Red Sox Ownership Blocked Dombrowski from Trading More Top Prospects. Good.

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WEEI – After a number of deals involving top-level prospects thinned the Red Sox farm system, ownership ordered president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski not to deal any top-end talent at the July 31 trade deadline, according to a report. Per Sean McAdam of Boston Sports Journal (subscription required), ownership made it clear to Dombrowski at the deadline that he was not to touch the top of the farm system. He instead dealt middle-tier prospects to acquire infielder Eduardo Nunez and reliever Addison Reed.

I know, I know, the Red Sox brought Dave Dombrowski in to build the team his way. And his way just happens to be to trade every prospect under the fucking sun to win now. Except theres GOT to be a point where you sit back and think hey maybe lets pump the breaks so we have SOME young guys in the pipeline. I am far from a bleeding heart prospect hoarder. I’ve seen too many “untouchable” prospects turn into absolute scrubs like Henry Owens (Baseball America No. 44 prospect in 2015). And for every Anthony Rizzo (Red Sox No. 8 prospect before getting dealt) you regret trading away there are 10 Casey Kellys (as high as Baseball America No. 24 prospect in 2009).

Something we talked about on our all Red Sox podcast this week (SUBSCRIBE!) was how Big Z and I disagreed on what to do with prospects. He says ship em all out because you’re going to miss with prospects more than you hit. I disagree. Not because I think they’re all going to be studs. I’m more concerned with the PERCEPTION of value they bring, which is why I always hated the Pomeranz trade. Admittedly he’s been pitching really well of late and Anderson Espinoza just blew his arm out and will have to get Tommy John. BUT, at the time Espinoza was your top pitching prospect and one of the most highly regarded prospects in all of baseball. Dombrowski traded him for a reliever turned starter who ultimately ended up being a middle innings mop up guy for the Red Sox down the stretch.

Sure he’s pitched well as of late, but you can’t point to the Espinoza injury and say Dombrowski won the trade. Thats using the benefit of hindsight. My point is the PERCEPTION of Espinoza’s value was much higher and the Sox should have gotten a lot more for him or held onto him. Not because I think he’s going to be the next Pedro, but because the consensus around the league was he would be a stud, which means you gotta get more.

Not to mention, take a look at Dombrowski’s last place of employment; the Detroit Tigers. Dombrowski had them humming along pretty good for a couple of years but he GUTTED the farm system and now they are in the middle of a brutal rebuild. I would hate to see the Sox in a similar position in 3-4 years. You can always add expensive free agents, but you need to supplement that with young, cheap prospects or you’ll quickly turn into the pre-Baby Bomber Yankees with Teixeira, CC Sabathia, A-Rod and others collecting paychecks on their way out the door towards retirement.

All of this is a long winded way of saying I’m glad someone put the stop sign up on Dombrowski IF it was over concerns of dealing more top prospects. If it was about concerns of going over the luxury tax then I retract this whole blog post because you’re the fucking Red Sox, you can afford it. But since he took over as President of baseball operations Dombrowski has stripped the farm system. In the two years since taking over he has traded 16+ prospects. You can read Alex Speier’s breakdown of them all, but here are the highlights below.

  • Manuel Margot (Part of the Craig Kimbrel trade: the No. 14 prospect in MLB at the start of 2016 and last week’s NL Player of the Week)
  • Yoan Moncada (Part of the Chris Sale trade: Sale has been a stud so no regrets about this, but Moncada was the No. 2 prospect in MLB this season behind only…Andrew Benintendi)
  • Michael Kopech (Sale trade: 100 mph heater with a 3.25 ERA and 134 K’s in 105 innings in Triple-A this year)
  • Travis Shaw (Tyler Thornburg trade: not technically a prospect, but Thornburg has yet to pitch for the Sox and Shaw is batting a cool .291 with 24 HR and 74 RBI for the Brewers)

I’m just not sold on Dombrowski’s player evaluation, which is probably my biggest concern. At least when it comes to the health or mental fortitude of players. Guys he’s traded for that have gotten injured include Thornbug, Carson Smith, Drew Pomeranz and not to mention signing David Price who has battled injuries as well as the local media. Yuck.

At some point you have to hold onto the young guys. The current team is littered with home grown talent (that are cheap too) including Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi. Thats a pretty stocked roster why not trade away some young guys then? Well because when the Red Sox have needed depth due to injuries they’ve basically been up shits creek because of all those prospects dealt. Thats how you get Henry Owens (now in Double-A) and Doug Fister making starts. Thank God for the way Devers has played or the Sox might be in a real bad place down the stretch.

The Red Sox currently have 3 prospects in Baseball America’s 2017 Top 100 – Benintendi (No. 1), Devers (No. 18) and Jason Groome (No. 43) — down from 5 in 2016 when they had Moncada (No. 3), Benintendi (No. 15), Devers (No. 18), Espinoza (No. 19) and Kopech (No. 89). Kopech jumped from 89 to 32, Moncada jumped from 3 to. 2, Benintendi jumped to 15 to 1, Devers stayed at No. 18, Espinzoa actually went down from 19 to 21 (2017 is Groome’s first year in pro ball).

My point is you don’t need to hold onto ALL of the prospects, but you do need to hold onto SOME of them. Your move, Dave.

James Van Der Beek Had To Go Into Therapy After Doing “Rules Of Attraction”

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Yahoo – One thing actors often say they most enjoy about their craft is the opportunity to become a character that’s wildly different from who they are in real life. But leaving that role behind when the project is done can be a more difficult challenge. James Van Der Beekexperienced that firsthand during the making of his cult 2002 film, The Rules of Attraction. In a recent Facebook Live interview with Yahoo TV, the actor — who is currently executive producing and starring in Viceland‘s new mockumentary series, What Would Diplo Do? — revealed that he had a hard time shaking his dark-hearted Attraction character, Sean Bateman. “I did end up going into therapy for the first time after that,” he explained. “I didn’t know how to process that stuff as an actor at that point. You learn to channel something without it sticking to you.”

“Rules of Attraction” is really worth seeing. While I don’t think I really give any true “spoilers” below it’s something you should go into blind, so feel free to skip this one for now if you haven’t seen it and pay the $2.99 on demand this weekend.

So for those of you who don’t know or haven’t seen it, “Rules Of Attraction” was a movie that came out in 2002 based on a book by Bret Easton-Ellis, who also wrote “American Psycho” and I’m sure you’ve at least heard how that one turns out. It also occurs in the same “universe” as “American Psycho”, a la the Kevin Smith movies, so keep that in mind. Anyway, ROA (I’m not writing “Rules Of Attraction” another 10000 times) follows a group of hard partying students at a yuppie, fictional, New England liberal arts college and their interactions with each other. It became – and continues to be – a cult/sleeper classic in that no one really saw it upon first release but since then a ton of people have caught wind of it via word of mouth and absolutely love it. Think “Boondock Saints”or, more recently, “That Akwarkward Moment” (Ya I know its on TV all the time but who saw it in theaters? Fuckin thought so.).

As a movie, ROA was known for a few different things. One was obviously the cast – a who’s who of those late 90’s early 2000’s actors such as Van Der Beek, Jessica Biel, and the kid who played Sunshine in “Remember The Titans” – as well as the fact that they were largely playing characters that weren’t their type, at least at the time. While they all had played parts that had partied and bent the rules quite a bit, it was always with a certain lightheartedness and sense of Americana. ROA was just dark, as I’ll get into in a bit.  The second thing it was known for was the way it was shot. The movie often goes often into short bursts of listed activities to take you through a character’s psyche and background. It also uses a lot of focused and close up shots of character’s facial expressions and body language to convey their intentions and personas. Last but not least, as I alluded to earlier, ROA is known for being completely and utterly fucked. While many movies feature horny young men out to get messed up and bang as many chicks as possible, ROA features malicious manipulative behavior on the part of, and mind games played by, some of the male characters for the sole purpose of seeing just how badly they can psychologically fuck up the women (and sometimes men) in their lives. It also should be noted that, on an island, the females are not exactly the picture of stability, either. When it comes to the boys though, I am talking purely sociopathic behavior, particularly on the part of Van Der Beek’s character.

The former Dawson Leery plays the main character, Sean Bateman. Remember I mentioned how Easton-Ellis’ stories often occurred in the same universe? Ya well Sean is Patrick Bateman’s little brother. That give you a clearer picture of things? You see what we’re dealing with? So you can see how after playing average, middle-American, deep-thinking guys such as Dawson and Mox that James Van Der Beek walked away from diving into the cold, scary parts of himself to play Sean Bateman a little shaken up. It also really shows how committed some actors are and how much they let their characters consume them, really becoming this fictional person, in order to put on a performance. For a guy like Van Der Beek, who I think was kind of written off as a pretty boy to play light, superficial characters this just goes to show he at least is damn dedicated to his craft. Story-wise, for me at least and I don’t mean to be insensitive, this hearkens back to Heath Ledger playing the Joker, and how the depths of depravity he brought himself to in order to pull off such a complete clinic of a performance may have been what drove him to the drugs that killed him.

I guess it goes to show, anything that us mere mortals can’t imagine doing, from sports to movies to music, takes a commitment-level the result of which can have some pretty drastic consequences. Crazy.

ESPNU Re-branding as The Ocho in a Hilarious and Timely Joke

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ESPN – Drawing inspiration from the 2004 hit movie “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” featuring Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor and Ben Stiller, ESPNU will become ESPN8: “The Ocho” on Tuesday, Aug. 8, or more appropriately, 8/8. For one day only, the faux network will feature a line-up of unconventional sporting events ranging from Disc Golf to Ultimate Trampoline Dodgeball and Firefighters World Challenge playing off the mantra highlighted in the movie: “Bringing you the Finest in Seldom Seen Sports”.

They say the key to comedy is timing. Well nothing more relevant and timely than a joke from a movie that came out THIRTEEN years ago. ESPN execs are probably sitting at their big desks up in their ivory towers thinking, “Yup, NAILED it.” Take the weekend off boys, our work here is done.

As bad as this joke thats almost old enough to drive is, I have to cover both sides of the story because I’m a former Big-J journalist and thats what the great ones do. So as stale as this idea is, something that will never not be funny are the This is SportsCenter commercials. I nearly flunked a final in college because I blew off studying to watch a best of This is SportsCenter Top 50 2-hour special. So you get credit for that ESPN, but not too much since Wieden+Kennedy created this idea. Only the most famous ad agency in the world. But hey, take the small victories where you can. CUE THE HIGHLIGHTS.

Sansa Stark is Straight Out of Mean Girls and I Kind of Dig It

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Yah00 – Sophie Turner has been in the spotlight since her teens after being cast as the ill-fated princess Sansa Stark in the hit HBO fantasy series, aged 14. It meant that she swiftly built up a considerable following on Twitter (1.34 million), Instagram (5.4 million) and Facebook (2 million), which she says helped her in auditions…She told Porter: “A lot of what I have achieved is about timing and luck, but it is also, and I hate to say it, about a big social-media following…”I auditioned for a project and it was between me and another girl who is a far better actress than I am, far better, but I had the followers, so I got the job. It’s not right, but it is part of the movie industry now.”

Oh you’re a better actress than me? Welp, my Insta game is fire flames so good luck sweetheart. There’s a reason the “best” actors do Broadway and not the most popular ones. Sansa Stark is just straight up Mean Girls-ing the competition.

Totally reminds me of the scene where Ramsay’s side piece Miranda is talking about all the horrible things that have happened to all of Lord Bolton’s former girlfriends and Sansa just straight up puts Miranda through the mental ringer.

Psychological warfare is the name of the game and she learned from the best, Cersei Lannister, who I just assume is as calculated and ruthless in real life.

PS – Lena Headey legit seems like a down to earth girl that can straight up laugh off people cussing her out in public because she is so good as Cersei on Thrones that they can’t disassociate her from the character.

There’s a NASA Job Opening to Protect the Earth from Aliens and Tom Delonge Has GOT to Be the Hands On Favorite

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USA Today – Want to save planet Earth? You could apply for NASA’s Planetary Protection Officer role. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is currently looking for someone with a secret security clearance to ensure alien life, or “organic-constituent and biological contamination” doesn’t make it’s way back in a space ship. More than that, this person is “responsible for the leadership of NASA’s planetary protection capability, maintenance of planetary protection policies, and oversight of their implementation by NASAs space flight missions,” according to the job listing.

This is it. This is what Tom Delonge envisioned when he walked away from Blink 182 to officially kick off his career hunting extraterrestrials. Touring the world making millions of dollars playing songs you wrote to thousands of adoring fans gets old and is as arbitrary as it is unsustainable. On the other hand, getting a nice six figure salary to work a 9-5 building and maintaining a “Planetary Protection Program”? That is steady, honest, and important work.

What are Delonge’s credentials you ask? Well allow me to lay them out. First of all this role appears to call for earth’s diplomat, ambassador if you will, in regards to extraterrestrial life. Being a musician and lyricist, especially in the pop punk genre, means Tom Delonge can communicate feelings and emotions better than the average human being. Such messages such as “eradicating our population with that photon beam will sadden me greatly” will probably not be lost in translation with Tom delivering them. How’s that for diplomacy?

A lot of this role also involves policy. Tom Delonge isn’t a master of consistency here, but he certainly has a knack for flexibility, especially when it is him dictating the need for it. He was the cause, for the most part, of the stop-start nature of Blink 182 over the past decade, which included a Tom-induced 7 year “indefinite hiatus”. This culminated in the latest new, substantial policy change of Mark and Travis hiring Matt Skiba and continuing as a band without him. He certainly also knows how to institute policy, as he has executed 6 contracts with, to quote Tom himself, “best-selling authors”, to publish 15 books. Now I myself don’t know much about conflict of interest policy, which would seem to be at play here, but I do know a bit about general best practices as it comes to overworking folks and this seems like Tom is grinding a little too hard. But hey, he used to spend months on end in a van with 2 other dudes driving around the country eating fast food so I’m sure he can handle it.

Finally, we need to address the fact that Tom Delonge has already been doing this job for a number of years. He has been hunting aliens, researching aliens, and trying to figure out what makes aliens tick for as long as anyone can remember. Music was his job, interplanetary species are his passion. I think there is a Seinfeld episode where George actually does this, wants a job so just starts doing it. Maybe it’s “Always Sunny”, I dunno. The bottom line is if I need someone defending my world from aliens in a pinch, I’ll first and foremost go with the guy who has already been defending my world from aliens for love of the fucking game. NOW HIT IT!

NBA Live 2018 Just Guaranteed Itself a MEGA Hit as It Will Have the WNBA in This Year’s Game

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That sound you just heard was the cash register RINGING OFF THE HOOK. Look, have I ever thought in the 21 years (!) the WNBA has been in existence “I really wish I could play with these gals on my PS4” ? No, no I have not. BUT, give me that option and you bet your ass I’ll be jacking up set shots and technically perfect layups while spacing the floor like its a 1950s NBA game. Sounds like a Brad Stevens wet dream.

In fact I may even force my friends to use strictly WNBA teams when they come over to play a couple games. Chicago Sky vs Minnesota Lynx for $100. Whats the fun in dunking from the free throw line with the Greek Freak when you can drive to the hole for a layup with Candace Parker?

The real question is, will NBA Live 2018 let you play WNBA teams vs NBA teams? THAT would be something. In fact I feel like EA would be doing the fans a disservice really if they don’t allow this. Get excited.

Justin Bieber Gives An Excuse For Why He Cancelled His Tour (Hint: He Sucks. It’s Because He Sucks)

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Yahoo – It’s never too late to say sorry. Justin Bieber posted a letter to fans on his Instagram account Wednesday night, speaking out for the first time since he canceled the remaining dates of his Purpose tour. The singer, 23, started by expressing how grateful he was to fans and revealing their support has “kept me going.”

Editor’s note: Boyfriend is still a fire flames jam.

So this was big news last week and this week sort of and being the resident blogger with any sense of reality I feel like I owe it to you the readers to cover it to some extent.

Believe it or not, this was a bit more of a sensitive issue for me to address than normal because you obviously, in this day in age knowing what we know now, want to give people benefit of the doubt when it comes to things like mental health. These are real problems people deal with. But this is Justin Bieber we are talking about. The world’s biggest assbag.

This is the guy who had the audacity to shit talk Nate Diaz. This is the guy that has been giving you ear AIDS for the past 15 years with his god awful music. This is the guy who comes to the ring with Floyd Mayweather. This is the guy getting “please believe I’m legit and tough and cool” sleeve tattoos so people don’t think of him as just the barely-pubescent Canadian who looks like Ellen DeGeneres. I don’t believe a SINGLE word of this little message, which I skimmed by the way because if I read the whole thing I’d never respect myself again. You felt insecure? No you didn’t. You’re the most baselessly arrogant person in the history of planet earth. You got famous because some people wrote some songs for you and you grew bangs. You have zero regard for other people – least of all the photographer you boomsauced with your truck LAST WEEK. These kids probably shelled out a shit load of money for tickets and were dying to see you because society has brainwashed them into thinking you’re worth it and now are crushed. And I know you don’t care.

You need to build a life that’s sustainable? You know what’s sustainable? Life in Canada. Away from the public eye. Behind a bunch of trees. Not bothering anyone. So please Justin, I beg of you, before you fuck up any more tweens summers, and their parent’s summers too because you know these kids will be unbearable now, just keep your yap shut, take your money, and move to the middle of nowhere where you can build your megachurch.

Time is a Flat Circle: Tom Brady Has Five Goats

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So apparently the Patriots are celebrating Tom Brady’s 40th birthday today by trotting out a mini heard of goats rocking TB12 jerseys. Because what else do you get the man that has everything?

But more importantly, if you’re anything like me and my friends, you’ve obsessively watched every single Tom Brady documentary there is, but most of all The Brady 6. One of the funniest lines of that entire documentary is the gigantic FUCK YOU that ESPN gives to that scrub Giovanni Carmazzi, who the 49ers took over Brady. “……he has five goats.”

And now years later, on his 40th birthday, after his 5th Super Bowl championship, Tom Brady also has 5 goats.