Armadillo Sports

We have great baseball info every day!!!! Week 5 CFL info is posted on CFL page.

St Louis Cardinals fired manager Mike Matheny; not lot of managers get fired on a Saturday night, especially just before the All-Star break.

Sunday’s 6-pack
Odds for Monday’s Home Run Derby:
Bryce Harper +300
Jesus Aguilar +350
Max Muncy +500
Freddie Freeman +600
Rhys Hoskins +600
Javier Baez +600
Kyle Schwarber +700
Alex Bregman +900

Quote of the Day
“You can see everything in this stadium except the game.”
Brewers’ TV guy Bill Schroeder, talking about the press box in PNC Park in Pittsburgh

Sunday’s quiz
Where did the Texas Rangers call home before moving to the Lone Star State? 

Saturday’s quiz
Houston Astrodome was the first indoor stadium in major league baseball. 

Friday’s quiz
Charlie Manuel managed the Phillies when they won the 2008 World Series. 

13) No Sunday Night Baseball this week on ESPN? They have a freakin’ softball game on ESPN at 8:00 Sunday night. How about baseball/ESPN actually trying to promote the sport and put the Futures’ Game on Sunday night? You know, the stars of the future?

12) Does baseball need more 8-foot high outfield fences? Spectacular catches like the one Billy Hamilton made in St Louis Friday night make for great highlights.

11) Matt Harvey is 4-1, 2.38 in his last six starts; can the Reds get anything for him at the trading deadline? 

10) Mookie Betts is first player with two triples and two runs scored in first two innings of a game since September 23, 1995, when Lance Johnson did it for the White Sox against Minnesota.

9) Mets’ manager Mickey Callaway talked with Dom Smith Saturday; there is concern that Smith has lost focus because he is worrying about getting demoted back to AAA. The Mets are a mess. 

8) Players receive a total of $1,500 in meal money during the 12-day Las Vegas Summer League; each player has his own room in a 5-star hotel, and gets a free plane ticket to anywhere in the country when the tournament is finished. 

7) Notre Dame alum Jack Cooley is playing in the Las Vegas Summer League for the 6th year in a row; he played in his 32nd summer league game Friday, tying the all-time record (Dionte Christmas). 

Cooley has played in 23 NBA games, seven with San Antonio LY. 

6) Zac Rosscup will be the 27th different pitcher used by the Dodgers this season, and it is only the All-Star break; their team record is 31, set in 2015, ’16. 

5) Quote of the Day, part 2, from Celtics’ Jaylen Brown:
“I think if you can serve in the military at 18, you should be able to play in the NBA. That would be my argument.”

Alrighty then. 

4) NBA doings:
— Georges Niang signed a three-year, $5M contract with Utah Jazz that contains a first-year guarantee.
— Jabari Parker signs with the Chicago Bulls, a two-year, $40M deal. In his 4-year NBA career, Parker has missed 145 of 328 games due to injuries. 

3) Former Wisconsin/Arkansas coach Bret Bielema is now a defensive assistant coach with the Patriots. New England lost DC Matt Patricia to the Lions last winter. 

2) Oakland A’s gave their first-round draft pick Kyler Murray a $4.6M signing bonus; Murray will be Oklahoma’s QB this fall, before starting his baseball career. 

Murray’s coach at Oklahoma is Lincoln Riley; he makes $4.8M a year. 

1) FBI informed Maryland officials that the state’s voter registration, election management system operate on a software platform owned by a Russian-financed firm, AltPoint Capital Partners, whose largest investor is a Russian oligarch, Vladimir Potanin.

Nothing to worry about there. 

13) In 2012, Kansas City Chiefs went 2-12; they were -24 in turnovers, so they fired coach Romeo Crennel and hired Andy Reid. 

In five years since, Chiefs have been +18/-3/+14/+16/+15 in turnovers, and are 53-27. 

12) Alex Smith was KC’s QB in all five of those years, but now he is in Washington and the new QB is Patrick Mahomes, who started in Week 17 LY, throwing for 284 yards in a 27-24 win in Denver. It was his first NFL start. 

My question in this; can the Chiefs maintain a positive turnover ratio in double digits despite playing a first-time starting QB? They almost have to turn the ball over more this season, given the normal learning curve for a young QB.

11) From 2000-16, 77 NFL teams were +10 or better in turnovers; of those 77 teams, 58 had worse records the following season, 8 had better records, 11 stayed the same, which suggests that a hugely positive turnover ratio gave the team some luck that is tough to sustain. 

35 of the 58 teams whose record regressed won 3+ fewer games the following season. 

10) Last year, six NFL teams had a turnover ratio of +10 or better: Ravens +17, Chiefs +15, Chargers +12, Eagles +11, Lions/Jaguars +10. 

9) From 2000-16, 92 NFL teams were -10 or worse in turnovers; of those 92 teams, 61 had better records the next year, 21 had worse records, 10 stayed the same. 

41 of the 61 teams whose records improved won 3+ more gams the following season. 

8) Last year, five NFL teams had a turnover ratio of -10 or worse: Browns -28, Broncos -17, Dolphins/Raiders -14, Texans -12.

7) Going back to the Ravens’ +17 turnover ratio LY, it was the best turnover ratio in the NFL since the ’15 Panthers were +20, but Baltimore missed the playoffs!!!! How are you +17 in turnovers and not a playoff team? It may help explain why they drafted Lamar Jackson.

6) Sounds like kids will be able to go right from high school to the NBA starting in 2022, which means NBA teams should start scouting 9th graders this winter. 

5) Jimmy Butler turned down the Timberwolves’ offer of a 4-year, $110M extension, which suggests “Why does Minnesota have a team if their best player won’t take $27.5M a year to play there?” How can the Wolves ever be any good? 

4) Chase Utley announced that he’ll retire after this season; the entire Dodger team was at his announcement, a signal of how well-respected he is by teammates. 

Utley has solid career numbers; is he a Hall of Famer? I think it is debatable- there were some former ballplayers on Twitter Friday saying he is a no-brainer yes. I’m not so sure— if Jeff Kent isn’t in, why should Utley be in? 

3) Atlanta Hawks traded for G Jeremy Lin, who tore his patellar tendon on opening night last season, forcing him to miss the entire year. Lin averaged 14.5 ppg, 5.1 apg and 1.2 steals/game in 2016-17, his first year with Brooklyn.

Nets also acquired Kenneth Faried from Denver, who is owed $13.8M next season, Darrell Arthur, a top-12 protected 2019 first-round pick and a future 2nd-round pick in for Isaiah Whitehead. 

The move saves Denver $21M and keeps them from paying the luxury tax. Whitehead will get waived by the Nuggets and become a free agent.

2) Phoenix Suns were 8-1 betting favorites to win the Las Vegas Summer League; they lost their first tournament game, 88-86 to the 76ers. So much for that. 

I’m not uncertain that wagering on the summer league is a bad idea.

1) From hoopshype.com, an interesting story about and NBA player and agents:

“I have one really messed-up story involving my agent. When I was an unrestricted free agent, I was hoping to join this one team that really liked me and my agent seemed optimistic that we could figure out a deal. I really wanted to go there; it seemed great and it checked all the boxes that I wanted. 

I wasn’t too involved in the talks, my agent just kept updating me every now and then on what was happening. Well, I ended up getting word from someone in the organization that my agent was trying use me to get more money for another one of his clients, who was already on that team. He was telling the team to re-sign his other client at a certain amount and saying they would also be able to sign me at a discount. 

I was furious when I found out. I fired my agent and, for some time after that incident, I had a really hard time trusting agents who wanted to step in and represent me.”

Lot of agents are weasels.

13) Oakland A’s are 19-5 in their last 24 games, going 5-2 on this Cleveland/Houston road trip that just ended- they’re a contender for the Wild Card right now. A’s next six games are a pair of three-game series with their cross-bay rivals, the Giants. Interesting times. 

12) Former NBA star Charles Oakley was arrested Sunday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board Enforcement Agents at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. 

TMZ reported that he is suspected of pulling back a $100 chip after he realized he was going to lose his wager; that is a Class B felony. Not good. 

11) Milwaukee’s Jesus Aguilar, Seattle’s Juan Segura won the Final Vote and will be in Washington for next week’s All-Star Game. 

Milwaukee is the smallest market in the major leagues; good for their fans for voting one of their guys into the Mid-Summer Classic. 

10) Will Yoenis Cespedes return to the Mets as a first baseman? There are reports on the Interweb that Cespedes has suggested the position change to Mets brass. 

Cespedes hasn’t played since May 13, by the way. People have come back from broken legs faster than this guy, and I’m not a Met fan nor is he on my fantasy team. 

9) Mets have had nine games this season that were 0-0 after five innings; five of the nine were Jacob deGrom starts. 

8) There are rumors the Manny Machado trade may be delayed util after the All-Star Game because Orioles’ brass doesn’t want Machado playing in the All-Star Game in Washington next week wearing another team’s uniform, which would also leave the Orioles without an All-Star. 

7) Baseball oddity: Babe Ruth started his career as a pitcher for the Red Sox; the night he got his first win as a pitcher, he was actually pinch-hit for in the 7th inning. 

Wonder how many times he was pinch-hit for in his entire career? 

6) Arizona OF Daniel Descalso pitched in the 4th inning Wednesday night in Denver, the earliest any position player has pitched in a game since the Brewers’ Sal Bando on August 29, 1979 (also the 4th inning). 

Descalso allowed a HR to Rockies pitcher German Marquez. It’s just the 2nd time in the last 50 years that a pitcher homered off a position player. 

The other: June 23, 1986 – Giants’ Mike LaCoss homered off San Diego’s Dane Iorg.

5) Alex Bregman is only American Leaguer in Home Run Derby Monday night; unusual. MLB cannot be very happy that Trout, Judge, Stanton, Goldschmidt are not participating. 

4) There’s a sportsbook opening Saturday at Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey, next to Giants Stadium. Maybe the jackass politicians in New York can figure out a way to have legalized wagering in our state- why was New Jersey so far ahead of them????

3) Baseball doings:
— Red Sox 3B Rafael Devers goes on DL with left shoulder inflammation.
— Angels’ P Garrett Richards (elbow) hopes to return in 2020.
— Twins put 1B Logan Morrison (hip) on the DL

2) FOX is apparently in negotiations with Jeff Fisher to hire the former Titans/Rams coach as an NFL commentator. You never know how good guys will be behind the mike, but I’ll be curious to hear what he has to say. 

1) Even a former White House stenographer named Beck Dorey-Stein has written a book about her time working in the White House. The current political climate has been good for bookstores, if not for the rest of us.  

13) You look at the benches in the NBA Summer League and you see two rows of coaches, maybe 8-9 coaches for each team. NBA teams spend lot of money on player development, which is more important now because players come into the league younger than ever before.  

One of the first books I remember reading was The Open Man, Dave DeBusschere’s diary of the Knicks’ 1969-70 title team. For a 12-year old kid who was falling in love with basketball, I went thru that book pretty quickly. 

One thing that stands out now was that coach Red Holzman had NO ASSISTANT COACHES; Dick McGuire was his advance scout and trainer Danny Whalen kept track of timeouts and served as an assistant coach of sorts, but Holzman did all the actual coaching. 

The game has changed drastically in that regard. 

12) George Karl’s son Coby is on the Lakers’ bench coaching during summer league; he is also the all-time leading scorer in Las Vegas Summer League history, with 337 points. Archie Goodwin is next, at 318 points.

11) Miami Marlins were 23-42 on June 10, but since then, they’re 16-14, hanging in there and hitting the ball well- they had 22 hits in a game in Washington Sunday. Don Mattingly has done a fine job keeping a talent-shy roster competitive in games. 

10) Cincinnati Bengals may have seen one of the errors of their ways; they were 31st last year in $$$ spent on their offensive line, letting LT Andrew Whitworth bolt to the Rams. 

Bengals are now 22nd in OL spending for this coming season; they hope it results in a QB who gets hit a lot less this season. 

9) San Diego Padres lost their last 13 games against Clayton Kershaw, scoring a total of 12 runs off Kershaw in those 13 games.

8) An unnamed AL scout after watching the Kansas City Royals recently: 

“I think someone will bite on Lucas Duda as a lefty bat off the bench. They won’t get enough for Duffy or Merrifield to move them. They’ll definitely move Moustakas and he will help someone. Won’t get the big return. Doesn’t happen anymore.”

7) Houston Astros’ contract situation in the near future:
— Verlander, $28M a year thru 2019 (Detroit is paying $8M of that)
— McCann, $17M with an option after this year (NYY is paying $5.5M of that)
— Keuchel, $13.2M, free agent this season
— Reddick, $13M a year thru 2020 (yikes)
— Gurriel, $12.4M this year, $10.4M in ’19, $8.4M in ’20.
— Altuve, $9M this year and next, then a $29M/year deal kicks in
— Morton $7M, free agent after this season
— Cole $6.75M, arbitration this winter, then free agent after 2019.
— Carlos Correa isn’t a free agent until after 2021
— Alex Bregman isn’t a free agent until after 2022

Astros have some serious decisions to make about their starting pitchers this winter; their young position players are going to keep Houston strong for a long time. 

6) When the Indians blew a 4-0 ninth inning lead in a 7-4 to the Reds Tuesday, it was in large part the manager’s fault. Terry Francona told pitching coach Carl Willis to get “OP” up in the bullpen, he meant Oliver Perez, but Willis thought he said “OT” meaning Dan Otero, so Willis told the bullpen coach to get Otero warmed up. 

Few minutes later, Francona went to the mound, waved to the bullpen for a pitching change and was surprised to see Otero come to the mound instead of Perez. Whoops. 

5) Baseball doings:
— Indians’ OF Lonnie Chisenhall (calf) is out 8-10 weeks.

4) Injury-plagued Duke alum Harry Giles, who Sacramento drafted in 2017 despite having two ACL injuries before getting to the NBA, has played 23.3 mpg in his first three summer league games this month, scoring 12 ppg, grabbing 7.5 rpg. 

3) There are 19 Kansas Jayhawk alums playing in Las Vegas this week. 

2) There is guy named Chris Majkowski who is a radio engineer for Mets’ games and he has worked 4,011 consecutive games, dating back to 1993- imagine not missing one day of work for 25 years? Majkowski threw out the first pitch before the Mets’ game Wednesday. 

1) Astros’ closer Ken Giles blew a 9th-inning lead Tuesday, appeared to curse out manager AJ Hinch when he was removed from the game, then was sent to AAA today. Alrighty then.

13) Six NFL teams improved their win total by 4+ games last year. 

Over the last 19 years, 104 teams have done that; of the 98 before last year, they mostly regressed in the third year, winning an average of 2.45 less games per season. 70 of those 98 teams won fewer games than they did in the second year, when they improved. 

12) On the other hand, over those same 19 years, 104 teams have won 4+ fewer games than they did the year before, and strange as it may seem, in that third year, the 96 teams prior to LY improved by the same 2.45 wins per team that the above teams regressed by. Go figure. 

11) This is one story of how difficult it is to make an NBA roster. 

Kid named Isaiah Briscoe is on Orlando’s summer league team in Las Vegas; he played two years at Kentucky, scoring 9.6 ppg as a freshman, 12.1 as a sophomore, at which point he declared for the NBA, but he wasn’t drafted- doesn’t shoot the ball well enough. 

Briscoe played for the 76ers’ Summer League team LY, went to training camp with the Trailblazers, but got cut— he wound up playing pro ball in Russia last winter, and did well there, scoring 18 ppg. 

10) Can you imagine what it is like to be a 21-year old kid who was treated like a God for two years at Kentucky, then spending last year as an anonymous American playing in Russia? 

Talk about a humbling experience; I’m sure he made decent bank over there, but it ain’t the NBA and you’re in freakin’ Russia. 

Briscoe had nine points in 24:00 vs Memphis Sunday, played three scoreless minutes against the Suns Monday. Orlando is a rebuilding team, but it could be back to Russia or some other foreign country for Briscoe- where else can a 22-year old with no college degree make a six-figure salary? 

9) G-League players make around $35,000, except for the two 2-way players each team can have, who make anywhere from $75K to $275K a year. 

The competition for these NBA roster spots is really, really fierce. 

8) USC is a football underdog twice this September; Trojans are +4 at Stanford September 8, and +4.5 at Texas Sept 15. 

Going back to 2016, USC will have been an underdog in five of its last 12 September games, and that is a little surprising.

7) fanatics.com has orders for Lebron James #23 Laker jerseys from all 50 states and 90 different countries.

6) Rookie pitcher Corey Oswalt allowed one hit in six innings for the Mets Monday night, but the one hit he allowed was a bases loaded double to the opposing pitcher Aaron Nola, who was 9 for 136 hitting in his major league career. 

5) Buster Posey has a problem with hip inflammation, will miss the All-Star Game; Yadier Molina takes his place on the NL roster. 

4) Sacramento Kings’ top draft pick Marvin Bagley III is out for the rest of Summer League with a pelvic bone bruise. Bagley is still a kid, won’t turn 20 until next March. Takes some time for these young players to mature physically so they can compete with adults. 

3) Royals’ 2B Whit Merrifield found out just before Sunday’s game that he wouldn’t be an All-Star; he went out and got five hits against the Red Sox. 

Merrifield is hitting .303 this year with a .371 OB% and is now mentioned in trade rumors to lot of contending teams. He is also versatile, playing in both infield and outfield. 

With Gleyber Torres hurt, Jed Lowrie was named to the AL team at 2B. 

2) Reds 7, Indians 4— Cleveland led this game 4-0 in 9th inning; their bullpen has worst ERA in the major leagues, which suggests they’ll be making a trade or two for a reliever this month. 

1) Congrats to the workers who rescued the 12 soccer players and their coach from the flooded caves in Thailand. Great work by those Navy SEALS. 

13) Is the famous cook Wolfgang Puck a hockey fan? 

12) What is the point of batting the pitcher 8th? Still don’t get it, and no one has done it in a playoff game, so that tells me it is just a gimmick.

11) Wouldn’t geographic re-alignment help baseball by creating more games between rivals and reducing travel costs? 

If the All-Star Game was US against the World, it would be a lot more spirited. 

10) An actor named John Hurt passed away last year, at age 77; he appeared in 207 movies, and died in 43 of them, which is the record for the actor whose character died in the most movies. 

9) I don’t think set-up men should make the All-Star Game; if you’re not a starter or not the team’s closer, then you’re not one of the six best pitchers on your team, so no All-Star Game for you. 

An exception is Milwaukee’s Josh Hader; their front office is misusing Hader so badly— he’s thrown only 44.2 innings all season, when he should be starting games, not pitching in the 6th and 7th inning only. 

If Milwaukee gets nosed out of a playoff berth, that’ll be a big reason why. 

8) Mets sent TV analyst Keith Hernandez out to a wiffle ball field in centerfield for an inning or two during the first game of last night’s twinbill, to tutor little kids on hitting balls off a tee. 

You know your team is bad when watching a 5-year old whack wiffle balls is a diversion from the actual game you’re broadcasting. 

7) A former Goldman Sachs banker is in talks with U.S. prosecutors to potentially plead guilty to criminal charges stemming from an alleged scheme to steal billions of dollars from a Malaysian state investment fund. 

Is there no end to the corruption in this world? It is sad. 

6) There was once an NHL player named Miroslav Satan who played 15 years in the NHL, playing for five different teams, scoring 224 goals. How could someone named Satan never play for the Devils? 

5) I’m curious how many actors have played the President of the US in movies/TV. 

4) Do NASCAR drivers get a lot of speeding tickets when they’re driving in normal traffic? 

3) I was curious about guys who are in the Las Vegas Summer League, are they responsible for their own sneakers, if they’re guys without shoe contracts? 

Was told by someone who knows that established NBA players send sneakers to guys on their team who might need them, and that player agents might also provide some to clients. 

2) Baseball doings:
— Mets put Todd Frazier (ribs) on the DL.
— Marlins’ C JT Realmuto is on the paternity list.
— Dodgers put OF Yasiel Puig (oblique) on the DL. 

1) Former NBA star Yao Ming got his degree this weekend from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China; he first enrolled in 2011. The 38-year old Ming majored in Economics. 

13) How the bleep is Blake Snell not on the AL All-Star team?!?!?!?!

Snell is a lefty pitcher; he is 12-4, 2.09 with a 1.03 WHIP. Hitters are batting .183 against him— he’s the best pitcher in the damn league, but HE ISN’T ON THE DAMN ALL-STAR TEAM!!!!

If Snell pitched for a team in NY or Boston, they’d be preparing his plaque for Cooperstown already (see Matt Harvey), but he’s on the Rays, so screw him. 

12) Well guess what, Tampa Bay is 46-44, they can have more than one guy on the All-Star team. Wilson Ramos is the best hitting catcher in the AL, and Snell is the best pitcher. Not having him on the All-Star team is an embarrassment— he belongs on before any of the closers. 

11) Mark Reynolds’ line in the boxscore Saturday night: 5-3-5-10

5 for 5, three runs scored, 10 runs knocked in. One game. 

Reynolds was a free agent until April 17; anyone could’ve had him. 

In his last 17 games, Jose Abreu is 10-57 wth 3 runs scored and 8 RBI; he made somehow made the freakin’ All-Star team. 

10) Charlotte, Chicago and Orlando pulled off a 3-way trade in the NBA: Timofey Mozgov will be sent from Charlotte to Orlando in exchange for Bismack Biyombo. Charlotte will also be sending Julyan Stone to the Bulls while Chicago sends Jerian Grant to Orlando.

9) Arizona led the Padres 15-4 in the 5th inning Saturday, and the D’Backs take Robbie Ray out with a man on base and one out. Starting pitcher has to finish five innings to get the win; Ray threw 96 pitches in his second start back from injury- he couldn’t have been very happy. 

8) David Price’s last 11 hitters in Kansas City Saturday night; six strikeouts, two hits allowed, three hit batters, all in the same inning. No Boston pitcher had ever hit three batters in the same inning before. 

7) Padres’ TV guys were saying Saturday night how the new humidor at Chase Field in Phoenix has helped reduce scoring. Luckily, no Diamondback hitters are on my fantasy team. 

6) White Sox TV guys were talking Friday night about how the hitting background at Minute Maid Park in Houston is one of the smallest in the major leagues, and how batters struggle picking up the flight of the ball, moreso from lefty pitchers.  

The hitting background became smaller once Tal’s Hill in centerfield was removed, and they put more of a seating area out over the CF fence. 

5) They had a food drive to combat hunger at the CFL game in Winnipeg this weekend, and Blue Bomber fans donated over 90,000 pounds of food. Good for them!!!

4) Baseball doings:
— Red Sox C Christian Vazquez broke his right little finger sliding Saturday, is on the DL.
— Giants traded OF Austin Jackson, reliever Cory Gearrin and a minor leaguer to Texas for a player to be named later or cash.
— Wil Myers hit three homers Saturday and San Diego still lost by 15 runs. 

3) NBA stuff:
— There are 19 players in the Las Vegas Summer League who are 28+ years old.
— Zaza Pachulia signed a one-year, $2.4M contract with the Pistons.
— Brook Lopez agreed to a one-year, $3.4M deal with the Bucks.
— Dante Exum signed a 3-year, $33M extension with the Jazz. 

2) I thought this was the age of baseball analytics?
— Baltimore has Tim Beckham (.306 career OB%) batting leadoff.
— San Diego has Manuel Margot (.303 career OB%) batting leadoff.
— Angels have Kole Calhoun (.321 career OB%, .221 this year) batting leadoff.
— Tampa Bay has Kevin Keirmaier (batting .147) hitting leadoff. 

Would it be too much to ask to have one of your best on-base guys batting first?

This is where I mention that it bothers me that Joey Votto doesn’t bat leadoff for Cincinnati. At least Billy Hamilton doesn’t either; they settled on Scott Schebler, most of the time.

1) If Wendell Carter Jr becomes a really good NBA player and becomes really, really rich, will his mother keep bitching about Mike Krzyzewski recruiting other good players beside her son to play for his Duke team? 

At some point, will she thank her son’s college coach for helping to prepare him for the NBA? If not, the least she could do is clam up and have some class.

13) It is possible that I watch too much TV; wore out my damn remote control. Seriously. 

The 0 and the 4 buttons don’t work anymore; DirecTV sent me a new one, which better get here pretty soon. 

12) Colts’ QB Andrew Luck lost his wallet recently; a guy found it, and returned it to Colts’ HQ, without taking anything out of it. Honorable guy. 

For his honesty, Luck gave the guy a signed football; throwing in some game tickets or a signed jersey/helmet might’ve been good, too. Everyone is happy, which is the main thing. 

11) NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is very popular; the first game of the day is usually in the girls’ gym, Cox Pavilion, and it always almost full for the first game. 

Once the day gets started, they’ll have two games going at once; the best move, if you don’t care which game you’re watching, is to walk down the hall to the Thomas & Mack Center and stretch out in the big arena— lot more room, and closer to the concession stands, which are pretty good. 

10) Did I mention it was supposed to be 110 degrees in Las Vegas Friday? So for $38 or so, you get solid entertainment all day while staying cool. Cheaper than playing video poker all day. 

9) I’ve told this story here before, but few years ago, I’m sitting in Cox Pavilion by myself watching the summer league, listening to conversations around me. For a solid hour, not one of the conversations were in English. 

GM’s from basketball leagues all over the world are in Las Vegas, looking for players to help their teams next season. Once spent an hour talking to an agent whose clients were all players who played overseas. Guys still make six figures playing ball internationally. 

8) Indiana Pacers lost their summer league opener 92-89 to Houston Friday; they were 19-33 on the foul line; you wonder why Doug McDermott makes $7M a year? Shooters are always welcome.

7) This is going to look strange; Tony Parker signed a 2-year, $10M deal to go to the Charlotte Hornets. Parker played for San Antonio the last 17 seasons.

Dwight Howard was bought out by the Nets, signs a 2-year, $11M deal with the Wizards. 

Zach LaVine signed a 4-year, $78M offer sheet with Sacramento- Bulls matched it. 

6) Guy that owns the NHL’s Florida Panthers is selling his NYC mansion for a mere $88M, thats million, with an M. Place looks more like a museum than a house.

5) There is a grocery store on East Flamingo Rd in Las Vegas, Smith’s Food King, with a bar inside it. This is an excellent idea. Wife shops, husband drinks, marriages are happier. 

4) Orlando Magic’s summer league team had five practices in three days before the summer league began; they’ll practice once a day on their off-days until summer league is over. 

3) University of Houston hired Robert Boudwin as assistant AD for marketing and event presentation; he spent two decades as the Houston Rockets’ mascot  “Clutch the Bear”

2) This makes no sense; major league base coaches have to wear batting helmets on the field, but watch when a team has a runner on 2nd base- the third base coach will stand halfway between home and third, to get a better angle on a ball hit to the outfield. 

This is totally unsafe; the third base coach shouldn’t be allowed to be closer to home plate than the coaches’ box. I mean, if you care about safety and all. 

1) Bartolo Colon and Jamie Moyer are only pitchers in MLB history to allow a home run to 300 different players; this week James McCann became the 300th player to homer off Colon. 

13) Seven new head coaches in the NFL this coming season, 17 new offensive coordinators— over half the teams in the NFL changed OC’s after last year. 13 teams have new defensive coordinators. 

12) There are only three offensive coordinators in the NFL who’ve been in that job with the same team for more than three years; Scott Linehan (Dallas), Pete Carmichael (NO, though Sean Payton is the real OC there) and Josh McDaniels (NE). 

Only six defensive coordinators have been in their current job with the same team for 4+ years. 

11) Pete Carroll is going into his 9th season in Seattle, but he’ll have two new coordinators this season; Mike McCarthy has been in Green Bay for a dozen years, but he’ll have two new coordinators this season, too.

10) Over was 13-3 in Falcon games in 2016, 2-13-1 last year. Over is 21-11 in Washington games the last two years. 

9) Baltimore Ravens went 9-7 LY, missing playoffs for 3rd year in row when their defense gagged at end of a 31-27 home loss to Cincinnati in Week 17, giving up a 49-yard TD pass in the last minute. 

When an NFL team is +17 in turnovers, +14 in sacks, scores eight TD’s on defense/special teams (T1 in NFL) and doesn’t make the playoffs, that not good. 

8) Vikings, Patriots had similar profiles last year; they both won despite not forcing many turnovers (Minn 19, NE 18), but rarely turning ball over themselves (Minn 14, NE 12). 

7) Teams who turned ball over the most LY: Browns 41, Broncos 34, Dolphins 29.

Teams who turned ball over the least: Chiefs 11, Patriots 12, Vikings/Raiders 14. 

6) Teams with the most takeaways LY: Ravens 34, Jaguars 33, Lions 32, Eagles 31. 

Teams with the least takeaways LY: Browns 13, Bengals/Raiders 14, Dolphins 15

5) Jets, Raiders were only NFL teams LY to not score a TD on defense or special teams.

4) Carolina Panthers were 11-5 LY, 8-1 in games decided by 8 or fewer points, 4-0 in games decided by 3 or fewer points. 

Norv Turner as the Panthers’ new OC will be fascinating, how he utilizes Cam Newton.

3) Chargers went 9-7 LY, but were 1-4 in games decided by 3 or fewer points, losing three of those games during their 0-4 start, when the Bolts’ kickers screwed up in key spots. Chargers used four different kickers last year. 

2) Dak Prescott loses his top two red zone targets from LY, Dez Bryant and Jason Witten. Dallas has only three players on its team who are 30+ years old. 

1) Alex Smith is a QB who doesn’t take as many chances as most QB’s, so his teams don’t turn the ball over as much- they had 11 turnovers LY, least in league. but Smith is in Washington now, and rookie QB Mahomes (1 start LY) is the Chiefs’ QB.

Its not inconceivable that their giveaway total could double this season; 19 of 32 NFL teams turned the ball over 22+ times LY. 

13) Washington Nationals are a mess; in their last 25 games, their starting pitchers have one win. One. They had a players’ only meeting Wednesday, then fell behind 7-0 in the second inning last night- they’re 43-43 and sinking fast. 

Nationals beat Miami 14-12 Thursday, after trailing 9-0.

Dusty Baker went 192-132 in two years as Washington’s manager, and they fired him so they could hire a guy who has never managed before. Why was this a good idea? 

12) Agent Scott Boras was whining about shifts hurting lefty hitters more than righty hitters; I wonder who Bryce Harper’s agent is?

11) Speaking of Boras, six of the Washington Nationals’ eight highest-paid players are represented by Boras. Daniel Murphy and Harper are free agents this coming winter and neither is having a good season this year. 

Maybe Boras should be managing the Nationals; he played minor league ball back in the day. 

10) Rubber game of a series is the 3rd game of a 3-game series, when teams split the first two. Here are teams with best records in rubber games this season:
New York (A) 8-2, Boston 5-2, Seattle 7-3, Houston 8-4, Arizona 6-3

9) Teams with worst records in rubber games:
Royals 2-8, Orioles 1-3, Jays/Mets 2-5,  Rockies 3-7

8) Major league teams have concessions stands where you can buy game-used items, like foul balls or broken bats or game-used jerseys/caps. They’re not cheap; I was in Philly’s ballpark last fall and I can personally attest that the pine tar on a bat is really sticky. 

Would be interesting to know how much a team nets from those sales in the course of a season.

7) Colorado’s 1-0 home win over the Giants Wednesday was their first 1-0 win at Coors Field since June 12, 2010. 

6) 51-year old Steve Stricker has made the cut in 27 consecutive majors, the longest current active streak; Brooks Koepka is next, at 16.

5) Whats the worst day to have a birthday? Dec 26? Feb 29? July 5? Jan 2? 

4) Baseball DL doings:
— Angels put P Tyler Skaggs  and OF Chris Young on the DL.
— Nationals put P Erick Fedde on the DL.
— Arizona put OF Jarrod Dyson on the DL.
— Mariners put C Mike Zunino on the DL. 

3) Interesting that Yuli Gurriel was playing 3B for the Astros last night, with the White Sox in town. Houston has been rumored to be interested in acquiring Chicago’s 1B Jose Abreu. 

2) Graduate transfer Geno Crandall bolts North Dakota for Gonzaga; it is getting to the point where mid-major coaches are becoming reluctant to pay for kids’ summer school now, since if they graduate early, they’re more likely to jump to greener pa$ture$. 

Crandall is a 6-4 guard who scored 28 points against the Zags in a 89-83 Gonzaga win in OT in Spokane last fall. Very good player. 

1) Western Kentucky signed a 5-star basketball recruit named Charles Bassey, who will be at WKU this fall, after re-classifying from the Class of 2019. 

In a stunning coincidence, the Hilltoppers also hired young Bassey’s guardian as an assistant coach, and will play him $200,000 a year— a totally legal move. 

Larry Brown did the same thing when he signed Danny Manning at Kansas— Ed Manning had been a truck driver before his son was recruited by the Jayhawks.

13) Bad news on the rumor mill for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves; star Jimmy Butler apparently has no intention of signing an extension with Minnesota- he is not very happy with “…..the nonchalant attitude of his younger teammates.” Uh-oh. 

12) Tuesday night, Rays beat Miami 9-6 in 16 innings. Tampa Bay TV guy Dewayne Staats called it the strangest baseball game he’d ever seen. Here are some highlights:

— As they often do, Tampa Bay started a relief pitcher; he threw three innings, then eight other relievers plus their backup catcher pitched in the game.
— Leading 9-3 in the 16th, Rays put backup catcher Jesus Sucre in to pitch; he faced four batters, got one of them out, before Alvarado came in and got his third save when things almost dicey.
— Rays’ reliever Vidal Nuno had two hits and also got the win, but he pulled a hamstring in the 16th inning and went on the DL, which is why Sucre was put in to pitch. The two hits were his first since 2015.
— Wilson Ramos caught all 16 innings for Tampa Bay; he didn’t play in Wednesday’s game.
— Tampa Bay had 20 hits but hit into four double plays.
— Total of 510 pitches were thrown; game took 5:31 to play in front of an announced crowd of 6,259.

11) No idea how this was established, but the Phoenix Suns are 8-1 favorites to win the Las Vegas Summer League, which starts Friday at UNLV. Charlotte/Sacramento are both 10-1. Denver and Minnesota are the longshots, at 50-1. 

10) Guy named Richard Henry Lee was the original draftee of the Declaration of Independence, but when his wife got sick, he stopped writing it and Thomas Jefferson took over.

 Jefferson and John Adams both passed away on July 4, 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration was signed. 

9) Houston Astros are little thin behind plate right now; Brian McCann is done for a while after he had knee surgery. Backup Max Stassi got hit on the wrist by a pitch, was out Wednesday but is expected back Thursday. 

Astros brought Tim Federowicz up from AAA to catch; in a pinch, Evan Gattis could also catch- he’s appeared behind the plate in two games this season. 

8) Some genius climbed onto the Statue of Liberty Wednesday; seven other protestors were arrested on Liberty Island. Not only could the person get killed/maimed, now they’re going to spend some time in jail. Go have some hot dogs and a few drinks. Whats the point? 

7) Georgia Bulldogs’ QB Jake Fromm broke his left (non-throwing) hand in a lake accident, but is expected to be fine for the start of the Dawgs’ season. 

6) Michigan QB Shea Patterson, who played the last couple years at Ole Miss, signed a 2019 contract to play baseball in the Texas Rangers organization after he exhausts his football eligibility at Michigan. 

If Patterson plays real well for Michigan this fall, he’d have a shot at an NFL roster, which makes the baseball thing a curious decision, seeing how Texas drafted him in the 39th round. 

5) Bronx Bombers put 2B Gleyber Torres (hip) on the DL. 

4) Pretty big rule change in college football this fall: Players will be able to fair catch a kickoff inside the 25-yard line and have it result in a touchback, with the ball placed on the 25-yard line.

Last year, 47.2% of kickoffs weren’t returnable, meaning they were touchbacks, kicks out of bounds or onside kicks. Rules makers are trying to greatly reduce the number of kickoffs without totally taking it out of the game. 

3) Last two years, Ivy League experimented with kicking off at the 40-yard line instead of the 35: in 2016, 44.1% of kickoffs were touchbacks, and in 2017, 36.1%. In 2015, before the rule was put in, only 12.4% of Ivy kickoffs were touchbacks. 

2) Oakland A’s are the only team in major leagues that has not had a single international free agent signed and developed by that team appear in a major league game this season. They only had one (Renato Nunez) last year. 

1) Joey Chestnut ate 74 hot dogs (and rolls) to win the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island in Brooklyn. 74 hot dogs in 10 minutes; I had three the other night and that was more than enough for a while, but I also had macaroni salad with it.

Hot dog contest was more fun when Kobiyashi was involved; he gave Joey Chestnut a run for his money. Competition makes all sports better, even competitive eating. 

13) This is the Webster’s definition of “compete”:

“strive to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others who are trying to do the same.”

Maybe the NBA should make playoff series best-of-3, to give lesser teams at least a chance to pull an upset. The NBA playoffs, in their current format, are boring as hell; who can beat the Warriors best-of-7? Best-of-3 series would be a lot more fun to watch. 

12) In this year’s playoffs, only 4 of 15 playoff series went to seven games.

3 series were four-game sweeps, 6 series went five games, two went six. In other words, 9 of 15 playoff series ended in either four or five games. NBA needs shorter playoff series- more drama equals better TV ratings, which is very important. 

11) Colorado Rockies will almost undoubtedly trade OF Carlos Gonzalez by the All-Star break; CarGo becomes a 10-and-5 man on July 19, at which point he has veto rights on any trade Colorado tries to make involving him. 

10-and-5 means this: 10+ years in major leagues, last 5+ years with same club.

10) Dumbest baseball stat ever; Caleb Ferguson pitched the last three innings for the Dodgers in their 17-1 win Monday night- he got a save!!! If you pitch the last three innings, you get a save no matter what the score— a ridiculous rule. 

9) Pretty nasty brawl broke out in a basketball game between Australia and the Philippines over the weekend in a World Cup qualifying tournament; someone even got hit in the back with a chair. Luckily the crowd was set back away from the court a little bit so it didn’t spill over into the crowd, but it was a nasty fight.

8) Avery Bradley is returning to the LA Clippers for two-years, $25M; if playing hoops in LA is so freakin’ great, how come the Lakers are making all the noise and not the Clippers? They play in the same arena. 

Lakers have a way better history than the Clippers, but what history did the Warriors have before five years ago? 

7) Jay Cutler is 35 years old; he played QB for the Dolphins LY, but his NFL career may be over now, unless another starting QB gets hurt in training camp. Cutler is 74-79 in 12 years as an NFL starting QB; he split two playoff games with the 2010 Bears. 

Anyway, Cutler is married to actress Kristin Cavallari; the couple will be featured on a reality show on the E! Channel this fall, called “Very Cavallari.” Previews I read Tuesday said that Cutler has a dry wit and could steal some scenes. 

Remember, before his NFL comeback last summer, Cutler was supposed to be the new voice in the CBS TV booth next to Jim Nantz, not Tony Romo. 

6) Hitters who have come up with most men on base, and %age of those runners they knocked in:
Justin Upton 257 (10.5%)
Nick Markakis 251 (18.7%)
Scooter Gennett 248 (16.5%)
Joey Votto 246 (14.3%)

5) Hitters with minimum 150 PA who have knocked in worst %age of baserunners:
Austin Barnes LA (4 of 95)
Matt Joyce A’s (6 of 95)
Carlos Gomez TB (10 of 157)
Christian Vazquez Bos (9 of 132)

4) Hitters with 150+ PA who knocked in the highest %age of baserunners:
Gerardo Parra Colo 23.2%
Denard Span TB/Sea 22.9%
Daniel Descalso Ariz 21.9%
Evan Gattis Hst 21.4%

3) Highest WHIP of (regular) home plate umpires this season:
Mark Carlson 1.52 (over 10-4)
David Rackley 1.47 (over 9-3)
Chris Guccione 1.43 (over 10-4)
Jerry Layne 1.43 (over 10-5)

2) Lowest WHIP of (regular) home plate umpires this season:
Dan Bellino (under 12-1), Mike Dimuro (under 11-3), both 1.10
Adam Hamari 1.11 (under 11-4)
Ryan Blakney 1.14 (under 8-6)
Doug Eddings 1.16 (under 13-4)

1) Happy 142nd birthday to America; hopefully the next year will be a better one for our country than the last two have been. 

13) Los Angeles Lakers signed Rajan Rondo, JaVale McGee, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Lance Stephenson this week; people are really excited about the Lakers again. 

Oh yeah, Lebron James took $153.5M from LA to play for the next four years. 

Golden State signed big man DeMarcus Cousins, who is coming off an achilles injury, and may not be ready to start the regular season. 

12) David Price has started twice against New York this season: he’s pitched total of 4.1 innings, faced 27 batters, 12 of whom scored. NY won the two games, 10-7, 11-1.

11) Orioles went 6-20 in June; 6-5 against the National League, 0-15 vs AL teams. Oy.

10) Toronto CF Kevin Pillar made one of the best catches ever over the weekend, robbing Nick Castellanos of a home run, climbing the CF wall— just a tremendous play. 

9) Big 14 vs Pac-12 in football last year: 5-2 SU, 7-0 vs spread; only losses were Nebraska (+13) losing 42-35 at Oregon, Rutgers (+28) losing at home to Washington, 30-14. 

Since 2013, Big 14 teams are 22-10-1 vs spread when playing Pac-12 teams. 

8) James Franklin is the new starting QB for the Toronto Argonauts, replacing the injured Ricky Ray, who is probably done for the season. 

7) Celtics drafted Robert Williams from Texas A&M, who was said to have maturity issues. First, he overslept and missed his conference call with the Boston media. Then he missed his flight and didn’t get to the Celtics’ first summer league practice. No bueno. 

6) Cubs scored 10+ runs in four consecutive games for first time since they did it in five straight games…….in 1930. 

5) Julius Randle gets $18M for two years from the New Orleans Pelicans. NBA Summer League starts this week, with the Las Vegas Summer League starting Friday. 

Seth Curry gets $2.75M for this season from the Trailblazers, with a player option for a second season in Portland. 

4) From Shane Bacon: “Ernie Els changes to a new golf ball after every birdie so he always carries 18 balls in his bag in case he birdies every hole.”

3) Houston Astros signed 14 international free agents Monday, including eight players from the Dominican Republic, five from Venezuela and one from Cuba. 

Some teams do way better than others with international signings; Astros are good at it. They employ tutors to help the new players with their English; has to be hard living in a new country, where you don’t know the language.

2) I’m typing this at 7:40 pm; in his first 11 minutes as a pro in the Utah Summer League, Trae Young was 0-8 from the floor, 2-4 on foul line. His first two 3-pointers were air balls. 

July has to be rude awakening for lot of these kids who leave college (too) early and now are competing against grown men, with millions of dollars at stake. 

8:45: Young wound up going 4-20 from the floor, 1-11 on the arc, scoring 16 points in a 103-88 loss to Memphis.

1) This, from pitching great Jim Kaat:

“Another big change in the strategy of today’s game evident in Nats/RedSox game..Cy Young award pitchers would never be asked to walk the #8 hitter in the 2nd inning..they would go after the #8 hitter so they’d have the pitcher leading. off. They’re Cy Young award winners!”

13) Social media can be pretty cool sometimes. Sunday, when John Tavares signed with the Maple Leafs, a disgruntled Islanders’ fan posted a pic of his Tavares jersey and said “I don’t think I can wear this jersey again and it kills me.  At nearly 47 years old I should know better, but I am devastated.”

I responded that he shouldn’t burn the jersey, just give it to a kid or put it up on eBay. 

Little while later, the guy posts a pic of him putting the jersey into a Goodwill bin, which is great; a kid will get the jersey and enjoy it. Congrats to that guy for making the effort. 

12) Every time the Red Sox win a game, they post a photo that defines that game on the wall in manager Alex Cora’s lineup. Excellent idea, actually, like a roadmap thru the season.

11) Some of the Minnesota Twins had problems with the heat in Chicago this weekend; can you imagine what driving in a NASCAR race, with that big suit on, must be like on a 95-degree day? 

Twins scored 25 runs in three games at Wrigley Field and didn’t win any of them; Sunday’s 11-10 final was only close game, and that was only because Minnesota scored five runs in top of the 8th. Dismal weekend for the Twins.

10) On July 1, the Mets sent a check for $1,193,248.20 to Bobby Bonilla- they have to do that every year through 2035. If things get much worse for them, the Mets might ask Bonilla to suit up again, and he is 55 now. 

9) Pirates lost 4-3 in San Diego late Saturday; they had tying run on 3rd with no one out, but with one out, a foul fly was hit down the RF line. Hunter Renfroe caught the ball as he bumped into the wall in foul territory, but Marte never tagged up and couldn’t try to score. 

8) Gio Gonzalez is having a solid major league career- he is 123-91 in the majors, but he was traded by the White Sox twice, once in December ’05, then again two years later. That does not happen much. White Sox got Jim Thome, Nick Swisher back in the two trades- Gio was part of a package in both deals. 

7) Sounds like Portland, OR is eager for a major league baseball team, whether it be an expansion team or the Oakland A’s moving north. They’re going to build a 34,000-seat stadium in Portland and they’ve done a great job supporting the NBA’s Trailblazers over the years.

6) QB Ben Miles, son of former LSU coach Les Miles, is transferring from Nebraska to Texas A&M. There is some history between Les Miles and Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher; Fisher was an offensive coordinator at LSU working under Miles in 2005, 2006. 

5) Former Colorado State basketball coach Larry Eustachy got the first of three $250,000 payments Sunday- they are part of his settlement after being fired by the Rams last season. 

4) Milwaukee Brewers sent SS Orlando Arcia to AAA for the second time this year; the first time they sent him down, his replacement sprained his ankle a couple days later so he came right back to Milwaukee, but with Arcia batting .197, he figures to stay in Colorado Springs for a while now. 

3) Rays 3, Astros 2— Houston scored seven runs in the four-game series, going 1-3. Tampa Bay is 42-41, and Kevin Cash should be Manager of the Year. 

2) 97 degrees today at Armadillo World HQ (heat index was 106), might hit 100 tomorrow; not even a dry heat, like you find in Las Vegas. Heat is better than snow, but everything in moderation……

1) There is a young lady, maybe 9-10 years old, who was born with a deformed right hand, but now she uses a robotic hand— she is traveling around the country, throwing out the first pitch at various major league ballparks. Philadelphia was her 17th major league ballpark Sunday; good for her!!!