Thanks

[tornado]

another bullpen near-disaster last night for the Cubs!!
In almost 6 innings, Darvish held the Rockies scoreless, then left with Colorado scoring only ONE RUN (Cubs up 3-1)
...then the Cubs had to rally BIG TIME in the final 3 at-bats to win 9-8!!

If the Cubs bullpen was even minor-league caliber and didn't have so many blown saves, meltdowns and losses,
their record would be 44-16 or better instead of 34-26.

[Chico]

If teams would still let starting pitchers pitch complete games there wouldn’t be so many bullpen disasters,. Bob Gibson pitched more complete games than most leagues do in an entire season.

[tornado]

times have changed Chico -
you know, the longest game ever was the 2-2 tie between Boston & Brooklyn in the 1920's
that went 26 innings...and was called due to darkness as a tie game...

BOTH PITCHERS went the entire way, and back then nobody kept pitch counts but both starters must have thrown over 250-300 pitches!

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/may-1-1920-extreme-exercise-futility-braves-dodgers-play-26-innings-no-decision

[Da Coach]

Cy Young had 749 complete games in his career. There are other records that baseball historians believe may never be broken, but that one may be the most certain to stand forever. The record for most complete games in a season is 75!
Also, a pitcher by the name of Jack Taylor had 187 complete games in a row between 1901-1906. Nowadays, it is a cause for celebration if any pitcher gets 2 in a row.

By comparison, the last 2 seasons (2017 & 2018 ), the MLB leaders had just 2 complete games in a full season!
And the active career leader in complete games is C.C. Sabathia with 38, which ties him for 997th on the all-time career list. Felix Hernandez and Clayton Kershaw are tied for second with 25. Cubs starter Jon Lester has 15 in his 14 year career, and his season high is 3.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l...G_career.shtml

[Mikovio]

Clubs are emphasizing velocity now more than ever before which means complete games are becoming a thing of the past. Need fresh arms throwing 95+ every inning ideally.

A Bradley tie in the Finals is the fact Wardle coached Golden State's Alfonzo McKinney at Green Bay. He's not showing too bad, though with the injuries he and Peoria's Livingston have their work cut out for them.

[Da Coach]

Yes, Alfonzo McKinnie played for Wisconsin-Green Bay in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. He was lightly recruited out of high school and played his first 2 seasons (2010-11 & 2011-12) at Eastern Illinois. He transferred to UWGB in 2012 after a coaching change at EIU. In his 2 seasons at Green Bay, McKinnie's numbers were not very impressive, and nobody thought he had a future as an NBA player. He missed the first 22 games of his first season (2013-14) a Green Bay because of a knee injury requiring surgery that he suffered in practice just before the start of the season. He played in 9 games and averaged just 4.6 ppg and 2.8 rpg. His senior season (2014-15) he played in all 33 games and averaged 8.0 ppg and 5.3 rpg as a part-time starter.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/alfonzo-mckinnie-1.html

After UWGB, he spent a couple years in extremely low semi-pro and pro leagues in Luxembourg and Mexico. He kept working hard and developed his game, and in 2016 he paid a $175 fee for a tryout with the Windy City Bulls of the G-League. He impressed them enough, made the team and became one of their best players. In 2017-18 he signed with the Toronto Raptors, but spent most of the season with the Raptors' G-League team. Toronto waived him after that season, but he was invited to the Golden State Warriors preseason camp for the 2018-19 season. The Warriors have won 3 of the last 4 NBA Championships, and had a pretty stacked roster. They were just looking for bodies in their preseason camp and not really looking for players to add to their roster. But again, McKinnie impressed enough to make the Warriors' opening night roster and has stuck with them for the entire season. His story is a study in hard work and persistence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonzo_McKinnie

[Da Coach]

Yes, Alfonzo McKinnie played for Wisconsin-Green Bay in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. He was lightly recruited out of high school and played his first 2 seasons (2010-11 & 2011-12) at Eastern Illinois. He transferred to UWGB in 2012 after a coaching change at EIU. In his 2 seasons at Green Bay, McKinnie's numbers were not very impressive, and nobody thought he had a future as an NBA player. He missed the first 22 games of his first season (2013-14) a Green Bay because of a knee injury requiring surgery that he suffered in practice just before the start of the season. He played in 9 games and averaged just 4.6 ppg and 2.8 rpg. His senior season (2014-15) he played in all 33 games and averaged 8.0 ppg and 5.3 rpg as a part-time starter.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...ckinnie-1.html

After UWGB, he spent a couple years in extremely low semi-pro and pro leagues in Luxembourg and Mexico. He kept working hard and developed his game, and in 2016 he paid a $175 fee for a tryout with the Windy City Bulls of the G-League. He impressed them enough, made the team and became one of their best players. In 2017-18 he signed with the Toronto Raptors, but spent most of the season with the Raptors' G-League team. Toronto waived him after that season, but he was invited to the Golden State Warriors preseason camp for the 2018-19 season. The Warriors have won 3 of the last 4 NBA Championships, and had a pretty stacked roster. They were just looking for bodies in their preseason camp and not really looking for players to add to their roster. But again, McKinnie impressed enough to make the Warriors' opening night roster and has stuck with them for the entire season. His story is a study in hard work and persistence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonzo_McKinnie

I just saw that former Brian Wardle player (at Wisconsin-Green Bay) Alfonzo McKinnie was just signed by the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 4 year, $7.2 million contract. Not bad for a kid whose career scoring average in college was only 7.2 ppg. Coach Wardle has got to be proud of McKinnie's work ethic and how hard he worked to get to and succeed in the NBA. He literally had to pay a $175 "tryout fee" out of his own pocket just to compete for an open roster spot on the Windy City Bulls G-League team in 2016 (see above history).
https://www.fearthesword.com/2020/2/...s-new-contract