My weekly review post of Sports and My Thoughts as they pertain to the "D" and Beyond for the week ending Friday 3.31.17 . This was a week filled with all sorts of drama and ups and downs. In the "D":
Lions:
The Lions have made a splash in the Free Agency market adding depth and filling some glaring needs on the OL Line. And with the NFL Draft less then a month away, Detroit is looking at this years draft for immediate help especially at RB and WR and to also add more depth on both sides of the ball. The Detroit Lions got involved in the NFL Free Agency on the first day
signing OT Wagner, DE Spence, DE Washington CB Hayden and LB Worrilow.
Between the NFL combine that just finished and Free Agency that just
started, GM Bob Quinn will have his hands full. Quinn needs to address
many glaring holes in the Lions during this off season and also has to
figure out which Lions players that can opt for Free Agency the team
wants to try and bring back. There is also the huge cloud hanging over
the lions as to what to do in regards to QB Matt Stafford and his
expiring contract next season. Are they ready to make him one of the
highest paid players in the league and lock him up for years to come or
do they want to franchise tag him and pay him big money for a season at a
time? Will
they go after Free Agents to fill holes in the secondary, LB, DL, OL and
WR? Will they trade for some immediate help? Will they take a stud RB
to ease the pressure off of Stafford? This is a huge off season for GM
Bob Quinn who already made his first big decision in retaining HC
Caldwell before the playoff game in Seattle and watching the team end
the season on a 4 game losing skid. The 2017 football schedule is out
and the Lions have 21st toughest schedule in the NFL for next season.
Red Wings:
The Red Wings have been officially eliminated from the NHL Playoffs for the first time in 25 years. Detroit which has a handful of games left, including a few more at the infamous Joe Louis Arena are finishing a season that many of us knew would happen and we expect a few more seasons like this before they can return to being an elite NHL team. The Red Wings have been saddled with aging over priced and under achieving players and have to rely on a very suspect draft this year to draft mid round players and try to develop them for 3-5 years down the road. I have
to question whether GM Ken Holland did enough to save his job. The Red
Wings have always been a loyal organization to a fault, but I wonder if
Holland, as it was with former Head Coach Mike Babcock has run his
course in Detroit and a fresh set of eyes is needed in Detroit as the
new GM? The Red Wings will playing in the new Little Caesars Arena next year.
Pistons:
The Pistons are currently in 10th place in the NBA Eastern Conference
with a 34-41 record. The Pistons are in the midst of a terrible losing streak which climaxed with an Epic Collapse last night at home against the Miami Heat. The Pistons blew a 4 point lead with 30 seconds left and embarrassed themselves and probably also cost them the playoffs with the loss. This loss coupled with the late season collapse should spell the end for Stan Van Gundy, who is the President and Head Coach of the Pistons. Van Gundy is desperate and will do anything to keep his cushy job including to play a player (Kentavius Caldwell-Pope) who was arrested the night before for Drunk Driving The team has quit on him and the team
still doesn't play defense, lives and dies by the 3 ball as most NBA
teams do nowadays and Free throw shooting has become an issue for this
team. Detroit which has all their starters and backup
guys healthy and
have decided that they want to run and gun their way to wins and not
play any defense. This has become problematic for HC Stan Van Gundy
since he came to Detroit a few years ago, his teams seem to never want
to play defense at all. Opposing teams are met with little to no
resistance as they go to the basket. This team is too soft especially in
the middle and would be wise to bring in some of the Bad Boys from
previous Piston teams to learn how to let opposing players and teams
know if they go to the basket they should expect a hard foul to follow.
HC Van Gundy needs to be held accountable for He has assembled a team of
players that do not like to play hard on defense. Until this team
learns to play any semblance of defense, expect the Pistons to hover
around the .500 mark the rest of the season. The Detroit Pistons announced they will move back to the
City of Detroit next year and play in the new Little Caesars Arena with
the Detroit Red Wings starting next season.
Tigers:
Season opener is 5 days away. The Tigers spring training season is winding down and the regular season opener is less then a week away. Full cuts will be made in the next few days. The Tigers and their fans are as always very optimistic going into the season. So far in Spring Training, the
Tigers pitching is getting rocked and the bats have been very silent and
not scoring any runs or getting allot of hits. Injuries to key players have already started with a back injury to Miggy and the ankle injury to JD Martinez. Veterans and rookies are
trying to make the ball club. Detroit has so many unanswered questions
going into the season. Most importantly is their pitching staff which
could be a big surprise or could end up being a dud again. The starting
pitching could be the strong part of this team while the bullpen once
again could end up being pitching by committee as it was for most of
last season. Detroit which many have finishing no higher then 3rd
in the MLB American League Central Division still has one of the highest
payrolls in all of baseball with many aging high priced players who
underachieved the past few seasons. The Wild Card for the Tigers
bullpen will be rookie Jiminez who could be the key to making this a
potential contender this season. Offensively, the Tigers still are very
imposing but one would be foolish to expect the older veterans such as
Miggy and V Martinez to stay healthy all year and Detroit also needs JD
Martinez and Upton to have great years as well. Starting catcher McCann
needs to rebound after a terrible hitting season in 2016 and
Castallenos needs to continue to improve on the break out year he had
last season. Defensively and baseball fundamentals haunted the Tigers
last season and needs to be addressed such as hitting cutoff men, base
running, bunting, advancing the runner and doing the little things that
the Tigers failed miserably to do in 2016. This is a huge gamble for the
Tigers going into the 2017
baseball season. How the Tigers won 86 games last season is beyond me
but they will have to win 90+ this year which will be tough as both the
Indians and the Royals got better and the Twins with all their young
draft choices are getting much better, that leaves both the White Sox
and the Tigers as teams that need everything to go right to have a shot
in the Central Division this year. Right now, I see the Tigers struggling to win 80-85 games this season.
Spartans: Head
Coach Mark Dantonio and the football team have their Spring game coming up. The football program is still facing some serious issues and also have a huge PR problem in regards as to their handling of an alleged sexual assault that happened involving 3 football players and an assistant coach. Coach Dantonio had imposed a no media edict for all for the past 8 weeks or so but lifted it yesterday, just in time for the yearly Spring football game. MSU has taken allot of guff for their handling of this matter but they have chose to deal with this as they want and not how everyone else thinks. MSU
which has some of the toughest guidelines for colleges has a zero
tolerance policy in regards to sexual assault. More to come as an
investigation has begun into this serious matter. The
Spartans football team is working on fixing all of the mistakes and
problems from last years disappointing 3-9 record. In in a year where
MSU started and played more freshmen
and sophomores then any other time under Head Coach Mark Dantonio. This
team was
short on talent this season has also had very questionable play calling
on both sides of the ball and if the Spartans look to rebound next
season and remain an Elite team, they need to put a top OC and DC in
place. I admire HC Mark Dantonio's loyalty, but it has come with a high
price that has cost the team at least 2 games last season. Players love
playing for him so He needs to do the right thing and bring in top
Coaches to round out his Coaching staff. His decision to bring in top
Coaches could haunt the program for years to come. The
Spartan basketball team which made the Tournament for the 20th straight year saw an early exit. Head
Coach Tom Izzo has a potential Top 10 program next season if Freshman Miles Bridges decides to return for his sophomore year and with the incoming class and others with a year under their belt could make for a very exciting 2017/2018 season.
Wolverines:
The Wolverines once again have made waves across the NCAA. First off,
Michigan is the first Public Institution in the Country to pay 3
football coaches over $1M a year and that doesn't even include Head
Coach Jim Harbaugh's $9M a year paycheck. Harbaugh also has tried to
hire the parents of a 4 star recruit in hopes of landing the recruit at
Michigan. Harbaugh also went after SEC commentator Paul Finebaum in
regards to remarks Finebaum made against Michigan and Harbaugh. I would
of expected Harbaugh to take the high road and dismiss the remarks but
Harbaugh once again let his ego get the better of him and decided to use
social media to get back at Finebaum. Also, a smack in the face to
the NCAA, Harbaugh decided to take the whole football team to Rome for
football practice and very debatable studying abroad. I think if the
football team is able to go at whatever price it is costing them, then
every other student athlete at Michigan should be afforded the same
opportunity at no cost to them as well. Since there seems to be no
limits to the Wolverines football teams athletic budget, this makes all
the more case as to why student athletes should share in all the revenue
the school makes from them. The Wolverines basketball
team which had an up and down season surprised everyone with their run in the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines who lived and died by the 3 ball, fell short by a point against Final Four participant Oregon. With a good returning class for next season Coach John Beilein should have another strong team for next season.
Sports beyond the "D":
NFL: The NFL Owners voted yesterday to allow the Raiders to move form Oakland to Las Vegas in 2 years. It was a no brainer in regards to teams getting $53M each for this relocation move. Also, this make 3 NFL teams the NFL have allowed to move within the last 15 months. NFL
Free agency has been busy with big name players changing teams for huge paydays. There are still some big name Free Agents that have not been signed yet and the Salary Cap play a big part nowadays in the signing of top name stars usually on the downside of their careers. The NFL has an off season coming
up
to work on
the many issues that it is dealing with; especially its declining
viewership, players pushing for marijuana to be legalized, shortening games, revised OT, and dealing with player incidents and black eyes on the NFL. Severe injuries,
especially concussions are rampant nowadays
as almost all the replays show that either a players head is being
driven into the turf and also so many head to head deliberate hits as
well as hitting defenseless players in the head. And it seems the NFL
with all their new Concussion Protocol Procedures, they still cannot get
it right in regards to protecting a Player safely. Entitlement is the new word for
both the Owners and the Players nowadays and that leaves the fans to pay
the price for this so called "Entitlement. As if the Owners and the
NFL do
not have enough money, the NFL is now going to play games in China as
well as the UK and Mexico. The NFL should concentrate on making the game
better and dealing with its current issues instead of trying to dilute
the game and water it down with thoughts of global expansion on the
horizon just to make more money
MLB Baseball: The MLB Baseball is just 4 days away. Teams are making their final cuts trimming their rosters. Excitement is building for fans
and players and
teams alike as another Season is just around the corner. Teams all think
before the start of the season that this might just be their year and
some teams
have spent a lot to acquire players they think will lead them to the
World Series, other teams stood still and others shed payroll while
trying to rebuild for a few years down the road. Also, MLB is trying to
find a way to speed up the games so they don't last over 3+ hours for a
9 inning game. They also are tinkering with putting a lead off man on
2nd base with no outs starting in the 10th inning to allow extra inning
games to be decided rather quickly. This is a stupid idea!!
NCAA: The NCAA Basketball Champion will be crowned next Monday. The Final Four is all set with South Carolina facing Gonzaga and North Carolina and Oregon facing off. Also the Women's Basketball Champion will be crowned within the next week and the Mens Hockey Final Four will crown its winner in about a week. Still more and more coming out from the Baylor sexual assault scandal, it
seems that Baylor has allowed the football program to run amuck for
years and police itself and cover up all its wrong doings. what is even
more ludicrous is Baylor's Women Basketball Coach Kim Mulkey addresses
the crowd and actually tries to justify the wrong doings at Baylor and
then states that all colleges have the same issues as Baylor. The
mindset of those at Baylor is truly baffling, I do not know how Kim
Mulkey still has her job and in hearing this why anyone would want to
send their child to Baylor anymore. Baylor also now
tells the NCAA infraction committee they have it all fixed and do not
see a need to be punished for these alleged crimes. If the NCAA does not
issue the death penalty to the Baylor football program, not only will
the NCAA lose the little credibility it has left, it will send a message
that the bigger schools can do what they want when they want and are
above the law. This isn't Baylor's first time with huge issues and they
tried to cover up transgressions within the basketball program and now
numerous transgressions within its football team. The NCAA has no
choice but to give the Baylor football team the death penalty. The
NCAA passed a law prohibiting Spring football practices such as the one
the Michigan Wolverines had in Florida last season. The ordinance takes
place in August, so as an insult and a slap in the face, the Wolverines
are taking the whole football team to Rome, Italy under the premise of
studying and learning, yet also practicing as well. Also, Michigan is
the first Public Institution to pay 3 assistant coaches more than a $1M a
year. With Universities paying Coaches more than some NFL teams do, it
is time to pay the student athletes a stipend and a big one at that as
they are the ones making the Universities the money. Also, the
Poinsettia Bowl is no more and I for one am happy to see the elimination
of this Bowl game as we need to still reduce the number of Bowl games
which currently now stands at 40. Also, it is time for Louisville to pay
the piper and accept the punishment that the NCAA will hand down in
regards to the Basketball team and lack of compliance and also North
Carolina and its academic cheating scandal that has dragged on way too
long. .
NBA and NHL:
The NBA season is in its final few weeks and the front runners are making their strides to solidify the top spots in both the Eastern and Western Conferences. A few teams are still tanking their games to ensure a chance at the #1 overall draft pick this summer. It is definitely a players run NBA nowadays with top players taking added days off during the season, something former star players didn't do or have the luxury to do. It is the fans who suffer the most for they still have to pay the outrageous ticket prices to go to games that sometimes have 3 or 4 top guys out. The NBA needs to figure out how to fix this issue as it is getting worse and worse the past few years.
In the
NHL, there is less then 2 weeks remain in the regular season and the playoffs will begin. It will be a different playoff season as last year as this season there is a chance 4 or 5 Canadian teams can make the playoffs compared to not a single team made it into the playoffs last season. Also
it is time for the NHL to revisit their point system
for wins. Teams are playing to tie games in regulation knowing they will
get at least a point no matter what. I think as many do, that a win in
regulation should be 3 points, 2 points for a win in OT or a shootout.
This would offer incentive to teams wanting to win in regulation. The
NHL also announced expansion into Las Vegas in a few years and Seattle
is the next potential city to host an expansion team. I cannot
understand the rationale of expansion when their are quite a few team
struggling financially right now in the NHL.
Miscellaneous; All Pro Sports teams need to come together and unify a way to discipline those who have been charged with assault of any kind especially sexual or domestic abuse. Teams tend to be too lenient on their star players and the leagues are right behind them in the ways they deal with athletes that have assaulted someone. Allot of the fault lies within the Collective Bargaining Agreements and the Players Labor Associations that will fight discipline handed out just to fight it without giving any regard to the actual assault committed or to the victim that was assaulted.
PGA: Dustin Johnson wins WGC-Dell Championship NASCAR: Kyle Larson wins at California
twitter; @cupofjoeinthed email; cupofjoeinthed@gmail.com www.cupofjoeinthed.blogspot.com
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