BREAKING: Patriots Trade Brandin Cooks to the Rams for a First Round Pick

By on • ( Leave a comment )

As per usual, I have no idea what the Patriots are planning here. On one hand, it really is great, great value to get the No. 23 overall pick for a guy with one year left on his contract. On the other hand, great value aside… Tom Brady might blow a goddamn gasket when he hears about this. First Danny Amendola walked, now Cooks is out, Gronk is still hemming and hawing about playing next year, and Julian Edelman is coming back from a shredded knee. Not exactly confidence inspiring for a QB in his 40s.

The real question here though is; what do the Patriots have up their sleeve? The Pats rarely trade up into the first round so I FULLY expect them to trade down again for five 4th round picks so they can fill out the team with more Rutgers and Navy guys. But, if we want to have a little fun for a minute; what could the Pats realistically do with this pick?

Well they could turn around and give it to New York in a trade for Odell Beckham Jr. It was rumored that it would take a 1st rounder to pry ODB from the Giants and the Rams were the team most commonly mentioned in those rumors. Now with their first round pick in hand, the Patriots could effectively trade Brandin Cooks for ODB straight up. That would be fine with me, but of course that would open up Pandora’s Box of yet another guy bitching about his contract in the locker room.

Or are the Patriots potentially looking to package No. 23 and their own No. 31 pick to move up in the draft and take say…a quarterback?

I’m still driving the Johnny Manziel hype train, but I was just listening to Felger and Mazz and they took a quick peak at the NFL Draft Value chart and according to them these two picks would, in theory, be enough ammo to move up to No. 9 overall in the Draft. Now that…that is interesting. Are the Pats looking to trade up and grab my boy Baker Mayfield?

https://giphy.com/embed/RveDcLXAWGizK

via GIPHY

Probably not, but Bill Belichick is nothing if not a sneaky and devious SOB so I fully expect this newly acquired draft capital to go to good use. So it sucks to see another one of Brady’s weapons, who I expected to improve in Year 2, leave the team but I’ll reserve judgement until we see what Bill does with the pick.

For what its worth Zolak seems to be thinking the same thing and I’d say and he’s *kind of* tapped into the team.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Pro Football Talk is NOT Happy With WEEI or Kirk and Callahan

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Pro Football Talk – We posted an item earlier today regarding a report from WEEI that the Patriots will be trading tight end Rob Gronkowski in the coming weeks. The report, which was being picked up by other websites, appeared in a single tweet that had no equivocation of any kind. It was clear, it was plain, and it was getting noticed. And it was all some sort of time-delayed April Fool’s Day gag, apparently. Chris Curtis of WEEI called me a little while ago to explain that it was a joke. I’m still scanning the tweet for the setup, the reinforcement, and/or the payoff. That is a humorous anecdote. I can’t wait to tell that one at parties and other social gatherings. I told Curtis I’m not happy about any of this. Needless to say, nothing WEEI ever reports again will be taken seriously in this space. It’s hard enough to keep people up to date on everything that’s happening in the NFL without people throwing gratuitous and unfunny hurdles in our path.

Nothing like a little sports media beef to get you through a Tuesday afternoon. Pro Football Talk is absolutely bullshit that they got hoodwinked by an April Fools joke from WEEI. WEEI’s Kirk and Callahan show tweeted out that one of their guys was reporting Rob Gronkowski would be traded in the next couple of weeks.

Now if you ever listen to Kirk and Callahan you know they like to screw with people, especially those in the media. So while its not a particularly hilarious joke, April Fools jokes aren’t really meant to be funny. They’re meant to pull one over on people and make them look stupid.

So for PFT to get so pissed off seems like a little much. I understand the frustration of posting something on your website that ultimately turns out to have zero truth to it, but you should probably also be checking sources to confirm before posting a story OR just run it with the disclaimer that WEEI is saying this but you can’t confirm or dispute it. Problem solved.

You gotta be extra vigilant on April Fools Day or sometimes you get hoodwinked on Twitter and risk taking the L like me.

Joey B’s Daily Reminder That Life Is Meaningless: Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Are Getting Divorced

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Yahoo – Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Tatum are separating after nearly nine years of marriage…..The former couple announced the split in a joint statement exclusive to PEOPLE….

First let us address the obvious and allow me to answer your first question. No, about 99% of the time, I do not give a FUCK about celebrities, their lives, or really anything about other than the entertainment they provide me. Yes, I’m a pop culture dork. I love movies and music and TV and will discuss all of it relentlessly. But the people involved in it? What they eat and where they shop and who they’re fuckin? Ya don’t care.

But this is different. This is my generation’s lovable moron who scored a drop dead gorgeous, seemingly down to earth chick who SEEMED perfectly fine with the fact he was a drunken, incognizant r-word. Well joke is on us, because women like that don’t exist and men of his making don’t keep them around.

Like Ferguson – Nurmagomedov, their match was not meant to be.

Life is meaningless.

Baseball’s Unwritten Rules Are Back!

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Image result for brian dozier

StarTribune – Brian Dozier thought about approaching Chance Sisco at second base during a ninth-inning timeout Sunday but decided against it…

What needs addressing? In the Twins’ opinion, it’s Sisco’s decision to bunt to the vacant left side of the infield with one out in the ninth, trailing 7-0. Jose Berrios was trying to complete his first career one-hitter and shutout, and there were some players in the visitors’ dugout who felt it inappropriate for the Baltimore catcher to lay down a bunt to end Berrios’ streak of 17 straight outs, rather than swing away.

“Obviously, we’re not a fan of it,” Dozier said.

Ah yes. Baseball is back, with all of its storied unwritten rules.

Image result for eyeroll gif

Last year we learned that it’s in poor taste to bunt against a fat guy.  Yesterday we learned that it’s in poor taste to bunt to beat the shift in the ninth inning of a one-hitter, according to Brian Dozier.

Don’t get me wrong, bunting to break up a no-hitter would be a dick move. No argument there. But bunting to beat the shift in the ninth inning of a one-hitter? Give me a break, Brian. Someone needs to remind Dozier that you play to win the game.

Image result for you play to win the game

The Orioles were down by seven runs, with one out and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth. They were probably going to lose. Does that mean Sisco should just give up, Brian? It’s like a basketball team fouling when they’re down by six points with 30 seconds left to play. It probably won’t matter in the end but at least extend the game and try to make a comeback. Unless it violates some unwritten rule and hurts someone’s feelings, I guess.

Berrios, who followed up by walking Davis on a fastball that umpire Marty Foster ruled was low, and loading the bases on a broken-bat fly by Manny Machado that fell in, said he wasn’t bothered by the bunt. Sort of.

“I don’t care if he’s bunting,” Berrios said. “I just know it’s not good for baseball in that situation. That’s it.”

You know what’s not good for baseball, Jose? Defensive shifts. People want to see some action, not Joe Maddon pore over spray charts in an effort to whittle the game down to the three true outcomes (strikeout, walk, home run).

I can understand David Ortiz not wanting to bunt to beat the shift. David Ortiz racking up infield hits was not going to win the Red Sox more championships. But if you’re going to start shifting against guys like Eduardo Nunez and Chance Sisco all the time, don’t be surprised when they start giving you the unwritten (and unspoken) middle finger.

FIRE FLAMES JERSEY ALERT: PawSox to Become Osos Polares de Pawtucket

By on • ( Leave a comment )

MILB – In partnership with Minor League Baseball, the Pawtucket Red Sox today announced a new initiative with the Latino community. The PawSox will change their name for virtually all of their Tuesday home games to Osos Polares de Pawtucket. The name Osos Polares de Pawtucket, “Polar Bears of Pawtucket” in English, was revealed this morning at a press conference at Ella Risk Elementary School in Central Falls, RI (a school that has about a 78% Hispanic student population)…The PawSox are honored to be selected as one of 33 teams among the 160 in Minor League Baseball to participate in this new form of outreach to the Hispanic Community. This initiative is specifically designed to embrace the culture and values that resonate most with participating teams’ local U.S. Hispanic/Latino communities…To distinctively launch this exciting new program, MiLB and each participating team created culturally-relevant on-field personas that honor their respective U.S. Hispanic/Latino communities. All “Copa” teams will adopt these new personas via on-field jerseys and caps to be worn during designated “Copa de la Diversion” games during the 2018 season.

I’m not quite sure what a Polar Bear in Pawtucket has to do with Hispanic heritage, but I am fully on board if it gets me this fire flames hat and jersey combo.

Minor League sports crushing it per usual with the jersey selection. Being a farm team’s marketing department must be the best job in sports. The players are there to get experience and improve plus oftentimes they’re getting sent up to the next level halfway through the season so winning isn’t really a top priority for the team. Just sell some tickets, bring some families out to the ballpark, and come up with 25 different jersey promotions. I’m in.

The Fight Gods Care Little For Jesus of Nazareth, 86 Ferguson- Khabib For The Fourth Time On Easter

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Please sit back for a moment and close your eyes. Remember back to simpler time. It was last Thursday or Friday. And as you found any and all possible ways to not do any work or go to the gym thereafter, you possibly read yours truly’s blog proposing Strapping Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov to their own beds for the good of this fight. Well, they were not tied to their beds, and now that fight is again off.

Please review the following material as a brief interlude:

Thank you. Now, I’m sure what to say at this point. Apparently, Tony Ferguson slipped on a production set while doing media and tore his LCL. We know this because he released a statement detailing just that, with of course the first letter of every word capitalized because again, he’s awkward and tries too hard. But man, what a fight that would be if EVER ACTUALLY FUCKING HAPPENED.

Instead the Sort Of Interim 155 Pound Belt will be on the line this Saturday, and will be fought for by Khabib and 145lb Champ Max Holloway. “Blessed” is long and rangy and has even discussed a future move to 155 as the featherweight weight cut gets harder and harder. However, I can’t see him stopping the onslaught of “The Eagle”. Not on short notice. Not when Khabib is as dominant as he is. Khabib via UD or late finish is my guess here.

But back to the point of this, to close things out. Who knows why this fight is so jinxed or why they never make it to the cage. Both fighters have each pulled out twice so say they have to book it once more now at least to see if someone can even that score. It just sucks one of the best fights we could see this generation just seems 100% cursed.

Life is meaningless.

Dustin Pedroia Says John Farrell Wore Down Red Sox Last Season

By on • ( Leave a comment )

NESN – “There certainly seemed to be something of a leadership void, and Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia admitted Monday that former Boston manager John Farrell was part of the reason the club didn’t seem to enjoy itself in 2017. “The overall approach, every day, would wear on guys. It wasn’t people not liking each other. We all love each other. Trust me,” Pedroia said Monday morning on WEEI’s “OMF.” “There’s the mindset of, ‘You show up to the yard, you put your work in, you have your approach that day, and you try to execute it. If you don’t, guess what? You’re going to show up tomorrow and still be in the lineup. We’re all going to have confidence in you. We’re all going to show up and try to win and accomplish the same thing.’ That’s what wore on guys and made the season that much more grueling — when everything that day was more magnified. It put a lot of pressure on our young guys, it put a lot of pressure on our veteran guys. That’s the part, when you hear Mookie (Betts) or (Xander Bogaerts) say they weren’t having much fun, you don’t ever have a chance to enjoy yourself if you don’t go 4-for-4, throw a complete game shutout, or we don’t win by 10. You don’t look ahead to the end of what we were trying to build for.”

Color me shocked. Dustin Pedroia came out and admitted on WEEI that last year sucked because John Farrell just beat guys down. It seems like his approach was just a grind on guys mentally. As much as we like to rail on players for whining and complaining, Boston may be the toughest city to play in the entire league so its important to manage that level of stress. This is where I’ve always been kind of disapointed though considering John Farrell came up in the Terry Francona school of management. Pedroia said guys were stressing because they were hyper focused on day to day success rather than building towards something bigger. If a guy didn’t hit the cover off the ball one day he’d be worried about getting moved down in the batting order or getting bumped from the lineup entirely. Farrell never really seemed as comfortable managing the Sox as we all thought he would be when Boston traded for him with Toronto.

Compare that to a manager like Francona who was infamous for sticking with his guys, almost to a fault. Anyone remember Mark Bellhorn? That guy was a goddamn enigma. In theory, a pretty solid player, but holy hell was he frustrating. Half the time he straight up SUCKED.  He was a disaster in 2004 with his double ear flapped softball batting helmet.

He hit .264 with 177 strikeouts, which was 1st in the American League and 2nd in all of baseball. He did have a .373 OBP though! But Francona knew the guy could hit so he kept going with him day in and day out. Guess what? In the long run it paid off as Bellhorn had a HUGE 3-run HR in Game 6 of the ALCS to force Game 7 against the Yankees. Don’t remember? It was the one that smoked a guy sitting front row in the chest, but he was wearing all black so Matsui and those dirty Yankees tried to play it off like it hit the wall.

So theres definitely something to be said for consistency.

Everybody remembers Game 6 of the 04 ALCS for the legend that was Schilling’s bloody sock, but people forget that was also this game:

But, I digress.

As a manager you could also go the other way and tell these professional athletes to sack up. I mean if I have a few non-productive shitty days at my job, my employer is most likely going to chew me out. If you’re not performing the manager is well within his rights to sit you down. But, and I think this is what John Farrell’s biggest weakness was, if you’re going to do that you have to communicate why to the player. Build them up. Co-mmu-ni-cate. And that is where Farrell dropped the ball. The guy just did not have the social skills or the management skills or whatever you want to call it to relate to his players on a day to day basis. Not to beat a dead horse, but again Francona could call Pedroia in to play a game of cribbage and while the two are having a friendly competition Tito could tell him that he has sucked lately and is giving him a day off. Whether that was good news or whether that was bad news, Tito could communicate.

One of my favorite stories about Francona was how he would go out during batting practice every day and if he had to have a talk with someone he would bring them behind the backstop to chat. It was in the middle of everyone and completely public, but nobody could hear what they were saying except Tito and the player. So he was a master class in dealing with the players and their fragile egos and getting the best out of guys. Hell Francona could call a guy into his office while he was taking a dump and have a chat. I don’t really see that kind of comfort level existing between John Farrell and any of these Red Sox players. So the hope here is that Alex Cora is able to bring back that warm and fuzzy feeling back to the players. Maybe Cora won’t be sitting on the porcelain throne when he’s calling in Rafael Devers, but hey its only his first year on the job.

The Patriots Spoke with Johnny Manziel TWICE on Tuesday. I am Officially on Manziel Watch.

By on • ( 1 Comment )

Boston Herald – The Patriots were in attendance at Texas A&M’s pro day today at the team’s indoor practice facility. They were there with 31 other teams to watch 14 Aggies players auditioning for next month’s draft. But there was also someone else there of note: Johnny Manziel. Manziel threw to receivers and running backs including Texas A & M’s star receiver Christian Kirk, who has drawn a lot of interest. According to a source, the Patriots spoke with Manziel both before the workout, as well as after the session..The Patriots certainly appear to be taking notes. It’s not out of the realm for them to be thinking about having him come to camp as a third quarterback. At the very least, it would be an interesting curve ball by Bill Belichick.

Karen Guregian reported on Tuesday that the Patriots met with Johnny Manziel both before AND after his workout at the Texas A&M Pro Day. Couple that with the Patriots taking Johnny Manziel aside to officially weigh him after he threw at the USD Pro Day last week and I think its safe to say that I am EXCITED. For a guy that has thoroughly enjoyed Johnny Football’s rise and subsequently agonized over his fall, I am pretty god damn jacked up about him potentially joining my favorite team.

If it was just one meeting its pretty easy to write off, especially with so many other team scouts at the various Pro Days to watch other guys with a Manziel workout included as a bonus. BUT, with the Pats going to not one, but two of Johnny Football’s workouts has my antenna’s up. Like way up. Erect almost.

First things first, the Patriots could sign Colin Kaepernick tomorrow and make a damn donation to the Fidel Castro Fund and Bill Belichick would kill the story within a fortnight. This is not a team thats afraid of a distraction, not if theres a player out there that can help them win games. They signed our lord and savior Tim Tebow for christ’s sake (sorry Tim).

So I wouldn’t worry about the Pats signing or not signing a guy for any reason other than Bill thinks he can help the Pats win a game.

Now, is Manziel worth it? Well would you rather 32-year-old Brian Hoyer? I like Hoyer as much as the rest of you in New England, but lets be real, the man is a career backup QB. Brian Hoyer is not the future of this team. The Patriots traded away their young, cheap, handsome, franchise QB in Jimmy G. Don’t get me wrong, Tom Brady is a freak of nature who won the Most Valuable Player award at 40 years old so I don’t blame the Patriots for doing what they did. Hell, I wouldn’t be able to dump Tom Brady even if he’s 65 and eating at the Early Bird Special after practice, but thats why I’m not a GM.

With that being said, the Patriots have a soon to be 41-year-old QB and a 32-year-old backup QB, so the opportunity is right there for a young developmental QB. We don’t need a guy to come in and start winning games in September obviously. Manziel is only 25-years-old. Or the Pats could draft a QB, but for a team that is so depleted on the defensive end and so clearly in Win Now mode, I wouldn’t be surprised if they restocked the cupboards with young defensive players and looked elsewhere for QB insurance.

On to my final point. Who in this league is better at rebuilding players careers and buying low than the New England Patriots? No one. It would be the ultimate Patriot move to sign a young, publicly chided, humbled, former Heisman Trophy winning Johnny Manziel (who has volunteered to play for free) as the new backup QB on the cheap. It makes perfect sense. If he sucks or he starts frequenting the Foxy Lady then you cut him. But, if he’s legit and he really wants to work his balls off and get back into the league then you get a former 1st round pick and former Heisman winner for peanuts. That my friends is what they call a win-win. And before you all start giving me shit, I know winning the Heisman doesn’t mean anything in regards to NFL success; Troy Smith won the Heisman. BUT Troy was a goddamn savage for my Madden team running the 5-wide spread offense and thats all that really matters isn’t it?