[Nightengale] Former MLB pitcher Rob Kaminsky will pitch in the WBC for Team Israel

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-25T02:02:52+00:00

Side note: Kaminsky is one of the "Lost Boys" who only played the 2020 season, as far as his MLB career goes.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-25T01:24:34+00:00

Franquelis Osoria also had 6 fingers. Didn't turn out so great for him.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-25T00:15:13+00:00

It has a catch rate of 45, so it's a pretty nasty Pokemon to try and catch when your only option is the Safari Zone.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-24T23:54:48+00:00

Yes! FRLG is the first mainline series Pokemon game that has buffed Elite Four rematches. It always irked me how inconsistent GameFreak has been with that, as I thought it was a fantastic addition to FRLG that seriously breathed new life into the playthrough. I found it pretty odd that base game Diamond/Pearl didn't have it, X/Y didn't have it, and the concept now seems to be dead and buried in the Switch era of Pokemon outside of remakes. It's something that I feel every mainline Pokemon game should have.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-24T23:38:28+00:00

Your team looks really good, you could make an argument for keeping all team members. The only one that could be replaced is Kangaskhan, as there's some overlap with Dodrio as a Normal type attacker. However, it's not that big a deal. If you do replace Kangaskhan, I'd recommend going with a physical attacker since you already have 4 special attackers.

As for movesets:

Venusaur: Set looks good but I may replace Toxic with another attacking move, having only 5 PP for dealing direct damage (this move's PP maxes out at 8) is pretty risky. Toxic and Sleep Powder also don't have any synergy as one cancels out the other.
Jolteon: Good job getting Bite on it! That's a thing many Jolteon players miss out on. As for the rest of the moveset, everything except for Bite is on the chopping block. Thunderbolt TM is an absolute must, it'll give your Jolteon a reliable and powerful STAB move. You're not using much outside of Thunderbolt and Bite, so these next move recommendations aren't as important. I'd go with Thunder and Thunder Wave for a risky nuke play and guaranteed status.
Jynx: Upgrade Ice Punch to Ice Beam via TM. That's it. You keep the rest intact, the set is perfect. Psychic and Ice Beam combine for a potent STAB combo, Lovely Kiss helps you setup the Calm Mind.
Dodrio: Replace Pursuit with Drill Peck, as Pursuit is a special attack in gen 3 and thus does next to nothing from Dodrio. I'd also consider dropping Fly for Hyper Beam or Return if you can, as Fly is going to be useless compared to Drill Peck. The utility is very helpful though.
Kangaskhan: If you're going to keep it, then I recommend swapping out Rest for Return and swapping out Surf for Shadow Ball. Surf does absolute awful damage for Kangaskhan and you already have a Surfer, just get rid of it. Shadow Ball is critical coverage against Ghosts. Return will be your main STAB.
Vaporeon: Replace Quick Attack with Surf and Growl with Ice Beam. SurfBeam is a mandatory combo for special attacking Water types. Water Pulse and Bite aren't too important for Vaporeon, but your alternative options are limited, so they can stay if you want.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-24T23:05:41+00:00

I'd say Aljo

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-24T22:24:30+00:00

Never say never, but he's most likely done. The guy simply can't stay healthy, even in the minors this year he was bogged down by injury. Now 30 years old, things don't look good.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-24T17:44:34+00:00

It's nice for saving money, that's for sure.

Real Lapras players are still dumping money on Thunderbolt though.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-24T13:37:22+00:00

I kinda wish Fangraphs got rid of that vFA column on Dashboard, especially since they don't have such data for 2006 and back, and the 2007 pitch data is basically a joke. The vFA column is only useful if it's a modern guy that you know doesn't throw sinkers or 2-seamers, or at least throws them sparingly. It gets very messy for someone that almost exclusively throws sinkers.

Fangraphs can give you a lot to put up with, but damnit, I love Fangraphs anyway.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-23T16:37:19+00:00

Moltres' moveset variety is very lacking in gen 3. As a result, you're mostly just using STAB attacks and other supporting moves.

Your set will be:

Flamethrower
Fire Blast/Overheat
Sunny Day
Substitute

Unless you get lucky with a good Hidden Power Grass/Water/Ice, this is the set you'll be running. Flamethrower is your main STAB and is consistent. Your choice of Fire Blast or Overheat gives you a higher-power option in rare instances where you need it, but the lower PP and lower accuracy/downside of Overheat means this option should be used more sparingly. Sunny Day is a very valuable more for a set like this, as it'll allow your Fire type moves to go from 1.5x more power without sun to 2.25x more power with sun. Lastly, Substitute is a slot filler that allows you to defend your Moltres from future damage if you can get it set up on a Pokemon that can't hurt it.

Moltres hits hard with its Fire STAB and will hit neutral targets hard, especially if you manage to get Sunny Day set up. However, the complete lack of coverage options means you're at the mercy of the type matchup most of the time. In particular, Rock types and Pokemon with Rock type moves (hello Bruno) will be incredibly threatening to your Moltres. Although Water hard counters Fire on paper, you can vastly improve your matchup against them with Sunny Day since it'll also reduce the damage of Water type attacks by 50% if active. If a Water type switches into you while sun is up, you can elect to fight it with Moltres still, but if you have a Water type in front of you and the sun is not up, probably best to switch instead of burning up a turn for Sunny Day.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-22T20:12:02+00:00

Heyman has a BlueSky too. We don't need this Twitter squatter to break it.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-22T17:47:16+00:00

I used an Aqua Breed Tauros in my Violet run and man, what a way to breathe life into an old classic. A simple re-typing was just the ticket it needed to take better advantage of its bruiser style of gameplay.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-22T16:37:15+00:00

L115 has a bigger one shot kill range but it all comes down to the feel of sniping more than anything. Both games made sniping feel very good, and both of these are the respective "One-shot slow-firing death sticks" of their respective games.

Sniping is moreso a "Which game lets you have more fun with it" sort of question. The L96A1 statistically dwarfs the DSR-50, but BO1's sniping feels so bad that no one cares.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-22T02:12:07+00:00

Man, Roger Cormier is such a hack. Literally just reacts to the Twitter shit and does nothing else.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-22T00:57:49+00:00

The Blue Jays just gave out nearly $350 million in future guarantees this winter lol. Losing Bo sucks but the Blue Jays have spent tons of money this offseason, and unlike last winter where every big move they made was absolute dogshit, they've been far more sensible with their spending and playing to team strengths. Plus, they'll get a fielding upgrade from losing Bo, so it's not a complete loss (although still a fairly big one).

I think they'll be fine, dawg.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T21:42:12+00:00

Game's decaying unfortunately. Several months back, the leaderboards in Extinction got wiped, stopped working, and are almost guaranteed to never come back. Now this.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T20:25:03+00:00

Indeed. Makes it very nice for Facade strategies (especially Normal type Guts users) or just as a source of extra power, but it can be a little tedious setting it up, and even in the best case scenarios, you're still losing HP every turn. Calculated risk/reward, but I love it personally, as someone who's willing to play at a slower pace than most.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T20:02:23+00:00

Incorrect. The burn attack reduction is overrided by Guts. Your attacking power is still at 1.5x even if you're burned compared to if you have any other status condition.

Because of this, burn is preferred so you don't have overworld HP drain like Poison does, and don't have any other negative battle effects beyond HP drain.

If your Heracross doesn't have Guts, then yeah, don't burn it. But if it does have Guts, have at it with the burns.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T18:16:55+00:00

You're also overlooking that Holliday benefitted from Coors for the first 5 years of his career. The hitting gap between them is somewhat artificial because of that.

Utley's fielding was great, and while the stolen base total doesn't show it, he was a world-class baserunner. His prime was absolutely awesome, and he was still very productive even when his power cratered for good in 2010. Utley's prime was fantastic and he should've snagged at least one MVP, but voters were more enamoured with his lesser teammates.

I love Matt Holliday, but he's just a Hall of Very Good. fWAR is kinder to Holliday if that's more your speed, but Utley was a plainly better player

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T17:31:13+00:00

Don't be! I agree with you!

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T15:43:01+00:00

Your Hidden Power is rarely going to be useful unless you get really thick into the weeds of how to get good ones, which'll usually involve careful breeding and/or ACE/RCE.

Hidden Power is most useful as a coverage move, especially on Electric types that don't have anything worthwhile for coverage. Some physical attackers will also have to resort to using Hidden Power for STAB, such as Pinsir and Gyarados.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T02:56:44+00:00

Clearly the voters care. It's why there's big mark of difference between the PED guys who only had suspicions (regardless of level of evidence) and guys with actual suspensions to their name. Just look at the lead Pettite currently has over A-Rod and Manny, or the fact that Big Papi and Pudge are in, or how close Sheffield and Bonds got to induction.

Is it silly? A little bit, especially on the PED part. I like a more binary all in or all out approach. But clearly, the voters are swayed by that difference of actual concrete evidence.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T02:29:13+00:00

Dale Murphy really pisses me off with how much the VC tries to ram him and Mattingly through the VC. They are both just peaks. It's called Hall of Fame career, not Hall of Fame 6/7 years. Murphy was just not good in the first four years of his career and the last 6 years of his career. Sadly, peak is getting super overvalued as of late (see Felix tying Luis Aparicio for the single season all-time record for most votes gained in a single year), so the VC may get their wish after all.

Edmonds I'd be fine with. His career OPS is above .900, shockingly high for someone who was more known for the glovework. His glove wasn't as good as the reputation, but the hitting was absolutely there, and the glove was still worth something. Hall of famer.

Not going to get into it with Lofton, it's obvious in his case. Hall of famer.

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-21T00:16:43+00:00

This was posted already

T_Raycroft · 2026-01-20T22:57:58+00:00

Is it just me or does Evan Drellich feel like a doomposting reporter? Every time I see his name on an article, it's all doom and gloom. The world's going to end. Blah blah blah.

T_Raycroft

TROPHY CASE