NBA scores, highlights: Celtics make 19-point comeback vs. Grizzlies; Warriors take down Trail Blazers

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2019 Super Bowl odds: Simulations say title likely coming down to Saints, Rams, Patriots and Chiefs

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Last week was, to put it mildly, a weird week for simulations to try to comb through. The Ravens lost to the Chiefs for their first “L” in four weeks, but it wasn’t a “bad” loss per se. The Patriots lost on a miracle lateral that works one out of 100,000 times. The Saints beat the Buccaneers but didn’t look particularly clean in doing so. And the Rams lost to the Bears in a game that their offense would undoubtedly very much like to forget. And those are just some of the contenders. Beyond that, the Texans had their winning streak snapped, the Chargers had a less-than-emphatic win over the Bengals , and the Steelers and Panthers both continued their respective slides. As such, the Saints saw a significant jump in their percentages, almost by default. It took them a half to get going against the Bucs, but a win is a win. The Rams took a hit to their simulation odds, as did the Patriots, but as always it’s looking like a four-team race, with the Saints, Rams, Chiefs and Pat...
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The Angels have tweaked their hot stove approach as they try to build a better supporting cast around Mike Trout

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Whoever coined the term “Man plans, God laughs” wasn’t referring to the Angels ‘ starting rotation. It only seems that way. No team has been more snakebitten by injuries and other pitching adversity lately than the Halos have. Garrett Richards was one of the hardest throwers in baseball, a supremely talented right-hander on his way to a career year in 2014 before a late-August knee injury wrecked the rest of his season. He tore his ulnar collateral ligament two years later, missed most of that season, opted not to have Tommy John surgery, missed most of the following season with a nerve injury in his right biceps, then ended up having the surgery in the end last season. Now he’s a Padre. Matt Shoemaker looked like a rising star himself in 2014, going 16-4 with a 3.04 ERA and a six-to-one strikeout-to-walk rate, good enough to nab second place in Rookie of the Year voting. After a bumpy 2015, he rebounded to post a fresh set of solid peripheral numbers in 2016, fanning nearly fiv...
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How the Astros can set up another World Series run with a few more moves this offseason

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In many ways, the 2018 Astros were better than the 2017 Astros. Much better, even. Houston won two more regular-season games last season than it did in ’17. By run differential, though, it was significantly more dominant. By scoring a gigantic (and MLB -best) 263 more runs than they allowed, the 2018 Astros produced like a team that, with average luck in close games and the way they clustered big innings together, would be expected to win an amazing 109 games. The 2017 Astros were still excellent, scoring 196 more runs than they allowed…though that run differential netted out to an expected record of 99-63, 10 wins short of 2018 expectations. Now throw out the numbers and look at personnel, especially on the pitching side. In 2017, the Astros’ most-used starting pitcher was Mike Fiers . That’s the same Mike Fiers who flashed an ugly 5.22 ERA that year, serving up 32 home runs in 153 1/3 innings — that latter number a telltale sign of a pitching staff racked by injuries. In 2018...
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