My first memory of Blackpink was around the summer of 2017 when someone in the Popheads Plug.dj room played “As If It’s Your Last”. That song was stuck in my head ever since I first heard it. It had everything I wanted from a K-pop song at that time - a fire rap verse, beautiful vocals, an upbeat production that had an addictive pop bubblegum melody in the chorus. The gorgeous music video definitely played a huge factor on the song’s memorability. A few months later, I was watching Justice League with my relatives when Barry Allen aka The Flash arrives at his Flash secret den, only to be surprised to find Bruce Wayne aka Batman waiting for him. Why am I mentioning this scene? Behind Batfleck (a portmanteau of Batman and Ben Affleck) is the TV screen of the “As If It’s Your Last” music video and the song can be heard for a few seconds before fading into focus on the dialogue between Batman and The Flash. Being in a Southeastern Country where the influence of the Hallyu wave is huge since the early 2000s, everyone in the theater were pleasantly surprised by the fact that a K-pop song, let alone a song from a group with only 5 songs at that time, was featured in a Hollywood superhero movie. At that moment, I had a huge feeling that the song being featured in Justice League will increase the presence of K-pop in the West to the point that a K-pop song actually charts in Billboard Hot 100 soon and BLACKPINK is going to be one of those groups. To my surprise, I was actually right. BTS and Blackpink are the most popular K-pop groups right now thanks to their success in the West, which was the place that is quite hesitant to accept K-pop as a dominant force in pop culture despite its popularity outside the West, especially in Asia. The groups’ appearances in the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Charts definitely made Western labels realize that K-pop is a dominant force globally. As part of the Popheads Album of the Year 2020 series, I take a look at Blackpink's first full album appropriately titled “The Album''. Their debut full album was highly anticipated as it took four years since their debut in 2016 to finally make this happen. With this post, I deconstruct Blackpink’s history and their legacy, how the tracks fared as an album, and why “The Album” deserves its place as the “Popheads’ Album of the Year”.
PART 1. THE GROUP
When Blackpink made their debut on August 8, 2016, the anticipation was high as they were YG Entertainment’s second girl group after 2NE1. The high anticipation is also because the group was supposed to debut in 2012 after YG’s founder and now-former CEO Yang Hyun-suk teased a possibility of a second girl group back in 2011. The name for YG’s second girl group wasn’t even called Blackpink in the first place as the group was initially named “Pink Punk”. “Pink Punk” was supposed to be YG’s answer to SM Entertainment’s Girls Generation (SNSD) as the initial number of members were supposed to match the number of members of SNSD, which is nine members. YG even uploaded videos of some trainees who were likely to be members of Pink Punk to build public interest before the group’s supposed to debut. And then, Pink Punk never happened. Yang Hyun-suk’s indecisive, premature decisions during his time as CEO of YG is the reason why he earned so much infamy within the K-pop community, along with other things. But let’s not delve into that. Between 2011 and 2016, it was clear that this second girl group went through drastic changes. The line-up of members changed from nine to seven, then to five, to just four. Besides Pink Punk, the group had other possible names such as “Baby Monster” and “Magnum”. I honestly wonder what kind of crack did the people in YG Entertainment smoke to think that these are legitimately good names for their second girl group. Did they get that crack from Senguri? We may never know. Blackpink’s debut was an instant success as they released their debut double singles “Whistle” and “Boombayah”, compiled as a single album “Square One”. “Whistle” and “Boombayah” debuted at #1 and #7 at South Korean Gaon Digital Charts respectively. The group also became the fastest girl group to earn a win in a Korean music show as Inkigayo gave the group a trophy win for “Whistle”. Looking back, the group said that debuting with “Whistle” as their first single was risky at that time due to it having a “weird country vibe” and its minimal production, which led many people at YG against its release. They followed “Square One” with the next single album “Square Two” with singles “Playing with Fire” and “Stay”, which both aim to show Blackpink’s softer side, compared to the chaotic, party-vibe of “Square One”. While most K-pop groups usually have at least two to three comebacks per year, it seems like Blackpink only has one comeback per year based on the release pattern of when the group has their comebacks. On June 2, 2017, they released their comeback standalone single “As If It’s Your Last”. The following year, they finally released their first mini-album (which is basically an EP) “Squared Up” on June 15, 2018. “DDU-DU DDU-DU”, the mini-album’s title single (K-pop equivalent to lead single) propelled Blackpink to global popularity especially in the West as the single debuted at #55 and #78 in the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart respectively. This marks their first appearance in these charts. Additionally, the song’s music video is currently the second most-viewed K-pop music video with 1.4 billion viewers, being only behind Gangnam Style by former fellow YG artist Psy with 3.9 billion viewers. In 2019, Blackpink released their second mini-album “Kill This Love” on April 4. The release of the mini-album was significant as it’s the group’s first release under Interscope Records, which distributes their music and handles their promotions in countries outside Asia. The titular track peaked at #41 on Billboard Hot 100 and #33 on the UK Singles Chart. This era is best remembered for the group’s promotions in the West as a result of their increasing popularity, specifically their iconic Coachella appearance that made them the first K-pop girl group to perform in the festival. Their Coachella gig highlighted the group’s stage presence and high energy as performers, backed with a live band that complimented the group’s electronic-style music. It’s Blackpink like we never saw before and it’s definitely a refreshing contrast to their more calculated promotions in their home country of South Korea.
PART 2. THE MEMBERS
A huge part of Blackpink’s appeal are the members. Their beauty and charismatic personalities are some of the reasons why the group has a huge fanbase of Blinks, which is the fandom name of the group. Obviously, K-pop idols are trained to be charismatic. But there is something about the dynamic of the members that feel unmatched and they harmonize well together as a group. It’s sort of a relief that YG didn’t stick to their plan of having a nine-member girl group. During training, Jennie said that the female trainees are shuffled to different groups every two months and there would be “little fights” on who gets assigned to positions in the group such as vocals, rapping, and dancing. When grouped with Lisa, Jisoo, and Rosé, Jennie said it was already clear on who gets the parts. Each member of the group carries the whole group in their own different ways. They all have different backgrounds, different motivations on why they wanted to become idols and trainees under YG, and different skills that make Blackpink as a whole. I will be describing the members in the order they were revealed before their debut.
Jennie
Jennie Kim was the first member to be revealed as part of Blackpink on June 1, 2016. She is the group’s assigned main rapper and lead vocalist. Jennie was born as an only child to wealthy parents on January 16, 1996, in Seoul, South Korea. Jennie moved to Auckland at the age of eight after she was asked by her mother if she liked the place during their visit there. Jennie seemed to adjust her life well in New Zealand and she was featured in a documentary titled “English, Must Change to Survive” for South Korean broadcaster MBC about her experience as a Korean kid living in a foreign land. Jennie moved back to Seoul in 2010 after not being interested in taking up law in the United States, which was suggested by her mother who eventually supported her daughter’s decision. While Jennie didn’t have any formal musical background growing up, she was interested in K-pop during her stay in New Zealand. She auditioned for YG Entertainment as a vocalist, in which she performed “Take a Bow” by Rihanna. While Jennie was accepted as a trainee under YG, the judges advised her to train for the role of a rapper as she is the only trainee who can speak English. A trainee for five years, Jennie was one of the most popular trainees in YG and has already gained recognition before her eventual debut as a Blackpink member. YG uploaded videos of Jennie covering “Strange Clouds" by B.o.B. featuring Lil Wayne and “Lotus Flower Bomb” by Wale while she was a trainee. She also appeared as a featured artist for Senguri’s “GG Be” and G-Dragon’s “Black” in their respective solo albums, which she performed with the latter in Inkigayo making it her stage debut Because of her early popularity, Jennie was highly speculated to be part of the original line-up of Pink Punk before the idea was scrapped. After the release of “Square Up”, Jennie became the first member of the group to debut as a soloist. She released her debut solo single aptly titled “Solo” on November 12, 2018. The music video is the most-viewed music video by a Korean female solo artist with 600 million views on YouTube. Just recently, she launched her own YouTube channel on her 26th birthday where she intends to create vlogs about her everyday life. Her first vlog served as an introduction to her channel which included a cover of Tangled’s “When Will My Life Begin?” by Mandy Moore. The vlog has already gotten 10.9 million views two days after its release.
Lisa
Lalisa Manoban, known by her stage name Lisa, was revealed as the second member of Blackpink on June 8, 2016. Lisa is the assigned main dancer, lead rapper, and sub vocalist of the group. She is also the “maknae” of the group, meaning she is the youngest member of the group, as well as the only non-Korean member in the group. Lisa’s birth name is actually different as she was born under the name “Pranpriya” before legally changing to Lalisa. She was born in Thailand on March 27, 1997. Lisa took dance lessons at four years old and often competed in dance competitions. She was part of the Thai dance crew “We Zaa Cool'' with childhood friend and fellow K-pop idol BamBam from GOT7. She also competed in a singing competition where she represented her school, ending up as a runner-up. Inspired by her idols and eventual YG labelmates BIGBANG and 2NE1, Lisa had her eyes on the K-pop industry. She auditioned for YG Entertainment when the agency visited Thailand. Out of the 4,000 Thai applicants, she was the only one accepted to be a trainee under YG. Lisa began her 5-year trainee journey in 2011 as she is YG’s first foreign trainee. Like Jennie, she was speculated to be part of the original line-up of “Pink Punk”. Her highly impressive skills as a dancer have always led her to be assigned as the main dancer in different groups that she designs most of the choreography herself. While still training, YG released a video of 16-year-old Lisa performing “Turn Up The Music”, albeit she was nameless in the video. Lisa is the group’s most popular member as she is the most followed member on Instagram with 45.2 million followers. Her widely-shared dance performance of “Swalla” in the Blackpink In Your Area tour and the “Did It Work?” memes that surrounded her legs contributed to her worldwide popularity. In 2020, Lisa released a limited edition photobook on her birthday aptly titled “0327”, which consisted of photos she took with her film camera that included some shots of her fellow members. Outside of her Blackpink duties, Lisa is a dance mentor of the Chinese survival show “Youth With You”. She was dubbed as “Mentor Lisa” by Blinks as her strict mentoring style in the show surprised everyone since it was the opposite of her shy personality. Her fellow members have teased Lisa over her strict mentoring style.
Jisoo
Kim Ji-soo, more commonly known by her first name, was revealed as the third member of Blackpink on June 15, 2016. She is the group’s lead vocalist and “visual” member, meaning she is the most attractive member according to Korean beauty standards. She is also the eldest member of the group, making her the “eonie” of the group. Jisoo was born on January 3, 1995, in South Korea and she grew up with a close, extended family. Despite being a visual member, Jisoo was bullied as a kid about her appearance by her relatives who often called her a monkey. Being an idol was not on Jisoo’s radar growing up. She wanted to involve herself in the arts as she considered wanting to become an actress, a painter, or a writer. She developed her acting skills by joining a drama club during her time as a student. Despite not knowing about YG when she auditioned, Jisoo was accepted as a trainee and began her 5-year trainee journey. Like Jennie and Lisa, Jisoo was speculated to be part of the original line-up of Pink Punk. Before her debut, she made appearances in commercials for Samsonite, LG, and Nikon. There is always one member in a K-pop group that would likely become actors later in their careers and Jisoo is one of them. It isn’t surprising as she has openly shown her interest in becoming an actress and the members even remarked that she would win an Oscar for her “acting face” alone. Before her debut, she had a cameo appearance in an episode of the KBS show “The Producers” with labelmates Dara of 2NE1. Now a K-pop idol, Jisoo appeared in a role in tvN’s fantasy-drama “Arthdal Chronicles” where she played her first fictional character. Jisoo will be starring in an upcoming JTBC drama “Snowdrop” that is slated to premiere later this year.
Rosé
Park Chae-young, more commonly known as Rosé, is the fourth and last member to be revealed as part of Blackpink on June 22, 2016. She is the assigned main vocalist and lead dancer in the group. Rosé’s English name is Roséanne Park as she was born outside Korea and grew up living overseas. She was born on February 11, 1997, in Auckland, New Zealand. Her family moved to Melbourne, Australia when she was eight years old. While Lisa’s musical background is more on dancing, Rosé’s musical background is more on singing as she grew up singing in a choir and has played the guitar often in school. When YG went to Australia to look for potential trainees, she was advised by her father to try auditioning. After being accepted as a YG trainee, she had to drop out of school and move to Seoul within two months. Rosé said it was difficult to be separated from her family during training. Despite feeling homesick, she was determined to become a K-pop idol. Rosé had no formal experience with dancing, which caught her off-guard when she first trained. She definitely had a lot of time to hone her dancing skills that she eventually became the lead singer in the group. Before her debut, Rosé was a featured artist in G-Dragon’s song “Without You” in 2012. Given her position as the main vocalist, Blinks have been anticipating her solo debut. She has released covers of Halsey’s “Eyes Open” and Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song”, which really showcased her unique vocals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she covered a series of songs in a jam session that was live-streamed on her Instagram page. Rosé will finally make her debut as a soloist early this year and teasers are expected to pop-up as reports say that she finished filming the music video of her solo debut. Given YG’s well-recorded unreliably on their commitments, we could only hope this would finally push through. While I have described every member of Blackpink, there’s one more person that needs to be mentioned as he plays a crucial factor in Blackpink’s success.
Teddy Park
Teddy Park is a former member of YG’s boy group “1TYM” and now an in-house producer for YG Entertainment. He wrote and produced many iconic tracks for BIGBANG and 2NE1 such as Fantastic Baby and I Am The Best respectively. Teddy produced the majority of Blackpink’s discography and has received songwriting credits of Blackpink’s collaborations with Dua Lipa (Kiss and Make Up) and Lady Gaga (Sour Candy). According to the album’s production credits, he is credited as the album producer and creative director for the group.
PART 3. THE ERA
When YG announced on May 4, 2020, that Blackpink finished recording their first full album and will shoot a music video for their pre-single later that month, the news was met with cautious optimism. YG has a track record of promising things that didn’t come to fruition so this announcement was understandably taken with a grain of salt. It’s worth pointing out that the group was previously featured on “Sour Candy” by Lady Gaga as a promo single for her album “Chromatica”, which indicates that Blackpink might be coming out with their new material. Also, Interscope is capitalizing on the increasing popularity of K-pop in the West by investing Blackpink in their roster. With this, YG has to commit to its schedule. And so they did by dropping a teaser poster a month later that revealed that the pre-release single will drop on June 26. The pre-release single would later turn out to be called “How You Like That?”, which was met with huge anticipation as teaser posters and videos of the members were revealed until its release. The single became an instant success the moment it dropped as the music video’s premiere was watched by 1.66 million simultaneous viewers on YouTube, making it the highest-rated YouTube Premiere. It was also the fastest music video to hit 100 million viewers in just 32 hours before BTS’ “Dynamite” took over the title two months later, beating Blackpink with 24 hours The song itself was a hit in the charts. It debuted at #32 on Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the UK Singles Charts. Blackpink then teased the release of their second pre-release single featuring an unnamed artist on July 23 that will be released a month later. It was widely speculated that Ariana Grande is the unnamed artist that the hashtag “#AriPink” trended on Twitter. It was later revealed that Grande is actually one of the songwriters of the single and that Selena Gomez is the actual unnamed artist on August 11. The title would later be revealed as “Ice Cream” on August 22. The single’s music video, in which the scenes had to be shot separately in South Korea and Los Angeles due to the COVID-19 pandemic, gathered 79.08 million viewers in 24 hours. The single is currently Blackpink’s highest-peaking single on Billboard Hot 100, debuting at #13. Throughout the hype of Ice Cream, YG announced on July 28 that Blackpink will FINALLY release their first full album titled “The Album” on October 2. The name was met with mixed reactions, calling it “lazy”. However, Rosé said that they have worked on the album for so long that simply calling it “The Album” is the best way to describe their project because it’s so straightforward - “Blackpink: The Album”. Accompanying the album’s release on October 2 is the release of the album’s title track “Lovesick Girls”, which became the sixth biggest 24-hour music video debut at 61.4 million viewers. While the song peaked at #59 on Billboard Hot 100, the new Billboard Global 200 showed that the song debuted and peaked at #2, with the song topping the separate Global Chart that excluded the US. In-between the releases of the singles was Blackpink’s new reality TV show on YouTube called “Blackpink: 24/365”, which showcased various activities that the members participated in, such as pottery making and kart racing, as well as revealing behind the scenes footage of their music videos. The 16-episode reality series served as a way to promote the group and the album’s release. The series began on June 13 with a prologue until it aired its finale on October 24. It was supposed to have one more episode that was scheduled on October 31 before being pulled off after Chinese netizens were concerned over a clip of the episode’s teaser that showed the members touching a baby panda without gloves and masks during the pandemic. To cap off the era, a Netflix documentary film about the group was made under the title, “Blackpink: Light Up the Sky”, which documented Blackpink’s first four years as a group featuring behind the scenes videos and footage during their training days. It also showed the friendship between the members and their producer Teddy, their retrospective look on their training days, as well as their struggles of keeping up the busy lifestyle as K-pop idols. The documentary film also showed the girls recording the songs for The Album, as well as Rosé preparing for her long-anticipated solo debut. The documentary received positive reviews, which critics liked the documentary for showing the members’ work ethic and their fun personalities.
PART 4. THE TRACKS
“The Album” is a pop album that has influences of hip-hop, R&B, and EDM, all of which compose Blackpink’s musical signature since their debut. “The Album” is composed of 8 tracks (including the three singles) with a length of 24 minutes and 26 seconds. This is somehow normal for a K-pop mini-album, but too short for a full-album. In comparison, Twice’s second full-album “Eyes wide open” has 13-tracks with a length of 43 minutes and 29 seconds. As an eight-track album, it’s an equal mix of English and Korean songs as Blackpink attempts to market themselves in the West. All of these songs were recorded in The Black Label in South Korea, with some of the album’s mixing and additional input by producers made remotely due to the pandemic. Teddy serves as the album’s main producer, along with YG’s in-house songwriters and producers Danny Chung, R.Tee, 24, Løren, Vince, and Future Bounce. Frequent Blackpink songwriter Bekah Boom also worked on the lyrics of “The Album”. New songwriters and producers include Victoria Monét, Tommy Brown, Steven Franks, Ariana Grande, Ryan Tedder, Melanie Fontana, Torae Carr, Jonathan Descartes, Brian Lee, Leah Haywood, David Guetta, Tushar Apte, Rob Grimaldi, Chloe George, and Steph Jones. The featured artists in “The Album”, Selena Gomez and Cardi B, are also credited as songwriters in their respective tracks “Ice Cream” and “Bet You Wanna”. Additionally, Jennie and Jisoo received their first songwriting credits ever with “Lovesick Girls”. For this section on the post, I will give my thoughts on each track. I will also include the line distribution statistics based on random_k’s lyric distribution videos (with the exception of Love to Hate Me which I will base on HEXA6ON’s lyric distribution video of the song) and input my thoughts on the distribution as well.
1. How You Like That?
We begin “The Album” with the first pre-release single. “How You Like That?” is an appropriate opener to the album as it’s your typical Blackpink clap-back anthem. The best way to describe my mood on this song is the way AJay reacted to the song, in which she said “This is how you open the album”. Of course, many have criticized this song for being too familiar with the previous singles “DU-DDU-DDU-DU” and “Kill This Love” and I do agree that this song is definitely a rethread of these songs. However, I will disagree that this song didn’t serve anything new to the table. For me, “How You Like That?” basically re-defined Blackpink’s sound that complements the group’s pop and hip-hop tendencies that the previous singles haven’t reached before. It feels redundant to talk about Blackpink’s music videos because it always expected that their music videos would always serve BUDGET regardless of the quality of the actual song. Like, look at the budget! And they shot this music video during a pandemic!
While the line distribution is not totally equal as Jisoo is missing out on ten seconds compared to other members, I feel like the line distribution is justified. You can definitely hear each member contributing their own lines in the song. Lisa being the member with the most lines also makes sense as she basically she slayed the entire second verse
2. Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)
When Normani released “Motivation” as a single, you can definitely tell that Ariana could’ve sang this song since she is credited as a songwriter. It has the Grande fingerprints all over it. Yet, with Normani’s strong vocals that complemented the 2000s-inspired production, she owned this song with ease. My expectations for an Ariana-penned Blackpink track are quite high based on my feelings on “Motivation” alone and Selena Gomez’s contribution as the co-artist of the song propelled that higher. And oh boy, I wish I wasn’t this excited. The most disappointing thing about Ice Cream is that it felt like Blackpink attempting to sing an Ariana reject with no sense of originality. I know it’s ironic to say this since Blackpink is basically “2NE1 Part 2” for longtime YG fans, but this song lacked that distinct Blackpink sound that made me a Blink in the first place. It’s so uninspiring and sometimes jarring to hear, even with multiple listens. Also, the sexual overtones in the lyrics are just too fucking awkward for Blackpink to sing. With their music video that had a cute concept, this is sort of uncomfortable to go through with the sexual undertones in mind. This is the same group that had them bragging how good their bodies look in “Boombayah” and they showed their “sexier side” way better in their cover of Wonder Girls’ “So Hot”. The only saving grace of this song, which was the reason why I could barely tolerate “Ice Cream”, is Lisa’s rap verse. I could imagine Jennie slaying if she had her own rap verse too. Honestly, Selena would have owned this song by herself without the autotune. But it’s nice to hear Selena in an upbeat song like this in a while.
Immediately, I can’t help but think about how Jisoo got only two English lines in the song despite having more seconds than Rosé. Half of Jisoo’s lines are just “Ice cream chillin chillin”. Ugh. I know Jisoo is not a fluent English speaker but many K-pop idols who are not English speakers can sing the language well with enough practice. Thankfully, Jisoo had more English lines in other songs, but I’ll tackle that a bit later in this post. I am honestly surprised Selena had more lines in the song than I thought because I feel like I heard more of Jennie and Rosé, which funny enough I thought Rosé had more lines. This is definitely not the worst line distribution I have seen. It’s just that Jisoo could have sung more lines.
3. Pretty Savage
Remember the distinct Blackpink signature sound that made me a Blink in the first place? Now, this is what I am talking about. This is the quintessential Blackpink sound that I have been waiting for since Kill This Love. I would’ve imagined that Pretty Savage as a pre-release single would've fared better than “How You Like That?” but somehow, I am sort of glad it didn’t. This is the song that Blinks needed to hear as antis have constantly dismissed Blackpink as “influencers with no talent” in response to their constant lengthy hiatuses. Of course, with this kind of song, it’s already expected Lisa would definitely slay this song. It's nice to hear Jennie rap again after she wasn’t given those parts in the pre-release singles. The way she rapped “F bois, not my bois' ' is just too damn iconic. However, the star of the song is Jisoo who has the second verse to herself and her talking rap flow surprisingly works here. The best part is definitely her saying “Blackpink in Your Area” after being the only member not to say the iconic catchphrase for years. And of course, Rosé’s vocals in the bridge are just as amazing. Pretty Savage is definitely one of my top favorites in “The Album”. Let’s just forget the messy choreography though.
This is definitely one of the best lyric distributions of Blackpink so far. While Lisa exceeded ten seconds, every member can be heard equally with their outstanding lines given to them.
4. Bet You Wanna (feat. Cardi B)
Coming off from the success and controversy surrounding WAP, Cardi B and Blackpink is an odd, yet exciting collaboration. I can’t imagine any of the members taking the second verse other than Cardi. It would have been nice to hear the “supposed” explicit lyrics she had to tone down for obvious reasons. If she was allowed to swear, she would’ve sung “I bet if you make me wet, I’ll still be fire”, which plays in my head now when I hear the tone-downed version lyric (“I bet if you make me sweat, I’ll still be fire”). Bet You Wanna could’ve been the next single after Lovesick Girls to capitalize on Cardi’s success from WAP. The entire production is so chill, yet so catchy which makes sense considering Ryan Tedder and Tommy Brown’s involvement. The song is completely in English so that this could’ve been a Top 10 hit with the right push. Unfortunately, the promotional cycle for “The Album” ended so I guess this is going to remain as a fan-favorite track for many Blinks and not a huge hit outside the fandom.
Not a perfect lyric distribution, but not too bad either. Each member can be heard just fine and Cardi didn’t dominate the song too much, which is fair since she is a featured artist. Lisa could’ve gotten a bit more lines, but this is also fine considering she has topped the lyric distribution in the previous songs.
5. Lovesick Girls
Considering that Blackpink’s single releases have always been upbeat clap-back anthems, the release of Lovesick Girls as a title track is quite refreshing as it aims to show the group’s more melancholy side, both in the lyrics and the production. The most striking lyric is from the chorus where the girls sang “We are all born to be alone/But why are we still looking for love?”. This isn’t the most groundbreaking lyric at all, but it does feel a bit weird hearing that from the girls. It brings me back to the documentary where Teddy said that the songs they made for “The Album” are going to show a bit of themselves a bit more as a group. Living as a K-pop idol is quite difficult as it is and we don’t know a lot about them since their image is very calculated by their agencies. It’s not to say they can’t be in a relationship because of the infamous “no dating” rule in the industry. The girls were probably asking themselves if they could really find love in an industry that is obsessed with perfection. Again, it’s not a very groundbreaking lyric but it does give me a bit of insight into the girls’ psyche a bit on their perspective of love.
Rosé taking up the top spot in this lyric distribution makes complete sense since this is the song that is best suited to her vocally. I have a feeling “Lovesick Girls” was a brief glimpse of what kind of song that Rosé will be releasing for her solo debut. Jennie taking up second place is quite surprising, especially her English rap verse didn’t take too long as well. The distribution on Lisa is fine, but Jisoo could’ve slightly sang more lines.
6. Crazy Over You
There’s isn’t much to talk about this song other than its production, which best utilized oriental instrumentals to hip-hop production. This isn’t the best song on “The Album”, but it isn’t as bad as well.
The lyric distribution could’ve been fair if Lisa was given more lines to rap. But I think this is fine since Jennie didn’t have a lot of rap lines in this album. It’s definitely nice to hear more of Jisoo in this song as she perfectly nailed the pre-chorus with her vocals.
7. Love to Hate Me
For some reason, Love to Hate Me reminded me so much of Ariana with the way the lyrics are sung by the girls, especially in the chorus and the ad-libs. This song serves as an appropriate penultimate track as the song delivers its final clap-back before “The Album” comes to a close with a softer pop ballad.
Rosé: 28.7% Lisa: 28.1% Jennie: 26.4% Jisoo: 16.8% Honestly, seeing lyric distributions like this where three of the members had equal parts except Jisoo makes me sad. She was close to having an equal lyrical distribution and this could’ve been done if she sang a bit more lines in the song.
8. You Never Know
We finally reach the end of “The Album” as it closes with a soft power-pop anthem that feels very in-character with Blackpink. This song already gained some attention when it was revealed that Teddy had no involvement in the song, making it the first Blackpink song without him. It’s worth pointing that out because Teddy has a mixed reaction as a main producer of the group. While I personally don’t mind Teddy as a producer, it’s quite refreshing that he isn’t involved so that the group can experiment with other producers. This is definitely the group at their most sincere in this album, in which they address the message of not judging people based on how they look outside. This particular message rings true to the members personally and Blinks can see why. Getting hate comments is nothing new in the K-pop industry. But Jennie seems to be the most bullied member as she was often villainized in the public eye, from her alleged “lazy dancing” scandal to the intense coverage of her short dating life with Kai from EXO. She was also unflatteringly called “YG Princess” because of accusations that the agency has favored her over other members. With this context in mind, it was so painful to hear Jennie sing “But you'll never know unless you walk in my shoes / You'll never know my tangled strings / 'Cause everybody sees what they wanna see / It's easier to judge me than to believe” because she has faced so much criticism over nothing. Other members have gone through similar scrutiny as well, but it’s not as bad as Jennie’s situation. All of the members worked so hard and sacrificed so much to be where they are now, so having this song that asks people not to judge them as a closer feels like the perfect ending statement from Blackpink.
It’s so nice that most of the members almost got the one-minute worth of lines and having Jisoo at the top feels satisfying after the limited line distribution she got with “Ice Cream. Vocal wise, this is their best song to date as they get to showcase their most emotional, sincere vocals in this track. The only problem is that Lisa should’ve gotten more lines, especially since her vocals sounded amazing that gives the song a more “heartfelt” feeling.
PART 5. THE CONCLUSION
Now that I have given my thoughts on each track of “The Album”, here are my overall thoughts on “The Album” and the era itself. In the [FRESH] Popheads discussion thread of “The Album”, a lot of users were disappointed with how short the album is. Yes, the album is unfortunately quite short given that this is their first full album in Blackpink’s fourth year as a group. Users are also disappointed with how “outdated” the songs felt. To be fair on Blackpink, K-pop tends to be a bit behind when it comes to trends. It isn’t surprising that “The Album” would have some kind of outdated production in Wester music standards. The most obvious one would be “Lovesick Girls'', which sounded like an Icona Pop song. Sonically, the entire album isn’t even revolutionary at all. “The Album'' is produced on what’s popular in the charts right now and even the biggest Blink here (not me) would know that. So with all these criticisms pointed out, why is “The Album” even considered as one of the Albums of the Year? Especially as someone who had Taylor Swift’s “folklore” as my own personal AOTY? For my case as a Blink, a huge part of the reason why I am a Blink is that not only their music makes me feel alive, but also because the group has such a charismatic personality that it’s easy to see why they have a huge Western appeal. Along with BTS, Blackpink is leading this new Hallyu wave where the West has finally taken K-pop seriously as a dominant force, not as a gimmick. With “The Album” debuting at #2 in the Billboard 200, it's the highest-charting album by a female girl group since Danity Kane in 2006. On top of that, they have sold approximately 1 million copies worldwide (estimated 319,300 copies in the US and Europe according to Pinkvilla as of October 27, 2020), which is a rare thing to achieve in the streaming era unless you’re Taylor Swift. This huge success for a K-pop girl group proves that Blackpink will always be in our area no matter what. Even with the criticisms that “The Album” had over its short-length and its outdated production, you can at least still hear the huge amount of talent, personality and hardwork of the group in this album. It’s not the content of the album that makes “The Album” an AOTY, it’s the influence that it’s going to make to its listeners and pop culture as a whole. You know what the Blinks will say, “BLACKPINK IS THE REVOLUTION”.
Giants final report card: Grading every player from Logan Ryan to Golden Tate - The Athletic
The Giants coaching staff spent last week doing their final evaluations on the 2020 season. I figured I’d do the same, so here are my grades for every player who played at least 10 percent of the snaps on offense or defense this season. An important note: Expectations are factored into my grading scale. Daniel Jones is obviously a better player than C.J. Board, but they got the same grade based on how their performances measured up to preseason expectations. QUARTERBACKS • Daniel Jones: C. Jones didn’t make “the leap” often experienced by second-year quarterbacks. Most of Jones’ numbers were down despite making 14 starts this season compared to 12 as a rookie. Jones’ drop in touchdown passes (24 to 11) was jarring, although he also cut back on turnovers (12 interceptions and 18 fumbles in 2019, 10 interceptions and 11 fumbles in 2020). This coaching staff leaned more heavily on Jones as a runner and he proved to be a legitimate threat on the ground. There are endless reasons/excuses for the struggles of the offense, and by extension, Jones this season. How much the scheme, protection, skill players or reduced offseason affected Jones is impossible to quantify. But in a production business, the Giants offense was a failure. The quarterback has to bear some responsibility for that. The coaching staff is fully committed to Jones as the quarterback of the future. It’s clear that coaches believe Jones has the intangibles to lead the team and they observed subtle improvements in the second half of the season. But he needs more production in his third season to validate that faith. • Incomplete: Colt McCoy, Joe Webb. McCoy was exactly as expected: A solid veteran behind the scenes who could fill in competently in a spot start (he was the quarterback for the biggest win of the season over Seattle) but with physical limitations that make him best served as a backup. RUNNING BACKS • Devonta Freeman: C-. Freeman clearly wasn’t the player he was earlier in his career in Atlanta. He only averaged 3.2 yards per carry, but he had the misfortune of being the lead back before the offensive line hit its stride. Freeman never returned after suffering an ankle injury in Week 7. • Wayne Gallman: B+. Gallman was buried by Pat Shurmur’s staff and then overlooked by Joe Judge until Freeman’s injury. Gallman took over as the lead back in Week 8 and thrived. His north-south style meshed with the offensive line and he always finished runs by falling forward. Gallman doesn’t bring much to the passing game, but he proved he’s a legitimate NFL back. • Dion Lewis: D. Lewis clearly wasn’t capable of replacing Saquon Barkley, but the veteran underwhelmed in his primary role as a third-down back. Lewis had three fumbles, including two on kickoffs. He’s a good locker room presence who had familiarity with Judge, but the Giants need an upgrade next season. • Alfred Morris: B. There were no expectations when the Giants signed the 32-year-old Morris to the practice squad in Week 4, but injuries eventually opened the door for a role. Morris has clearly lost a step from his Pro Bowl days, but the savvy veteran was surprisingly effective, averaging 4.3 yards per carry. • Incomplete: Saquon Barkley, Eli Penny. Barkley’s torn ACL early in Week 2 was a crushing blow to an offense built around the dynamic back. Barkley has a lengthy rehab ahead, but expect him to come back loaded with motivation. The run game improved as Penny’s playing time increased in the middle of the season, but the fullback’s role was limited in this offense. WIDE RECEIVERS • C.J. Board: C. Board met low expectations. He was an afterthought as a receiver and didn’t make an impact on special teams. • Austin Mack: B-. It’s an accomplishment for an undrafted rookie just to get playing time. Mack made an immediate impression with four catches for 72 yards when starting in Golden Tate’s place in Week 9, but otherwise was a non-factor as a receiver aside from a crucial third-down drop in Week 16. Mack’s aggressive blocking stood out. He likely needs to become a special teams contributor to carve out a role. • Damion Ratley: D. The Giants chose to sign Ratley rather than keeping one of the receivers who impressed in camp. Ratley’s most notable contribution in five games was an offensive pass interference penalty that negated a touchdown in a loss to the Cowboys and led to his release. • Sterling Shepard: B. I wrote before the season to “expect around 70 catches and 800 yards if Shepard stays healthy.” Shepard finished with 66 catches for 656 yards despite missing four games with turf toe. Shepard has proven to be a quality No. 2/3 receiver during his five seasons. The problem is he’s been thrust into a No. 1 role the past two seasons. Ideally, Shepard will slide back into the slot and complement big-play threats outside next season. He’s a useful player to have in that role. • Darius Slayton: B. Slayton’s numbers in his second season were nearly identical to his rookie year (50 catches for 751 yards in 2020, 48 catches for 740 yards in 2019). His touchdown rate predictably regressed; he had three this season after having eight as a rookie. This season felt like a slight disappointment since expectations were high after his impressive rookie season, but Slayton has still been a steal as a fifth-round pick. It’s impossible to know how much Slayton was limited by injuries, but it seems clear that he’s not a No. 1 receiver. He could be a solid deep threat to complement a true No. 1. • Golden Tate: D. It was evident in training camp that Tate’s role was going to be reduced. It was also predictable that the accomplished veteran wouldn’t handle that well. That friction came to a head when Tate was suspended for a game in the middle of the season after complaining about his role. His production plummeted this season, although he was oddly effective at making contested catches. Tate’s season came to a premature end when he suffered a calf injury in practice in Week 16. It’s a safe bet that the 32-year-old has played his final game in a Giants uniform since the team can create $6 million in cap savings if they cut him. • Incomplete: Dante Pettis. Pettis had to wait until Week 16 for an opportunity after getting claimed in Week 10. The 2018 second-round pick made an impact in two games, which is encouraging heading into next season. TIGHT ENDS • Evan Engram: C-. It’s difficult to grade Engram objectively because his lows were so low, but he still was a productive player. His Pro Bowl selection was a farce, but his 63 catches and 654 yards ranked among the NFC leaders at tight end. But those numbers don’t tell the full story, as Engram was directly involved in a disproportionate number of turnovers and he was inefficient considering he was the fourth-most targeted tight end in the league. Engram works hard but it should be evident by now that he’ll never be a competent blocker. The Giants can bring Engram back for 2021 on his fifth-year option, but a change of scenery may be best for all involved. • Kaden Smith: B. Smith didn’t take the next step after showing promise in place of Engram late in the 2019 season. Smith wasn’t a big part of the passing game but he remains a solid blocker, especially on the counter runs that became a staple of the offense. His ceiling is being a No. 2 tight end and he fills that role capably. • Levine Toilolo: C-. It was always strange that the Giants gave Toilolo a two-year, $6.2 million contract with $3.2 million guaranteed. It didn’t make any more sense after Toilolo played just 27 percent of the offensive snaps. Toilolo was a decent blocker, while getting just six targets. He’ll likely be cut for $3 million in cap savings this offseason. • Incomplete: Eric Tomlinson. Tomlinson was mostly a healthy scratch before getting cut in Week 10 and landing in Baltimore. OFFENSIVE LINE • Cameron Fleming: C-. Fleming was signed to be a swing tackle but was pressed into a starting job by Nate Solder’s opt out. Fleming wasn’t good, but his performance was in line with his established level of play. If nothing else, Fleming provided some reliability as a veteran. • Nick Gates: B. Gates made tremendous progress after being thrust into the starting center job with no game experience (or even a full offseason at the position). It’s hard to evaluate the mental aspect of the position and that’s surely an area that will grow with experience. But Gates looked comfortable in the middle of the line and embraced an enforcer’s role. He showed enough to provide optimism that he can develop into a quality center. • Will Hernandez: C-. Hernandez’s play was similar to last season, which was a disappointment since he hasn’t built on a promising rookie season in 2018. He lost the starting left guard job after missing two games with COVID-19 in the middle of the season. It doesn’t seem like Hernandez is a big piece of the new coaching staff’s plans. • Shane Lemieux: C. Lemieux was a fifth-round pick, so expectations were low. He took over as at left guard after Hernandez missed time with COVID-19, starting the final nine games. Lemieux plays with a nasty streak that is evident in his run blocking, but he has a long way to go in pass protection. The Giants need to decide if they believe Lemieux is ready to be a full-time starter next season. • Matt Peart: B. Peart was viewed as a developmental project, so it was encouraging that the third-round pick showed enough to merit snaps in a rotation with Fleming at right tackle. Peart looked promising early but his play fell off in the second half of the season after he missed one game with COVID-19 and dealt with an ankle injury. Peart didn’t play a single snap in the season finale, leaving questions about how he’s viewed by the coaching staff. • Andrew Thomas: C. Thomas predictably experienced growing pains in his first season as a starting left tackle. The No. 4 pick had a particularly rough transition to the NFL in the first half of the season, but he made strides in the second half. The view of Thomas was hurt by comparisons to the other rookie tackles picked after him, but he showed enough signs to indicate he can be the long-term answer at left tackle. • Kevin Zeitler: B. Zeitler’s play may have slipped a bit, but the 30-year-old remained a reliable, durable, low-maintenance player. The Giants have a big decision looming on Zeitler and his $14.5 million cap hit for 2021. • Incomplete: Jackson Barton, Kyle Murphy, Spencer Pulley, Chad Slade. The line stayed remarkably healthy aside from a few COVID-19 related absences, so these backups never got an opportunity to play. DEFENSIVE LINE • B.J. Hill: B. Hill was effective in a limited role after being relegated to backup duty by the additions of Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams last year. Hill has another year on his rookie deal so he provides an insurance policy if Williams or Dalvin Tomlinson leave in free agency. • Austin Johnson: B+. Johnson was a perfect fit in the role he was signed to fill. He was solid against the run and made a few big plays early in the season. He’s worth bringing back on a similar low-cost deal. • Dexter Lawrence: B+. I predicted Lawrence would have four sacks after recording 2.5 as a rookie. He hit that total, as he made strides as a pass rusher. Lawrence’s strength remains run defense. The 23-year-old is a solid piece in the middle of the defense to build around. • Dalvin Tomlinson: A-. The Giants know exactly what they’re getting from Tomlinson: A strong run defender who will be in the lineup every week and be a positive influence in the locker room. Tomlinson continues to show more as a pass rusher, recording 3.5 sacks for the second consecutive season and setting a career-high with 28 pressures. Tomlinson has earned a big free-agent contract; the question is if he’ll get it from the Giants. • Leonard Williams: A+. This was the player the Jets thought they were getting with the sixth pick in the 2015 draft. Williams broke through with a career-high 11.5 sacks in his sixth season. Williams has always pressured quarterbacks, but sacks get players paid and he’s now in line for a deal worth $20 million per year. He’s young and durable, which will help the Giants feel comfortable making that type of commitment, although there should be an understanding that his sack production is likely unsustainable. • Incomplete: R.J. McIntosh. The defensive line didn’t suffer any injuries so McIntosh was a healthy scratch all season. OUTSIDE LINEBACKERS • Lorenzo Carter: B. Carter looked like a good fit in Patrick Graham’s defense before tearing his Achilles in Week 5. But there still haven’t been any signs that he’ll ever be a top edge rusher. Carter could be a solid complement to a No. 1 edge rusher, which is a reasonable return for a third-round pick. • Carter Coughlin: B. Injuries at edge rusher forced Coughlin into a bigger role than expected as a rookie. He flashed potential, although the seventh-round pick’s limitations were evident in an expanded role. Coughlin could grow into a Kyler Fackrell type of player. • Kyler Fackrell: B-. Fackrell made a few splash plays early, but he was quiet in the second half of the season before missing four games with a calf injury. The Giants got a decent return on the prove-it deal they gave Fackrell, but he’s not a difference maker. • Markus Golden: B. The coaching staff showed no interest in Golden, dating back to when he sat in free agency until the team applied the seldom used unrestricted free agent tender. Golden was a productive pass rusher in limited opportunities despite being buried behind less accomplished players before a midseason trade to Arizona. • Jabaal Sheard: C+. The Giants needed a legitimate NFL edge defender after injuries and the Golden trade decimated the position. Sheard made a few plays, most notably a late strip sack in a win over the Bengals, but otherwise made minimal impact. • Incomplete: Oshane Ximines, Cam Brown, Niko Lalos, Trent Harris. Ximines had a quiet start before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 4. Brown made a solid impression on special teams and flashed pass rush potential in limited opportunities, but he needs to get bigger to be an impactful player on defense. Lalos turned heads with a pair of takeaways in his first two games, but he didn’t get enough playing time to make a bigger impact. INSIDE LINEBACKERS • Tae Crowder: B. Considering he was Mr. Irrelevant, it was impressive that Crowder started six games next to Blake Martinez at inside linebacker. Crowder showed promise, particularly with his speed. But there’s plenty of room for improvement when it comes to taking on blocks and filling gaps consistently. Giants fans should be careful not to go overboard with expectations for Crowder as happened with Ryan Connelly a year ago. • Devante Downs: C-. It’s hard to understand what the staff saw to make Downs a starter out of training camp. Downs’ performance was what was expected from a player who didn’t play a single defensive snap in first two NFL seasons. Downs needs to be a backup in the future. • Blake Martinez: A. I predicted 140 tackles for Martinez; he was even more productive, finishing third in the league with 151 tackles. There was some skepticism about the three-year, $30.75 million contract the Giants gave Martinez in the offseason, but he was better than expected. In addition to being a tackling machine, Martinez was effective as a blitzer and wasn’t a liability in coverage. Martinez gives the Giants an ultra-reliable leader in the middle of their defense. • David Mayo: C. Mayo shifted back to the reserve role that he’s suited for. The coaching staff oddly tried to use Mayo on the edge at times but he didn’t have the ability to fill that role. • Incomplete: TJ Brunson. Brunson played a handful of special teams snaps in a few games, but mostly was a healthy scratch. CORNERBACKS • James Bradberry: A+. Imagine the Giants defense without Bradberry this season. If the nausea from that thought has passed, you can appreciate the impact Bradberry made in his first season in New York. Bradberry proved capable of eliminating opposing No. 1 receivers, although he wasn’t always asked to do so as the defense grew more zone heavy. Bradberry had three interceptions and 18 passes defensed, which ranked second in the league. Bradberry established himself as a premier cornerback after signing a three-year, $43.5 million contract with the Giants. • Darnay Holmes: B. Like most rookie corners, Holmes struggled early in the season. He started to find his groove before a knee injury cost him three games late in the season. Holmes was flagged too frequently, and his penalties always seemed to come in costly moments. Holmes’ role could be reduced by the Giants’ commitment at safety. • Ryan Lewis: C+. Lewis was signed because he’s a favorite of Patrick Graham. Lewis added some stability to the No. 2 corner spot, but he got beat deep late in losses to Dallas and Philadelphia. Lewis suffered a hamstring injury in Week 8 and missed the rest of the season. He’s best suited as a backup. • Isaac Yiadom: B-. The Giants’ desperation at cornerback prompted a trade of a seventh-round pick to Denver for Yiadom late in camp. Yiadom struggled early in the season before providing some solid play after getting a second chance midway through the season. Yiadom was benched for the season finale after his play regressed. Like Lewis, Yiadom should be viewed as a backup. • Incomplete: Madre Harper, Brandon Williams, Jarren Williams, Corey Ballentine. The Giants’ plan to start Ballentine at No. 2 corner was doomed from the outset and he was benched after two games and then cut in Week 10. SAFETIES • Julian Love: B. Love is the defensive version of Gallman. The coaching staffs in each of the past two seasons have been hesitant to play Love, but he’s been solid when given opportunities. Love filled in admirably twice at cornerback late in the season. He lacks the speed to be a full-time answer at corner, but he should be the ideal backup to Logan Ryan as a defensive back who can fill multiple roles. • Jabrill Peppers: B+. Peppers had the best season of his career, showing flashes reminiscent of Landon Collins when the former Giant was on top of his game. Peppers was a physical presence around the line of scrimmage and a punishing tackler when he lined up ball carriers. Peppers is never going to be great in coverage, but this staff minimized his one-on-one matchups and he seemed more comfortable in the zone-heavy scheme. Peppers was productive as a punt returner and he brings an energy that the defense needs. • Logan Ryan: B+. Ryan earned an A+ in intangibles, serving as a great model for younger players and providing vocal leadership buttressed by a pair of Super Bowl rings. Ryan was extension of coordinator Patrick Graham on the field, while his versatility allowed for varied looks defensively week-to-week. Ryan’s actual play was a bit uneven at times. He displayed a knack for big plays, particularly with forcing turnovers, but his tackling was spotty. • Incomplete: Xavier McKinney, Nate Ebner, Adrian Colbert, Montre Hartage, Sean Chandler. McKinney provided a glimpse of his potential in the final six games after missing the first 10 games of his rookie season with a broken foot. Ebner’s limited defensive playing time reinforced that he should only be a special teamer. SPECIALISTS • Riley Dixon: C. It was a disappointing season for Dixon, who had been consistent in his first two seasons with the Giants. Dixon didn’t have the same knack for pinning opponents deep (9.2 percent of punts for touchbacks this season compared to 2.9 percent in 2019). That decline can partly be attributed to subpar gunners in coverage, but the Giants need Dixon to get back on track. • Graham Gano: A+. Gano was lights out. His lone missed field goal was a 57-yarder in Week 2. He then made a franchise record 30 straight field goals. Gano made 5 of 6 field goals from 50-plus yards making him a weapon for a low-scoring team. • Casey Kreiter: A. Kreiter’s name wasn’t mentioned once all season. That’s evidence of a job well done for a long snapper. COACH/GM • Joe Judge: A-. Since I’m weighing preseason expectations, Judge grades out well. I predicted the Giants would win five games so 6-10 can’t be viewed as a disappointment for Judge. Think about the obstacles he was facing as a first-time head coach in an unprecedented season with a flawed roster. Judge took charge from Day 1 and impressively got players to buy in, even when the team started 1-7. Judge dealt with brushfires — suspending Tate, firing offensive line coach Marc Colombo — but always seemed in control. His game management was sound, although he skewed conservative on fourth downs. The defensive coaching was stellar and it’s clear that Judge and Graham have an excellent working relationship. On the other side, Judge assumes some responsibility for the No. 31 scoring offense and he needs to get that fixed for next season. Judge succeeded in laying a foundation in his first season. The grading curve will get steeper next season when there will be higher expectations for tangible results. • Dave Gettleman: B. Gettleman gets an A+ for free agency, as Bradberry, Martinez, Ryan and Gano were game-changing additions. The draft is harder to assess. Many of the rookies played this season, but none were clear stars. Time will tell on this draft class. Gettleman’s grade is lower than Judge’s since this wasn’t his first season. It’s impossible to separate previous years when assessing a general manager. And the many holes on the roster that Judge had to compensate for is a reflection of the job Gettleman has done in his three years as GM. Co-owner John Mara is encouraged by the working relationship of Gettleman and Judge. Their first year together was promising, but Gettleman needs another strong offseason to overcome the errors of his past.
Alabama Slammers Franchise Report - Year 12: A New Era
Welcome back to year twelve of the Alabama Slammers Franchise Report! Here are the links to the previous versions if you want to catch up (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031). Go ahead and grab some popcorn, this is a long one. We had another great season last year, followed by another disappointing playoff exit. I like where the franchise is at though. We have great fan interest/loyalty, talent at every level of the organization, and no bad contracts. We’re probably going to have to part with a few key contributors this offseason, but that’s bound to happen when you have as much talent as we do. With a few smart moves, we should push closer to a title this year. As with the previous versions, I’ll list the moves I made, the rationale behind those moves, the season results, and the future outlook. Here are the salaries heading into the offseason. \Unless stated otherwise, all players were re-signed to their one-year arbitration estimate* Departures (non-trades): Edwin Aguirre Aguirre spent some time in the majors last year when Romo was injured but wasn’t needed this season. He’s entering minor league free agency, and I don’t think he’s worth keeping on the 40-man, so he probably won’t be back. Josh Berkner Berkner got three shots in the majors and didn’t do much with his opportunities, so I decided to give someone else a chance. He spent the year in AAA. Tim Mehler Mehler is great defensively but just can’t cut it at the plate. He was out of options, so I let him leave as a free agent. He signed a minor league deal with the Rockies. Move #1: Signed Ali Sanchez to a 2/$3m extension. The second year is a team option with a $500k buyout. This move isn’t very exciting, but don’t worry, things will heat up below. Move #2: Slammers Receive: Luis Godoy, $6.4m Cash Brewers Receive: Robby Teeter, Sean Whiteman This move kills three birds with one stone. I cashed out on Teeter while his value was still high, cleared some of the starting pitcher logjam, and added an elite power hitter. Also, the departure of Teeter allows us the ability to build a more versatile roster, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. The Brewers are winning this trade from a straight value perspective, but I’m no longer in the business of trying to win trades. I’m trying to win championships. You can collect all the assets and value contracts in the world, but at the end of the day, you need top end talent to win at the highest level – and Godoy provides that. He has questionable character, but I should have enough leadership to counter his selfish ways. Move #3: Slammers Receive: Edgar Sanchez, Bryn Hill, Caleb Gunther, Omar Taborda, Tim Brackman Athletics Receive: Chris West West might have more potential than any pitcher in the league, but I felt the opportunity to acquire Sanchez was too great to pass up. He’s an elite defender, above average offensively, has durable injury proneness, and has great character. He could anchor the middle of my infield for the next ten years. West might win the next five Cy Youngs, but I’m betting against that considering his low work ethic and the general injury proneness of pitchers. Then to make the deal even better, the Athletics threw in an assortment of high character minor leaguers. There might not be a single player in the bunch that makes the majors, but they’ll at least help provide a better environment for other guys. Move #4: Slammers Receive: Bob Banks, $3m Cash Angels Receive: Fernando Tatis Jr. Why am I getting rid of Tatis for a low-level minor leaguer with a 5% chance of making the majors? You’ll find out when you get to move number six. The Angels signed Tatis to a 5/$237.5m extension about a week after the trade. I don’t see any way that deal ends well for them. Move #5: Slammers Receive: Alan McCarter Rays Receive: Josh Epps, $1.1m Cash At surface level, this trade doesn’t make much sense either, but I needed to clear Epps $10m arbitration estimate for next season. I think Epps is what he is at this point and I’m really not that worried about losing him. MacCarter is a good reliever and replaces Epps as the team prankster. Move #6: Signed free agent Willie Vega to a 7/$190m deal. The last year is a team option with a $2m buyout. This is the driving force behind moves five and six. I fully intended to move on from Vega at the start of the offseason, but after looking at my roster at the start of free agency, I decided he was irreplaceable. He provides gold glove defense, above average offense, and hits from the left side of the plate, which makes balancing lineups much easier. I could’ve had him for much cheaper if I decided to commit last year but this is the price of my indecision. His deal is heavily front loaded and should be movable if things don’t go well later in the contract. Move #7 (Part 1,Part 2,Part 3): Slammers Receive: $13.7m Cash Slammers Lose: Joe Stadler, Randy Macke, Nesty Luna Nothing much to see here, just your annual “prospects for cash” trades. Macke is a solid player but was rule 5 eligible and I didn’t want to waste a 40-man roster spot on him. Move #8: Slammers Receive: $1m Cash Dodgers Receive: Cooper Benson, Sam Lauderdale, Kade Grundy This is just a salary dump. I have enough depth now there’s really no point in keeping Benson and Lauderdale around. I threw in Grundy to get some extra cash. Final Financial Situation: We have about $27m in budget room to start the year, so should be able to finish the season in the green, but I’ll probably trade a few more prospects to get closer to completing the owner goal of finishing with a balance of $20m. I’m also boosting ticket prices from $35 to $40, so that should help as well. Here are the salaries heading into the season. Season Outlook: I’m very interested to see how this season turns out. We’ve been cruising along the past 2-3 years with the same core roster but really shook things up this offseason. I think these moves put us in a better position to win now and in the future, but there’s always the concern I’m just making moves out of boredom. Here are the five things I’m most curious about heading into the season: 1.) Can Vega provide close to what he’s provided the past few years? I didn’t give him that contract in anticipation of him becoming the next Barry Bonds, I just want him to keep doing what he’s doing. If he can do that for another three years, I’ll be happy. 2.) Is MacDonald really a top of the line starting pitcher? He was the best reliever in the league last year and his trade value is sky high. Every team I traded with this offseason valued him as my second-best asset after Chris West. His overall rating is really good, but I’m concerned about his lack of stuff and questionable stamina/hold runners combo. 3.) How does the offense perform after losing our 3-4 hitters from last season? I know I replaced one of them with Godoy, but players tend to struggle when first joining a new team, and we don’t have a second premier middle of the order bat. We’ll mostly be doing an offense by committee approach. 4.) Can Hines handle a full-time starting role? With the departure of Tatis, I’m moving Bernal to third base and starting Hines at first. He’s not a traditional first baseman but he played well last year and has an efficient ratings profile. I’ll be happy if he provides league average offense. 5.) How will the Hopper/Muntner DH platoon fare? Hopper should be an elite leadoff man vs. RHP and Muntner should be solid vs. LHP. I’m hoping Hopper can play a full season if he doesn’t have to play in the field. If things go well, we should win another 100+ games and make a strong push at a title. Batters: Primary Lineupvs. RHPandvs. LHPwhen Healthy (\DH enabled in both leagues, lineup vs. RHP listed below)* DH – Jeff Hopper Other than a day-to-day injury to end the year, Hopper stayed healthy the entire season and played really well. He had an OBP of .370 and provided exactly what I wanted from the leadoff spot. He should be back in the same role next year. 3B – Ernesto Bernal I forgot to mention above, but Bernal signed a 5/$110m in the offseason. He’s an all-star, has high character, durable injury proneness, and is in the prime of his career, so it made a lot of sense to bring him back at this price. He’s been with the organization for ten years and it would be really cool to have him around for ten more. He moved from first to third base this season and made his third all-star team. RF – Luis Godoy Godoy didn’t have the type of year I expected but was still really good. He was an all-star starter and put up 5.1 WAR in just 128 games. I expect him to be much better next season after having a full year to adjust to his new team. He missed the last month of the year with a sprained thumb, but he should be fine going forward. LF – Marcus Flakes Flakes isn’t the second middle of the order bat I dreamed about as a kid, but he did well in the role, hitting 41 home runs and driving in 101 runs. He still has one more year on a minimum scale deal, so he’ll definitely return. SS – Willie Vega Willie Vega: The Fifty Million Dollar Man – That doesn’t really sound appropriate for a guy with 4.6 WAR, but I’m actually very happy with what he did. Him and Sanchez formed an unreal middle infield defensive combo, which resulted in this (major spoilers for the pitcher section). We’re not out of the woods yet with his contract but I think we’ll be good if he performs well again next year. At the end of next season, he’ll only have 4/$87m guaranteed remaining, which should be moveable if need be. 2B – Edgar Sanchez I didn’t realize how much Epps was holding us back defensively until Sanchez came to town. He won his third gold glove and was a huge part of the reason we had a team ERA under 3. His offense was average, but I could see that getting much better the next few seasons. 1B – Jonathan Hines I was hoping Hines would be a league average hitter, and he fell just short of that. I’ll upgrade in the offseason if the right player is available but I’m not going to break the bank. Not every player has to be an all-star. CF – Joey Hudson Hudson had a great year and is really starting to establish himself as one of the better center fielders in the league. He probably deserves to bat higher in the order next season, but I might wait for his baserunning to improve just a bit more. C – Drew Romo It’s been a long time coming, but Romo finally won his first gold glove. He’s been the best defensive catcher in the game for a while, but I don’t play my guys enough to easily rack up awards. I’d rather have them available for the playoffs. He’s an upcoming free agent and his offense is falling off a cliff, but I’m probably going to bring him back. If things go poorly, I’ll replace him midseason. Bench C – Ali Sanchez I don’t expect much from my backup catcher, and Sanchez doesn’t provide much, so I guess everyone was happy with the way his season turned out. I think I’m going to decline his team option and go with the guy that replaced him while he was injured. IF – Manny Monzon Monzon keeps the middle infield defense elite while the starters rest but doesn’t do much on offense. I might give someone else a shot next year. OF – Josh Muntner Muntner served as the primary DH vs. LHP and backed up left and right field against RHPs. He started in 99 games and really didn’t do much with his opportunity, so I guess I was one for two with my DH platoon experiment. Replacements C – Danny Wells Wells filled in for six weeks when Sanchez was injured and didn’t do much worse than the vet. I’m probably going to let him have the backup catcher role next season. OF – Mike Startzel Startzel played well last year but I decided to replace him with a right-handed bat. He was called up when Godoy was injured and started the last month of the year in right field. Pitchers: Pitching Staff when Healthy SP – Pat Dibartolo Dibartolo had another great year, making his third all-star team and finishing fourth in the Cy Young voting. I would love to keep him around until he retires but his ratings have started to slip slightly, and I don’t think he’ll last too long into his thirties. I’ll bring him back for his last arbitration season, then let him walk as a free agent. SP – Gilles Palacios Palacios has come a long way since I traded for him in 2028. He was the all-star game starter and won his first Cy Young. I’ll look to sign him long-term in the offseason. SP – Corey MacDonald I wasn’t sure if MacDonald was good enough to be a top-of-the-line starter, but there’s no doubt about it now – he’s one of the top pitchers in baseball. He made his second all-star game, threw two complete game shutouts, won the pitcher of the month award in June, won the gold glove award, and finished third in the Cy Young voting. With his high character and durability, he should be a good player for a long time. SP – Josh Sheppard Sheppard was the fourth member of our golden pitcher quartet. He made the all-star game and finished second in the Cy Young voting. SP – Jonathan Kelsey Kelsey was decent but I had to demote him in June to make room for my number one prospect. He was called back up when rosters expanded and we went to a six-man rotation. RP – Chris Ryan I mentioned a few years ago that pitchers with Ryan’s profile never seem to reach their potential and it seems like Ryan has followed suit. He’s a solid player but nowhere near as good as his 70 potential suggested a few years back. RP – Steve Bacon Bacon really didn’t pitch enough to properly evaluate. We’ll probably go to an eight-man bullpen next season, and if Bacon is a member of it, we can properly evaluate him then. RP – Alan McCarter McCarter was really good and looks like he has the potential to be even better. Hopefully, his control rounds out next season. RP – Danny Ibarra Ibarra finally gave up his dream of being a starter and accepted his role in the bullpen. He posted almost identical stats as last year and I hope he does the same next season. RP – Justus Evans I wasn’t a big fan of Evans ratings profile but decided to give him a shot since he dominated in AAA last year. He was pretty underwhelming in limited appearances, and probably deserves another look, but he’ll be changing positions next season. Somehow, I didn’t notice he has great batting ratings, especially against lefties, so he’ll be the other half of the DH platoon I’ve been looking for. It’s too bad I disabled two-way players because it’d be nice to have him available as a pitcher in emergencies. RP – Mike Ruhs Ruhs is nothing special but he’s cheap and healthy, so he’ll be back next year. RP – Joe McKinney McKinney is my favorite kind of reliever. He has all the ratings of an elite starting pitcher, minus the stamina. He dominated for the second straight season and will be back again next year. RP – Tommy Noonan Noonan had an FIP of 1.98 and made his first all-star team, but somehow received zero reliever of the year votes. I really don’t see how this is possible since he’s probably the most feared pitcher in all of baseball. He strikes out half the batters he faces, and 60% of those that put the ball in play are hitting it on the ground to the Vega/Sanchez death wall. The voters need to show him some more respect next year. RP – Glen Alcorn I took a flier on Alcorn despite his history of back injuries and he’s paid off in a big way. He had an FIP of 1.86 and won the reliever of the year award. He wants to be a starter but there’s no way he’d survive a full season with his health issues. Replacements SP – Andy Schaffer Schaffer was whitewashing AA early in the year, so I had no choice but to call him up. He pitched great in his 21 starts in the majors and might’ve given me a clean top five in the Cy Young voting if he pitched a full season. Season Results: We continued to put a stranglehold on the division, building a 20-game lead by the halfway point, then cruising the rest of the way. We locked up first place with 22 games remaining, making that our seventh division crown in nine years. This year wasn’t about the regular season though. We’ve had multiple disappointing early round playoff exits the last few years and I’m hoping to break through and win our second title. We doubled down on pitching and defense and made sure to keep everyone as fresh as possible during the regular season. Our injury prevention plan went great for the most part. We had zero pitchers and only two batters spend time on the IL, and one of those batters was a 34-year-old. Unfortunately, one of the batters to miss extended time was the one guy I could least afford to lose. Luis Godoy sprained his thumb in early September and was out through the first round of the playoffs. What luck. Startzel started at RF in place of Godoy to start the playoffs, and Hudson moved up to the number three spot in the lineup. I’m not crazy about either of these options, but it’s the best we’ve got. We went with a playoff rotation of MacDonald, Palacios, Dibartolo, and Schaffer, and moved Sheppard and Kelsey to the bullpen. Justus and Bacon were left off the playoff roster. Our first-round matchup was against the 90-72 Rockies. Their only real player of note was Steve Delaney, but he looks like the kind of guy that can swing a series. Then their offense was balanced and deep, with most players having 55+ home run power. We have more talent, but anything can happen at Coors.. Divisional Series Game 1, Slammers Win 4-2 – We started off strong in game one, getting a combined 15 Ks over nine innings from MacDonald, Noonan, and Alcorn. Then Flakes led the way on offense with 3 RBIs. The game was tied most of the way until his go ahead single in the bottom of the eighth. Divisional Series Game 2, Slammers Win 9-2 – The pitching staff put together another great outing in game two, with Palacios, Alcorn, and Sheppard combining for 15 Ks over nine innings. Flakes led the way on offense with another 3 RBIs. Divisional Series Game 3, Slammers Win 5-2 – I was worried their offense would come to life at Coors but we were able to keep them at bay and win our third straight game. This time it was Dibartolo, Noonan, and McKinney combining for a dominant pitching performance, with 13 Ks over nine innings. Everyone chipped in on offense to produce five runs. Divisional Series Game 4, Rockies Win 8-7 (12) – I knew it was bound to happen at some point and it finally did – the Rockies offense came to life. Alcorn and McKinney both blew save opportunities and Ibarra gave up a walk-off homer in the bottom of the twelfth. Flakes continued his hot series with another 4 RBIs. Divisional Series Game 5, Rockies Win 5-1 – The Rockies continued their offensive surge, taking MacDonald deep three times in four innings. Then Delaney gave them six innings of one run ball. The Rockies have momentum but we’re heading back home with the Cy Young winner scheduled to start game six. I think we’ll be fine. Divisional Series Game 6, Slammers Win 8-2 – Palacios gave up a two-run shot in the first, then him, Ryan, and Kelsey combined for 13 Ks and 0 ER the rest of the way. Flakes was hot again, launching two three-run homers. I was worried our offense would stall out without Godoy, but Flakes put the team on his back, winning series MVP behind his 5 home runs and 17 RBIs. We held serve at home and stole one on the road, with our pitching dominating in each of the wins. Godoy is set to return for game one of the NLCS, so I like our odds the rest of the way. Our next opponent is the 100-62 Nationals. They have the second-best record in baseball and a very talented team. Their offense is led by MVP Doug Bridges and future hall of famer Juan Soto, and the pitching staff features stud starters Clay McAuley and Fabricio Tertlio. This looks like the de facto title series. NLCS Game 1, Slammers Win 7-3 – Godoy made up for lost time in game one, going 3-5 with two homers and 4 RBIs. Then the pitching was solid with great performances from the usual suspects. Dibartolo, Noonan, and Alcorn combined for 11 Ks and 3 ERs over nine innings. NLCS Game 2, Slammers Win 3-1 – Schaffer pitched a gem, giving us seven innings and only allowing one run. Then McKinney came in and closed it down with a two inning save. Godoy hit another homer, while Romo and Hines both had run scoring singles. NLCS Game 3, Slammers Win 3-2 (14) – Whew, what a game. MacDonald and McAuley both went 6.1 innings and gave up two runs, with the last of those coming in the bottom of the seventh. Then no one scored again until the top of the fourteenth when Sanchez hit a go-ahead solo homer. Noonan, Alcorn, McKinney, and Ibarra combined for 7.2 scoreless innings in relief and Godoy hit another two-run homer. NLCS Game 4, Slammers Win 7-2 – This one was over early. We knocked out their starter in the first and cruised the rest of the way. Palacios and Sheppard combined for 9 innings and 2 ERs, and everyone chipped in on offense. We made a huge statement with this series. The Nationals thought they were on the same level as us, but we eviscerated them. Godoy won series MVP with his four home runs and eight RBIs. Up next is the 93-69 Red Sox, led by veteran starting pitcher Nate Pearson. They have a deep and balanced team, but nothing that should give us too many issues. We made a key trade with them last year that netted us Alcorn and Ibarra, while sending out Chang-Hyeok Kim. I bet they wish they could undo that one. World Series Game 1, Slammers Win 3-2 – Game one was a pitching duel between Pearson and Dibartolo, with Dibartolo coming out on top. Dibartolo, Noonan, and Alcorn combined for 14 Ks and 2 ERs over nine innings. Hopper hit a two-run home run and Godoy continued his hot streak with another solo shot. World Series Game 2, Slammers Win 6-2 – The pitching came through again with Schaffer, McKinney, and Ruhs combing for 10 Ks and 2 ERs in nine innings. Things are looking good after two games. World Series Game 3, Red Sox Win 10-8 – Some people say a series doesn’t start until the road team wins a game, so maybe we’re still waiting for this one to kick off. The Red Sox roughed up our pitchers and we lost a shootout late. World Series Game 4, Slammers Win 7-2 – The pitching got back on track in game four with Palacios and Ryan teaming up to allow 2 ERs over nine innings. Flakes had four hits and Bernal drove in three runs. World Series Game 5, Red Sox Win 7-5 – Godoy had a huge game, going 3-3 with 2 home runs, a triple, 2 walks, 4 RBIs, and 2 runs scored, but it wasn’t enough for the victory. The Red Sox got to Dibartolo early and we could never climb back. We’re heading back home and looking to close out the series in game six. World Series Game 6, Slammers Win 11-4 – We scored early and often and took game six in convincing fashion. Godoy provided another 3 RBIs and Schaffer did enough to win. Noonan and Kelsey closed out the last three innings. After five long years we’re World Series champs once again! Godoy had another huge series and won World Series MVP, capping off an amazing postseason run (seriously, check this out). This wasn’t as action packed as our 2027 title run, but I enjoyed it just as much. It was very satisfying watching our pitching and defense squeeze the life out of teams. We had a team ERA of 3.32 over 16 games, which is pretty impressive considering we were playing the best teams in the league. The starters were all excellent and the bullpen was lights out. I bet other teams got tired of seeing “Slammers SP – 6.2 IP, 2 ER; Slammers RP 1 – 1.1 IP, 0 ER, Slammers RP 2 – 1 IP 0 ER.” It was like clockwork. Noonan, Alcorn, and McKinney were particularly impressive. Noonan had an FIP of 0.62 in seven appearances and struck out 23 of the 43 batters he faced. McKinney had an FIP of 0.95 in 9.2 innings and only allowed 6 baserunners. Then Alcorn allowed zero runs in five of his seven appearances. I don’t think I would swap these guys for any other relievers in the league. From everything I’ve written above, it’s pretty obvious that we won this championship with pitching and defense, so I think it’s worth mentioning Vega’s contract again. $50m for 4.6 WAR is terrible value but it’s not always about that. It’s about getting the right players for your team, regardless of how valuable their contracts are. It’s really easy to get caught up in trying to win the $/WAR game, but they don’t give out championships for that – they only give out World Series titles. Here are the rest of the playoff results and MLB standings. Also, I usually don’t mention minor league records since I don’t think they’re overly important, but we had all of our minor league teams finish with a winning record this season. Good job everyone! Top Prospects: We’ve turned in to a starting pitching factory. I can’t get guys to free agency quick enough to make room for the new guys coming up. This is a good problem to have, but I wish I could do as well with developing batters. It just seems so much harder to identify top position players outside of the top ten in the draft, and I can’t develop them as well either. Either way though, the farm is in great shape and should continue to be for years to come. 1.) Eddie Copping Copping might not have the highest upside on the list but he’s the safest bet to make the majors. He had a great year in AA, winning pitcher of the year, and his ratings are pretty much major league ready. He’ll probably start next year at AAA since I have a logjam of starting pitchers. 2.) Chris Dearborn Dearborn has great character, durability, and ratings across the board. He had a good year in A- and will contend for Cy Young awards one day if he reaches his full potential. 3.) Alex Rivera Rivera’s offensive potential has regressed since last year, but his defensive ratings improved. He struggled in A, so will repeat the level next year. Hopefully, I didn’t cause any permanent damage to his development by promoting him too early. 4.) Jose Gutierrez Gutierrez had a monster year in rookie ball and saw his ratings progress nicely since last season. If his catcher ability can make it to 65-70, he’ll be my starting catcher one day. 5.) Chris Brown Brown was my first-round selection in this year’s draft. He has below average stamina and hold runners, but all of his other potential ratings are elite. He performed well in rookie ball, but I might give him another year there to improve his control. 6.) Chris Larkin Larkin continued his steady ascent through the system, posting a good year in A+ and seeing his ratings improve since last season. He’ll start next year in AA and should be ready for the majors sooner than later. 7.) Edwin Mireles Mireles had a solid year in A+ but missed a lot of time to injury. He’ll start next season in AA, but I won’t hesitate to trade him if the right deal comes along. Here are his ratings from last season. 8.) Bobby Butler I still don’t trust Butler and his normal injury proneness, but his talent is undeniable. His ratings have improved across the board since last season and he looks ready for promotion to AA. Like Mireles, I’ll trade him if the right deal comes along. 9.) Luis Arguello If you’ve been paying close attention, you might’ve noticed Arguello is the fourth starting pitcher in the top nine from the 2030 draft. He doesn’t have the same upside as the other guys but he’s a pretty safe bet to be a back of the rotation starter, and if his movement improves, he could be elite. He’ll start next season at A+. 10.) Josh McBride McBride’s skills have rounded out since last year and he looks ready for the majors. I doubt he’ll ever be a star, but there’s definitely value in a guy that can competently play eight positions. Honorable mentions: Joe Poffenberger Poffenberger looks like the real deal but I’m always skeptical of guys with normal injury proneness and no positive character attributes. He’ll start next season at A, and we’ll find out more about him there. Omar Taborda I would’ve been foaming at the mouth to get Taborda in the starting lineup a few years ago but Vega and Sanchez have the middle infield on lock for the next several seasons. He might replace Monzon as the utility infielder next year, but it probably makes more sense to trade him while his value is highest. Steve Flores Flores made the list two years ago due to a lack of better options, but I think he’s a legitimate prospect now. He might not ever bat his weight, but he could be one of the greatest defensive shortstops of all time. I’m hoping his high character allows his offensive skills to improve the next few years. Ray Zaragoza I had every intention of trading Zaragoza after his season ending injury last year but there really wasn’t much interest in him. Unfortunately, he suffered another season ending injury in his first game back this year, so I doubt there will be any more interest in him now. I think I’m going to force start him as a reliever so he has a chance to make the majors in some capacity. Promoted to MLB: Andy Schaffer Dropped from list: Josh Boston So, a low character guy is fizzling out, guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. Here are his ratings from last year. Future Outlook: We’re in amazing position going forward. We just won the World Series, have the top four Cy Young award vote getters, have the ability to bring back everyone, and could probably even bring in another MVP caliber player. Then for good measure, we also have a great farm system. The rest of division is looking up in awe. So, where do we go from here? It’s really fun racking up championships but it can get kind of boring after a while. I know I don’t have enough titles to be complaining about boredom yet, but we look like we’re trending in that direction. I’m thinking about making some league wide adjustments to shake things up. Here are the changes I’m considering this offseason: 1.) Re-align the Divisions I loved the rivalry with the Braves when I first started the franchise, but we’ve kind of got our foot on their necks at the moment, and I don’t see them getting back up anytime soon. We’ve established such a strong position in the division it’s almost impossible for them to make the playoffs, and with every passing year their fan interest/loyalty gets worse and the gap between us and them only grows larger. The Cardinals are in a similar situation, and the Marlins might as well be a minor league team. I’m thinking about re-aligning the divisions based on winning percentages from the last twelve years, putting the top four teams in one division, the next four teams in another, and so on. This would give teams like the Marlins a chance to make the playoffs and make it where teams like ours can’t put a long-term strangle hold on a division. I could re-align every ten years or so to make sure no one gets too strong of a position. 2.) Expand the Playoffs This is the simplest change I could make but the one I like least. We currently have 32 teams in the league and eight of them make the playoffs, so it really feels like an accomplishment to make it and the playoff bracket sets up perfectly. If we added two wildcards to each division, we’d need to give two teams in each conference a bye, which isn’t somethings I’m crazy about doing. Then if we added four wildcards, or let the top two from each division qualify, it would really diminish the regular season. I seriously doubt I go this route. 3.) Eliminate Divisions This is an appealing option, but I’ve had issues with it in the past. Basically, it becomes too easy to make the playoffs because you don’t have to worry about a juggernaut appearing in your division. If there’s a 110-win team in the league, who cares, you’ll still make the playoffs with 100 wins, so you can really let off the gas during the regular season. I might give it another try though. 4.) Expand the League This is mostly a temporary solution, but it could make things more difficult in the short term. I have way too many players to protect in an expansion draft, so would definitely lose some depth. I might do this along with re-alignment, but it’s not a permanent balancing solution. 5.) Add Promotion and Relegation I think this is the best route to giving everyone a chance at winning but it would require some pretty radical changes to the league. Here are some of the things I would have to figure out: Who starts out in the lower league? Do I introduce expansion teams at the same time? How many teams make the playoffs? How many teams are promoted/relegated each year? How do I do the financials? Then there are probably another thirty things I haven’t thought of yet. This is probably what I should do, but I don’t know if I’m ready to make that leap yet. Here is the budget and salaries heading into the offseason.
Long-standing PvP (GBL) Bugs that are unaddressed; not listed in the Known Issues page
I posted this list in the other thread but no reply other than a mod-bot telling me to clean up my language. In any case... PvP is riddled with bugs, many of them outright game/match breaking. In the other thread, I only saw 2-3 people mention anything about PvP bugs so I wanted to make a new thread for GBL specifically.
Many of these are NOT lag related, but a small amount of these might be able to be attributed to small lag spikes or packet loss, but I think most the fault is actually on Niantic's end. My reasoning is that I tried my own WiFi, the WiFi of 3 friends, over phone data, different mobile devices - same bugs occur most any time of day on any [Android] device I played on. I setup a ping from my PC to hit my router, modem, and direct PC to phone to try to pinpoint any local lag so anything caused by client lag I did not list below (e.g. you being unable to attack while the opponent wails on you is YOUR connection problem, and not listed below).
Given how high octane and how razor thin many matches are won by 1-3 taps, "smaller" bugs such as (3) and (4) still cause the dramatic effect of eating a loss instead of taking a win. These bugs are extremely frustrating to someone that pretty much only plays Pokemon Go for the battling.
Bug 1: Starting the match with 0.5 quick attack speed.
Restart the game to fix. Otherwise all subsequent matches will suffer from this bug
Repro rate is sometimes 0/25, sometimes ~3/25. Anecdotally this usually happens (though not exclusively) when I'm playing between 11pm-4am, and I highly suspect it has something to do with server updates since it most often happens around midnight and after I restart the game there are new notifications or items in the shop
Impact: Auto-loss.
Bug 2: Part way through a battle, suddenly start doing 0.5 quick attack speed
Same as Bug 1, just occurs MIDWAY through the battle even if all was normal beforehand
Impact: If it happens any time in the first 90% of the fight, it's an auto-loss. If it happens at the very tail end of a fight, you might survive if your advantage was already very high and winning was only a few taps away
Bug 3: Trying to use charge attack only for 2-3 more quick attacks to come out
Often allows your opponent to fire off a charge they otherwise would not have got. Obviously screws with timings, the flow of battle, and can cause losses
I notice this 2-ish times per 5 battle set, so 10/25? Occurs at any time, not only at critical moments
Impact: Ranges from inconsequential, to altering the flow of the match (potentially the outcome changes as shields must be used to compensate or you don't get your charge attack and lose a Pokemon instead of the enemy losing a pokemon), or in some cases it happens during absolute critical moments and causes a loss
Bug 4: Your Pokemon failing to switch out on time
Makes you eat 2-3 more quick attacks and sometimes an enemy charge you were trying to absorb with a different Pokemon
I suspect the same root cause as Bug (3) but the user path is less frequent
Impact: Same as Bug 3.
Bug 5: Switch commands and enemy charges - unpredictable behaviour
Inputting a switch command slightly before or near the same time your opponent uses a charge move will sometimes cause your Pokemon to switch out AUTOMATICALLY AFTER the enemy's charge attack is done
This could be an intentional buffer but it's very inconsistent because sometimes your Pokemon will NOT switch out automatically after the enemy charge is over
Impact: Sometimes you're actually saved by this, sometimes you lose such an advantage that the match is basically over for you. Combo this bug with Bug 4 and it's extremely frustrating to have to shield (lose shield advantage), think to yourself "well it's better if i fight it out now", only for you to automatically lose your switch advantage. Basically match-over.
Bug 6A: Charge Attack priority not being respected
In a charge move draw scenario, when PokémonA has two charges stacked and has a higher attack stat, sometimes PokemonA can shoot off both its charges before PokémonB gets their turn
Given the above conditions, the sequence should always be A > B > A. This situation doesn't happen often but I'm betting the repro-rate is pretty high
Bug 6B: Charge Attack priority not being respected
In a charge move draw scenario, PokemonA can win the first draw but somehow lose the next draw to PokemonB. The mechanic is supposed to be higher attack stat always wins in a timing draw, so PokemonB should never be able to go first in this scenario
Most easily noticeable during mirror matches
Bug 6C: Charge Attack priority not being respected
In a charge move draw scenario, PokemonA clearly has the higher Attack value (e.g. Gengar vs Swampert) yet PokemonB goes first
You can tell this bug occurs because without further taps, your previously buffered charge attack will fire immediately after the enemy's did (indicating a draw scenario)
Probably the same root cause as Bug 6B and maybe 6A
Impact for 6ABC: Wildly unpredictable gameplay, your 'correct' judgments are invalidated and you're at a disadvantage now or imminent loss. Can obviously swing the match both ways but I'd just prefer the expected predictable outcomes, please.
Bug 7: Charge attacks does 0 damage unshielded
This is NOT referring to a similar visual bug. A charge attack can actually do 0 damage
This is very rare, I've seen it ~3-4 times over ~1800 battles. When it does happen it's when you start the charge sequence, finish the mini-game, but the Pokemon doesn't fire the charge attack until ~15-20 seconds after
I'm 90% sure it has to do with lag, but I'm unsure if it's server lag, PlayerA's lag, or PlayerB's lag
Impact: Can cause a disadvantage or a loss depending on how far along the match is when it happens. But again, this is extremely rare so there are bigger bugs to fry
Bug 8: Enemy charge attack doing ~2x damage
Also extremely rare, only have seen it twice but am 100% sure it happened and there were no stat modifiers at play
The first time I saw it was a few months ago, Charizard Blast-Burning (NOT Overheating) my 75% HP Alolan Golem for a kill. I thought maybe I misread my HP values and forgot about it until...
A couple weeks ago in an Umbreon mirror, the enemy's first Last Resort did 2x damage on my Umbreon. Their subsequent LR's did normal 1x damage
Impact: Can cause a disadvantage or a loss depending on how far along the match is when it happens. But again, this is extremely rare so there are bigger bugs to fry
Bug 9: Faded Pokeball icons can become out of sync when Users do near-death switching
Sometimes a Pokemon you thought you killed gets switched in, back from the "dead", even though there's clearly only 1 Pokeball intended for the enemy Pokemon that just got switched out
OR all 3 Icons are greyed out, indicating you've won, but a "dead" Pokemon has come back with 1-4 quick attacks worth of life remaining
For enemy icons this happens anywhere from 0/25 to as high as 5/25. For my own icons, I've only seen this once ever and was surprised when my previously thought dead Dragonite appeared on the field
Impact: Surprise Pokemon like this often - but not always - cause a loss. Scenario 1: You stop tapping the screen because you think the match is over, then the 'zombie' Pokemon appears, taps you 2-3 times and you die, or got off an extra charge attack and you die. Scenario 2: Imagine tapping to fire off your final charge attack to seel the win, then - SURPRISE - a 'zombie' Pokemon switches in to absorb your attack. Very well-timed by the enemy, but impossible for you to know they had this option. Knowing the former scenario, you can't stop tapping which opens you up to the latter scenario.
Bug 10: Quitting match early [very rarely] causes a UI issue where you're constantly brought back to the backend battle arena
I've had this happen 3 or 4 times to me. Might have something to do with closing your game down as your final Pokemon is about to faint. Just a guess based off memory though
Impact: Need to reinstall your game. Further battles won't start, you'll just be constantly brought to the backend battle arena before you can select your Pokemon. I tried 'resetting' this bad state by going into Pokemon menu, Item Backpack, Friends list, but the game will just keep taking you back to the arena. Clearing game-data also did not work. Re-install was in fact required.
Bug 11: Quick attack animations can become out of sync, said animations can be 'missed'
Can't put an exact repro number on this but thankfully I'd say it's "less often" than often. Though it does tend to happen especially around charge attack camera changes, and with quicker-animated quick attacks
Impact: It becomes difficult to know enemy energy levels. More often occurs during camera switch sequences, so you don't know if only 3 mud shots happened or 5, or if 5 bubbles happened or 6, etc. You may need to 'safety' shield yourself against something you could have easily tanked, changing the flow (and potentially the outcome) of the match
Bug 12: Starting a queue but no cancel button appears, or appears too late for you to use it
Can't put a number on this either but I want to say 1/5 times or 1/2 times you queue up. I rarely mis-select my team so I don't notice this bug as much
Impact: If you accidentally queue you can be forced into a battle without your desired line up. IF I realized I've done this, I immediately close the app as this guarantees you won't start the next battle
Bug 13: Server lag that freezes both Pokemon, then rapidly unloads all the actions both players performed during that lag window
E.g. Servers lag 5 seconds, all the quick taps both players are doing are getting stored and will rapidly execute in a 1~2 window
Yes this is SERVER lag as if it were either you or your opponent, the match would freeze temporarily, then let the non-lagger attack the lagger freely
Impact: Obviously this screws with any timing maneuver either player had up their sleeve. In fact, when I see this happen, I start queuing up OTHER commands I want to happen, so I use this server lag as an advantage (e.g. start tapping for a charge or a switch)
Bug 14: Very rarely, the enemy's beginning throw-in animation just keeps repeating until the battle is over
Strictly a visual bug, and again is pretty rare. Only seen twice
Impact: You can't tell what quick attacks are coming or if the opponent is doing a legit switch.
Bug 15: Tapping to switch out your Pokemon while a charge attack is occurring will make it seem like no damage was dealt
Strictly a visual bug. Damage was dealt but the life bar of the switched-in Pokemon appears before you see the damage take on the previous Pokemon
Impact: None. Maybe mental impact if you weren't aware of this bug and you think your opponent got away free.
MAYBE BUG 16: POTENTIALLY life enemy life bars being out of sync
Could be related to bug (9) but I swear sometimes a Pokemon that switched out will sometimes come back in with more health than I remember them exiting with. Since I'm not 100% sure on this I won't consider it 'real' unless someone corroborates.
Impact: If a real bug, can range from game losing (you think the enemy has less life on remaining Pokemon, and use that false information for decisions) or irrelevant
MAYBE BUG 17: POTENTIALLY your selected Pokemon line up not making it into the battle, instead getting the garbage "recommended" line up
I've seen this happen 6ish times but I'm not 100% it's not my own mistake. I'm pretty sure it's not my mistake but I'll treat this as not 'real' unless someone corroborates.
Impact: If a real bug, can cause a loss (sub-optimal to hot-garbage team selected for you) or you can tough it out and still maybe win
There you have it. As mentioned before, battles are high octane and can be won/lost on a razor's margin. As someone who plays Pokemon solely for battling, it is extremely frustrating that these bugs exist even AFTER the GBL 'revamp'. Now stack these bugs onto requiring Elite Charge TMs to be competitive most of the time (https://gamepress.gg/pokemongo/problem-legacy-moves <-- not my article), the fact you gotta GRIND HARD for dust and candies and the exact right Pokemon to build or adjust your team, I have to say that the game overall is not worth it. I very much intend to quit after this GBL season is over and I feel very cheated I spent money on those damn community day boxes to obtain those Elite Charge TMs (and let's be honest, that's the only reason to plunk down those 1400 coins).
For some details about me: Started PoGo in 2016 for a few months, never did any hardcore grinding or GPS cheating back then, then stopped until I got back into PoGo very early September 2020 and had basically nothing useful for PvP. Grinded HARD from level 26-38 between then and now (lost motivation when they announced Legacy level 40 since I would have needed 250k xp/day to make it) to make Pokemon worthy of GBL. My current Great League win rate was 60% on the dot, and honestly probably would've been 66-70% if not for the above bugs. Ultra Premier league I'm not ashamed to say I am sucking in and my win rate has tanked to 56.75% while I try to figure out a good team. Matches played is just over 1800.
If any of the above bugs are "as designed", by all means call them out. However, I will re-iterate I'm positive most of them aren't, and while some may be caused by minute lag factors, they can't all be explained away and perhaps at the very least Niantic should put in some lag fail-safes.
Edited in: Bugs noted from other Users From AmericanRL
Matches that for some reason start without the 3-2-1 countdown. If you get a bad lead, you are inevitably eating some undesired fast moves; (OP note: I have definitely seen this multiple times. I've also seen it where PlayerA starts ~1 second later than PlayerB, and vice versa)
Charged moves going through the shield (this is the most infuriating) (OP note: Can't say I've seen this personally but have read in other threads about it)
From MegaSharkReddit
Frame skipping (not lag) in most devices that were upgraded from Android 9 to Android 10 despite having powerful enough SoCs (e.g., Snapdragon 845).
From IngcognitoGuy666
'Error 6' matchmaking bug
In the start of a battle, both users receive Error 6, triggering the 'white screen of death'. Users must reboot the game and return to the map; however, while on map, the Error 6 message appears every few seconds, and attempts to access GBL during this time fails (throwing you back to map). This bug disappears on its own (after 15–30 min), and players may be able to get rid of it by battling another Trainer or PvE character. It's still annoying having to deal with it occasionally.
This is somewhat of a Part 2 in what’s turning out to be a series of posts analyzing various aspects of Tottenham’s players and their attacking data. See my first post discussing xG and xA of players over the past 5 seasons here. In this post, I’ll be looking at a few players’ shot statistics, focusing mainly on shot location and other variables like which foot they use and their respective xG. Tl;dr: Son is truly two-footed, and that is probably what makes him such a deadly finisher. Dele creates/has much better chances on his left foot than right foot but takes few shots with his left. Kane loves March 5th, but August seriously hates him. THE DATA I used a python script to gather a host of shot data from understat.com, a website that compiles a ton of information on leagues, teams, and players throughout the seasons. To save space, please refer to my original post about how I gathered data. I use the same method here. The data includes variables for every shot a player has taken in the leagues that Understat covers (Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Russian Premier League). I gathered shots for Harry Kane, Son Heung-Min, Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura, Steven Bergwijn, Dele Alli, Giovanni Lo Celso, Eric Dier, and Toby Alderweireld. I gathered the main shot-takers as well as Dier and Alderweireld, 2 of our defenders who join the attack and come up for corners. I only pulled the shots for players both here last season at minimum and still here this season, so players like Eriksen and Fernando Llorente’s Hip have been excluded. The dataset only includes Premier League matches, so no Champions league (… or EuropaL…) shots are included. Finally, after pulling the data, I added in what team the player was on for each shot, as the raw data only includes home and away teams, without specifying exactly what team the shot is foagainst. While Kane’s only club covered in the sample is Tottenham, players like Lo Celso, Son, and Lucas have played for several teams. I then filtered out other teams to only include shots taken while playing for Spurs. This is partially because I’m a huge Spurs supporter and am curious about our shot statistics, and also because it’s good practice in statistics to control for any possible outside variables, like teammates on different teams that only a single player in the sample was receiving passes from. Once I cleaned up the data, I imported it into Tableau for easy visualization and storytelling. I used JMP to perform some t-tests for analysis later on, which is basically checking to see if 2 means are statistically different from each other or if there’s not really a true difference between them. The key variables in this analysis are the X and Y coordinates of the shots. Understat has assigned an X and Y number to every shot, which is where the player took the shot from on the pitch. Visualizing a football pitch, with the team attacking from left to right, with the attacking team’s goal line at x = 0, and the opposing team’s goal line at x = 1. The right-side touchline of the pitch is at y = 0, and the left-side touchline is at y = 1. So, the center spot is located at (0.5, 0.5), and the center of the goal you’re shooting on is at (1, 0.5). I hope that makes sense. One limitation of the data is that the coordinates are on a square, but pitches are rectangles. This isn’t a major issue, but it means that a 0.1 change in X is not the same distance, in meters, as a 0.1 change in Y. Also important to note is the fact that almost all Premier League pitches have different dimensions, even if by just a few yards. To best reconcile this, I averaged out the distance from goal-line to goal-line (X axis) and from touchline to touchline (Y axis) of the 2019-20 grounds. I next calculated at what coordinates to add the 18-yard box and 6-yard box lines to. Since all grounds have the same dimensions for these boxes, that isn’t a major problem. In the visualizations, the 18-yard box is solid gray, and the 6-yard box is dashed gray. I limit the views to the attacking half of the pitch for easy comparison. Only a couple of Kane’s and one of Lucas’ shots are from their own half (all misses). I validated shot locations by watching a number of Son, Kane, and Dele goals on footballia.net. I watched 5 each of their goals, noted the locations they shot from, and then located them in my sample. They were very accurate, so I have confidence enough in the (x,y) coordinates coding. ANALYSIS Please follow this link here to play around with this data yourself on Tableau Public. I can’t figure out how to embed a Tableau Viz into a Reddit post. The image below shows the full sample—all Spurs shots for all players I downloaded. Naturally, this view doesn’t show much at all. We can see that there are many goals right in front of the net, and they all have high xG. And we can see that the further away from the goal you get, the fewer shots there are. One thing I like about this Viz is how few shots Spurs take on the right or left side of the 18-yard box. But one of these shots is also my favorite-ever goal, which I’ll get to later on. All shots in the sample. Color is the result (goal, saved, etc.) and size of the circle is xG. I really want to know what the “bald patch” around (0.85, 0.6) is… From here, we can filter down by various variables, such as player. First, let’s look at a few players’ shot maps. Again, head over to my Tableau post to see all of these graphics and ones I didn’t screenshot—they’re interactive too. Kane's shot map Son's shot map Dele's shot map Lamela's shot map Dier's shot map Alderweireld' shot map I don’t know about you, but I love looking at these maps. I’ve added a lot of information to each data point on Tableau, such as date; the team it was against; whether it was from a free kick, open play, corner, etc.; and the player who delivered the last pass before the shot. You can also highlight only the Result of the shot. Of course, just looking at a shot map blindly gives little insight. We need to dig a little deeper into the data. First, I looked at average shot location, starting with the y-axis. This will show us which side of the pitch a player tends to take shots from. Kane’s average shot location on the Y-axis (left/right side of the pitch) is 0.5052—almost perfectly in the middle, so he doesn’t favor one side or the other. And his median location is exactly 0.5000, which is legitimately creepy. Since Kane’s the only striker in the group, naturally Son, Dele, and Bergwijn shoot more from the left, while Lo Celso, Lamela, and Lucas shoot more from the right. Dier and Alderweireld shoot more from the right, which makes sense since Dier has was used a bit as a right-sided midfielder and occasionally as a right back when he joined, and Toby almost exclusively plays as the right-sided CB. Toby has an average shot closer to the right touchline than Dier, which could show how Dier has played a fair bit at left-sided CB and as a central holding midfielder. Average Y-axis location for each player’s shots. Kane does not favor a side to strike from. Next, I dug into each player’s shot data based on the foot they shot with. I looked at the average xG of every shot taken, the goal conversion rate (goals/total shots), and the total number of shots taken with each foot. This data, shown in the table below—coupled with shot locations—is the meat of my analysis. Average xG for each shot by foot, goal%, and total shots taken for selected players. This table is where I first saw something major in the data: Dele needs to use his left foot much more often. His average xG for all left-foot shots is 0.2644, much greater than 0.1208 average with his right. In fact, this is statistically significant at the 95% level (t-test p-value of 0.0006), which means that there’s less than a 5% chance that this big of a difference is random. Basically, it’s almost a given that Dele will have a higher xG with left-foot shots than right (on average). Further, Dele has a 14.71% conversion rate with his left, and 16.46% with his right. This is an insignificant difference (p-value of 0.7915) from 34 left-footed shots and 237 right, so we can conclude that Dele should take more shots with his left foot. It is probable that defenders know he favors his right, so his high left-foot xG could be due to him putting defenders off by shifting onto his left, giving himself a much better look at goal (I should note that Lamela, who is notorious for only using his left foot, does not exhibit this with right-foot shots. Dele’s left-foot xG are in fact crazy). Last, it is important to note that no other player in the sample had a statistically significant difference between left- and right-foot average xG—the quality of their chances is the same on their right- or left foot. This is something unique to Dele in this sample. Next, let’s look at Son. Son is known for having no weak foot—and his shot data backs that up. Son’s average xG on left-foot shots is 0.1148, and it’s 0.1137 for right-foot. An insignificant difference of only 0.011! He also converts 16.37% of left-foot and 17.62% of right-foot shots, again insignificant. He uses whichever foot would be the best for the situation, and his shot map backs that up. Outside the box, he prefers his left foot on the right side of the pitch, and his right foot on the left side. This is good practice (unless you’re trivela-master Quaresma or Le Cut Inside Man), so you can bend it into the net out of the keeper’s reach. Inside the box, Son tends to use his right foot on the right side, and left foot on the left side. Again, this is good practice because you can typically get a much better shot off when you’re running at the goal by using the foot of the side of net you’re on (right foot for right side of goal, and vice versa). Since we discussed Dele’s right vs left xG and how Son chooses the best foot for the situation he’s in, let’s dive further into Dele, Son, Kane, and Lamela’s use of their feet. These are—or in Dele’s current form, were—some of Spurs’ main attackers of the past 5 seasons or so (who are still here). We know Son uses the best foot for the situation. We can further see that that is in fact the case when we add a trend line to his right- and left-foot shot maps. On his right-foot shot map, we see a “negative” trend (slope = -0.69 nice), which is what we want to see, given that outside the box you typically want to use your right foot on the left side of the pitch, and closer inside the box you want to use your right foot on the right side of the pitch. Lamela has a very similar trend (slope = -0.91). Kane has a less pronounced trend than Son and Lamela, but still a distinct shape (slope = -0.38). Dele’s line, however, is relatively flat (slope = -0.12). So, while he exhibits this trend, you can see how he’s using his right foot in many scenarios where he might be better served using his left. Shot map and trend line for Right Foot shots Looking now at left-foot shot maps, we want to see a “positive” trend line, a mirror of the right-foot map. Son, as we would expect from the ambipedal maestro, exhibits this perfectly (slope = 1.18). Kane’s is again a solid trend (slope = 0.55), yet not as pronounced as Son’s; same with Lamela (slope = 0.29). Now look at Dele’s… It is actually the exact opposite from what we might “want” to see. The slope here (slope = -0.35) is strangely greater than his right-foot trend line. I want to walk you through my thought process regarding this data: Shot map and trend line for Left Foot shots First, it appeared that Dele should take many of these shots with his right foot, and I figured maybe this is the reason he’s been under-performing of late. However, he is a fundamentally different player than Kane and Son, so his shots from close to the net on the right aren’t usually coming from him running at the keepedefenders, but from being cute and technical from a stopped position in a somewhat-crowded box. From watching him the last few years, he tends to try a few movements in the box to shift his body or open his hips for a pass or shot. Finally, I realized that maybe this explains his abnormal xG with left-foot vs right-foot shots… No matter the scenario, being relatively close to the goal on the right side of the pitch would lead a defender to expect you to either recycle possession or use your right foot to shoot/cross across the face of goal. If Dele shifts it onto his left foot to have a shot (which the defender may not expect since Dele favors his right foot), this could lead to a higher xG shot than a right-foot shot, where the defender could close the angle easily. I’ve noticed that Dele likes to open his hips for a quick pass/shot fairly often, so this would be a perfect opportunity to do so—even if he’s running at the keeper he likes to open up his hips and try to slot it far post. I welcome any comments/discussion on this aspect of Dele’s analysis. I found it very interesting that his left-foot shot map goes against what we “should” see. For further validation, we can compare Lamela’s trend lines (since he and Dele play somewhat similar roles and are both very one-footed). As we saw above, Lamela’s trends follow Son and Kane, so Dele truly is an anomaly with his left foot. Dele if you’re reading this… take more shots with your left foot!!! Somehow your left foot shots are crazy better than your right. Get back to your best, you’ve got this! Now let’s look at Kane in August. Until August 18, 2018, Kane hadn’t scored in the month. Before that day, he had taken 46 shots in August for a combined total of 4.52 xG. And looking at his shot map for these 46 shots, it’s not that he’s taking bad strikes. He has several very high xG shots that were saved or hit the post. Kane truly does not perform well in August. The following table shows all players’ goals, total xG, and number of shots taken in August before Kane scored. Excluding Lucas, who only had one shot, every other player in the sample had scored. In fact, they were all outperforming their xG. August is Kane’s Bane. Kane’s shot map for the month of August. You can see all the non-goals. August hates him. Table showing all goals, total xG, and shots taken in August before the game Kane scored in. Let’s move on past attackers to defenders now. Alderweireld has taken 19 shots on the right side of the pitch behind the 18-yard box; more than anywhere else except the middle of the 18-Yard Box around the penalty spot (which is expected since he comes up for corners). This shows how he pushes up from right-sided CB and has a crack from distance fairly regularly. Not a new insight, but cool to see. Dier has a similar spread of shots on both the right and left side of the pitch, but most of his shots from the right side outside the box are from 2014 to 2016, when he typically played as a right back, right-sided CB, and right-sided mid. Lo Celso, Lucas, and Bergwijn have nothing extremely interesting to call out in detail, but here are a few things I found interesting. First, even though Lucas plays mainly on the right or as main striker, his shot map is almost symmetric. This shows how much he buzzes around the pitch, even when coming in from the right. Second, I thought it was interesting that Lo Celso has only taken two shots with his right foot so far. Both were low xG, and the keeper saved both. Those Argentinians legit have a thing against right feet. Finally, I was surprised to see how few shots Bergwijn has taken in the Prem. I must have rose-tinted glasses on, because I could’ve sworn he had taken over 11 shots. However, he has scored 3/11, a remarkable 27% goal-shot percent. That number is even better when looking at shots on target: 3 goals from 8 shots on target. I bet we see that W celebration more. And finally, all (pseudo-) research includes future research suggestions. I would love to add the entire squad and look at more temporal view of the team—analyzing shot maps across seasons. I also want to look at the last year of Poch’s reign and the first year of Mourinho’s. Since a lot of the key players are still on the team for that span, we can look at the differences between the two managers. However, we should probably look at a random 1-year span of each manager, since managers tend to get sacked for a reason. Last, we could dive further into individual players across time, to see how they develop, and maybe even compare in-form shot maps to out-of-form ones to see if they are unlucky given the xG of their shots or maybe if they’re taking worse shots from bad positions. In conclusion, Spurs took shots, and I put them in Tableau to find fun stuff. INTERESTING TIDBITS AND GOALS I’ve added a few sheets at the end of the Tableau Viz that highlight some interesting/fun/banger goals. Harry Kane has only ever played on March 5th twice, in 2016 and 2017. But he’s scored absolute BANGERS in both games. One beautiful goal against Arsenal from a crazy angle where he celebrated by sprinting faster than ever and ripping off his facemask (still brings me tears of joy… so much pashun), and one absolute show of strength against Everton, where he holds off defenders before belting the ball from deep past the keeper. The next time March 5th falls on a weekend is 2022 and again in 2023. I’ll be calling up the FA to make sure they schedule Spurs to play Saturday 3/5/2022 and Sunday 3/5/2023. I also call out Kane’s infamous “claimed” goal vs Stoke. This had a high xG of 0.4587, so if it was an Eriksen goal, it would’ve had a much lower xG…… I’m sure Kane’s daughter is happy. Vertonghen claimed the world’s second-best assist (behind Tommy Carroll’s assist to Bale) for Son’s Burnley goal. Son’s furthest goal also is fun to see at 0.0147 xG. Dele’s insane flick-turn-volley against Palace gets a nice mention, as does Dier’s first-ever shot in a Spurs shirt: a stoppage time winner away at West Ham on his debut. Dude’s been oozing Big Dick Dier energy since day 1 at Spurs. Sorry for how long this is, it kept getting longer and longer. Thanks to all who made it through! Edited to correct broken links
[Game Preview] Week 8 - Philadelphia Eagles(2-4-1) vs Dallas Cowboys (2-5)
Philadelphia Eagles (2-4-1) vs Dallas Cowboys (2-5)
Sunday Night Football will host the most popular match in its history as the Dallas Cowboys will face off against the Philadelphia Eagles on Prime Time Sunday Night. It will be the 15th Sunday Night meeting between the clubs. The match up however is far from what it was on paper before the season started. Both teams are dealing with injuries all over the field with Dallas dealing with the biggest injury after losing Dak Prescott for the season with a fracture and dislocated ankle. The Cowboys will also be without Andy Dalton who is still in the league’s concussion protocol after an extremely dirty hit by Washington’s Jon Bostic last week. The Eagles are coming off their first division win and getting healthier as rookie WR Jalen Raegor will return to the lineup Sunday Night and give Wentz another speedy threat in the receiving corps just as he is finding rhyme with his other speedy rookie John Hightower. If Wentz can get the passing game, the Eagles should have no problem putting up points against the porous Dallas defense. Even if Eagles RB Miles Sanders can’t go, the Eagles should still be able to move the ball on the ground with Boston Scott and Corey Clement as the Cowboys have the last ranked run defense in the league giving up 178 yards per game on the ground. For Cowboys they will see what they have in 3rd string QB Ben DiNucci. Schwartz will most likely look to pressure the young QB and rattle him into making mistakes. However, if DiNucci can stand in there and avoid the pressure he still has a number of dangerous targets who have the ability to gash the Eagles defense which has been weak this season. The Eagles are heavily favored, but this is an NFCE matchup on a national stage, so we can most likely expect a sloppy game with turnovers that ends closer than it should. Go Birds!
NBC will broadcast Sunday’s game to a national audience. Al Michaels will handle the play-by-play duties and Chris Collinsworth will attempt to provide analysis. Michele Tafoya will report from the sidelines.
Calling the game on 94WIP and the Eagles Radio Network will be Merrill Reese, the NFL’s longest-tenured play-by-play announcer (44th season). Joining Reese in the radio booth will be former Eagles All-Pro wide receiver Mike Quick, while Howard Eskin will report from the sidelines.
Location
Station
Frequency
Philadelphia, PA
WIP-FM
94.1 FM and 610 AM
Allentown, PA
WCTO-FM
96.1 FM
Atlantic City/South Jersey
WENJ-FM
97.3 FM
Levittown, PA
WBCB-AM
1490 AM
Northumberland, PA
WEGH-FM
107.3 FM
Pottsville, PA
WPPA-AM
1360 AM
Reading, PA
WEEU-AM
830 AM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD
WAFL-FM
97.7 FM
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA
WEJL-FM
96.1 FM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD
WAFL-FM
97.7 FM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD
WEJL-AM
630 AM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD
WBAX-AM
1240 AM
Williamsport, PA
WBZD-FM
93.3 FM
Wilmington, DE
WDEL-FM/AM
101.7 FM
York/LancasteHarrisburg, PA
WSOX-FM
96.1 FM
Philadelphia Spanish Radio
Rickie Ricardo and Bill Kulik will handle the broadcast in Spanish on Mega 105.7 FM in Philadelphia and the Eagles Spanish Radio Network.
Location
Station
Frequency
Philadelphia, PA
LA MEGA
105.7 FM
Allentown, PA
WSAN
1470 AM
Atlantic City, NJ
WIBG
1020 AM; 101.3 FM
Dallas Radio
Dallas Cowboys Radio Network Brad Sham returns for his 42nd season in the Dallas Cowboys radio booth. Beloved by Cowboys fans, Sham's award winning play-by-play has provided the soundtrack to many of the most memorable moments in Dallas Cowboys history. Babe Laufenberg returns as the Network's full-time color analyst. A fixture on the sideline, veteran reporter Kristi Scales provides instant updates from the field.
National Radio
Westwood One will broadcast the game nationally with Tom McCarthy handling the play by play and Ross Tucker will provide analysis.
September 30th, 1960 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX. Dallas Cowboys 25 - Philadelphia Eagles 27
Points Leader
The Dallas Cowboys lead the Philadelphia Eagles (2650-2401)
Coaches Record
Doug Pederson: 3-5 against the Cowboys
Mike McCarthy: 4-1 against Eagles
Coaches Head to Head
Doug Pederson vs Mike McCarthy: McCarthy leads 1-0
Quarterback Record
Carson Wentz: Against Cowboys: 2-4
Ben NiDucci: Against Eagles: 0-0
Quarterbacks Head to Head
Carson Wentz vs Ben NiDucci: First Meeting
Records per Stadium
Record @ Lincoln Financial Field: Cowboys lead the Eagles: 10-7
Record @ AT&T Stadium: Series tied: 6-6
Rankings and Last Meeting Information
AP Pro 32 Ranking
Eagles No. 21 - Cowboys No. 29
Record
Eagles: 2-4-1
Cowboys: 2-5
Last Meeting
Sunday, December 29th, 2019
Eagles 17 - Cowboys 9
This was the game Wentz needed to win, his spirit growing after the Eagles rallied on the final drive in two straight weeks to beat the Giants and Redskins and thrust themselves back into the playoff picture. He rallied the Eagles with a pep talk in the tunnel before they hit the field for perhaps the biggest game of the 26-year-old QB's career. Perhaps fueled by the emotional edict, Wentz came out connecting on almost every pass, and a maligned wide receiver group that suffered a season-long case of the drops suddenly made plays. The Eagles took a 17-3 lead when Wentz hit former college quarterback Greg Ward for 24 yards and Miles Sanders scored on a 1-yard run on the final play of the third quarter for a 17-3 lead. Dak Prescott and the Cowboys fought back and Dak had the Cowboys in position to tie the game when Sidney Jones broke up Dak’s 4th down pass to Michael Gallup and Jerry Jones exited the box with 1:15 on the clock as the Eagles prevented Dallas from clinching the division with the win.
Eagles - The Eagles faced off against the division rival Giants who were coming off their first win of the season and were looking for a 2nd for first year coach Joe Judge. The Eagles have moved to 2-4-1 on the season after rallying to defeat the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football, 22-21. After New York gave its best punch of the night -- a 97-yard touchdown drive headlined by Daniel Jones -- to go up 21-10 with just over six minutes to play, Philadelphia scored 12 unanswered points to earn the win. Carson Wentz led a 71-yard touchdown drive to give the Eagles the lead with just 40 seconds to play after connecting with running back Boston Scott on an 18-yard reception. Along with the comeback, he finished his night with 359 yards passing, two touchdowns and one interception while completing passes to eight different Eagles receivers. He also ran for 15 yards and a touchdown. As for the Giants, they mustered just 325 yards of offense and struggle to protect Daniel Jones throughout the contest
Cowboys - The situation went from bad to worse for the Cowboys, who had no answers for Washington's defense. After a goal-line stand on Washington's opening drive, a strip sack by Landon Collins on Andy Dalton led to an early Washington safety. Washington then marched down the field, extending their lead to 9-0 on a 12-yard touchdown run by Antonio Gibson. The Cowboys responded with their only points of the afternoon on a Greg Zuerlein field goal. However, Washington would score two more touchdowns in the second quarter to put the game out of reach for Dallas. With this loss, Dallas dropped to 2-5 on the season. Quarterback Andy Dalton would leave the game in the third quarter following a late hit by Washington linebacker Jon Bostic, who was subsequently ejected. Rookie quarterback Ben DiNucci would finish the game in place of Dalton, who was evaluated for a concussion.
Connections
Eagles S Jalen Mills was born in Dallas and grew up in DeSoto, TX and went to Desoto High School.
Cowboys DB Coach *Al Harris * played 5 seasons for the Eagles from 1998-2002.
Cowboys DT Justin Hamilton played one season for the Eagles in 2017.
Cowboys Assistant Director of Video Stephen Gagliardino began his NFL career in 1995 as a ball boy with the Philadelphia Eagles when he was 16 years old, working training camp and game days at Veterans Stadium. He did that for four seasons before moving over to the Eagles video department in 1999, where he worked full time as an intern for three seasons (1999-2001).
Many Cowboys fans were born and raised in the Greater Philadelphia Area, however have no ties to Dallas nor have ever been to the city.
Eagles DT Fletcher Cox and Cowboys QB Dak Prescott played together at Mississippi State University when Prescott was a red shirt freshman.
Eagles OT Lane Johnson is from Groveton, TX and has family who are Cowboys fans including his grandmother who was told “Shut up, if you want to see 75” while she was rooting for the Cowboys.
2020 Pro Bowlers
Eagles
Cowboys
DT Fletcher Cox (Starter)
OT Tyron Smith (starter)
OG Brandon Brooks (Starter)
RB Ezekiel Elliott
TE Zach Ertz
G Zack Martin (starter)
C Jason Kelce (Starter)
C Travis Fredrick
LS Rick Lavato (Starter)
LB Jalen Smith (1st Alt)
SS Malcom Jenkings (1st Alt)
WR Amari Cooper (1st Alt)
OT Lane Johnson (1st Alt
General
Referee: Jerome Boger
Philadelphia hosts Dallas for the first time since Week 16 of the 2019 season, when the Eagles defeated the Cowboys, 17-9.
Carson Wentz is tied for the 5th-most offensive TDs (10) in the NFL since Week 4, trailing only Tom Brady (13), Kyler Murray (12), Deshaun Watson (11) and Justin Herbert (11).
In 7 games against the Cowboys, Wentz has completed 174-of-255 attempts (68.2%) for 1,713 yards (244.7 ypg), 12 TDs, 2 INTs and a 99.4 rating (100+ rating in 3 of last 4 games vs. Dallas).
Travis Fulgham ranks 2nd among NFL WRs with 357 receiving yards since Week 4 (when he was promoted from the practice squad to the Eagles active roster), behind Robby Anderson (362). Fulgham’s 357 yards are the most by any player in their first 4 games as an Eagle since Terrell Owens in 2004 (364).
Brandon Graham is tied for the 3rd-most sacks in the NFL (6.0), trailing only Myles Garrett (9.0) and Aaron Donald (8.0). Graham ranks 3rd with 9 TFLs, behind T.J. Watt (12) and Vince Williams (12). He is the only NFL player with 6.0+ sacks and 9+ TFLs.
Eagles QB Carson Wentz (970) needs 30 yards for 1000 career rushing yards.
Eagles DT Fletcher Cox (49.5) needs 1 sack to move up to 6th on the Eagles all-time sack list tying DE Greg Brown
Eagles DE Vinny Curry (27.5) needs 2 sacks to move up to 18th on the Eagles all-time sack list tying DT Jerome Brown
Stats to Know
Gingers Under Pressure
Everybody knows there are some fantastical magical forces at play when it comes to redheads. They are a curious bunch. This week, we were almost set to witness the Battle of the Gingers in a matchup of piss-poor teams. Surely, the two were going to be under immense pressure to assert himself as the Supreme Ginger...and thus, we will be discussing the two under pressure, even though Andy is surely going to miss this coming game after a dirty hit to the head against the WFT. In 2020, a season demolishing both Dallas's and Philadelphia's Offensive Lines, not a single other NFL QB has been under pressure as much as Mr. Wentz (118 pressure dropbacks). His pressured dropback % is at least slightly better (36.9%), good for 9th-highest. He's also experienced the 6th-highest sack rate (23.7% of pressured dropbacks resulted in sacks) and the 7th-lowest Completion % when pressured (40.0%), 12th-lowest NFL Rating when pressured (51.0%), and 9th-lowest Adjusted Completion % (59.7%). Meanwhile, Sir Dalton in limited snaps thus far has done something spectacular - he has a 100.00% Adjusted Completion % when under pressure (8 completions on 17 attempts and 72 pressure dropbacks), which PFF defines as the % of aimed passes thrown on target (completions + drops / aimed). 8 completions for 58 yards and 1 TD, spectacular! While all 4 NFCE teams' Offensive Lines feature in the top-10 league wide for most pressures allowed, at least Dallas's per-snap Pass Block Efficiency rating is borderline top third, while the Eagles are 2nd-worst in both metrics. And here enters QB Ben DiNucci. Good luck. The question of Ginger Supremacy will have to wait for another day.
Matchups to Watch
Eagles Defensive Line vs what is left of the Cowboys Offensive line
This has been one of the premier matchups in football over the last few seasons, however it is a shell of what it once was due to injuries. The last few years the Cowboys had one of the best offensive lines in football, but they lost one of their best players in the offseason when Travis Fredrick retired for health reasons after missing 2018 with Guillain-Barré syndrome and returning to play last year. His replacement Joe Looney is currently on the IR and could return this week, though a more likely return date for him is week 9. The Cowboys are also missing starting RT La’el Collins who started the season on the IR for his hip, but later needed season ending surgery and All-Pro Tyron Smith recently underwent season ending neck surgery. Smith’s replacement Brandon Knight recently underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and landed on the IR. The Eagles DL which has been one of the strengths of the team this season should feast. Brandon Graham, who is tied for 3rd in the league with 6 sacks, is currently slated to go up against an undrafted rookie and Fletcher Cox is slated to go up against a rookie 4th round pick. This is one of the best DLs in the league vs one of the worst OLs. The Eagles DL need to take advantage of this matchup and pressure rookie QB Ben DiNucci into making mistakes.
Darius Slay vs Amari Cooper
These games are the reason the Eagles went out and acquired Slay this offseason. In four games since Amari Cooper has arrived in Dallas he has torched the Eagles secondary with 25 catches for 422 yards and 5 TDs. According to Mike Clay, Slay and Cooper have faced off twice before while Slay was in Detriot, first in 2015 where Slay covered Cooper on 20 of 27 routes limiting Cooper to 0 catches on 3 targets in the game. Slay faced Cooper against last season where he shadowed Cooper on 26 of his 30 routes limiting him to 3 catches on 8 targets for 38 yards. Both players are having great seasons as Cooper is on pace for 1300 yards, though most of those were with Dak Prescott in the lineup and Slay has been as advertised shutdown opposing number 1s on a weekly basis. If Slay can shut down Cooper it will limit DiNucci’s to Gallup and Lamb who are both also extremely explosive, but taking away one of those weapons for the rookie QB will be huge and could force him into mistakes on plays where Cooper is the first read.
Eagles Rushing Attack vs the Dallas “run defense”
Unfortunately for the Eagles, it looks like Miles Sanders will miss his second straight week with a sprained MCL, which I am sure he is bummed about because he could have had a huge day vs a run defense ranked dead last giving up 178.3 yards a game. Last week the Redskins had more rushing yards in the first half than they have all season vs Dallas and Redskins RB Antonio Gibson had a career day. With Sanders out the Eagles will rely on RBs Boston Scott and Corey Clement who have not had the same success as Sanders on the ground this season. Clement has not been the same since an injury in 2018 which caused him to miss most the season and the 5’8 Scott is more of a change of pace back, but both have speed and can catch the ball out of the backfield. If the Eagles get the run game going, I don’t see Dallas being able to stop this offense as the running game will set up play-action-pass and RPOs which have caused the Dallas secondary to bite this season and allow for big plays. This could be especially dangerous with the return of Jalen Raegor who can fly. Raegor who is always dangerous with the ball in his hands may see a couple of runs himself on a jet sweep or a toss play.
Special thanks abenyishay for his help in creating this Game Preview.
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