NBA
It’s been a strange year for the Los Angeles Lakers and some how it got even stranger for them.
The Lakers lost their final game of the season to the Portland Trail Blazers 104-101. The loss capped off a disappointing 37-45 season. While this was just another loss for the Lakers it was what came about afterwards that was quite a surprise.
Pretty much out of nowhere, Magic Johnson resigns as President of the Lakers. There were reports that the Lakers top brass was having a meeting and most if not everyone thought it was to decide the future of head coach Luke Walton. After that meeting broke up Johnson stepped up to the mic choking back tears as he announced his resignation.
I’m not sure if will ever know the real reason why Johnson decided to step down after just two seasons with the Lakers. Johnson said “I want to go back to having fun” and he also said that “he wants to go back to who I was before taking this job”.
What may be the most interesting thing about Johnson’s resignation was the fact that he went to the media first before informing Lakers owner Jeanie Buss or the team general manager Rob Pelinka. It was reported that Buss and Pelinka along with chief financial officer Joe McCormack, chief operating officer Tim Harris and manager of special projects Linda Rambis held an all hands on deck type of meeting in El Segundo California after Johnson’s announcement.
Johnson was the Lakers President for two years and even with the signing of LeBron James, the team improved by just two wins this season. The Lakers where unable to find their way into the playoffs in either of the seasons Johnson was President. The Lakers haven’t actually been to the playoffs since 2013.
Johnson is still the greatest player in Lakers history but he may not of been cut out to be President of an NBA team. It can be difficult for great players to transition into front office or coaching roles and this may just be another case of another player not knowing what he was getting himself into. Johnson is and will continue to be a very public figure and good will ambassador for the game of basketball but he may not of realized how many hours being a team President would require him to put in.
Do you think we’ll ever know the real reason Johnson resigned?
MLB
I’m not sure of it was last week or two weeks ago that I wrote about all the injuries the New York Yankees had been dealing with to tart the season off but some how with the news that came out yesterday, it got worse for them.
The Yankees top starter, Luis Severino went down right before the start of the season with an injury to his right shoulder. Severino was placed on the Injured List to start the season but reports were that he had begun throwing long toss.
Apparently, Severino was still having some discomfort after his long toss session. Severino had his shoulder examined yesterday and was diagnosed with a grade two lat strain and will be completely shutdown for six weeks.
Looking at that timetable Severino might be able to start throwing again right around June 1st. Maybe it’s possible that Severino could be back before the All-Star break.
Severino is in the first year of a four year $40 million dollar contract. He won 19 games last season and was thought to be the Yankees #1 starter coming into this season. Severino is just 25. He has a lot of years ahead of him and just needs to get healthy.
Now Severino wasn’t the only starting pitcher that got some bad news injury wise the last couple of days. Both the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs had a starting pitcher get injured.
Mike Clevinger hasn’t given up a run in his two starts this season for the Indians but he had to come out of his second start this season due to an injury. At first it was thought to be just a minor injury but Clevinger ended up being diagnosed with a right upper back/Teres major muscle strain. Clevinger will be shutdown for 6 to 8 weeks.
It’s unclear right now who the Indians will use to fill Clevinger’s spot in the rotation but they have some options. It actually looks like Cleveland is considering about six different pitchers for that spot. We could see Adam Plutko, Jefry Rodriguez, A.J. Cole Asher Wojciechowski or Cody Anderson. Ultimately, it might be Anderson who takes over that rotation spot until Clevinger returns but he’s still working his way back from missing the last two seasons with injuries.
Luckily for the Cubs it looks like Jon Lester suffered the most minor injury out of these three pitchers.
On Monday, Lester had to come out of his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates after two innings due to hamstring tightness.
After the game, Lester said that he planned on making his next start. However, the Cubs aired on the side of caution and put Lester in the Injured List. This appears to be the right move and even though it might cost Lester a couple of starts. It’s better to let him get back to 100% then make the injury worse trying to pitch though it.
The Cubs will turn to Tyler Chatwood to pick up those couple of starts that Lester will miss.
The Cubs signed Chatwood to a three year $38 million dollar deal in 2018, but he struggled with control and has started the 2019 season in the bullpen. Chatwood has appeared in three games as a reliever this season covering 5 innings but his control issues still appear to be there. Chatwood has walked 4 batters in the 5 innings he’s pitched and walks were the issue he had last season. Last season in 24 games (20 starts) over 103 2/3rd innings, Chatwood walked 95 batters.
With as poorly as the Cubs have gotten out of the gate this season they’re going to need Chatwood to be able to keep them in those games he starts for Lester. Can he find his control?
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