August 25, 2012

Huge Sox Trade!


Wow. The Red Sox just shook things up in a MAJOR way. Details on the blockbuster (maybe the biggest "sale" of all time???:


LA Dodgers get:

Adrian Gonzalez
Josh Beckett
Carl Crawford
Nick Punto

Boston Red Sox get:

James Loney (Medicore MLB player)
Rubby De La Rosa (Up and down in the minors this year)
Jerry Sands (Minor League Prospect)
Ivan DeJesus (Minor League Prospect)
Allen Webster (Minor League Prospect)



Gonzalez, Beckett, and Crawford are owed a total of about $270 Million over the remaining  life if their contracts. Shockingly, The Dodgers have agreed to pay over 90% of that! Typically when stars like Beckett are traded with bad, long contracts, the team that is trading them away still has to pay most of the salary. (See: Kevin Youkilis) Somehow, Red Sox GM Ben Cherington found a way to dump 3 huge contracts that all seem to have been mistakes & the club house cancer (Beckett) all in the same trade. Crawford and Beckett both waived their no-trade clause to get the deal done.

Obviously, this was an incredible deal for the Sox. Yes, it shows that they are "giving up" this year, but if you read my previous posts you know I thought they should have been sellers long ago. Can't give Cherington, or his UMASS SPORT MANAGEMENT education, enough credit for finally recognizing and addressing some of the major problems with this team!!!


PS- The Dodger's lineup is so, so nasty now. Crawford-Victorino-Kemp-Gonzalez-Hanley-Either? Is that joke? I hope they destroy the Yankees in the World Series.




Yea, peace out you losers. Beckett the fat ass and Adrian "He took my phone and texted you from it" Gonzalez. Learn how to play in somewhere other than San Diego bro. You suck and everyone knows it.

Also, clearly these guys are happy to have left Boston. Crazy how in just a few years Boston became one of the least desirable places to play in the MLB...

August 23, 2012

NHL Problems

Yesterday Taylor hall signed a 7 year $42 Milllion deal with Edmonton. This is significant to me for 2 reasons. As most people know, the current CBA has expired and the NHL Players Association and the NHL (Owners) are trying to come up with a new labor agreement soon, so as not to have a repeat of 2005 and miss the entire season. The owners already said they WILL lock the players out on Spetember 15th, 2012 unless a new labor contract is agreed upon.




The NHL Players Association, Led by Donald Fehr, who was the head of the MLB Players Association in 1994, the strike-shortened baseball season. 

What the owners want:  1. Rollback in player salaries 2. Reduce the the player's cut of NHL revenues pie down from 57% to 43%. They have also pushed for contract lengths to be capped at 5 years and proposed a bunch of different variations on the idea that a player would not become a free agent until 10 years of service in the league. 


VS


The NHL and it's Owners, Led by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman (has already seen 2 work stoppages/shortened season under his tenure) 


What the players want: Well first, they are against all those things listed above. Secondly they want to install a revenue-sharing structure, where the leagues most profitable teams annually contribute to a program that would help support and grow the lesser profitable clubs. A similar system is currently used in the MLB. The players Union also wants to severe the tie between the salary cap and revenues. As it stood for the past 7 years, the salary cap would fluctuate based on the revenue stream of the league. The Players have proposed a system where the cap will gradually increase at a rate of about 2% each year. 



I'm not going to sit here and pretend I know what is going to happen... but I WILL sit here and blast the Owners. I just don't understand how the same group of people say they want short contracts and capped contracts, but take a look at a few of these HUGE contracts that have been doled out recently:


July 2012- Zach Parise 13 years/ 98 Million 
July 2012- Ryan Suter 13 years/98 Million
August 2012 - Pacioretty 6 years/ 27 Million
August 2012- Taylor hall 7 Years/42 Million
August 2012- Wayne Simmonds 6 years/ 24 Million  
August 2012- Scott Hartnell 6 years/ 25.2 Million
August 2012- Jeff Skinner 6 years/ 35 Million

How can the owners of these teams sit in these labor negotiations with a straight face? It's pretty sickening to think about guys THAT rich acting SO desperate for EVERY dollar when they are handing out these long-term contracts at the same time. 




Anyway, Part 2 of this entry I want to focus on Taylor Hall's contract and how that may affect negotiations between the Bruins and Tyler Seguin, seeing as they entered the league together and were both highly regarded as the 2 standouts of the 2012 draft. (Thank you, Kessel)


                 Rookie Deal         NHL Games        Goals        Assists          +/-       Points Per Game

     




Hall3y @ 2.7M 1264995-12 1.14
Seguin3y @ 2.7M     1754554300.565


Hall averages about 18 minutes again, including ample PP time
Seguin averaged 12 min TOI his rookie season, up to 17 his second season, not as much PP time. 


Obviously, Taylor Hall has been more productive, as he should be. He gets a lot more ice time in Edmonton, he's on the top line with other very skilled players, and he is the key piece in the Oilers PP. Conversely, Seguin had VERY limited ice time at first- the nature of how the Bruins play the game means Seguin won't be a horse when it comes to TOI, he will be slotted to play wing or center for ANY of the first 3 lines, and his role is just now growing on the PP. 

Oh not to mention Seguin has Cup experience, and proved he shines under the lights with those nifty moves in the 2011 playoffs.


Anyway I think Seguin deserves every bit as much as Hall got. I think the Bruins are being cautious in signings until the CBA is worked out... Next Summer is a huge Summer for the Bruins with 7 prominent players all up for some sort of free agent status. My guess is Seguin gets extended during the season something like 5 years 35 million. I'd be happy with that and so should the Bruins. Enjoy the amazing video:



August 15, 2012

Rapid Reactions

I've taken a small break from the blog, mostly because I have ideas all the time but I never think they are good enough to publish... Then I end up publishing nothing at all which is even worse. I'm back into it though, so no worries to my very small following.   Also, you can also follow me @jrbro0 for interesting sports bits on a much more regular basis.

 I'll give my piece about some stuff that happened since the last time I posted. I'm intentionally leaving most things NFL and fantasy football related for a later post, coming soon.



1. The Olympics

Usually, I'm all about the olympics. Can't stop watching 'em. This year was a little different... Although I admit historically I tend to follow the Winter games more than the Summer anyway. Hockey is where it's at.





Michael Phelps is a monster and YES he IS the greatest Olympian ever. I don't think he's the best athlete ever, but certainly no one even comes close to what this guy has accomplished in the pool from Athens in '04 to China in' 08 and now London in '12. The next highest Olympian in anything has 9 gold medals. Phelps has double that. 18/22 is beast. and we remember at least 1 of those solvers is Ryan Lochte's fault.




Another thing I want to mention about the Olympics is how cool and how truly great Usain Bolt is. Just the man. Watch how fast he really ran the 100m, the best event in the entire Olympics. (He has now defended his Gold from 08, only the 3rd repeat winner)





 


I'll end the Olympic talk with the final Medal Count: 



Pwned.  AND we landed on Mars during the games haha. 




2. Rick Nash Signs with the Blueshirts



Well... An already dominating NYR team added a lethal weapon on 7/23/12. If your keeping track at home... the Rangers now have 3 legitimate 40 goal scorers on the team for at least the next 3 seasons. Crazy. Nash should easily eclipse careers highs across the board now that he has escaped Columbus where he has been banished to, since he was selected first overall in 2002. For the record, none of the Bruins the players selected that year are currently in the NHL. Also for the record I think Tyler Seguin will score 40 for the Bruins this season.


3.  The 2012 Red Sox are the least likable Sox team of all time. 




At least since I've been alive. I started writing, paragraph-form,  all the problems the organization has, but I wasted an hour rambling on and on and on and decided to just make a list:


-The manager questioning the players effort and compete level.

-The players questioning the managers decisions and calling for him to be fired. The GM doesn't like nor ever wanted to hire the manager

-Ownership not present, nor cares as much as in the past . Organization focus is on the business-side of the Sox than the baseball side

-Medical staff continuously mis-doagnosising players (Seriously, how do these guys still have jobs?)

-The highest paid players on the team under performing and the team is awfully mediocre

-The pitching staff is gross. Why is Beckett still on the team? He's awful. 5-10 with a 5+ ERA to go along with the worst attitude on the team and ruining the clubhouse. The Red Sox will never win with him here again. I think. And why is Lackey still here? Out for the year and goes with the team on every trip? he's definitely part of the problem.


I heard this telling-fact a couple weeks ago on 98.5 the Sports Hub. Through 110 games, the season makes sense to be broken up into 22 games segments, or 20% chunks.

Through 22 games, the Red Sox were 11-11
Through 44 games, the Red Sox were 22-22
Through 66 games, the Red Sox were 33-33
Through 88 games, the Red Sox were 44-44
Through 110 games, the Red Sox were 55-55

That's crazy-consisntently .500 which means outside the playoffs and completely unacceptable.


 Other random thoughts: 





Doug Martin is a stud. Former Boise St. running back just tearing it up in Tampa Bay. Could be in line for a big season, although I'm trying to temper my expectations based on the rocky history of rookie running backs in today's NFL (at least in fantasy-terms). But he's making it real hard based on all reports from Tampa.




King Felix threw a Perfect game today. I tuned in for the last 2 outs.... ESPN somehow didn't alert me like the usually do after 6 and 7 innings of a potential no-no, so I almost missed it but luckily I caught the very end.  And, of course, the Mariners only scored 1 run for him as they won the game 1-0.



Stay tuned for NFL Notes and Fantasy stuff soon... Life Changes in early September...