Armadillo: Saturday's six-pack
Odds to hit the most home runs this coming baseball season:
5-1? Giancarlo Stanton
8-1? Aaron Judge
15-1? Bryce Harper
18-1? Mike Trout, Manny Machado
20-1? JD Martinez
25-1? Gallo, Arenado, Bellinger, Bryant, Goldschmidt, Freeman
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Armadillo: Saturday's List of 13: Random stuff with weekend here??
13) It is wrong to sit back and say nothing about the stuff thats gone on in the White House this week. Saying nothing gives tacit approval to what has gone on, that the President of our country can openly say racist things and get away with it.
The second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence starts this way:
?We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.?
Rich people aren?t better than poor people; no race or religion is better than another.
?All men are created equal???.very important words to remember
12) Arizona Cardinals players wore a saying on t-shirts this season:
Trust, loyalty, respect.
Our culture is losing its respect for the diversity that has made this country great. Without respect, common decency takes a backseat to what we?re seeing now. Its not good.
11) You can go on baseballprospectus.com and look up salary info for every major league team; it tracks salary commitments from now until 2023.
Right now, the Oakland A?s have $12,333,000 on the books for 2019.
Los Angeles Dodgers have $116,426,000 on the books for 2019.
10) Bronx Bombers have $87,343,000 on the books for 2020, $40,200,000 to pitchers.
New York Mets have $56,000,000 on the books for 2020, $43M of it to Cespedes/Bruce, $12M to David Wright, who is probably finished, and $0 to pitchers.
These two franchises are located eight miles apart physically, worlds apart in their approach.
9) Tampa Bay Rays have $19,833,000 on their payroll for 2019; they?re supposedly competing with the Red Sox and Bronx Bombers in the AL East? good luck there.
8) OVC heads into the weekend with a 5-way tie for first place at 4-1. Jacksonville State plays Austin Peay, Murray State visits Tennessee Tech in two matchups between 4-1 teams.
7) Six assistant coaches have left the Dallas Cowboys? staff since the season ended.
6) Georgia QB Jacob Eason is transferring to Washington; he?ll sit next season, then have couple years of eligibility left. Eason sprained his knee in the Dawgs? opener this season; freshman Jake Fromm replaced him and led Georgia to the national title game.
I wonder if Jacob Eason ever heard of Wally Pipp?
5) Think about Bruce Arians? coaching career; he was an assistant at Alabama for Bear Bryant?s last season coaching, and he was Peyton Manning?s first QB coach. What a career? now he is hoping to move into television next season, and for my sake, I hope he does. Arians tells the truth and he?ll be great on TV? we?ll be able to learn a lot from him.
4) In 1972-73, the Virginia Squires of the ABA went 42-42 under coach Al Bianchi; this team was one of the great announcer?s nightmares of all-time. They had these three players:
Julius Erving. George Gervin. George Irvine. Three similar sounding last names.
Dr J and the Iceman went on to be two of the greatest scorers ever; Irvine went on to coach the Indiana Pacers, but what a tongue-twister that had to be when the Squires had the ball.
3) Blue Jays signed Josh Donaldson for one year at $23M; he is a free agent next winter, but is 32 and missed 49 games last year with injuries.
2) Utah Jazz? Rodney Hood got fined $35,000 by the NBA for slapping a cellphone out of a fan?s hand as he left the court in Washington after getting ejected from a game.
He should have to buy the fan a new IPhoneX, even if he didn?t break the first phone. Grow up.
1) ESPN had an interesting stat last night; from 2012-14, the Power 5 leagues and Big East got 70.9% of at-large bids to the NCAA tournament.
Last three years, those six leagues got 84.3% of at-large bids. The mid-majors are slowly being squeezed out of the at-large process, in part due to how the big boys schedule and now with the big leagues going to bigger conference schedules, which will jack up their RPIs.
