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This Time, It’s for Real: The Last Days of A-Rod

Photo Credit: Getty Images

The headline above is a reference to a Sports Illustrated column of the same name that was published almost exactly three years ago. The article, written by S.L. Price, detailed how Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez went from heralded prospect to superstar to steroid abuser to pathological liar. The line that stuck with me and many others in the first paragraph of that column: “But the end? The end is pain, and pain is ugly.”

Three years after “The Last Days of A-Rod” ran in SI, Alex Rodriguez has finally reached his painful end. It hasn’t been pretty.

In reality, the entire 2016 season has felt like one singular, massive dead end for Rodriguez; this dead end of his career has no cul-de-sac to turn around from, either. A career .295 hitter, A-Rod is hitting just .204 this year, tied for the lowest figure of his career. That career dates back to 1994, when he came up with the Mariners as an 18-year old wunderkind. The date of his debut, July 8, 1994, came just over a month before the MLB Players Association went on strike and effectively ended the ’94 season. That’s right, A-Rod’s emergence onto the baseball scene predated the most consequential sports work stoppage in recent memory. Now, he’s the only player left from that bygone era.

That changes this Friday. The team and Rodriguez called a sudden news conference at 11:00 AM on Sunday to make an announcement. No one knew what the announcement would be about, but many guessed it had to do with the next chapter of A-Rod’s career. Sure enough, that’s exactly what it was about: the team announced an agreement that would allow Rodriguez to play his final game on August 12 and remain with the team in an advisory role for the rest of this season and next year, as well. The somewhat shocking, abrupt end for A-Rod seems like an unjust conclusion to a career that saw him hit 696 home runs, rack up 3,114 hits, and drive in 2,084 runs.

But it isn’t an unjust end when you think about who we’re dealing with: an avowed and well-known steroid user who lied about his PED use on multiple occasions over the course of many years.

In 2007, Rodriguez was interviewed on 60 Minutes by then-CBS News anchor Katie Couric; she pressed him on his use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez flatly denied using PEDs and even went as far as saying that he “never felt overmatched on the baseball field”. In 2009, Sports Illustrated reported that Rodriguez had tested positive for several banned substances; however, there was, at that time, no punishment for a positive drug test. Because 5% of all players tested positive at some point in 2003, though, Major League Baseball undertook a new disciplinary system that enforced mandatory suspensions for positive drug tests. This system took effect in time for the 2004 season. Rodriguez was in the clear. Or so it seemed.

After the Sports Illustrated report, Rodriguez finally came clean about his steroid use. Calling himself “young, stupid, and naive,” Rodriguez admitted to ESPN that he had indeed been using steroids from 2001-2003, when he played for the Texas Rangers. He also cited pressure to perform under a 10-year, $252 million contract, one that was then the largest contract in the history of professional sports. As repulsive as Rodriguez’s cheating was, it was at least somewhat understandable as to why he would do such a thing. Think about it: player signs massive contract, feels pressure to live up to it, crumbles under that pressure, caves to using steroids. Okay, fair enough. Even with the denials and the lying and the naiveté, fair enough. It would surely be a mistake that Rodriguez would learn from and not make again in the future.

Except that wasn’t the case at all. Rodriguez failed us, the Yankees, and himself four years later. Again.

In early 2013, documents obtained by the Miami New Times linked Rodriguez and several other players (Nelson Cruz, Ryan Braun, Bartolo Colon, others) to a clinic in South Florida known as Biogenesis. MLB’s investigation into the matter spawned several 50-game suspensions, a 65-game suspension for Braun, and worst of all, a 211-game suspension for Rodriguez. In this situation, Rodriguez could have admitted guilt, cut his already enormous losses, and moved on with his prolonged exile with whatever reputation he had left. Instead, he did what he’s been doing for the past ten years: denied any wrongdoing even against a mountain of evidence to the contrary.

It went that way until shortly into 2014. On February 7 of that year, Rodriguez announced that he would be (mercifully) dropping all of his lawsuits against Major League Baseball in the Biogenesis matter. The concession of defeat in the case seemed to signify that A-Rod had finally run of legal options and could no longer pursue any more rulings in the court of law. He would serve his suspension for the 2014 season because he had finally reached checkmate.

In reality, February 7, 2014 marked a line of demarcation in Rodriguez’s career and, more importantly, his life. From then on, he changed, or at least he seemed to.

From that date forward, he seemed more humble, more contrite, and more giving of his time. He said in an interview with Tom Verducci that he was “happy and relaxed”, seemingly a far cry from feeling “enormous pressure to perform” in Texas. A-Rod was A-Rod as we’ve never seen him before, or at least not recently. He was happy again, having fun playing the game, and even making us forget about the years of steroid use, denial, and lies that predated his renaissance.

He was just different. He even went on TV for FOX during the MLB playoffs last season and he was…. good. Really good. His opinions on hitting and the game in general opened many viewers’ eyes to his baseball IQ, an aspect of his game that was overshadowed by his talent and, later, his fall from grace. He was even likable, consistently cracking self-deprecating jokes about his career and life in baseball. He even gave fellow disgraced legend Pete Rose this sage advice in the middle of a rain delay during Game 6 of the NLCS:

And, like I said earlier, he was really smart. He said before Game 1 of the World Series that if the Mets “catch the ball”, they would win the series. Sure enough, in the bottom of the first inning, this happened. Prescient analysis, indeed.

And that’s why his new role with the Yankees, as an adviser and special assistant, is just perfect for him. Very few people know the game quite like A-Rod does, and his ability to impart that knowledge to the Yankees’ young players could be critical in their development. It has been said multiple times that the Yankee players, and particularly the Latin players, adore Rodriguez, and there’s a reason why: the 40-year-old has become something of a father figure to them, giving them tips and advice that he’s learned over the course of 23 years in professional baseball.

This role for A-Rod is starkly different than the role he played in baseball for so many years. That role evolved over time. He started as a prodigy and then became a superstar, multi-millionaire, pariah, liar, pariah again, liar again, mentor, father figure, and, finally, legend. When it comes to the Hall of Fame, he has no chance of getting in; unlike Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and others, Rodriguez actually failed multiple drug tests. The aforementioned names aren’t getting in the Hall anytime soon, and Rodriguez probably won’t ever get in. He has himself to blame for that omission, especially considering that he was headed for Hall of Fame numbers in the first seven years of his career with the Mariners. It is uncertain whether or not he would have kept up his production without PED assistance, but we’ll never know if he would have. That’s the shame of this.

Alex Rodriguez is many things to many people. He is one of the most polarizing athletes in sports, but he seems to have changed quite a bit since the early days of his career. Some changes have been for the better and others have been for the worse. He’s far from perfect and his reputation will never be saved with those who are unforgiving to steroid users.

But it’s hard not to acknowledge this: statistically, he’s one of the best hitters in the history of baseball. Consider this: for each 162-game season, Rodriguez has averaged 41 home runs, 121 RBI, 19 stolen bases, 78 walks, and 181 hits. Not bad at all.

That hitter, disgraced as he is, will soon leave us. We’ll never get the chance to watch him again after this Friday and his impact on the game, positive and negative, will live on for years to come.

Let’s cherish him, as his last days really are upon us and his departure from the game is imminent.

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The Blue Jays Made the Wrong Decision with Aaron Sanchez

Photo Credit: USA Today Sports

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Aaron Sanchez is one of the best young pitchers in baseball. In his first full season in the league, Sanchez sits at 11-1 and atop the American League in ERA (2.71). At just 24 years old, Sanchez could be one of the best pitchers in the game for many years to come. But, like many other things in baseball, there’s one catch:

Aaron Sanchez has never pitched this many innings in a season in his professional career.

His previous career high in innings pitched was 2014, a season that saw Sanchez toss 133.1 innings between AA New Hampshire, AAA Buffalo, and Toronto. This season, he’s already up to 139.1 innings, all of which came in starts. Sanchez had previously been shuffled back and forth between the starting rotation and this helped him limit his innings in the past couple of seasons. 2016, however, is his first full season as a starting pitcher, and even though he has performed extraordinarily well, many observers assumed that Sanchez would, at some point, either: 1) move to the bullpen or 2) be shut down by the organization completely. While Sanchez does not have a set “innings limit”, the Blue Jays and manager John Gibbons frequently discussed moving him to the bullpen at some point later in the season.

But that’s not the decision the Blue Jays decided to make. Instead of shutting down Sanchez completely or moving him to the bullpen to conserve his innings, the team announced Thursday that Sanchez would remain in the starting rotation through the rest of the season. While the Jays will go with a six-man rotation and closely monitor Sanchez for signs of fatigue, the decision marks a clear change of course for a franchise that seemed to want to protect Sanchez’s young arm even if the team had a chance to go to the playoffs. So, here comes the big question: is this the right decision for Sanchez and the Blue Jays?

First, to explain Toronto’s logic in making this decision, we need to examine the infamous “Strasburg Shutdown” of 2012. In that situation, Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who was fresh off Tommy John Surgery that forced him to miss the 2011 season, was approaching his team-imposed limit of 160 innings. Sure enough, Strasburg reached 159.1 innings with his start on September 5th of that season. After that start, the team informed Strasburg that he would not pitch again for the rest of the year, even as the team closed in on the franchise’s first playoff berth since 1981; the team was known as the Montreal Expos back then.

The Nationals took the NL East crown, and after winning 98 games, the team was widely considered a World Series favorite even without Strasburg’s services. However, Washington would get all it could handle against the St. Louis Cardinals in a series that went the distance. In Game 5, St. Louis rallied from a 6-0 deficit to win 9-7 and advance to the NLCS. Because Strasburg was not available for that series, the Nats were forced to start Edwin Jackson in a pivotal Game 3. Jackson struggled, allowing four runs in five innings; the Cardinals would win that game and take a 2-1 series lead. While nothing would have been assured if Strasburg had started the game, it is natural and fair to wonder if the Nationals would have won the series if Strasburg was available. He wasn’t, and the Nationals possibly blew their chance at a World Series because of their high-wire act centered around protecting their young star.

That’s the mistake the Blue Jays are trying to avoid. The problem is that overworking Sanchez is probably a mistake, as well. Just ask the New York Mets.

The Mets had the incredible, almost too-good-to-be-true luck of having four superstar pitchers (Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey) in the same rotation at the same time a year ago. The team was in a very similar position as the Nationals were in 2012, closing in on a playoff berth while trying to protect its star pitcher(s). Near the end of last season, the Mets were primarily concerned with protecting Harvey, who, just like Strasburg, was coming off Tommy John Surgery the year before.

Instead of going the way of the Nationals, the Mets decided to keep Harvey and the other young guns in a six-man rotation for the month of September. Harvey agreed to continue pitching, even after a protracted fight with the front office waged through the media. Unlike the Nationals, the Mets reached the World Series, eventually losing to the Kansas City Royals in five games. The wear and tear of the postseason took its toll on the Mets’ pitchers, though; Harvey, Syndergaard, and deGrom all threw well over 200 innings for the season (Syndergaard started the year in AAA). Matz avoided this distinction because of a lat injury he suffered in early July that cost him two months of the season.

The effects of being stretched out unexpectedly last season have made their presence felt on the Mets’ starters this season. Matz and Syndergaard have both pitched the second half of the season with bone spurs in their elbows while Harvey is out for the year after undergoing surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, an injury that has claimed the likes of Chris Carpenter, Chris Young, and Jaime Garcia. The Mets probably knew that the right decision would have been to limit the innings of their star pitchers, but with the team performing so well and the opportunity to win a championship firmly in their grasp, it was hard for the Mets to pull that trigger. But the team has a history of knowing what the right decision is and yet still making the wrong one; anyone remember Game 5 of the World Series?

This is the same position the Blue Jays find themselves in, but they only have one young pitcher to manage instead of four. The organization obviously thinks that going to a six-man rotation will help Sanchez and the rest of the rotation stay fresh for a potential playoff run. But as we saw with the Mets last season and now into this one, a six-man rotation is not a be-all, end-all cure for a young pitcher.

That’s why this decision is a mistake; while the Jays sit in a tie for first place in the AL East, the future of the franchise is much more important than just this season. It would be much better for the Jays to have a healthy and effective Aaron Sanchez for the next ten years instead of burning him out this year and having him never be the same again. It’s a difficult decision to make because the minds of many in the organization are clouded by the opportunity to win a championship this year. The decision becomes even more muddled when you consider that Sanchez is not coming off Tommy John Surgery or any other major operation (he’s never had Tommy John). But would the Blue Jays be willing to go down that road if wear and tear catch up to Sanchez at the end of this season?

There are a multitude of reasons why this could be considered both the right and the wrong decision. The one I keep coming back to is the fact that it’s just more important to have Sanchez healthy for the rest of his career rather than to burn him out going for a championship this year. Remember Stephen Strasburg? He’s one of the best pitchers in the league this year, sporting a 15-1 record and a 2.63 ERA. The Nationals are right back where they were four years ago, but this time there will be no limitations on Strasburg’s usage. The Nationals can go for a championship this season without the cloud of innings limits or the threat of major injury hanging over their heads.

That’s what could have awaited the Blue Jays if they made the smart decision with Sanchez. Unfortunately, it looks like they went in a very different direction, for better or worse.

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Winners and Losers, MLB Trade Deadline Edition

Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and there was plenty of intrigue and even more dealing to go along with it. Of course, with every trade deadline, there are winners, losers and teams that stayed quiet. These are the stories of the winners and losers of baseball’s trade deadline. There will be three of each type of team, and there will be explanations as to why they are in their respective categories.

So let’s get this started: here are the MLB trade deadline’s winners and losers.

Loser: Houston Astros

If you’re trying to find positives for the Astros at the trade deadline, consider this: they didn’t do anything. On the other hand, if you want to try to find a negative for the Astros this year, it would be that….. they didn’t do anything.

While that’s not necessarily a bad thing considering the results of last year’s trades, the Astros’ inaction runs counter to what the Texas Rangers, the team Houston is trying to catch to win the AL West, did on Monday. Texas acquired outfielder/designated hitter (but really designated hitter) Carlos Beltran from the Yankees and catcher Jonathan Lucroy from the Milwaukee Brewers; more on them later. The Astros did absolutely nothing, unless you consider trading away Scott Feldman and Josh Fields to be earth-shattering, landscape-changing moves in the AL West.

Those moves are most certainly not that, and the Astros did not acquire any pieces that will help them reach the playoffs this year. If you consider GM Jeff Luhnow’s nonintervention a positive thing, you probably don’t agree with Houston’s placement on this list. But I, like many others, see it as a negative, so the Astros are definitely a loser here.

Winner: New York Mets

Okay, Jay Bruce is certainly not Yoenis Céspedes. Céspedes, the Mets’ prime deadline acquisition last season, hit 17 home runs for the team in just 57 games. He’s back this year, but has been hobbled with various injuries for most of the season. Hence, the result of Céspedes’ health mixed with the collective failure of the rest of the Mets’ lineup is a team that is currently batting .205 with runners in scoring position on the season. Yes, .205. That’s historically godawful.

The acquisition of Bruce, though, may alleviate some of those struggles. Bruce is hitting .360 with runners in scoring position on the season; the problem is that he has been inconsistent in past years with runners on base. It’s hard to predict how Bruce will do in the Mets’ lineup, but this much is true: he leads the league in RBI and is having the best season of his career.

The trade for Bruce is far from a perfect acquisition for the Mets. The team now has four corner outfielders, no healthy center fielders, and is still dealing with injuries up and down the roster. However, Bruce will provide an immediate lift for the offense, even if he isn’t going to come close to Céspedes’ production from the second half of last season.

The Mets will gladly take Bruce’s offense and worry about positional fit later.

Loser: Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates easily had the most confusing trade deadline of any team in baseball. First, GM Neal Huntington decided to ship Mark Melancon to the Nationals in exchange for left-hander Felipe Rivero and prospect Taylor Hearn. Then, Huntington flipped struggling starter Francisco Liriano and two prospects for Toronto’s best AAA pitcher, Drew Hutchison. So basically, the Pirates traded a known commodity in Liriano and two promising commodities (prospects Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez) for an unknown commodity in Hutchison. This would come as a surprise to you if you didn’t know that Huntington was the same person who traded starting second baseman Neil Walker to the Mets before last season for fifth-starter and perennially mediocre lefty Jon Niese.

But wait, there’s more! The Pirates then traded a player to be named later to the Yankees for Ivan Nova. Okay, that’s cool, but why would the Pirates need another starting pitcher when they already had enough to begin with? That’s because the team traded Niese back to the Mets in exchange for Antonio Bastardo in the ultimate junk-in-exchange–for-total-garbage deadline trade.

So yeah, things went really strangely for the Pirates at the deadline. They’re throwing in the towel on this season (we think) but it’s kind of hard to tell what they’re doing when almost all of their moves contradicted each other within the course of just 48 hours. But other than that, everything’s just fine.

Winner: Texas Rangers

This one is almost a no-brainer. Texas made its team appreciably better on Monday by way of two separate trades for Carlos Beltran and Jonathan Lucroy. These moves plug obvious holes in the lineup that were previously filled by Robinson Chirinos and Prince Fielder; Fielder is out for the season after finding out last week that he would need a second neck surgery. So the Rangers were able to fill those holes in the lineup, but that’s not all they did on Monday.

In one of the sneakier, more underrated moves of deadline day, the Rangers were also able to acquire relief pitcher Jeremy Jeffress from the Brewers in the Lucroy deal. Jeffress has saved 27 games for Milwaukee this year and has quietly been one of the best closers in the game as of late. The Rangers had an obvious need for a closer after Shawn Tolleson’s season-long implosion and subsequent demotion to AAA. Jeffress fills that void, and his acquisition is huge for a team that has been looking for a closer since practically the beginning of the season.

The Rangers were one of the big winners at the trade deadline, making moves to improve their weaknesses while keeping the rest of the big-league roster intact. While Texas gave up several good prospects (Dillon Tate, Lewis Brinson, Luis Ortiz) to accrue these assets, they’re going for it all right now.

And if you had the best record in the American League, why wouldn’t you push all of your chips to the center of the table?

Loser: Miami Marlins

For as bad as the trade deadlines of Pittsburgh and Houston were, the Marlins’ one has to take the cake. And it’s not even close.

Last week, GM Michael Hill, the replacement for the since-departed Dan Jennings (who happens to be the same person as former manager Dan Jennings), traded pitcher Jarred Cosart, minor-league pitchers Tayron Guerrero, Luis Castillo (not that Luis Castillo), and injured reliever Carter Capps to the Padres. In return for this hefty price tag, the Padres sent pitchers Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea to Miami. While neither pitcher is having a great season, both would theoretically help a Marlins staff that has struggled somewhat behind ace José Fernandez.

The problem is that only one of those pitchers was fully healthy.

Rea made his first start for the Marlins on Saturday, going 3 1/3 scoreless innings before leaving the game with arm soreness. Rea’s first Miami start would also be his last; after the team placed him on the 15-day DL, it traded him back to San Diego in exchange for Luis Castillo, the prospect who has originally traded for Rea and Cashner. The Marlins have reasoning for doing this, according to Yahoo!’s Jeff Passan and FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal:

While it’s fair for Miami to be upset with the Padres for giving them damaged goods, couldn’t they have done a little more research before acquiring Rea? Also, the Fish made a trade with San Diego earlier in the summer to acquire Fernando Rodney. In that trade, Miami sent pitcher Chris Paddack, a 20-year-old prospect, to San Diego. Paddack recently found out that he needs Tommy John Surgery; the Padres aren’t crying foul about this. They were aware of the risk in trading players and understood that acquiring a player from another organization wouldn’t be a guaranteed success.

This is a lesson that the Marlins can learn from. But knowing their organizational history, it’s highly unlikely that they will.

Winner: New York Yankees

The Yankees finally did the right thing this year and distanced themselves from mediocrity to build a bright future for years to come. I suggested they do this about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and to the approval of fans and baseball observers, the great rebuild has finally come to fruition. In conceding failure for this season, the Yankees are building a potential future dynasty for years to come, as ESPN’s Andrew Marchand writes:

In acquiring not one, not two, not three … but 12 prospects by trading Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova, Cashman has transformed a Yankees farm system that was once an eyesore into one envied in the game.

Cashman’s plan is somewhat akin to Riley’s plan with the Heat six years ago, when he shaved off salary-cap space to add James and Chris Bosh to form his super team, which reached the NBA Finals four straight years and won two titles. The Yankees have now created a prospect pool which allows them to not only offer gobs of money to free agents, but also gives them the possibility of more glory.

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the Yankees could go in several different directions here. They could use their prospects to clear cap space and sign free agents (as Marchand suggests), they could use the prospects as trade chips for present or future stars, or they could keep their prospects and hope most if not all of them pan out. They really could go anywhere from here, and GM Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner should be applauded for building a bright future for the Yankees’ organization.

Watching the Yankees sell is something many of us never thought we would see. But now that they have, it’s easy to see that they made the right decision for the future and betterment of their franchise.

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It’s Time for Uniformity in Baseball’s Designated Hitter Rule

Photo Credit: Adam Hunger/USA Today

Baseball’s crazy Designated Hitter rule is something I’ve written about in the past and is something I feel very strongly about. However, it’s not something that I’ve ever really taken a deep dive into, but that changes right now. In this post, I’ll tell you what I think of the universal DH and pitchers hitting; my opinion on this is relevant due to recent events and the present landscape of baseball.

Yesterday, the San Francisco Giants concluded their four-game weekend series against the Washington Nationals. Matt Cain started the game and carried a no-hitter through the first five innings. However, Cain threw nearly 100 pitches in the process and was only making his third start since missing almost two months of the season with a hamstring injury. So manager Bruce Bochy came up with a brilliant idea; the Giants would pinch-hit Cain with Cy Young Contender and Pitcher Who Rakes Madison Bumgarner. And lo and behold, it worked!

But wait, there’s more. Not only did Bochy use Bumgarner to hit but he also pinch-ran Bumgarner with Jeff Samardzija, another one of his pitchers. Samardzija would eventually score on an error by the Nats’ Anthony Rendon. On the surface, the strategy was ingenious; the Giants used no position players and even scored a run in the process. But this is the problem: it put two pitchers at risk, a risk we’ve seen come to fruition on several occasions. But hey, why put one pitcher at risk when you can endanger two?

The Giants ended up winning the game 3-1, and the 5th inning of Bumgarner and Samardzija played a major role in the final outcome. But the outcome would be very different if one or both of the team’s star pitchers sustained injuries in the process of their journey around the bases.

There is an argument to be made for pitchers hitting in both leagues. For example, there’s the shock value that accompanies any positive result that comes out of any at-bat by a pitcher. And then there’s also a good deal of entertainment value that comes from watching pitchers work. Just look at Bartolo Colon.

Colon, who stands at 5’11”, 285 lb. and is widely known by the nickname “Big Sexy”, is one of the most entertaining at-bats in all of baseball. This is’nt because he’s a great hitter or has a great swing or works deep into counts. It’s because he puts his all into every swing, sometimes at the expense of his helmet or even his bat.

His at-bats were regarded as a complete joke… and then he hit the home run. It’s one of the great moments of my lifetime and getting to experience it is something that none of us will ever forget.

Simply put, we enjoy watching Bartolo Colon at the plate; the entertainment value in watching an oversized neophyte trying to hit a baseball is far greater than watching a designated hitter give a far more professional at-bat. However, we have to reach a point where we look beyond humor value and study the actual numbers behind pitchers hitting and ask ourselves whether it’s worth it to keep the same rules in place.

This season, like many others before it, has seen some really bad hitting from baseball’s pitchers. In the majors, pitchers are hitting just .131, and the sample size (3,499 at-bats) is not small, either. The numbers get even uglier, though, when you go to the American League: over there, pitchers are hitting .119 in just 268 at-bats. Aside from a few exceptions to the rule (Bumgarner, Jake Arrieta, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Greinke), pitchers as a whole are terrible at the plate. And most pitchers don’t commit outs with Colon’s entertainment value, so having pitchers hit is not exactly aesthetically pleasing to the baseball viewer’s eye. But hey, let’s keep the rule the way it is because that’s the way it always was. That makes a ton of sense.

(statistics courtesy of Baseball Prospectus)

The other question we need to ask ourselves is this: is it fair to have a different set of rules for each league? For example, do you know of any other sport that has a different set of rules between its two leagues? If basketball allowed more contact in the Western Conference than the Eastern Conference, would that be fair to the players, especially come playoff time? What if the NFL allowed the offense to have a twelfth player on the field, but only in the AFC? Would that bring unity to the NFL product? My guess is that it would not, and the league would never do it because keeping the same set of rules for everyone is actually something that actually protects the shield.

Well, guess what? This is what Major League Baseball is dealing with here. But I guess nothing is really surprising when you consider that the league decides home-field advantage in the World Series by way of an exhibition game that just this year alone let 60 different players take the field over the course of just 9 innings.

This is the bottom line: it’s not good for baseball to have a different set of rules for each league. In basically every World Series, discussion arises about how the NL team will use the DH and whether or not the AL team’s DH will be able to play the field in the NL team’s park. I’m not even really against having the pitcher hit in both leagues just as long as each league is playing by the same set of rules. 

The numbers also tell the story of an unnecessary disparity: the National League has scored 230 fewer runs than the American League so far this season. What’s worse is that National League teams have played an average of roughly one more game than each American League team, so at this point, we basically know what we’re getting out of each league.

But is it fair to all major league teams to have a different set of rules for each league? Is it fair to the pitchers to put them at risk by making them do something they really aren’t good at? This particularly pertains to AL pitchers who only have to hit a handful of times over the course of a season. And is it fair to the fans of this game to make them watch what is often a sure out at the bottom of the lineup? Granted, there is some strategy in having pitchers hit (bunting, intentionally walking the 8th hitter, etc.), but the product is not as good as it would be if both leagues had a Designated Hitter.

But even if that’s not going to happen, can we just have the same set of rules for each league? It’s much fairer and would create a better, more unified product for the fans and players. More importantly, it would make interleague play much easier and would remove questions about what each team would do if it played in a ballpark of the other league.

But we know that this won’t happen, so let’s just roll with the current system and pray for another #BigSexyBomb in the very near future.

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The Giants Should Be Fine… But They’re in Trouble Right Now

San Francisco Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto yells into his glove after Washington Nationals' Tanner Roark hit an RBI single during the second inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Thursday, July 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press
Photo Credit: Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Some teams go into the MLB All-Star Break in need of a few days off to get themselves healthy and ready for the final 75 or so games of the season. For other teams, they would rather just keep playing through the break because they’ve been going so well as of late and don’t want to lose precious momentum. The San Francisco Giants definitely fall into the latter category.

The Giants continued their post-All-Star Game slide last night with a 4-2 loss to the Washington Nationals. With last night’s loss, San Francisco has now lost 10 of its last 12 games since the All-Star break. The Giants are really struggling, though: seven of those ten losses came to the Yankees, Padres, and Reds, three teams who are currently not in the playoffs of their respective leagues. For a team that held the best record in baseball heading into the break, the fast and precipitous decline of the Giants has been nothing short of shocking. But how can it be explained and is the team is serious trouble after its recent heel turn?

As for the first question, injuries have worked in the Giants’ favor until quite recently, when the team began experiencing a rash of injuries to key players. The team got to where it is because most of its players were healthy for basically all of the season. That has changed recently, though, with injuries to Hunter Pence, Matt Duffy, and Joe Panik. The good news for the Giants is that Panik returned last night after suffering a concussion and missing exactly one month of baseball. Duffy is slated to start his rehab assignment this weekend and his return from his Achilles injury is not too far off, either. Pence should be able to return from a hamstring injury within the next week. Some would say that getting these three players back is just as good as making a trade; some would even say that their return is better than a trade because the Giants don’t have to give up anything to get them back.

And the thing is, it’s not like the Giants aren’t making moves outside of the organization to improve their roster.

Last night, it was announced that the Twins had traded all-star shortstop and .300 hitter Eduardo Nunez to San Francisco. Twins reporter Daniel Morse had the details first:

Mejia is one of the Giants’ best prospects and a four-pitch pitcher who has struggled at AAA Sacramento this season. It’s safe to say that the Giants paid the price to get Nunez in giving up Mejia. However, Nunez is a proven hitter who can play shortstop and third base, the latter of which is a true position of need for the Giants. The acquisition of Nunez, along with the returns of Pence, Duffy, and Panik should help a Giants lineup that has scored just 3.3 runs per game since returning from the All-Star break.

But until all of these things happen, the team that once held the best record in baseball is in serious trouble and must do everything in its power to stay above water in the NL West.

For example, look at the team’s struggling lineup. While it’s one of the more well-rounded lineups in baseball, virtually every player in it has struggled since the All-Star break. Ironically, the Giants’ two best hitters since the break have been Conor Gillaspie and Mac Williamson, two players who will receive limited playing time with the added presence of Nunez and the return of the aforementioned players from the disabled list. Manager Bruce Bochy was so desperate for offense that he slotted Williamson, who has hit six career home runs in 129 at-bats, into the three-hole for two games against the hapless Reds earlier this week.

And then there’s the matter of Buster Posey. Posey, a four-time all-star and three-time world champion, would be the last person to be a question mark in the Giants’ lineup. I mean, he’s done all these great things, he’s only 29, and he’s even tried to deliver babies because he wears gloves and delivers in the clutch. Well, maybe that didn’t go so well, but Posey is one of the best hitters in the game. And he isn’t a question mark at all; in fact, he’s been one of the few constants in a Giants lineup that has had many moving parts as of late. The only question for Bochy is what to do if and when Posey needs a day off; Bochy has recently combatted this issue by putting him at first base every once in a while. That move, though, takes Brandon Belt, another very solid hitter, out of the lineup. It’s basically pick-your-poison for San Francisco, but it isn’t one of their more pressing issues right now.

What is a pressing issue for the Giants, and one they can do nothing about, is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Even with Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher in baseball, indefinitely out of commission with back problems, the Dodgers find themselves just two games back of San Francisco. The only reason the Dodgers are in this position in the first place is because of the Giants’ losing ways, but even with San Fran having dominated the division race all season long, the Dodgers are a very dangerous team with a deep lineup and solid, albeit fractured, starting pitching. The NL West race is far from over, and the Giants have themselves to blame for this. They’re clearly the better team and yet they now have a fight on their hands just to win their own division.

This weekend presents a big series for the Giants as they play the NL East-leading Washington Nationals. The Nats took the first game of the series last night and the two teams will play three more games this weekend. If the Giants can use their new acquisitions (both inside and outside of the organization) to their advantage, they could be able to dig themselves out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves in the second half of July. After all, the team has one of the best starting rotations in baseball and is one or two injury returns away from having one of the best lineups in the game, too. These returns and acquisitions should go a long way in helping the Giants win the NL West.

But so will the next couple of weeks in deciding how serious the division race will get.

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The Rio Olympics Are a Mess and There Is Plenty of Blame to Go Around

Photo Credit: Agence France-Presse

Police and Firefighters in Rio de Janeiro have recently taken to greeting tourists who arrive for the Olympics with a sign that reads “Welcome to hell” (pictured above). Who knew that just one sign could tell the entire story of a city and a Summer Olympics currently in dire straits.

The most recent hit to the complete disaster that is these Olympics came on Monday when the Australian Olympic Delegation deemed it unsafe for its athletes to enter Rio’s Olympic Village, the location where the competing athletes stay. The reason why was because of the city’s failure to ready all of the buildings in the Village for their world-class inhabitants. Yes, a week and a half before the games kick off, a majority of the buildings in the Village are not ready for athletes to move into them. The Guardian’s Jonathan Watts reported that 19 of the 31 buildings in the Village had not yet passed safety tests and were not yet allowed to welcome guests. The good news is that the Australians feel good enough about the progress of the buildings’ construction that they’ll be moving into them tomorrow.

The bad news is that the government of Rio, like many other times throughout this process, exacerbated matters further through their handling of this situation.

This is due to comments from the city’s mayor, Eduardo Paes. He said that he “almost feel(s) like putting a kangaroo to jump up and down in front of their building”, which is a reference to the disproportionate kangaroo population of Australia. He also said that Rio “want(s) them to feel at home”, and if that means disrespecting an entire country and culture, then so be it. Making the athletes feel at home is one thing, but making a culturally insensitive comment is something completely different. And yet, this isn’t even one of the major problems plaguing the Rio Olympics.

By now, you get the picture: the 2016 Summer Olympics are going disastrously for the city of Rio, its citizens, the Olympic athletes, the city’s workers, and basically everyone even loosely associated with the games. This Olympics has been such a disaster because of a perfect storm of issues, corruption, and greed that has left the participants, citizens, and even the local environment in the dust. About that environment: recent tests have concluded that a motley of viruses and pathogens awaits aquatic athletes when they begin competition next week; these include rota-viruses and even a “super-bacteria” that can kill those who even have a slightly weakened immune system.

The worst part of this discovery, though, is the government inaction that allowed the viruses to enter Guanabara Bay, the site of many aquatic events, in the first place. As a condition of the city’s bid for the Olympics in 2009, it promised to clean up the Bay in time for this summer. Needless to say, it didn’t quite happen. Now, athletes are forced to deal with contaminated waters that could kill them if they aren’t careful. The United States rowing team will be using antimicrobial suits to try to combat the water pollution they are about to encounter; however, as studies have shown, the suits may not be enough to protect the athletes from the toilet bowl that is Guanabara Bay.

So we’ve addressed the polluted, unsafe water and the status of the Olympic Village. Have we gotten to the story about Rio de Janeiro having no money? Okay, I guess not.

The interim Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Francisco Dornelles, recently declared a financial “state of calamity” as the city is completely out of money. The city is so broke that it can’t even afford to pay police officers and public servants, both of which are pretty important to the city’s ability to conduct a safe Olympics. Also, hospitals and military officers are running on greatly reduced budgets, which could create a total disaster for those who will inevitably sustain injuries during the games. Finally, the city’s bankruptcy may render it incapable of paying off the costs of hosting an Olympic games. You see, the financial problems in Rio would be major issues even if there was no Olympics in town. The fact that the city must pony up for the steep cost of the Olympics only aggravates its compromised financial state.

So that takes care of the human cost of the games (for now). What’s going on with the International Olympic Committee? Oh, nothing much, just another corruption scandal involving another country.

The Committee recently announced that it would not ban all Russian athletes from participating in this Olympics, a result of a statewide doping program that many athletes purportedly participated in. (The committee did decide to ban 37 Russians from any participation in the Olympics, so not all was lost.) Maybe not so coincidentally, Russia won the most medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics which just happened to be held in…. Sochi, Russia. Yeah, definitely no conflict of interest there.

The worst part about this situation, though, is that disasters such as these Olympics could occur again in the future if the IOC is not careful. This can be prevented by having a more organized system of deciding Olympic host cities. For instance, four cities have hosted multiple Summer Olympic Games (London, Athens, Los Angeles, Paris). Cities like these have experience in hosting Olympic Games and understand everything that goes into putting it on. Those cities could theoretically be placed on a shortlist of cities that would be allowed to host the Summer Games. Then, other cities could be added based on financial status, safety, and past Olympic hosting experiences (if they went well). Finally, each city would have to be interested in hosting an Olympics, which is far easier said than done. Facilities and other factors (weather, location, size of city) will also be at play.

And then it would be simple: create a rotation that includes those cities and no others. Make the Olympics like the Super Bowl in that only very select locations receive the opportunity to host it. And hold those cities accountable when things go wrong, and when necessary, remove them from the rotation based on the seriousness of their transgressions. We would need a competent IOC to make this happen, and that is something we clearly don’t have.

The Rio Olympics may go down as one of the most disastrous of all-time and that distinction will have almost nothing to do with the events themselves. Obviously, Olympics past have had problems, too; consider the Munich tragedy in 1972 and the Atlanta bombing in 1996. But the disasters plaguing Rio could have been prevented by its government and the IOC, two groups that cannot be counted on to provide a safe Olympic Games.

And that is the biggest shame of this entire situation.

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It’s Time for Ray Rice’s Second Chance

Photo Credit: Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Over two years ago, the NFL suspended then-Ravens running back Ray Rice for a domestic violence incident that took place in Atlantic City, NJ.  At the time, many thought the suspension was egregiously lenient, a product of the league’s flawed and archaic attitude toward domestic violence.  In the wake of the Rice incident, the league tightened up its domestic violence policy, mandating a six-game suspension for a first-time offense and a lifetime ban for a second offense.  The league seemed to be making legitimate progress toward mitigating a problem that had blighted its reputation for years.

That was, until TMZ released the video.

You don’t need me to tell you what “the video” refers to.  It became one of the most infamous tapes to reach the public in recent memory.  In it, Rice is seen punching his then-fiance Janay and subsequently dragging her out of an elevator at a local casino.  The video is so disturbing that I’m not even going to hyperlink to it; you can see it for yourself if you really want or need to.  It is, without exaggeration, one of the most repugnant acts you will ever see caught on camera.  Rice was immediately released by the Ravens, and no team has latched on to him since the incident.  Rice may never again sign with an NFL team based on the events of that February 2014 night.

And yet, even after all of this, I still think Rice has earned himself a second chance in the league.  Why hasn’t he gotten it yet?

The short answer is rather simple.  Commissioner Roger Goodell basically made an example out of Rice in changing the league’s domestic violence policy in the wake of the incident.  Because of Goodell’s actions (such as suspending Rice indefinitely after the release of the tape), Rice essentially became radioactive to teams, even those in need of a running back.  By way of seeing the video and placing the violence in visual terms, many front offices deemed the risks of Rice’s employment greater than the benefits.  Your opinion of many things will change when you actually see them for yourself, and the Rice controversy was no different.  As a populace, we were already against Goodell’s initially lenient suspension. After seeing the video, we were collectively appalled at the original punishment.

But we have to go back to the NFL to know why Rice is still unemployed.  If Goodell had not arbitrarily levied the indefinite suspension, a team may have aimed to acquire the Rutgers product after the Ravens released him.  However, Goodell did what he has always done best: make things up as he goes along under the guise of “protecting the shield”.  It’s understandable that the league was in full-blown crisis mode in the wake of the video, and one can comprehend why it would act this way.  But the NFL had no right to punish Rice indefinitely, especially after it handed down an initial suspension.  In November of that year, a judge overturned the league’s ruling for that exact reason.  But the judge could not overturn the damage Goodell and the league did to Rice’s future.

Let me say this: I don’t necessarily feel sorry for Ray Rice.  What he did was deplorable and set a horrible example for those who looked up to him as a role model.   Even though the league’s reaction to the video was absurd, he really deserved whatever punishment he received.

That being said, it has been surprising that no team has taken a chance on Rice in almost two years. This has to do with both his radioactive reputation and his ability, or lack thereof, to still play the game at a high level.

For example, Rice rushed for over 1,000 yards for four seasons from 2009-2012, the last of which ending in a Super Bowl victory over the 49ers (blackout game, anyone?).  More importantly, he played in every game during that period and has never played fewer than 13 games in a season over the course of his six-year career.  His injury-riddled 2013 season was easily the worst of his career, as he only averaged 3.1 yards per carry and suffered major declines in almost every major statistical category.  The domestic incident occurred that next March.  The infamous video surfaced in September. And now we’re here.

Needless to say, Rice has paid the price for his actions.  It’s a price that he absolutely deserved to pay and brought upon himself.  He has no one to blame but himself, and he earned his exile from the league. But can’t we reach a point as a country and society where we can give someone a second chance?  Why haven’t we reached that point with Ray Rice?

Consider this: for as bad as Rice’s actions were, he was (and still is) a first-time offender.  It’s none of our business what happened between he and his fiance that night, but to our knowledge, he has not engaged in any other violent actions involving women since then.  Also, Rice has seemingly been a perfect citizen since that night, engaging in counseling and seemingly bettering himself in the process.

What’s worse, though, is that other perpetrators of domestic violence have received second chances before Rice.  For example, defensive end Greg Hardy was signed by the Dallas Cowboys last season.  Hardy was suspended by the league for threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend just two months after Rice’s incident; he repeatedly showed no remorse for his transgressions.  Rice has done the opposite, apologizing for his actions on multiple occasions and taking the steps necessary to improve himself in the process.  If Hardy, a seemingly terrible human being, can get a chance before Rice, what does that say about the current state of affairs in the NFL?

Rice has more than served his punishment for his actions.  He seems to have learned from them, though: he says he’ll donate his salary to domestic violence charities if he plays in 2016.  There’s this to consider, too: he’s only 29 years old.  With two full years off, he may be able to avoid hitting the wall most running backs crash into once they reach age 30.  We saw what happened last season after Adrian Peterson was forced to miss a season after his own transgressions: he came back to the league better than ever before and won a rushing title last season.  Rice may not be able to do that, but he should have something to give for a team that can properly utilize him in its backfield.

Ray Rice has earned his second chance.  Whether or not he gets it, unfortunately, is a very different story.

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An Early Top Five NFL Coaches on the Hot Seat

Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan
Photo Credit: Bill Wippert/Associated Press

It’s hard to believe, but NFL training camps kick off next week.  32 teams will report to camp with their roster and head coach; however, not all of them will make it through the whole season with the same man in charge.

Let me say this before we start: I don’t like seeing coaches, or any human beings, get fired.  It’s not fun and a shame to see people in any walk of life suddenly lose their jobs, especially if the collective failure is not all their fault.

With that being said, though, here are my top five NFL coaches on the hot seat for this upcoming season.  Hope you enjoy!

5. John Harbaugh/Baltimore Ravens

This is one that probably won’t happen but can if the Ravens disappoint this season.  The Ravens finished under .500 last year for the first time under Harbaugh’s reign; more importantly, though, it’s clear that the Steelers and Bengals have surpassed them, both in performance and relevance, in the stacked AFC North.

However, I don’t see this one coming to fruition.  Harbaugh and General Manager Ozzie Newsome have formed one of the most successful GM/head coach bonds in the NFL since Harbaugh arrived in Baltimore in 2008.  While the team is not what it once was and is still struggling to replace the talent that has departed since they won the Super Bowl, there isn’t a very realistic chance that Harbaugh gets fired.

But that chance does exist, and for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll put Harbaugh on the list.

4. Gus Bradley/Jacksonville Jaguars

This offseason was one of goodwill for the Jacksonville Jaguars, from the signings of Chris Ivory, Tashaun Gipson, and Prince Amukamara to the drafting of linebacker Myles Jack and safety Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey was widely regarded as the best player in the draft and Jacksonville was lucky to snag him with the fifth overall pick.  Most look at this as steady improvement for a franchise that has struggled for the better part of the last decade.  For the purposes of this discussion, I’ll look at this as the team’s front office setting up head coach Gus Bradley to fail.

Hear me out on this one: if the Jaguars are indeed a disappointment this season, Bradley has absolutely nothing to fall back on to keep his job.  Yes, the future of the team will still be very bright, but it is much more significant that Bradley has won a grand total of 12 games in three seasons in Jacksonville.  It stands to reason that if the Jags don’t make a significant improvement in 2016, Bradley would be the first head to roll.

I think the Jaguars will be successful this season.  I also think that Bradley is gone if they aren’t.

3. Marvin Lewis/Cincinnati Bengals

Speaking of being set up to fail, Marvin Lewis carves out his niche at number three on our list.  You probably know that Lewis is the second-longest tenured head coach in the league, behind only Bill Belichick.  The difference is that Belichick has won 23 playoff games in his career: 22 with the Patriots and one with the Cleveland Browns. Lewis, in his 13 seasons with the Bengals, has won exactly zero playoff games.  That’s a problem, especially when you consider the fact that Lewis-coached teams have made the playoffs seven times. Lewis’ 0-7 career playoff record is compounded even further by the fact that four of those games were at home.

This year, there really aren’t any excuses for the Bengals.  Virtually everyone returns healthy from the team that started last season 8-0. The biggest difference from the end of last season is that quarterback Andy Dalton returns after breaking his wrist in a week 14 game against the Steelers last season.  But even with backup quarterback A.J. McCarron, Cincinnati led Pittsburgh 16-15 with under 30 seconds to play in their playoff matchup last season.  Instead of ending in a victory, the 18-16 loss became one of the worst meltdowns we’ve ever seen from a single team in the history of football.

Let’s hope that the Bengals, at the very least, can keep their composure if they make the playoffs again this year.  And then let’s hope Marvin Lewis isn’t out of a job if they do.

2. Mike McCoy/San Diego Chargers

It’s pretty clear that any initial romance that existed between Mike McCoy and the Chargers is gone.  After making the playoffs in his first season in Southern California, McCoy’s Chargers have missed the postseason in the last two years.  Even worse, the team plummeted from 9-7 finishes in 2013 and 2014 to a 4-12 record in 2015.

The real reason to panic, though, if you’re a Charger fan, is that quarterback Philip Rivers is locked under contract until 2020.  Rivers set a career high in passing yards last season (4792) and would likely have a say on McCoy’s future if the team falters again this season. There’s also the overwhelming probability that the team will move from San Diego to Los Angeles after this season.  This move would precipitate a shift in expectation on behalf of both the new fanbase and ownership.  Would the Chargers follow in the Rams’ footsteps and retain their exceedingly mediocre head coach in a move to L.A.?

My bet is that they won’t, and if the Chargers underperform in 2016, McCoy’s future is simple: to live or die in L.A.

1. Rex Ryan/Buffalo Bills

This one is easy.

Ryan made many promises upon being named the Bills’ coach, but the one thing many reasonably expected was an improved defense.  After all, Ryan is a defensive mind, one who coached the Ravens’ defense into the league’s elite for much of the 2000s.  The problem is that in the one year of Ryan’s leadership, the Bills’ defense actually regressed.

To demonstrate this, I’ve put together this chart that shows the differences between the 2014 Bills and the ’15 team:

 

2014 2015
Total Yards (per game) 4995 (312.2) 5702 (356.4)
Passing yards (per game) 3292 (205.8) 3972 (248.3)
Rushing yards (per game) 1703 (106.4) 1730 (108.1
Points allowed (per game) 289 (18.1) 359 (22.4)

That’s pretty unbelievable stuff; the Bills were worse in every significant defensive category under Ryan than they were under Doug Marrone in 2014.  If that regression continues this season, the Bills front office will have no choice but to cut him loose.  Reports are that the front office has given Ryan a playoff ultimatum for this season; making the playoffs would require significant improvement on the defensive side of the ball.

I don’t know if Ryan is capable of delivering that improvement, and it’s more likely than not that he’ll be out of a job after this season.

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We May Never Again See a Performance Like Henrik Stenson’s Sunday in Scotland

Photo Credit: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Before Sunday, you may have known Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson as the best golfer to never win a major.  That distinction is now rendered obsolete: at 40, Stenson became a major champion with his win at Royal Troon, the site of the 2016 Open Championship.

How he got there, though, is what’s so impressive about his victory. On Sunday, he and Phil Mickelson quite possibly delivered the greatest final round in the history of major championship golf.  Yes, that history includes Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, and many others.  Stenson and Mickelson may have given us a final-round duel the likes of which we have never seen before.

The tournament and this story began on Thursday when Mickelson shot an opening-round 63 to tie the major championship record for the lowest score in a round.  Phil tied 28 others through his accomplishment; he had this putt on the 18th hole to break the record.  He came so close, and yet he ended up so far away.

In Friday’s second round, Stenson shot a 65 to pull within one stroke of Mickelson, who shot 69 to maintain a one-shot lead.  By the time Saturday came around, Stenson and Mickelson made The Open a two-man race; Stenson headed into Sunday with a one-shot lead. However, the gap between the second-place Mickelson and third-place Bill Haas was a full five strokes.  It says something that most people were paying attention to the rest of the field because of a guy whose nickname is “Beef”.

But Sunday is where these two all-world golfers (Stenson in particular) would stake their claim to history.

Ironically, the Swede started his final round with a bogey at the first. Phil would take the lead with a birdie at that hole; it would be the only time Mickelson led outright all day.  Stenson birdied the next three holes, but Phil countered with an eagle at the par-five fourth. Stenson took the lead back with a birdie on the eighth but gave it right back with a bogey on eleven.  He would reclaim the lead once more with a birdie on the par-three fourteenth.  His signature moment of the day, and maybe his career, came on the fifteenth.  He had this putt for birdie and a two-shot lead.  The problem was that the putt was from at least fifty feet away.  That wouldn’t be much of an obstacle for Stenson, though, as he drilled the putt and even walked it in because it was his day and he’s a legend:

Another two birdies on sixteen and eighteen sealed the win for Stenson.  His 63 on Sunday tied the one-round record set by Mickelson and others; what goes around comes around.  A 62 would have broken the record and really rubbed it in on Phil, but a 63 will have to do.  The win marked the first major victory of Stenson’s career, and at age 40, it probably means more to him than it might to other golfers on tour.  Stenson also broke the aggregate score (264) and under par (-20) records for The Open.  His performance will truly live on forever.

But why is it important for sports fans to appreciate Stenson’s performance Sunday and over the course of the tournament?

It’s important because in sports, we seem to value coming up clutch in important moments.  We have discussions, albeit ridiculous and untrue, about supposed “clutch genes” and whether athletes have them or not.  We espouse this course of action when we want to find ways to discredit LeBron James and others while elevating players like Michael Jordan to God-like status.  However, we tend to think of this as coming up big for one’s team and we don’t necessarily believe that players want to come up clutch for themselves.

In golf, it’s obviously different.  Players are only really playing for themselves and the love of the game.  Beside from the Ryder Cup and other events, there is really no team aspect to the sport.  Players are playing to win but earnings don’t hurt, either.  It’s what we expect, and frankly, what we want, out of our athletes: playing the game out of competitiveness and competition.

But even without the team aspect of the sport, it’s hard not to appreciate what Stenson and Mickelson did over the weekend. Playing at a golf course that was far from easy, they chose to instead make a mockery of it.  Mickelson, even in second place, finished a full eleven strokes ahead of J.B. Holmes in third.  It was truly like watching two men among boys as they carved up Royal Troon and made the course look like a joke.  In reality, it’s one of the toughest courses in Scotland and in the world, but you wouldn’t know that if you only watched the Henrik-Phil pairing.

So where do we go from here?  For starters, the PGA Championship begins next Thursday at Baltusrol Golf Course in Springfield, New Jersey.  After the PGA, which is being played two weeks early this year, the world’s best golfers will head to the complete mess that is the Rio Olympics, hoping to secure gold for themselves and their country.  This will display something that we don’t often see in the golf: the team aspect of the sport.

But let’s stay in the present and appreciate what Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson gave us Sunday: a final round for the ages.  It was every bit as good as the Tom Watson/Jack Nicklaus “Duel in the Sun” at Turnberry in 1977; Nicklaus himself even took to Twitter to admit it.  Ironically, Mickelson’s last major win came at the 2013 Open Championship, when he birdied the final four holes to win at Muirfield.  Who finished second that year?  Henrik Stenson.  It’s a small world after all.

Stenson got his revenge on Sunday, and he did it with a performance the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time.  So we should appreciate that wild Sunday in Scotland: we may never see anything like it ever again.

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Start Spreading the News: It’s Time for the Yankees to Overhaul Their Current Roster

Carlos Beltran
Photo Credit: Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Throughout their history, the New York Yankees have not exactly been associated with patience and prolonged rebuilding processes. That may be about to change, and for a franchise that has had its fair share of recent success in recent years, it may not be such bad news.

With the team currently sitting at 44-45 and 5.5 games back of the Blue Jays for the AL’s second Wild Card spot, it doesn’t appear as though they’ll be going anywhere this year.  While the Yanks only rank 11th in baseball in average age (29), there are aging veterans on the team who could reasonably be dealt by GM Brian Cashman before the month ends.

That is, if president Randy Levine and owner Hal Steinbrenner allow him to do so.

ESPN’s Wallace Matthews reported Thursday that the higher-ups in management are internally at odds over how to counteract the team’s struggles.  This is exactly what he wrote about the specific disagreement between two very different factions of the New York front office:

According to a baseball source who spoke to ESPN on condition of anonymity, the opposing factions are composed of the baseball operations people, led by general manager Brian Cashman, who believe the team should sell off its assets and plan for the future, and the business side, which is led by owner Hal Steinbrenner and team president Randy Levine, who hold to the belief that the club is still in contention.

Here’s the thing: Steinbrenner and Levine genuinely believe that the ballclub will come back in the standings and make a deep playoff run. They want Cashman, who answers to them, to make a deal at the trade deadline to improve the roster this season while potentially compromising it for years to come.  The Cashman camp would like to move older, more experienced players such as Carlos Beltran (39 years old), closer Aroldis Chapman, set-up man Andrew Miller, and outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner.

On the other hand, the Levine and Steinbrenner group really think that the team with the fourth-worst record in the American League is capable of making moves to win another championship.  The problem is that the Yankees, in their current state, are the the definition of mediocre.  In terms of results, that means many different things but very little consistency.

For example, a 6-5 stretch from June 14 to June 26 against the Twins and Rockies was followed by a split of a four-game series against the Texas Rangers, the best team in the American League.  Those outcomes would be followed by series defeats at the hands of the Padres and White Sox, not exactly teams you equate with serious contenders.  Up next on the schedule was a four-game weekend series against baseball’s hottest team, the Cleveland Indians.  What would the Yankees do?  Win three out of four (in Cleveland, no less).  They’re doing what mediocre teams do: showing flashes of brilliance while lacking the consistency of an elite squad.

Here is another problem the Yankees have: their pitching.  This does not pertain to their bullpen of Miller, Chapman, and Dellin Betances, but it relates to the starting pitching that has been incapable of consistently getting the ball to those three with a lead.  The team has used a combination of starters this season and is currently shuffling Ivan Nova and Nathan Eovaldi back and forth between the bullpen and the starting rotation; both have struggled and pitched to ERAs over 5.00 this season.  The Yanks’ two best starters this season are staff ace Masahiro Tanaka and… C.C. Sabathia, who has not pitched a full season since 2013.  No bueno.

The Yankees’ lineup has also struggled this season, as Rodriguez, Starlin Castro, Gardner, and others have struggled.  When you combine this with their lackluster pitching, you realize that there are no signs that point to any type of deep run in the playoffs.  So why are Levine and Steinbrenner so hellbent on the Yanks’ being buyers at the trade deadline?

The simple answer: they are, after all, power brokers for the Yankees, the most successful franchise in the history of sports.  When have the Dallas Cowboys, Manchester United, or FC Barcelona ever been in “rebuilding mode”?  Yeah, never; at least they won’t admit that.  The Yankees fall in the same category: they expect to win, win, win, no matter what.  Their fans expect that too, as it’s most of what they’ve known no matter how long they’ve been rooting for the Yanks.  The problem is that the Yankee mystique invariably clouds the fans and, apparently, the team’s decision-makers from the franchise’s ultimate reality: the Yankees aren’t that good of a team and don’t have a great future, either.  Those things can change.

And with August 1 (this year’s trade deadline) quickly approaching, Cashman has the opportunity to do just that.  For example, Beltran is having something of a renaissance year, hitting nearly .300 and coming off an appearance in his ninth career All-Star game. Translated: he has a lot of value right now and Cashman could deal him to a contender for a solid return.  More importantly, Beltran has stayed healthy to this point in the season.  This is something he really hasn’t done over the past few seasons and is important to note when considering his trade value.  The clock is ticking on Cashman and the front office to find a trade partner for Beltran’s services because he is suffering from a hamstring injury that has forced him exclusively into the team’s Designated Hitter role.  The hamstring injury could reoccur on any given day; an injury to the Yankees’ best hitter would make him a full-time DH, drastically reducing his trade value and thinning out the trade market for his talents.

And then there’s the obvious benefit to a Yankee fire sale: the opportunity to receive prospects in return for star players in their prime.  While the Yankees have some very intriguing prospects (Aaron Judge, Jorge Mateo, Gary Sanchez, among others), there is room for improvement and added depth in the farm system.  While these prospects have very bright futures, here’s something to remember when building a farm system: you can never have too many prospects in your organization.  The prospects you receive today could be used as trade chips for star players tomorrow; they could also become cornerstones for your franchise.  Just ask the Cubs about this.  Who wouldn’t want one of those two outcomes, even if it meant biting the bullet and going into a full-blown rebuild?

The Yankees have a multitude of reasons to blow up their current roster and start fresh without their stars of today.  Doing this would enable the team to realize a future that is available to them if they decide that’s what they want for the long-term betterment of their franchise.

They must make that decision soon.  We all know what the right move is.

Let’s see if Levine and Steinbrenner allow it to be made.