waiting, but will he accept that while Gobert signs an extension and Clarkson is brought back? Mitchell could even point to the Joe Ingles extension that decreased cap space by $13 million in 2021.
Plus, what happens if there is turmoil during the 2020-21 season, giving Mitchell second thoughts about being in Utah for the long haul? Yes, Mitchell would be a restricted free agent, allowing Utah to match an offer sheet. But the Jazz would run the risk of a team signing him to a four-year offer sheet with a team option, which is how Utah lost Gordon Hayward prematurely.
From the perspective of the Jazz, there is financial risk even if they preserve flexibility. Although there would be an understanding that a max contract would be waiting even if there was an injury, the contract would be uninsurable (for that specific injury) if Mitchell were to suffer a significant injury during the 2020-21 season. That means instead of the Jazz possibly collecting $22.5 million in insurance, they would then be on the hook for the full $27.3 million salary.
The max extensions signed by Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns (two years ago) and by Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors (last year) showed that teams are willing to forgo cap space in order to secure a long-term commitment and good will from their franchise players.

The Rudy Gobert extension

"We're looking to add players with the physical talent and the competitive makeup of Donovan and Rudy," said Utah vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey. "We want to build around them moving forward."
But first, let's get this out of the way. Though Gobert is eligible for a five-year, $221 million supermax contract, the Jazz should not -- and likely will not -- entertain the idea of extending him to such a contract.
Yes, Gobert is one of the top defenders in the NBA and an important player, but the contract would average more than $51 million in its last three seasons, a massive amount for any player and especially one that contributes so little scoring.
Combine that with the Mitchell rookie extension and Utah would have close to $90 million committed in two players starting in 2023-24.
Take the $220 million supermax off the table and the Jazz have multiple creative ways to structure a new contract:

They can offer Gobert a four-year, $133.0 million extension. The new contract also would include a total of $17.5 million in likely bonuses and more than $1.6 million in unlikely incentives. The total would come out to $151 million, which is $10 million more than a team with cap space in 2021 can offer.
They can offer him a five-year, $189.9 million extension. Although this is not the full supermax extension (which is 35% of the cap), the Jazz are permitted to start at 30% in the first year.
They can offer him the full super max of 35% of the cap for Year 1 but decrease the salary 8% each year. The total would come out to $160 million over five seasons.

If the league keeps the luxury tax flat in the next two seasons, a salary starting at $38.2 million in 2021-22 would be cost-prohibitive. If an extension starts at 30% of the 2021-22 cap, Utah cannot offer less than five years in an extension.
The Jazz will need to look at the landscape of the league in 2021.
If the salary cap is $109 million, a minimum of 12 teams -- Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, the Lakers, Miami, New York, Phoenix, San Antonio and Toronto -- will have room north of $30 million.
The Jazz have balanced their finances to allow both Mitchell and Gobert to sign extensions; build out the roster with draft picks, the midlevel exception and Utah's own free agents; and still stay under the luxury tax in 2021-22 and during the length of their new contracts.

Prioritizing Jordan Clarkson

Clarkson does not carry the status of Mitchell and Gobert, but the unrestricted free agent will be a priority when free agency starts.
Acquired in late December from the Cleveland Cavaliers for two future second-round picks and Dante Exum, Clarkson gave life to a Utah bench that ranked in the bottom of the league in scoring. With Clarkson's arrival a factor, the Jazz went on to win 23 of the last 34 games before the season was suspended in mid-March.
In the 34 games, Clarkson averaged 15.6 points (third highest on the team) and 25.3 minutes, shooting 48.2% from the field and 36.6% from 3. Clarkson continued providing punch off the bench in the playoffs.
The Jazz have an advantage in re-signing him, not only because of Clarkson's Bird rights but also because 20 of the 30 teams will be restricted with only the $9.3 million or $5.7 million midlevel exception.

Offseason cap breakdown

If the tax drops to $132.7 million (the same as in 2019-20), Utah will have $9 million in room but with 14 players (including their first-round pick) under contract.
Utah will have the midlevel and biannual exceptions.

The resources available to build the roster

The draft: first-round pick
$5.6 million to send and receive in a trade
Own free agent: Jordan Clarkson
Exceptions: $9.3 million midlevel and $3.6 million biannual

Dates to watch

Conley opting into his $34.5 million contract for 2020-21 is pretty likely, especially given his spotty health of late, his age (33 in October) and the lack of teams with cap space. But one alternative for Conley is for him to opt out and work out a new contract with Utah. For example, Conley could still get his $34.5 million, but spread over two years: $28 million in 2020-21 and $6.5 million guaranteed (out of $26 million) in 2021-22. That would lower Utah's overall salary commitments for the upcoming season.
Utah has five players with partial or no salary protection, including Juwan Morgan ($1.5 million), Georges Niang ($1.8 million), Miye Oni ($1.5 million) and Rayjon Tucker ($1.5 million).
Niang will see his contract guaranteed once he is not waived by Oct. 26.
Tucker has $340,000 guaranteed, with the remaining amount protected if he is not waived by Nov. 8.

Restrictions

Conley cannot be traded until he exercises his option for 2020-21.
The protected amount for the five players on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts count as outgoing salary.
The Jazz cannot trade a first-round pick until two years after the pick to the Memphis Grizzlies is conveyed, which probably means the 2024 pick is the first that is eligible for trade.

Extension candidates

Niang joins Conley, Gobert and Mitchell as the Jazz players who are extension-eligible.
After being drafted in the 2016 second round by the Indiana Pacers, Niang signed a three-year, $4.9 million contract in 2017. As a result of the injury to Bogdanovic, the forward has seen his minutes and production increase during the NBA restart in Orlando, Florida. In the eight seeding games, Niang topped 20 minutes three times. In the playoffs, he scored a season-high 16 points against Denver. The Jazz would first need to guarantee his 2020-21 salary and then add up to four years to his current contract. He is an unrestricted free agent in 2021.

The draft assets

Utah will send Memphis a 2021 first-round pick (protected 1-7 and 15-30). If that's not conveyed, the Grizzlies will have Utah's 2022 first (top-6 protected). The first also has top-3 protection in 2023 and top-1 in 2024.
Here's how ESPN's Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz have Utah selecting in October:
• No. 23 (own): Josh Green | SG/SF | Arizona

[Post Game Thread] Vanderbilt defeats Radford 59-50

There's truth to what Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe have pointed out about the WNBA but...

(Self-admitted [very] casual long-time Indiana Fever fan here who enjoys the fact that, for the past few years, the WNBA is/has been playable in the 2K and NBA Elite series giving greater incentive, and fueling greater desire, to watch the real-life games).
After reading this article today quoting Sue Bird on ESPN https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/30134840/sue-bird-backs-megan-rapinoe-contrast-women-soccer-wnba and reading the preceding article by Megan Rapinoe in the Players' Tribune https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/megan-rapinoe-seattle-storm-wnba-finals (at the risk of gaslighting), I think while it is absolutely true wat they are saying regarding the (often false) perceptions sports fans may have of the WNBA, I think they are also making a bit of a false equivalency between the U.S. Women's "NATIONAL" soccer team and the WNBA; which, like the NWSL (the more apt comparison) is a domestic professional sports league.
By making this comparison between the USWNT and the WNBA, they risk being in danger of causing both critiques and critics to calmly dismiss the overall legitimate points they are making about bias and bigotry of sports fans (i.e. how conscious or unconscious prejudice can and do affect the viewership/ratings/money for female sports).
Firstly to address why the USWNT gets the support it does (notwithstanding the whole "straight/white/girl next door" thing they've rightfully pointed out):
1) They (the USWNT) plays for a country (America) rather than a city
There's a reason why the Texas Longhorns (NCAA) men's basketball team gets more support than the Austin Toros G League team even though the Toros are objectively better players and the G League is a higher quality of basketball (given that the players are full-time, paid professionals; see also why the Canadian Football League is better quality than the NCAA version): there is a visceral feeling created between supporters of sports teams and the athletes when they all share the same common identity (in the case of the 'Horns, being a student/future alumni of the University of Texas at Austin).
In pro sports, players are merely mercenaries who (with few exceptions) didn't grow up in the city they play for and don't reside there during the offseason. That is to say the Oakland Athletics aren't Oaklanders in the purest sense of the word and so there's is a separation between the players and the fans on that team.
In college, on the other hand, you may literally be classmates with the point guard on the basketball team which means, in that lecture hall or seminar room, you're equals; you're both University of whatever students.
Internationally, when Olympians or the USWNT puts on the "red, white, and blue" they become Americans and so there is a sharing of identity with the supporters that transcends their athletic status because they, like the people that are watching them on TV or in the stadium, are part of a common group; holders of U.S. citizenship (whether by birth or naturalization). And although (unlike college) the USWNT pays it's players (see the ongoing pay disputes for more detail), they can't sign, draft, or trade for players from other countries to make their teams better because of the requirement that the athletes be citizens (though Canadian soccer fans may make a stink about Sydney Leroux choosing to play for the US despite being born and raised in Canada; her dad was American).
This common outside-of-the-game identity is also why less popular sports at home (see ice hockey for example; Miracle on Ice) can get overwhelming support once players put on the national colours. This is partially why a thing women's pro sports leagues might want to try/experiment with to gain more followers is to play for a region (say, the Pacific Northwest Seattle, Portland, etc.) or city (Seattle) and have a requirement that a certain percentage of the players must come from that region/or city. This could help gin up that support that the players are playing for say "the Northwest" or "Seattle" more than for just the "Storm."
2) The Women's World Cup is a stand-alone prestigious international tournament
Another reason why the USWNT gets the support it does vis-a-vis other women's sports teams and sports is that the main competition they compete in, the FIFA Women's World Cup, is a stand-alone prestigious international tournament which, unlike the Olympics, is not "one amongst many." While the USWNT equivalent for basketball, the USA women's basketball team also competes internationally, the FIBA Women's World Cup is not seen as must watch TV; a status that (funnily enough) the FIBA Men's World Cup also suffers. While both national basketball teams in the USA get support during the Olympics, it's while other teams and athletes, including the USWNT, are also competing, meaning sharing the spotlight and thus less attention on their sole performances.
3) Quite frankly, the men's team sucks
Finally, what cannot be unremarked upon as to why the support for the USWNT is so high; the men's team downright sucks (and has for a long time). One of the crazy benefits of the irrelevancy of the men's team has meant that if you want to see America compete and win at the world's most popular game, you've to watch the women. In fact, you could pretty much wager that, along with perhaps their northerly neighbours in Canada, the USWNT is the only soccer team in the world where the soccer players on the women's team are more well-known/more popular than the players on the men's team. While both countries (Canada and the US) men's teams seem to have some young and up and coming talent that may make them competitive (along with the hosting rights to the '26 FIFA World Cup) the support for the women's teams of those countries is unlikely to go away since people have grown up watching/supporting the sport for so many years while the men's programmes have been trash. People also love winners and if you win you get that support.
All this to say I think framing the argument only (or mainly) in the terms that they've used (racism, homophobia, etc.) make it easier for critiques to more easily dismiss the legitimate points they are otherwise making about that racism and homophobia that prevents the WNBA from gaining wider spread viewership and support.
TLDR: Yes Rapinoe and Bird are right; male fans (who make up the majority of sports viewing audiences) may/do have unconscious biases and/or are bigoted BUT (as I've stated) there is a danger of making a false equivalency here between a national team (the USWNT) that competes for a COUNTRY versus as domestic sports league (WNBA, NWSL) that compete on a local level. Because while the USWNT may enjoy more broad support than the WNBA, it is indisputable that once those players join their club teams, they are not getting nearly the levels of the support of the NWSL. The more relevant aims should then be to 1) how do to get the FIBA Women's World Cup to be must watch TV and 2) how to get people to watch the USWNT once they return to play for the NWSL.

Which game should I watch today (12/7/2020)? A guide to 5+ games that you should tune into.

Thursday Night College Hoops: Back the Under in Lubbock

The college basketball season continues to march on as many teams across the country continue to kick off their conference schedule with many other teams starting to end their non-conference slates.
The Thursday Night college hoops slate looks to be the lightest schedule of a loaded week of games, but despite the smaller slate of action, there are still enticing games to jump in on.
Here are the plays I am backing tonight, including a pick from tonight’s Big 12 heavyweight matchup between 5th ranked Kansas and 14th ranked Texas Tech.

#5 Kansas at #14 Texas Tech

Spread: Texas Tech -3.5 Total: O/U 135.5 Time/TV: 7:00 PM ET, ESPN
The game of the evening takes us to Lubbock, Texas where 5th ranked Kansas meets 14th ranked Texas Tech in the Big 12 conference opener for both schools. Each team enters tonight’s contest with matching 6-1 records, with the Jayhawks playing the tougher schedule to date.
Rock Chalk Jayhawk has rattled off six straight wins after their opening loss to #1 Gonzaga, headlined by victories over #9 Creighton and a Kentucky team still finding their way, while Texas Tech lost their lone test of the season 64-53 to then #17 Houston and has wins over teams with a combined 9-20 mark to begin the new year.
While each team enters tonight’s game boasting offenses averaging 75 points per contest, the two teams are likely to play at a much slower pace tonight and defense will almost surely be the focal point of each team.
Texas Tech enters tonight’s Big 12 opener with the best defensive unit in the country, and Chris Beard’s crew has landed in the Top 10 for defensive efficiency in each of his four seasons in Lubbock. Their defensive numbers are downright beautiful through the first seven games of the schedule, as the Red Raiders are forcing turnovers on 30% of their opponent’s possessions and are holding teams to just 25% shooting from downtown. The Jayhawks are not lacking for defense either. So far this season they stake claim to the 6th overall defensive unit in college basketball and have held their opponents to just 29% shooting from three-point range.
This has all the makings of an all-out slugfest tonight and what else would you expect from two of the best teams in college basketball?

Kansas Players to Know

While Kansas lost a lot of talent when it watched Devon Dotson and Udoka Azubuike leave for the NBA, Bill Self has once again restocked his cupboard of talent this time with highly-touted freshman Jalen Wilson.
Wilson leads the Jayhawks in scoring with 15.3 points per contest and is shooting the three-ball at a 38 percent clip. Junior Ochai Agbaji (14.1 ppg, 46% 3PM) and Christian Braun (11.9 ppg, 44.4% 3PM) give Self even more range from outside, while 6-10 junior David McCormack is Kansas’ best rim protector and fourth Kansas starter currently averaging double digits in scoring at just over 10 points per game.
The most important player this evening, however, is likely to be that of senior Marcus Garrett. While Garrett is not the most dangerous scoring threat on the floor (8.6 ppg), he is Self’s best perimeter defender and a complete pest for the opposition to deal with.
Why will he be so important? Well, that’s a wonderful segue into the next section!

Texas Tech Players to Know

The Red Raiders’ best player of the young season has been that of former Georgetown product Mac McClung (14.1 ppg, 33.3% 3PM). McClung is the catalyst for the entire Texas Tech offensive attack, and how he’s able to handle the relentless defense from Marcus Garrett will tell us a lot of how this matchup figures to go.
If Garrett can lock down McClung in the same manner he’s locked down many other guards across college basketball, the onus to score will fall on the shoulders of sophomore Terrance Shannon (11.8 ppg) and junior Kyler Edwards (11.3 ppg, 38% 3PM).
Edwards is currently the teams’ most consistent shooter from long range, but collectively Texas Tech is a very poor outside shooting team (35% 3PM, 104th overall). And they’ve been poor against teams that they are noticeably far inferior to the talent Beard has on the floor.
The Red Raiders are also a smaller team, with no one in Texas Tech’s regular rotation being taller than 6-8 (Beard has a 7-1 freshman center who has only seen action in garbage time), but Kansas also has a roster comprised mostly of smaller players so their disadvantage in the frontcourt will not be as pronounced in this matchup as it could be further down the road.

Kansas-Texas Tech Prediction & Best Bet

With Baylor looking like the clear favorite to win the Big 12, this matchup will go a long way towards figuring out who the second-best team in the conference is. Both Kansas and Texas Tech should reside in the Top 15 of the polls for the majority of the season, and each team will once again be a very difficult out in March.
Tonight, however, is a total toss-up in terms of who will come out victorious. If I had to pick a winner I would lean with the oddsmakers here and take Texas Tech as home favorites, but I feel like the temperature of this game screams “under” as Texas Tech’s smothering defense should slow down the Jayhawks bevy of outside shooters, while Kansas’ tough perimeter defense will make offense for the Red Raiders hard to come by.
I will be taking the under and looking for windows to bet the game live. If you love defensive basketball, this will be the matchup for you.
Prediction: Texas Tech 68, Kansas 64 Best Bet: UNDER 135.5

#9 Creighton at St. John’s

Spread: Creighton -6.5 Total: O/U 157.5 Time/TV: 7:00 PM ET, FS1
If two Big 12 teams shooting sub 40% percent on the evening isn’t your thing, the Big East has a game for you.
9th ranked Creighton (4-2 overall, 0-1 Big East) looks to bounce back from an 89-84 home loss to Marquette when it pays a visit to conference foe St. John’s (5-3 overall, 0-2 Big East) tonight.
The Red Storm are also looking to bounce back from a recent skid, as they have dropped their first two conference games of the season, most recently a 97-94 OT loss to Georgetown this past Sunday.
The scoreboard should light up all evening as St. John’s plays at a blistering pace (14th overall tempo in the country per KenPom) under coach Mike Anderson, while Creighton has the 5th most efficient offense in college basketball, shoots nearly 60 percent from the floor and is averaging 85 points per game.
Neither team figures to play much defense tonight, hence why the total is pushing the 160 range, but that should keep the game entertaining, to say the least.

Creighton Players to Know

As we’ve discussed at length in recent pieces highlighting Creighton, the Bluejays have a treasure trove of three-point shooters that they unleash on their opposition seemingly from start to finish.
Greg McDermott’s Bluejays have five players averaging double-figures in scoring and all five players can shoot the three, each shooting better than 34% from distance. The catalyst of their offensive attack falls on the shoulders of senior guards Denzel Mahoney (16.2 ppg, 42.1% 3PM) and Mitch Ballock (10.7 ppg, 38.6 3PM). Marcus Zegarowski is the teams’ best distributor and is also a sniper from long range (13.8 ppg, 34.1% 3PM), and Christian Bishop is a 6-7 forward that is shooting the three-ball at a 50 percent clip.
It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the team that has a roster of outside shooters is not exactly a team that also believes in relentless defense. The Bluejays enter tonight’s game with the 249th overall three-point defense and are outside of the top 160 in forced turnover percentage and offensive rebounding.
Teams also average about 17 seconds a possession when going against the Creighton defense (265th overall in college basketball), indicating that an open shot is not hard to come by when playing against the boys from Omaha.

St. John’s Players to Know

Mike Anderson is slowly rebuilding the Johnnies after the disastrous Chris Mullin regime, and while they struggle shooting the three (231st overall in NCAA), they have a stable of athletes that can shine in Anderson’s torrid style of basketball.
The main component of the Red Storm attack is sophomore guard and the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, Julian Champagnie. Champagnie is averaging nearly 21 points a game with eight rebounds chipped in, and he’s been especially dependable from the free-throw line where he’s converted on nearly 87 percent of his free throws.
Junior tandem Vince Cole (12.5 ppg, 35.5% 3PM) and Greg Williams Jr. (12.1 ppg, 36.8% 3PM) give the Johnnies their best role players and threats from outside, while 6-10 junior Isaih Moore (10.6 ppg, 6.1 rpg) is Anderson’s most dependable rim protector down low.
As could be expected with Anderson’s frenetic style of basketball, St. John’s is downright miserable on defense when they are unable to force a turnover. While the ’40 minutes of hell’ mantra does have St. John’s forcing turnovers on 25% of their opposition’s possessions (28th overall in NCAA), and the 8th best steal rate in the nation, when they do not force a turnover it typically ends in an easy bucket for the other side.
St. John’s boasts the 250th ranked three-point shooting defense and gives up a basket on 56% of their opponent’s possessions (285th in NCAA). That could post a great number of challenges for a team that happens to be facing one of the best offensive teams in the country.

Creighton – St. John’s Prediction & Best Bet

Everything about this matchup screams a prime bounce-back spot for the Bluejays. Despite the two recent setbacks to Missouri and Marquette, Creighton still very much remains as one of the most dangerous teams in all of college basketball.
St. John’s is gradually improving under Mike Anderson, but this is just a bad matchup for them all around. I am taking Creighton to cover the spread and also sprinkling some on the over as, despite the eye-popping 157.5 number, I think that’s kind of low for these two teams.
Prediction: Creighton 87, St. John’s 78 Best Bet: Creighton -6.5; OVER 157.5

Omaha at Wyoming

Spread: Wyoming -10.5 Total: O/U 146.5 Time/TV: 9:00 PM ET, N/A
For our final game on the Thursday betting card, we’re going a little off the beaten path for some quality Summit League vs. Mountain West action.
Omaha (2-6 overall) plays its sixth-consecutive road game, and second game in as many nights, when they visit Wyoming (5-1 overall) in Laramie.
The Mavericks are coming off of a 91-49 blowout at the hands of Colorado last night and have dropped five of their last six games with their lone victory being a two-point win over SIU Edwardsville (331st overall KenPom).
Meanwhile, Wyoming has been a pleasant surprise to date with a 5-1 record, but they have played the 306th overall schedule so that record is likely a bit misleading at this point in the season. Nonetheless, they do get another favorable draw tonight with an Omaha team that doesn’t do much of anything well.

Omaha Players to Know

The Mavericks best player and leading scorer through the first eight games of the season are that of bench player Marlon Ruffin (11.8 ppg), with starters Matt Pile (9.3 ppg, 9.1 rpg) and Wanjang Tut (8.1 ppg) being Omaha’s best secondary players. It’s rare to see the talent flipped to where their best bench player is outperforming every starter, but this is the Summit League and there are no rules here.

Wyoming Players to Know

Through the first six games of the season, the Cowboys boast a Top 50 program in both three-point shooting (46th overall) and shots inside the three-point stripe (48th overall), and they’ve shown a great ability to limit turnovers with the 18th best turnover rate in college basketball.
While Wyoming has certainly played a schedule full of cupcakes, they’ve made the most of it and are quietly one of the most efficient scoring units in all of college basketball, at least in these games against the bottom feeders of the college basketball world.
Wyoming is led by their trio of guards: Marcus Williams (18.3 ppg), Kenny Foster (15.8 ppg, 67% 3PM), and Hunter Maldonado (15.5 ppg). Collectively, the Cowboys as a whole love to create open looks from the outside, with three key contributors shooting the ball from the perimeter at better than a 40 percent rate from downtown.
That does not bode well for an Omaha team that has been away from home for a while and does not defend the three-ball whatsoever.

Omaha – Wyoming Prediction & Best Bet

Typically, I would be hard-pressed to lay a double-digit line on a team that went 7-23 in the regular season a year ago, no matter who they may be playing. But Omaha is in a very tough spot playing in their second game in as many nights in a place that’s hard enough to get a road win under normal circumstances, much less in the middle of a season being held during a pandemic.
Omaha only has one more non-conference game after this and then they can return to the comfort of playing Summit League teams at home. Tonight, however, they will endure yet another blowout. I will take Wyoming to cover the 10.5-point spread.
Prediction: Wyoming 84, Omaha 69 Best Bet: Wyoming -10.5
How

Your 2020 Season Survival Guide and R/Baseball Refresher!

Before we dive in, if you want to participate in the annual Call Your Shot season predictions contest, you can find it here.
It's FINALLY coming! Welcome to the 2020 MLB Season! We are so glad you are here. Don't let the length of this post scare you, we just wanted to consolidate all the relevant information that people have questions about into one place to start the season off. This is your survival guide for the 2020 season, it should have all the pertinent information to answer most of your questions!
If you are a brand new fan I'd recommend going through most of it, if you're a veteran you'll know which sections you'll want to read by their headings. My goal here is that both new and returning fans can learn how to better enjoy the season and know what's going on on Baseball this year. Okay, take some time and read through what you want to read through below!
This is the fourth year of doing this. Every year I go through the previous years comments to find things that should be added or corrected for the next edition, so if you have any great resources or information that you think would be beneficial to add, please comment it below!
Sections:

Introduction for new and renewed interest fans.
Rule changes for 2020
Finding a Team
Knowing Where Different Teams Stand
Baseball
Your Team's Sub
Twitter, Podcasts, and Other General News/Analysis Sources
The Statistical Titans: Baseball Reference and Fangraphs
Where to watch? Your TV and Streaming Guide
MLB.tv
MLB At Bat App
How to watch baseball.
Where to watch highlights and game recaps.
TL;DR: Find a way to enjoy the game.

Introduction for new and renewed interest fans.

Baseball normally has a long season. I don't just mean that in terms of time between opening day and the World Series (which can be considered long as it is), but also the 162 games played in 183 days, 18-20 times against the same 4 teams each. It can be daunting, and many people lose interest by "the dog days" of June and July. This year things are going to be a little different. With only 60 games on the schedule (assuming we make it through without a major clubhouse covid outbreak that cancels games versus that team) every game is going to matter about 3x as much as one in a normal regular season. Tensions will be high, but we might not feel it because there won't be that much crowd noise. THAT SAID - they're still playing 60 games in 66 days, which means almost every day for the next two months isn't just packed with baseball, they're packed with YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS baseball, which while exciting after months without any American sports in the regular season (MLS - a tournament is not the regular season) can end up feeling overwhelming when you just finished watching a late game go into extras then wake up to realize there's an afternoon game on in six hours.
This guide is meant to help you if you wish to avoid being one of those who feels overwhelmed and loses interest a couple weeks after Opening Day.
First and foremost if you are a new fan or newly returning, you must remember one thing: you do not need to watch every game. Many football fans, and even some basketball and hockey fans, find this difficult, they're used to setting aside a few nights a week to watch their team, and they can watch all the games. Baseball isn't like that. For the next two months, your team will only have 6 days where they won't be playing a game. And some of the games they play will start as early as 9:20am (Pacific Time), others will end after 1am (Eastern Time). If you miss a game it's okay, odds are there's another one tomorrow. If you miss a week, no big deal, hell if you get busy for a few months and aren't able to watch you team, that's not an issue, because you can still follow your team.
Baseball is a game to be followed. In the old days it meant picking up the morning paper and checking the box scores. Now it means being able to have a final score texted/tweeted/messaged/emailed/what-evered to you the minute the game ends, or rolling over in bed when you can't sleep and grabbing your phone to check the West Coast scores. It means being able to check reddit in the morning to see any breaking news from across the league, or catch a story you missed. We live in a time where you can go to MLB.com and get a recap of every game from last night in less than 10 minutes. Honestly, baseball was made to be consumed, and the technology age makes it easier than ever, whether you want to spend hours every day pouring over stats and analysis, or 15 seconds to see how your team and their playoff rivals did today.
The rest of this guide is mostly dedicated to ways that you can help yourself follow your team, and if you have time follow the entirety of MLB.
Anyways, enough rambling, TL;DR Don't worry if you miss games, there'll be one tomorrow.

Rule Changes for 2020

For this season only (or so they say...):

The NL will utilize the DH full time.
In extra innings the person in the batting order immediately before the lead off hitter will start on second base.
Games suspended due to rain will continue play at a later date rather than be washed out and restarted.
Arguing within six feet of an umpire or participating in a fight will be met with heftier fines and suspensions this yaer.
Pitchers will be allowed a wet rag to be brought out from the dugout in lieu of being able to lick their fingers for better grip.
Each team has a 20 extra players in their "taxi squad" in addition to their active roster and 40-man roster.
Active rosters will start at 30 players, then will be cut to 28 after two weeks, then 26 after four weeks.
Spitting is not allowed.
Non-social distanced celebrations are not allowed.

Permanent (as any rule change can be in baseball) rule changes for 2020 and beyond:

Three batter minimum - pitcher entering the game must face a minimum of three batters unless they complete an inning.
The MLB Active Roster is expanded from 25 players to 26 players.

Finding a Team

I always recommend following the local team since you'll have more access to news about them in the local media and should be able to get their radio broadcast, as well as TV broadcasts of them if you have cable/satellite/streaming, and depending on where you're at the occasional over the air game, but if you don't live by a team or don't want to follow the local team, or are just looking for a second team to follow, I wrote this in depth guide to picking a team that's the right fit for you.

Knowing Where Different Teams Stand

Every year ESPN, Sports Illustrated, FOX, NBS, and every other sports related site puts out their season previews. These are great for getting a basic rundown of what is going on with each team, and a simple google search will bring up a plethora of possible articles to read.
If what you really want is a fans perspective on what each team's expectations condensed into a few short comments, I'd highly recommend going through each teams day from our annual "Why will X team exceed expectations?" series. All the previous posts are linked in the Astros thread.

Baseball

Alright, so plugging baseball on baseball seems a bit redundant, but I think it's a good reminder that this is a great hub for all your MLB news throughout the season while still letting you see the occasional amazing college/minor league/foreign league performance.
During the season there are a number of features to keep you informed of all the goings on around baseball.
Every day of the season (and a portion of the offseason) we have General Discussion threads we call Around the Horn. These are great places to ask questions and discuss anything that you want to know about baseball but don't feel like it deserves it's own post. In the Around the Horn post you'll be able to see a full schedule of what is going on around Baseball every week.
Here are the weekly features:
Daily: Nightly Pick'Em - A six year running contest to pick the result of one game every day. Details can be found in this thread.
Monday: Power Rankings - A team of 30 fans from every team in baseball, led by ~~masochist~~ fearless leader kasutori_jack, releases their composite power rankings of the 30 teams. This leads to well thought out discussions and some in depth analysis, as well as salty fans crying about how their team is underrated (there may be more of the latter than the former, but it's still a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of how every team is doing).
Monday (Unofficial) - The last few years thekmanpwnudwn has posted a State of the Subreddits post that gives the top post from each team's subreddit from the last week. This is a great roundup post for staying up to date on what all the different team fandoms are feeling, and helps you catch any milestones you might have otherwise missed.
Tuesday: Weekly Awards - Led by lemcoe9 a different team of a fan from every team releases the results of their weekly (and monthly) voting for who the best position player and pitcher was since the last vote was taken. Once again, a great way to keep track of which players are on hot streaks, and who's dominating the league.
Wednesday: Wild Card Wednesday - Each week a new contest, trivia game, or just out of the box fun thread will be stickied! Got an idea? Let the mods know!
Thursdays: Division Discussions - We rotate between the Easts, Centrals, and Wests to do some more in depth talk about where the playoff races and teams stand. If you only have time for one baseball thread every week and want to keep up with the league, this is the thread to set aside time for.
Friday: Trash Talk/Compliment/Complaint - FRIDAYS ARE FUN DAYS, WE ROTATE BETWEEN TRASH TALK, COMPLIMENT, TRASH TALK, AND COMPLAIN THREADS! TRADITION STATES ALL COMMENTS BE IN ALL CAPS AND ENDING IN EXCLAMATION POINTS! WE ROTATE RATHER THAN HAVE A SET DAY FOR EACH ALL SEASON BECAUSE IT'S A LONG SEASON AND ANY ONE OF THE THREE THREADS CAN GET STALE FAST IF YOU DON'T LEAVE TIME FOR MORE AMMUNITION!
Saturday: Saturday is when we usually plug in occasional things that don't necessarily deserve weekly attention. Things like in depth stat discussions, memorobilia sharing, craft projects, etc.
Sunday: Game of the Week - Sunday is the one day a week where we get together as a subreddit to watch a baseball game together, since it's the one time every week where there's only one game going on and there's guaranteed to be a game. The Sunday Night Baseball game thread is usually posted a couple hours before the first pitch.
In addition the playoffs, and select premier match-ups (mostly at the very end of the season where there is a lot riding on a regular season game) we host game threads for all baseball users. These are neutral thread, for more info on less neutral ones skip to the next section. We may experiment with game threads in baseball for the MLB.tv Free Game of the Day this year.
In addition to all these features, it really is a great place to keep up with breaking news and highlights. It'll be posted here minutes after someone tweets it, and long before it's on MLB.com. Team beat writers get the stories first, and it's easier to check in here a couple times a day than follow every one of them. Plus there's something the kids are calling "dank memes" (but not too many, because us mods don't allow too much moisture to get into the servers).

Your Team's Subreddit (And other team subs as well)

The mods at baseball have one goal - help you have the best possible reddit baseball experience, and a LOT of that is helping you get connected to other fans of your team (which feels a little like a cop-out because it means less work for us if you're doing more on your team's sub, but your team's mods aren't complaining.)
One of the main draws of team subs (other than in depth discussion with like-fan-minded users, getting breaking news and analysis on your team, team-memes, and other reddit discussions that come up from a group of individuals who can agree on one thing) are game threads. At this time (to the best of my knowledge) every team sub hosts game threads for their team's games, and you can easily access them in the sidebar during the season by clicking on the team's logo in the schedule (we're working on getting that up to speed, MLB changed some parts of their RSS and background data and we've had to work around that to get our automated system back up). We like to keep the game threads in team subs for a few reasons, one of which is we want to support the team subs and send them relevant traffic when we can because they really do an amazing job, another is because with 15 games a day this place would look like crap if we had game threads for every game or let users post them as they please (we've tried it, it blots out news, discussion, and highlights and looks like crap, baseball doesn't have only a couple days set aside for games or focus on marquee match ups like many other sports, it's 2430 games played in 183 days and is better when it's spread out.)
Even if you're not a game thread person though, getting connected with a good team sub can make disappointing seasons more bearable, and great seasons more exciting, and I know plenty of users that said that their team's sub basically keeps them fans. Team subs are also a great place to get connected to...

Twitter, Podcasts, and other General News/Analysis Sources

Going to be honest here, I don't use twitter and I do not frequently read other people's blogs. I know many people do and enjoy it, and I believe the best way to find the people to follow/sites to visit that interest you the most are to hang around your team's sub and note which Tweets/Sites that are linked to that most often peak your interest. Your list of favorite baseball writers is going to be different than my favorite list, and finding the right twitter personalities, podcasts hosts, and bloggers can make game analysis more interesting for you even if your team is playing like crap and it's the middle of July.
Here are some common suggestions for some general baseball twitter accounts and podcasts to get you started, but like I said, find what you like and follow those:
Twitter

Account	Account	Account
@MLB	@Ken_Rosenthal	@Buster_ESPN
@jonmorosi	@mlbtraderumors	@MiLB
@JeffPassan	@MLBInjuryNews	@BNightengale
@keithlaw	@based_ball	@SamMillerBB
@jonahkeri	@BaseballAmerica	@brooksbaseball
@BenLindbergh	@ChrisCotillo	@mike_petriello
@MJ_Baumann	@FanRagSports	@TheAthleticMLB
@fangraphs	@baseballprospectus	@baseball_ref
@daynperry	@CBSSportsMLB	@CespedesBBQ
@GrantBrisbee	@JonHeyman	@cantpitch
@MLBRosterMoves	@darenw	@extrabaggs

Podcasts

Account	Account	Account
Effectively Wild	Baseball Tonight	The Ringer

The Statistical Titans: Baseball Reference and Fangraphs

Literally every day you will find a link or to BaseballReference.com or Fangraphs.com here, it's a given, and it's because these are the two most extensive free baseball databases that are easy to navigate. If you want to look up anything about baseball history, check Baseball Reference, if you want to look up how players stack up with non-proprietary advanced metrics or read an insightful blog post about why someone is overrated/underrated or overperforming/underperforming, check Fangraphs. With these two sites you have all the stats and figures you need to make a competent argument for basically anything you want with a little cherry picking.
A large part of the modern baseball world is statistics and you're going to find yourself getting more immersed in discussing the game if you can get a handle on all the terms getting thrown around. If you are brand new to baseball, take a little while to get to know the game before diving into these sites, but if you have a handle on the basics and are ready to know what this WAR everyone is talking about is, dive into the glossaries and find the statistics.
When you get the basics, creating your own analysis doesn't seem as daunting, and one of the reasons I love baseball is that I can deconstruct pretty much every play and find some meaning behind it. If you are like that and enjoy numbers, theoretical projections, and breaking things down into simple figures before reconstructing them into something long and beautiful, then learning the basics of sabrmetrics will make you a baseball fan for life. If, on the other hand, you just want to enjoy the game for the beautiful pastime that it is by watching, then we've got a little bit to go through...

Where to Watch? - Your TV and Streaming Guide

So a big part of baseball is, you know, actually being able to watch the games (though as I talk about at the end, it might not necessarily be the case for you, and that doesn't mean you can't enjoy baseball, skip down and see what I'm talking about in the final section).
First off, if you are looking for free games to watch, you are in luck! MLB.tv streams one game a day for free on MLB.com and Yahoo.com. These games are subject to local blackouts (details on those in the MLB.tv section) but are definitely worth watching if you're trying to see if you'll enjoy baseball, or just need a free baseball fix. Facebook is also streaming one game a week during the season for free. The other free games available are from May 18 to July 13 on Saturday night and Thursday nights in September when FOX airs games on their OTA affiliated networks. Believe it or not, TV antennas still work in most areas, and these games are free to watch. Some teams also broadcast select games on OTA networks in their region.
Okay, so now the more expensive stuff. If you have even the most basic cable package (or log in information) you probably have ESPN. ESPN airs games every Sunday Night as well as Wednesday Night and Opening Weekend. These games are also available on ESPN Go.
You also probably have a regional sports channel. This is where almost all of your local teams games will be aired. Here is a decent breakdown of every team and what network they are carried on.
TBS is also on even the most basic networks, they air games the final 13 Sundays of the regular season in the afternoon.
FS1 and FOX carry baseball games almost every Saturday of the season, and MLB Network carries games pretty much every day.
A list of currently scheduled national broadcasts is available here, not all games have been chosen so there will be more added to the list.
For all these networks (except for the Dodgers, Orioles, and Nationals regional networks) there are options to stream the games online provided you have cable login information for the channel. During the playoffs FS1, TBS, and MLB Network will carry most of the games, with ESPN carrying a wild card game and FOX carrying the World Series.
Now there are also streaming services that grant access to most of the previously mentioned channels:

Sling TV Orange package gets you ESPN, ESPN 2, and TBS.
Sling TV Blue package gets you FOX, FS1, FS2, TBS, and most regional sports networks.
Youtube TV gets you FOX, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, TBS, MLB Network, and some regional sports networks.
HULU Live gets you FOX, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, FS2, TBS, and your regional sports networks.
Playstation Vue Access gets you FOX, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, FS2, and TBS.
Playstation Vue Core adds MLB Network to the Access channels.
Playstation Vue Sports Extra adds regional sports networks in addition to your other channels.
AT&T TV Now Live a Little gets you FOX, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, and TBS and your regional sports networks.
AT&T TV Now Just Right adds MLB Network to the Live a Little channels.
AT&T TV Now Go Big adds FS2 to the Just Right channels.
FUBO Premier gets you FOX, FS1, and your regional sports networks

Also, ESPN+ will carry select games pretty much daily throughout the season.

MLB.TV - the Ultimate Fan Investment

Alright, so a few things to cover with this, first of all YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LEGALLY STREAM IN MARKET GAMES IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES. MLB.tv uses your IP address to see where you are located, and if it pings back that you are in a team's home market it will not let you watch the game LIVE. Here is where you can find what games MLB.tv will black you out from. National broadcasts on ESPN, FOX, and TBS are also subject to blackouts within the United States (MLB Network games are not). Before you ask, yes there are less than legal ways to get around this (spoofing your IP address, subreddit dedicated to mlb streams, etc.), but I won't be talking about those in detail here. IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, YOU WILL HAVE NO BLACKOUTS.
Even if you are blacked out, you will be able to watch the game 90 minutes after it finishes, so if you work a late shift or stay up late it might be worth it for you anyways even if you only want to follow one team.
Military members and college students, don't forget to apply your 35% discount!
"But I don't want to watch EVERY out of market game, I just want to watch MY team!" Cool, for $25 less there's a single team option that will allow you to watch all your team's non-blacked out games! Personally, I'd pay the extra $25 for the opportunity to watch every Kershaw, Bumgarner, and Scherzer start, or put the Cubs on in the background while working on a Friday afternoon, but to each their own.
"But I don't want to commit for a full year!" That's okay, there's a monthly option as well in case you know there are months where you can't watch as much.
Some of the fun features of MLB.tv include the ability to watch four games at once and quickly swap your audio from one to another (seriously, I'm never on commercial break when I'm watching baseball, unless there's only one game on I'm able to watch it all, and in September that's huge) and condensed games. What are condensed games? They go through and cut out all the time between pitches and innings, meaning if you want to watch a whole game in less than a half hour (or are searching desperately for a play to make a .gif or streamable out of that for some reason isn't considered a highlight) it's really easy. If you're someone who really wants to get into the game but can't figure out how to grind through watching a full game, Condensed Games are great for keeping up with a team while you learn the little details between pitches that somehow make watching the catcher twiddle his fingers exciting for some fans.
Also, new this year, MLB has added some great baseball documentaries to your MLB.tv subscription, giving you access to more than just games for the first time.
In addition, there are two great resources to enhance your total immersion into baseball if there are multiple games going on. Please note for both of these you must already be logged into MLB.tv to make them work. The first, and most basic, is Brooks Baseball's MLB.TV Redzone. It will automatically take you to the highest leverage game going on, and will automatically shift you to another game between innings OR if another game enters a higher leverage situation. For a more personalized touch, The Baseball Guage has MLB.TV Game Changer which lets you customize your preferences so MLB.tv will always switch to the game that is most relevant to you. This is great if you play fantasy and want to keep up with your players, are waiting for someone to hit a milestone, or if you want to make sure your action is broken into to follow a no-hitter in progress.
It also gives you a free subscription to...

MLB AtBat - The Most Underrated Way to Stay Connected to Baseball

MLB AtBat is MLB's official application. It comes in two versions, the free version which has ads but is useful for keeping up to date with all the scores, and the paid version ($19.99 for the year of $2.99 monthly) which gives you access to ad-free content, Gameday on your mobile device, and (most valuable) access to every team's radio stream for every game during the season and postseason completely blackout free. If there's a day game, you can bet I'm listening to it at work, if I'm mowing the lawn on a Saturday I'm listening to a game, when I can't sleep at night, on comes a West Coast game. To get the paid version you must download the free version, then subscribe within the app, or log into an MLB account that has MLB.tv.
Baseball was made to be on the radio, it's a sport that is very easy to follow the action with the right announcer. At work (or school) it's great because you can half listen, and when the announcer gets excited you can instantly tune back in to hear what's going on. This is the most underrated way to stay connected to your team throughout the year. Before I could afford MLB.tv, this was the way to go, and it honestly makes me question every year whether getting the MLB.tv package is worth is when I can get 80% of the entertainment value from listening to the games (and every year I manage to forget to unsubscribe, for many reasons listed above).
Gameday on mobile is also a great feature, it lets you quickly check in on the action during brief recesses in meetings (or under the table during meetings), or breaks between classes (or under a desk in classes). This is honestly my primary means of keeping track of Twins games throughout the year. My wife thinks I'm crazy when I could just watch the game, but instead am nervously checking my phone every couple minutes. IF I WATCH I JINX THE TEAM, HONEY!

How to watch baseball?

So this is a question that we get from many new fans who are just trying to figure out what the hell is going on and why people find this game so fascinating. I'll get the elephant in the room out of the way, yes there are some "boring" parts of watching baseball on TV. The camera fans to a batter spitting and adjusting his gloves, the pitcher adjusts his crotch then licks his fingers, random shots of a bored looking manager, etc. When you are actually at the ballpark you can be watching where the catcher and fielders set up to try to predict the pitch that is coming (read The Hidden Language of Baseball by Paul Dickson for some great insight into how to interpret this), but on TV it's not usually the case. This is where I have some suggestions for new fans trying to get into it.
First off, if you are looking for just a relaxing day, embrace the slow pace with a beer and veg out on the couch while watching. It's meant to be slow and relaxing (until it gets tense and exciting, usually with runners on). Seriously, when was the last time you just sat and did nothing? Mid July afternoon games are a perfect way to reach that zen of half-consciousness, until something happens to get you sucked into the action.
Another option to stay engaged is keeping score. I find keeping score relaxing and looking back through a scorebook can be fun to see what you were doing a few years ago (except for that damn unfinished scorecard from 2015 where A-Rod hit the most predictable home run in Twins-Yankees history and I sent my scorecard flying to the other side of the room). As NPR once put it, keeping score is a knowledge making activity, and if you have the time and patience for it it is a great way to learn the game. There are a couple different guides to keeping score, and most scorebooks/cards will have a brief example of how to do so. If you have any questions, the Around the Horn thread is a great place to ask!
Gamethreads are another way to get together with other baseball fans and pass the time between pitches, especially in team subs you get to know the regulars and conversations start to wonder away from baseball at times throughout the game, and that's fine. Baseball is an excuse to enjoy a summer day.
For those that want to actually understand what is going on during that time, though, there are some options. Watching Baseball Smarter by Zack Hample (who despite his reputation on this subreddit knows some stuff and actually pops in from time to time to comment on different things) is a good starting place for new fans. Baseball for Dummies and The Complete Idiots Guide to Baseball are also good starting points for those willing to sit and read for a little bit.
For those who don't want to read a book, I guess I can touch on what I'm looking for between pitches. A big part of baseball is pitch selection, so scouting out a pitchers repertoire of pitches is a good starting point, BrooksBaseball.net has great cheat sheets on every pitcher in the game, and PitcherList.com has a visual example of each pitcher's pitches so you can see what you can be looking for. Anyways, I mention that because the whole reason the catcher is twiddling his fingers behind the plate is to go over with the pitcher what pitch is going to be thrown. What I'm watching for between pitches is where the catcher is setting up behind the plate and guessing which pitch is going to be thrown. A 2-0 and 3-1 count are known as hitters counts because the pitcher needs to throw a strike or risk walking the batter, when the count reaches either of those pay attention, because the hitters going to be looking for his perfect pitch and there's probably going to be some action on the field. 0-1, 0-2, and 1-2 are pitcher's counts, look for curveball, slider or other somewhat nasty pitch to be thrown to get the batter to swing at a bad pitch, or a fastball inside to catch them off guard. If you have any questions about this, go ahead and ask in an around the horn thread.

Where to watch highlights and game recaps.

There are many many places to see highlights and game recaps, this is not an exhaustive list, but is a good start.
For highlights, bigger highlights will often be posed here on baseball a few minutes after they occur, if you wish to post them please familiarize yourself with the subreddit rules. They also appear relatively quickly on MLB.com in each games Gameday area. For a pretty slick collection of highlights from across MLB, https://baseball.theate is a great place to exclusively watch highlights.
There are a few ways to get great game recaps. If you have MLB Network, every day Quick Pitch is an hour-long show that recaps every game from the previous day. It usually starts after MLB Tonight (about 10pm EDT) or whatever game MLB Network is showing finishes up, and runs until 10am EDT the next day. MLB.com also puts out recaps of every game by the next morning, usually a 2-5 minutes quick rundown of highlights that can be found on the game recap. It also puts out Fastcast videos on youtube and their website every morning which has a brief rundown of all the games from the previous day. Here's an example of a Fastcast from two seasons ago.
If you want one concise place to see most of these, efitz11 was amazing last season and posted video links to every game recap and fastcast in the daily Around the Horn thread. Here's an example. I am unsure if they plan to continue it this year, but it would be surely appreciated!

TL;DR Finding what you enjoy about the game.

When it boils down to it, baseball is about finding entertainment and enjoyment, and don't let anyone try to tell you how to enjoy baseball. If you want nothing to do with statistical analysis and just want to enjoy what's going on on the field, don't let anyone tell you you aren't enough of a fan, and if you want to dissect a player into their strengths and components using statcast and advanced metrics don't let anyone tell you you're reading into the game too much. You can follow one team, and only one team, or you can follow multiple teams, don't let anyone tell you you're not a true fan for wearing another team's gear or enjoying their games. You might enjoy bat flips and flamboyance, or reserved speedy home run trots. You might not even enjoy physically watching a game (especially not if your team isn't playing), but find yourself loving keeping track of your team through the season and tracking your players or maybe just the thrill of the standings race and scoreboard watching or maybe you just love all the numbers that get thrown around and arguing about their relevancy. That's okay, eventually I believe enjoyment of the game itself will come, but even if it doesn't, the long baseball season is still creating a place of enjoyment for you, and that's what matters. If you have any questions, once again, feel free to ask them in our daily Around the Horn thread, or below in the comments, or if you really want to feel free to PM with questions and I'd be happy to answer.
So watch games this week and join in the discussion here, you'll naturally find yourself gravitating towards certain players or teams and enjoying different aspects of the game. Baseball is a long season, find what you enjoy, stick to it, dwell on it, and enjoy it.
TL;DR for the TL;DR - Baseball is fun

/r/CollegeBasketball Presents: The 2020 NCAA Tournament - FIRST ROUND HUB

Some Thoughts On Baseball and Rugby, and Their Mirroring Missing Pieces

This is a vey long article is about rugby (union, the correct rugby), baseball, and what these two very different sports can learn from each other. Skip down to comments for my rugby reforms plans
Ostensibly, this article should be addressed to the head organizations of these respective sports, namely MLB for baseball, and CVC Capital Partn I mean World Rugby for rugby. But in reality, this is for me to get my thoughts out, and for maybe 10 other oddball Americans who follow both rugby and baseball, and a weird nocturnal New Zealander named Gregg who unlike his mates, has decided to follow baseball rather than the NBA. Good for Gregg. I hope he finds this. I suppose there are a bunch of Japanese people who are now fans of baseball and rugby (since the World Cup at least) but I doubt a good translation will be available to them. Probably for the best.
Rugby and Baseball are two very different sports. Indeed, I can’t think of two sports that are more different from each other. This isn’t like a comparison between rugby and American football or cricket and baseball, where we can remark on their silly similarities and historical connections (you don’t have to touch the ball down in Football to score a touchdown anymore, but you still do in rugby! Henry Chadwick was a cricketer originally! Here’s a tweet from an NFL player who thinks he would dominate rugby, let’s get him!) No, these sports are separated by at least two degrees throughout their history. There is little overlap in the countries that play them. Rugby fans, by and large, are not baseball fans, and vice-versa. The games have different qualities to them. Rugby is fast and violent - baseball less so. Baseball is organized, orderly, a turn based game, which is not how a person would describe rugby if they were to be accurate. If you want to dig down for some similarities, you could find some. They both are accused of having a stuffy-ness to them, unwilling to get with modern times. More whimsically, they both celebrate their players of stockier stock.
You could also say both sports are having a bit of an identity crisis. For baseball, it seems as though America's national pastime no longer holds the cultural relevance it used to. None of its stars are in the (admittedly biased) ESPN top 100 fame rankings. No current baseball player has been able to break through to the national consciousness. Not even Mike Trout, with his fascinating love of weather and Subway sandwiches, has been able to ascend to celebrity. Don’t get this wrong, MLB still prints money for fun. If you read an article about the state of the game, there seems to be a bunch of issues (pace of play! Rob Manfred! Unwritten rules! Rob Manfred! Astros cheating! Rob Manfred!) and yet the local TV contracts still go “Brrrrr”, to use modern parlance. But still, this lack of national recognition has tangible effects. Ratings for playoff baseball and the World Series in particular have been declining for decades. Through different means, the NBA and NFL have been able to make small market teams nationally relevant. Baseball hasn’t been able to do so. Baseball would sure love to be able to break out of its regional bubbles, to create nationally recognizable stars like it used to.
Rugby, surprise surprise, has a different problem. Don’t worry about its national TV ratings. The Rugby World Cup, 6 Nations, Rugby Championship (kinda) - all ratings gold. 51 million people watched the 2019 World Cup final. That’s a lot for any sporting event! And while rugby isn’t yet popular enough around the world to have somebody in the Top 100 fame rankings, rugby players who become national team legends can still become at least minor celebrities in their home nations. But from what I gather from every single fucking Paul Rees column is that rugby is continuously in danger of something. Of not finding its place in the modern sporting landscape. Of letting clubs trample over national teams. Of not having enough money. I think that last one is probably the most nagging. There never seems to be enough money in rugby, and everyone seems to worry that it's going to run out, and if only those greedy players wouldn’t try to make so much, everything else would be fine. (Ok, that’s not explicitly what Mr. Rees has said, but the subtext is there). To me, as an American, this is a strange observation. Only a handful of rugby players earn more than a million dollars a year. And yet international rugby is usually played in front of huge crowds to great TV ratings. What gives?
Let’s take a detour here to discuss the components of a given sports health in a society. Like if someone was to ask you how popular cricket was in, I don’t know, Malaysia, how would you answer that? No really, how? You could see that the Malaysian cricket team hasn’t won anything of note, and conclude that the sport isn’t popular there. Although the Philippines haven’t exactly set the world alight in international basketball, and basketball is huge in the Philippines (sorry Philippines). If you wanted to answer that question with a bit of rigour, you would look at youth participation numbers, look into broadcast ratings, check out the domestic cricket competition. Of course there is no one correct answer to the question, rather a vague understanding sets in. I think you can break down this understanding into three different components. Grassroots Participation Cultural Representation Professional Interest.
These components aren’t necessarily separate, and will often blend together in odd ways. And to be clear, these components aren’t some sequential process a sport has to go through in order to become culturally relevant (although that can happen). These components can work with or against each other at different times and different places. Are you ready to go through them? Good.
The most fundamental aspect of a sports popularity is its grassroots participation - how many people are playing it. This is after all where many people will be introduced to the sport in question. You could also say that’s how many people come to gain an appreciation of them. The rules, the strategy behind the game, the difficulty of different actions in the game. The best way to learn the game is to play it (or barring that, a virtual representation of the game, a video game if you will). It’s also an indicator of the nature of the sport. Certain sports like soccer have a low cost of participation, as you really just need a soccer ball, a few other players, and a little space to play a game. The rules are extremely intuitive, and little equipment is needed. Football is a game that is easy to export. Ice Hockey on the other hand is much different. It’s possible in some climates to organize an informal outdoor game, but that only happens at certain temperatures in places with a local water source that freezes. More likely, you would have to go to an indoor rink to be exposed to hockey, which are generally costly to maintain. Some countries (again usually ones with colder climates) invest community resources to create and maintain these rinks so the community has something to do in the long, cold winter, but this relationship doesn’t hold the further south you travel. To be honest, given the limitations of exporting ice hockey at a grassroots level, it’s amazing that Ice Hockey is as big as it is. Seriously, the NHL is the fifth largest sports league in the world! And it's primarily located in a country where barely anyone is able to play! Rugby, take notes here.
Cultural Representation is a much more vague component. I would define it as the collective importance placed in a sport to represent a community of some sort. It’s using a sport to help define a communal identity. International sport is great at this. A team or person will represent their country in a competition, and in many sports this is considered to be the apex, the highest stage of competition. It allows us to indulge in nationalism without actually indulging in nationalism. But cultural representation exists on many other, much smaller scales. The importance of high school football in Texas? That’s the community putting resources and attention into a sport that represents that community and school. College basketball? Cultural representation. South African School rugby? Little League World Series? Koshien High School Baseball tournament in Japan? British and Lions Rugby tours? All cultural representation. Successful professional sports organizations have some degree of cultural representation too. There are many professional organizations that are deeply entrenched in their communities by way of history to the point that the team and community are permanently linked. Some more so than others. (Which is to say the New York Yankees will never ever leave New York, while there is a 50% chance the Florida Panthers will move to Quebec City in the next decade). In the past, you could have argued that European and South American professional soccer clubs could be considered significantly culturally representative of a city or community when most of their players were locally sourced. And many still are, much more than North American sports teams. But the impact of globalization has somewhat lessened the degree of cultural representativeness.
But I would also say that in order for a sport to be healthy, the professional game should not be the only level of cultural representation. Think about the most popular team sports. Football has the World Cup, and numerous other regional competitions. Cricket, rugby, handball, volleyball, etc. get most of their attention through international competition. Ice Hockey is a popular sport in the olympics (and I think the NHL shot itself in the foot by not participating in the last one). Think of the cultural importance of the Dream Team for basketball. And in the US, college basketball is given a great deal of attention, as is college football. In fact the popularity of college football and basketball was what built the foundation for the NFL and NBA today.
So if professional sports has some cultural representativeness, what’s the difference between cultural representation and professional interest? Well, it’s transfer windows. And Trade rumours. Mock-drafts. Player auctions in the IPL. Contract negotiations. Preseason tours to growing markets. Overseas signings. Twitter accounts in different languages. It’s modern football baby, and it doesn’t care that you hate it. It’s how the sport generates entertainment away from the field. It’s sport as a product. It’s what professional sport is best at. So what makes a professional sports competition successful?
It obviously varies, but I think there are some common patterns. The first is that teams have relative autonomy to construct their team and a method to do so. Free agency, drafts, auctions, transfers; at least some of these need to be in place for professional sports. It can’t just be signings from their academy (although that can play a major part). The next is that a teams’ players should be available to play for that team. Owen Farrell has appeared in maybe half of all of Saracens’ Premiership games over the last 5 years. Imagine if Lebron James appeared in half of all Lakers games. Or Ronaldo appeared in half of all Juventus games this season. Having your best players maybe half the time is a pretty good indication that this competition is not a priority in that sports landscape. In sports like soccer, it’s possible for Ronaldo to play a majority of Portugal’s national team games that season and a majority of Juventus games. Unfortunately for rugby, there’s no way for players to play 40-60 games safely each year. It also seems to me that sports leagues are structured to some shared geographic and cultural space. The easiest way to do this would be by country, like soccer does. It’s easy to understand, and easy for everyone in that country to follow. But there are examples where it's appropriate for leagues to go beyond their countries' national borders. It seems pretty obvious that expanding into Canada for MLB, NBA, and in NHLs case, expanding into the US, was the right call. Similarly, there are teams in New Zealand that are in Australian competitions, which makes sense given the similar cultures and geographic space. In both these examples, there is a shared sense of identity and geography. The issue with competitions like Super Rugby or Pro 14 is that it can be hard to become a fan of the league as a whole because it’s so spread out. It’s hard for Australians and Kiwis to care about games in South Africa when they happen at 3 am. Really, it’s not their fault!
Back to our main point. Let’s try to evaluate these two sports along the three components we’ve identified in the countries where these sports are already popular. Soccer, obviously, scores 9/10 on all these components.
Grassroots participation Baseball 8/10 Rugby 6/10 Honestly, I was a bit shocked for how low the participation numbers were for Rugby even in places where it's somewhat popular. But the numbers seem to be holding steady in most places and climbing in others, so at least they are heading in the right direction. And it could undercount places where formal registration is lacking.
Cultural Representativeness Baseball 5/10 Rugby 8/10 This shouldn’t be shocking, this is the point of this article. Looking outside of the MLB, what other competitions does baseball have? The WBC is great, but its half assed. The College World Series gets some attention. Minor League Baseball is great but it's for player development, so people seem to go to them for spectacle rather than any actual rooting interest. What else, the Little League World Series? That’s lovely, but it pales in comparison to the Olympics, World Cups, etc.
Professional Interest Baseball 9/10 Rugby 4/10 In the year of our lord 2019, MLB as an organization made nearly 10 billion euros, making it the 2nd largest league on the planet both in gross revenue and revenue per team. The 2nd largest baseball league, NPB, chipped in a cool billion euros in gross revenue. I couldn’t find revenue figures for the Top League of Japan, but all other rugby competitions combined earned about 900 million. That figure includes Premiership Rugby, Top 14, Pro14, Super Rugby, and ProD2, the greatest league of all. Now obviously there is more money in Rugby besides that given the importance of the international game. The RFU earned more than 230 million euros in 2019, almost as much as a single MLB team!
Let’s wrap this baby up and get to some suggestions. The simple conclusion is that baseball has failed to capitalize on its strong international presence to help break through on a national stage. Rugby has overleveraged itself on international competition and needs to provide space for professional competitions to grow.
TLDR:What baseball needs is for Mike Trout to hit a game winning dinger against Japan/Domincan Republic/Cuba in the finals of the WBC in primetime with millions watching on FOX. What Rugby needs is for LeinsteHarlequins/Toulon/Western Force/Kobe Steelers to become the NY Yankees of rugby. And that’s not possible when so much of the club scene is orientated to serve the needs of International rugby.
It shouldn’t be surprising that these two sports are working out the kinks in their respective weak components. They are very new to these arenas. The WBC is the first genuine international championship that top players compete in, and was introduced way back in 2006. And professional rugby was only introduced (and this never fails to blow my mind) in 1995. These things take time. College football started attracting huge crowds in the early 1900s, but it took nearly 25 years for professional football to catch on in any meaningful way.

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McClain's Mailbag: Can Texans, Deshaun Watson work it out?