Lot of stuff going on this week…….
— Pete Alonso bolts from the Mets to Baltimore, getting a 5-year, $155M deal; Alonso hit 264 home runs in seven years with the Mets. He played in 152+ games in all six of his non-COVID years in New York. His career OPS is .857.
Unsure what is going on with the Mets; they traded Brandon Nimmo, and have lost Edwin Diaz and Alonso to free agency this week. GM David Stearns has a lot of work to do this winter, to get their roster back to where the Mets are a contending team.
If you were wondering, Alonso’s per game rate is $191,358.
— Atlanta Braves signed 35-year old OF Mike Yastrzemski for two years, $23M; he is a career .238 hitter who figures to take over in LF if free agent Marcell Ozuna goes to another team.
— If you’re into fantasy baseball, here’s a player recommendation; Washington OF Daylen Lile, who hit .299 in 91 games as a rookie last year. In the second half of the season, Lile hit .333 with a .956 OPS; he hit 7 triples, 6 home runs in September, the first big leaguer to hit 7+ triples, 6+ homers in a calendar month since Wille Mays, in 1957.
— Pittsburgh Pirates signed lefty reliever Gregory Soto to a one-year, $7.75M deal; Soto had a 4.18 ERA last year, the Orioles/Mets.
— Joe Buck will be getting the Ford Frick Award at the Hall of Fame next summer, joining his father Jack in the broadcasting area of the Hall of Fame.
— Right now, San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen is the only major league manager who was a pitcher in his playing days.
— This week is the 60th anniversary of one of the worst trades in MLB history, the Reds dealing Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas. The trade was so one-sided it gets referenced at the start of the movie Bull Durham (“bad trades are a part of baseball”).
Robinson had a .944 OPS in six years for the Orioles, who played in four World Series during those six years. Pappas was 30-29, 4.04 in 75 starts over three years for the Reds.
Famous birthdays, December 11th:
Rita Moreno, 94
Jay Bell, 60
Gary Dourdan, 59
Derek Bell, 57
Willie McGinest, 54
Robert Holcombe, 50
Joe Blanton, 45
Roy Hibbert, 39
Jacoby Brissett, 33
Malcolm Brogdon, 33
Hailee Steinfeld, 29
Mark Vientos, 26
— New Mexico 81, VCU 78
VCU led 46-41 at halftime.
Lobos have won five in a row, are 8-2, 3-1 vs top 100 teams.
VCU is 6-4, but 0-4 when they allow 80+ points.
— St Bonaventure 85, Colgate 77
Colgate led 47-34 at halftime.
Bonnies shot 58.7% inside the arc.
St Bonaventure is 10-1, with only loss to North Carolina.
— Merrimack 59, Princeton 56
Merrimack won last four games, giving up 61.3 ppg.
Princeton out-rebounded the Warriors, 45-26
Princeton has had six winning years in a row, but they’re 3-10 this year.
— Cal-Northridge 89, Fresno State 87
5-5 CSUN led 47-37 at halftime.
Matadors start four seniors; they scored 87+ points in their wins.
Fresno lost despite shooting 13-29 on arc, scoring 1.23 ppp.
— UMass 76, Boston College 74
UMass won despite going 13-24 on the foul line.
BC led 63-56 with 6:05 left in the game.
Could be a rough year for BC; they’re 1-5 vs top 200 teams.
— Movie of the Day: The Natural (1984)- A middle-aged unknown comes seemingly out of nowhere to become a legendary baseball player who can really hit.
Robert Redford is the ballplayer, Wilford Brimley is the team’s manager, Kim Basinger, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey and Joe Don Baker are also in this well-known movie.
The baseball scenes were filmed in Buffalo, in the stadium where the Bills played before they built Rich Stadium.
— Michigan fired football coach Sherrone Moore with cause Wednesday, meaning they won’t have to pay him the $12M he had left on his contract.
He got fired for off-field reasons; Biff Poggi is the Wolverines’ interim coach.
— South Florida QB Byrum Brown is opting out of the Bulls’ bowl game against Old Dominion next week; Brown has thrown for 2,883 yards this year, with 24 TD’s, 7 INT’s.
I know I’m an older guy with older ideas, but if I was an NFL executive scouting players for the draft, I’d frown upon any QB who bailed out on his teammates before a season was over.
— 10 teams have opted out of bowl games, five of them from the Big X.
— South Carolina is hiring Kendal Briles as their new offensive coordinator; Briles comes from TCU, but he’s also coached at Arkansas, FAU. Baylor and Houston.
— New Jersey Jets are the first team ever with no interceptions in their first 13 games of a season, which adds up to 809 plays.
— Denver Broncos’ practice squad QB Sam Ehlinger got an offer from the Colts to return to their team, but Ehlinger turned them down, preferring to stay on Denver’s practice squad, Yikes.
