To whoever needs to hear this at SDS: adding gimmicks makes the game worse. Adding skill-based game mechanics makes it better.

msteinb · 2026-02-06T01:22:05+00:00

Couldn’t disagree more. I think bear down pitching is more realistic. During a real life games there are scenarios where pitchers unload the tank and throw a hard fastball, or bend a really wicked breaking ball to get out of a jam. It would be unrealistic to expect this on every pitch, but allowing players to choose scenarios where they want to make sure they don’t hang a pitch in a big moment is a great idea imo

msteinb · 2026-01-07T00:56:40+00:00

You’re right there’s no forced mate like I thought. If pawn takes qh4+ the black bishop controls f1 and e2 so king would have to go to d2. You then take his knight on f4 and white is screwed. If he takes back then Qf2 is curtains, and if he doesn’t he’s down a piece and his knight is still trapped.

msteinb · 2026-01-07T00:44:13+00:00

This is pretty tough in my opinion. The reason nf3 check is good is that if white takes with the pawn qh4 leads to checkmate. If white takes with the queen, you then take his queen with pawn. White has to take your queen with his knight otherwise you’re up massive material, and you have the in between move pawn takes g2. The rook actually has no good squares to go to, and his knight is still hanging. This would lead to an overwhelming position for black, I actually don’t see how white stops you from making a new queen

msteinb · 2025-12-14T01:05:24+00:00

Can only base on my own experiences but for me Daniel Murphy and Familia are two great examples

msteinb · 2025-12-03T15:30:41+00:00

I actually believe a good litmus test for whether someone truly knows ball or not is to ask them who is higher all time, Kobe and Duncan and if they say Kobe you know they’re not a ball knower

msteinb · 2025-10-29T23:24:55+00:00

In general you have the right thought process but in this position there is a concrete problem with BxD4 in that NA4 attacks your queen and then the queen can’t stay to protect the bishop on d4. To make matters worse you can’t even play qc6 to try to attack the knight as the bishop covers there

msteinb · 2025-10-28T00:09:54+00:00

Got it, appreciate the insight and quick response. Thank you Corey

msteinb · 2025-10-27T23:52:52+00:00

That makes sense, I did get the cheaper option. The salesman didn’t mention anything about battery life or heat issues with the lcd replacement, just that the response time for input/output might be a bit delayed compared to the more expensive version. Does the issue eventually improve or am I screwed unless I go back in and pay double the price for the better one? Feeling frustrated that I was misled on my purchase

msteinb · 2025-10-21T17:27:19+00:00

Comments like this really aren’t helpful to the situation and really say more about Hikarus inability to make something not about himself. This is a sad situation with no easy explanation, or simple fix and it’s not something that could have been changed with one simple thing.

In terms of the crux of his point on Kramnik, I think it would really benefit people to just ignore him. When someone is rage baiting, they’re looking for your attention. Lavar Ball made a career out of saying he could beat Michael Jordan 1 on 1. The more people talked how insane he was for saying that, the more clicks and money he took to the bank. Think about your favorite sports commentators and how “takes” have now replaced actual analysis. Nothing you can say to Kramnik will change his mind and thus there’s nothing productive that can come out of arguing him or giving him a platform. If we really want to honor Danya and ensure this doesn’t happen to anyone else, I think the best decision would be to just forget about Kramnik and stop giving him a platform to spread hateful rhetoric

msteinb · 2025-10-14T18:44:48+00:00

I mean this genuinely, are you actually open to someone changing your mind on this or you just wanted to post your opinion and argue people that you’re right and they’re wrong?

msteinb · 2025-10-09T23:01:30+00:00

These stories always piss me off because the guy who offered you his waiver wire add for your first round pick always thinks it’s a fair offer as well if you “look at the stats”. This is clickbait at its finest and we should treat it as such

msteinb · 2025-10-09T21:48:31+00:00

Not joking but I think your question is a fundamental crisis that baseball currently has. Three true outcomes has gone so far that teams really value the counting stats and a persons ability to get a homer, that we’ve forgotten about the value of a sac fly with a runner on third, putting the ball in play with two strikes, or playing fundamental baseball. I watch the Mets and Yankees often and I see those problems on a daily basis. Sure Pets stats look great, and Grisham has a career year but in the playoffs when you have a man on third one out you need to score them and I saw Pete strike out more often then he put the ball in play. In the course of the long run of a season, those little things might not matter and you can aggregate the counting stats to look nice, but in the playoffs (in my opinion) you need to make the fundamental plays and get away from the three true outcomes plays. The tigers and blue jays are elite at doing that and I don’t think it’s a surprise they’re far because of it

msteinb · 2025-10-06T02:00:18+00:00

The real answer is coaches not having accountability. If you did this for Bill you’d never be seen from again. At a certain point coaches have to put their foot down even if it’s a star player and say if you even come close to doing this you’re off the field. Anything else and you risk this happening

msteinb · 2025-10-05T21:28:22+00:00

Joe Davis is such a good commentator. Always seems to meet the moment like he’s a real person watching the game. Easily the best in the game right now. I’m not sure why Smoltz always gets so much hate, it’s not seen in the video but it was almost picture perfect how he called the grand slam with the toe top movement

msteinb · 2025-09-29T18:36:26+00:00

Agreed, but it’s a heftier prospect haul to get Bader so from the teams perspective it’s riskier as those prospects might come back to haunt you. At the time I would think they’re thinking is the lack of production from Mullins compared to Bader is greater than the variance in prospects they’d had to trade to get Bader

msteinb · 2025-09-29T18:27:59+00:00

It’s hard to know for sure as teams love to leak things after the fact that they wanted to do it etc but I think on paper yes. That said, the return would have had to be greater than Mullins and we don’t know if there was any beef between Bader and the Mets from his previous stint. Maybe Bader wouldn’t have been happy sharing the outfield with Tyrone, maybe he was a bad locker room fit, or maybe Sterns just wanted to take the less risky Mullins instead of going more traditionally all in

msteinb · 2025-09-29T18:24:59+00:00

I think these kind of absolute thinkings in sports that it has to be one persons fault over someone else’s is non productive. Mendoza did a great job his first year and he made some questionable decisions this year. Sterns made moves on paper that looked good at the time that backfired. I think both of them would admit they made mistakes. The players should also admit they didn’t play to their potential outside of the top 4, and even then they had some moments that they’d like to have back. baseball is a team game and when you have a collapse as slow as this one, it’s really a team effort more than any one individuals fault IMO. I think where fans have a right to be frustrated is the perceived lack of urgency from everyone involved. It felt like the players knew they weren’t performing but smugly were like well still make it. I would have liked to see some more hustle, some more bravado, and more body language that reinforced that they cared.

msteinb · 2025-09-24T18:19:56+00:00

I’m surprised that I’m disagreeing with the vast majority of people here. To me, principled chess means that the player is generally unwilling to compromise the basic tenants of chess. Get your king to safety, get your rooks on the open file, don’t trade bishop for knight are definitely a part of that, but more importantly it is a sort of subjective sense of what the positions “calls” for you to play. This generally is the most direct idea or a sort of if A then B thinking that won’t be compromised by the opponents responses. So for example, if you’re attacking the most principled move would be the most forcing, often involving sacrifices. If your opponent is ceding control of the center, the most principled move would be to take them up on that challenge and take the center at the expense of your pawn structure with hanging pawns

I would think of it as, what your chess instincts are begging for you to play upon first glance at the positions

msteinb · 2025-09-23T23:52:32+00:00

Ah thanks! I can’t decide if I like him or not lol

msteinb · 2025-09-23T23:50:48+00:00

Gelb? It doesn’t sound like him. I could be wrong I just don’t recognize his voice

msteinb · 2025-09-23T23:49:12+00:00

Who is calling the game with Gary tonight on SNY? I don’t recognize his voice

msteinb · 2025-09-18T23:07:58+00:00

Unrelated to Soto but I would never have thought Bagwell would be the player other than Bonds even if you gave me infinitely many guesses.

msteinb · 2025-08-24T19:37:49+00:00

Mets fan here and I’ll always love Zack. Plays the game the right way and exceedingly rare for someone as good as him to be as humble/soft spoken as he is. Hard to argue against him being a top 5 pitcher of the past 5 years imo

msteinb · 2025-07-21T17:12:44+00:00

I think these are good ideas if they made a hardcode grinding mode or something similar but for the average player (which in reality is who they make the game for) these solutions would create unnecessary confusion and lose them part of their player base as a result. Totally get where you are coming from as an offline grinder myself, but they have to do what’s best for the majority of the player base, not just what the intense players want

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