Angels At The Break

July 18th, 2013

The first half of the baseball season was uglier than Randy Johnson’s grill for the Halos. The Angels tumbled into the all-star break losing 5 of their last 6, and getting swept by the Seattle Mariners. They currently sit 5 games under .500, 11 games back of first place Oakland in the AL West, and 9 games back in the wild card race. Things aren’t exactly going as planned.

Much like last year, this disaster starts on the mound. Only 3 teams in all of baseball have a worse team ERA than the Angels. Ace Jered Weaver missed nearly two months with a broken elbow, then needed another month find his game. He’s only 3-5 on the season with a 3.63 ERA. Jason Vargas got off to a respectable 6-4 start, but went on the DL with a blood clot. Tommy Hanson has been knocked around sporting an ERA of 5.10, and Joe Blanton has been abused more than a battered housewife with his 2-12 record and ERA of 5.53. The Halos tried to make it a point to fix their pitching after last season’s woes, but somehow found a way to be even worse this year.

Meanwhile, the offense hasn’t been the force that everyone expected. Josh Hamilton’s career is spiraling downward like that of Tara Reid. Hamilton is hitting a career low .224, and is on pace to drive in the fewer runs and hit few homers than he has in the last 4 years. He’s also on pace to strike out a career high 165 times. Albert Pujols has been plagued by a foot injury since spring training, and although productive at times, he appears to be on a slow but steady decline. Considering these two are earning a salary that collectively equals the GDP of a small country, their productions stinks.

Once again, the Angels start to the season appears to be what will kill them. The Angels tied their worst start in franchise history, going 11-22, before trying to play catch up. They won 8 in a row in late May, but then went on to lose 9 of 11 games shortly after that. Another win streak of 7 in a row, was recently halted by losing 5 of 6 heading into the all-star break. The hole is just too big, and the teams in front of them are too good.

The entire team doesn’t suck though. Mike Trout is having another outstanding season . Trout is 2nd in the American League in batting average at .322, and is on pace for nearly 30 home runs, over 100 runs batted in, and almost 40 stolen bases. Trout is arguably the best all around player in baseball. Mark Trumbo has another 21 home runs thus far, Howie Kendrick has been very productive at 2nd base, and CJ Wilson has been the teams most reliable starter.

The Angels are a talented ball club, that has been underachieving for a season and a half. The Halos used to pride themselves on being a team that relied on pitching and defense. Their pitching is terrible, and only the Astros have made more errors than them. Mike Scioscia has been known to manufacture runs, and play a very aggressive style on the base paths. Instead, Angels GM Jerry Dipoto has handed Scioscia a bag of crap, that simply sits back and waits for aging sluggers to hit the 3-run home run. If the Halos are going to turn things around, they’ll need to figure out their identity.

Dodgers At The Break

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July 17th, 2013

Trying to figure out what type of team the Dodgers are is about as hard as trying to keep Lindsay Lohan from getting drunk. The Dodgers were just 30-42 after 74 games, and in last place in the NL West. However, they went on to win 17 of their next 22 games, to even their record at 47-47, and are now just 2.5 games behind Arizona for first place in the division. So is the glass half full or half empty?

It’s fair to say that with a $209 million payroll, LA has underachieved. If you have the highest payroll in baseball, you shouldn’t be a .500 team. If you have a $200 million payroll, you should probably have a closer that doesn’t wet the bed every night, and some consistency on the left side of your infield. More importantly, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, two of the teams highest paid players, should be hitting the ball out of the ballpark. All of that has the makings of a team that is an expensive bust.

Then again, injuries have slowed the Dodgers down. Hanley Ramirez has spent half the season on the DL, Matt Kemp’s been on it twice, and even when he’s been in the lineup, he’s been ailing. Zach Greinke was a moron in San Diego, and spent nearly two months recovering from a broken collar bone. Carl Crawford has recently spent time on the DL, as have starting pitchers Chris Capuano and Ted Lilly.

All of those things aside, since calling up Cuban phenom Yasiel Puig, the Dodgers have had the best record in the National League. Their re-surgence has not only coincided with Puig doing his best Bo Jackson impersonation, but also, with Ramirez, Greinke, and others getting healthier. Manager Don Mattingly also seems to have temporarily solved his bullpen issues by putting Kenley Jensen in that role, and exiling Brandon League to a remote desert island.

Nearly every team in the NL West has made a run thus far. The D’Backs have been in first place for most of the season, but had one stretch where they lost 8 of 9, and their division lead over LA has shrunk from what was once 9.5 games. The Giants spent some time in first place early in the season, then dropped 14 of their next 16 games. The Rockies spent parts of April and May in first place, but came back to earth and are now 3 games under .500. The Padres went 33-21 over a 54 game stretch and were in 2nd place in the division, but have only won 4 of their last 22 games. In other words, the remaining 68 games figure to be crazier than Mr. Toads Wild Ride.

With Puig in the fold, the Dodgers are definitely a different team. He has completely energized the entire ball club, and saved Don Mattingly’s job for the time being. LA has one of the best starting pitching staff’s in baseball, led by Clayton Kershaw, who has the lowest ERA in the game. Zach Greinke has looked very good of late, Hyun-Jin Ryu has been excellent for most of the season, and the newly acquired Ricky Nolasco looks reliable. The bullpen remains a question mark, but with Jansen closing and the recent emergence of Paco Rodriguez, the Dodgers relief core has been stabilized for now.

The Boys in Blue seem like a good bet to make the playoffs at this point. They are only 2.5 games back in the division, and 5.5 games out of the wild card. If LA can remain reasonably healthy and Puig and Ramirez continue to tear it up, playing in October isn’t unreasonable. For $209 million, the Dodgers aren’t the most well balanced, and well constructed ball club. However, they can still become an elite team if Matt Kemp can get healthy again, and become the power hitter he was early last season. As for Andre Ethier, he may just end up being an expensive 4th outfielder, but it’s just money and the Dodgers have plenty of it.

Monday Morning Coffee

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July 15th, 2013

Giants manager Bruce Bochy has lost his mind. Since Yasiel Puig was called up in June, the Dodgers have had the best record in the National League, and he’s easily been one of the best players in baseball. Still, Bochy is determined to keep this guy off the NL All-Star team. Bochy started his little scam by throwing Puig’s teammate Adrian Gonzales on the final roster spot ballot so they would split votes. Then, when the winner Freddie Freeman was injured, he selected catcher Brian McCann instead of Puig, when he already has two catchers on the roster! I’m still trying to figure out how Puig lost the fan ballot, but the fact that the MLB didn’t release the final totals make this fishier than a crate full of cod.

Then again, keeping Puig out of the all-star game will prevent him from further damaging his reputation for being an ass to the media. Puig says he’s been bothered by the numerous interview requests he receives on a daily basis, and feels that it has been a distraction to him. I guess this must explain why his batting average has “plunged” to just under .400. Puig has set aside time for a collection of reporters to answer their questions on a daily basis. Although he’ll have to learn that granting interviews is part of his responsibility as a star player, the evil 4 letter network believes that they are too important not to have one on one interviews granted to them. Sadly, ESPN has become like Facebook: everybody needs them, but everybody complains about them.

As for the Halos, it was a disastrous ending to a disastrous first half of the season. They head to the all-star break losers of 5 of their last 6 games after getting swept by the Mariners. I’m still baffled as to why Mike Scioscia continues to send Joe Blanton to the mound every 5 days so this guy can get rocked. He’s on pace to lose more than 20 games in spectacular fashion, and Josh Hamilton is still about as useless as a pork sandwich at a Jewish picnic. It probably would have made more sense for the Angels to hang on to Ervin Santana, who could at least be a .500 pitcher at the back of the rotation for the same price. The Halos are 10.5 games back of first place, and the climb is stepper than Mount Everest from here.

When the Lakers said goodbye to Metta World Peace this week, it was strictly a cost cutting move. The Lakers will save $15 million by waiving World Peace, but they lost one of their best defenders, and easily the most entertaining player on the team. This is the same guy who wore his game uniform to a night club after winning the championship in 2010. This upcoming season will be a nightmare for the Lakers, so having him on the team would at least provide some entertainment value for the fans and the media. My favorite Metta moment was his post-game news conference after game 7 of the NBA Finals in 2010, here’s a look back:

Meanwhile, the more I hear details about how Dwight Howard left the Lakers, the more happy I am he is no longer in LA. Last week, ESPN LA’s Ramona Shelburne reported that Dwight actually asked the Lakers if they would consider amnestying Kobe Bryant at the end of the season, so they could build the team around him. So let me get this straight, Dwight Howard has never won a championship, has been in town for less than a full season, and is asking for the Lakers to get rid of one of the greatest players of all time? Dwight does realize that Kobe has 5 NBA championships and he has none right? I’m sure at that point, Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss probably laughed in Dwight’s face and told him to get lost. Even Kobe Bryant never asked the Lakers to get rid of Shaq in 2004. It was Dr. Buss who decided to get rid of him, and then begged Kobe to stay after that.

I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to learn that American 100 meter record holder Tyson Gay test positive for a banned substance, and will likely miss this years track and field world championships. Gay claimed that he put his trust in someone else, and that person let him down. Sorry Tyson, but this is the type of crap I expected to hear out of a major league baseball player, not you. If you are a professional athlete, your job is to keep your body in great shape, and know exactly what substances are going in and out of your body. It’s also not very surprising that Jamaican sprinter and former 100 meter world record holder Asafa Powell test positive for a banned substance too. The Jamaicans have one of the most pathetic drug testing programs in the world, and it’s only a matter of time before world record holder Usain Bolt is caught.

If you ever get the chance to go see Bob Saget do stand-up comedy, please do. I got the chance to see him in Irvine on Saturday night, and he was definitely laugh out loud funny. Much of his humor revolves around his experience with other cast members of “Full House”, and embarrassing stories each of them were involved in. At 58 years old, Saget has now become a dirty old man, but is quite entertaining.

Last week I mentioned how amazingly bad the SyFy channel was, and “Sharknado” on Thursday night lived up to this reputation. The best part about the movie was reading all of the comments on twitter, which generated a record 5,000 tweets per minute at one point. I thought the only thing that could ever break twitter was if Kim Kardashian dated Tim Tebow, however, after Thursday I stand corrected. I love how SyFy is already talking about a sequel because of the audience it received. The concept was crazy though. I mean Sharks and Tornados? Early in the movie, when Ian Ziering came home and Tara Reid wasn’t having a gang bang with 10 NFL quarterbacks, you knew the movie was totally unrealistic!

Getting The Band Back Together?

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July 11th, 2013

Are the Lakers bringing back their championship roster from a couple of years ago? Well, maybe not entirely, but it’s looking more and more like it. The Lake Show signed guard Nick Young to a one year deal for the veterans minimum deal today. Earlier in the week, they also reach agreements with former Laker guard Jordan Farmar, and center Chris Kaman on veterans minimum deals as well.

The Lakers have about as much money to spend in free agency as Frank McCourt had to spend on the Dodgers. However, Mitch Kupchak has been resourceful. Young is a former USC Trojan, and has been in the league for 5 years with career averages of 11.3 ppg and 37% three point shooting. Kaman is a former Clipper, and averaged 10 points and 5 rebounds in 66 games for the Mavericks last year. Meanwhile, Farmar played in the Turkish League last season, and LA spent $500,000 to buy him out of his contract. Last time he played in the NBA in 2011-2012, he averaged 10.4 points per game on 46% shooting.

By adding the former UCLA Bruin Farmar, and potentially Lamar Odom, the Lakers would be bringing back two key members of their rotation from the 2009 and 2010 championship teams. The Lakers roster lacks youth, athleticism, shooting, chemistry, and coaching. That’s a lot of missing pieces to make up with the limited resources LA has. Farmar and Young may not be elite NBA players, but they are serviceable role players that improve the Lakers shooting, youth, athleticism, and come at a bargain.

As for chemistry, even though Lamar Odom came into camp fatter than Miss Piggy last season, he could very well be motivated to get back into a shape and have a solid year with a team he’s comfortable with in the Lakers. Frankly, I’m not even sure what he’s waiting for. It’s obvious that Khloe will not allow Lamar to leave LA, nor does he have any desire to. Both the Clippers and the Lakers are offering $1.3 million salaries for one year, however, the Lakers can offer Odom a chance to start, whereas, Odom will be a towel boy with the Clippers.

There’s something to be said for having chemistry, which the Lakers had none of last year. But bringing back Odom and Farmar to a group with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol will fit together more perfectly than a Kate Upton Bikini. I would even take it a step further if I were the Lakers, and trade Steve Blake and Jordan Hill to the Wizards for Trevor Ariza, which would further enhance the Lakers chemistry and athleticism.

Unfortunately, there’s no immediate solution to the teams coaching problem. Well, other than hiring that Phil Jackson guy.

Monday Morning Coffee

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July 8th, 2013

I can’t believe I’m going to say this. If Kobe Bryant heard me say this, he would probably punch me in the face, then give me his death stare. The Lakers need to tank next season. If you want to be really good, at some point you have to be really bad for a year, and next year is the year to do it with Andrew Wiggins as the top player available in the 2014 draft. The Lakers will struggle just to make the playoffs next year, especially with Kobe recovering from his achilles tear. Getting the 8th seed will do no good when the Lakers get raped in the first round, as opposed to having a few extra ping pong balls in the lottery. This is exactly how the Spurs got Tim Duncan in 1997.

Meanwhile, the Lakers have almost no free agent options left after Dwight Howard’s departure. The team can’t even amnesty Metta World War because there are no decent small forwards on the free agent market. The Lakers should just bring back Sasha Vujacic, Lamar Odom, and put up with the Kardashian drama for another year before re-tooling next summer.

As for Dwight Howard, one has to wonder how badly the Lakers really wanted him back. They were willing to hang on to Mike D’Antoni, who will probably be fired in a year anyway, than make Dwight happy. They were also willing to let Kobe give Dwight a good scolding during the presentation. I admit it, Dwight is a pussy, and couldn’t handle the pressure in LA. However, he was a cornerstone that would put the Lakers in a much better position moving forward. In any case, have fun running your air conditioning in Houston Dwight. By the way, after all this Dwightmare nonsense, does anybody know if Dwight is two syllables or just one? Is it just “Dwight”? Or “Da-Wight”? Either way, Shaq thinks he’s a pussy……

Yasiel Puig and the Dodgers have jumped back in the NL West race in no time. The Dodgers are now in 2nd place in the division, after taking two of three from those liberal, crab sandwich eating, San Francisco Giant bastards. Has anybody tried to rent an apartment in San Francisco? It’s no wonder everyone is gay because everyone is so used to taking it in the ass every month when they pay their rent. Anyway, I hope everyone has voted 25 times or so for Yasiel Puig. This dude needs to be in the all-star game because he’s been one of the best players in the National League so far. Even though Adrian Gonzales has had a nice season and deserves some votes, LA wouldn’t be back in the race without Puig.

Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon is a douchebag. He thinks it’s a joke that Puig could be in the all-star game after just a month in the majors. I guess Papelbon was in the clubhouse eating fried chicken last weekend when Puig and the Dodgers beat the crap out of his ball club. By the way, in a month and half, Puig has played about 7 times the amount of innings Papelbon has. Too bad Papelbon can’t even pronounce Yasiel Puig’s name right.

The Halos are creeping up in the AL Wild card standings as well. After taking two of three against Boston, the Angels are now just 5.5 games back in the wild card race. Mike Trout is rolling, and Josh Hamilton finally looked good with a big walk off home run on Saturday night. This feels terribly similar to last seasons rally after a slow start, only to fade at the end of the year.

Really tough blow for the LA Kings this weekend, as they lost free agent defenseman Rob Scuderi. Scuderi signed with his former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and sighted family reasons for his decision. The good news for LA is that they’ll still have one of the best defensive groups in the NHL next year because Willie Mitchell appears to be healthy after sitting out the year with knee trouble. Meanwhile, the Ducks make a crafty move, trading Bobby Ryan to the Senators for the equally productive, less expensive, and less whiny Jacob Silfverberg.

So who is looking forward to the World Cup in Brazil in 2014? Over the weekend, in a Brazilian soccer match, referee Jordan Silva pulled a red card on Josenir Santo Abreu, ejecting him from the game. The confrontation between the two escalated, and eventually Silva stabbed Abreu in the chest with a knife. Abreu died on the way to the hospital, and the referee was stoned to death and dismembered back at the field. What color card does that get? The World Cup should go really well.

Every 4th of July, I find myself falling out of my chair laughing at the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest on Coney Island. Joey Chestnut won his 7th hot dog eating contest, by slamming a world record 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Dude, when I eat 1 hot dog, I consider having a 2nd one, and then after I do, I know it was a terrible decision. I can’t even imagine trying to slam 69 of them. Since 2008, Chestnut has actually eaten 380 hot dogs, while over the same stretch, the Houston Astros have only won 377 games.

Finally, has anybody actually stopped and watched the SyFy Channel? The entire channel has to consist of some of the most terrible movies of all time that never made it to theatre. We’re talking garbage like Lake Placid 2, Anaconda 3, and those dumb Shark movies that try to copy Jaws. These things definitely need some celebrity drunken commentary to make them watchable.

BUSS-TED

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July 7th, 2013

Are you really surprised? Everyone told you it was coming. Just like when your high school friends kept telling you that your girlfriend was going to breakup with you if you didn’t start treating her better. Well, the breakup finally happened. Dwight Howard left the Lakers for the Houston Rockets. That’s right Laker fans. You were $30 million richer, but your girlfriend just left you for Steve Urkel.

Say what you will about how much of a pussy you think Dwight Howard is for wanting no accountability, but this isn’t ok, and Jim Buss blew it. He blew it the moment that he chose Mike D’Antoni over Phil Jackson. What an absolutely embarrassing choice, that snowballed and culminated in this embarrassing moment.

Last summer, Mitch Kupchak assembled an incredible roster, with very few resources to work with. Kupchak somehow traded a Volvo for a Ferrari. Then his boss proceeded to take shit all over his Ferrari, to that point you couldn’t even recognize what it was. This could have been a championship team if it had a championship coach. Instead, Buss hired a complete misfit in D’Antoni, who managed to alienate nearly every player on the team, run his franchise player into the ground, and push a critical cornerstone of the franchise away. This was a spectacular collapse. Kupchak acquired Superman, yet Buss acquired kryptonite shortly thereafter.

Now what? The Lakers roster is older than the Bible, and even if Kobe gets healthy, it will be a struggle just to make the playoffs. LA only has its $3 million mini mid-level exception to spend, along with a veterans minimum of around $1 million on this years remaining free agents. However, every impact player is gone because the Lakers were waiting for Dwight to make up his mind.

Of course, the Lakers plan is to re-tool the team next summer when Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, and other elite players will be free agents, and LA will have over $50 million to spend. Still, the Lakers recruiting pitch next summer won’t be nearly as good without a young piece like Dwight Howard. The Dallas Mavericks have been trying to play the free agency game for the last two summers, and have struck out more than Josh Hamilton. Meanwhile, their franchise player Dirk Nowitski is wasting the final years of his career. In other words, trying to build a championship team exclusively through free agency isn’t always the most effective strategy.

The biggest indictment in this situation isn’t on Dwight, and him being a mental midget. It’s on Jim Buss. When a player can leave an extra $30 million on the table to go play in a dump like Houston, you know you screwed up. Sure, David Stern has globalized the NBA to a point where playing in such a dump still allows a superstar to build their brand in places like China and Europe, but who leaves LA? If the Lakers road back to glory is through free agency next summer, then Jim Buss’ and his lack of leadership is a bigger problem than we thought.

Clipps get Dudley and Redick

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July 3rd, 2013

The Clippers continued their busy off-season on Tuesday, acquiring guards J.J. Redick and Jared Dudley in a 3 team trade. In exchange for Redick and Dudley, the Clippers sent forward Caron Butler and guard Eric Bledsoe to the Phoenix Suns, while the Milwaukee Bucks received two 2nd round picks from LA and Phoenix. Surprisingly, many Clipper fans think their team got worse, but they are more mistaken than Chris Broussard and his multiple sources.

Since the end of the season, Eric Bledose’s name has been thrown around in trade rumors more than a hooker in Vegas. Bledsoe has great athleticism, and is only 23 years old, but is extremely unproven. He averaged 8 points and 3 assists in 20 minutes of playing time this year, but when Chris Paul went down with an injury, he failed to prove he can be a reliable starter. In other words, Bledsoe’s value is more inflated than the stock price of Facebook.

In return, the Clippers acquired two potential starters who are very good shooters in Redick and Dudley. Redick is a career 39% three point shooter, who averaged 14 pts and 3 assists with the Magic and Bucks last season. Dudley may play some small forward for the Clippers, he’s 6 years younger than Caron Butler, and a reliable 40% shooter from 3 point land.

The Clippers had some discussions with Orlando for Aaron Afflalo, and Toronto about Demar DeRozan. However, in typical Clipper front office fashion, they leaked to every media outlet possible all the big names they were chasing, even though it probably was never realistic to acquire those players. It isn’t very often you will be able to trade a backup point guard and an aging small forward for a player who can score 20 points a game. The Clippers were trying to make everyone think they could swap a Volvo for a Porsche, which caused much of this disappointment. Coincidentally, this blabbing probably led to collapse of the Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce trade to the Clippers as well.

Remember, the Clippers still have their full mid-level exception of $5 million to spend on another free agent, and they could also bring back small forward Matt Barnes to add depth. LA has also been talking to free agent power forward Carl Landry, who was an effective bench player for the Warriors last season.

Although the Clippers are doing a good job of adding quality role players and depth around Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, their success will largely depend on how much Blake Griffin’s post game improves, as well as their half court execution. Still, good organizations that are proven winners usually don’t blab about all the big names they are chasing to give them credibility. That’s something the inexperienced and unproven Clipper organization is still learning.

Monday Morning Coffee

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July 1st, 2013

The Dwight Howard sweepstakes has “officially begun”. However, does anybody really think that Dwight does not already know where he’s going? This dude has had almost a full year to think about where he wants to go, and knows exactly what each team is offering. Do you really expect me to believe that one of these teams is going to “convince” him of where he’s going? If you do, than you are more naive than teenage girl. According to Hoopsworld writer Alex Kennedy, the Rockets are now “cocky” because they are so confident they will land Howard.

Meanwhile, the Lakers have shown their pathetic desperation to keep Dwight by posting billboards all over town. This is the kind of crap they would do in Cleveland or Orlando, but should not be doing in LA. What’s next? A song coming out this week pleading him to stay? This lame piece of work was put together in Orlando:

There have been some rumors circulating that the Lakers may be prepared to fire Mike D’Antoni since they have yet to allow him to hire any more assistant coaches, and since Kurt Rambis’ name came up as a potential addition to the staff. It’s an interesting theory, but if the Lakers were serious about keeping Dwight, they would have already fired D’Antoni, and assured him that Phil Jackson would be coaching the team. In 2004, the Lakers had traded Shaq prior to trying to convince Kobe to re-sign with the team. Even then, Kobe was on the verge of leaving the Lakers, before eventually coming back. The Lakers recruiting plan is worse than the European debt plan.

Chris Paul’s free agency will be rather uneventful, which is great news for the Clippers. In typical Chris Broussard fashion, he is reporting that Lebron James’ sources have informed him that sources close to Paul saw them at a club with Drake last night, and he received a call in the morning, saying that he will be re-signing with the Clippers.

The NBA draft is a joke. How are teams that are starving for talent supposed to improve themselves when they are forced to select completely underdeveloped players? Nobody is tall anymore, but instead, certain players “have great length”. Nobody is a great player, but instead, some players “have great upside”. On Thursday night, all I heard was 3 hours of Jay Bilas talking about wingspans. It’s no wonder teams like Sacramento, Charlotte, and Detroit have been picking in the lottery for years yet are still in the league’s basement.

Very quietly, the Dodgers and Angels are starting to make moves. The boys in blue are a little bit healthier, and they’ve now won 8 of the last 10 games, moving just 4 games back of first place Arizona in the NL West. Yasiel Puig has been hotter than a whore house on nickel night, and added 4 more hits yesterday. He finished his first full month in the majors with 44 hits, which is 2nd only to the legendary Joe DiMaggio. Just think how good the Dodgers could be if Matt Kemp could pull his shit together? This isn’t the most well put together ball club, but at least they are back in the playoff race.

As for the Halos, they’ve won 6 straight, and are 7.5 games back in the wild card race. Although the team still has a big climb ahead of them, their pitching hasn’t looked like dog crap for the first time all year. The bad news is that Peter Bourjos is going back on the disabled list because of a fracture below his right wrist, and Josh Hamilton is still fairly useless.

The Kings and Ducks had a very anti-climactic NHL draft, but things should get interesting this week. LA is moving closer to a deal with defenseman Rob Scuderi, who is a vital part of their stellar defensive core, but Scuderi will have to take a discount to fit under the cap. The Ducks locked up veteran defenseman Ben Lovejoy earlier in the week, but need to figure out what’s going to happen with Teemu Selanne. Selanne’s annual retirement dilemma has made him the Brett Favre of the NHL.

The Aaron Hernandez murder trial has once again, made me question the long term health risks to playing professional football. Can taking all those hits make you dumb enough to kill somebody when you are a multi-millionaire with a fiancee and an 8 month old daughter? It seems clear the answer is yes. Nevertheless, the Patriots did a commendable job of releasing Aaron Hernandez before even letting the justice system take its course.

Has anybody tried the “Monkey Style” Burger at In-N-Out? I’ve always been a fan of the secret menu at In-N-Out, but only recently did I discover this item on that menu. I’ve gotta admit, I was skeptical at first, but Animal Style fries in your burger make it that much better. I was afraid I’d die of a heart attack from all the cholesterol, but it was definitely amazing.

I recently decided to see if all this hype about AMC’s Mad Men was justified. I’m only through the first 4 seasons, but I have to admit, it’s a bit of a let down. Since I’m already this far, I’m committed to watching the last two seasons, but the show is just too slow, and the characters aren’t interesting enough. I completely understand the appeal of the 60’s, especially to the Baby Boomers, however, the show just repeats the same themes of adultery, sexism, and alcoholism in Don Draper’s life. With no other interesting characters, these themes get a bit old after 4 seasons. The show is also only focused on the white privileged wall street folks in that era as well, which leaves the show without enough depth.

Season Over For Beckett

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June 29th, 2013

Remember when the Dodgers had a surplus of starting pitching to start the season? Now they are desperate just to find pitching. LA got some bad news today, as right-hander Josh Beckett will undergo surgery and miss the remainder of the season.

Beckett has been diagnosed with Thoracic outlet syndrome, and has been experiencing nerve irritation in his neck, as well as numbness in his pitching fingers. The surgery is expected to sideline Beckett for 3-5 months, and will be performed by Dr. Greg Pearl in Dallas.

Although Beckett wasn’t slamming fried chicken in the clubhouse like his days in Boston, this season he’s been more abused than a battered housewife. He went 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA. He’s also owed $15.75 million this year and next year.

Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter underwent the same operation last July, and is currently experiencing a slow recovery one year later. This means the Dodgers will now have two pitchers under contract next year, who may miss time recovering from injury in Chad Billingsley, and Beckett.

Lakers Waive Duhon

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June 29th, 2013

Let the Chris Duhon sweepstakes begin! The Lakers waived point guard Chris Duhon today, after playing just one season for the team. The 30 year old, 8 year veteran from Duke, was owed $3.5 million, however, LA had the option of buying him out for $1.5 million, which they took advantage of .

Duhon was acquired in the Dwight Howard trade from Orlando last August, and played in 46 games for the Lakers this year, while starting 9 of them. I’ve always been amazed that Duhon has managed to average about 4 points and 2 assists since the 6th grade, yet he still has a professional basketball career. In fact, over the course of his entire career he’s made more than $31 million!

I must say however, that I am extremely disappointed that we didn’t see the dance moves on the bench that he showed while he was in Orlando. It’s no wonder the Lakers let him go.