Speculation is the lifeblood of sports activities and solely has elevated over our lifetimes due to the web, smartphones and the proliferation of sports-talk radio.
Where will free-agent Shohei Ohtani wind up? Why did Jason Benetti actually go away the Chicago White Sox? What makes Craig Counsell value $40 million? Why is Zach LaVine so sad?
Every day brings one other matter to take a position about, and as observers we simply can’t get sufficient. The previous couple of weeks alone have given us sufficient juicy rumors to chew on for months.
Shohei Ohtani to the Cubs is a rumor gaining steam, even because it doesn’t actually compute.
The costliest free agent in baseball historical past reportedly needs to play for a West Coast staff, and the Cubs’ greatest contract ever is the eight-year, $184 million deal they gave Jason Heyward in December 2015.
Ohtani, the unanimous American League MVP, is a baseball unicorn who received’t pitch in 2024 however nonetheless figures to get $500 million or so, which might dwarf Heyward’s deal. Nevertheless, DraftKings Sportsbook simply moved the Cubs to second on the Ohtani sweepstakes checklist behind the longtime favorites, the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cubs started with the ninth-highest odds however handed massive spenders such because the New York Yankees and Mets.
If the Cubs are keen to spend that type of cash on one participant, it could be a turning level in franchise historical past. There will likely be no comfort prize for being runner-up.
Craig Counsell grew to become the highest-paid supervisor in baseball historical past when he agreed to a five-year, $40 million take care of the Cubs.
The deal spurred debate over the worth of a modern-day supervisor, whose job has developed through the years from autocrat to extra of a partnership along with his basic supervisor and analytics suppliers. Why is Counsell that rather more helpful than his friends?
“As far as the dollars, I look at it like it’s an incredibly difficult job,” Cubs President Jed Hoyer stated. “Obviously managers’ salaries have gone down in recent times I feel partly due to analytics. But I have a look at it (as a byproduct of) the quantity a supervisor has to deal with, and (Counsell) type of alluded to it. Staffs are larger. Front workplaces are larger.
“There’s more people management than ever before. You have a lot more information so there’s more to synthesize. You have to be the face of the franchise (with press conferences) twice a day if not more. The people that do that job at a very high level deserve to get paid very well, and he’s obviously proven that.”
Jason Benetti left the White Sox sales space to broadcast Detroit Tigers video games. Or perhaps “escaped” is a greater time period. The causes for the departure had been defined by Benetti on a podcast by The Athletic I used to be actually not up for listening to. All apologies.
But in line with reviews, the Cliffs Notes model is that Benetti felt disrespected in conversations with advertising chief Brooks Boyer about his broadcasting. That wouldn’t be out of character for Boyer, who disrespected Sox followers by canceling SoxFest when the staff began trending downward. So Benetti, who has cerebral palsy, left a dream job over an avoidable slight, which is a disgrace for him and the various Sox followers who loved the distinctive broadcast he introduced together with accomplice Steve Stone.
Benetti informed me through textual content the whole lot has been smoothed over with Boyer and that it’s all water beneath the bridge. Too late to matter. Sigh.
Zach LaVine signed a five-year, $215 million max contract in July of 2022. It was the most important deal in Chicago Bulls historical past. Everyone was comfortable.
Sixteen months later, LaVine left little question in a media scrum that he would welcome a commerce. When he signed the deal, the Bulls had been coming off their greatest season in years, and LaVine had been energized with complementary items in DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball. But Ball’s left knee damage, initially introduced in January 2022 as a “small meniscus tear,” proved to be way more severe, and he hasn’t performed since.
DeRozan grew to become the face of the group the final two years and normally was the go-to man when the sport was on the road. LaVine’s days because the undisputed focus of the offense had been over. Now the Bulls are struggling like they did within the early days of the rebuild, and LaVine apparently is prepared for a change.
He didn’t say why he’s sad however reportedly hopes to go to a glamor staff such because the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat or Philadelphia 76ers. Good luck. The Bulls gave him the cash and don’t owe him the rest. If they’ll’t discover equal worth in a deal, they need to maintain him till subsequent summer season.
If it’s a non-contender, so be it. If LaVine goes to a staff that’s simply as unhealthy because the Bulls would he be any happier than he’s in Chicago?
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh proclaimed the Wolverines “America’s Team,” which solely is smart in the event you consider America foremost as a nation by which crime pays. After his three-game suspension by the Big Ten in a sign-stealing saga, the perpetually aggrieved coach actually ought to attempt to persuade the varsity to go away the convention and be a part of one which accepts his “anything to win” mentality.
How would Harbaugh fare within the SEC, the place he must fear about a number of opponents as a substitute of simply Ohio State?
NFL sideline reporter Charissa Thompson admitted on a podcast that she has made up stuff occasionally for Fox Sports when the top coach wasn’t accessible for an interview. After an outcry from actual sideline reporters who take their job significantly, Thompson tried to amend her feedback by saying she by no means truly attributed any of the made-up stuff to the coach.
No one was shopping for it. So what media shops would proceed to make use of a reporter who publicly admitted she makes up information? Apparently Amazon Prime, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, and Fox Corp., owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch.
My outdated boss, late Tribune columnist Mike Royko, as soon as stated “no self-respecting fish” would wish to be wrapped in one in every of Murdoch’s sensationalistic newspapers. Four a long time later, the tune stays the identical.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com