Monday Morning Coffee

October 29, 2018

Well that was fun.  The Dodgers latest World Series appearance lasted about as long as the rap career of Vanilla Ice.  As I told you months ago, Andrew Friedman built a team that is too dependent on the home run, and a bullpen with middle relievers that couldn’t close a hot dog stand.  Well, at least the computer chooses the wrong relievers.  I also feel terrible for Dave Roberts, who is nothing more than a middle manager, taking instructions from Friedman and his computer, while the rest of you make fun of him for his stupid decisions.  It’s not him you should be mad at.  Give the Red Sox credit.  I’ve never see a team with so many clutch 2-out hits, and they deserved to win the World Series.  Say goodbye to Manny Muchado. as much as I’d love to have him back.  Friedman isn’t going to spend $200-$300 million on a player.  Somebody is, even if he has character and hustle issues.  I do hope they find a way to bring Kershaw back by extending him at a reasonable rate.  A future rotation with him, Walker Buehler, and Julio Urias would be very dominant.  Too bad Friedman will probably spend most of the money on a software upgrade instead.

To the NBA where Lebron James made a documentary called “Shut Up and Dribble”.  Rajon Rondo needs to make a documentary called “Shut Up and Shoot”, after passing up a critical layup late in the Lakers loss to the Spurs on Saturday.  Look I get it.  “The West is soooooo difficult”.  Every team is like trying to take on Spider-Man and Batman at the same time and all that.  I’ve heard this so many times I might jump off the roof the next time I hear it.  However, there’s teams everyone loves that are off to much slower starts, like Oklahoma City and Houston.  The Lakers play hard every night, they’ve been in every game, and they are running up and down the court like it’s 1980.  The shooting, the defense, and the way they finish close games can only get better.  This team is much better than you think, and they’ll show it sooner than later.

I’d like to give a special thanks to Todd Gurley after yesterday.  The Rams defeated the Packers, and Gurley refused to go in for a touchdown late so he could keep the ball and not let Aaron Rodgers get another shot to win the game.  Of even greater significance is the fact Gurley completely screwed the guy I played in my fantasy football league this week, since he had the Rams running back on his team.  He also screwed a handful of gamblers who had the Rams -7 and the over.   I guess the Rams can’t murder every team they play, but this was still an impressive victory.  This team still looks like the best in the league.  Still,  I’m surprised Donald Trump hasn’t comment on them yet, since he seemingly has nothing better to do.

Elsewhere around the NFL, the Raiders lost to the Colts and Derek Carr is probably about to be traded for a pylon and a garbage can.  The Bucs lost to the Bengals and Jameis Winston got benched, but I’m sure he’ll still find a way to keep throwing interceptions.  The Browns lost to the Steelers and Hue Jackson still has a job.  Anything is possible in America folks.  We’ve reached that awkward moment where Danny Amendola threw more touchdown passes than Brock Osweiler on Thursday night.  The Chiefs beat the Broncos and their offense is a human video game cheat code.  Shout out to anybody that watched the 49ers-Cardinals game.  You just stared torture right in the face and laughed.  The Seahawks beat the Lions, but this celebration was the real winner of the day:

To College Football where USC decided that the best way to celebrate Halloween was to demonstrate how frighteningly bad they can play football.  This time, an embarrassing loss to Arizona State at home, in front of a crowd of 47,406.  Each one of those people came dressed as empty seats, because it felt like nobody was at that game.  Losing is one thing, but when you combine that with an empty stadium, that’s what can get Clay Helton fired.  The Trojans aren’t even looking that likely to win the horrific Pac 12 South anymore, which could have been Helton’s saving grace.  Get ready to hear a whole bunch of tarmac jokes because Clay Helton has to really be on the hot seat now.  If it weren’t for the Dodgers and Lebron, this would be a much bigger story.

Just when you think UCLA football was starting to heat up by beating up on some scrub teams, they get dismantled at home by Utah.  You thought that game was bad? Wait until next week when Oregon assaults them.  There’s only one glimmer of hope for the Bruins, and that’s the fact it’s not crazy that they could beat USC in a few weeks.  If that happens, you might as well give Chip Kelly an extension.  Otherwise, the job he’s doing so far is highly questionable at best.

Another completely under the radar story right now is the fact the LA Kings have been playing like garbage.  Despite yesterday’s win over a horrible Ranger team, if I didn’t know better I’d say they were trying to get Coach John Steven fired.  Lisa Dillman of the LA Times tweeted yesterday that the Kings had their first lead of a game since they played Montreal.  It feels like it’s been so long that I was beginning to wonder if she meant in 1993 when they played Montreal in the Finals.  It’s been so ugly and the effort has been so poor, I’m totally unsure if the team is terrible and needs to rebuild, or if they just need a kick in the butt.

Finally, The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night in the first of Rick Grimes’ final two episodes.  Spoiler alert if you don’t want to hear anymore, so read no further if that is case.  I’m not falling for this one again! The show left us thinking that Rick was going to die after being impaled and Walkers about to eat him.  You made me think Glenn was going to survive and you killed him.  I think Rick might die, but it’s definitely not going to be from that incident.  Of course there’s all the symbolism of Rick being thrown off a white horse.  I think it’s safe to say at this point the most hated character in all of TWD is Rick’s horse.  Negan is practically giving himself a concussion over Lucille.  Seriously though, who else thought that Michonne said “eat n***a?”  I guess AMC isn’t that bold.  Did Carol really just get called “a weak woman”? Somebody is gonna pay for that.  I think it’s safe to say that Angela Kong has really transformed the show.  Whether that’s a good thing remains to be seen though.

 

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