Chargers at the Crossroads

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This is a big week for the Chargers football franchise, on the field at least, and also in the community.  Talking about the team for once, not the stadium situation, though both are linked and critically important.

 
There will be no Philip Rivers trade to the Tennessee Titans, if you buy as truth what Tom Telesco says.
 
And though others, the UT, believe the Chargers lost in free-agency, I think they filled enough holes to help themselves in the offensive line, special teams, and at wide receiver.
 
Now the Thursday-Friday days at the draft table are going to be huge, and the Bolts are going to get access to quality in the opening three rounds.
 
There are 26- big names available in the opening round, and regardless of what happens above them on the draft board, they will get immediate help.  The draft is deep where the Chargers have the most needs.
 
NFL people say 2-quarterbacks, 2-running backs, 2-wide receivers, as many as 7-offensive lineman, 6-defensive line, 5-linebackers and 2-defensive backs are all likely to be taken in that opening round.
 
Telesco needs a power running back; he needs more bulk in the defensive line; he needs another  young offensive lineman, and a pass rusher.
 
They draft 17th, 48th and 83rd in the opening three rounds.
 
If there is a run on the offensive lineman early, that means the running backs and defensive lineman will fall.  If teams take the top two backs, the 2-quarterbacks and the 2-wideouts, then the OL-DL crops will be pushed down the board.
 
It adds up as a win-win for the people at the Fortress.
 
Yes I wanted them to ‘rent-a-vet’ like Vince Wilfork or the likes, and yes I wish that had been able to hold onto a Marcus Gilchrist or a Shareece Wright, but I do think Orlando Franklin-Patrick Robinson-Jacoby Jones and Stevie Johnson will be big time contributors.
 
They need to do what they did the first two April’s Telesco was on the job, draft guys who can play immediately, a Keenan Allen or a Jason Verrett.  I think they will, and I think they need five more young players out of this draft and undrafted signing period, to make the team a contendor.
 
Thursday and Friday will be important days for the coming season if not the long term future of the team.

Bolts & Friars… Who Are They?

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A big weekend for one team in town, a bigger week next week for the other team in town.
 
It sure seems like the Padres and Chargers are going in opposite directions.
 
The Friars renew the heated-hated rivalry with the Dodgers beginning tonite.  All the things we anticipated with the the Padres have come thru in the first three weeks of the season.
 
They are in a dogfight for top spot in the Western Division, off to their best start since 1998.  They are hitting the ball, with a team Batting Average at (.282) a far sight better than last year’s despondent (.212) mark.
 
They can stroke it, with 16-homers already in 17-games, and have compiled 56-extra base hits already.  San Diego has 8-guys hitting (.288) or better, including 6- with a plus .300-batting average.
 
The starting pitching has been what we imagined, really dominant.  The Bullpen has been a bit of a disappointment, with a (3.42) ERA after hovering in the 1.50-range much of last year.  That group has also given up 6-home runs in their first 50-innings of work, and six times this year they have faltered, blowing leads, of failing to keep the game close.
 
The fears of the leaky defense are there for people to see, 13-errors in 16-games, but covered up by bats and arms doing well out of the gate.
 
There is work to be done for sure, but this is a small sample size to date.
 
Cross-town, it’s not a small sample size, but rather an ominous trend, the demise of the Chargers franchise.
 
The NFL draft is just around the corner, and we find a quarterback unhappy with the potential move of the team, the star safety feeling disrespected, and a team with lots of needs on defense, as the clock ticks away on the career of quarterback Philip Rivers.
 
One playoff win in six years has led to a real erosion of confidence in the organization.  The continue dismissal, or mistreatment of veteran players, has turned fans against the leadership.
 
That coupled with the on-going saga, love-me-love me not, the potential of the move to Los Angeles, and you can understand the raw emotions of the community.
 
The Chargers have work to do, without much cap space, and all the quality players taken in free agency.  It will be fascinating to see if there is some magic in the draft, for the Bolts  could-should get two really good players, a running back, an offensive lineman, maybe a developmental quarterback in next week’s draft.
 
AJ Preller has been bold, nearly brazen, in all his baseball transactions.  Tom Telesco remains timid at taking the huge jump to get get the final pieces to put around his quarterback.  Preller  has positioned the baseball team for a quick turnaround.  Telesco seems ready to take on a major rebuilding effort.  
 
But the town’s teams sure seem headed in different directions.
 
The Padres rocketing to the top of the standings with a friendly ownership-leadership group.  The Chargers plunging, seemingly turning off the town with their siege-fortress mentality, the dismantling of the roster, and the constant threats of a rich man owner taking the ball (and his team) and going home (to Los Angeles).
 
 

Names in the News

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Everyone has something to say…and so do I.
 
Rob Manfred-Commissioner of Baseball will give a full hearing to Pete Rose reinstatement application.  He has served his 25Y-suspension, I would reinstate him so that his name can appear on the Hall of Fame ballot, where, in Cooperstown,  his memorabilia is located.  I would never let him back in the game.  What he did as a player deserves respect.  What he did, betting, means disbarment.  Honor him as a player, not as a person.
 
Barry Bonds-Disgraced Giants slugger asks “Why all the hate in baseball” directed at Alex Rodriguez?  The baseball record book is sacred.  A-Rod has stained it with multiple drug suspensions and admissions.  Bonds was never convicted but in the public-minds eye, he was a gross cheat.  His sentence, outside of San Francisco, everyone boos him still, and he will never get to Cooperstown.  That’s why the hate.
 
Randy Gregory-Nebraska LB and once regarded as a high first round pick, admits he used marijuana alot with the Huskers, and then tested positive at the combine.  Teams are still looking at him, but maybe he should be suspensended for part of his rookie year, a-la Terrell Pryor.  Either he is an idiot for smoking weed right before the combine, or he is an addict.  Why is San Diego wasting time with him?
 
Brandon Shanahan-President of the Toronto Maple Leafs wants character on his team.  The Sunday night massacre, the firing of 24-hockey ops people, including the GM, Head Coach, the assistants, and virtually the whole scouting staff is the beginning.  The players are next to go.  The richest team in hockey has not won the Stanley Cup since 1967 despite all that wealth.  Somewhat of a bad-man’s version of the Yankees.
 
Adrian Peterson-the chronic unhappy Vikings running back, likely to boycott the off season workouts, still wanting the Vikings to trade him.  Stop the ‘woe is me’ whining.  The only crying was your 4-year old son, whom you beat with a stick.  Here’s the solution.  If I am Minnesota, I trade you once you give me back the $7.5 M you collected in union protected salary while you were on the Commissioner’s exempt list.
 
Aaron Hernandez jury sits-meets-no decision.  This is scary stuff, he could walk free in this case, even with all his DNA around the Odin Lloyd murder scene.  The jury has to be unanimous and that doesn’t appear likely to convict.  The big issue to me, if the two thugs, Hernandez friends, were in the SUV with him, why were they not called to testify against the Patriots player if he was indeed the triggerman?
 
Darren Sharper, the legendary Packers safety and NFL-Network employee, convicted of 9-counts of date rape, may only get 10Y in prison.  But the information now about terms of his probation amazingly stiff.  Registered sex offender, must wear GPS device, barred from consuming alcohol, in depth 5-years counseling, and notification any type of crime, from a speeding ticket to worse, will leave to an additional 14Y in the hole.  Bet he doesn’t survive it.
 
Ray Rice, the disgraced Ravens running back, cannot find a job.  Some say the Domestic Abuse Video is the reason, but likely more so, used-up talent, who lost a step and had injury issues the final two years he played.  He probably deserves a second chance because he was a model player most of his career, but the video of him knocking out his fiancée probably has knocked him out of a contract, with people saying, who needs the trouble if he cannot play.
 
Lawrence Phillips..once upon a time, a star but star-crossed troubled running back at Nebraska, now serving 31Y-in prison for attempted murder, kills a cellmate at Kern County Prison.  Troubled person, troubled past, a menace to society, will die in prison.  Wasted talent but a worse person…

The Green Jacket

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It was a weekend that brought us an unveiling, a comeback, and a coronation. It was the Masters Golf tournament at its best.

 
21-year old Texas sensation Jordan Spieth became the second youngest ever to win the Green Jacket.  In the process he blew by some amazing records set by legends over the years there in Georgia.
 
When he was done, Spieth had led wire-to-wire, a victory like that had not been performed in the last 39-years.  He shattered the all time record, with a red number that read at (-18) under par.
 
More impressively, he never wilted when all the big names made runs at him on the back nine, and there was pressure non-stop.
 
Spieth was even-keeled, steady, cautious, not erratic, took no risk shots, and just seemed mature beyond his years.
 
He was atop the leader board from breakfast on Thursday thru the appearance at Butler Cabin.  It was the arrival of possibly the next young phenom on the tour, a welcome sight considering our greatest now seem to be in the twilight of their career.
 
If Spieth was the unveiling, then Phil Mickelson was the comeback story.  Lefty had only two top 10-finishes in the last 33-tourneys he played, but he kept the heat on the leader, twice pulling within 4-shots on the back nine.  Phil was Phil putting balls in bunkers, but he scrambled to get a birdie on one and save par on another.
 
Justin Rose was hot down the stretch, reeling off 3-straight birdies in a duel with Mickelson right to the final hole.
 
Rory McIlroy, the globe’s top star, survived a pot-bunker opening round on Thursday to go 15-under par in the final 45-holes and be in the late hunt.
 
It was a comeback weekend for Tiger Woods.  Though he scared everyone by jamming his wrist and shoulder hitting a ball out of a pine-grove, he rallied and wound up at 5-under.  He survived not hitting a green for 12-holes, but he looks like he is headed in the right direction, health-wise and golf-wise.
 
It was the best weekend of his career for Charley Hoffman, who ran out of gas late, but finished in 9th place, a superb weekend for the Poway veteran.
 
A star is born, a fierce rivalry may be blooming, and a couple of legends have shown they are not done.
 
And now we have a US-Euro rivalry about to move into the spotlight, Spieth-McIlroy
 
Jordan Spietch, looks good in Green, and  made much of that happen at the Masters.