Image courtesy of Bing

Patriots win their fifth Super Bowl, what next, and MLB stuff

While I have to admit I would have liked to have seen the Falcons win the Super Bowl, there’s no denying the greatness of the Patriots, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.  Despite their greatness, however, even Tom Brady and Bill Belichick can’t defeat time.  As I’ve said before, Brady is the GOAT, but look for some slippage next season.  You can get some idea of how the Patriots feel about Brady by seeing if they move Jimmy Garoppolo or not.

Georgia on My Mind

Meanwhile, you have to feel for Falcons fans.  As I heard somewhere, “that will leave a mark.”  The Falcons have some great young talent, but history isn’t kind to teams who lose in the Super Bowl.  The Carolina Panthers are a recent case in point.  Losing offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan, to the 49ers won’t help either.  The Bears can testify as to how losing an OC can hurt a team.  Losing Adam Gase to the Dolphins helped in their regression.

The Falcons collapse was pre- 2016 Cubsesque, in its scope. I suspect sales of alcohol and Prozac sky rocketed in Atlanta on Monday.  An entrepreneur could probably take advantage of the situation.

Nice, but so what?

As the Bulls bob around the .500 mark, I see a slight ray of light.  Michael Carter-Williams has the potential to upgrade the Bulls at point guard.   Carter – Williams was acquired from the Bucks in exchange for Tony Snell so the Bulls really didn’t give up anything.  While Carter-Williams doesn’t have much of a shot, he plays a good floor game and upgrades the Bulls defense, in part, because of his height.  While Carter-Williams is an upgrade at the position, the Bulls still shake out as a .500 team.  Maybe even less if they can’t get some sort of order on the team.

Another Jason sighting

A couple of baseball notes caught my eye.  Jason Hammel is going to sign with the Kansas City Royals for a reported 16 million over 2 years.  Hammel was helpful to the Cubs last season, but never seemed to gain Joe Maddon’s confidence.  Hammel figures to be a decent back of the rotation starter for the Royals.

Two bad ideas

The other thing that caught my attention is that MLB is considering two rule changes.  The first is raising the strike zone about 2 inches.  The second is doing away with actual pitches on an intentional walk.  Both ideas stink.

Here's the really bad one.

The reason MLB is considering raising the strike zone is, in part, because umpires are calling low pitches strikes.  Rather than playing with the strike zone, why not have balls and strikes called electronically? Baseball has made a big deal out of getting other calls right, but continues to let umpires impact the outcome of games by missing calls behind the plate.  That could also speed the game up because it should cut out arguing over balls and strikes.  And frankly, I’m sick of seeing umpires decide games by having a bad game behind the plate.  It would also allow hitters to have a more consistent strike zone rather than have to adjust game to game to different umpires.  That should increase scoring.

And this one is no good either.

As for not having to throw the ball for intentional walks, another bad idea.  Strange things can happen during an intentional walk.  I’d hate to see that possibility go away.

More next time.