#Vikings’ request to have Greg Olsen work a different game was declined. Olsen won’t be in production meeting or at walkthrough, but will be in booth Sunday. NFL says it did not object.
At first glance, the Vikings look like giant whiners here. Don’t want an injured Panther broadcasting your game? Deal with it. What is he going to see in person that millions of other people at home won’t see on television? You’re acting like George Costanza with his ATM code.
Taking a moment to think about it, though, I’m with the Vikings on this one. They might be a little paranoid, but this is not an unreasonable request. And even if Greg Olsen won’t see anything that the people at home won’t see, it’s still a bad look for the league. If the NFL were half as concerned with the integrity of the game as they claim they are, they would step in and quash this.
Can you imagine the outcry if an injured Patriots player were scheduled to broadcast the Dolphins game this week? Adam Gase would have Hard Rock Stadium swept for bugs. The Patriots would get crushed on ESPN for once again going outside of what is acceptable and decent to gain even a slight edge over an opponent. Draft picks would be seized, congressional probes would be launched.
Of course, Bill Belichick would never allow an injured player to broadcast another NFL game. I bet the Vikings get more intel out of Olsen rambling on the air for three hours than he gets out of them seeing them from the broadcast booth.
ESPN – Torey Lovullo of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Paul Molitor of the Minnesota Twins are the 2017 MLB Manager of the Year Award winners. Lovullo, in his first season with Arizona, managed the team to a 93-69 record — 24 more wins than last season, the second largest win increase from 2016 among all teams — and into the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Of course he did. The guy the Sox let walk for nothing ends up being the best manager in the league. So lets just recap all this real quick. Torey Lovullo was hired by the Red Sox and John Farrell to be his bench coach before the 2013 season (he also worked under Farrell for two years in Toronto).
Lovullo was widely considered a future MLB manager and interviewed for managerial jobs after most of those seasons before coming back to Boston. He was the interim manager for the Sox down the stretch in 2015 when Farrell was diagnosed with cancer. The Sox played extremely well under Lovullo, leading many to speculate that the Sox would dump Farrell in favor of his bench coach. The Red Sox kept Farrell at the helm though with Lovullo returning as bench coach.
Well the Sox gave Lovullo a two year extension for big money that all, but screamed he would replace Farrell once he was axed. The Sox instead stuck with Farrell through all of 2016 and let Lovullo walk to take the Diamondbacks managerial job, signifying they would be sticking with Farrell for the foreseeable future. Welp, just one year later after yet another playoff flameout the Sox finally did fire Farrell after the 2017 season, the same season in which Lovullo won NL Manager of the Year in his first season on the job.
So the Sox paid to keep Lovullo around as the heir apparent to Farrell, then refused to fire Farrell, let Lovullo walk, then a year later ended up firing Farrell anyways, all while Lovullo showcases an immense talent for the job and is named the best manager in the NL. Great asset management, John Henry.
Boston Herald – “A baseball source said yesterday that he’s been told Stanton will not accept a trade to either the Red Sox or the Cardinals, another team linked early and often in trade rumors. Perhaps there’s some flexibility in that stance, but Stanton’s preference is a factor.”
Welp, that was quick. The GM meetings aren’t even over and we’re already hearing reports that Stanton won’t waive his no-trade clause for the Red Sox. Glad I wrote 1,000 words on him earlier today. Now thats not to say this deal is completely dead. We’ve all seen some wild shit in the MLB offseason around no-trade clauses, contract terms, and the Players Union mucking things up. Namely how the Red Sox completed trade for Alex Rodriguez fell through after 2003 for various flimsy reasons.
If this definitely doesn’t happen and Stanton doesn’t want to come to Boston, the question is why? Before everyone freaks out and says “not everyone wants to play in Boston,” just relax. Look I get it, we are a very parochial town. We invented America for christ’s sake. You’re welcome by the way. But the guy is playing on a last place team and has publicly said he wants no part of a rebuild. Maybe he’s hoping to maneuver a trade to the Dodgers who seem to fucking print money these days. The same reports are also saying he won’t accept a trade to St. Louis. The only other (publicly) known trade suitors were the San Francisco Giants. Ya know the team that’s coming off a 98 loss season. I know he’s a Southern Cali guy, but if the guy really cares about winning then I can’t imagine he wants to go there. So maybe there’s a dark horse candidate out there somewhere that is going to surprise all of us.
Live look at my emotions while following the Giancarlo Stanton rumors today:
“The Red Sox may not be Giancarlo Stanton’s No. 1 choice, but he hasn’t ruled out them or anyone else as a potential destination at this point, a person with knowledge of Stanton’s thinking told NBC Sports Boston on Tuesday. The Marlins slugger, a bona fide star, is said to have a “completely” open mind about teams interested to trade for him, and is actively trying to be thoughtful about the process — one he ultimately controls because of a full no-trade clause.”
Celebrities, they’re just like us! This is like when some fashion company started selling ripped, beat up, paint splattered jeans for like $800 dollars and Mike Rowe called it a “blue collar costume for rich people.” Thats exactly what LeBron riding the subway is. Its his Halloween costume as he pretends to be a poor person like the rest of us. Laughing it up for the Gram and posting pics with all his buddies while everyone just wants to get to their miserable jobs and back without getting stuck on a broken down train or being harassed by a heroin addict.
Enter the normal guy with his headphones in just looking to get home without ending up on the wrong end of a World Star knockout video. LeBron is documenting his time on the subway and this guy is NOT having it.
The subway is no place for fun, which is why I’m surprised more pan handlers singing and dancing in the middle of subway cars don’t get absolutely mauled by some angry guy that just got shitcanned from his 9-5. Moral of the story? Keep your head down and your headphones on while riding public transport or risk taking your life into your own hands. Public transport is not for the faint of heart.
WEEI – So, as the meetings kick off Monday, with Dombrowski offering his first update at approximately 5 p.m., such rumors as the ones involving Giancarlo Stanton shouldn’t be pushed aside. Sure, some are saying the Red Sox are all hot and heavy for the outfielder, while others suggest St. Louis and San Francisco are the favorites. No matter. Pay attention to every minute of it. As we found out with Sale a year ago, the end-game might not be found during the GM meetings, at least there will be a legitimate road to conversation. It is almost a lock-solid certainty that at least one of the top names in this offseason’s rumor mill — J.D. Martinez, Eric Hosmer, Giancarlo Stanton — will be holding a Red Sox press conference in December.
So Rob Bradford just reported that he believes the Red Sox are “a lock” to land one of these three guys: JD Martinez, Eric Hosmer, or Giancarlo Stanton. Now obviously Stanton is hands down the best player of the three, he also is the only one thats not a free agent so he would require a boat load of players and prospects to acquire. Not to mention the nearly $300 Million left on his deal. While I think he’s hedging a bit by including Stanton with the other two guys mentioned, all three are power hitters. Bradfo is pretty in the know so if he’s saying it you can bet the Red Sox have at least privately acknowledged their desperate need of a power bat. Now lets break down each player and see what the fit would be.
JD Martinez– Hit 45 Home Runs while batting .303 so he would definitely fill the power vacuum the Sox have, but he’s also reportedly looking for a $200 Million contract. I don’t know if Dave wants to give out yet another 9 figure contract. Especially for a guy thats only topped 23 HRs one other time before this year over the previous 6 seasons. Plus he’s an outfielder so he’d have to DH and slide Hanley back to first base, who all but refused to play the field last year, or the Sox would have to make room in the OF by dealing someone.
Eric Hosmer– There’s something to be said about a player that knows how to win and Hosmer fits that bill. He’s played in two World Series (and won one) over the past 4 seasons. And the WS the Royals lost went 7 games, so Hosmer has some serious experience in the pressure cooker that is October. And thats what the Sox need; a guy that isn’t going to crumble under the pressure of the playoffs, which about half of the current Red Sox roster has done the past 2 postseasons. Not quite the power stroke of Martinez, but he still hits 20-25 HRs a year and he also plays first base, which is where the Red Sox happen to have a vacancy. He’s also a stud defender, having won the Gold Glove four out of the last five years. Plus he dates resident NESN royalty Kacie McDonnell so that shores up my confidence argument.
Giancarlo Stanton – I don’t know much about Stanton the person, aside from the fact that before he was Giancarlo he used to go by Mike.
So he’s got that going for him. But I don’t need to remind anyone here that the guy can MASH. He’s up for NL MVP, which will be announced on Thursday night after hitting 59 HRs with 132 RBIs and an OPS of 1.007! The guy had a WAR of 7.6 for christ’s sake. I’m sure he’s a great dude too, but hitting 60 fucking home runs will make up for a lot of shortcomings elsewhere. Manny Ramirez was a complete dickhead most of his time here, but the guy was mashing 40/140 every year so nobody gave a shit. But I just can’t see the Red Sox pulling the trigger on a deal with the amount of players and prospects they’d have to give up before even mentioning the $295 Million left on his contract. Buster Olney said earlier today that even baseball execs are saying the asking price from Jeets is “out of touch with reality.”
Some rival execs view the Marlins’ prospect asking price for Giancarlo Stanton as shockingly high and somewhat out of touch with reality, and not discounted nearly enough given the whopping $295 million he’s owed (with the forthcoming out clause after the 2020 season).
The fact of the matter is the Red Sox finished dead fucking last in the American League in Home Runs. Dead. Last. Thats a sentence I never thought I’d type. I grew up watching guys like Mo Vaughn, Nomar, Manny, Ortiz, and all the other power hitters that have come through Fenway. The Sox have always mashed and more or less pissed on the idea of bunting and playing small ball. So to see such an anemic offense (OBP was top 5 though!) was shocking to see. However John Henry, Dave Dombrowski and the crew decide to do it, just bring me the power. Bring the bats and the rest will fall into place.
If I had to guess? I’m saying Eric Hosmer. Positional fit at first base, character guy, tons of playoff experience, provides some power, gold glove defense, and a (comparatively) reasonable contract.
Yahoo – New guidelines lower the threshold for high blood pressure, adding 30 million Americans to those who have the condition, which now plagues nearly half of U.S. adults. High pressure, which for decades has been a top reading of at least 140 or a bottom one of 90, drops to 130 over 80 in advice announced Monday by a dozen medical groups.
In the ultimate bait and switch, half of Americans now apparently have high blood pressure. Well, fuck. This is the definition of moving the goal posts. Americans are phenomenal at getting things done on deadline and finishing things just enough to be passable. Procrastination and doing the bare minimum. Thats what makes America great again.
So if you tell us for decades that our blood pressure needs to be X, then we (except for the morbidly obese) will get somewhere around that number. No ones trying to be an Olympic athlete and have even better BP for no damn reason. So when you scientists up and change the rules on us under the darkness of night, well then we’re all up shits creek.
Telling us that we’re now all suffering from high blood pressure seems like a great way to sell more high blood pressure medicine, but hey maybe thats just me being a big time conspiracy guy. Either way, my blood pressure levels are going to act as if its November 12th, 2017, right before this story broke, and not a day later.
“The change means an additional 14 percent of U.S. adults have the problem, but only 2 percent of these newly added people need medication right away; the rest should try healthier lifestyles, which get much stronger emphasis in the new advice. Poor diets, lack of exercise and other bad habits cause 90 percent of high blood pressure.”
Apparently the new norm is 120/80 vs the previous 140/90. Welp, despite my diet of GrubHub and binging episodes of Dexter somehow I’m at 121/83 so…sucks to be you guys. Good luck with getting your blood pressure under control before your heart explodes.
Reuters – Three UCLA basketball players detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting were headed back to the United States on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had sought the help of Chinese President Xi Jinping in the case…
“What they did was unfortunate,” Trump told reporters earlier in Manila. He said the trio, who have been held since last week, could have faced long prison sentences, and described Xi’s response as “terrific.”
The Donald is on the board! The effort to repeal and replace Obamacare fizzled out earlier this year. North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear weapons program. The Robert Mueller investigation is on-going. Tax reform will be an uphill battle. It’s been a tough first year in office for Donald Trump, but LiAngelo Ball is coming home!
UCLA hosts Central Arkansas Wednesday night. It will be interesting to see if Ball and teammates Cody Riley and Jalen Hill face any further discipline when they arrive home. UCLA head coach Steve Alford took a brave stand and benched them for the Georgia Tech game in Shanghai. As opposed to breaking them out of the hotel they were confined to and further pissing off the Chinese government.
As we said last week, this shoplifting incident had all the makings of an international incident. Thankfully LaVar Ball was right. It wasn’t “that big a deal.” Though it did make its way into discussions between the President of the United States and the President of the People’s Republic of China. I guess more serious discussions on human rights, currency manipulation and unbalanced trade relations will have to wait until next time.
It figures that Trump’s first win as president will prominently play into a reality television show plot line. I don’t know if LaVar Ball meant for the family’s China trip to go down this way, but he’s now got a hell of an act to top for season three of Ball in the Family.
Bennett “After trying to get it fixed and getting waived, you’ve got that vengeance in your heart like, ‘All right, that’s how you’re going to do it? (Expletive) it, let’s go ball.’“ #Patriotspic.twitter.com/iUqaikNnEf
The guy does not give a fuck about anything, but he still doesn’t say anything too inflammatory. Bill Belichick has always given his veterans a bit of rope to speak their mind, as long as they’re not giving the other team bulletin board material or embarrassing the team (i.e. Welker’s Rex Ryan foot jokes).
Marty feels like he got dogged out by the Packers, in particular the team doctors and the head coach for all but accusing him of quitting on the team once Aaron Rodgers went down. Now did he lose his edge once his HOF quarterback went down and he saw his hopes of another Super Bowl burn up? Yea probably, which is why he likely decided alright well I’ll just get the surgery rather than play through pain for a team that isn’t going anywhere. Not the best attitude, but its hard to totally blame the guy.
In Bennett’s own words, he only mentioned the word “retirement” so the Packers didn’t think he was going to just take the money and run while hanging out on IR. But things got heated between the two sides, Bennett got cut, and he then apparently put out the word to not claim him because he wouldn’t play for your team….unless your Bill Belichick.
“He said he told his agent to tell teams not to claim him, since he wanted to get surgery on an injured shoulder. And even after the Patriots did, he said it took a conversation with coach Bill Belichick to convince him. “When Bill called and said they claimed me, I was like, ‘No [bleeping] way,’” Bennett said, via Phill Perry of NBC Sports Boston. “Then he was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I told him . . . We had a quick conversation and I was just like, ‘Let me think about it and I’ll call you back.’
Hey man, can’t blame Belichick if guys wanna play here. None of my business how they leave their previous team. If a guy is available the Patriots are going to kick the tires every single time. Plus there is no better motivation than sticking it to your last team, which is what the Pats have thrived on with their player personnel for years. And to the people saying “thats not right” and its unfair.
You know whats not right? Suspending the best quarterback in the league for 4 games and docking the Patriots a first round draft pick for fucking air pressure in a ball. Yes, I did somehow bring this back to Deflategate so you’re welcome.
After this whole fiasco and returning to the Patriots to make 3 catches for 38 yards on just 7 snaps, I’ll leave you with this, the latest A+ quote from Marty.
“Like I told the guys, ‘In order for the Phoenix to be reborn, he must first turn to ashes.’ ”
There is nobody I would rather see the Red Sox top prospect working out with more than our absolutely psychotic, alpha dog ace, Chris Sale. You look at Sale and don’t necessarily see a guy thats shredded, but you gotta be strong as hell to pitch like he does (17-8 2.9o ERA) and to get that gigantic lanky 6’6″ frame following perfect mechanics. Definitely not a bad idea to pair that guy with the Red Sox’ 2016 1st round pick (12th overall) for a little offseason workout.
Just in case you need a refresher on who Jason Groome is, he’s the top pitching prospect in the Sox farm system. Here’s the scouting report on him from SoxProspects.com
“Has the potential to develop into one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. Projects as a solid number two or high-end number three starter. Has the ceiling of a top of the rotation starter. Has the build of a workhorse starting pitcher and clean, repeatable mechanics to be able to sustain 200 plus innings a year. Early makings of a three-pitch mix with fastball and curveball both projecting to be at least plus offerings. Could stand to add a cutter to give hitters another look when he reaches the high minors.”
Earlier this year, MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo ranked Groome as the second best left handed pitching prospect in all of baseball, adding this:
“He still has perhaps the best combination of stuff, upside and command of any arm in his class.”
So, yea definitely a guy we want to follow closely and surround with the right influences. It would seem Beyond Motivation is a place that Sale has been working out at for at least a couple of years, so its not just bullshit P90X or some sketchy program in the Dominican that he’s been following.
And thats what makes Chris Sale the leader in this Red Sox clubhouse, bringing along the young guys even if they’re still only in A ball. Teaching them how to be do the little things to be one of the best in baseball and not how to bitch about the media and be a malcontent.
I was watching the Patriots smother Brock Osweiler all night, but when I saw that blue hat FLY up into the air after this throw I had to rewind it. When I realized it was some poor shmuck getting smoked right in the head I had to watch it about 5 more times and cackle like a maniac each time. There’s really only one way to sum this up.
The 300s 