Pennies For Your Pitcher?

Welcome to Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, where you finally find out if your team still cares about this season, how much that one good guy on your roster is worth and how smart your front office is.

Cole Hamels is the man everyone is watching. He’s one of maybe two genuine aces who’re likely to be on the block, the other being David Price, but while everyone was waiting for either the Texas Rangers or LA Dodgers to make a move there, the Blue Jays and Rockies went and unleashed a bombshell.

Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is off to Toronto after spending his entire nine year career in Colorado, usually as one of the best hitters at his position (though recently he’s declined slightly). He was the subject of some rumours back in May but rode that out.

In his place comes 32 year old Jose Reyes, a Mets legend who was traded to Toronto from Miami in 2013. Along with him arrive three pitching prospects, while Toronto get a pitching battler too. Big news.

That trade followed the first really big one of market season, when Johnny Cueto was traded to the Kansas City Royals, the Cincinnati Reds getting three left handed pitching prospects in exchange. Cueto’s a free agent at the end of the season, so good get by Cincy. KC has the best record in the majors but their starting pitching has been rank. This’ll be a big boost in getting them back to the World Series.

And while the Phillies were scouring offers for Hamels, they managed to shift Jonathan Papelbon for a prospect, with the closer pretty desperate to find himself on a decent team. Well, he got his wish – he’s now a Washington National.

A few other minor trades went down, though probably the only ones of note were the Houston Astros picking up lefty starter Scott Kazmir from Oakland, who also sent Ben Zobrist to Kansas City for some minor league pitchers. Typical money-balling Oakland.

The deadline is on the 31st of this month, keep an eye out for any blockbusters.

The Brady Crunch

So that four game ban that New England Patriots QB Tom Brady was appealing? It’s been upheld. Probably a lot ot do with the fact that right around the time he was interviewed by the deflate-gate investigators, he seems to have told his assistant to destroy his cellphone. Despite (/Because of) those investigators specifically requesting to see it.

Yes, it’s a stupid suspension. Yes, Brady’s been made a scapegoat here. But tamper with the evidence, champ, and you can have no complaints. Even if the cover-up trumps the actual crime.

This is all lovely news for the Steelers, Bills, Jaguars and Cowboys, who all now get to play against Jimmy Garoppolo instead of the four time Super Bowl champion.

Welcome to the Hall

Four men were inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame this week, four men who can now forever say that they were among the greatest exponents of their chosen career to ever walk the earth. The kin of recognition that us mere mortals would die for.

Those four men were Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson and Craig Biggio.

Party Time At Shady’s?

If LeSean McCoy invites you to a party… well, play that one by ear. You never really know what’s going on.

The new Buffalo Bills running back decided he was keen on a blowout before reporting to training camp – hey, last time he can let loose for a while, right? – so he went and organised what oddly seemed a whole lot like an orgy.

Female only. 21+ with no exceptions. Private. Yeah, that sounds (fittingly) Shady enough, and that was before someone leaked the email response to registrations. A response that, among other things, required the ‘attendee’ to sign a confidentiality agreement and submit a picture and social media details. Yeah, sounds like an orgy to us.

So Shady McCoy had to go and “switch up my party strategy”. Now everyone (except Hulk Hogan) is invited. Cool. See ya there.

Galette-ing It All Out in the Open

Less than a year ago, Junior Galette was given a four year, $41m contract extension by the New Orleans Saints. Now the 27 year old linebacker has been cut right in the midst of his peak. And he is NOT happy about it.

The whole thing has stemmed from a pending domestic abuse charge, making the Saints’ stance an immediately justifiable one. One accusation was dismissed, but video has emerged in the last month that seems to show a man striking a woman with a belt and it matches up with Instagram pics posted by Galette.

His contract was restructured in march and he was shopped around. Now he’s been released. Sean Payton broke the news to him and it could probably have been taken smoother.

"(It was) the worst call they've ever made. It was a terrible call to kick me when I'm down."

-          Galette to NOLA.com

Oh, but that wasn’t all. He then went on a riotous twitter rampage (on his girlfriend’s account – she joined in too) where he accused Payton of showing up drunk to a team meeting and blaming losses on guys parking in the wrong places in the carpark. He slammed their free agency deals, called Marques Colston washed up (but a good dude), said Drew Brees is getting no help (“he’s good but diminishing arm strength lack of 06 Colston dat man washed up cooks can’t do it on his own”), said Payton’s a “#PercocetAbuser”, “Molly Abuser”, “Hooked on prescription pills” and a “juicy fruit eating prick”, blamed Zach Strief’s apparent struggles (the dude’s played fine actually) on catching his wife cheating on him, said he’d be shocked if the Saints won more than 6 games in 2015 and said the only reason the Saints have training camps in West Virginia is because Sean Payton’s girlfriend is from there (SP got divorced in 2012).

Here’s a summary of the whole thing via Reddit.

Yeah, that all actually happened. Though it’s hard to separate what came from Galette and what came from his girlfriend given it was all on her account. Possibly none of it, possibly all of it. Galette actually deleted his own account in the wake of his cutting, saying “Okay, I need to go about this the right way.  This is going to be a difficult time, and I don't want to sound off on anyone on social media and make myself look bad."

24 hours later: "whatever, I'm doing it anyways."

The thing is, Galette – shockingly – wasn’t the best liked teammate in the locker room wither. He’d gotten into a couple fights over the years and one anonymous teammate said that has soon as he got his contract, he packed in his attitude. Jonathan Vilma tweeted this:

For the Saints prospects, this is awful, just not for the obvious reasons. Getting rid of the dude appeared a necessity, but not they’re faced with losing perhaps their best pass rusher on a defence that allowed the second-most yardage in the NFL in 2014. Not to mention the fact that they’ll still cop $12.1m in dead salary cap money for his loss. The third highest cap hit on the team this season. They still have Cameron Jordan and now Anthony Spencer is a Saint too but things don’t look fantastic. With Jimmy Gordon, Curtis Lofton and Ben Grubbs also gone, they’re paying nearly a fifth of their 2015 salary cap for players that don’t even play for then anymore.

As for Junior Galette, he reckons he’s off to a division rival in the next few days. We’ll see about that.

Seahawks Got Got

Anyone Heard From Kobe?

Umm…

Boogie's Buddy

Quote of the Week:

“Ty ... there were times when he was better than others. But the problems have been there for several years, going back to when we were having a lot of on-court success. I don't want to go back too far. There were just a lot of times where you were at practice and you just know. You could smell it. You know there is probably deeper issues than he would probably let on.”

Denver Nuggets president Josh Kroenke dishes some dirt on Ty Lawson’s apparent boozing after trading him. He also wished him luck and suggested that change was probably best for him. Hard to know what to make of these comments, if they’re well-meaning or team PR or what. If the dude was a problem, they coulda traded him for plenty more at the last deadline.

Runner Up Quote of the Week

"At the end of the day, you know, I do have a family. So it is going to be a little harder on me this year. But I'm going to push through it, you know. ... I made a decision for me and my family."

New Clippers forward Josh Smith is having a tough time adjusting to a smaller salary this year. For the record, between his Clippers money and what he’ll get from Detroit, he’ll earn US$6.9 million this season. Geez, times are tough in this economy, aren’t they?

Good Week:

Houston Astros – Look, when your season’s going so well that you might have to reschedule a Taylor Swift concert at your home ground because you might need it for a playoff game that day, then things are looking bright.

Shin-Soo Choo (Texas Rangers) – One of the coolest feats in baseball is hitting for the cycle. A single, double, triple and home run all in the same game. Texas’ Shin-Soo Choo did just that the other day, just the second man this season to so after Brock Holt for Colorado in mid-June.

Bad Week:

Shabazz Napier (Orlando Magic) – To be honest it’s been a tough introduction to the NBA for this lad. He started his pro career being drafted to play point for LeBron James, LBJ specifically calling him his favourite player in the 2014 draft. Except not long after Mr James returned to Cleveland. Now Napier’s been traded to Orlando after just one season in Miami, and flipped for a second rounder too, not even the firstie that he cost. Here’s hoping he cracks it with the Magic.

Zack Greinke (LA Dodgers) – Geez, the fella couldn’t even make it to 50 scoreless innings in a row. What a chump. 45 & 2/3 is what he ended up on, copping a base-hit RBI to Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom. His first run conceded since June 13. Yeah, this is only a bad week in severe relativity.

Player of the Week:

Cole Hamels (Philadelphia Phillies) – You know how to get the most out of your trade value? Pitch a no-hitter a few days before the deadline. Hamels struck out 13 Cubs on the way to hi no-no, the first man to no hit the Chicago Cubs in 50 years. Pretty much a masterclass.