With forty eight hours left for major league baseball teams to make a deal the biggest need for the 2017 Red Sox is leadership. Since David Ortiz retired last season no player has taken the role as team leader. This years Red Sox are a team surrounded by turmoil. The center of the turmoil is starter David Price. Price has fallen out of favor with the fans and media. Price has had two verbal incidents with Sox color man Dennis Eckersley and also a Red Sox beat writer. Price has since then gone on the ten day DL for shoulder stiffness. Price don’t forget missed all of spring training and the first two months of the season due to shoulder issues. Incidents like these have sparked outrage from Boston fans who want Price shipped out of town as soon as possible. Price’s behavior has caused controversy in the Red Sox clubhouse. With the trade dealine Monday Prices name has come up in several trade talks. Price is in his second year of a three year deal where hev has an option to opt out after three years. Many Red Sox insiders feel that this is the route Price is taking. He’s on his second stint on the DL and many speculate that he his preparing to opt out after next year. In another gray area for the Red Sox this year has been manager John Farrell. Since the Price incident Farrell has not addressed the issue. He has let the tension escalate which as resulted in the Red Sox falling out of first place. With two months left the Red Sox desperately need leadership. Veteran Red Sox infielder Dustin Pedroia has volunteered to take over the role . Pedroia is the Red Sox elder statesman with eleven years of service. With the Yankees and Devil Rays red hot the Red Sox need to find ways to keep winning. Earlier in the month the Red Sox released free agent bust Pablo Sandoval. No matter what happens between now and October leadership is the main need this year n
So far this season the Revolution are struggling to get out of the middle of the pack in the 2017 soccer season. The 6=9 Revolution have found themselves pretty well locked in to tenth place in the MLS Eastern Conference. Certainly it isin’t due to lack of effort the Revolution just can’t seem to gain any ground. This past Saturday for example the Revolution had one of their most exciting wins of the season . The Revolution defeated the LA Galaxy 4-3. The Revolution got great performances from reserve forward TealBunbury 2 goals. Also contributing to the mix were forward Kei Kamara 1 goal and forward Diego Fagundez 3 assists. For Bunbury it was his best game in the past twenty games in which he hasn’t scored a point. The Revolution head to Philadelphia this weekend for a match with the ninth place Union. Hopefully this past weekends win will be a springboard for more wins to come. The Revolution find themselves tied with the Union with 20 points and in front of DC United with 18 points. The Head coach Jay Heaps has been working short handed for some time but got a hige lift from Bunbury off the bench. The Revolution have fourteen games left and if they want to make any kind of move now is the right time. From now until the rest of the season the Revolution need every point they can get. After Philadelphia this weekend the Revolution have games against Chicago and Vancouver. In order for the Revolution to make any advancement they have to play ninety minutes of soccer every game. So far this season the Revolution have gotten consistent performances from Lee Nguyen, Juan Agudelo and forward Kei Kamara. Ngyuen continues to be one of the best players in the league with 8 goals and 7 assists in 20 games. Goal keeper Cody Cropper continues solid in goal game after game. Soccer like any other sport has it’s share of injuries. If the short handed Revolution want to make any significant gain then th ey need to dig down deep and find ways to win.
It’s a scary thought that the 2016/17 Super Bowl champions got better in the off season. But the truth of the matter is they did. The Patriots pulled far ahead of the AFC pack this past off season. The only teams that were more active than the Patriots were the Browns, Raiders,Colts and Titans. Patriot nation is talking about a 19-0 season but it is what it is just talk. When the clock struck twelve this past March 1st the Patriots went right to work stockpiling in quest of super bowl number six. The Pat’s started out by signing Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore to seven years the biggest free agent signing in Patriot history. Then it was a trade with the Saints that bought 23 year old receiver Brandon Cooks to New England. On a normal season Pat’s fans hope that veterans Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola can stay healthy. But hopefully not this year Cooks joins Amendola, Edelman, Chris Hogan and Andrew Hawkins In the tight end department the Pat’s got another shot in the by signing Colts tight end Dwayne Allen and Chiefs tight end James O’Shaughnessy . If Gronkowski goes down the Pats are well stocked. On the defensive side of the ball the Pats reached at one year deal with holdout Malcom Butler. The long rumored deal had Butler going to New Orleans for it’s 11th pick in the first round but the deal never happened. Butler and Gilmore will be the toughest backfield to throw on. If the Pats stay fairly healthy they could make their second trip to the Super Bowl in two years. Make no mistake about the schedule is not as easy as people think. Any game at Pittsburgh is tough as is the Falcons and Raiders. A trip to Miami later on in the season is no easy task. Don’t forget the 10-6 Dolphins were one of the most improved teams in the AFC last year. If all goes according to plan look for the Patriots and Raiders to meet in the AFC Championship game in January. I look for the Raiders to win the AFC west in 2017.
With the 2017 NHL free agency season moving right along the Boston Bruins have one main priority to take care of. That priority is to sign rising star David Pastrnak to a long term deal. Currently Pastrnak is under team control for three years. Pastrnak the Bruins number one draft pick in2014 had a breakout season netting 34 goals and 36 assist and is rapidly becoming one of the dominant players in the NHL. Negotiations are moving a long slowly but hopefully in the right direction.Pastrnak is currently earning $ 2,275,000 dollars with a yearly salary of $ 925,000. One option the Bruins could take would be a bridge contract. With a bridge contract this would give the Bruins some flexibility especially with it’s young group of players coming up. Keep in mind however this is a common problem in the NHL. Two players in similar situations are Capitals forward TJ Oshie and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov. Oshie recently signed a long term deal with the Capitals earlier this summer. Oshie’s deal is a $ 46,000,000 with a $20,000,000 signing bonus. In two years Oshie has been one of the most productive players in the league.Last season he scored 33 goals and 33 assist and the year before 26 goals and 25 assists. Kucherov on the other hand has put together two solid back to back seasons. In 2017 he scored 40goals and 45 assists for a total of 85 points. The year before 2014/15 he netted 30 goals and 36 assists. If you look at Pastrnaks numbers he’s right in the middle of both players. When it’s all said and done look for the Bruins to offer Pastrnak a long term deal worth $14,000,000 or $15,000,000 per season with a handsome signing bonus. Overall this summer the Bruins have been realitively quiet One small move was signing Winnipeg’s Paul Postma. Postma a seven year veteran had 1 goal and 13 assists in 65 games last year for the Jets. Also the Bruins inked winger Noel Accari to a two year contract. The Bruins had a solid campaign in 2017. The team ranked eighth in the NHL in defense. If they want to go deeper inthe playoffs goalie Tukka Rask needs to be protected. The B’s have two young defeseman on the rise Brandon Carlo and 2016 number one pick Charlie McAvoy. If the Bruins are to go forward signing Pastrnak would be a positive step and send the right message to the team.
The Boston Celtics have officially signed Jazz free agent Gordon Hayward to a four year 128 million dollar deal that was announced on Tuesday. After a seven year career inUtah Hayward will now wear Celtic green for atleast four years. But does this signing mean that the Celtics are a shoein to win the Eastern conference next year? Celtic green teamers are all cheering but the wise basketball fan thinks differently. The answer is absoloutey not. The NBA rumor mill has LeBron James leaving Cleveland next year. But this is just what it is just a rumor. To begin with LeBron has an excellent working relationship with the Cavs GM. Point number two is the talk has James going to LA. The Lakers are in a rebuilding stage which will take atleast three or four years to rebuild. And the Clippers are a team that is getting older with nothing to show for it. The sensible thing is to stay in Cleveland where he has won. If LeBron does leave after next year Cleveland is still a team to take seriously. If James doesn’t beat you single handidly then Kyrie Irving will. Irving don’t forget gave the Celtics a pretty good beating after getting hurt in game six of the playoffs. No matter what happens the Cavs are well stocked with players such as Tristan Thompson, Andrew Bogut, Deron Williams and Iman Shumpert. The Cavs are a well balanced talented team that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Make no mistake abot it Gordon Hayward will give the Celtics much more depth and flexiblity for head coach Brad Stevens to work with. Hayard has 47 % field goal shooting percentage and a 39.8 3 point shooting percentage. This will definitely help the weak shooting Celtics who basically counted on Isaiah Thomas to much during the season and playoffs. No matter what happens between now til the start of training camp it will take alot more than Gordon Hayward to get by the Cav’s and Golden State. But the addition of Hayward to go along with Al Horford, Isaiah Thomas, and any other future moves will only help to get to championship number 18.
With the 2017 NBA free agency period officially underway one NBA rumor has already been put to bed. Friday evening the Pacers dealt long time fvorite Paul George to Oklahoma for two players and draft picks. If you ask me who got the better of the deal Iwould have to say Indiana. Indiana now in a rebuilding stage has officially moved on fom Paul George. The Thunder on the other hand is getting one of the best players in the league. However their is one catch the Thunder have him for only one year. Currently George is recieving 19.3 million and if he chooses to agree to an extension it’s going to require some big bucks in order to make him happy. This is where the deal is beneficial for the Celtics point number one he’s out of the Eastern conference and point number two the Celtics hang on to their abundance of draft picks. Also the Celtics didn’t have to give up one of their younger players shooting guadcJaylen Brown and small forward Jason Tatum. One of the consistent that Celtic fans have been hearing for atleast ayear almost is Utah forwardGordon Hayward. Hayward has spent his entire career in Utah but has rwealized it’s time to move on from the Jazz and hook on with a winning organization such as Boston. Hayward has a long relatshionship with Celtic head coach Brad Stevens. Stevens was his coach at Butler. If you do the math tallying up Paul Georges 19million,Gordon Haywards 16 million and Celtic point guard Isaiah Thomas’s new contract they couldn’t signall three. Thomas is due for a new contractthis year. He’s seeking a four year max contract. But with hip issues and his defense some people think he may not get it. Thomas is one of the best guards in the Eastern Conference in2016/17. Two players that would look good in Celtic green would be Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari and Clipper guard JJ Redick . Redick is one of the best shooters in the NBA with a 445 field goal average and 42% 3 point shooting avearage and earning just 8 million in LA. Gallinari on the other hand is just 29 years old and plays shooting guard,small forward and poer forward. Currently he’s earning 14 million and would fit in nicely in Brad Steven’s rotating system. No matter what direction the Cetics go in their only getting better and closer to championship number 18. .
