A Little Bit Of Everything…

Tying up the rest of the loose ends:

*Boston Bruins.  So the NHL trade deadline is rapidly approaching.  Some trades have already happened.  But things should head toward fast and furious in the coming days.

What will the Bruins do?

Last season, GM Don Sweeney went out and got Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson, which admittedly was more than I thought he would do.  I mean, it wasn’t like getting Jon Michael Liles and Lee Stempniak, like he did one year.  You can argue the merits of handing Coyle a 6 year extension for huge bucks this season.  But the moves from last year worked out pretty well, I think we can say.

Unfortunately for Donnie Hockey, that hole on the right wing of David Krejci (and Jake DeBrusk) still exists.  Seems like it has existed for years.  And I guess it has…other than the Johansson stint.

In my opinion, that’s almost the only move to make.  The “Perfection Line” of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak is all set.  Wait, I still need to know where that moniker came from.  No one but people on the NHL Network seems to call them that.  I don’t ever remember hearing that nickname until the playoffs last spring.  Mostly out of Doc Emrick’s mouth.  Annoying…but whatever…

The gaggle of third and fourth liners the Bs have would probably suffice.  Coyle/Anders Bjork is a fine start to the third line.  Sean Kuraly/Par Lindholm/Chris Wagner/Joakim Nordstrom/Anyone is certainly acceptable as a fourth line.

Karson Kuhlman may very well be an NHL player.  But I am beginning to think that isn’t this year.  And I am totally done with the Danton Heinen Experiment.  On any line.

If you added some beef to the bottom six and a somewhat of a scoring RW to the second line, I think we are good.

Wait…defense anyone?  I am not sure they need it.  Well, no one will stop any kind of upgrade attempt of course.  But I think the 2nd line guy is more important.  The 9-10 guys in the mix now on D would seem to work.  Perhaps Jeremy Lauzon is the real deal.  Or perhaps he is being showcased for a trade.  He did just sign a cheap extension after all.  And you ain’t getting rid of that John Moore contract.

But if they stood pat on D, I actually wouldn’t mind.

Who to give up?  Anyone!  Maybe Sweens can soak someone into taking Heinen.  Or even better, “The Player Formerly Known As David Backes”.

Ummmmm…yeah, I know those ain’t happening.

But the time is now to make another run.  Patrice, Marchy, Z, Krejci, Tuuks, etc aren’t getting any younger.  As much as I would like to hang on to guys like Bjork, Kuhlman and Jack Studnicka and hope they develop, if the package is right, Donnie has to consider dealing those guys.

After all, guys like JFK, Peter Cehlarik, Trent Frederic, Zach Senyshyn, Jakob Zboril, Anton Blidh, etc. have or will ever make it.  And those are “kids” that Sweeney had high hopes for.  Among many others.  So who is to say the likes of Kuhlman will either?

*Tom Brady.  Everyone sick of this talk yet?  Still a month away from free agency.  It will be an absolutely fascinating process once things start going down.  But I’m a little exhausted from it all at this point.

How much more can we talk about it?  Hasn’t every angle been covered thus far?

Is there really any NEW news?  Or just idiots like me speculating?  I say it’s the latter.

Wake me up on this one in a few weeks…

*Dustin Pedroia.  I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again:  PLEASE GO AWAY!!

The guy was a good player for a long time for the Boston Red Sox.  But he seems to be the only one that doesn’t realize that his career is over.  We keep hearing he has setback after setback.  And how he needs to “regroup and consider his options”.  We hear it seemingly hear it every day.  And will through Spring Training, most assuredly.

I appreciate his zeal to get back and play the game.  But that ship has sailed.

If it’s all about getting the 25 mil plus left on his deal, well that is all guaranteed, so he’s going to get it anyway.

Step aside Dustin.  It’s long past time.

*Kobe.  His death was certainly tragic.  As was his daughters’.  But so were the deaths of the other seven on board that helicopter.  I think the general public loses sight of that waaaaaaaaay too many times when it comes to celebrities.  But I am never going to win that fight, ssssssooooo…

As my man Colby recently posted, along with most assuredly several others, a little bit of a cloud still kind of hung over him as his career went on.  Yes, the rape accusations were 17 years ago.  But it’s funny how that all played out.  Charges dropped, case dismissed, civil suit being settled, Kobe buying his wife like a 4 million dollar ring while this was all going on…and everything else…how soon we all forget.

Listen.  There’s no argument about Kobe’s basketball ability and the fact he was one of the greatest of all time.  He also may have remade himself into a quality person as he got older.  Maybe he was a quality person all along but made at least that one mistake.  I don’t know.  I never knew the guy personally.

But that’s my problem with putting all these athletes and celebrities on a pedestal.  No one knows “how great a guy” that any of these people are.  Am I supposed to take other athletes’ or performers’ words for it?  Who knows about those people either?

Recognize his greatness in the sport.  But let’s not get carried away with some of the nonsense that has been spilling out about him “in tribute”.

That’s all I am saying.

*XFL.  There’s been a request to comment on this.  So here goes:

I have watched very little of the first two weeks.  But what I have seen is a lot of disorganization across the board.  Officials, coaches, players, etc.  And I haven’t exactly seen great football either.

That’s not much of an analysis.  And since I’ve only seen a fraction, it may be totally erroneous.

One thing is for sure though:  If teams are already firing coaches and team captains after the first week of games, that has to raise a red flag.  ONE GAME?  A little hard to believe.

Maybe Vince McMahon sent down the orders.  That’s a little scary to think about, no?

In any event, despite the Blowhards’ love for the game of football, we really haven’t been inspired to watch much of it.  That seems like a problem for the league if we aren’t the only ones.

I could probably sum up the lack of desire in two words:  “Matt McGloin”.

‘Nuff said.

*Super Bowl.  As we all know by now, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl and Jimmy Garoppolo peed his pants in the 4th quarter of the game.  Does that mean that Jimmy Football now sucks and that he isn’t considered a franchise quarterback anymore?  I don’t have the answer to that as of yet.

What I do know is that if your coach does not trust you to with plenty of time left to move down the field at the end of the first half, then that could be a problem.

So maybe the jury is still out on Jimmy G?

No need to comment further as the game was over two weeks ago and I suppose we are all on to the XFL.  And…I passed on watching the halftime show and most of the commercials.  So I don’t have any intelligent analysis there.

I really just needed a few words on the game to wrap up the picks portion of the season.  As poor as they were, we still have to recap, right?

Week (against the spread):  1-0

Week (straight up):  1-0

Lock Of The Week (season, ATS):  10-7

Season (against the spread):  136-131

Season (straight up):  171-96

Celtics Trade Deadline Review…

…a little late, but…so be it…

So the NBA trade deadline came and went last week with Boston Celtic GM “Trader Danny” Ainge making ZERO moves.  I was kind of shocked when I read it, but apparently, this is the fifth consecutive deadline that Ainge has not made a deal.  Perhaps it’s time to retire the “Trader Danny” nickname?

The Celtics have a true core of five players that really carry the load:  Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward and Marcus Smart (yes, he is a key piece of the team…live with it).  If you wanted to combine Daniel Theis and Enes Kanter into a sixth, then go right ahead.  Though not ideal, those two should not kill you playing the “5”.

But that’s all folks.  You can shove as much Grant Williams down my throat as you want.  But although I appreciate the hustle and drive he shows out there, I have no interest in seeing this guy on the court when the playoffs arrive.

Speaking of “shoving someone down our throat”, Head Coach Brad Stevens has been trying to do this with Semi Ojeleye for almost three years running now.  Maybe in the right situation, “Shemi” may actually be able to play in the NBA?  I don’t know.  But I do know that this dude is atrocious and does absolutely nothing for me.  And please spare me with “he guards Giannis well, so he should play a lot against Milwaukee if they end up playing them” bit.  Please.  I think Ojeleye’s defense against Giannis is a little overstated.  But that is me.  Furthermore, if he can actually guard Giannis, why can he not guard anyone else in the league?  I think the 6 fouls he has per game is the most valuable thing about him.  Moving on…

Robert Williams?  I would have LOVED to have seen more of him this season to see what his raw ability could have added to the team.  But a hip injury wiped that out.  He is supposedly due back in March.  Can he add value coming off the bench for a few minutes a game?  Perhaps.  But can he be counted on?  Nope.

Romeo Langford?  Not this year anyway.  The 14th pick overall has missed a great deal of the season with a variety of injuries.  Now seemingly past all that, Langford had kind of a breakout game last Friday against the Atlanta Hawks.  you know, the “bottom of the conference” Hawks that is.  Then Romeo turned that progress into an ugly 6 minute stint against the much better Oklahoma City Thunder 2 days later.  I am not sure if the kid can play in the NBA over the long haul as of yet.  But he certainly isn’t ready now.

We could keep going through the rest of the roster, but I will spare you.  No one else can be trusted.  And since I spared you by not going through the rest of the names on the roster individually, please spare me any Tacko Fall comments as well.  Thank you in advance.

The point is, the team could use some help off the bench.  A veteran or two.  A big man to share the load with Theis and Kanter…or even overtake them in the rotation.  Some help anyway.

And…nothing.  So what does that mean?

I suppose big men such as Clint Capela and Andre Drummond were not real options because they don’t shoot three pointers and therefore were not a fit for Stevens’ system.  Neither does Kanter…though maybe that’s why, in his case, despite him being a rebounding machine, he plays less than 20 minutes a game here.

But what about other wings and ball handlers?  There weren’t any available?  Are you really satisfied with Brad Wanamaker Danny?  I don’t see it.

Salary cap issues?  Perhaps.  But those things have a way of working themselves out if a deal needs to get done.  And I am not talking about “throwing” a core player in a deal to make the numbers work.

Draft pick hesitation?  The picks the Celtics have coming up are almost worthless now.  Mid to late first rounders.  Not worthless, that is hyperbole.  But it’s not like having a pick in the top three.  I think you get my point.

Not wanting to give up on younger players?  I mean, Langford MAY be a player someday.  Not guaranteed.  Robert Williams MAY be worth holding on to.  But not necessarily.  Grant Williams MAY be a decent bench player in this league going forward.  Carsen Edwards?  Disappointment.  I thought he would be able to come off the bench and hit some buckets.  Hasn’t happened this year.  Tremont Waters has some skill, but his height will always haunt him.  Besides, if he had that much promise, wouldn’t he have a real roster spot now, instead of a two-way deal?

You can have the whole lot of them, in my opinion.  Guys of that ilk will always be available.

Side note:  I guess one writer said the C’s may be hesitant to give up on players like Vincent Poirier because he has “flashed at times this season”.  Poirier has played 108 minutes the whole year, as of this writing.  How much “flashing” can that provide??!

In any event, so why did Danny not make a deal?

Glad you asked!

I believe some of the chatter that I’ve heard on talk radio this week.  I think Ainge thinks that this team is not good enough to win a championship and may be more than one or two “pieces” away.  That the West is loaded and that the East seems to be all Milwaukee.  I don’t believe that Danny wants to make deals for this year when he believes holding on to “assets” for the future is better for the team.

That being said, what did Ainge really have at his disposal to give up?  The younger bench guys ain’t getting him anything great.  The future draft picks either.  Theis and/or Kanter?  Maybe as a piece.  But not as a major part of any deal.

That means he would have been dipping into one of the five “core” players.  And what would be the sense of that when they are trying to add to that core and not take away from it?

One initial thought I had was…gasp…is there a chance Gordon Hayward may be available?  He has a huge player option next year.  Which means he will opt out of it.  Because that’s what professional athletes do.  Hayward has been pretty good when he’s been on the floor this season.  But he has missed some time.  And he has been a little snakebitten here over the years with injury.  Jaylen Brown’s cap hit goes from 6.5 mil to almost 24 mil next season.  Jayson Tatum still needs to get paid.

Could Gordo become a casualty, either at the deadline this season, or next summer?  Despite the obvious ties to Brad?  Well, the deadline has passed.  But was that possibly being bandied about as a potential move before the deadline?  And may be on the table over the summer?

Remember also that Hayward was the subject of some teammates’ dissatisfaction last season when Brad forced minutes on him when he wasn’t quite ready in his return from his major injury the season before.  Taking away minutes from the likes of Brown and Tatum, who felt like they earned them with their long playoff run from the previous season.

Maybe Langford grows into that “other guy” down the road.  Some of the other kids/picks develop.  Tatum gets his dough.  And he, Brown and Kemba are the three top dogs.

Hmmmmmmmm…

I didn’t think it was a real option for this season.  But a real option over the summer?  And that perhaps is when Ainge is ready to make his “next big move”, to take the step to legitimate championship contender?

Hard to say.  But can a team really have four max contracts…or close to max contracts?

Then I see something recently where the team wants Gordo still for the long haul.

So who knows what Danny is thinking?

If I am “Trader Danny” though, I try to make a deal for a couple of veteran bench guys last week.  You already have four scorers.  You just can’t play them 48 minutes a game in the playoffs.  And you sure as hell cannot trust most of the other guys on the roster other than Smart.  As long as he isn’t shooting a ton himself, that is.  Adding some reliable veterans to fill up the main bench minutes along with Theis and Kanter would have satisfied me at least.  And Danny didn’t get it done.

I’m still not sure that adding the vet depth pieces would make them a legit contender this season.  But it would have certainly put them in a better place.

Now?

A trip to the Eastern Conference may be the best Celtics fans can hope for.

Mookie!

FINALLY.  Mookie Betts has been traded.  Officially.

Leave it to Red Sox ownership.  Ask for two players they know are already injured in the initial Mookie Betts/David Price deal.  Then when they find out they are REALLY injured (one of them anyway), proceed to hold up all the teams involved in the deal by demanding more compensation.  And yes, I blame ownership and not Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom.  The owners were the impetus for the deal, no two ways about it.

Actually, come to think of it, former GM Dave Dombrowski would have taken the injured players, even if they were more seriously injured than previously thought.  Then have the chance to back out, but say, “nah, we are good!”  Drew Pomeranz deal anyone?

It’s absolutely mind boggling how this ownership group, you know, the ones that oversaw a team that ended an 86 year World Series drought, then proceeded to win three more titles under their stewardship as well, can be so despised.  How’s that for a run-on sentence?!  The answer is:  cry poor mouth when you have more money than you know what to do with.

Listen, when one runs a business, you don’t want your costs spiraling out of control.  In this particular case, it’s paying an incredible amount of luxury tax.

But the Red Sox have the money.  They print their own money for Chrissakes.  Oh, and they charge an arm and TWO legs for EVERYTHING that revolves around the local nine.  Please buy a brick everyone!!

I cringe when I think of primary owner John Henry once calling the Sox a “small market team”.  Sigh…

The Sox could have gotten under the luxury tax by trading the useless Jackie Bradley Jr. and assorted other flotsam and jetsam.

But they chose their best player, and when all are healthy, their second best pitcher.  While eating half of that pitchers’ remaining salary.

For some fans, that is hard to swallow.

Me?

I actually don’t mind the deal.  Despite the fact that I too, feel like this ownership group is a bunch of arseclowns.  And that includes the spirit of Larry Lucchino, who was around for the early days.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again:  I was never trying to run Mookie Betts out of town.

All I know is that if I worked for the Sox and I felt that I could not re-sign Mookie before he hit free agency, I would explore all deals for him.  I do not want to lose him for a mere compensatory pick in return.

Betts was hell bent on getting to free agency.  And that is every bit his right to do so.  He presumably would be looking for the biggest contract.  Again, his right.  Only a handful of teams could pay him big dollars.  But there would be teams willing to do that, that much is for sure.

My feeling is that if Mookie got to free agency, he would not be coming back.  Even if the Sox ended up opening the vault, in the end, he would have been offended that they did not do so right from the get-go.  No doubt in my mind.  He would have felt disrespected.  That’s just what happens with athletes.

He was going.  And the Sox needed to get something in return.

As an aside, I am not giving out 12 year, 420 mil contracts to ANYONE, unless his name is “Mike Trout”.  And even then it’s a lot of commitment.  If I am in charge, no matter how much dough I have at my disposal, those deals are a little too long and risky for me.  In any sport.  Sorry.  But if I am running the business no way I do that.  Then again, no way I pay JBJ 11 mil this year either.  So, there’s that.

Could they have traded Betts at the deadline and gotten a bigger haul?  In my mind that was unlikely.  Not for a mere two months of service time.  Not to mention that if the Sox are in contention (which they should be EVERY YEAR), trading your best player at that time might not be received kindly by Red Sox Nation.

Poor Bloom.  He came into this sorry situation.  Once again ownership didn’t help by publicly announcing their desire (mandate?) to get under the luxury tax limit.  Tying Blooms’ hands a bit.  Then again, he didn’t have to take the job I guess.

But now he has to find a manager too.  Well, I guess he didn’t really have to look hard if they are just going to announce bench coach Ron Roenicke as the hire soon.  Nevermind…

The rest of the players involved?

I would have eaten 95.9 of Prices’ 96 mil remaining on his contract to get him the hell out of town.

Sorry.

This guy is a loser.  Good riddance.

Yeah, he won a couple of games in the 2018 World Series and should have been MVP.  Good for him.  The rest of his tenure other than the last two weeks of the 2018 playoffs (no one remembers he sucked early in those playoffs) was less than stellar.  Especially for 31 mil per.

Sure he had a great record in Boston.  And started out nice last season.  But the overall body of work was less than impressive…of course when you factor in what you would expect for 217 mil overall.

And the attitude?  Ugh.  Yeah, his teammates loved him.  But was that a good thing?  He got them all to gang up on former Sox pitcher and now broadcaster Dennis Eckersley.  All because Eck said he took too long in between pitches.  Or mildly criticized Eduardo Rodriguez in one of E-Rods’ starts.  Or so says Price anyway.

Please.  The subtraction of Price has me overjoyed.  I don’t care if I have to look at Ryan Weber and Hector Velasquez every five days.  I already have to look at Martin Perez every five days now.  Can Weber/Velasquez be worse?  Brian Johnson sure could be, so hopefully, he stays buried in Pawtucket.

The return?  Jury is out.

Alex Verdugo supposedly has talent.  We will see.  Just hope he doesn’t beat up a homeless guy outside Fenway after he goes 0-5 one night.  Ok, that was harsh.  But there is supposedly some “off field” stuff with him.  So we will see how all that goes.  Oh, and a back injury at 23 years old can’t be promising.

The other two guys I know zero about.  Jeter Downs may have some promise, but who knows?  This Wong dude can catch and play infield.  Nice.  But let’s see that in the majors.  By 2025 I would say.

And the “one that slipped away”?  Brusdar Graterol?

I don’t know much about him either.  Except he throws gas.  And is apparently on his way to 400 lbs.

The Twins had no problem dealing him, so maybe I shouldn’t be so worried about what he MIGHT do.

Until he goes 21-2, 2.34, 322 Ks in 2022 I guess…