Grantland Murdered AJ Preller

Grantland.com- I learned early in my medical career that the doctor you should worry about isn’t the one who doesn’t know anything. It’s the one who doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does.

Not having the answers isn’t fatal if you at least have the self-awareness to know what you don’t know. “Often wrong, never in doubt” is no way to go through life. For all his flaws, Ruben Amaro — let’s bash that piñata one more time while we still can! — has failed as a GM primarily for what hedidn’t do. He didn’t acknowledge that his team was getting older and he didn’t correct course while there was still time to take the Phillies in for a safe landing. But his sin was a sin of benign neglect, and it allowed Philadelphia to experience a gentler, more gradual decline than the outright carnage in San Diego.

But what A.J. Preller has wrought in San Diego has been as quick as it has been destructive. Like an abandoned stadium earmarked for implosion, a baseball team can be demolished in a fraction of the time it takes to put it together.

Full Bloodbath article...  http://grantland.com/features/aj-preller-mlb-san-diego-padres-national-league-west/ 

Dear Lord. That was not a very positive article. An absolute pile driver of info basically detailing how every move AJ made this season has completely backfired. The writer did a pretty good job of backing up all his feelings with hard data. I thought the article was funny because anyone outside of SD must've been so confused why anyone has that strong of feelings towards the Padres. Padres basically are invisible on the national stage. They barely are shown on Sportscenter or talked about on any platform.

The Padres needed a boost of energy and good PR this offseason. AJ just went completely overboard and got drunk with making moves for names. I respect the dude at a table that takes all his chips and throws them all in to win big. But, I respect the guy more who does this with brains and a plan B. 

Preller has his work cut out for him over the next 10 days. He absolutely has to bring good young talent back to the organization with some deadline deals. If he can somehow package a bad contract into one of the deals (Jedd or Melvin) I will consider the trade deadline a huge success relatively speaking.

The higher ups in the organization aren't doing Preller any favors with recent comments. Mike Dee comments to the UT last week make zero sense with the Padres plan moving forward unless the owners are REALLY going to open the bank account and go nuts on payroll. Dee stated that the team will be not backing down and reloading for 2016. I am beginning to think Dee might be completely clueless or just makes comments that people want to hear because he hates answering tough questions. 

The Padres are in their worst spot they've been in this decade. Everything now hinges on the owners spending a ton to fix this gigantic problem. The Padres executives just seem drunk driving a boat into the middle of the Pacific. Most of their comments make zero sense.

I do give credit to AJ for going on the Air today to answer some questions and commenting on the article. Mike Dee probably would have made the janitor answer a mean article about him.

I also give Preller credit for the Shields deal which the author skirts around. I don't think Shields is an Ace by any means but he is a good #2. Given the market for better than average starting pitchers, Preller knocked that deal out of the park. Having the deal back loaded was also really smart as well.

Having the All start game in town next year also hurts in terms of unloading talent to build a core for the future as well. It would be a tough look to be a horrible team hosting the the ASG but who cares. The ASG weekend will be over in a flash and the team needs to build a product for the future.

P.S.  It is scary how accurate I was in previous Padre Blogs. If Shields gets traded, I will give myself a standing ovation. 

P.P.S.  I will end up being WAY off in my prediction on the win loss record but I was trying to be nice. Padres personnel are very sensitive and hate accepting criticism. 

Serena Williams Place In Sports History Baffles Me

BDLive - LONDON — Serena Williams fired a warning to Maria Sharapova before their Wimbledon semifinal as the world No 1 admitted she saved her best performances for clashes with her fiercest rival.

Williams and Sharapova meet on Thursday in the latest instalment of a bitter rivalry that took root on Centre Court in 2004 and still festers.

Sharapova caused one of the great Wimbledon shocks 11 years ago when, at just 17, she defeated Williams in the final to claim her first Grand Slam title.

But while Sharapova has collected five Grand Slams and built a global brand that makes her the world’s highest-paid female athlete, the 28-year-old still trails in Williams’s wake, and hasn’t come out on top since 2004.

The 33-year-old American has a 17-2 lead in their head-to-head record, winning their past 16 meetings and depriving Sharapova of three major titles — in the 2007 and 2015 Australian Open finals and the 2013 French Open final.

Williams has also won all four of her semifinal meetings with Sharapova, defeating the Russian in their previous Wimbledon clash in the last 16 in 2010, and in the 2012 Olympic final.

Serena Williams current status in American Sports BAFFLES me. She is simply the best that has ever played the sport and no one cares at all. Our society loves to celebrates winners and Americans in international competitions. But, Serena gets ZERO love for the most part. 

Don't get me wrong - I totally get that there is a race aspect at play with her popularity in a country club sport. Tiger Woods is the outlier in terms of comparison of popularity across ethnicity in sports. But it simply baffles me that Serena is not held in a higher regard for her place in American sports history. She simply toys with her competition like she is playing high school tennis. 

America should embrace Serena before she declines athletically and that should be coming within in the next 5 years. If you can't appreciate greatness in terms of athletic dominance than you are simply not a sports fan. You can care less about tennis or any other sport for that matter but if you don't appreciate someone that is the best at something then I feel bad for you.

P.S.    Serena would rip off my arm in .2 seconds in Arm wrestling.

Deandre Jordan is a Punk

Espn.com- DeAndre Jordan has told the Los Angeles Clippers that he wants to walk away from his new deal with the Dallas Mavericks to stay in L.A., according to league sources.

But sources told ESPN.com that the unprecedented fluidity of Jordan's free agency has convinced the Clippers that they need to stay at Jordan's side until he can formally sign a new contract, given that Jordan has already changed his mind once in this process.

Sources say Jordan, in a Wednesday meeting at his Houston home with several Los Angeles teammates and top team officials, left the Clippers with the clear message that he intends to renege on Friday's commitment to sign a four-year, $80-plus million max deal with the Mavericks and re-sign a lucrative deal with the Clippers instead.

This was such a bitch move by Jordan that it makes my blood boil and I could care less about both franchises involved. The fact he wouldn't answer a call from an organization that was willing to pay him 80 million dollars is just sad. I get the market and roster size dictates his value on the open market but I wouldn't want this bum on my squad. I hope Cuban somehow pulled his signature shark tank move at the end by pulling his offer.

News Flash: Clippers aren't winning anything with this squad. West is up for grabs between the Warriors and Spurs next year and the Clippers will be bragging about winning their round 1 playoff matchup before losing in 5 to whoever they play in round 2.

P.S.  The fact that we live in a Country where someone that can't dribble or shoot a basketball can be paid 20 million dollars a year to play professional ball is pretty fucking incredible. Not to mention that he is such a liability from the free throw line that he pretty much doesn't play during crunch time.

USA Women's Team AreTrained Killers

FoxNews - Carli Lloyd came up big again. Three times.And with it came the Americans’ elusive third Women’s World Cup title. Lloyd scored a hat trick as the U.S. burst to a four-goal lead in the first 16 minutes, and the Americans overwhelmed defending champion Japan 5-2 Sunday for their record third championship and first since 1999. A sellout crowd that included U.S. Vice President Joe Biden roared in approval for Lloyd’s hat trick, the first ever in a Women’s World Cup final.

“We just made history,” Lloyd said. “I was on a mission.”

That was as impressive of a Championship performance that I have ever seen. The Women came out for blood from the word go and it were as dialed in a team could possible have been to play in a championship game. 

I truly hope the Mens National team took notes and DVR'd the shit out of that game. The Mens team desperately needs a mentality and identity adjustment. The play the majority of their games on their heals and afraid ( I don't care that their usually out skilled in big games). I am a Dempsey fan from a confidence standpoint but the dude is so fake tough that it makes me puke. (Much Needed Mens Team Rant is wayyyy overdue)

The Women's team deserves all the attention and publicity that they will undoubtedly get over the next few weeks. That team had a bunch of killers on it and it was special to watch. The Women's sport in general is getting so much better and I am legit excited to see how far the game develops over the next 4 years.

Also - Nike hit a Grand Slam with the Commercial following the game...

P.S.   I am terrified of what Hope Solo did to celebrate last night.

P.P.S. Hitting the Over total line 6 seconds into the game was the pinnacle of my gambling career. No chance that ever happens again.

P.P.P.S.  What is up with the Giant backup goalie for Japan. She is at least 8 feet tall. Need to know her whole story ASAP. 

Antonio Gates Bopped

NFL.com - We have a new biggest name in a rash of suspension announcements on the eve of the holiday weekend.

The San Diego Chargers announced Thursday that tight end Antonio Gates has been suspended four games without pay for violating the NFL Policy and Program for performance-enhancing substances.

Gates will miss games against the Lions, Bengals, Vikings and Browns. He is eligible to return to the active roster on Oct. 5, ahead of a Week 5 matchup against the Steelers. Gates is eligible to participate in all offseason and preseason practices and games.

"We are tremendously disappointed for our team and our fans as well as Antonio, but no more disappointed than Antonio is with himself," the Chargers announced in a statement. "Antonio is a member of the Chargers' family and we will continue to support him 100 percent."

Gates blamed his positive test on "supplements and holistic medicines" he used in an effort to recover from the past season.

"In my 12 years in the NFL, I have taken tremendous pride in upholding the integrity of the NFL shield and all that it entails," Gates said in a statement. "I have taken extreme care of my body with a holistic approach and I have never knowingly ingested a substance that was banned by the NFL."

Give the Chargers credit. They can't go 2 weeks without pooping in their fans faces. They say any publicity is good publicity but any Chargers news this year has been a complete train wreck dumpster fire. Good thing the NFL as a product is bullet proof because if any other business had this start to the 2015 year people would be selling stock faster than the Greeks are pulling money out of the ATM's. 

I am not shocked that anyone gets suspended for PED's in football. I am more shocked that many more players haven't been caught though. The fact the 49ers LB core hasn't exploded from steroids is beyond me. The sports is so taxing physically that I don't blame this guys for supplementing especially since their the only major sports league without guaranteed contracts.

If anyone is disappointed by this news they simply are out of touch with reality. The majority of the league is on something to be able to play in the NFL. I am more disappointed that the suspended athletes come out with the weakest excuses possible. 

Antonio Gates coming with the soft excuse without naming the banned product is as bad is it gets from a personal PR standpoint. It blows my mind how their PR teams don't go the Giambi route and basically make them say they fucked up. The people who come with soft excuses end up looking soooo much worse in the long run.

Local Radio personalities that continue to hammer Brady on PSI ball pressure but making excuses for PED suspensions is very confusing from an outrage perspective. At least keep your outrage consistent and in line with the situation at hand or reality for that matter. A story like this proves that media can control public opinion. The national news cycle for steroids has already ended while ball pressure story is going on 6 months of coverage.

P.S. 

I bang on San Diego fans all day but even I feel bad for their 2015 sports run here. I mean its bad news after bad news and its only been 6 months. I would like to say it can only get better but that would be a flat out lie. 

P.P.S.

I only feel bad for the 167 fans that actually exist in San Diego though. Burn.

P.P.P.S.

This failed test was known by the player and Chargers in April as being reported by the AP. Zero shot this didn't also play into Rivers displeasure of being part of the squad in 2015. Love how no one is talking about that.

Official Power Rankings For Female Sports

Not to be sexist but truth hurts...

Watching female sports for the most part is just pure pain. It takes special people to sit through most athletic events featuring women. But, I am looking down the barrel of female sports for the foreseeable future with the arrival of my daughter.

I started mentally preparing myself for this monster challenge a few months ago and am absolutely no where close to being ready for this immense challenge. My anxiety is already sky high knowing how paralyzing my frustration will be.

That being said, I wanted to list the official power ranking for males for viewing female sports. I need to take into consideration the difference in viewing the individual sports at the highest level and the average high school level.


Basketball:

Female hoops is by far the WORST viewing experience at any level for the male species. I simply hate it. It is easily the most drastic difference in Males vs Females for any sport. Female hoops players look like they are playing with cement in their shoes. You are in serious trouble when a reverse layup is the most exciting play in your sport.

Fix: 

Simple. Lower the hoops to 8 feet and let the alley oops commence. Also all girls hoops games under the age of high school should just be sudden death. First hoop wins. Boom. Saved that sport in a couple sentences. Pure genius.

Bonus Fix Option: 

Just Cancel Girls hoops all together. Another solid option. Girls even hate the sport.

Bonus Hate:

I hate Geno Auriemma. He might be in my top 3 most hated sports figures of all time. The reason my hate isn't higher is I simply forget he exists until around December every year and it obviously peeks when he wins the national championship by 48 points every year and then goes on to say how big of a challenge it was to win and how men's basketball stinks. (Run on sentence game is on LOCK)

Geno is the kinda smart kid in class that only takes standard level classes but insists to tell everyone how smart he is dominating the gold star stickers with his short bus pals. The fact he has no desire to prove his coaching prowess on the men's sides might be the biggest pussiest move in the history of manhood.


Softball:

This one is a super tricky sport to view for us men. Adolescent softball easily rivals female hoops. At least hoops has a clock to end the chaos. A girls softball inning could last a lifetime and nothing is worse when all the parents are screaming where the girls should throw the ball. I still have nightmares and wake up in a cold sweat thinking of watching my sister attempt to play softball. Just writing that sentence made me shake.

But, College level softball ain't that bad. I sat and watched 4 innings of one of the women's college softball world series game and it was pretty damn good. Swinging bunts are the worst but the pitchers are legit as fuck. I spent 20 minutes internally debating if I could hit any of these pitchers (No Chance). So, that made me respect the sport.

Fix:

Only drastic change I would infused into the sport would be to outlaw visors and make them wear legit hats. Also make the infields grass. Dirt looks poor but I get why they do it. I'm a big visual guy and need my HD looking crisp and not dirty.

Golf:

Women's golf doesn't move the needle because the sport seems so much more reserved than the men's side if that makes sense. But…But…But… This is bar FAR the closest of the the two sports. A girl could easily be better than a guy from an average athlete perspective. Girls seems to have on average a better tempo swing and a lot better demeanor on the course. The only that kinda sucks about the sport on the pro level is the best players in the world are not Americans and they are boring.

Fix: 

I would create fake controversy. I would probably leak a horrendous rumor that lit a fire of anger under all the girls. Wouldn't hurt if better looking girls played at a higher level as well. Def a sexist statement but look at women's tennis. Tell me that sexuality doesn't move the needle for viewership and I will google search Anna Kournikova right in your face.

Hockey:

Women's hockey is also tricky because its barely on the radar besides the Olympics. But, I am here to defend this sport as probably the 2nd best female sport of all time. For one, there is a clock, which is a huge factor in women's sports. The other factor is the girls play aggressive and its great to watch. The sport is going in the right direction and the fact I can sit through a whole game speaks volumes of a sport that is truly not that old from the female side.

Soccer:

Is EASILY the best sport to watch from a males perspective. The female sport has gotten a TON better in the past decade. It also helps that the USA women's national team is constantly a top tier team in the world. Also, the sport is very watchable from all levels as well. It is played at a very high level and the games are legit exciting. Again - Bonus points for having a clock.

Fix:

Nothing. The sport will continue to progress and get better and better. I would however done a much better job promoting the upcoming World Cup. The world will keep getting better and it will push the sport just like Men's Hoops.

US Men's Team could learn a thing or two from a mentality standpoint from our Women's team.

I'm Back

Took a solid month off to have a baby. Super selfish of me. 

"Time apart makes the heart grow fonder"

• Bud Black got canned and the Padres are still a hot mess.
• Chargers Stadium situation makes the Padres future look promising.
• Jordan Spieth is the Truth.
• Dustin Johnson pooped himself but got to go home to Paulina so all good there.
• American Pharoah Story didn't get nearly as much Pub as it should. That Horse was all time.