Toe

With JV out, I fully expect the Heat to win this in 7 - unless DeRozan can suddenly find his game. He's been pretty bad.

One of the players they drafted - Sean Conroy - became the first openly gay players in professional baseball.

I was 15 minutes late leaving for work because I started reading this article.

Yeah. Vogel was a big reason why the Pacers had a good season this year - and I think any team looking for a coach has to have Vogel at the top of their interview list now. Except the Lakers, I guess.

A contact swing sacrifices power to give you more plate vision - allowing you to make contact with pitches along the edges. It simulates "shortening your swing" - fighting off close pitches when you have 2 strikes to prevent a strike out. If you want to get really deep into a count, it's almost a necessity.

Me too. I've suddenly forgotten how to hit, and I am giving up 2 or 3 home runs every game.

It's in the maple syrup.

So Chris Colabello has been suspended for 80 games... http://www.tsn.ca/jays-colabello-suspended-80-games-after-positive-drug-test-1.476705 I guess this means Justin Smoak is going to get more games?

I really like the Dynamic difficulty this year. It's got me pitching at Hall Of Fame, and hitting at All-Star. Every game is challenging, but it's not frustrating unless I'm facing an ace or a guy with wonky pitching mechanics.

Wow. That's impressive - and I'm watching this after hearing Greg Zaun prattle on and on about how outfielders don't know how to throw the ball anymore.

I actually find the slow-motion thing just screws me up more then anything.

Yeah, they had a good season, but their roster is not very appealing. And I like turning those horrible rosters around. Buxton and Sano would be fun to use.

Now that the rosters are out, I need to pick a team. I prefer playing as one of the teams that's rebuilding, so I've narrowed my options down to Atlanta, Minnesota, Oakland, Cincinnati, and Miami. I'd also pick Milwaukee, but for some reason I dislike their stadium. Who should I choose?

At least it's not this...

QFE.

I'm playing as the Phillies, and in one game the weekend my centre fielder lost the ball in the sun, and it dropped down and hit him right on the top of his head. I wasn't even mad. It was hilarious.

Put my party through session #2 - their first dungeon crawl. Nearly killed the whole party by throwing 7 goblins, a bug bear chief, and a green hag (who stayed back and then ran away as part of the plot) at them. Even at level 2, the bug bear was lethal with his attacks.

I've never thrown a no-hitter or perfect game in any baseball video game. I'm usually pretty good with pitching in these games, but any time I get close the AI gets some sort of bloop hit single or something.

I'm enjoying the game. The change to the camera has been pretty good for me - I usually have to mess with sliders to get everything where I want it, but I didn't have to in this version of the game. I was able to draw a walk in one of the my first at-bats, and that's usually the toughest thing for me to do. You'd have to be pretty hardcore to notice the animation changes and updated graphics, but I really appreciate them. If you're more of a casual player, I'd stick to last year's game if you have it already.

My biggest pet peeve in the game is facing pitchers with sloooooow pitching mechanics. They slow the game down so much. I'll try to take an early walk or a quick hit, just to get them out of the wind-up.

Good way to start my franchise - Two huge home runs by Edwin Encarnacion. Felt great too, because I pulled the pitches down the line both times on purpose.

Got the game - now I just need to finish work at 5, and drive home for 90 minutes, then wait for the game to install!

I'm going to spend my lunch time from work going out and getting the game. I'm pretty excited, despite not paying attention to any of the new features or anything.

I was finally able to get my two friends into a game. I invited a third friend of mine who I thought would be able to help them if they had some trouble with the game and their characters. Instead of running the Lost Mines Of Phandelvar, I decided to write my own adventure that was tailored to getting them to level 2, while also challenging them with some bigger creatures right from the start. I had the characters meet in a small fishing village, where they were asked to go hunt for Elk - the traditional meal for the annual Summer Harvest Feast. While hunting, they had their first real encounter with a Black Bear. I thought this would be challenging for them - until the Dwarf Barbarian rolled insane and nearly killed the bear with only one strike. They quickly dispatched the bear, found enough Elk for the feast, and returned home. On the way back, they encountered two Worgs feasting on their previous owners. Again, I wanted this to be a challenge so the new characters would really get to use their characters abilities and experience combat. Instead, the Barbarian and the Fighter posted up and readied, and as soon as the Worg's came in to attack they were almost instantly killed. I did manage to strike the Barbarian, but because he decided to Rage, his damage resistance prevented him from going down. This encounter also started the story - one of the goblins had a Hag's Eye on him, although none of the characters were actually able to identify it. They ended the session by taking part in the feast, getting very drunk, and then waking up to find that someone's child had been stolen overnight. I had a lot of fun. Writing my own adventure allowed me to improvise a bit more, and it was very satisfying when the players went in the direction I intended. In the next session, I plan on giving them more choices and more situations that can be resolved in different ways. The 2 new players said they had fun, and while they may have struggled with where to jump in and what they're allowed to do, they seemed to grasp the game pretty well and were excited to get a second session going. I am tempted to still search for a fourth player. This party is made up of a Half-Elf Rogue, a Human Fighter, and a Dwarf Barbarian (modelled after a Warhammer Troll Slayer). They have no magic users or healers, and I think it could be good to have someone different in the group. It's still early enough that throwing in a new character would be really easy, and the next session is going to probably be very combat heavy if they go where I want them to.

I was once playing a game as a Sorcerer and came across a wire trap. I didn't want to disarm it, so I just stepped away and used Acid Splash on it to set it off with my party standing a safe distance back.