My weekly review post of Sports and My Thoughts as they pertain to the "D" and Beyond for the week ending Friday 4.21.17 . 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 10 days 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 season is over. The official closing of Joe Louis Arena for the Red Wings was a glorious occasion as the team brought back many former players for the last home game in which the Red Wings downed the New Jersey Devils to shut down "the Joe" in winning fashion. It was a bittersweet ending in which we saw a 25 year streak of consecutive playoff appearances end in the Joe but will now try to start a new streak when the Red Wings open up the new Little Caesars Arena ( Mr. I's place) next season. It may be a few years before Detroit makes it back into the playoffs. 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?
Pistons:
The Pistons season is over as well and the late season epic collapse cost Detroit a chance at the playoffs. The team gave up on President/Head Coach Stan VanGundy and he did very little to get the team back on course. How Owner Tom Gores still hasn't fired VanGundy says allot about his loyalty to a man who needs to go. The Pistons played their last game at The Palace and will play next year along side the Detroit Red Wings downtown at the new Little Caesars Arena. The Pistons will not have to worry about filling the seats in the new arena, for the new arena will take care of that for the first year. But the terrible long term contracts VanGundy gave to both Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson will come back and haunt the Pistons for years to come. Stan VanGundy has assembled this team and needs to take full accountability for their demise and that the team quit on him down the stretch, But as it is with most pro sports teams, the Owner is making money and doesn't want to be bothered with making changes when they are definitely called for!
Tigers: The Detroit Tigers are 8-4 and are currently in 1st place in the AL Central. The Tigers just finished a weekend series with the Cleveland Indians in which they took 2 out of 3 from the Tribe. And although the season has just begun, it was a significant win for the Tigers against Cleveland. Detroit which only won 4 of 18 games against the Indians last season, have now won half of the total number they won all last season against Cleveland. Already questions have begun to surface about the Tigers bullpen or lack of bullpen. The starters have come out of the gate strong but opposing teams know if they run the pitch counts up against the Tigers starting pitching, they will get into a very poor bullpen and they will have a much better chance at winning. Early on, everyone in the bullpen from long relief to closer Francisco Rodriguez has struggled mightily. One time Staring Pitcher Anibal (Gopher ball) Sanchez, who was relegated to the bullpen last season has appeared in 4 games so far this season and has given up 4 - 3run home runs and has an era of 11.00. The Tigers team era is just under 5 .00 right now and the only bright spots so far in the bullpen have been Justin Wilson and rookie Joe Jiminez who was brought up pitched good and was sent back down the next day. 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. Defensivrbe. ely 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 can't seem to stay out of trouble. Another alleged sexual assault has been levied against a current player. I would of thought Dantonio would of had a come to Jesus meeting with all his coaches and staff and players and laid down the law! But it is apparent that if these charges are true, changes must happen within the football program. I have said for a long time now that the football program needed to bring in top Assistant Coaches to help mentor and train and take MSU to the next level. The current coaches all who HC Dantonio has been loyal too, need to be seriously looked at and some need to go and the others need to be reassigned elsewhere. 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 these 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. The
Spartan basketball team which made the Tournament for the 20th straight
year saw an early but with the return of B1G freshman of the year, Miles Bridges next season, Head
Coach Tom Izzo has a Top 10 program next season 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: NFL Draft is now 10 days away. 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 season is 2 weeks in and already some teams are surprising while others have started off very slow. It should be an exciting season as young players are coming forward to replace some of the older veterans 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: I find it hard to believe the NCAA is still dragging its feet on the North Carolina academic scandal within its athletic department. Of course, UNC will continue to wait this out and try to delay the inevitable. The bigger question is , what will the punishment be? The President of the University of Maryland came out last week and said that the NCAA should give UNC the Death Penalty! But with all the power that UNC and the ACC holds, I doubt the NCAA will give them anything more then a strong slap on the wrist. The NCAA has become powerless in the last 10 to 15 years. The NCAA still has done nothing to Louisville and 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.
NBA and NHL:
The NBA playoffs have started and once again the Golden State Warriors are the odds on favorite to win it all. There seems to be more debate over who should win the NBA MVP, then as to who else could win the NBA Title. Also, the integrity of the NBA is now being questioned as once again teams have tanked the season in hopes of landing the #1 pick in the NBA draft. Philadelphia started this trend a few years ago and the NBA continued to let them lose games on purpose and now other teams have followed suit. Also, it is now common for NBA teams to rest their star players numerous times during the season. Not only is it the fans who suffer and who pay outrageous ticket prices and concession prices but players taking games off should have this reflected when it comes times to vote for an NBA Award. 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, the playoffs are underway but the most talked about issue is the NHL's decision to not allow its players under contract to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. The NHL wanted to lay the blame on the players but the NHLPA came out with a statement that clearly shows it was the NHL and Owners who didnt want the players to play in the Olympics. Once again, this is all about the almighty $$$ and little else.
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: Wesley Bryan wins RBC Heritage NASCAR: Jimmy Johnson wins at Texas Speedway
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