Well, there are going to be some changes happening with the Cleveland Indians...After a week or so of Indians President/former GM, Mark Shapiro telling all of the media he wasn't going anywhere...As I write this post, the final details are being hammered out that will see Shapiro leave, and take the role of President for the Toronto Blue Jays...
Blue Jays president Paul Beeston is retiring...Beeston was the 'Jays first employee in 1976...Shapiro has been with the Indians since 1992, and was the GM from 2001-2010...Then he was promoted to President...Shapiro is highly respected in the baseball world for his eye for talent, and how he has managed a tight budget over the years...Shapiro is also on MLB's competition committee...He also oversaw the recent renovation to Progressive Field...The Blue Jays are planning on some major changes to the Rogers Centre...These plans may have helped to make the job attractive to Shapiro, as well as Shapiro attractive to the Jays...
Toronto made a huge splash at the trade deadline...And now are making a splash upstairs...
Personally, I wasn't much of a Shapiro fan...He held onto former Manager Eric Wedge too long...He traded Cliff Lee after winning the Cy Young, a year before he had to for a handful of players...Only one who is left and just panning out this year in Carrasco...He traded C.C. Sabathia after his Cy Young, for a slug Matt LaPorta (an elite prospect) and got Michael Brantley as a throw in...Brantley clearly has panned out well, but he was called a throw in...Sounds like dumb luck...Enough dumb luck to make people forget that LaPorta was a "can't miss player"...He traded Victor Martinez a year before he had to, for squat...
The best move he made was getting out of the GM role...Chris Antonetti has done well as GM...I'm not sure how much of the hiring of Terry Francona falls on Shapiro, but I'll put that up there as his second best move...
Speaking of Francona, there has already been fear that he would use his opt-out clause to possibly follow Shapiro to Toronto...Francona has already come out and said that he has no intention of doing something like that...Who knows, that could be just more bullshit, that we normally get in sports...Although, I have a lot more respect for Francona, and would trust his word more then Shapiro...
-Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta just threw this season 6th no-hitter, striking out 12...I hadn't looked at Arrieta as an ace, but he clearly has become the Cubs ace, and not Jon Lester...The guy was a inconsistent pitcher with good stuff, while with the Orioles, and now he has put it all together...Only problem for the Cubs, which is the same problem the Pirates have been having...Both these teams have been playing incredible baseball, and they can't catch the St. Louis Cardinals,(best record in baseball) who keep plugging along no matter who gets injured...Which has got to be about half their team now...So I guess Washington can't really fall back on the injury excuse anymore...
-While I was writing this post, and checking twitter, I was feeling ready to puke in my soup, as so many people are on social media talking about the MTV Video Music Awards...Which apparently are mostly about female pop stars trying see who can look like the biggest whore...And how can they have a Video Music Awards show, when MTV hasn't shown a music video in 15 fucking years...My God this world sucks!
-I'm getting warmed up for Football season...I laughed when I saw Illinois FIRED their head football coach 8 days before the season begins...I've got 7 games picked out for this first week of college football to help you gamblers out...I'll be posting that Wednesday night so you're ready for those Thursday games...And then I did my fantasy football draft...I didn't want to play...Because I hate the NFL, and am doing what I can to avoid their shit...But Sully made me, so I said screw it...I'll win this bitch...Here's what NFL.com thought of my draft...
Suck it fellas!
-I'll close with this...As a Notre Dame fan, I really like reading THIS...I was always a Tom Zbikowski, but had no idea his life after football went this way...He down a hole, but is finding redemption...He didn't waste all of his NFL money...And he didn't waste all of his money from his undefeated boxing career...But he still needs the adrenaline...And he wants to do something important...He's a Chicago Firefighter now...His father Ed said...
"Now, he doesn’t have 80,000 people cheering for him and 30 million people watching him. It’s easy to be a hero when people are watching you, but to be a hero when nobody’s watching you and it’s 2 o’clock in the morning and you get a call?
“If you took his greatest knockout or the greatest game he has ever played, none of that will save a person’s life. You can score 100 touchdowns, and that won’t compare to saving someone’s life.’’
And Zbikowski isn't done there...He has more goals...Click that link for good read...
Have a week...
