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!

 

 

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