There has been a longstanding perception that teams who win championships won’t have the same drive or passion to win the next season and they will be afflicted with the dreaded hangover.

The current NBA champion Golden State Warriors and Super Bowl champion New England Patriots have dispelled that theory this year with their respective undefeated starts.

However, it has been true overall the last few years in all other sports except for the NBA. San Antonio started two season ago 19-4 and Miami 17-6 the two previous years they won. In the NHL however, the Blackhawks and LA Kings went 8-8 following the seasons they won the Stanley Cup. In MLB, the previous two World Series champs the S.F. Giants started 9-13 and Boston 10-12. In the NFL, prior to the Pats, Seattle started 6-4, Baltimore 4-6 and the New York Giants 6-4.

What has emerged now as a bothersome story about Golden State is that the four regular-season games they won at the end of last season have an asterisk of sorts. The NBA says there will be two accomplishments in the record books, one for single-season winning streak and one for overall winning streak.  So if Golden State wins 30 straight this season and then loses, the NBA states that the 1971-72 Lakers that went 33-0 will still have the longest winning streak of all-time. This is ridiculous. The Patriots had a 21 game winning streak across two seasons. MLB carries hitting streaks across two seasons. Regular seasons streaks are just that whether they are in one season or two.

In looking at the next 11 games for the Warriors, they have four games against winning teams. Tonight against Boston, Christmas Day hosting the guy who took his talents to South Beach, Dec. 30 at Dallas and the potential record-breaking game when they host the Charlotte Hornets. The combined record of the other seven Warriors opponents is 66-92.

Help is on the Way

Meanwhile, the current Eastern Conference top-seed Cleveland Cavaliers are about to get Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert back from injuries for the first time all season.

Nice job by the NBA assigning former executive Jerry Colangelo to the Philadelphia 76’ers to sort out that mess. Good “proactive stand” by the NBA to tackle this most recent problem.  NBA owners only pressured Commissioner Adam Silver because ticket sales were hurting in games involving Philadelphia. In addition to having only two winning seasons in the last 11 years, the Sixers are 176 games below .500.

I will be excited to report when the Los Angeles Tankers win their first conference game while only three games behind Philadelphia in the loss column.

Capital potential

The Washington Capitals have been a perennial playoff contender over the last eight seasons, but never make it past the second round. This offseason, Washington acquired T.J. Oshie and playoff here Justin Williams and so far they have seemingly added the missing pieces. The Capitals are one point behind Montreal for top seed in the East but have played three less games. The Russian duo of Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov are leading the way with a combined 52 points, but it is ultimately goalie Braden Holtby who has performed like a Vezina candidate with a 17-4-1 and goals against average of 1.95.

“Thank You Kessel”

What the heck is wrong with Sid “The Kid” Crosby. He is 85th in the NHL in points and tied for 116th with six goals through 27 games.  Meanwhile his Penguins are currently tied for 8th in the East with Florida and New Jersey. Call this the Curse of Phil Kessel. Kessel led the Leafs to one playoff appearance in six seasons and now he has gone on to spread his warmth and cheer to Pittsburgh while bringing the worst out of Crosby.

Not the Cuban guy

One under the radar trade so far in MLB is the Yankees shrewd acquisition infielder Starlin Castro. Castro had worn out his welcome with the Cubs and hadn’t progressed the way Epstein had envisioned but he still has upside and fills a gaping hole at second base in replacing sub .200 hitter Stephen Drew while also providing insurance for Didi Gregorius at shortstop.

Winter Meetings Winner

It appears Theo Epstein has done a nice job identifying the remaining holes for the Cubs to be a World Series contender. John Lackey gives them a proven number three pitcher behind Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta and Ben Zobrist gives them a veteran utility player who is a great locker room guy and  loves playing for Manager Joe Maddon.

Meanwhile ace pitcher Johnny Cueto still doesn’t have a home and it makes sense for the LA Dodgers to step in as money is always burning a hole in their pockets. The Cardinals would also be a favored landing spot especially since they lost Lackey. Either way, Cueto won’t have the pressure of performing as an ace. He would be slotted behind Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers and Adam Wainwright for the Cardinals and in St. Louis, he also has Michael Wacha and Carlos Martinez who have ace potential.

I am concerned that the Atlanta Braves are blackmailing Arizona Diamondbacks GM and former ace pitcher Dave Stewart after the Braves acquired an enormous haul for young stud pitcher Shelby Miller. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of Miller, but Arizona surrendered the #1 pick SS Daxby Swanson in this June’s draft, who projects to be a perennial all-star. That alone would be adequate compensation for Miller, but the D-Backs also gave up one of their top two pitching prospects Aaron Blair and another prospect outfielder who could eventually start and they control both for six and five years respectively as opposed to three for Miller.

By the way, the awful decision by former Red Sox G.M. Ben Cherington to needlessly lock up Rick Porcello in the midst of last season cost the Red Sox a chance to also land Jordan Zimmerman as he signed with Detroit this offseason for essentially the same money.

World Series Hero

A terrible omission by yours truly to be sol late in pointing out another success from the ongoing athletic pipeline at Cal State Fullerton. Kudos to Kansas City Royals World Series hero Cristian Colon who had the key hit to clinch a Royal championship.

Surprise team in NCAA

How about the George Washington Colonials taking men’s basketball by storm with an 8-1 start. Watch out Fordham and Dayton.
 

Great Name

You have to love the parents who chose to name San Diego Chargers running back Dreamius Smith.

Too Distraught to discuss the NFL this week.

Come on down David Price, you are the next ace up for the Boston Red Sox.

After the Red Sox whiffed or “Larry Lucchinoed” on the Jon Lester contract negotiations, they had no choice to correct their mistake. The fix cost them a seventh year and anywhere from 47 to 62 million depending on how the Lester contract pays out. That’s about three years of say Rick Porcello, Hanley Ramirez or Pablo Sandoval so no problem.

This was a no-win situation for Boston. Critics who point to the Sox overpaying to make this deal happen would have also criticized the Sox if they didn’t land an ace this offseason. What other option did the Red Sox have? The alternatives this offseason were Zack Greinke, Johnny Cueto and Jordan Zimmerman. Greinke is going to either re-sign with the L.A. Dodgers or go to the rival S.F. Giants and the money will be similar to Price. Johnny Cueto has too many questions and someone will overpay him reactively as he will be the only option left.

You could argue that the Sox should have been in on Zimmerman, as five years and 110 million for the Tigers is a lot better than seven and 217, but Zimmerman has not pitched in the American League, is not battle-tested in the slugger-filled A.L East and has only pitched two playoff games (one good and one bad) so small sample size there. Bottom line is the Washington Nationals set the market last season for an ace pitcher when they signed Max Scherzer for seven and 210.

Price’s agent successfully negotiated an opt out after year three but I have a hard time believing that it will be worthwhile for Price at age 33 to pass up 124 million over the remaining four years especially if he is happy in Boston. The good news for Boston is they do not have to surrender a compensatory draft pick as part of a previous contract clause.

My concern with Price is less that he breaks down and more that he fits into the Boston media and fan culture and embraces the team. This will now be his fourth team in nine seasons which is very unusual for an ace pitcher. Tampa Bay is not exactly a media hub, he pitched for Detroit for parts of two seasons and he only had the positive in Toronto during that special run. What will it be like when things get bad in Boston and 30-40 media members are crowding his locker after a bad start?

As for Price’s noted playoff struggles that I broke down in a previous blog, it is something to be a bit concerned about, but at the end of the day, you have to hope that a guy with a bulldog mentality and an awesome pedigree will eventually figure it out when it matters most.

With that said, Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopolous who acquired him this past season says “He’s probably the best teammate I have ever seen.”  Anthopolous added “His work ethic is off the charts and he makes everybody else on the team a lot better. He brings something else more than just the two ERA and the 240 innings and everything else. He leads. He sets a great example. He’ll be a great get for any team that gets him.”

After recently acquiring all-star closer Craig Kimbrel and former Yankees outfielder Chris Young, Red Sox GM Dave Dombrowski has completed his stated three offseason priorities. With that said, I don’t believe he is done. The Sox are reportedly in on Braves pitcher Shelby Miller and the Sox starting rotation still lacks a #2 starter although there are plenty of 3,4 and 5 options.

Evil Empire

Will the Price acquisition awake the Yankees from their free agent slumber? Two years ago, New York spent close to 300 million to acquire Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran. McCann’s power production has been good but he has hit a shockingly low .232 in back-to-back seasons. Beltran has missed 82 games and has hit .254 averaging 17 HR and 58 RBI and Ellsbury had a great first year but awful second year while missing 51 games.

The Yankees acquired outfielder Aaron Hicks from Minnesota to replace the departed Chris Young and are reportedly dangling Ivan Nova, Brett Gardner and closer Andrew Miller. The Yankees have an improved farm system and I simply don’t believe they won’t make a move to acquire at least a #2 starter during this offseason.

Stop Picking on Me

Shaquille O’Neal was a true pioneer. He pioneered complaining about being targeted because of his size. He felt he was fouled more often and harder than anyone in the league because he could take it. It also might have been because he was a horrendous foul shooter but now I am nitpicking. Then LeBron James carried the torch with the same complaints. Finally, the L.A. Lakers took it so far as to file a complaint with the NBA on behalf of Dwight Howard in 2013, also a notoriously bad foul shooter regarding unfair treatment by the officials.

This brings us to “Gronk”. All these offensive pass interference calls and questions of being targeted. Gronk is probably being targeted in the same way the aforementioned players were and are. Deal with it. It goes with the territory of being a dominant physical specimen and behemoth. Everybody wants to help David more than Goliath.

A much more significant concern is players trying to target Gronkowski’s or any other player’s lower body specifically his knees to tackle him. Broncos’ free safety Darian Stewart simply picked up the ball that T.J. Ward left in trying to injure Gronkowski. Yes it is hard to tackle a player of that size and hitting low is your best shot, but why is there an emphasis on protecting a quarterback from getting taken out at the knees but not the rest of the players. Until this issue is addressed, frequent injuries to Gronk like this will be an ongoing concern.

Brock Star

As for the Patriots-Broncos clash this past Sunday night, the whole tenor of the game changed late in the first half when Dont’a Hightower left with a knee injury. Denver was stagnant offensively until then and all of the sudden began moving the ball around the corners through the running game. Hightower calls the defensive plays and has become such an important cog in the Pats defense aside from Jamie Collins and Malcolm Butler. Regardless of the officiating, Gronk’s injury or Belichick’s bad coaching decisions (see Chris Harper fielding punt, clock mismanagement), if Hightower stays in the game, the Pats win.

The loss is one thing, but the worst consequence is giving rookie Brock Osweiler confidence that he can deliver in the clutch. If the Pats and Broncos do meet in the AFC championship game, I would still rather see Peyton Manning behind center.

Congrats to the Philadelphia 76’ers for winning their first game and for the Lakers for successfully continuing their tanking effort in consecutive seasons.

Musical Chairs

Troubling times for Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach LeBron James. Since James wears so many hats, he forgot to tell his subordinates (I mean the alleged coaching staff) that he was subbing himself out of the game in their victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Cleveland was assessed a technical because they only had four players on the floor. Hate when silly details get in the way.

Not so fanatical

Lean times in the City of Brotherly Love.  ESPN shared this beautiful nugget yesterday that the Eagles, 76’ers and Flyers are 0-for November thus far with an 0-12 home record. That isn’t even including the Phillies, who were the worst team in the majors this past season.

But what is making Ben Franklin turn over in his grave is the overall play of the 76’ers. You would have thought things couldn’t get worse than 1973 when the Sixers went 9-73 with the second worst winning percentage of all-time. Or last season when the Sixers dropped an NBA-worst 26 games in a row beginning in January and lost 17 straight to start the season. But here come the 2015-16 version who are 0-14. How is this for a touch of irony? Last season Philly beat Minnesota to get their first win of the season and that is their opponent tonight. Kevin Garnett simply won’t allow it this time.

Need a Doctor

By the way, the Los Angeles Clippers lead the way in futility with eight of the worst 50 NBA seasons of all-time and the worst historical record of any NBA team. Also, the New York Knicks franchise has more losses than wins in their history.

Speaking of the Clippers, is the Doc Rivers honeymoon starting to wear off? After two very disappointing playoff appearances, Los Angeles decided to make some bold moves in the offseason. In addition to resigning DeAndre Jordan, they signed NBA veterans Paul Pierce, Wesley Johnson, Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson and are 6-7 after dropping three straight. There is too much talent and veteran leadership on this team to underachieve this badly.

Separation Anxiety

Oklahoma City is in a terrible spot with Kevin Durant and the recent rifts between he and Russell Westbrook are only making the situation more incendiary. With Durant’s contract expiring, the Thunder risk getting nothing in the offseason if he walks and right now I think there is a huge chance that happens as Durant has always been bothered by playing in such a small market.

Dynasty in the Making

Not only is Golden State 15-0 and one game away from the best start in NBA history, but they have had only had five teams come within nine points of beating them. The Lakers stand in the way and something tells me Kobe Bryant will be up for that game, although he has yet to eclipse 20 points since opening night and is shooting 33% from the field.

Everything is relative

Oft-mentioned trade target and knucklehead DeMarcus Cousins is on a ferocious tear in the last five games. He is averaging 33 PPG and 11 rebounds per game. If that guy could ever keep his head on straight?

Cheesehead

Congratulations to Aaron Rodgers for leading the Packers to a big division win yesterday to improve to 9-19 against winning teams on the road in his career.

Predictable

Thumbs down to the Cincinnati Bengals for failing to bounce back by losing to Arizona after their awful loss to the Houston Texans.

Overrated and Overpaid

On Oct,. 18th, the Jets were 4-1 and ready to make their mark against the Patriots in a battle for first place. Since, the Jets are 1-4 including a narrow home win against Jacksonville. The alleged vaunted Jets D have given up 133 points in the last five games and Darelle Revis got torched by DeAndre Hopkins in the loss to Houston before leaving in the third quarter with a concussion.

As for the Patriots other former corner Brandon Browner, he leads the NFL with 17 penalties through 10 games.

Little Engine that Could

New England is pinning a lot of hope on wide receiver Danny Amendola to step in for Julian Edelman. Amendola has played in two full seasons out of six . Last year was one of them and he was barely used in the regular season with only 42 targets.

Just lose baby

After improving to 4-3 with consecutive wins against SD and the Jets, the Raiders have dropped three straight including a bad effort against the Lions which just about sealed their fate for another NON PLAYOFF SEASON. Since making the playoffs in three consecutive seasons capped by a Superbowl loss to Tampa Bay (Curse of Jon Gruden), the Raiders are an abominable 60-142 with 0 winning seasons. They don’t even have Al Davis to blame anymore.

Sad to see the San Diego Chargers playing out the string at home before moving to Los Angeles in the offseason. This Chargers have had too many proud moments to go out like this. Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow Sr. and Charlie Joiner were a blast to watch in the 80’s.

Starring role

Has anybody noticed the best team in the NHL so far? How about the 17-4 Dallas Stars. It’s an amazing accomplishment especially without former franchise player Loui Eriksson.

Love the new proposed NHL all-star format of 3X3 within divisions. Although I will miss the typical all-star game final scores of 18-16, at least it shakes things up and acknowledges that the old way wasn’t appealing. Awareness is half the battle and even if this idea doesn’t work, the NFL could take a lesson because the Pro Bowl is as bad as it gets.

Glaring oversight

Lastly, Mark Recchi is one of the worst omissions in the Hall of Fame history in any sport. He is 12th all-time in NHL scoring with 1533 points in 1652 games, won three Stanley Cups and was universally liked by his peers. If anyone can cite a reason for this egregious decision, I am all ears.

Maybe this blog is starting to have some real influence in the sports world. I called for Joe Philbin’s firing in repeated blogs leading up to it happening. Then I mentioned two weeks ago that I didn’t know how Kevin McHale kept his job and mentioned again on Facebook two days ago that he was in trouble and down he goes.

I have now called on Bruins coach Claude Julien to be next but my new target is Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. The  coach is in his sixth season with the Cowboys and I swear he is blackmailing Owner/General Manager Jerry Jones. With a 43-38 career record and one playoff appearance/playoff win, Garrett continues to get the least out of his team.

Prior to Garrett taking over in 2010, the Cowboys were 33-15 the three previous seasons including two division titles so it’s not like he inherited the Detroit Lions roster. When Tony Romo went down in week two and Dez Bryant went down in week one, the Cowboys had an uphill battle, but 0-7 without those two is unacceptable capped off by a horrible loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Cowboys knew if they lost the Bucs game their season was over and played uninspired and emotionless football.

Seems like the Steelers (6-4) have kept afloat without Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Martavis Bryant. Heck the Houston Texans are even 4-5 with the mess they have had at QB.

With that said, the biggest problem the Cowboys face is the man who hired Garrett. Jones was the one who agreed to sign “The Human Distraction” Greg Hardy. Aside from his numerous transgressions as a human and alleged criminal, Hardy’s behavior and distraction to the team has been almost as detrimental as the injuries and the Cowboys are 0-5 since he returned from suspension.

Jones then crowned Brandon Weeden (recently cut) the next Roger Staubach. Lastly, the decision to not resign DeMarco Murray has been problematic as the running game has been inconsistent which is evidenced by the desperate signing of young journeyman Robert Turbin. Do I like to see “America’s Team” fail? You bet I do, but I would rather see them fail with a fighting chance. Romo and Bryant can’t save this sinking ship.

I can’t say I thought Cincinnati would throw up all over themselves on Monday Night Football at home against an inferior Texans team. And to add insult to injury, J.J. Watt jabbed Andy Dalton with a tweet after the game to which Dalton cried and felt sad. Cincy gets to pick up the pieces at red-hot Arizona and could be staring at consecutive losses as well as many I told-you-sos.

Meanwhile, Houston (tied for first) might just steal this division from the wobbly Colts who just might need to keep their “We finished in second place in our division” banner in storage. The two teams play head-to-head but the Jaguars and Titans will have a big say in how this division finishes.

The MVP of the Patriots win over the Giants was Malcolm Butler. After Odell Beckham’s early touchdown where safety Devin McCourty was out of position, Butler dominated Beckham the rest of the game and showed the football world that his play in the Superbowl was no fluke. 

No-brainer move by Cleveland to play Johnny Manziel the rest of the year as they have nothing to lose and they might as well get a decent sample size to see if they have something.

Not really shocking to see Saints Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan get fired. The Saints defense is so bad they have allowed 38 points more than the 31st ranked Cleveland Browns. Thought the Saints might try Drew Brees at corner things were getting so bad.

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers look completely lost. Is there a bigger rock bottom than losing a home game to the Detroit Lions for the first time in 24 years? How about struggling to score a touchdown until late in the fourth quarter against the 30th ranked defense and losing three straight games? Looks like the loss of Jordy Nelson and the completely ineffective season of running back Eddie Lacy are starting to take their toll. The Packers defense has also been showing leaks and where the schedule gets easier for Green Bay, they look like they have fallen to the third or fourth best team in the NFC. A win in Minnesota this week would get things headed in the right direction.

Counting down the minutes to the dream matchup Week 12 between Tom Brady and Brock Osweiler.

This blog is dedicated to the current state of all four Boston teams.

Boston Celtics:

Once upon a time, the Celtics engineered a strategy built around “The Big 3”. Danny Ainge had the foresight and ability to pull off trades to acquire all-stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to combine with Paul Pierce which led to a 17th championship for Boston.

Shortly thereafter, Miami followed suit with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and arguably the Spurs were the originators with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. Golden State certainly carried that torch last season with MVP Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green who is great as your third best on both ends of the floor.

When evaluating the current Celtics roster, not only is there not one player who is a top three type player, there isn’t one that has the upside to being one. The Celtics are a lunch pail team that will be effective in the regular season because they will outwork and outhustle opponents that simply aren’t invested over an 82 game season. They will fight with teams like, Milwaukee, Washington, Detroit, Orlando and New York I suppose for one of the final two playoff spots.

Isaiah Thomas is a big part of the problem. He is off to the worst start of his career shooting 38% from the floor, 29% from three-point territory (almost six percentage points lower than his worst season) and his 21 points per game are resulting from volume shooting. He is a great sixth man but at 30 minutes per night he is playing starter minutes which are exposing his deficiencies.

Marcus Smart is oft-injured with nagging injuries, has poor shot selection and looks like he will be a solid NBA player but more as a defender and not the upside of a number six pick. The Celtics will regret passing on Julius Randle who after missing last season with an injury is almost averaging a double-double nine games into his NBA career. The Celtics drafted Smart to fill Rajon Rondo’s shoes and should have taken the best player available.

Smart is now one of four Celtics players who is being mentioned in trade rumors to acquire Sacramento Kings malcontent DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins is an uber-talent with an uber-bad attitude that could poison just about any locker room. He makes current teammate Rajon Rondo look warm. Yes Danny has the quantity and the draft picks to trade, but buyer beware.

As for the rest of the roster, Amir Johnson is a leader, hustler and another Jae Crowder type. Kelly Olynyk is a different player this season and is much more active and aggressive with his shot and on the defensive end although he has a long way to go. Avery Bradley plays great defense and his offense stink or he shoots the ball well and his defense suffers.

With Brooklyn off to an embarrassing start and high draft picks from Minnesota and Dallas in the mix, the Celtics need to free up roster space and give consistent playing time to deserving players.

Simply put, no one can shoot on this team. Boston is 27th in the league with a 41% field goal percentage and 29% three point percentage. Late first round pick R.J. Hunter provides some hope, but organizational hustle and smarts can only take you so far.

Boston Bruins:

How many times can you stomach Bruins coach Claude Julien declaring after a loss “We had trouble sustaining an effort for 60 minutes?” Julien has done a good job during his tenure in Boston, but it was a mistake to bring him back and the inconsistency of the team indicates that his message has gotten stale and it’s time for General Manager Cam Neely, I mean Don Sweeney to make a change.

At least the Celtics have a host of draft picks, salary cap flexibility and some bodies to trade. The Bruins cupboard is bare. But the problems for the Bruins go much deeper than a recycled approach of focusing on grinders by upper management and a coach whose message has fallen on deaf ears.

The defense is too old and too young and too stationary. Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg anchor the defense at 38 and 34 years old respectively and to say they have a lot of mileage on those skates would be an understatement. Young defenseman like Zach Trotman or Joe Morrow have some upside but Julien doesn’t trust them enough and since the Bruins are still trying to pretend they can contend for something, they are in a state of no man’s land. If you were Julien and you knew your job was on thin ice, who would you trust on the blue line? And that brings me to management’s favorite type of Bruins defenseman “The stay at home defenseman”. See Kevan Miller and Adam McQuaid.

Torey Krug is one of the few puck moving defenseman the Bruins have developed in this century and Colin Miller has some legitimate potential, but defensive mistakes occur on a nightly basis which brings us to the goaltending.

Tuukka Rask’s biggest flaw is that he makes too much money. He relies on his defense to be successful like most NHL goalies today with their inflated equipment. Rask is currently 55th in goals against average and 57th in save percentage among NHL goalies. He is also the third highest paid goalie in the NHL. With that said, Rask won the Vezina Trophy two years ago and was excellent last season despite a multitude of injuries on defense. If Rask made four to five million, he wouldn’t be under such a microscope, but he makes seven million.

On offense, the Bruins are like the Celtics. A bunch of steady Eddies. Yes David Krejci is playing like the player the Bruins hoped and at over seven million annually, it’s a good thing. Loui Eriksson is having his best year as a Bruin and even some of the player acquisitions like Brett Connolly and Jimmy Hayes have been reasonably productive. But aside from Krejci and maybe Bergeron, who is the other team game-planning against. Where are the elite offensive talents to build around? I know they need to be grinders and as long as fans can see a big hit, scoring is overrated.

Ironically all four players the Bruins jettisoned have been disappointing thus far. Milan Lucic has four goals and nine points through 16 games, Reilly Smith has eight points through 15 games, Carl Soderberg has two goals through 16 games and is -6, and Dougie Hamilton has two goals and four points through 16 games and is a -9.

The Bruins need to try and trade Rask and  Chara but not out of desperation. See if any team will offer a package they can’t refuse. Boston should commit to playing its young defenseman and build for the future. Being stuck in the middle is where they are earmarked to be.

Boston Red Sox:

Great start by Dave Dombrowski by acquiring San Diego Padres closer Craig Kimbrel. He is an elite closer and due to his baggage of bullpen issues in Detroit, if it was the last thing he did, Dombrowski was going to make sure he didn’t repeat history. Uehara could be okay as the setup man although no assurances at 41. Junichi Tazawa has pitched in 203 games in the last three years and in many high-pressure situations. He also finished at 2-7 with a 4.14 ERA and really labored at the end of the year so the bullpen fix is far from complete.

A Mookie Betts – Matt Harvey swap has made the rounds this week. What is harder to find an elite leadoff hitter or an ace pitcher? Harvey is 26 years old, and is arbitration eligible but has a long injury history. When healthy though, he is one of the top five pitchers in the game and will only get better. If I could sign Harvey to a long-term deal prior to making the trade, I would do it even though I am a big Betts fan.

Offensively, the Red Sox are going to rely on Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval to have bounce-back seasons and they don’t have a lot of choice. I think Rusney Castillo will improve and if Jackie Bradley doesn’t get traded, I think he will be reliable for a .250 BA and decent pop.

As for starting pitching, Zack Greinke would be my first choice and David Price second although I just don’t see him signing in Boston. With all the focus though on the Sox acquiring an ace, I think it will be the number two or three type pitchers they sign that could be a big determinant in next season’s success.  My vote would be for Jordan Zimmerman or someone like Doug Fister or Wei-Yin Chen.

New England Revolution – Just kidding. Okay, they need to score more and stop using the word nil when shutout suffices just fine. Although nil-nil does have a nice ring to it. And there needs to be a penalty box.

New England Patriots:

Stay healthy dammit!

In the Boston Globe today, Gil Brandt was cited with the statistic that the last two times the Patriots have had 10-game winning streaks or longer, the NY Giants ended them. We all know the Pats are playing with house money on the offensive line right now and losing Dion Lewis will hurt moreso because his replacements aren’t going to run the ball and Lewis kept the defense honest.

The Patriots aren’t infallible and they win more than anyone else simply because they are more prepared and execute better than everyone else regardless of the personnel they put on the field. The Giants are not a good defensive team and the Patriots should overcome even if it is ugly. I predict the Pats win by 10 or more.

The Patriots winning was nice, but on a more important note, I am relieved to hear that Lamar Odom is improving after that “brothel scare.” Never thought I would utter that phrase. Not sure which is more shocking: 1. He was spending multiple days at a brothel? 2. The amount of herbal Viagra he was taking? 3. The fact that his eyes would wander after being with the buxom Khloe Kardashian 4. This is the return on a URI education or 5. The $75,000 he spent to secure a four-day stay at the brothel. By the way, the brothel has a strict policy that you can’t exceed five days at a time which of course is logical. All I can say is that if I am spending $75K at a brothel, than…

This is a must listen from the owner of Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch. http://news.iheart.com/articles/sports-top-stories-104670/listen-dennis-hof-tells-what-really-14041850/

And now for some thoughts on the Pats-Colts game:

It was confusing to me how much the Colts abandoned the rush in the second half. Even when they were driving down two scores with plenty of time left, they were unnecessarily impatient and insisted on passing into the Patriots zone defense. Andrew Luck didn’t look right last night, as the immortal Cris Collinsworth reminded us about 100 times. Whether throwing high or underthrowing, why not lean on Frank Gore who totaled 94 yards on 15 touches.

Two weeks in a row now Rob Gronkowski has been completely invisible in the first half. Utilizing him as a decoy is one thing, but ignoring him and not even targeting him until later in the game is a trend that needs to stop.

Enjoyed the timing of the NBC broadcasting team raving about Colts offensive lineman Anthony Castonzo and how he was dominating Chandler Jones so much that Jones name hadn’t even been mentioned. On cue, Castonzo picked up a holding penalty and Jones proceeded to get 2 and ½ sacks from that point on.

As for the Griff-Colt special play that is being called one of the worst in NFL history, it just makes no sense to run a play like that when for the play to be executed, you are banking on the Patriots being unprepared. There are a lot of good and bad things you can say about the Patriots, but being unprepared or caught off guard is not one of them. This play reinforced the Sports Illustrated story about the Patriots being inside every team and coaches head. The Colts didn’t need trickery to win the game the way the flow was going. It is one thing to come into the game with some options, it is quite another to know when to pull those ideas back when they become unnecessary. Attention Chuck Pagano: This is commonly known as making adjustments. And hey Chuck, maybe stop depending on the Baltimore Ravens for information regarding the Patriots because the Ravens are 1-5.

Say what you want about the Colts, but playing in that horrible division has been a huge disservice to them. They look unprepared and underwhelming when they play top level competition in the NFL and that has been going on for the last three years.

What the heck has happened to Andre Johnson? When you make Logan Ryan look like Darelle Revis, it might be time.

And how could I not mention super freak Jamie Collins blocking that extra point. Pats fan or not, you had to marvel at that play.

I thought the biggest upset of the day was Carolina winning at Seattle. Yes the Panthers were undefeated, but in case anyone needs a reminder, the Seahawks entered the game 25-1 in last 26 at home and 4-0 in playoffs. Seattle was also 2-3 and had failed in their previous three attempts to beat a quality opponent and their only wins this year were when they shutout the Bears without Jay Cutler and barely beat the winless Detroit Lions at home courtesy of officiating.

For all the talk about how Super Bowl champions are supposed to have a hangover, the Seahawks have a Malcolm Butler-Pete Carroll choking hangover and they truly look lost. First the problem was Kam Chancellor holding out now he is back. Next it was Jimmy Graham not performing, but he had a big game. Whatever it is, the Seahawks will try to right the ship on three days’ rest against the team they are tied for last with, San Francisco.

 An amazing effort by the San Diego Chargers and Phillip Rivers. He threw for over 500 yards and didn’t throw a pick despite 63 pass attempts which is unheard of for him. The Chargers played a brilliant game and just couldn’t make their red zone appearances count in falling to Green Bay. It didn’t help that Mike McCoy turned into Pete Carroll on the final four downs of the game.

Watch out for the Steelers after a huge win against the suddenly inconsistent Arizona Cardinals. Not only is the defense improving every week, but with Martavis Bryant back to go along with Antonio Brown and Le’veon Bell, this team is very difficult to stop now, never mind when Ben Roethlisberger returns.

For those of you who don’t do Fantasy Football, let me introduce you to Houston Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins. His performance this year has been off the charts and when you consider Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer have essentially been alternating snaps until this past week, while on a horrible team, he is now in the conversation of being one of the top five receivers in the NFL. What is more amazing is that he has avoided the Hard Knocks curse.

Talk about having nine lives. Denver barely held on against the Ravens Week 1, had a ridiculously improbable victory Week 2 thanks to Jamaal Charles, escaped the Vikings at home Week 3 with a three point victory, snuck by the Raiders by six in Week 5 and overcame three interceptions by Peyton Manning and remained undefeated with an OT victory against an inferior Cleveland Browns team. The Week 8 matchup against Green Bay should be their first true test as the collective record of the Broncos opponents thus far is 10-24.

Lastly in the world of football, the New York Jets are for real. All anyone wanted to say before the season started was you can’t take them seriously because they don’t have a quarterback. Well, Ryan Fitzpatrick has been tremendous, Brandon Marshall has given them a dominant receiving threat and you know all about their defense. Rex Ryan isn’t there to screw this up anymore and the Jets will be ready next Sunday when they travel to New England and have a realistic shot to pull off the upset.

Interesting how the two MLB favorites the Toronto Blue Jays and the Chicago Cubs have fallen behind 2-0. For the Cubs, doesn’t it seem like they will have to pull off something magical to get to the World Series? Remember when the Sox came from 3-0 down to end their 86 year drought? History could and most likely will repeat although that New York Mets pitching staff is lethal and Jake Arrieta looks to be losing some of that luster for the Cubs.

Keeping everybody up to speed on the goalie the Bruins gave away Martin Jones who is 4-0 with two goals allowed on 110 shots so far.

New York Knicks President James Dolan informs us that he has a tremendous amount of respect and understands executive (I use that term very loosely) Isiah Thomas. Dolan hired Thomas to coach the WNBA’s New York Liberty. Thomas went 56-108 in his two years coaching the Knicks and in the five years he ran the team, with the league’s highest payroll, New York failed to win a playoff game. These accomplishments shouldn’t overshadow the 11.6 million dollars Dolan had to pay out to settle the sexual harassment lawsuit against Thomas. Who wouldn’t have respect for all of that?

Condolences to all Michigan Wolverines fans. Just when we were starting to get over the Chris Webber thing.

What in the name of Don Mattingly is going on with the perennially underachieving playoff performing L.A. Dodgers. In his fifth season, Mattingly continues to underwhelm with a 7-10 record in the postseason and seems befuddled with strategy, lineup management and pitching changes. Now he benches Chase Utley in Game 2 despite Utley appealing his suspension and Utley’s solid career numbers against Mets pitcher Matt Harvey.

Mattingly should have been ousted last season after losing in the first round to St. Louis. The Dodgers hired Andrew Friedman from Tampa Bay and had a perfect opportunity to land Friedman’s partner in crime and managerial whiz Joe Maddon, but the Dodgers were blindly loyal to Mattingly and once again are suffering the consequences. A $300 million dollar payroll should yield better results and certainly deserves someone who can lead the troops. Dodgers Nation now turns its eyes to Clayton Kershaw to avoid back-to-back first round exits as they trail 2-1.

Speaking of bad coaches, Andy Reid’s conservative approach is killing Kansas City, who just lost Jamaal Charles for the season. Take off the shackles Andy and let Alex Smith throw the ball downfield. Defenses don’t respect your passing game and you finally have some decent weapons with Jeremy Maclin and Travis Kelce (sorry Dwayne “Butterfingers” Bowe).  When you lose a home game to the Bears, there are real problems.

The Cincinnati Bengals just secured their biggest regular season win in a long time against a desperate Seattle Seahawks team. Everyone is waiting for the Bengals and Andy Dalton to fold but quite the opposite happened. Cincy rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half and won in overtime. The Bengals are healthy on defense and have a new weapon in Tyler Eifert to complement A.J. Green which is a long time coming.

Meanwhile, those same Seahawks (2-3) have a test of their own this coming week when they host the undefeated Carolina Panthers who will have had two weeks to prepare.

Did anybody predict the Buccaneers and Jaguars combining for 69 points this week? Talk about upside-down.

Paging the Detroit Lions? An 0-5 start is bringing back memories of many hapless Lions teams, but three straight games against arguably the three best current NFL defenses in the Broncos, Seahawks and Cardinals didn’t help. Maybe a home game against the Bears this week will.

The Broncos defense might have to win a Superbowl for Peyton Manning. Either that or a matchup with an inferior Chicago Bears team again.

Brandon Weeden is getting benched in favor of Matt Cassel? Jerry Jones told us last week that we won’t see a more gifted passer than Weeden. Jones has such a great track record as GM that I almost believed him.

So the Patriots finally get to take out their anger on the Indianapolis Colts. Pats players and fans alike have had this game circled and with the Colts track record of being humiliated by the Patriots, this would appear to be no contest. But rest assured Andrew Luck will play despite Coach Chuck Pagano’s posturing and the Colts have quite a bit to prove themselves as they have slept walk through the season offensively and they are awful defensively. The Patriots win but the game will be much closer than people expect. Perhaps if the Colts win this game/or even come close, they will raise another non-championship banner?

Looks like there is another NFL scandal brewing. Last night in the Pittsburgh Steelers – San Diego Chargers game, the San Diego clock operator let 18 seconds run off the clock after a touchback with under three minutes remaining. None of the officiating staff or either team’s coaching staffs noticed. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said “All’s well that ends well”. It appears Tomlin has a different perspective when a glitch during an NFL game (ie headset malfunction) benefits the Steelers. Well at least he is consistent?

Hockey season is one week old and the Boston Bruins look like an absolute train wreck. For all the fuss about losing Milan Lucic, Dougie Hamilton and Reilly Smith in the offseason, the two moves that will haunt them for years to come are trading goalie Martin Jones to the San Jose Sharks who I believe is a number one goalie and not trading Tuukka Rask to free up salary space to attract an elite scorer. The Bruins have as much goalie depth as any team in the NHL.

Poor form by L.A. Clippers coach Doc Rivers for putting down Golden State’s championship by saying they got lucky because the Warriors avoided playing the Clippers and Spurs on the way to winning the West. The reason why the Warriors didn’t play the Clippers is because they choked a 3-1 lead away against Houston and Warriors guard Klay Thompson said it best “Look at our record against the Clippers last year…we smacked them.” Doc is better than that.

Antonio Cromartie called Odell Beckham a one year wonder. Can’t wait to hear Beckham’s retort when he finds out that Cromartie has fathered TWELVE children with nine mothers! Other standout family men include Ray Lewis (6 kids-4 mothers-1 murder), former Lions safety Bennie Blades (6 kids-6 mothers – 1 bazooka at a strip club), Kenny Anderson (7 kids- 5 mothers – 9 teams), Shawn Kemp (7 kids – 6 mothers – lots of food) and Mike Tyson (8 kids – unknown amount of mothers and a chewed off piece of ear). But the all-time winner for kids/mothers combo is former Bills running back Travis Henry with 11 kids and 10 mothers. Oh Henry!

I have always admired soon-to-be free-agent David Price’s talent but now have huge admiration for his past and assumed present judgment. Price was quoted in a 2013 article saying there would be teams he wouldn’t sign with because of what he perceived as some unreasonable team rules including the Yankees policy which forbids their players to grow beards. He said “I wouldn’t stay there long or sign a long-term deal there.” Good for him for knowing that he shouldn’t go to such a rigid team with such outdated old-school rules.

Meanwhile, Price has more immediate issues to worry about aside from beard growing freedom. Price started his post-season career as a rookie in 2008 while pitching for Tampa Bay and was thrust into the spotlight against the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS. He made three relief appearances where he notched a win and a save in Game 7. Since then, he has he has started and lost six straight playoff games with an ERA of 5.23 including Game 1 against Texas. Yet, he has a remarkable 104-56 record in the regular season with a 3.09 career ERA.

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has a 1-6 playoff record and 4.99 ERA including the Game 1 loss against the Mets. Four of his seven playoff games he has gotten racked. Also a rookie in 2008, Kershaw has dominated the regular season with a 114-56 record and 2.43 ERA.

Even recent Hall of Fame inductee Randy Johnson had significant playoff struggles. Johnson appeared in the playoffs eight different seasons with an all-time record of 7-9 with a 3.50 ERA. With that said, five of the seven wins came in the 2001 World Series championship run when he pitched 41.3 innings and allowed seven runs and the other two wins came in his inaugural playoff appearance when he beat the Yankees twice including a thrilling Game 5. The other six years he pitched in the playoffs, he was 0-7 with a 5.43 ERA.

There is something special about pitchers who truly can raise their game when it matters most …in the postseason. Guys like Dave Stewart 10-6, 2.77 ERA, Cliff Lee 7-0, 1.26 ERA, John Smoltz 15-4, 2.67 ERA, Curt Schilling 11-2, 2.23 ERA and Bob Gibson 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA. Notice that Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez are not on this list. So Kershaw and Price have good company.

For all the talk about how hot and cohesive the Toronto Blue Jays were heading into the playoffs, they seem to have run into a team that has that same mojo with much less fanfare. The Texas Rangers have shocked everyone by winning both games in Toronto and now are one game away from knocking off the chic pick to win the World Series.

On August 12, the Rangers were 55-57, amidst seven teams competing for the second wildcard spot and four games out of first. Since that day, Texas was 33-17 and relied heavily on Cole Hamels (7-4 3.05 ERA playoff stats) to lead the way. Aside from losing the wildcard game in 2012, the Rangers have made their playoff appearances count but unfortunately for them, they lost the World Series in both 2010 and 2011.

A sad epilogue to the embarrassing performance the New York Yankees put forth in the wildcard game against the upstart Houston Astros and their ace Dallas Keuchel. The writing was on the wall for New York who went 14-17 in September. There is a lot of blame to go around for the team with the second highest payroll in the majors (40 million higher than third) but Jacoby Ellsbury is probably the top of the list.  

In September, Ellsbury batted .200 but over the final three months of the season, Ellsbury’s batting average plummeted a whopping 65 points while his on base percentage dropped an astounding 90 points.  The piece de resistance was when Manager Joe Girardi deemed his 153 million dollar player not worthy of playing in the Yankees lone playoff game. Ellsbury just eeked inside the top 300 OBP’s in baseball. Meanwhile, his replacement Mookie Betts hit 11 more home runs, 44 more RBIS, 34 points higher in batting average and ERA. Good news for the Yankees is he has only five more years on his contract. One last thing, Ellsbury missed 51 games due to injury this season.

A great and ironic pitching matchup between the Cubs and Cardinals in Game 1 when former teammates Jon Lester faced John Lackey. Lester, who has traditionally been a great playoff performer has been mediocre his last two starts with a 5.55 ERA. Both cases he was cruising along, but got hit hard late in the game. In two NLDS appearances for the Cardinals, Lackey has won both and allowed one run.

Lastly, with all the focus of the sports world on Deflategate the last several months, a very important sports crime dropped off the radar. On June 19th, the FBI discovered a third breach of the Houston Astros database by the St. Louis Cardinals and that appears to be the last update we all received. Allegedly deflating footballs versus database breach?????

With that said, I am clamoring for a Cardinals-Astros World Series. The Astros can consult all NFL teams as to precautions to take when playing the Cardinals. It truly is amazing how this story has been forgotten, but if that projected World Series even starts to become a possibility, then the Cardinals great franchise karma might change.