Kritik und Lob » st arms. Because I am not a

A day that started with the game delicately poised ended with it bearing all the competitive elements of a firing squad. Suffice to say, England arent the ones with the guns.Barring a miracle, India will have wrapped up this series by the time people in England are bracing themselves for a chilly commute or dark school run. A 3-0 scoreline will mean England have lost four of their last five Tests and five of their last seven. That is a run of form that, in other sports, might have consequences.It is natural at such moments to look at what has gone wrong and demand change. It gives us a sense that we are correcting errors and making progress. It provides the illusion that things might be better next time.A current theme that appears to gathering momentum is the captaincy of Alastair Cook. James Anderson was the latest to be asked about it in the post-play press conference on Sunday - unsurprisingly, he was supportive, though he did admit he had no idea if he was going to continue - underlining the sense that it is becoming the thing to blame for this defeat.But thats simplistic. Cook has never been a great orator or inspired tactician. Like most modern Test captains, he is cautious and like most modern Test captains, he can appear formulaic. Much of the pressure, in fact, has been brought to bear by the words of his own coach, Trevor Bayliss, whose call last week for a more positive approach from Englands batsmen was at clear odds with Cooks more adhesive style.But he has other skills. Most importantly, he leads by example and has, on the whole, absorbed the demands of the job without it ruining his own game. He has captained sides that won in India and South Africa and, only a few months ago - had a result or two gone their way - England would have briefly regained the No. 1 Test team ranking. His record, as player and captain, is stronger than some would like to admit.He also protects Joe Root. While Root might, by nature, be more in tune with Baylisss positive message, he has very little captaincy experience and is still at the developmental stage of his career when he is coming to terms with batting at No. 3. The burden on him, as Englands best batsman in all three formats of the game and bearing in mind this teams silly schedule, is already cumbersome. Adding the captaincy, just as he is about to become a parent, seems unnecessarily onerous. The time for him to take over will come soon enough, but theres no hurry. Besides, replacing Cook with Root as captain would not have made Englands spinners more accurate or more potent. Replacing Cook with Root would not have ensured England took the three important chances they squandered - all three of Indias centurions were given lives; two of them before they had 50 - and replacing Cook with Root would not provide any greater answer to the problem Englands bowlers have with dismissing Virat Kohli. Disconcertingly for England, there have been times this series when Indias seamers - notably Mohammed Shami - have looked more potent than any of Englands.We can argue with Cooks tactics on day four. But Jake Ball had dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara early on day three and Adil Rashid has been Englands most effective bowler in the series. It was reasonable to turn to them, it just didnt come off. We can argue that there should have been more flexibility with the batting order, with a case being made to rest Moeen Ali, who had bowled 53 overs, for a little longer before he batted. But there is an equally good case for some consistency in the batting line-up and providing Moeen with some certainty over his position. And we can argue with the selection of the side, but it is na?ve to think that the inclusion of either Gareth Batty or Liam Dawson would have made the difference. Not all decisions are right or wrong; many just come off, or dont.That does not mean were not about to have a change in the captaincy. It may well be that Cook, after a long and demanding period in the role, has lost a bit of hunger for it. It may well be that, once he gets back to England and has time to reflect, he decides it is time to move on. And it may well be that Root proves himself a more instinctive leader.But were fooling ourselves if we think that replacing Cook would have led to England winning in India.The reality is that England keep missing chances in the field, that they still dont have, full-time, a spin-bowling, wicketkeeping or fielding coach, and that the county game is structured to prioritise the Ashes and, of late, limited-overs tournaments. If England really want to win in India, they are not going to spend every August playing only white ball cricket - as they will when ECB plans are ratified from 2020 - with the consequent marginalisation of attacking spin bowlers that will follow. The desire to embrace the T20 revolution is not wrong - it might even be essential to the sustenance of the game in the UK - but it does come at a cost.Cook cannot control any of this stuff. He has arrived in India with an inexperienced line-up of batsmen (you could argue that, but for Cook, a certain well-known player with a pretty decent record in Mumbai might still be a member of the squad, but lets not go there) an ageing pack of senior bowlers, and spinners who have been outclassed by their opposition. India are just better than England. Cook cant change that. He may not be perfect and his form with the bat - and in the field - is a concern. But hes not the key problem here. Wholesale Nike Lunar .Y. -- Jayna Hefford scored the winning goal Friday as Canada survived a scare with a 4-3 win over Sweden at the Four Nations womens hockey tournament. Cheap Nike Lunar Shoes Wholesale . Speaking to the Chicago Tribune at baseballs Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Boras called the former home of the Expos a "tremendous environment" for baseball. http://www.nikelunarcheap.com/ . The Dutchmans tenure got off to a poor start when referee Guido Winkmann awarded a penalty within two minutes for Niklas Starks clumsy challenge on Alexandru Maxim. Nike Lunar For Sale . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. Cheap Nike Lunar Shoes From China . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . The Tuesday slate has big ticket arms leading the way, though its still a day of haves and have-nots with nine other pitchers toting sub-50 projected Game Scores so you shouldnt have too much trouble finding exciting offense to go with your frontline arms. Oh, and the revamped Rangers offense is in Coors, too.PitchingEliteMax Scherzer is quietly back to dominating the league. He had a 3.52 ERA in late June thanks to a severe home run issue, but hes allowing just 0.7 HR/9 in his last seven starts en route to a 1.46 ERA with 60 strikeouts and a 6.0 K:BB ratio in 49 1/3 IP. Hes in the midst of an obscene strikeout tear as well with 108 over his last 83 1/3 IP - an 11.7 K/9 rate. The homers havent been as bad at home with a 1.0 compared to 1.6 on the road, so getting Cleveland at home isnt a bad setup.For all the talk about how Chris Sales lowered strikeout rate has led to a more efficient approach, he has just 0.06 fewer pitches per plate appearance this year, a negligible difference that has come at the cost of three full strikeouts per nine off of his rate. Maybe the benefit comes in fewer stress pitches? He had 10.6 plate appearances per start with runners on base last year and its down to 9.1 this year, but I will admit to lacking the full on context to know if thats a big enough difference to really matter. The drop is strikeout is especially painful for us on the DFS landscape, but it hasnt stopped him from being very good. Outside of an 8 ER shellacking against Atlanta of all teams, he has a 3.54 ERA and 1.04 WHIP with 57 strikeouts and a 4.1 K:BB ratio over his last 56 IP.Zack Greinke and Kenta Maeda havent regularly been considered elite arms this year. Maeda, the rookie, is based on lack of track record, while Greinke, the veteran, got off to a slow start and then hit the disabled list for a month and a half. But both have shown big upside in their recent work. Maeda has spiked his strikeouts as high as 13 earlier this year and even handled a Coors Field start adeptly his last time out (5 2/3 IP and 2 ER). Facing the Phillies here certainly influences my desire to target him. Meanwhile, Greinke is returning from the aforementioned injury, but had rebounded well prior to that point with a 2.26 ERA, 47 Ks, and a 5.2 K:BB ratio in 59 2/3 IP.SolidDoes Marco Estrada continue to defy the odds or do advanced metrics just fall short in capturing his excellence, leaving him largely undervalued? At some point, you cant just fake your way to leading the AL in hits per nine last year (6.7) and leading all of major league baseball this year (5.8). Even with a spike in strikeouts, Estrada still only carries a 3.81 FIP compared to his 2.92 ERA. He was at 3.13/4.40 last year.Drew Smyly is on an upswing again. Its only been three good starts after a substantial lull (nine starts of 8.03 ERA), but when hes on, hes really good. He has Game Scores of 56, 61, and 68 in his last three, including 10 punchouts against the Royals his last time out. His volatility is worse than average so hes been downgraded into the spot starter realm, but I think hes an interesting contrarian, especially against Toronto. He has faced them three times this year and put up 46, 67, and 57 Game Scores, though he hasnt seen them since mid-May.Rick Porcello has been eight points better per game using DraftKings scoring comparing this year to last and it essentially boils down to some better luck. He is contributing to good favor by putting himself in better situations and walking even fewer than normal (hes perennial a great preventer of walks). His strikeout is virtually unchanged, the walk rate is down a percentage point (which matters, but its not game-changing), but his HR rate and BABIP have gone from 1.3/.332 last year to 1.1/.276 this year. His batted ball profile just isnt different enough to suggest a large part of this isnt just an evening out of his luck. His 15 percent HR/FB rate last year was a career-worst and now its back in line with his 11.7 percent career mark at an OK 11.3 percent. The fact is we knew his 2015 skills deserved better results so Im not worried about a bottoming out here. Hes a better cash game option, though, as he hasnt had a single start of 30 or more points, again using DraftKings scoring.Vincent Velasquez can still spike a big outing for you. Theyve been more infrequent than what we saw earlier in the year, but that was to be expected from the 24-year old flamethrower. With Philadelphia fully incentivized to error on the side of caution with Velasquez, were unlikely to see anything beyond six innings barring a truly special start. Just keep that in mind when youre making your projections.StreamersMatt Moore had one of those starts that you had to watch to get a real feel for how well he pitched. Seeing the six walks in the box score connotes a level of struggle that I just didnt see for Moore. It felt like he was squeezed. He still had a healthy 63 percent firrst-pitch strike rate, which actually exceeds his season mark of 62 percent.dddddddddddd So he wasnt falling behind all the time as weve seen in the past from Moore. He only allowed three hits and notched seven strikeouts, too. Moore hasnt allowed more than three earned runs in any of his last seven (2.12 ERA) and a trip to Miami offers him a solid shot at continuing the streak.Taking a gamble on young arms in DFS is nerve-wracking, especially if youre not a high-volume player and more of a one-lineup type instead. Its so rewarding when they payoff, though, which is why I imagine many will be considering Brandon Finnegan, Luis Severino, and Daniel Norris as an SP2 option or lottery ticket lineup starter in a one starter format. Finnegan has flashed that upside with back-to-back 6 IP/0 ER outings, but they came on the heels of a 10.90 ERA in his previous four.Severino has rejoined the rotation after an impressive bullpen run and many are hoping his early struggles were related to the injury that eventually sidelined him for a bit. Speaking of injuries, Norris has battled health throughout his short career, but now hell get a chance to fill in for a key injury as he aims to take Jordan Zimmermanns vacated spot in the Detroit rotation. The 23-year old lefty is still figuring out, but his strikeout ability gives him an easier path to DFS success even if he doesnt exactly dominate the run and hit prevention.AvoidNeither Steven Matz nor Noah Syndergaard has been particularly sharp since we learned that their elbows were barking. The fact is, they are so good that even a less-than-100-percent version still has plenty some up. But the volatility... oh the volatility. After an ugly season debut, Matz ran off nine starts of a 1.38 ERA, but once the bone spurs came to light, its been a bumpy road with a 4.91 ERA in his last 10 starts, including a 6 ER thrashing in the Bronx his last time out. The Diamondbacks have baseballs best OPS (.819) against lefties this year with a .200 ISO. Id look elsewhere even knowing that Matz is capable of gem any time out.HittingNeither Tyler Chatwood for Colorado or A.J. Griffin for Texas is striking fear in the hearts of DFS players for the second game of the series at Coors Field. Chatwood has been the stereotypical home/road Rockies pitcher with a 5.72 ERA in 61.3 home innings while Griffin has had a career-long homer issue. His 1.6 HR/9 rate this year is just a tick below his 1.5 career mark. Bombs away! (Cant wait to see this end up being 2-1).Jered Weaver and Zach Neal are tasked with stopping two of the biggest offenses in the game (Cubs and Orioles) and Im not sure theyre going to be terribly successful with it. Righties (.868) and lefties (.817) have had major success against Weaver and despite a run of decent starts lately (just one clunker in his last five, 3.77 ERA in 28.7 IP), isnt enough to push me off of the Cubs. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant are the obvious ones, but dont sleep on Dexter Fowler. Hes known more for raking against lefties, but hes having one of his best years against righties with an .853 OPS and 7 HR in 245 PA.Neal only has 24 major league innings, but even if hes not a true talent 5.25 ERA, hes unlikely to improve it in this matchup. At least he gets the Orioles at home, but their power plays everywhere, especially against righties. Their ISO drops compared to Camden, but its still a healthy .175, good for seventh in the league. You can spend some cash with Manny Machado and Mark Trumbo, but dont forget Pedro Alvarez, who has really taken to his platoon role as a righty-masher. His .906 OPS against right-handers is 21st in all of baseball (minimum 230 PA). His .294 ISO is up at 6th!A full half of the league fits in that middle range with a 4 to 7 rating, most with at least one handedness having a favorable matchup. That would normally help yield lineup variety, but I feel most are either going to load up on Coors (as always) or divert to the couple games that could have Coors-esque results with power offenses against modest arms. Because I am not averse to a contrarian angle, Id actually be open to plucking some big bats elsewhere like Detroit against Wade LeBlanc, San Francisco against Tom Koehler (yes, even at home) and Houston against Hector Santiago.Most likely to go yard: Carlos GonzalezI refuse to complicate things for sake of variety. I dont always pick someone in Coors, but sometimes you just cant avoid it. I think this is one of those spots.Most likely to swipe a bag: Jean SeguraIf Im going to eye stolen bases, Id like to get something with it. Segura has been an all-around middle infielder this year, reminiscent of his 2013 first half breakout and he hasnt fallen off as he did that season. He has an .874 OPS in the second half so far with four of his 19 stolen bases. ' ' '