Thursday Morning Thoughts – July 30th

I said this earlier in the week, and I will say it again. As a Rogers employee, I would love to see the Toronto Blue Jays land David Price before tomorrow. As a noted and incredibly bias Tigers fan, I wouldn’t mind it at all. As long as GM Dave Dombrowski gets pieces back that can prevent Detroit from having to hit the rebuild button.

MLB
You can only make one first impression. How many people can make an entire fan base forget the guy that you replaced, with one impression? Troy Tulowitzki achieved in his debut what Jose Reyes couldn’t in 305 games as a Blue Jay. A 3 RBI, 3 runs scored night. Not to mention he made every routine defensive play, look like a routine defensive play. Equally as impressive, Tulo tied Tilson Brito and Munenori Kawasaki on the Blue Jays all-time HR list. With that 1 HR. First of many.

Jose Reyes would’ve hoped for better than a 1 for 3 effort in his Rockies debut. He won’t be in Denver long enough to care anyways.

Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels is being praised like AA down in Texas for acquiring Cole Hamels without having to part with slugging prospects Nomar Mazara or Joey Gallo. The Rangers window to win is closing. But with Hamels and Yu Darvish leading a rotation that should also boast Derek Holland, Martin Perez and Nick Martinez, they should contend in that division next year.

I got no problem with Wilmer Flores letting his emotions out on the prospect of leaving the only Major League ball club he’s ever known. Have you been to Milwaukee?!?! Can’t criticize Terry Collins for leaving him in. His post game reaction was hilarious. Did Collins know he was doing a Jim Mora impersonation?

The Mets have been burned by enough bad luck in recent years. If they had to manufacture a “degenerative hip condition” to get out of a deal they changed their mind on, so be it. Carlos Gomez will end up somewhere before tomorrow. Maybe in Colorado with Reyes?

It was fun for a while to snicker at the Angels as they toiled away in the West despite their high priced acquisitions. But I’m glad to see Albert Pujols has recaptured some of the magic that made him the most feared hitter in baseball before he traded the midwest for the west coast. Last night Pujols became just the 6th player in Major League history with 13 or more seasons with at least 30 HRs. Pretty remarkable player.

SOCCER
Tottenham is not a top European club. The fans in Denver were jobbed just like Toronto fans in 2008 that got David & DeRo v West Ham United. I prefer this format to an MLS East v West game, but give the fans the pleasure of quality opposition. Having said that, hell of a goal from Harry Kane. That boy’s a bit special

Candid of Louis Van Gaal to tell the press that David de Gea maybe possibly could probably want to leave Man United for Real Madrid.

NFL
How is Tom Brady able to take this bullshit to Minnesota court? What, all the courtrooms were booked up in Puerto Rico? I can’t listen to Robert Kraft speak without waiting for him to mention Roger Goodell, pause and yell “F$%& You P#$$^!” That will forever be the best audition tape of all time.

OLYMPICS
An AP investigation claims that “athletes competing in next year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will be swimming and boating in waters, so contaminated with human feces, they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete.” This shouldn’t surprise anyone that has ever been or has known anyone that has been to Rio in the last 10 years. Yes those beaches ARE always packed. Because nobody would dare to go in the water. Get it together Brasil. If you found a way to stop importing foreign oil, you can figure out how to implement a functioning septic system.

Monday Morning Thoughts – July 20

Going to try to get back in to the habit of writing these daily posts. After the weekend we just witnessed, it was hard to restrict every opinion to just 140 characters.

THE OPEN
I never thought I would ever open a multi sport post, with golf. But The British Open has been pretty compelling over the last four days. Especially if you’re an fan of wild weather captured on camera. Encouraged by the R&A there will be plenty of people who have called in sick to work today to enjoy what should be a ridiculous final round.

If 22-year-old Irishman Paul Dunne does pull off the miracle and win, as an amateur, he wouldn’t actually receive ANY of the $1.8 million purse. Because, amateurs don’t get paid. That would re-define the word ridiculous.

And here’s something that won’t surprise anyone that has ever been to a sporting event in Toronto. A ticket to the Pan Am Golf Medal Session will cost you $75. A ticket to today’s final round at The Open? $20.24.

BASEBALL
You can watch this game for 100 years and not see a championship deciding game end like the Pan Am gold medal game in Ajax last night.

If you didn’t see it, with Canada trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the 10th inning and two runners on, American lefty David Huff‘s horrendous pickoff attempt at first base allowed Canada to plate a pair and walk off to claim back-to-back baseball gold medals. The U.S. haven’t won since 1967. Insert Leafs cracks below.

How amazing was it to see Marco Estrada “Chris Archer” the Rays? All the hype around Archer, fully deserved I may add, but everyone forgot Estrada nearly perfect game’d Tampa last month. Great momentum to take out west on their 6 game road trip. Starts in Oakland tomorrow.

For you doomsday preppers, you may want to get ready. It hadn’t rained in California since 2007. But, yesterday the Padres AND the Angels were rained out, marking the first time 2 Major League games were rained out in California on the same day since Sep. 24, 1986. Pretty sure I saw moths fly out of the tarp at Petco when they rolled it out…

Can someone please find the kid in suburban Detroit, maybe he’s even in Windsor, Ontario, that’s pitching as well as Justin Verlander used to? JV must’ve been Space Jam’d. How else can you explain how bad he’s been this season? At some point he’s got to show the Tigers a glimpse of what’s left. If he’s done, so are the Tigers in the Central. For a while.

Just give Dallas Keuchel the A.L. Cy Young award already. I don’t know if I’m more surprised to see the Astros still contending in the West, or that his beard hasn’t become an athletic disadvantage. At some point his hipster circle is going to turn on him… As long as he’s throwing career high lines like he did yesterday against the Rangers, 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 13 Ks, it doesn’t matter who’s in his social circle. Though if I were management, I’d be concerned if he started dating Rihanna.

The second the Reds signed Aroldis Chapman, I was jealous he wasn’t pitching for my team. Yesterday with only 292 Major League innings pitched, the Cuban became the fastest player in MLB history to reach 500 strikeouts. Slow clap for ya, bro.

SOCCER
Full credit to the Canadian Womens Pan Am team for holding their own against Brasil‘s World Cup squad (minus only Marta). A 2-0 loss is nothing to shake your head at. But there’s something odd about a tourney, where a team with just 1 win and 1 loss can enter their final preliminary match knowing that anything better than a 4-0 loss would still see them through to the semis. But hey, won’t find a person in this country complaining. Good luck against Colombia on Wednesday.

And how does (assistant) referee Eric Boria give that penalty in the final minute of extra time? Costa Rica deserved to try their hand in a penalty shoot-out after Mexico wasted chance after chance in over two hours. I know everyone loves to see Miguel Herrera celebrate, but c’mon man!

Happy Monday everybody. May you go the entire day without being subjected to the song Steph Curry‘s daughter is dancing to.

ALCS Recap & NLCS Preview

October has always been my favourite month of the year. While most of you have only heard me talk or write about soccer, baseball has long been my second love. So I will try to keep these posts pretty regular throughout October.

Today happens to be just the fifteenth day since they started playing the Division Series in 1995 that will have as many games as you could possibly have in one day #TGI4day

Orioles win a nail biting game 1
What the hell was that?

Not Breaking News: the Tigers bullpen will be the cause of their destruction. (If you feel as though there is an incredible bias riddled throughout my opinions of the Tigers, you would be correct.)

It’s one game. I still like the Tigers to win the series, but there’s far more pressure on Justin Verlander this afternoon than there should be.

Max Scherzer is a fly ball pitcher, and if there was any doubt, last night killed it – balls fly out of Camden Yards. But he wasn’t bad. Sure he gave up 3 runs after facing just 10 batters, but he then sat down 12 in a row.

Brad Ausmus better pray his bullpen can tweak their delivery as effectively as his reigning Cy Young winner.

It was a close ball game until that 8th inning. Detroit’s bats tested Tillman. He threw 105 pitches in five innings! But that doesn’t matter. Today is a must win for the Tigers.

Royals relishing their return to relevance
There is some alliteration that should impress Ryerson graduate Thomas Dobby.

The Royals hit fewer home runs than anybody this season. In fact they were actually the only team in baseball that didn’t reach 100. Also worth noting, KC was out-homered 12-2 by the Halos this season.

How did the Royals beat the Angels last night (if you have normal waking hours and didn’t see it)? The longball.

I love how predictable baseball can be. Vegas must lose so much money during baseball season…

Giants vs Nationals
This fact doesn’t sound as dramatic if you know that there was not a Major League team in Washington between 1971 and 2005, but this is the first time since 1933 that the storied Giants franchise has played a postseason game in DC.

The Giants proved in Wednesday night’s Wild Card game that they were without a doubt the fourth most deserving team to enjoy October.

And enjoy October is all Giants fans have done recently. This marks is the third time in the last five years that San Fran have played an NLDS. In case you forget what happened the previous two times, they won the World Series.

Steven Strasburg was always expected to take this team to Octboer. It’s kind of funny that he’ll get his first taste of it pitching against the guy he idolized while growing up in San Diego.

Yes the Nats were the best team on the Senior Circuit this season and a whopping 17 games better than anybody else in their division. But I like the Giants to win this series for the same reasons I picked them to beat the Pirates: chemistry and experience.

Cardinals vs Dodgers
IF you’re looking for one smart bet today, take the under. If you don’t enjoy pitching duels, multi-task during game 1.

Clayton Kershaw rather easily won the NL Cy Young Award last year. Do you remember who finished second in voting? That’s right. Wainwright.

Everyone says ‘wins’ are the most useless pitching stat, but both of these guys won at least 20 games this season. If Wainwright pitches like the second best arm in the National League, this one will be very close. But the Cards will still lose. Today, and the series.

1988 was the last time the thousands that trek out to Chavez Ravine got to enjoy a World Series. The way Kershaw’s pitching right now, I think that drought will come to an end in three weeks time.