Monthly Archives: April 2018

Monday Morning Coffee

April 30, 2018

I’d like to express my sincere condolences to Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward, who’s careers are officially over before they even started, since they were drafted by the Browns last week.  Then again, the decision to take those two players makes me think they are trying to go 0-16.  The real winners of the draft were Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen, who are in the best possible positions they could be to succeed.  Even though Rosen is by far the most NFL ready quarterback, I like how 9 GM’s decided not to draft him because he’s smart, comes from money, and will hold their terrible teams accountable when said GM can’t put him in position to succeed.  As for the Rams, most of the guys they drafted probably won’t even make the team since they are so deep.  Meanwhile, the Chargers think Philip Rivers is going to play til he drops dead, because for the 2nd year in a row they didn’t pick a quarterback to groom as his successor.  By the way, Baker Mayfield is already missing throws and he hasn’t even played a game yet for the Browns……

To the NBA where the question is whether or not Paul George is more of a Trulia or Zillow guy?  After the Thunder got sent packing by the Jazz, it’s hard to imagine George staying in OKC for another year, especially when he looked uncomfortable all year long.  His comments afterward make him sound like the dude that’s trying not to make everybody mad when he leaves in July.  Magic Johnson is going to be walking into that free agency meeting with all kinds of swagger knowing the Lakers are the favorites to land him.  Things would have been looking even rosier for the Lakers had Lebron and the Cavs lost yesterday.  Then again, none of this really matters since it still looks like the Warriors are going to be dominating the league for the next five years.

It’s not only the Lakers that have been keeping an eye on what’s going on in OKC, but you can bet the UCLA basketball program is as well.  If Billy Donovan gets fired as the head coach of the Thunder, you can be sure UCLA is going to pounce on him like a cheetah on a rabbit.  Donovan was a great college coach, but is in way over his head trying to coach Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony.  The Bruins fired Jim Mora in a hurry to have a shot with Chip Kelly.  You can be sure that if Donovan became available, UCLA would do the same with Steve Alford.  Speaking of Alford, I like how he fired his recruiting coordinator David Grace.  The Bruins just pulled in a top 5 recruiting class, so recruiting is about the only good thing Alford had going for him.  Not anymore.

The NBA Playoffs have been slightly more entertaining and competitive than I envisioned so far.  Eric Bledsoe made Terry Rozier look like Michael Jordan.  If the Bucks can’t beat the Celtics without their two best players, I don’t think their future is nearly as bright as everyone claims it is.  I’m shocked at what the Pelicans did to the Blazers, but it’s cute that they actually think they can  beat them in a 7-game series.  The Jazz are going to get bombed by the Rockets, but it’s remarkable they have been this good.  I guess what I really mean is it’s remarkable Donovan Mitchell has been this good as a rookie.  The real highlight of the NBA playoffs though is watching Inside The NBA on TNT.  It’s much better than most of the games.  Shaq is about as good at math as he is at free throw shooting……

In case you didn’t notice, Lavar Ball was in the news again last week.  This time he pulled both of his kids out of the Lithuanian league before their season was over.  Sorry Lavar, time to pack of the circus again and take it somewhere else.  This time Lavar claims that LiAngelo is injured and needs to get ready for the NBA draft combine, and since LaMelo wasn’t playing he decided he should go home.  In what league, at any level, is it ok to just quit the team in the most crucial part of the season just because you aren’t getting playing time?  Lavar’s act is wearing very thin with most people around him.  He better hope Lonzo continues to get better in the NBA, because it doesn’t look like any of his other boys have a shot at making the league, especially with him trying to guide them.

We’re one month into the season, and the Dodgers have been so charitable that they’ve given the Diamondbacks a 7 game lead in the division.  Right now the Boys in Blue have more problems than Bill Cosby.  Clayton Kershaw is clearly in decline and Kenley Jansen couldn’t save a game right now if his life depended on it.  Those are only two of their most important players.  As if that’s not bad enough, now the injuries are piling up, Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, and Chris Taylor are off to horribly slow starts, and the bullpen is about as reliable as a broken down Chevy.  This team looks beat up, disinterested, and nursing a major hangover from October.  Unfortunately, I don’t see a young stud in the minors that can energize them the way Bellinger did last year.  Andrew Toles might have been that guy, but he’s been injured.  Also, I have no idea why Pedro Baez is still on this team.  The guy has found a way to blow more games in the last five years than I can count, not to mention the fact that he works so slowly, he’s a human rain delay.  Check out his latest issue on Friday.  This pretty much sums up the career of Baez and the first month of the season all in one play…..

Finally, the Angels are harder to figure out than Khloe Khardashian’s relationship status.  They go into Houston and take two of three from one of the best teams in baseball, then they get handled by an up and down Yankees team.  They can score, but their starting pitching has been pretty mediocre.  Other than Tyler Skaggs, not a single starter has an ERA under 4.00, which puts their team ERA in the bottom third of the majors for starters.  We’re only a month into the season, and it feels like the Angels are already going to have to settle for the wild card at best with the ups and downs of the staff.

Monday Morning Coffee

April 23, 2018

The Kawhi Leonard rumors are about to break Twitter.  It’s weird that any player would not want to be a part of the Spurs’ winning culture, but Kawhi is clearly a weird dude.  Not only is he weird, he’s an injury risk, and he’s going to cost the Lakers half their young core to get him.   You know what that means right? Obviously, I want him on the Lakers.  I know it sounds crazy, but I want him under two conditions: both Lebron James and Paul George are on the team as well next season.  If I can put those three dudes on the Lakers, the talent outweighs the risks.  As for the idea that Pop would never deal Kawhi to a Western Conference team, give me a break folks.  If the Lakers put the best deal on the table with the most promising young talent, the Spurs aren’t going to say no and cut their nose off to spite their face.

Elsewhere around the NBA Playoffs, the Pacers had their chance to put Lebron away last night, but they are toast now.  The Wizards may have tied the series, but I still think their only hope of beating the Raptors in the 1st round is if Drake starts the next 3 games for them at point guard.  The Pelicans did some spring cleaning, sweeping away the Blazers.  Portland won’t be participating in the second round, and will more than likely be participating in a group therapy session over the summer.  AMBER ALERT: Hassan Whiteside. Last seen actually scoring points and getting rebounds for the Miami Heat during the regular season. If you have any information, please contact Erik Spoelstra immediately.  Can we just get to Rockets vs Warriors already?

To baseball, where I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate JoK Pederson (and the “K” in his first name seems far more appropriate than a “c”) on getting his batting average over the always challenging Mendoza line after Saturday night’s game.  Hopefully the Dodgers don’t have to wait until his next birthday to see him hit another home run, because it sure feels like that might happen.  I still have no idea why Andrew Friedman and the front office is obsessed with this guy.  His defense isn’t even as good as they want us to believe it is.  After watching Kenley Jansen get his act together this weekend, I can’t decide if he isn’t that good anymore, or if he was just on the “Shaquille O’Neal Offseason Workout Plan”.  I sure hope it’s the latter because the Dodgers would have literally no bullpen without one elite arm anchoring it.  Speaking of arms, Hyun-Jin Ryu is easily the Dodgers’ best pitcher right now.  This team is a serious work in progress.  They only wish they could play the Padres every game.

Just when I thought the Angels might be a decent team they go ahead and lose a series to the Giants.  Brandon Belt wore them down with the longest at-bat in MLB history, and by the time you finish reading this he might still be at the plate.  I can understand getting bombed by the Red Sox, who have been hotter than the sun, but the Giants are terrible.  At least Garrett Richards looked good, but Andrew Heaney got rocked on Friday, and the rest of the starting pitching looks shakier than the earthquake we had in LA last week.  Shohei Ohtani is reportedly having blister issues.  He should call Rich Hill to urinate on it for him to make it all better.  As if things couldn’t get any worse, the Halos have to go to Houston to play the Astros for the next three days.  I guess there’s still time for the Angels to complete their usual underwhelming first month of the season.

On the ice, the Kings are Ducks were eliminated last week, both getting swept out the playoffs.  Both teams were probably commiserating with each other at Coachella over the weekend.  The Kings best forwards disappeared like Hodini, and there should be an investigation by the FBI on where Corey Perry’s offensive game has gone.  It’s true the Kings did get screwed by the league when Drew Doughty got suspended for a game for what was a clean hit, while Anze Kopitar was victimized by a stick to the face with no repercussions for Vegas.  It’s like David Stern is running the NHL.  Still, both teams need to give themselves long looks in the mirror this offseason, and consider making significant changes to their core.  The game is all about speed and skill now, and both teams are built to be physical and wear opponents down.  The league has adjusted, and now it’s time for both teams to adjust or else they’ll become extinct faster than the Dinosaurs did.

Just how bad have things gotten at ESPN? They are using Adam Schefter to do sideline reporting for NBA playoff games.  I think it’s safe to say the network is spread a little bit thin after all those layoffs. However, one thing they’ve always been terrible at is covering the NHL, and that was evident this weekend when they tried to write an article about the Jets advancing to the second round of the playoffs.  Too bad they put up a picture of the Vegas Knights.  That led to the LA Kings Twitter handle trolling ESPN pretty hard.

Finally, I will never understand what goes through the mind of some of these network television producers.  Scandal was a great show that had decent ratings.  It might not be what it was in its heyday, but it’s far better than some of the ridiculous network shows ABC and Fox have tried to force down our throats, only to pull the plug on them after one season.  Yes, the show had a satisfactory ending to it for most of its fans, but it easily could have gone on for a few more seasons.  CBS kills it during primetime with the Big Bang Theory, so trying to come up with another unproven catastrophe to compete with them doesn’t exactly seem like the smartest decision.

 

Monday Morning Coffee

April 16, 2018

The LA Kings left Las Vegas like most of us usually do: as big losers.  That trend unfortunately continued last night Staples, and the Kings are on the verge of elimination.  I’m glad the Kings still have their defensive identity, but you can’t win unless you score.  I mean you can tie, but you can’t win.  Has anybody informed the Kings of this? They have 3 goal in 11 periods.  You also can’t win without your top 2 defenseman, and the Kings played much of this series without them.  The Kings just can’t regain the Stanley Cup magic of a few years ago, and faster teams like Vegas have eclipsed their rugged style.   The Ducks are having the same problems as well against the Sharks.  You can’t win without your best defenseman in the lineup come playoff time.  At least this year the Ducks don’t have to worry about getting embarrassed at home in game 7.  It will come much earlier than that on the road.

The Lakers finished the season with 35 wins.  If you had told me that back in October, I would have said they should throw a parade down Figueroa if that happens.  It’s nice progress, however, I got a good laugh hearing Magic say that they really don’t have sign anybody this coming offseason to feel good about the direction of the franchise.  Listen Magic man…..you and I both know that you and your boy Pelinka didn’t put your multi-million dollar businesses on the back burner and dump our young talent to sign anybody other than King James.  Don’t try to sell me on how great Andre Ingram is going to fit in next year after 10 years in the G-League.  It’s Lebron and Paul George or bust.  Yes the young talent we have is developing, but it was doing that before you got here anyway.  Get it done Magic!  Unfortunately though, the only playoffs the Lakers will be experiencing this season will be while playing PlayStation.

Meanwhile, the Clippers have some major decisions to make regarding both Doc Rivers and DeAndre Jordan.  I cannot understand why either of these two want to stay with the Clippers, or why the Clippers would want either one of them.  Not only do the Clippers need to rebuild, but they need a complete culture cleansing.  Rivers and DJ are big parts of a previous culture that needs to be overturned.  Rivers has brought more drama than a high school girl to this franchise, and DJ is a nice player in a league where centers are becoming extinct.  David Aldridge reported that Rivers is “probably” coming back, but that report is vague and unconvincing, especially considering that Doc sounded far from sure he even wanted to return.

Elsewhere around the Association, it’s playoff time and the Cavs look like a bigger disaster than Tristan Thompson’s love life.  If Lebron ends up leaving Cleveland, that city will instantly eclipse Detroit as the worst city in America.  Good strategy by the Blazers in game 1.  Down by 3 at the end of the game, rather than going to Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum, the Blazers went to…..Pat Connaughton.  The Spurs got spanked by the Warriors, and Greg Popovich says we should ask Kawhi’s group if he’s coming back.  That sounds like a really healthy relationship.  Then there’s Nick Young who showed up to game 1 like he was headed to the Playboy Mansion.

To baseball where the Dodgers can’t seem to do much right so far.  Despite the win yesterday, they are in last place in the NL West.  Corey Seager, Chris Taylor, and Yasiel Puig are all hitting .230 or less.  Half their infield is injured, and so is their most promising prospect, Andrew Toles.  Even when the offense does have its act together, the pitching falls apart.  Rich Hill and Alex Wood got knocked around like bowling pins last week, and the bullpen is made up of a bunch of dudes throwing batting practice.  If Fraudy Friedman thought that this bullpen would be better than last year, he must be doing more drugs than the kids at Coachella did this weekend.  I realize that it’s early, but this team looks a lot more vulnerable this season.

Then there’s the Angels, who are off to their best start since 1979.  They are so hot, the only thing that can stop them right now is a snow storm, which cancelled yesterday’s game.  The story is Shohei Ohtani, who has caught fire at the plate and on the mound.  For those of you who say that there will definitely be regression to the mean, that may be partially true but ask yourself this: who was the last hyped Japanese player that came over and was a total bust? Ichiro, Masahiro Tanaka, Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui.  Hiroki Kuroda, Yu Darvish? Ok never mind but you get the point.  There really haven’t been any total disappointments when they’ve had hype.  No reason to think Ohtani won’t be a superstar.  The Halos are playing great and Ohtani is making them exciting to watch.

On to the Season Finale of The Walking Dead, so spoiler alert if you have yet to see it and plan on watching it later.  I think we’re all thinking the same thing: Did Lucille survive the war? Well we know that Negan did which was just messed up.  Rick thinks Negan should live to honor Carl, but I guess what happened to Glenn and Abraham doesn’t matter anymore?  It’s bad enough that they let all the Savior people live after all the screwed up things they did.  They all live and Dwight gets exiled after helping them? This show has a bizarre idea of justice and righteousness. I like how 5 minutes earlier Jesus told Morgan not to kill, then suddenly he’s Council of “Pissed Off At Grimes”.   I was thinking Maggie can go back to being 72 months pregnant now that the war is over.  She’s going to have a longer pregnancy than Bonnie Swanson from Family Guy.  Except now she and Daryl want to start a Civil War.  If these two become the primary villains nest season, it’s just ridiculous.  Most guys have to pay the extra $20 to get choked in bed, but not Negan.  Eugene is back in our good graces, but he’s still a coward and an idiot.  Finally, sticking Morgan in Fear The Walking Dead isn’t making me any more excited about it.  I do love though how he survived for 8 seasons with hardly a scratch and 15 minutes into episode 1 of Fear, he manages to get shot in the leg.  I’m ready for a fresh storyline in The Walking Dead come the fall.

 

Monday Morning Coffee

April 9, 2018

The Dodgers may have won yesterday, but they are off to a horrendous start and there’s much blame to go around.  A good portion of that blame pie should be allotted to Kenley Jansen, who’s been terrible.  I’m also really glad to hear that he doesn’t care, when he was asked about his pathetic performance last week.  Kenley said “who cares?”.  I’m sure the fans that pay his $80 million contract will care, especially the ones that are shelling out $200 to see him blow games for the boys in blue.  Jansen looks like a shell of his former shelf, and much of that can be attributed to lack of preparation.  Maybe next year he won’t spend spring training slamming fried chicken, throwing footballs, and playing video games in the clubhouse.  As if that’s not bad enough, the offense looks like a bunch of little leaguers at the plate.  It’s been all black and blue for the blue crew thus far.

Meanwhile, it’s “Sho Time” in Anaheim.  Shohei Ohtani is hotter than a chunk of wasabi on your rainbow roll right now.  He was brilliant on the mound yesterday, he’s hit homers in three straight games, and he’s making the Halos must-see TV.  He’s been so exciting I nearly forgot that Mike Trout, who’s been one of the best players of all-time, is on the team.  The Angels have some issues to work through with their pitching and bullpen, but Ohtani and Trout might be able to cover up much of that.  In other words, the Angels have modern day Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle playing for them.  If there’s one guy that has to be just giddy about all of this though, it’s Arte Moreno, who only seems to care about selling tickets rather than winning games.  Ohtani might just be the phenom to get him what he wants.

I guess the Lakers are simulating out the rest of the season like they would if they were playing NBA 2K on Playstation.  Since they’ve been bombed with injuries, the effort and engagement the last couple of weeks hasn’t exactly been there.  Nevertheless, even if they don’t win another game, this season represents very nice progress and development from where the franchise was.  They also have to be thrilled at the struggles Oklahoma City is going through. They will barely get into the playoffs, and Paul George claims that the team’s finish to the season won’t impact his free agency decision.  That’s funny because he said it would matter when he first joined the team last summer.  What he really means is that it won’t matter because he already knows he’s going to sign with the Lakers in July.  The only question is if somebody else is going to sign in LA with him.

Hopefully Brandin Cooks has woken up from his coma so someone can let him know he’s been traded to the Rams.  In just a matter of months, the Rams have gone from the cute girl next door to to a chick with lots of plastic surgery done.  Having Odell Beckham Jr. on the team would have been exciting, but Cooks is a much better fit.  OBJ would have demanded about 40-50% of the offense going through him.  Cooks won’t demand nearly as much, and he will provide them with the deep threat that will continue to lift coverage in the middle of the field.  He’ll also be a lot less expensive.  At this point, anything less than an NFC Championship Game appearance will be a colossal disappointment.

The UCLA basketball team has a recruiting class coming in next year that is top 5 in the nation.  ESPN came out with an early look at the Top 25 teams.  The Bruins weren’t even on that list.  How is that possible? It’s possible because of coaching, and it tells you just how terrible of a coach ESPN thinks Steve Alford is.  Vegas has the Bruins listed at 12-1 odds to win the tournament next year.  That feels like a courtesy number because the odds of winning the Powerball are better than UCLA winning anything when you are coached by Steve Alford.  I’d really like to know the odds of Alford continuing to be the Bruins’ coach after next season, because they can’t be good.

The Masters wasn’t exactly what we all hoped for.  I think we should probably put the brakes on this Tiger Woods comeback train and keep it in perspective.  Tiger Woods played more like Nathalie Wood over the weekend, struggling just to make the cut at one point.  However, the fact that Tiger is even healthy enough to compete almost every week is something we should be happy about because we can enjoy watching him play.  He may not get back to the dominance he once had, but playing a couple of rounds at par at Augusta can actually be seen as progress.  If he stays healthy and continues to progress, he can still grab a major or two, and even win some tournaments.  In the meantime, just enjoy the fact he’s out there because you don’t get to watch the great ones forever.

It’s NHL Stanley Cup Playoff time and the Kings and Ducks are both in the postseason.  Had the Kings won on Saturday night they would have actually played the Ducks.  Instead they’ll play the surprising Vegas Golden Knights.  On Saturday night, the Kings played so poorly, it felt like they had comps at the Bellagio that expired at the end of this week.  Either that or they really want to play Vegas, and it’s felt that way for a month.  I’m not really sure why because they are fast, young, and relentless.  The Kings are also banged up on defense.  It’s probably a long series, but the edge goes to the Knights.  Meanwhile, the Ducks and Sharks are probably in for a long series.  However, the Sharks got the better of the Ducks during the season, and they are slightly healthier going into the postseason than Anaheim.  I like San Jose in seven games.

Finally, a new episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if you plan on watching it later.  Just when you thought you couldn’t hate Eugene anymore, he pukes all over Rosita.  Carl must be rolling over in his grave  wondering why Rick and Negan won’t listen to him.  There were so many double crossings, this episode was giving me heart palpitations.  Aaron clearly needed  Eugene’s mac and cheese.  The Negan vs Simon showdown wasn’t much of a showdown.  It was about as competitive as the 1st round of the NBA Playoffs will be.  Simon makes a great walker though.  Dwight is definitely screwed now.  I’m looking forward to seeing the season finale next week, and this two season war finally coming to an end!

 

 

Monday Morning Coffee

April 2, 2018

The Dodgers managed to salvage a split from the Giants over the weekend, but their offense was pathetic for half the series.  It was like I was watching games 8-11 of the World Series.  I could swear I saw Dave Roberts ask the ump for the ball after the Dodgers finally got on the scoreboard yesterday.  Good thing the Giants offense is total garbage.  When is Andrew Friedman’s computer going to notify him that Andrew Toles needs to be brought up and Joc Pederson needs to be sent to the minors?  That computer must have some kind of a virus.  Toles might end up being the next Chris Taylor, but I’m sure it’s going to take the Dodgers forever to realize that.

Meanwhile, Angel fans are so excited about Shohei Ohtani’s debut, they are all planning on going to Nobu sushi and spending $500 on an 8-piece tuna roll.  Ohtani looked far more polished than he did during his spring training debacle.  He’s yet to tap into his potential as a hitter, but that may only be a matter of time.  The rest of the offense looked great too, but Cam Bedrosian is a complete train wreck out of the bullpen.  Mike Scioscia must be planning on blowing a lot of games by trotting Bedrosian out to the mound every couple of nights.

To college basketball where the magic is over for Loyola, which lost to Michigan.  It got so bad at the end, Sister Jean left early to go do some drugs with Bill Walton.  If I took a shot for every time Sister Jean was mentioned in the broadcast, I’d be dead in five minutes.  She became the the Lavar Ball of the NCAA Tournament when it was over.  Meanwhile, Villanova hit so many threes on Saturday night, it was like they became the Golden State Warriors.  If this continues tonight in the Finals, Kevin Durant might ask to be traded there.  The Cats are the easy pick tonight.

The New York Giants have asked for two 1st round picks in exchange for Odell Beckham Jr.  What the hell are the Rams waiting for? Odell is the superstar to put the Rams over the top and the clear-cut favorites to win the NFC.  I am completely aware that Odell would make the Rams locker room more explosive than a stick of dynamite.  However, the Rams rebuilt their team in 18 months.  Unless you are the Cleveland Browns, if you have the right front office in place, you can rebuild an NFL team in no time at all.  The Rams have a two year window to contend with Goff, Gurley, and Donald on cheap deals.    Take advantage of it now, and even if this team is an explosive disaster, it will be spectacularly entertaining to watch.

It’s too bad the Lakers were bombed with injuries at the end of the season.  Had that not happened, they might have had a real chance to finish with a .500 record.  I don’t believe for a second the Lakers have any chance at signing anybody in the free agent class of 2019.  If they are going to have a big summer, it has to happen this July, but they might have tough decisions to make.  The question is how much to pay Julius Randle.  He’s playing like Shaq right now, but once he gets paid, will he start hanging out at Fat Burger like Shaq did later in his career?  I’m also not sure what the Lakers do if Kawhi Leonard becomes available for a trade this summer.  It would probably take Ingram, Lonzo, Kuzma, the Laker Girls, and the Playboy magazine with Jeanie Buss to acquire Kawhi.  That’s a high price to pay whether or not the Lakers can get Lebron.  In any case, if the Lakers don’t make the playoffs next year, we should be supremely disappointed.

I think it’s safe to say the Clippers playoff chances are toast after yesterday’s loss to the Pacers.  The  irony of it is, I don’t think Steve Ballmer and Jerry West actually wanted the team to make the postseason, because now they are going to end up with two lottery picks.  I’m sure they’d happily trade Doc Rivers to whoever would be willing to give them another 1st rounder as well.  They also wish they could send Danilo Gallinari to another planet.  Signing him to a $71 million contract was like lighting a pile of cash on fire.  It will be interesting to see which Clipper team shows up this summer: that one that was dumb enough to sign Gallo and give up draft picks in the process? Or the one that made a shrewd trade for Blake and decided to collect assets.  Chances are though that “The Clippers Gonna Clip”.

So let me get this straight.  The LA Kings had their biggest game of the season on Friday.  It was a showdown with their cross-town rivals, the Ducks.  The Kings lost 2-1 in OT, but Anze Kopitar said they could have played a lot better.  Coach John Stevens said several players could have given more.  What in god’s name are they waiting for? There’s 3 games left in the season! I guess nobody told them they might be playing golf if they don’t get their act together over the next week.  Now it makes sense to me why the Kings are promoting Bark Madness this month.  They have been playing like dogs all season.

Finally, another episode of The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan to watch it later.  How does garbage lady manage to keep her sheets so clean? She was trying to flag down that helicopter like I do when I miss my Uber.  Of course Rick lied about trying to team up with the Saviors to kill that entire herd of Walkers.  He was wearing his brown coat.  When he wears that brown coat you know he’s going to murder people.  He completely April fooled them.  Negan looks like he has more human compassion than Rick at this point.  It took nearly 8 full seasons for Carol to have a happy resolution with a child.  That probably means she’s about to die.  Speaking of death, I think just about everyone cracked the champagne after Jared’s death.  I’m really looking forward to Negan’s next encounter with Simon.  It’s inevitable in these last two episodes of the season that we’re going to lose another significant character.  Nevertheless, looking forward to it.