This story broke yesterday when I was responsible for making sure a bunch of rabid 7th graders didn't kill each other so unfortunately I couldn't give my immediate thoughts. "Looks like Chris Sale is changing his Sox!" - everybody with no sense of humor that think's they're the first person to make that awful joke. Now that the dust has settled I still very torn on this move. In the immediate future, it's awesome. The Red Sox starting rotation just got one of the best pitchers in all of baseball to pair up with two former Cy Young award winners in David Price and Rick Porcello. Rounded out with some combination of Clay Buccholz, Steven Wright, Drew Pomeranez and E-Rod. Starting Pitching is suddenly an area of great depth for this team. What I love about this move is that Sale is under team control at a very reasonable price in today's MLB market. With one year left and two team options on his contract I think he's only owed like 39 million dollars over the next 3 years, which is a bargin for a perennial top 5 finisher in the Cy Young vote. He's only going to be 28 years old this season so it is very possible to think he could just be getting into his prime. Also his numbers against the A.L. East are outstanding. He has the best career ERA against the Yankees by any pitcher in the last 100 years. I think that's good?
However the asking price was a little high. The Red Sox parted with two of the top prospects in all of baseball, Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech in addition to two other prospects. We'll see how they pan out but many believe Moncada could be one of the best players in all of baseball once he finds a position. It definitely hurts the longterm future of this team to move on from such promising young talent but they still have to pan out. Who knows maybe they'll be busts.
I just wish they made this trade at the deadline last year to better their chances at winning the World Series in David Ortiz' final year. After the move Papi joked about possibly coming back now that the Red Sox just put their nuts on the table and said we're going for the World Series right fucking now.
Whether or not they do remains to be seen. I still have a lot of worries about this team mainly if Rick Porcello can keep up what he did in 2016 and if David Price will be able to relax and be able to handle pitching in Boston. Also losing the best DH in baseball history is kind of a big deal. But whatever all my focus is the Patriots right now. Still torn on this move but for 2017 it makes the Red Sox the team to beat (on paper) in the American League.
P.S. Do the Red Sox let Chris Sale wear Tim Wakefield's #49? I'm really into uniform numbers and this was honeslty one of my first thoughts after the trade. 49 has not been issued to anybody else since he retired after 2011. Sort of "unofficially-retired". While Wake is never going to make the baseball HOF, he probably will be in the Red Sox HOF, plus he's 3rd all time in wins in franchise history and is one of the most beloved Red Sox of my lifetime. Would be nice to see him get his number retired after all he did for the Sox on and off the field. Similiar to what they did with Johnny Pesky. I guess we'll know soon as the Red Sox will probably officially introduce with the next few days.
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Song: Blow You Mind (Mwah) Artist: Dua Lipa Album: Dua Lipa
The Boston Red Sox won the American League East in 2016 with John Farrell as the manager. Please do not for one-second think that fact alone means John Farrell deserves to be the Red Sox manager even next year, yet alone in 2018. What John Farrell accomplished in 2016 by winning the A.L. East with the talent on that roster, does not impress me. A lot like when a handsome dude can take a hot girl home from the bar solely based on looks. It’s what is supposed to happen. When someone fat or ugly pulls it off then I'm impressed. Whether or not you capitalize on the situation is a completely different story. John Farrell did not capitalize in 2016. He was basically the good-looking guy at the bar who got the pretty girl who wanted to sleep with him to come home, all he had to do was the obvious right moves. Yet he proceded to do every single thing possible to blow what seemed like a sure thing. That's basically how John Farrell manages baseball games. In 2016 with the best offense in baseball, and the A.L. Cy Young winner John Farrell only lead the Red Sox to 93 wins. Which is a good season, don't get me wrong, but there were about 10-15 games where you could put the majority of the blame on his shoulders. Not ideal from someone who is supposed to be putting the team in the best situation to win everyday. Then in the playoffs he proceeded to get swept. After the Red Sox had a stretch of 11 straight wins in September, they ended the season 1-6 mainly because Farrell took his foot off the gas which in baseball you simply cannot do. The hottest team in baseball suddenly became ice cold and it carried into their early exit from the playoffs. Again, it’s awesome they made the playoffs and as a Red Sox fan this (regular) season was an amazing ride. But just because John Farrell is “respected” and “well-liked” it does not mean he should have his job. He basically just didn't fuck up enough to cost the Red Sox a playoff spot, if the season was two weeks longer he most likely would have. Talent as a manager, in this case in-game managing should matter, yet for Farrell it does not. Even in 2013 they won in spite of him. He benched Daniel Nava in the playoffs who hit .303 that season for Jonny Gomes who apart from 2 hits did nothing all playoffs. He let a relief pitcher hit in the 9th inning of a tie game in the World Series. He does not make the right calls. I can think of about 10 instances this season where Farrell made a move that nobody understood that ultimately cost the Red Sox a game. Even people who like Farrell that I’ve heard on the radio and read on twitter have agreed that his “in-game managing” is poor but because of his clubhouse presence it’s okay. What fucking world am I living in where that is acceptable? The guy makes the same bad decisions, time after time and the Red Sox just don’t seem to care. It's like if a teacher was really well liked by his or her students but didn't teach them a single thing all school year. Would you call that person a good teacher? I sure as hell hope not. The biggest reason I hate this move is because Farrell is already under contract for this season. They didn't need to make this move. Sure he would be going into a "lame-duck" season but tough shit that happens. You have to earn it, and from what John Farrell has done as a Red Sox manager with 2 last place finishes, an affair with a writer for the team and their late season collapse in 2016 he has not earned the chance to be given the title of Red Sox manager past this upcoming season. John Farrell needs to prove what he can with this team in 2017 before we start talking about 2018. The field of four is set. On New Years Eve (still ridulous that's when the playoff games are but that's another rant for another day) Alabama will take on Washington in Fiesta Bowl. Clemson will take on Ohio State in the Peach Bowl. The two winners will then play for the National Championship on January 9th. There is only one problem to me, and that is that the playoff is only four teams. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy the playoff exists. It was long overdue infact, the BCS sucked. That being said the fact that only four teams qualify for the playoff is absolutely riduclous IMO. The College Football Playoff should be 8 teams and should've been 8 teams for the jump and here is why. I've been saying this for deep and it was briefly featuring in a classic blog a few months back. my-presidential-platform.html 1. Size of Field of Teams in Division 1 There are currently 128 FBS schools in the NCAA. That means 128 teams are fighting every week for a chance at a National Championship. If you eliminate non-power conference teams from the discussion then there realistically are about 65 teams from the Power 5 Conferences (plus Notre Dame) who at the beginning of the season at least technically have a chance to make the field. Yet only 4 teams qualify which I find really odd. That means only 3% of the teams in all of college football qualify for the playoff. 6.5% if you wanna talk about the Power 5. Seems way too low to me. In college basketball where there are 347 D1 progams 68 qualify for the NCAA Tournament (aka March Madness). Nearly 20% of college basketball gets the right to compete for the championship. I don't want college football to have a 68 team tournament because that would be riduculous. Even 16 seems like too many. But 8 just feels right. Enough teams so there's no gigantic snubs, and it should still be competitive. 2. Power 5 Conferences Winning your conference should matter for making the playoff but apparently it does not. Just ask Penn State. If you expand the playoff to 8 teams, guess what now you can have a format that actually makes sense instead of this committee bull shit that is essentially just a popularity contest. They care more about having bigger fanbases in the mix, buying tickets, spending money on travel and everything else that is associated big schools that "travel well". If expanded to 8 teams which again seems like the perfect number now the five conference champions from the Power 5 get automatic big to the tournament. Which they should. Even if a conference has a down year which will happen the conference champion deserves a chance. That's why you play the game. Then you have 3 at large/wild card spots for the remaining teams. A team like USC who started slowly but is playing as well as anybody right now could get a chance to sneak in as an 8 seed. I'd go highest ranking non-conference champions to fill out the rest of the field. I'm fine with seeding teams however you want. If you want Ohio State as the 2 seed this year that's fine, they are worthy. I just think a team like Penn State who beat them head-to-head and won the Big 10 which was the toughest conference in college football by a longshot, deserves a chance to play for the National Championship. They earned it in my eyes. Btw If there were 8 teams this season this is how I would seed them. 1. Alabama (SEC Champion) 2. Clemson (ACC Champion) 3. Ohio State (Big 10 At-Large) 4. Penn State (Big 10 Champion) 5. Michigan (Big 10 At-Large) 6. Washington (Pac-12 Champion) 7. Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion) 8. USC (Pac-12 At-Large) 3. More Football = More Money Now I'm no accountant, but here me out with this plan. All conferences are happy now because are all guarenteed at least one playoff team. They're making more money from getting their cut from tv revenue, tickets, etc. Now instead of 2 playoff games and a national championship game you now have 6 and a national championship. That means more money made with tickets, concessions, merchandise etc. Plus they're going to need to televise these games so there's even more money made for college football and all parties involved by tripling the amount of playoff games to make money off of. Which we all know is the NCAAs number 1 goal. Don't believe anything else you hear. 4. It's Good For the Game Did you know the NFL used to decide the champion by best regular season record? No playoffs just whoever had the best regular season was the champ. When they realized that sucked they added a championship game. Then over-time they added the wild-card, divisional and conference championship rounds of the playoffs and it has only gotten better for the league. Think of all the champions in recent NFL history that were not top 2 seeds. Off the top of my head the 2005 Steelers, 2006 Colts, 2007 Giants, 2010 Packers, 2011 Giants and 2012 Ravens would all have not even qualifed for the playoffs had the NFL not adjusted and evolved over time to make the product more exciting by including more teams. Had the NFL not expanded the playoffs history would be remembered so differently. Instead there are classic upsets that have created some fanastic moments for the league. If expanded to 8 teams that is bound to happen for college football. People may not think so now because Alabama seems so much better than everybody else, but if they had to play more top level teams in a playoff, sure seems like there would be a monumental upset at some point. March-Madness always has a handful of awesome upsets and Cinderella stories, that's not really possible in the current CFP format. With an expansion to 8 teams that now would be much more likely. Now will this happen for next season? I highly doubt it but it doesn't take away from the all the benefits it would have on the sport. Similarly to how the extra wild-card has given more teams a shot to win the World Series and have teams still fight til seasons end instead of giving up. Having more teams in the mix has been great for baseball and I think it would also be great for college football. What do you think is 4 not enough spots? Is 8 too many? Should it be something completely else? LMK in the the comments or on f book. Song: home (ft johnny yukon) Artist: gnash Stylized it lowercase just like he does. Just minor attentions to detail like that are what truly seperates me from all the other fake bloggers out there. Taught earlier today too and I'm still blogging. I'll make it one way or another.
My relationship with the NFL is an odd one. I love the Patriots admittly way too much as they single handled can make or break my weekend (or even longer when it's a playoff game) I love football in general, I think it's the greatest sport in the world and love watching it. I wish I could still play but I was just another bum ass high school football player with no future in the game past 17 like most in this country, but I'll always love the game.
However the league that give it to us: the NFL is a horrible, horrible organization. I hate the NFL but I love the product. The NFL is greediest, most ass backwards organaztion in American sports. Held out information about concussions and their long term impact on players. They claim they care about player safety in the wake of all the concussion news, yet they have teams play on short rest every single week for Thursday Night Football. They suspend Ray Rice 2 games for beating the shit out of his wife in an elevator then Tom Brady gets 4 games for a crime that cannot be proven. Just makes no sense. Or even worse guys like Seantrel Henderson who they straight up told "we don't care about your Crohn's disease" when it comes to him using medical marjuana to fight his Crohn's. Dude just got suspended 10 games for doing what actual medical doctors told him to. It's fucking asinine. Like use some logic one time for me. Nope the NFL doesn't care. Same with trying to strip all fun from the game with celebrations and accessories from players. Usually if you wear non-uniform cleats you get fined, but for this one week. Week 13 of the 2016 NFL season players are allowed to wear any custom cleats they want to spread awareness for a cause important to them. While I love this move part of me believes the NFL, as the evil machine that they are is only doing this so people like me and praise them in blogs like this. Well I'm not going to do that, fuck the NFL. However I will share some of the cleats that players will be be wearing this Sunday as it is a very cool cause that could help a lot of awesome charities and other general causes. Let's take a look.
Jacksonville Jagaurs QB Blake Bortles cleats support his foundation along with the law enforcement and fire departments of Jacksonville, Florida.
Buffalo Bills RB Lesean McCoy is wearing ALS awareness cleats in honor of his late grandmother.
Last night in a TNF matchup against the Vikings, Cowboys QB wore cleats in honor of his mom who passed away from Colon Cancer in 2013.
Colts longsnapped Matt Overton chose to wear cleats to symbol unity between community and law enforcement. Obviously a hot topic in America currently.
Here all the Oakland Raiders partaking in the event show off their cleats.
Last night Cowboys TE Jason Witten wore these cleats for his Score Foundation which raises awareness and provides aid to families and individuals impacted by domestic violence and domestic abuse.
DeAngelo Williams, Pittsburgh Steelers RB and noted Breast Cancer Awareness advocate shows off his cleats in honor of women in his life who impacted by the disease.
Carolina Panthers TE Greg Olsen will wear these cleats Sunday to praise awareness and support for congential heart disease. An issue that hits close to home as Greg's son was born with Hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
Patriots CB Logan Ryan will be wearing these cleats in support animal shelters and finding homes for dogs.
Redskins QB Kirk Cousins cleats will be for IJM the International Justice Mission who's goal is to end child slavery, trafficking and sexual assault in developing nations.
Raiders QB Derek Carr will show support to Care For Kids.
Finally, my guy Patriots LB Dont'a Hightower will wear these cleats for the American Diabetes Assocation.
Those were just a few of the cleats that will be worn this week in the NFL. Be sure to be to be on the look out for these and the hundreds of other players this week who are actually doing something positive with the platform they have every week. It's a very cool thing by these players and hoping a lot of good can come out out of this. Just make sure you don't wear them next week because the NFL will return to it's old horrible ways and fine you.
I kept seeing commericals for this "The Wall" show and I had to do some research, and I'm happy to report that this show is going to be awesome. If you were like me (and also like millions of other kids in the history of being sick) staying home from school meant a lot of awesome things, but one in particalar trumped all: you got to watch Price is Right. Man did I love Price is Right as a kid. Bob Barker was the man, there were models and I loved trying to play along with the games. Some games you really coudln't "play along" with as they had some sort of physical element to it that just would not possible to play from your couch at home after the price guessing part, most notably the greatest game in the history of Price is Right....Plinko. Yes, Plinko was and still is the G.O.A.T. Price is Right game and it's not even close. Only other one in the discussion is the mountain climber game but it pales in comparison. The only bad thing about Plinko is they don't have it every episode. Idk the stastistics and I'm just gonna make one up...I bet they do Plinko like once every 8 episodes. So as a kid home sick from school the odds of seeing plinko were about as low as someone actually winning the 50 grand, but man when you did get to see it it was magical. You get to watch some idiot play 5 pricing games that are literally the easiest thing of all time... "Well Peter do you think the blender is 7 dollars or 47 dollars?" .... ummm that's a real tough one Bob, but I'll go $47. That would happen 4 more times then they'd drop the tokens down the board. Well now this show The Wall eliminates all the waiting for Plinko and instead is a game of only Plinko, and not only that, it's Plinko on steriods. I'm not so sneaky a huge game show guy. When I was an adolescent legitimitely all I used to watch was Game Show Network. Love game shows, can't get enough. My dream job as a kid was game show host and I used to think that was impossible given the way I look, but then this guy got his own show and a boy like me could dream again. If I know anything about game shows this is going to be huge for like two years, then nobody will care anymore. A lot like Deal or No Deal. In when that first came out I think I was in 8th when it first debuted that was can't miss tv then by time I was a junior in HS I don't even think it was on anymore. But at first it was YUGE. I expect the same with The Wall. Can't wait to watch. Sure it's somehow "executed produced" by Lebron James but I'm still pumped.
There is a preview epsiode Monday December 19th on NBC at 10pm. Also I think I'd kill it on this show and might have to see how hard it is to get on. #GetDozoOnTheWall Song: Black Gold (live) Artist: Houdmouth Album: Little Neon Limelight
Every Patriot fan/ Gronk fantasy owner right now.
Me right now.
This sucks.
I should say this was breaking news when I started. It takes me about 10 minutes to add a gif to my blogs since I am blogging from a typewriter but please bare with me. It appears that New England's 2nd favorite patriots: Rob Gronkowski is going to be out for around 2 months after back surgery which may end his 2016 season. Gronk has battled injuries his entire career it's been literally the only thing that can stop him because no defenders in the NFL sure can. What sucks is this nothing new for Rob Gronkowski. He injured his ankle in the 2011 (2012 on the calendar) AFC Championship Game and was nowhere near his 18 touchdown regular season self in the Super Bowl loss to the Giants. Then in 2012 he broke his arm and tried to comeback only to re-break it in the playoffs. In 2013 after coming back from that he torn his ACL against the Browns. You could very realistically argue that the Patriots would have won at least 1 more Super Bowl had Gronk not gotten hurt in any of those 3 seasons. I hate to get negative but this loss of Gronk on offense is catastrophic. Especially with how teams slice through their defense like a hot knife through butter. They need all the weapons they can have on offense to score as many points as possible because come playoff time I expect the D to start getting torched. That sound you hear is their season going down the drain. The strategy to just win shoot outs because their defense can't stop anybody is seriously flawed now. Simply put they're not the same team without Gronk. I know these aren't exactly the most groundbreaking points but they're all true. When he's healthy the Patriots offense is a whole different animal. Without him they're all of a sudden very beatable, as we nearly saw at the Meadowlands this Sunday. Did some quick math (scrolled in the calendar in my phone) and 8 weeks from today is January 26th, 2017. The Super Bowl is on February 5th so should the Patriots not put him on the IR he could return should they make it that far. His regular season however is over. It has been rumored though that the Patriots will place him on the IR. I for one sure hope they do not. Need Gronk for the Super Bowl should they get their. I know that's a long ways away but Gronk is not your average player, you can waste one roster spot on him. If in few weeks you know he won't be able to comeback, then you put him on the IR, but for now I would wait a few weeks. I hate to say I told you so but I saw this coming. grok-gets-madden-cover.html Nestlé says it has found a way of slashing the amount of sugar in some of its chocolate bars by 40%, without compromising the taste. The Swiss food company, whose products include Kit Kats, Aeros and Yorkies, said it has achieved the reduction by discovering a way “to structure sugar differently”. The new process is said to make sugar dissolve faster so that even when less is used, the tongue perceives an identical level of sweetness. It plans to patent the process, discovered by its scientists, which it says will enable it to significantly decrease the total sugar in its confectionery products. Sugar has been blamed for fuelling the obesity epidemic crippling the NHS in the UK and health campaigners have urged confectionery companies to cut unnecessary sugar from their products. In 2014, Action on Sugar was launched with the goal of encouraging government and manufacturers to cut sugar in food by 30%. In that context, Nestlé’s self-proclaimed breakthrough is likely to be welcomed, should it live up to its claims, and be potentially lucrative to the company. It says it will begin to use the faster-dissolving sugar in its confectionery products from 2018. A four-finger milk chocolate Kit Kat currently contains 23.8g of sugar, a plain (milk chocolate) Yorkie contains 26.9g and a medium peppermint Aero has 24.9g of sugar. If the amount of sugar in each of these products was cut by 40% the new amounts would be 14.3g, 16.1g and 14.9g respectively. via: www.theguardian.com/business/2016/dec/01/nestle-discovers-way-to-slash-sugar-in-chocolate-without-changing-taste Just when you're ready to declare that 2016 is the worst year of all time this happens! Everybody on the internet has been saying 2016 is the worst year ever for months. Well, well, well not so fast, everybody! On the first day of the final month of the year Nestlé comes in the save the year. Did 2016 just blow a 3-1 lead? Maybe my mom was right when she said, "it's not over, til it's over".
Now sure maybeeeee our country is more divided than ever, and yeah Harambe is still dead (R.I.P.) , but candy may be less bad for you now AND still taste the same. That is groundbreaking stuff. I'm trying to be positive for once guys and just roll with it. Do I truly believe this is possible? No I don't. I also didn't think it was possible that Trump would win the election yet here we are. I'm just saying I'm going to give Nestlé a chance here. I try to not eat candy a lot. By that I mean if I can go 3 or 4 nights in a row without grabbing a Reese's then I'm proud of myself. But I mean it's fucking awesome and hard to say no to at times. If there can be a way to make me feel a little less guilty for grabbing a candy bar when I get gas then I'm all in. I'm not gonna worry about the type of cancer this will all ultimately give people or any other negative affects that this will inevitably cause. Not even going to worry about how Nestlé candy isn't even that good to begin with. Said it before I'm not a sugary candy guy, I'm a chocolate guy. (im-shocked-at-how-bad-america-is-at-liking-candy.html) Regardless, this is pretty cool news. Basically they found a way to use less sugar but I guess trick your tastebuds into thinking it's the same. Idk what witchcraft Nestlé is using and how that is possible but I'm all in for trying. Imagine how awesome it would be if this actually worked? Then maybe they could do this with other stuff? You could have like 4 or 5 pieces pizza but it would be like only had 2 slices. You get the taste you love and not all the negative consequences. Obviously still not good for you but as they say, moderation is key. What would be even better is if booze found out a way to copy this. Stronger but tastes the same. If there was a way to have a couple beers or like two mixies and be the perfect level of drunk I'd be all in. After a decade of drinking I'm still trying to figure out how to balance between "I don't feel anything" and "I fell asleep at the bar". It's a hard to do and the only way to keep better is to keep practicing! I was gonna say think of all the money we could save but if that ever happened it would just be $50 for a six pack of Bud Light. Either way look out for this "less sugar, same taste" candy in 2018. |
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