| ESPN Stats & Info |
| @ESPNStatsInfo |
B- TALKS TO POSSIBLY HOLD AN ALL STAR GAME — WHICH TO ME ISN’T NEEDED...BUT THE NBA WANTS MONEY —
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| ESPN Sources: The NBA and NBPA are discussing scenarios to still hold an All-Star game in March. One site under discussion is Atlanta, home of Turner Sports. That idea includes providing support for HBCU’s and COVID-19 relief. Story soon on site. | |||||
| 1/25/21, 2:11 PM | |||||
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| James Wiseman will now slide into Looney's rotation spot, entering as the first center at the middle of the first/third quarters. Paschall will be third center with that second unit still. Then Kerr said he'll see who is playing best. | |||||
| 1/25/21, 5:24 PM | |||||
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| Steve Kerr shuffles Warriors lineup: James Wiseman to bench for Kevon Looney | @anthonyVslate | |||
| 1/26/21, 6:30 AM | |||
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| Three steals and another three blocks for Andrew Wiggins tonight. Up to 28 blocks on the season. Sixth in the NBA, behind five centers. Also had 23 points on 10/19 FG in his first career game vs Minnesota. | |||||
| 1/25/21, 9:29 PM | |||||
- Jordan Poole and Alen Smailagic will join two-way player Nico Mannion in the G League bubble, Kerr confirmed on Monday, per Marcus White of NBC Sports Bay Area. All three players will depart Sunday and will suit up for the Santa Cruz Warriors at Walt Disney World next month. “Hopefully we stay healthy during that time so those guys get as much experience as they can,” Kerr said. “They all need to play.
Derek Jeter: 396 votes (99.7 percent) -- 1st year on ballot
Larry Walker: 304 (76.6) -- 10th
Curt Schilling: 278 (70.0) -- 8th
Roger Clemens: 242 (61.0) -- 8th
Barry Bonds: 241 (60.7) -- 8th
The top three candidates on the ballot are the most controversial in history: Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. All of them are either just at or a shade below the requisite 75% for election, with about 41% of the publicly revealed ballots aggregated. Last year, 397 ballots were filed, and based on that rate of return there are still 234 to be counted by the BBWAA and its outside accountants Tuesday.
Recent history has shown that support has plummeted for these candidates when the full population of BBWAA ballots are counted. Voters are not obliged to disclose their ballots and the names, as many as 10, they select. The announcement is scheduled at 6:15 p.m. ET Tuesday via MLB Network.
New class or not, Hall president Tim Mead said in an exclusive interview Friday that the Class of 2020, headlined by Derek Jeter, will be inducted. Last year’s event was canceled because of the coronavirus.
“There will be a ceremony one way or another this year,” Mead said.
The candidacies of Bonds and Clemens are shadowed because of their association with the steroid era during which they played. Schilling has been scrutinized for his post-career antics and outspoken political opinions. After this vote, all three will have one more year before their 10-year eligibility on the writers’ ballot runs out. This year was supposed to be their best chance, considering the dearth of first-time contenders. In the public vote, Bobby Abreu is at the top of that group with just 13%.
It won’t get any easier as another duo of controversial candidates—Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz—become eligible for the first time in the Class of 2022. After that, the candidacies of Schilling, Bonds and Clemens will be subject to the 16-member Today’s Game committee.
Considering that the votes of the Golden Days and Early Baseball veterans’ committees were postponed by the Hall last year because of the coronavirus, this could be the first time since 1965 the red-brick edifice on Main Street in Cooperstown, N.Y., fails to have any new inductees. The decision to cancel those committee meetings caused a huge kerfuffle when Dick Allen died in December, only a day after the Golden Days group was originally supposed to gather and discuss his Hall of Fame case.
With the sudden and unexpected death of the great Henry Aaron on Friday, 10 major Hall of Famers, from Tommy Lasorda to Lou Brock to Bob Gibson and Tom Seaver, have been lost since Al Kaline passed away at 85 last April 6. In a 15-day period this month, Lasorda, Don Sutton and Aaron died.
The list of 10 is a who’s who of the baseball fraternity and leaves only 72 living of the 333 with plaques in the Hall, 263 of them players. Willie Mays, at 89, is the oldest remaining.
On Monday, Phoenix TV station KPNX published a letter from the Cactus League’s executive director Bridget Binsbacher that was signed by by the mayors of Mesa, Scottsdale, Surprise, Glendale, Goodyear and Peoria, as well as representatives from Phoenix and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Citing compelling numbers — Arizona ranks highest in the country for weekly COVID-19 case and death rates — and a meeting last week with Major League Baseball representatives, the letter suggests that “it is wise to delay the start of spring training to allow for the COVID-19 situation to improve here.”
Maybe the consortium is primarily concerned with tourism dollars — a later spring training could mean more vaccinated potential visitors and a country more comfortable with discretionary travel. Or maybe, as someone on the union’s side suggested, MLB pushed the Cactus League to leak the letter as a form of pressure on the MLB Players Association — getting corroborating voices on the public record in support of a delayed season.
2- OWNERS ASKED TO PUSH BACK START A MONTH, PLAYERS AS KED IF GAMES WOULD BE MADE UP , OWNERS SAID NO....
To recap: The owners, as always represented by MLB, don’t want to play or pay for all 162 games that are currently on the schedule — at least not without unfettered fan attendance. The players, represented by the union, would like to be paid their full 162-game salaries.
As it stands, the collective bargaining agreement sides with the players. There is nothing to compel the union to engage in conversations about pay cuts when they have a collectively bargained contract that covers when the season starts and how many games will be played.
The league would need far more heavy-handed sanctions from the government than anything in that Cactus League letter (which concedes as much) to even attempt to alter the season unilaterally. Short of an official ban on baseball itself — which would be hypocritical while other sports leagues host games and fans, often inside — the union would have to agree to alter the structure of the season.
(Yahoo Sports reached out to Glendale mayor and letter signee Jerry Weiers. His town is home to the NHL's Arizona Coyotes, who are playing their season, and in front of limited fans. He did not return the call.)
So far, those conversations have been nonstarters. Early in the offseason, the league broached the idea of pushing the season back a month. According to someone familiar with the union’s thinking, when they asked if the missed games would be made up on the back end or the players compensated at full-season salaries, the league said no.
The league is hesitant to disrupt the lucrative postseason TV schedule (though owners may also reap some benefits from a full season that is simply shifted back a month — potentially allowing more paying fans to go to games). But since MLB floated the rejected idea that included pay cuts, no formal proposals to change the start or structure of the season have been exchanged. That leaves us with a lot of commotion and not a lot of movement. At the end of the day — literally this day, tomorrow remains to be seen — teams are still planning to report to Arizona and Florida in mid-February.
What’s one month in a pandemic that’s pushing a year? Well, some millions of Americans vaccinated, for one. Maybe some percentage of people involved in the production of a baseball game — it’s not just players, remember — will be vaccinated by then too, although that comes with its own complications. I’m not sure how much those factors will move the needle on overall community rates or the kind of on-field precautions that are necessary or whether either side cares at this point.
| Bob Nightengale |
| @BNightengale |
- Oakland. Stadium is gross, nothing around the ballpark. players feel like they have to live far away, San Francisco too far away to commute. It’s just a disaster. You look around and say this is the big leagues, really? Billy Beane is a little overrated. His reputation is built on a good book and a movie. Miguel Tejada was not a product of ‘Moneyball.’ They figured out analytics existed but didn’t know what to do with it. Oakland, that’s an easy one. Tampa’s a close second, but they’re a better-run organization.”
- “Tampa Bay. If I’m a big-leaguer, that’s the worst stadium to go play in, the worst (surrounding) area (around the ballpark). That’s pretty shitty to me. But now as an agent, prospect-wise, I would love for my players to be drafted by Tampa Bay. They’re going to develop them and they’re going to get there quickly.”
Here’s one. Per a league source, Rodgers wants a new contract.
Rodgers should want a new contract. He makes $33.5 million per year. He’s going to win the 2020 NFL MVP award. And he’s getting into the later years of his last deal, which will pay him far less in comparison to other quarterbacks.
He’s due to make $22.35 million in 2021, $25.5 million in 2022, and $25.5 million in 2023.
Rodgers currently ranks fifth in average new-money value, behind Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ($45 million), Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson ($39 million), Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson ($35 million), and Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger($34 million).
Rodgers earns the same amount as Rams quarterback Jared Goff. Which means that Rodgers is grossly underpaid, Goff is grossly overpaid, or both. (Both.)
Rodgers has a cap number in excess of $37 million for 2021, but a new contract easily could reduce it. A new deal also would reflect the team’s commitment to Rodgers over the next few years, based on the guaranteed payments and the cap consequences arising from cutting or trading him.
If Rodgers officially asks for a new contract, he’ll definitely get one thing: Clarity as to where he stands. A new deal means renewed vows. No new deal means the clock will still tick toward a potential, if not inevitable, divorce.
While Rodgers may want more (especially as it relates to efforts to improve the team), one thing he wants — and deserves — is a new contract.
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| There are roughly 10 QBs locked into starting jobs for Opening Day of the 2021 NFL season. This is expected to be an unprecedented offseason of QB movement. My Over/Under of teams changing QBs this off-season is 18. I’ll go with the over. pic.twitter.com/ | |||||
| 1/25/21, 11:12 AM | |||||
Tom Brady has deftly avoided any Bill Belichick drama since their Patriots divorce this offseason. Tom Brady Sr., though, not so much.
The father of the now Buccaneers Super Bowl quarterback took a little bit of a dig at Belichick in an interview with the Boston Herald.
“I’m guessing he’s on a little bit of a hot seat right now,” Brady Sr. said.
In their first year apart after two decades together, Brady led the Buccaneers to Super Bowl 2021, while Belichick’s Patriots floundered to a 7-9 mark.
Brady Sr. talked glowingly of Robert Kraft, who reached out to Brady after the quarterback’s NFC Championship triumph on Sunday, and his sons. He conspicuously did not mention Belichick, however.
12. San Francisco 49ers
Patrick Surtain II, CB, Alabama
The 49ers will likely undergo big changes on defense this offseason, with defensive coordinator Robert Saleh gone and cornerbacks Richard Sherman, Ahkello Witherspoon and Jason Verrett all unrestricted free agents. That's why it makes sense to target a corner early. Surtain, my top-ranked corner, could be a starter on Day 1. He had 27 pass breakups and four interceptions over three seasons at Bama. At 6-foot-2, Surtain has the size and speed to play on an island and lock down wideouts. Depending on whether San Francisco can bring back free-agent left tackle Trent Williams, offensive line could also be a position to target.
MOBILE, Ala. -- Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith, the 2020 Heisman Trophy winner and one of the top prospects in the 2021 NFL Draft, declined to be weighed or measured for height at the Reese's Senior Bowl weigh-in on Tuesday morning, but intends to do so at the Crimson Tide's pro day workout this spring.
Size is the lone scouting concern on Smith; he was listed at 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds on the Alabama roster. The decision is a highly unusual one for the Senior Bowl weigh-in, but it does provide Smith with additional time to add weight as he trains for pro day. Smith did submit hand (9 3/8 inches), arm (31 1/2) and wingspan (78 1/2) measurements.
After injuring a finger in Alabama's 52-24 win over Ohio State in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Smith also will not compete in practices or the game this week at the annual all-star event. An exceptional route-runner with strong, sure hands and a proven ability to make contested catches, Smith was projected to be selected No. 6 overall to the Philadelphia Eagles in NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah's initial 2021 mock draft.
Smith caught 117 passes for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns as a senior, including a 12-215-3 performance in just the first half of the title game against the Buckeyes.
| Darren Rovell |
| @darrenrovell |
JUST IN: @CocaCola launches Coca-Cola with Coffee in cans in Dark Blend, Vanilla and Caramel and Coca-Cola with Coffee Zero Sugar in Dark Blend and Vanilla. Predicting this will be one of Coca-Cola’s biggest success stories. Drink is fantastic. pic.twitter.com/
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