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“THURSDAY THOUGHTS”
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Random thoughts on stories everyone is talking about:

PADRES-AT-ZERO…Halfway thru the Hot Stove League, and the Friars have done nothing, zero, zilch to upgrade their roster.  No leftfielder.  No pitching upgrades.  No re-signing of any in-house free agents.  The payroll likely stays at 170M.  Can they rally back?  Yes, if players drop their price tags.  But Jurickson Profar wants (3Y-45M).  Tanner Scott wants (8-10M) a year.  Names are coming off the board and AJ Preller maintains he can still make deals, but he may have to deal away more from the farm system to make trades.  We still have to wait on what they wind up paying Dylan Cease and Michael King for the great 2024-seasons they had.

DODGERS DOLLARS..LA is not done dealing, The payroll is (309M) and they are still talking about another big expenditure, whether it is slugger Teoscar Hernandez or the re-signing of Jack Flaherty.  A bit of a surprise, them letting go of Walker Buehler, who signed in Boston.  And still to come, they have to right a (103M) in luxury tax payments to MLB.

ANGELS…They have been active, but all the acquisitions won’t have much of an impact.  They could still make a significant deal if they were to import 3B-Nolan Arenado of the Cardinals, but that is a big investment (64M) over the next two years.  But this type of deal gets owner Arte Moreno his credibility back.

RAMS..The beat goes on with two weeks left and a chance to hold onto first place in the NFC-West.  For the first time this season, they had no players on their mid-week injury report.  What a turnaround from Coach Sean McVay and veteran QB-Matthew Stafford.  A (1-4) start has been replaced by an (8-2) run.  Everyone is a believer.

CHARGERS…Two road games, at New England, at the Raiders and an (11-6) finish likely.  They still have issues.  Way too much reliance on QB-Justin Herbert, and when you get to the playoffs, you won’t be playing teams like the Carolina Panthers, Patriots or the Raiders.  Getting there is step won.  Doing something on playoff weekend is another.

LAKERS..Rumors everywhere a trade is coming to go get a defensive player to go in the paint.  What will it cost them?  Maybe Rui Hachimura or D’Angelo Russell plus a number 1-picks.  The Lakers continue to stumble, struggle, as witnessed by a lack of interior defense, ugly losses including the most recent to the Pistons, and way too much reliance on Anthony Davis-LeBron James and little growth from their young draft picks.

CLIPPERS..One night it is James Harden exploding.  Another night it is Norman Powell, and more recently C-Ivan Zubac has put up impressive scoring-rebound numbers.  They have a better record than the Lakers , in what was supposed to be a transition year post-Paul George.  Can they keep this up over a long haul schedule?

AZTECS…Coach Sean Lewis has signed 17-players out of the transfer portal.  Sounds impressive but it is a reminder they have had 62-players go into the portal in two years since Lewis was hired off the Colorado led-Deion Sanders staff.  So spring football will be a clean piece of paper, new players, new system, new-steep learning curve.  All the same stuff that led to a (3-9) season last year.  Lots of work to be done.

HOOPS..What a start at SDSU, in a rebuild season, so many new players for Brian Dutcher.  The guards are carrying them.  The bigs are starting to play at both ends, and they held up well in a rugged stretch of non-conference games.  They look ready for the MWC schedule with Utah State coming in.  An impressive (8-2) start.  Do not forget all things Triton basketball, UCSDs amazing (11-2) start with a team that could win the Big West title with a bunch of 3-point bombers.  Can you imagine 2-basketball teams from San Diego in March Madness?  All that in what was once a bad basketball market?

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