It’s been a while since I cleaned out my sports garage, so here we go with some random thoughts from the sports world.
- The Deshaun Watson trade rumors are heating up as the Houston Texans have supposedly reduced their asking price. Any team acquiring him is taking a significant risk considering his unresolved legal issues, but my gut says your Miami Dolphins pull the trigger sooner than later. The NFL trade deadline is Nov 2.
- Even though MLB now takes a back seat to the NFL, it’s been an exciting season in the ballparks. The regular season concludes on Sunday with 4 teams still battling for the 2 AL Wild Card spots. Shohei Ohtani showed his excellence on both the mound and in the batter’s box and is a strong contender for the MVP award. Young stars Vladimir Guerrero, Bo Bichette, Juan Soto & Fernando Tatis had breakout seasons. But don’t overlook the veterans, as Dodger’s pitcher Max Scherzer proved he’s as good as ever while Royals catcher Salvador Perez had a career year leading the AL in both home runs and RBIs.
- The NHL season kicks off for the Florida Panthers on Oct 14th. Panthers’ fans have reason to be excited as the Cats have a legitimate shot at winning the Stanley Cup this season. Coming off their best season in franchise history they have added talented veteran forward Sam Reinhart and should have one of the top rookies in the league with center Anton Lundell. They also get defenseman Aaron Ekblad back from injury who missed the end of the season and the playoffs.
- It was a tough loss for the Miami Hurricanes on Thursday night losing to Virginia 30-28, as they missed a last second field goal. They have fallen to 2-3. If Canes fans are looking for a silver lining, though, it could be the improved play of the offensive line in the 2nd half. They opened multiple holes for the run game and did a better job of protecting QB Tyler Van Dyke. Similar to the Dolphins, spotty O-line play has been an area of concern for several years for the Canes.
- The Dolphins have a must win game this Sunday vs. the Colts. A loss would drop them to 1-3, which would likely become 1-4 with a road game vs. the Super Bowl champs Tampa Bay on tap in week 5. It could very well take 11 wins to make the playoffs this season, so a 1-4 start would mean they would need to go 10-2 the rest of the season. But let’s not look too far ahead. First things first – take care of business vs. Indianapolis this Sunday.
- By this time next week, the MLB wild card playoff games will be over. While it’s nice to make the playoffs as a wild card team, the one & done format is a tough way for a team’s season to end. Either San Francisco or the LA Dodgers, the teams with the 2 best records in all of MLB, will be a wild card team and it would be a shame if they were eliminated in the one game wild card playoff.
- I try not to get too worked up about the large contracts that athletes sign these days, as it’s not my money the owners are spending. But some contracts just make me shake my head. The Denver Nuggets just signed forward Michael Porter Jr. to a 5-year deal worth between $172M-$207M. That’s an annual average of $34.4M-$41.4M. This for a guy who has had more than his fair share of injuries. He did average 19 points and 7.3 rebounds per game last season, which is pretty good. I just don’t see how that output is worth potentially $41.4M a year, as he isn’t even amongst the top 25 players in the league. Oh well, it’s not my money and if I were in the same situation as Porter, I would have rushed to the table with my pen to sign that contract.
Take care sports fans and enjoy the NFL, college football, the MLB playoffs and the upcoming starts of the NHL & NBA seasons. It’s a great time of year to be a sports fan!
