Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins is having an M.V.P. type of season. He hit his 51st home run last night and has 110 RBI”s already this season. The Marlins have improved to one games above the .500 mark at 66-65 and are in contention for a National league wild card spot. Miami is currently 5 1/2 games behind the Colorado Rockies for the 2nd National League wild card spot. Now that’s a lot of ground to make up, but it’s been interesting to see how the Marlins have found a way to turn their season around.
I guess what’s disappointing to me in this culture of baseball is with the season Stanton is having there is now talk that he’s using a performance enhancing drug. Stanton stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs around 250 pounds. Do people really believe that he needs assistance to hit home runs? Maybe it’s the fact that Stanton has been healthy this season. Stanton has played in 129 of the Marlins 131 games. Last season he played in 119 games and in 2015 he played in just 74 games. You would think an increase in games played and more at bats would equal more home runs for a power hitter. Now the 51 home runs is more than Stanton has hit in any season, but if you’ve spent any time watching baseball this season you know that the balls are flying farther than last season and that should account for the rise in home runs. The baseballs have actually been tested; so this is a fact. Who knows maybe I’m way off here and Stanton is some type of drug, but I don’t think I am. It’s just very sad to me that this is where we go when I guy is having the breakout type of season that people have been waiting for him to have. I guess that’s just how baseball is now.
In the 2nd inning of the game between the Boston red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays Red Sox lefty Chris Sale stuck out Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar. Now it was just one of 11 strikeouts Sale had in the game, but this one was his 1500th career strikeout. This was also the fastest that any pitcher in major league history has reached 1500 strikeouts. It took Sale 255 games and 1290 innings to amass that total and don’t forget that he was a reliever his first two big league seasons. It was former Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood who held the record. Wood reached 1500 strikeouts in 1300 innings.
Sale appears to be the front runner for the American League Cy Young award. With the won last night Sale is now 15-6 with an E.R.A. of 2.77. Right now Sale leads the American league in wins (15), innings pitched (185 1/3rd), and strikeouts (264). The only starting pitcher with a better E.R.A. than Sale is Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians who’s at 2.63. Sale has made 27 starts this season and will probably make five of six more starts this season depending on how the pennant race goes for the Red Sox. You’d have to think right now though Sale is at the top of just about everyone’s Cy Young ballot.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about this, but there’s a company called Rep The Squad that is selling monthly subscriptions that allow fans to pick what jerseys they want to wear and have it shipped to them. Now I know this is done with video games and movies, but jerseys. When a subscriber returns a jersey the next in his queue or “locker” as Rep The Squad calls it will be sent to them. By the way the jersey will be returned in prepaid envelopes. A monthly subscription costs $19.95 for adults and $16.95 for children.
Brian Watkins is the person behind this idea. Watkins hopes to eventually go into all major pro sports teams, but at launch; which is Wednesday, the company will only have jerseys for fans of the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions. The company has acquired thousands of jerseys, including every look in every size for these teams.
Now I’m sure you’re thinking the same thing that I’m thinking. What happens when a jersey comes back dirty. Watkins is expecting jerseys to be returned dirty and he said that “the jerseys are immediately dry cleaned at no cost to the customer”. Now Watkins did mentioned that “There will be a charge, however, if a jersey were to come back all cut up”.
The Seattle based company is backed by Madrona Venture Group, which was one of the earliest Amazon investors and Maveron, which is was co-founded by Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz. Now there are some NFL players that are investors in this company. The NFL players invested in this company include Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin along with two former Seahawks. Golden Tate now a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions and offensive tackle Russell Okung now with the Los Angeles Chargers.
I’m very interested to know if you’d be interested in renting a jersey? I mentioned that they do this with video games and movies, but it’s also done with clothing and jewelry. I understand that jerseys are expensive to buy, but I’m just not sure about a rented jersey even if it’s been dry cleaned.
The Golden State Warriors have been to the last three NBA Finals and they’ve won two titles. With all of their superstars returning for the 2017-18 season you have to think that the Warriors are a lock to make the playoffs and if you do you can bet on it.
The Westgate Superbook is offering 1-1000odds that the Warriors make the playoffs. What does that mean? It means if you where to bet $100,000 on the Warriors making the playoffs you’d win $100. On the flipside if you bet $100 dollars on Golden State missing the playoffs and they actually did you’d win $10,000 dollars, but good luck with that bet.
If you don’t like that bet Westgate has set Golden State’s win total for the 2017-18 season at 67.5 games. The Warriors are projected to win 11 more regular season games than any other NBA team. The Boston Celtics are actually projected to have the second highest regular season win total at 56.5.
Are you laying your money down on any of these bets or is there a wager you like that’s out there?
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