December 24, 2018
The Lakers have been losing to some teams they shouldn’t over the last week. But that’s not what’s got me annoyed. It’s these cry baby small market General Managers and owners. Lebron says it would be amazing to play with Anthony Davis, and suddenly all these GM’s think a tampering rule should be made up against players. If Lebron was on any team other than the Lakers, nobody would say anything. Why doesn’t the league create a whole new set of rules against the Lakers while they are at it? It’s a players league folks. The players are eventually going to end up in the markets they want. These small market GM’s need to shut up and stop being jealous of Lebron’s relationships with other players because it was relationships that put their incompetence in an NBA front office. Those small market owners also need to shut up because the Lakers are putting money in their pockets with revenue sharing.
To baseball where Andrew Friedman and the Dodger front office is just infurating. In typical Friedman fashion, his computer program convinced him that trading Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, and Alex Wood to the Reds for a can of Coke was a good idea. This was not a blockbuster trade. It’s only a blockbuster if you actually get something of value in return and they got absolutely nothing. I realize that some people think the Dodgers are going to do something with the $25 million in payroll they just freed up, but the optics here look horrible as of now. Most of the players that they are rumored to have acquired would have required trading Puig or Wood. Too bad analytics don’t show how much more valuable Puig and Kemp are to the Dodgers than any other team, or that they just traded 43 homers and got nothing in return. Better do something fast Andrew “Fraudman” or else the fans are going to be coming after you with pitchforks like the villagers went after Frankenstein.
I have no idea what the Angels are thinking. The Halos are on the clock with Mike Trout, who is a free agent in two seasons. They claim they are trying to do whatever it takes to be competitive to win with Trout. Then they turn around and go shopping at the junk yard by picking up Trevor Cahill and Matt Harvey. They might as well have taken $20 million and lit it on fire like the Joker did in Batman. If the Angels want to get serious about improving their pitching staff, they’ll try to make a deal for Madison Bumgarner, Trevor Bauer, or Corey Kluber. Their farm system is much improved and they have the prospects to get it done. If not, they might as well trade Mike Trout now, and complete a real rebuilding process.
UCLA basketball is becoming more embarrassing with every Monday Morning Coffee posted. Last week consisted of losses to unranked Cincinnati, and #15 Ohio State. At this point I’m not even sure why Alford should finish out the season. One thing big time college basketball coaches can do is convince very talented teenagers to do the fundamentals. At this point Alford probably couldn’t even convince his assistant to pick up his dry cleaning. The man is losing all credibility with his players, and the alumni has no faith in him either. Can’t wait to see what embarrassments lie ahead for this team because it’s getting even more so for Dan Guerrero, who is looking just as incompetent.
To the NFL where the Rams returned to the win column yesterday against the Cardinals. Sean McVay is such a genius, he can even make CJ Anderson look like Barry Sanders in his offensive system. Anderson came off his couch to rush for 167 yards and a touchdown. More importantly though, Jared Goff actually remembered how to be an NFL quarterback, not turning the ball over and making a couple of nice throws. The Rams probably shouldn’t feel as great as the Saints right now, but they need to focus on getting Todd Gurley healthy, and getting their offense back in rhythm. Ever since Goff started yelling Haley Berry’s name before every play things have gone south for him. Maybe McVay should change some of the audibles to something more common to NFL players like “Kardashian”?
Meanwhile, the Chargers found a way to blow a big opportunity against the Ravens on Saturday night at home. Of course I use the term “home” loosely, because all 4 of the Bolts’ losses have come at Stubhub Center this year. As talented as this team is, I’m still having a hard time envisioning them winning 3 playoff games and going to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs are still an offensive powerhouse. The Patriots still have Tom Brady. The Texans are also looking dangerous as ever. All of these teams are imperfect, but if one of your imperfections is the inability to come up big when it matters, that’s a major problem that can’t be overcome. I bet the NFL didn’t want to deal with the embarrassment of having to show a playoff game on TV at Stubhub Center. Now they are sure of that thanks to both the Ravens and the officials.
Elsewhere around the NFL in Week 16, good strategy by the Steelers. They realized that Chris Boswell can’t blow a game-winning field if they managed to blow the game on a JuJu Smith-Schuster fumble. Poor Cowboy fans. They are going to have to deal with winning the division and keeping Jason Garrett around. They are going to throw a parade in Cleveland since the Browns have made it all the way to Week 16 before being eliminated from the playoffs. The Eagles are back in contention with Nick Foles, and now everyone wants to get rid of Carson Wentz. Don’t worry Carson, if things don’t work out you can always double as the lead singer of Fall Out Boy. I’m not sure what worse for Giants’ fans: that they lost to the Colts or that Eli Manning will reportedly be back in 2019?
Finally, because it’s Christmas time, everyone wants to talk about what their favorite Christmas movie is. My favorite Christmas movie? It’s definitely Die Hard. That’s right. It’s always a controversial topic around this time of year, but make no mistake about it. Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Also, I realize in the clip below Bruce Willis himself says that Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie. But come on! You can’t have Die Hard take place without it being Christmas. John McClane isn’t in LA if it’s not a Christmas party. Al Powell also isn’t in LA if it’s not Christmas, and McClane wouldn’t have had a greater desperation to save his family if it wasn’t the holidays. Sorry Bruce but you are dead wrong!