Sport Thoughts

2023 has been an interesting year for several MLB contenders. There have been quite a few disappointing teams. The New Mets and New York Yankees have disappointed on a large scale. Perhaps the most disappointing team of the 2023 season is actually the San Diego Padres. The Padres entered the 2023 season expecting to compete for a championship. They had a success 2022 season, upsetting the 101 win New York Mets and 111 win LA Dodgers in the MLB playoffs. The Padres entered the offseason with a plethora of moves. They extended third basemen Many Machado to a multi year contract. They would sign All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts, starting pitcher Seth Lugo, starting pitcher Michael Wacha and designated hitter Matt Carpenter in free agency. They would also see the return of All-Star outfielder Fernando Tatis, back from a year of injuries and a steroid suspension. The team raised their payroll and spoke about championship expectations at a fan appeciation event. 2023 has gone the complete ...

The MLB offseason can not come any sooner for the New York Mets. The Mets will hit the cross roads of rebuilding once  the offseason begins. They must decide which direction to approach free agency and the trade market. It is heavily rumored that the New York Mets will trade All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso. Alonso is considered to be the face of the Mets franchise. He is also their best power hitter. The Mets will have one year left of Alonso’s contract before he reaches free agency. Alonso and the Mets have not been able to agree on a contract extension. The New York Mets are looking to be competitive in 2024. Trading Pete Alonso would make the Mets a less competitive team. Alonso is having a down year in terms of batting average but he is capable of hitting over 40 homers per season. Will the Mets reach a contract extension agreement with Alonso? Will he be traded for up and coming prospects. It is only the end of August but the future is already being discussed.

The Texas Rangers are in deep trouble. They are currently in the midst of a 8-game losing. Their starting pitching staff and bullpen have shown heavy signs of inconsistency. The Rangers offense are hot and cold in the batters box. The Seattle Mariners have caught the Texas Rangers in the American League West standings. The Houston Astros have also gained ground right behind the Mariners and Rangers. The Rangers have been in first place for nearly the entire 2023 MLB season. The Seattle Mariners will have an big opportunity to jump the Texas Rangers during this weekend. They will be playing the awful Kansas City Royals. The Toronto Blue Jays are also making a push in the Wild Card race. The Rangers would need to hold off the Blue Jays in the Wild Card hunt, if they were to fall into third place. Texas Leaders Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and Max Scherzer must step up. Can the Texas Rangers bounce back? Should the Rangers be worried about their remaining schedule? Sometimes a losing strea...

The 2023 MLB Season is down to the final 6 weeks. Several divisions have been determined including the American League Central, National League East and National League West divisions. The American League West Division has become a 3-team race. The third place Seattle Mariners are in the midst of a 7 game winning streak and the first place Texas Rangers are spiraling a 5 game losing streak. The defending champion Houston Astros sit just half a game ahead of the Seattle Mariners. All three teams have elite starting pitching but health has played a huge factor in their recent successes. The Astros are currently missing former all-star first baseman Jose Abreu, while the Texas Rangers are missing all-star Third baseman Josh Jung and ace starting pitcher Natan Eovaldi. The Seattle Mariners are healthy and playing their best baseball throughout this month of August. The Mariners also have the easiest remaining schedule in comparson to the Astros and Rangers. The Rangers have several veteran...

The New Yankees are one of the biggest disappointments in the 2023 MLB season. They are in the midst of a 7-game losing streak. The Yankees have a 60-63 losing record and sit in last place of the American League East Division. They have shown no signs of life in their last 5 games of the losing streak. The New Yankees could have made trades to improve but choose to stand pat on the August 1st Trade Deadline. The team’s front office is the face of this uncompetitive and disappointing product. General manager Brian Cashman has struck out on many of his off season and trade deadline moves, dating back to last year. The Yankees currently lack an experienced left fielder, troting out minor league journeymen Jake Bauer and Billy Mckinney. They also heavily rely on a rooke shortstop Anthony Volpe and utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Neither of whom have shown signs of consistent hitting in a team slump. Starting pitching has gotten worse month by month. Carlos Rodon has looked like a bust free ...

The NBA will be introducing a in-season tournament during the upcoming NBA season. All 30 teams will be broken up into groups of five. These in-season matchups will count as tournament games. The tournament style games are expected to have more meaning to them compared other regular season games. The NBA has recently been known for having a load management problem among star players. This in-season tournament will have the power to descrease the amount of load management. Star players will be expected to play in these tournament style match ups. Viewership will have the potential to increase through these games, especially when the in-season championship game is held in Las Vegas. Will fans heavily tune into the in-season tournament? How will star players treat the tournament? The NBA season often draws big viewership through marquee match ups and historic rivalries. A in-season tournament could add suspense into a brand new chapter of the regular season.

It is over two weeks since the MLB trade deadline. There were buyers and sellers at the deadline. The New York Mets were the biggest seller at the trade deadline. The Mets made moves that esentially punted their 2023 season. The Mets are currently 5-11 since the August 1st trade deadline, the worst post deadline record of all 30 MLB teams. The Mets called up several minor league players after moving on from Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, David Robertson, Mark Canha and Tommy Pham. The constant losing has been become atrocious with fans beginning to speculate tanking. The tanking speculation was more evident when the New York Mets lost 21 to 3 against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday afternoon. The New York Mets could potentially gain a top drafted player if they finish among the 6th worst records in the league. The Mets have become uncompetitive and nearly unwatchable since the trade deadline. The Met fans, who are paying hard earned money to watch their minor league filled team tank ar...

The 2023 MLB season is down to a month and a half left. The fight for playoff contention continues each for the teams still in the race. Baseball is known as a major sport that does not have a salary cap. The New York Mets, New York Yankees and San Diego Padres have the three largest payrolls in the entire MLB. If the MLB Season were to end today, all three high salary teams would miss the playoffs. The New York Mets waived the white flag to begin the month of August with a payroll of $343,809,689. The Mets payroll is the most expensive roster in MLB history. That roster prior to the trade deadline was 5.5 games back from a playoff spot and 5 games under .500. The New York Mets are now 12 games under .500 and 8.5 games back of a wild card. The New York Yankees have a payroll of $279,372,803. That large payroll has them in last place in the AL East division, 2 games over .500 and 5 games back of the last wild card spot. The San Diego Padre’s payroll is slightly lower at $252,800,149. En...

The 2023-2024 NBA season begins on October 24th. The Christmas Day NBA schedule has been announced 4 months in advance. Christmas has always been a special day for NBA teams to showcase their talent on the big stage. It is a day to market NBA teams that are high in the power rankings. There are also teams trying to gain recognition through the holiday showcase. This years Christmas Day slate is arguably a carbon copy last years Christmas Day participants. The Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, LA Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Pheonix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies were last year’s Christmas Day teams. The Miami Heat replace the Memphis Grizzlies as the 10th and final team this year. In some ways there are several NBA teams who should feel like they were snubbed. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, LA Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and New Orleans Pelicans are teams wh...

The New York Yankees are one of the biggest disappointing teams of 2023. They have a mediocre offense that struggles to score runs and a starting pitching rotation full of question marks. They currently sit in last place in the AL East and stand 5.5 games back of the final wild card spot. Often times, a baseball manager is considered the scapegoat towards a season gone wrong. Aaron Boone is currently in his 6th year as New York Yankee manager. Boone has had flaws towards lineup construction and bullpen management. It would be wrong to completly pinpoint the 2023 season’s failure entirely on Aaron Boone. General manager Brian Cashman deserves a larger amount of blame for the roster he constructed in comparison to the roster managed by Boone. The current Yankees roster is wasting the prime years of both Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole. The New York Yankees are on track to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They are also positioned to finish in last place in the AL East for the ...

The MLB trade dradline is offically one week old. Several MLB teams made moves in order to improve their current rosters and the future of their organizations. The Los Angeles Angels were in an interesting situation at the deadline. Their best player and MVP favorite Shohei Ohtani is a upcoming free agent after the 2023 season. The front office had an opportunity to trade him for minor league prospects or lose him for nothing in free agency. The Angels chose to keep Ohtani and buy at the trade deadline. The team’s deadline moves included adding starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, reliever Reynaldo Lopez, first baseman CJ Cron and outfielder Randal Grichuk. These trades were expected to keep the Angels fighting for contention. The Angels have now lost 7 straight games since the day of trade deadline. The Angels are currently 2 games under .500. Nothing has gone right for the Angels since the trade dealine. Originally dubbed trade deadline winners, The Angels are in free fall mode. It is unk...

The MLB season is down to the final 55 games for all 30 teams. The last two months of the season have become a sprint for contention. MLB Teams like the Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and St Louis Cardinals have waived the white flag on their seasons. The wild card race for both the American League and National League has gotten very interesting. The Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros have showed  signs of being in full control of their wild card spots. That can’t be said about various teams in the National League. The Miami Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds are seeing their seasons spiral out of control. All three teams were 10 or more games over .500 during the month of July. The winning records have changed heavily since after the All Star break. The Marlins were 14 games over .500 at the All Star break. They are now just 4 games over .500. The Diamondbacks were once 16 games over .500 on July 1st. After tonight’s loss, the...

The New York Mets entered the 2023 season as championship contenders. They had the highest payroll in the history of the MLB. The team won 101 games in 2022 and had high expectations heading into the new season. Everything has gone wrong for the New York Mets in 2023. From gut punching losses to injuries to key players to down years from pitchers and hitters, 2023 has gone as wrong as possible for the Mets. They finished the month of June 10 games under .500. The hope was for the Mets to turn things around by the trade deadline. Things never changed for the Mets. They would become trade deadline sellers after putting themselves in a hole too deep to bounceback from. The organization  bid farewell to pitchers Max Scherzer, David Robertson and Justin Verlander. They sent away outfielders Tommy Pham and Mark Canha. The Mets would add to their farmsystem and rebuild for the future. Their remaining schedule does not get easier and they have essentially punted on the final 2 months of th...

The MLB Trade deadline began the month of August. Several MLB teams made big and small moves at the dradline. Several of these trades were winning moves. There were still several losers at the dradline. The Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins were losers of the American League. The Baltimore Orioles needed to improve their starting pitching rotation and bullpen. The Orioles traded for strugglings starting pitcher Jack Flaherty and disappointing reliever Shintaro Fujinami. The Boston Red Sox also needed to upgrade their pitching staff. Their only trade dewdline move was acquiring infielder Luis Urias. The New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins needed to improve their starting lineups. Both teams would do the exact opposite by trading for relief pitchers Keynan Middleton and Dylan Floro. None of these trade move the needle for these American League teams. The New York Mets and St Lous Cardinals were losers of the National League. Both teams were sellers ...

The MLB trade deadline has come and gone. Every team has made their big and small moves. Some teams made win now trades and others entered rebuilds. The winners of the trade deadline stood out in various ways. The Houston Astros, Texas Rangers and LA Angels were the clear winners in the American League. The Astros improved their starting pitching rotation and bullpen by trading for former Cy Young pitcher Justin Verlander and closer Kendall Graverman. The Texas Rangers improved their pitching staff by acquiring former Cy Young pitcher Max Scherzer, along with starting pitchers Jordan Montgomery and relief pitcher Chris Stratton. The Angels also improved their starting pitching rotation and bullpen by adding former All Star starting pitcher Lucas Giolito and closer Ronaldo Lopez. They then traded for offensive sluggers Randle Grichette and CJ Cron. The Miami Marlins, LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks were the deadline winners of the National League. The Marlins elevated their pitching...