We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 022

The Kawhi Leonard-DeMar DeRozan trade and stupid things Josh Hader and Larry Fedora said.

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2018 College Football Preview: MAC, Mountain West

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

In this post, we discuss the MAC and Mountain West.

Mid-American Conference

West

Predicted standings:

1. Toledo (conference champions)
2. Northern Illinois
3. Western Michigan
4. Central Michigan
5. Eastern Michigan
6. Ball State

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 021

Macro ramblings on soccer and the NBA, Chandler's Conference-USA and Sun Belt opinions, and Aaron's review of seeing Radiohead in Chicago.

Aaron's Album of the Week: The Jayhawks, Back Roads and Abandoned Motels

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2018 College Football Preview: C-USA, Sun Belt

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

It's still some time until the first FBS games on August 25, but it's never too early to start talking about the mid-majors. Today, we cover Conference USA the Sun Belt.

Conference USA

West

Predicted standings:

1. UAB

2. North Texas

3. Louisiana Tech

4. Southern Mississippi

5. UTSA

6. Rice

7. UTEP

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 020

Aaron's time seeing Dead and Company, and our live music regrets.

Aaron's Album of the Week: James McMurtry, Saint Mary of the Woods

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We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 019

Aaron's trips to the Revival Music Festival and Bonnaroo, and Chandler's time seeing Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.

Also: We're on iTunes now. Isn't that neat? Subscribe here.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 018

After a three-week hiatus, Aaron and Chandler catch up on the goings-on in the sports world and finally discuss Steven Hyden's book Twilight of the Gods.

Eddie Rosario Continues to Evolve

Last year, you may recall that I published a quick post on Eddie Rosario's plate discipline dramatically improving, which in turn made him a much better hitter. Rosario finished 2017 with the best walk and strikeout rates of his major league career and, for the first time, an above-average line: .290/.328/.507 with 27 homers, good for a 116 wRC+.

I now call your attention to another significant development in Rosario's career. Through Tuesday's games, only 19 qualified hitters (one of whom, somehow, is teammate Eduardo Escobar) lead Rosario in isolated slugging. Rosario leads the Twins in batting average, hits, home runs, slugging percentage, OPS, and wRC+; he shares the lead in runs with Brian Dozier.

Eddie Rosario is now a slugger.



This is a major step for a player trying to prove he belonged in the majors last Opening Day. And the way he's developed has resulted in a unique profile without a perfect comparison in recent memory.