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“Padres-Angels-Dodgers–What’s Next Move”

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It’s been a busy 10-days in baseball, in free agency, in trades, and more is about to happen.

Swinging around Southern California to look at these teams, what they have done, should do, might do next.

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PADRES….Active with rumors everywhere they are not done dealing.  The addition of veteran right-hander Zach Davies, coupled with the return to health of Garrett Richards, means veteran experience at the front end of a very young rotation.  There might be value in the bullpen acquisition of Drew Pomeranz, if the forearm issues which plagued him for a couple of years, are gone.  The pitching staff is better right now than it was at the end of the season.  Still be decided, are they bringing Craig Stammen back to team with Pomeranz as a setup reliever?

Next up is the acquisition of Jurickson Profar, once highly regarded, but now headed to his third team in less than one calendar year.  His relationship with AJ Preller won’t mean much if he hits (.211) again, but he has power, and has played well in the past.  Buy low, maybe get high results.

Did they give up on Luis Urias too soon?  I think so, they don’t.  We’ll find out how he does moving over to SS-in Milwaukee.

Next, the impending trades of C-Austin Hedges and OF-Hunter Renfroe.  They better get the right players back in the next couple of trades they make.  Cleveland, Oakland, Atlanta and Washington were all looking for catching help.  That door has closed.  If you move Renfroe are you creating another hole on the roster?

No one wants to take on Will Myers 20M a year contract at this point, but maybe that changes once a couple of the big free agent bats come off the market.  Maybe you add a sweetener, a young prospect, in a Myers package, but what do you get in return?

Deals are coming, betting sooner than later.

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DODGERS….When you draw nearly 4M per season, when you are in the second biggest market in the country…when you keep increasing ticket prices, no one in LA wants to hear you talk about the 208M luxury tax threshold as the reason you don’t want to go sign big name players.  But maybe that changes, if the attitude of agent Scott Boras and his clients change.

The secret meeting with Washington superstar Anthony Rendon, and then his teammate Stephen Strasburg was unique.  The Dodgers might be willing to offer Rendon the highest average deal in baseball, 33M per year, if he’d accept a 3-year deal.  If not him, maybe the same offer Strasburg.  They’d never go to 7-years as Boras has dropped hints.

The Dodgers are shopping power hitting OF-Joc Pederson, and could clear 8M off the books, coupled with the 18M they won’t pay Hyun Jin-Ryu if he exits, and the savings on the Rich Hill contract.  There’s the 33M you could spend of either one of the Nationals.

They have more kids coming in the farm system, still have a great core of players, so maybe letting 3-leave to add the right one, is the game plan they’d like to pull off in the next couple of days.

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ANGELS….Disastrous off season deals, plus bad injuries have knocked the Halos off track.  They so desperately need healthy starting pitching.  They just got one in ex-Orioles first round pick Dylan Bundy, but he has to be the prospect he used to be, rather than the suspect he became pithing at Camden Yards, the one who allowed 71-homers the last two years.  The Halos traded 4-lower pitching prospects to get him for the rotation.

They have the money to make a run at Gerritt Cole, but then again the Boras factor is part of the equation.  It is interesting that last week, Cole made the statement, ‘Boras works for me-I don’t work for him’, so maybe the pitcher makes the choice, not the agent.  Maybe it is more than just a dollar decision.

The Halos need help lots of areas, but if they can land a pitcher first, they can then patch in other needs with so many players available for one year rentals on the open market.

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The winter meetings roll out on Monday.  Bet on more deals being made before all the teams get to town on Sunday night.

The free agent sighings have come at a quicker pace.  The Braves signed Giants relief ace Will Smith.  Catcher Yasmani Grandal went to the White Sox.  Mike Moustakas bolted Milwaukee for Cincinnati.  The Phillies spent a ton on Mets pitcher Zach Wheeler, and Cole Hamels wound up in Atlanta.

This could be the most interesting off season week each of these teams has had in recent years.

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“Aztecs Hoops–Real Deal”

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The march towards ‘March Madness’ begins on Wednesday night in Ft-Collins, as SDSU opens the conference season by playing at Colorado State.

The Aztecs are off to an (8-0) start, coming off wins in the Las Vegas Invitational against Iowa and Creighton.  They have claimed in the basketball ratings services by virtue of the start, and right now are projected to be a 7th seed.  Of course that all changes based on wins and losses in conference play.

And now straight ahead, it’s Colorado State and the start of the rugged Mountain West Conference schedule.

SDSU has not had an (8-0) start since the 2010-Kawhi Leonard team.  They have never played well in Ft-Collins either, going (13-26) in its history, but since the arrival of Steve Fisher and then Brian Dutcher, the Aztecs have won 10-of-14 at Moby Arena.

(Coach Brian Dutcher comments):

..Finished 5-games in 10-days…now just 5-games in month of December.

..Colorado State-much better than thought would be…alot of freshman on same page
..Rams won 4-straight games and this is not hype.

..We have a plan to be better defensively…we worked hard enough to get good
..Offensively we had a lot of pieces..we had to get on game floor and see it work
..Team has grit, coming from 9-or-16 behind to win.

..We have mental toughness to withstand a team’s mental punch..it is a good sign
..We have 5th year seniors..4th year juniors…we have experience and it helps

..Need to get Keshad Johnson- a talented freshman-to get up to speed to get on floor
..We need to get our fast break better…we need to work on our zone defense
..As season goes on-we find strengths we did not know we had-put set plays in.

..Envision 3-transfers-we knew Malachi Flynn can score at a high level
..He is a better passer than I thought…8-10 assist games
..Yonni Wetzell is a good low post scorer with experience..he is hard to defend..passes well
..KJ Feagin still finding his way with this group.

..Fort Collins..we arrive 24-36 hours ahead of schedule…Hydrate players-helps
..We have deep lineup to withstand catching your breath at altitude

..Strange playing conference game so early-interesting twist…this will be our hardest game…usually non conference…conference…then post season…
..Earliest ever opened a conference game on schedule
..We will see their absolute best when we face Rams who have those wins

..There are landmines everywhere on our schedule-regardless of what metrics say
..We have to be prepared if we have injuries…hurdles to still face
..We won 5-games in 10-days…can we win 5-games in the next month

..Certain years- at Colorado State when Tim Miles-Larry Eustachy were there-a very hard place to go play….it will be a good crowd.
..Not being ranked yet doesn’t upset players…we have to stay grounded and keep winning.
..We are scratching the surface of who we could be…lessons to be learned.

..The Mountain West….Utah State is a mystery because of injury…New Mexico beat Wisconsin..Boise beat BYU…Colorado State freshman playing at a higher level.

..Get thru an 18-game Mountain West season-altitude-travel-environment is hard…I watch our team and at times they are running in quick-sand….alitutde is tough….Travel is tough…we don’t charter….Fly to Denver-bus to Ft-Collins….There is a difference between our team and others around the nation in terms of challenges.

…I think our 10-deep depth will help us a lot going against the elements-especially the altitude…

..Beauty of team I have are the guys off the bench role playing well…
..Play to your strengths…play your role…
..Sharing the ball-going to your strength…
..Shooting specialist…defensive personality..we are developing role guys

..Being ranked gives us national identity…you like that.

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(Matt Mitchell)
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.,Playing altitude-very mental aspect to game
..Every team comes out to play hard…wear you out
..Tjams will push the ball and the tempo in altitude
..Moby Arena tough place to breathe-altitude-smoke
..Not worried about altitude nor our toughness
..Don’t have to change how we play because where we play
..Stay mental strong…fight thru if we get tired
..3-transfers-these guys come in with open minds-they want to win
..Definitely tough places to play in MWC-guys ready to go to war
..Winning against Creighton-Iowa has helped us a great deal
..We positioned ourself to be NCAA tourney team-just have to keep winning
..Aztecs positioned to be a 7th seed-but lots of games still left to play
..Our mindset-not worry about past…look at every game individually
..Not being ranked-we continue to win-we will get ranked
..Hottest start since Kawhi Leonard was here-live in moment-achieve something great

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“Aztecs Football–Rocky Talk”

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The scoreboard does not lie, you are what your record says you are.

And the statistics don’t like either, when San Diego State’s coaching staff has built a dominant defense, nationally ranked defense, year in-year out.

Rocky Long is headed back to a bowl game later this month, the 10th year in a row the Aztecs have been to a bowl game.

Long has now compiled an (80-38) coaching record with the Red & Black.

His team stormed to a (9-3) season this year, beating another Pac 12-teams, UCLA along the way.

And his defense is atop every metric in the Mountain West Conference stats, and ranked nationally too.

The numbers are staggering in an era where everyone has spread offenses and 3,000-yard passing quarterbacks.

The Aztecs defense gave up just (288YPG) in a throwing conference.  Allowed just 17-touchdowns in a 12-game season….28-sacks..78-tackles for loss…22-takeaways…alloed just (2.6YPC) to running backs.

Rocky Long comments”
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..Nice to finish with a win..excited for bowl game
..Overall a really good season

..Don’t speculate on bowl game but know ESPN says it’s Washington State.
..Our (9-3) record might consider us for a game against a Power 5-team

..Health of bowl system gives us a chance to go to a bigger bowl-we did a lot of good
..For first time in history of school-we beat UCLA
..First time we beat BYU in 14-years
..We have established our program now with our record.

..If there was a playoff system and we were one of 16-teams in bowl playoff…system and we were in, our mentality would be different.  Current bowl game is pat on back for having a good season..not a whole lot of pressure on winning.  We prepare our team like that.

..Going into the season, our defensive line was concern about weakest point
..Biggest improvement made in Defensive Line…
..Brady Hoke is best defensive line coach around

..Carson Baker did well as a first time starter at quarterback-
..It was nerve wracking for him but he was steady.
..He did not rattle leading up to the game-played within himself in game
..Made 3-or-4 really nice throws early.
..He played the game like he plays at practice-confidence
..Had never seen him play against a teams top defense…played well

..Ryan Agnew will be 100% healthy for a bowl game..he is still sore
..Team not meeting…not practicing..till bowl game opponent chosen.

..Bowl game prep…we start developing next year’s team with young players
..Announce bowl game opponent on Saturday

..Mountain West does a good job holding our officials accountable all the time
..Most of the time it is not made public….officials issues are addressed weekly.

….Coaching workload…Changed over years based on experience…When they start thinking it is getting too much you quit, you move on…Surprised Chris Peterson left…Coaching business not as difficult because of technology….Our coaches are out of the building at 8pm….years gone by you left at midnite and came back at 6am…now it’s different….Yes there is stress…not by number of hours of coaching….We are handling the public aspect of a job ….As a younger coach there was no social media…now you take a lot more punishment because of scrutiny…There are very few advantages of being old except you know how to deal with things.

..Programs can be saved at UNLV and New Mexico…Fit coaches personality with community…you can have success…fixed Wyoming…we fixed SDSU….they can do it in Las Vegas-Albuquerque.

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“Monday Mess in Chargersville”

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The game was awful, but then again a lot of what we have seen from the Chargers has been awful this season.

The (4-8) record they drag to the Monday morning breakfast tables is  an honest configuration of who they are, what they have become.

So much for the slogan “Bolt Up”, created by Team President of Business Operations AG Spanos.  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree does it with his empty suit leadership.

Sunday’s setback goes down as an appalling loss to a struggling Denver Broncos team, that was (3-8), and starting its 7th different quarterback over the last four years..

The Bolts lost to a team that did not have its two best defensive players, pass rushers Von Miller and Brad Chubb.

They had a rookie QB-who had never played in a game in his brief NFL career in Drew Lock, and yet he engineered two scoring drives, hardly turned the ball over and did not panic under the heat of 10-pressures by the Bolts pass rush.

They lost because of breakdowns, here-there-everywhere during the course of the game.

A “Harry High School” jump screen pass by QB-Philip Rivers, picked off, became his 15th pick of the season, that led to points.

Another fumbled punt, this time by Trumayne Pope, that led to more points.

Russell Okung, back on the field after groin problems, took 3-penalties..two that wiped out big plays.

There was a brutal roughing the punter penalty that kick started a drive that resulted in points.

CB-Casey Hayward was beaten for 2-TD passes, then committed the egregious pass interference contact penalty on a Hail Mary pass, that kept the game going with (:03) and led to the Brandon McManus game winning field goal.  Drives me crazy when the TV network guys from CBS keep calling him the best cover CB the team has…hasn’t been that way since he was in San Diego.

Coach Anthony Lynn and his hand chosen offensive coordinator struggled to figure out when to use time outs, and what plays to call.

Yes, Rivers threw for (265) and yes Melvin Gordon ran for (99Y)..and yes Mike Williams hauled in amazing 55-and-37 yard catches, and Keenan Allen vaulted over the top for a 36Y-TD reception, and Austin Ekeler had a 36-yard catch and run.

But out of some 70-snaps in the game, the Chargers had about 7-decent plays.

The rest of the time, they had no flow, no rhythm, and little success.

And despite a heroic day from DE-Melvin Ingram, no one did anything else on defense.  Lock did not freak out, they never sacked him, and he withstood pressure, moved the pocket and made enough plays to not get yanked nor decked.

On a day when we were treated to the brilliance of Lamar Jackson, leading Baltimore to the win over San Francisco, or watching a 3rd string Steelers quarterback led his team to his 3rd straight win as a rookie starter, or the Texans stun the Patriots, or Jared Goff throw for (424Y)…Chargers fans in San Diego and whomever follows the team in LA, were treated to another four quarters of losers football.

The Bolts are 12-games into a non playoff season, and aside from the one great complete game when they jumped the Green Bay Packers, they haven’t played four quarters of football on any given Sunday this season.

If Chargers fans weren’t on such a hate mission against the Spanos family, you’d feel sorry for Rivers and his teammates.

The distance, San Diego to Baltimore, covers (2,628 miles).  The difference between the Chargers and the Ravens, the hottest team in the NFL, seems a lot farther than that.

Four more weeks till the Ravens welcome everybody to the NFL playoffs.  Only four more weeks of watching this miserable product the used to be our team.

“Bolt Up”.  Maybe fans will “Bolt Out” in support of this team, you know the one that is now in last place in the AFC-West.

Chargersville-a real mess.

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“Padres Game Plan–Giving Up Too Early?”

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The offseason has begun for the Padres, but it is loaded with questions.

The five player trade with Milwaukee brought them a front line starting pitcher and another outfield prospect.

Then they went out, and in a surprise move, spent a lot of money on a pitcher who has reinvented himself, but at an inflated price.

The Padres off season blueprint was to get front line pithing help and maybe another outfielder.  But in doing so, it cost them a frontline young starting pitcher and the planer they kept painting as their second baseman of the future.

The Zach Davies deal for young pitcher Eric Lauer could turn out to be a plus.  Davies is a proven front of the rotation commodity, an innings horse, and a real scrapper.  The feeling is that Lauer had reached his ceiling, after two years of scuffling to get his ERA below the 5.00-mark.

Davies and Garrett Richards give the Padres two things they did not have before, age, experience, and some veteran fire in the gut at the front of the rotation.

The other facet of the Brewers trade is strange though.  Out goes Luis Urias for young outfielder Trent Grisham.  Urias has torn up minor league pitching , but has staggered in parts of two seasons with the Padres.  But it takes time to learn to hit major league pitching.  Moving him this early in his career is a surprise.

Grisham hit (.300) in  a split season between AA-AAA, but was found wanting when given his chance to play the outfield in Milwaukee.  A left-handed hitting centerfielder, but the question comes now, why was he needed, if the Padres were so certain about Taylor Trammell, the so-called phenom they got from the Reds.  But Trammell hit all of (.229) in AA himself.

The Padres then wrote a check worth 34M to starter turned reliever Drew Pomeranz.  They gave him an 8M bonus and a first year salary of 4M, plus 3-additional years on top of that.  Pomeranz was (2-10) when the Giants dealt him to Milwaukee.  He had been shifted to a setup reliever role, and suddenly became very effective.

The Padres though have to be asked, how you would commit 34M to a pitcher who had health problems in Boston, fell apart in San Francisco, and then reinvented himself  in a different role in Milwaukee.  All that money for two months of productivity.    He would be an ideal fit with Craig Stammen, Matt Strahm and Kirby Yates.  Is what we saw at the end of last season for real, it better be.  They paid a lot of money on this acquisition.

Next up, possible deals with Austin Hedges and possibly Hunter Renfroe.

How many more core parts will AJ Preller move and why have they given up on the blueprint already, despite the 90-loss season.

This all started with the Francisco Mejia-Brad Hand trade a year and a half ago.  Mejia is not a complete product yet.  Hedges has a standard that no other catchers around are equal to.

Then the Padres moved the productive and popular  Franmil Reyes in the deal that brought them the prospect they hope won’t be suspect, Trammell, who could be years away.

Now they go get Grisham with the hopes he arrives quicker, and gives them productivity.

So now we deal with possible deals for Hedges and Renfroe.  That would be two more pieces of what was the foundation of the team that was supposed to win.

The Padres pitching may be better as of today.  But the rest of the lineup looks even weaker now.

The blueprint seems blurred.  The next week should bring more deals, then the Winter Meetings come here.

Just asking if the Padres have given up on their game plan too early?

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