The internet was set ablaze about six weeks ago when Belichick was spotted filming a commercial for sandwiches and I’ve been counting the days since waiting for the finished product. Pretty good. It’s got Bill’s trademark dry, deadpan humor, but as the great Will Hunting once said: “So what’d I think? I’m holding out for something better.”
I need to see the second version or the directors cut of this commercial with Belichick going HAM on a cold cut combo.
We will not rest until that footage sees the light of day, but maybe they’re just saving it for behind the scenes footage in the next Super Bowl champs DVD?
The MLB trade deadline is today at 4 pm and the last place Red Sox are in full blown sell mode. I wrote last week about how this team doesn’t need to completely blow it up and trade cornerstones like Xander Boagerts, but it’s hard to predict what the team will do since it’s Chaim Bloom’s first deadline as the guy in charge. Lets take a look at what they’ve already done, what could be in the works, and what Sox fans might actually have to look forward to.
Brandon Workman and Heath HembreeTraded to the Phillies
Crowned the Red Sox closer heading into the season, the team just never really needed Workman because they were so bad there were rarely many save opportunities. Usually the team was getting blown out long before the final frame so Workman only had seven appearances before getting dealt. Both players were in contract years so the deal makes sense for a basement team. In return the Red Sox received 27-year-old RHP Nick Pivetta and 23-year-old RHP Connor Seabold.
Pivetta is a 6’5″ 220 pound former 4th round draft pick of the Nationals, who actually traded Pivetta to the Phillies in 2015 for Jonathan Papelbon. Pivetta was a starter for the Phillies and flashed at times with his “front of the rotation potential,” but was pretty up and down before getting relegated to the bullpen so he’s a buy low candidate that the Sox are smart to take the chance on.
Seabold has never pitched higher than AA, but had a 2.25 ERA last season in the Eastern League and was a 3rd round pick for the Phillies in 2017 so this is a solid prospect to get back.
Mitch Moreland Traded to the Padres
Moreland was an excellent role player for the Red Sox over the last 2+ seasons, making his lone All-Star team in 2018 as the Sox battered everyone en route to a World Series title (including a clutch pinch hit 3 run HR in Game 4). He was having an even better season this year hitting .328 with 8 home runs and 21 RBIs in just 22 games. Although he was limited by injuries last year, Moreland was a legit power bat for the Sox hitting 15 home runs in 2018 and then 19 in 2019 even though he had 124 less plate appearances. So its a bummer to see him go, but he was essentially a victim of his own success while the Sox transitioned to a rebuild.
In return for Moreland the Sox received outfielder Jeisson Rosario and infielder Hudson Potts. Potts is a 21-year-old 3B and was actually the 24th overall pick just four years ago so there is a pedigree there. Rosario is a 20-year-old outfielder that hasn’t played above A ball yet so this guy is a ways off from the big leagues. You can read the scouting reports of the two players via MassLive, but keep in mind Potts and Rosario were just the Padre’s No. 17 and No. 28 ranked prospects according to Baseball America.
The Moreland trade did however clear the way for Bobby Dalbec, the Red Sox’ No. 3 ranked prospect according to MLB.com, who hit a dinger in his major league debut.
On MLB Network, @Ken_Rosenthal says the Red Sox are "entertaining anything and everything"… specifically talking about Christian Vazquez and the Mets' interest.
I think this would be a mistake because he is a player on a cheap contract at a premium position with elite defense and pretty good power. Although he is a bit older than I realized at 30-years-old, but he’s an energy guy that I think the Sox would be wise to keep around.
Trade Rumors Around Xander, JD Martinez, Jackie Bradley Jr, Andrew Benintendi, Nathan Eovaldi
I wrote about this the other day and I think Bogaerts should be untouchable, but you never know. The other guys I would listen to offers on, but the hottest Benintendi rumors were focused on a deal with Cleveland for Mike Clevinger, who they just traded to San Diego. So maybe none of these guys get dealt, but we’ll see today.
Joey B also pointed out the Sox are also exploring a potential trade/salary dump of Eovaldi.
Sources: In a money swap deal, Rangers have discussed Odor for Nathan Eovaldi. Could involve Rangers taking on money extra money. Could involve a prospect going to Boston. Could go nowhere.
This is about the only thing for Red Sox fans to be excited about these days. With the 3rd worst record in ALL of baseball and just 2 games better than the Pirates for the worst record, the Sox are in play for potentially the No. 1 overall pick next year. Due to a myriad of reasons the Sox could potentially finish with the worst record and still not get the top pick, which would be the most 2020 thing ever, but it’s fun to daydream about the most likely No. 1 overall pick pitching at Fenway, Vanderbilt flamethrower Kumar Rocker.
Luxury Tax Reset Day
Finally and probably the most exciting thing to come out of this shit season is that by getting through today the Red Sox officially (kinda/sort) have their luxury tax penalties reset. This means the Sox have had to dump Mookie Betts, David Price and endure this disastrous season, but by doing so have climbed out of the hell zone that because of gigantic tax penalties would have kept John Henry from making any big moves for YEARS.
Once the trade deadline passes at 4 p.m., MLB's luxury tax rates will reset for 2021 based on what teams spend in 2020. So: technically the luxury tax rates *don't* reset today, but the *possibility* of rates resetting based on 2020 luxury tax payroll will exist.
No one has ever been better at making grown men cry than Nike. You can be a cynic all you want and point out how this will ultimately be about selling more Kobe sneakers or you can just enjoy the 90 second tribute to a basketball player who inspired people in all walks of life to be better.
Well the world might be on fire right now, but at least Lil Wayne re-released his classic 2009 mixtape “No Ceilings” on streaming platforms last night. Lil Wayne was the Best Rapper Alive for a long time, but he also recognized that content is king long before anyone understood its true value. Between 2004 and the day he went to prison in 2010, Weezy was featured on 373 tracks! That is insanity. I mean the guy strategically recorded songs ahead of time and had them released throughout his year long prison sentence so it felt like he never left. Thats genius.
Complex rightfully points out that this is a shortened version of the mixtape with just 12 tracks compared to the original 21.
The re-released mixtape also features an updated version of “Kobe.”
I understand a lot of people probably weren’t scouring HotNewHipHop.com for new mixtapes like I was in college. So it’s easy to lose track of the more than 25 mixtapes Lil Wayne has dropped over the years, but if you only listen to one Lil Wayne mixtape make it 2007’s Da Drought 3, which is arguably the greatest mixtape ever made.
No Ceilings came at the back end of Lil Wayne’s final stretch of elite releases and was effectively the end of his reign as the Best Rapper Alive. In consecutive releases, he dropped Da Drought 3 (May ’07), Tha Carter 3 (June ’08) [Platinum], Dedication 3 (Dec ’08) No Ceilings (Oct ’09) and followed that up by putting together a super group of himself, Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga with appearances from Birdman, Lloyd, and Gucci Mane on We Are Young Money (Dec ’09) [Gold] all back to back.
After 2009 Lil Wayne was more of a veteran NBA superstar like Carmelo Anthony who could surprise you with a 32 point game in his age 36 season, but his days of dominating night in night out were over.
Thats what I equate 2011’s Sorry 4 the Wait (July ’11) to because that was a surprisingly excellent mixtape following two mediocre albums (Rebirth, I Am Not a Human Being). There have been some heater singles from Weezy over the years like Right Above It, 6 Foot 7 Foot, Drop the World, Believe Me, but there hasn’t been an entire Lil Wayne CD that I’ve been excited about since.
Lil Wayne may not be the must listen to artist he was at his peak, but don’t ever forget the sheer quantity of bangers this guy gave us in less than a decade.
This is it. This is the greatest t-shirt we have ever designed at The 300s. This is a completely custom artwork that we designed to give the future 1st Team All-NBA forward his own shirt. Grab your shirt today for the deep playoff run or grab a hoodie, sticker, magnet, coasters, leggings, laptop sleeve, travel mug etc.
With everyone either remote or part-time, we know you’ve got some time on your hands so The 300s is looking for interns and part-timers to blog about Boston sports, national sports, golf, TV, movies, video games etc. We’ll give writers a platform, promotion on social media, and the opportunity to write about what you like.
If you’re interested send an email to Red@The300s.com and let us know what you want to write about and any samples you might have.
So DC had its long awaited hype fest DC FanDome on Saturday and teased a ton of new projects coming down the pipeline like The Batman, The Justice League Snyder Cut, Wonder Woman 1984, Suicide Squad 2, Black Adam and more. Where my fellow comic book nerds at??
The Batman
My oh my oh my. This first teaser of The Batman looks *excellent* which is so exciting because this movie has been shrouded in mystery for years. Matt Reeves’ The Batman stars Robert Pattinson who is just now poking his head up to star in some blockbusters (Tenet) after a decade spent working on his acting chops doing indies (Cosmopolis, The Lighthouse, Good Time etc). The Battinson will focus on Year 2 of Bruce Wayne as the Caped Crusader so it will be a much younger Batman than we’re used to seeing on the big screen.
The cast of The Batman is absolutely stacked with Andy Serkis playing Alfred, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright, who I’ve loved playing intelligent, soft spoken, unsettling characters since Boardwalk Empire, playing Commissioner Gordon, and a legitimately unrecognizable Colin Farrell playing the Penguin.
This brings us to the fascinating casting choice of Klitz AKA Paul Dano as The Riddler. I think Dano is going to either hit this out of the ballpark or bomb like we’ve never seen; there’s not a lot of middle ground here.
But Dano just feels like a perfect choice for such a bizarre character that most people only associate with Jim Carey. I just hope this movie doesn’t suffer from villain overload similar to how Spider-Man 3 simply had too many bad guys in one movie.
Oh and this Bruce Wayne is a VIOLENT crime fighter.
The Batman is set to release at some point in 2021.
Justice League: The Snyder Cut
A lot of new footage here giving us a sneak peak at what Snyder Cut will do differently from the original Justice League. IGN broke it down thoroughly, but expect more Darkseid, more Knightmare, more Aquaman and Cyborg, and yes BLACK SUIT SUPERMAN.
Snyder has been anything but subtle about how much he hated Joss Whedon’s finished version of the movie, going so far as to say he would burn the movie to the ground before he used any footage he didn’t shoot himself. He called the Whedon version “Frankenstein’s monster” and claims to have never even watched it. So expect quite the different movie here.
It’s a good thing this is going to be a digital release you can watch from your couch too because the run time is a brisk 4 hours.
The Snyder Cut will drop sometime in 2021 on HBO Max.
The Suicide Squad AKA Suicide Squad 2
This actually looks fun as fuck, which is exactly what Suicide Squad should be. No more no less. DC finally learned after the disappointing box office of Batman vs Superman and the bombing of Justice League that not every comic book movie has to be a dark, gritty noir film, they can also be fun. This looks to take a lot of what the first Suicide Squad did well (Margot Robbie, slick action, witty dialogue) and build off of it. Oh and even though Will Smith will not be returning, they did add Idris Alba, which is a huge win in of itself, and a seemingly tongue in cheek parody of Captain America played by John Cena. If thats not enough, Pete Davidson is in this too so expect a lot of deadpan humor in this not quite direct sequel. Oh and they brought Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn on board (post-cancelling by the internet) to helm the entire thing. So this looks like it could be closer to what we expected from the original, which is an exciting proposition. The Suicide Squad is slated for an Aug. 6th, 2021 release.
Wonder Woman 1984
But seriously how is Chris Pine alive again? I’ve been pretty down on the Kristen Wiig casting as the main villain pretty much since Day 1, but anything with Pedro Pascal in it cannot be bad. The release of Wonder Woman 1984 has been pushed back a few times because of COVID and the current projected release date is now Oct. 2nd. With a budget of nearly $200 million I wouldn’t expect this one to go straight to digital as the studio will hold out as long as possible to claw together a solid profit during this disaster of a year.
Black Adam
This is a choose your own adventure of expectations for The Rock as Black Adam. This has been in the works for years so its good to finally see *something* even if its only some 300s (the movie) style animated graphics. I blame the lack of any real footage on COVID. Now I love The Rock, he’s the man, but I honestly don’t know what to expect out of this. I do worry it becomes a movie where all you can think is hey its The Rock playing a comic book character rather than focusing on just enjoying the movie, but Dwayne never half asses anything so I will remain cautiously optimistic on this one. Black Adam is currently slated for a Dec. 22, 2021 release.
Gotham Knights
I’m more of a Marvel guy than a DC guy so I don’t know a ton about Red Hood or Nightwing, but I know people are jacked up for these guys being playable characters in a video game. It’s also made by the team that created Batman: Arkham Origins so that is promising. Another non-specific 2021 release date here.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Not a ton of actual gameplay shown here, but again Suicide Squad looks fun, which is all I ask of the anti-hero supergroup. The trailer shows the Suicide Squad fighting a version of Superman who seemingly has gone absolutely mental so that is intriguing on its own. This game is being created by Rocksteady Studios, who made the Batman: Arkham series so theres a lot of great track record here. Unfortunately this won’t hit game systems til 2022.
What are you most excited for after the DC Fandome event? Tweet us @the300sboston and let us know.
I was watching the new season of Umbrella Academy last night, which after watching the opening scene of Season 2 I am still all in on, and I heard this cover of “Crazy.” My brain was hearing this and all it could think was wait, wait don’t tell me don’t tell me. A soulful acoustic cover of a Gnarls Barkley song is never something I thought I would ever be into, but this song is incredible. Start your week off with some Monday Morning Music. And then go watch Umbrella Academy.
Patriots’ QB Jarrett Stidham was taken to a local hospital on Thursday for precautionary tests on his upper leg that came back negative, per league sources. Stidham returned to the team this morning and went through practice Friday, though with a lighter load than usual.
From Inside Training Camp Live: #Patriots QB Jarrett Stidham is dealing with a hip injury that won’t be 100% for a few weeks… though he is fighting to play through it, anyway. pic.twitter.com/GcOIYtmmgH
So it came out this morning that Jarrett Stidham suffered an injury, the extent of which is anyone’s guess, but it was serious enough for the team to take him to the hospital.
I guess this eliminates the need for a blog I had started writing yesterday morning: Would the Patriots Ever Really Run Multiple QBs in the Regular Season? Someone asked Belichick if he would consider the option since all three QBs were splitting reps pretty evenly until yesterday. And I don’t mean play multiple QBs when Hoyer starts the first 3 games and throws 9 interceptions and gets benched. I’m talking about a college style offense where Stidham plays 20 snaps and then Josh McDaniels sends Cam Newton in with his own package of plays. You know the old saying, if you have two quarterbacks you have none. It’s an old saying because it’s true.
Well it would seem like thats out the window now if Stidham is in fact injured. Unless Cam is an absolute bonehead and can’t pick up any of the playbook, which he’s not, then there’s no reason to start Brian Hoyer over a former MVP. I’ll roll the dice with a former MVP every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Sorry Brian, you definitely got a raw deal here but those are the facts.
Granted the Patriots don’t every say anything about anything, but the team is already downplaying the significance of Stidham’s injury.
Patriots OC Josh McDaniels says of Jarrett Stidham: “I’m pretty sure he’ll be ready to roll the next time we practice.” https://t.co/lN13oHWXkQ
Who knows whats true and whats not, but I do know that you don’t go to the hospital unless something is seriously wrong. This isn’t the UFC where guys go to the hospital as a post fight routine. So something was hurting him enough that the team thought a visit to the hospital was warranted. Either way, this conveniently wraps up the QB “competition” before it ever really heated up. There were reports of Newton starting to take over more of the first team reps while Stidham had been having an atrocious week throwing multiple picks. So this makes it that much easier for Belichick to give the job to Newton while the team quietly reassesses what it has with Stidham and makes a long term decision at the QB position.
There have been more and more rumors circulating that the Red Sox are at least entertaining the idea of trading their best all around player. In the midst of their worst season in decades, the Sox are looking for any and all avenues to rebuild and reload. This ain’t it.
If the Red Sox punt on this season I’m ok with that because I understand the legitimate need for a bridge year every now and then. It’s something Theo Epstein was adamant about in “Feeding the Monster.” You can’t be good every single year. Even the Yankees adopted this soft reset approach over the past few years to extraordinary (regular season) results. You need to take a step back and reload every once in a while otherwise you’re going to trade all your assets and overextend yourself on overpriced free agents and then you’ll have to do a hard reset. Kind of like what they’re staring at right now.
You saw the full value of the bridge year in 2006 when the Sox were less than two years removed from a World Series title but were coming off getting swept in the 2005 ALDS (thanks Tony Graffanino). Despite winning 95 games in ’05, the Sox recognized they were further away from winning a title than their record reflected. So rather than just double down on an aging core they took a step back and acquired some young talent like Coco Crisp and some veteran placeholders like Mark Loretta until the next wave of prospects like Dustin Pedroia (2007 Rookie of the Year), Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Clay Buchholz were ready to truly flourish and/or take over full time. It paid off. In 2007 the Sox recognized they were ready to compete again with a combination of their veteran core (Manny, Ortiz, Varitek, Schilling, Nixon), the aforementioned infusion of young (cheap) talent, and some new acquisitions. So they went all out ahead of the 2007 season and signed JD Drew to a (at the time) massive 5 year $70 million deal as well as Daisuke Matsuzaka to a 6 year $51 million deal (plus the $51 million posting fee). The result? The Sox were the wire to wire best team in baseball winning 96 games and the AL East en route to their second title in 4 years. Yes, the Sox did trade one of their top prospects in Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell before the 2006 season, but Beckett was only 26 at the time and was the anchor of their rotation when the team went for it all in 2007.
The Red Sox have the opportunity to do the same thing here, but if they elect to trade Xander Bogaerts they’re not just punting on a season; they’re removing the core of their rebuild. Why trade a 27-year-old shortstop who just re-signed on a team friendly deal (6 years, $120M) through 2025 and finished 5th in MVP voting last year?
Why trade a guy that you scouted, signed at the age of 16, developed into a player that is just now hitting his prime, is a 2x All-Star, is a 3x Silver Slugger, and became a vital piece of two World Series titles? Yes Bogaerts has a full no-trade clause kick in after the deadline this year, but these are typically the kind of guys you want to build around.
This is not the same as Mookie Betts. Mookie Betts wanted a contract that quite literally was 3x the size of what Bogaerts re-signed for last spring. Mookie was in a walk year and was noncommital about even wanting to be in Boston, whereas Xander re-signed early. The irony is that despite Mookie’s career WAR doubling that of Bogaerts, you’d probably get a better return for Xander because he has 4+ seasons left on his contract. Doesn’t mean you should do it though.
I am a full blown prospect fanatic so while it obviously paid off in 2018 I never loved Dave Dombrowski’s M.O. of ripping apart the farm system. So I understand the value of Bogaerts and the return the team could get, but if you trade him you basically are putting all your chips into the middle of the table and banking on TBD prospects, Rafael Devers, and Alex Verdugo. Not something I want to bet the next 5-10 years of the Red Sox on.
Obviously Boston’s farm system is not ripe with future All-Stars like the ’06 team was, but thats the best part about currently being on pace for the worst winning percentage in team history; you are in play for the No. 1 overall pick. The Red Sox have never had the first overall pick in the history of the MLB draft. That’s value right there. Combine that with some smaller deals like you’re seeing with Workman and Hembree getting dealt and potentially trading guys like JD Martinez who I love, but is 33-years-old and may be the only valuable asset you have. There’s also Andrew Benintendi who I would have thought unthinkable to trade at the start of last season, but he has seemingly taken a plummet in his development the last two seasons. If the rumors are true and the Sox could get a young, promising starter like Mike Clevinger or Zach Plesac, I’d strongly consider it.
It’s time for Chaim Bloom to make the smart, unheralded moves that the team brought him here to do. Blowing it up and trading a player that is essentially your captain is not the way to go. Don’t forget, the Sox also have Eduardo Rodriguez and Chris Sale returning to the mound next year. So use the Theo blueprint; take the bridge year, but don’t blow up the damn bridge.
The 300s 