Weekend Roundup

It's that time again people, my weekly weekend roundups. I actually enjoy writing these 'cause I get to bitch about everything and anything. So, in any case, if you were living underneath a rock all weekend, here's what you missed:

The Bruins:

• Seriously, these guys are on fire right now. They've won 5 straight now and they're looking like the team that won the Stanley Cup last year.
• Is it just me or is it friggin' awesome to watch these guys score in rapid succession? I mean hell, I even turned Jack Edwards' new catch phrase into a Twitter hashtag, #BABOOM, 'cause if you watch the games, you'd know that every time the Bruins score twice in a short span of time Jack just feels the need to yell that out.
• That pre-game ceremony where the team brought in the soldier to surprise his family was absolutely amazing. I loved watching that, it was so great to see one of our soldiers return in such a great fashion. If that didn't warm your heart, you have absolutely no soul whatsoever.
• Tyler Seguin is on fire. Seriously, the kid's matched his goal total from last year and is only a couple points away from matching his point total from last year too. I don't get why he isn't on the All Star Ballot, so all you people who follow me on Twitter spread around my new hashtag, #SeguinforAllStarGame, so we can get a write in campaign going.

The Red Sox:

• Over the weekend, GM Ben Cherington interviewed both Tony Lovullo and Gene Lamont, which officially concluded the first round of interviews for manager. The team will conduct two follow up interviews at the Winter Meetings in Milwaukee, one with Dale Sveum and one with a mystery candidate. It appears that Dale Sveum is the frontrunner for the job.
• The Sox lost Closer Jonathan Papelbon to the Phillies when he signed a 4 year, $50M deal that will be official after Pap takes his physical. He better hope they don't make him take any sort of academic exam as well, otherwise the deal will be called off 'cause Pap is as dumb as a stump.
• The Sox now appear to be in on closers Ryan Madson and Heath Bell and are also considering internal candidates for the role as well (meaning they're considering putting Bard at closer).
• All signs point to the Sox re-signing DH David Ortiz. God damn it, I really didn't want to see them bring back this friggin' pri madonna. All he's done the past couple years is bitch and moan and I was really hoping they'd let him go and try to change the clubhouse, but now that the Yankees are saying they don't need him and the Jays are saying they don't need him, the market for him looks like this: Red Sox, Red Sox, Red Sox, and Red Sox. Yeah, it seems we're kinda stuck with the guy.
• Cherington also said that if the Sox do indeed re-sign Ortiz, they won't be signing or trading for a big bat in the outfield such as Carlos Beltran or Grady Sizemore and will go for more of a solid veteran type to compete with Reddick and Kalish for the right field job.
• Also, Cherington and Theo Epstein states that the two of them plan to meet at the Winter Meeting and work out the compensation for the Sox losing Theo. Wow, I completely forgot this was going on. I can't believe they haven't been able to solve this issue in a month. I mean shit, World War II was resolved in two weeks and the entire Central Powers collapsed and surrendered in one month after World War I, which wasn't much time considering how many countries were involved in that war. It's a bit ridiculous that they haven't figured it out, especially since the Sox are just going to get a couple good prospects from the Cubs' farm system, not like Matt Garza or Starlin Castro or giving them John Lackey or anything.

On two seperate notes, the Patriots spanked the Jets last night. And when I say spanked, I mean Sanchez and Co. basically bent over and allowed it to happen. Sanchez absolutely blows. Why exactly does he always keep his eyes on the rush and not downfield where he can find a receiver? And how the hell were Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burress shut down by Andre Carter and Devon McCourty (who by the way is out indefinitely with a seperated right shoulder)? I still think it's time for the Patriots to find a new GM and have Bill step down to just be head coach so this team can get a pass rusher (the lack of one has been killing them on third down) and some coordinators to help bring these rookies along instead of just stunting their development.

Also, there's really no news on the NBA lockout front other than the fact that they're still at a stalemate and as of right now the season won't begin until New Year's Eve. So basically you can assume an entire season of basketball will be lost. Makes no difference to me, I can't stand basketball, but hey, I gotta keep everyone here happy and updated.

Weekend Roundup

So I haven't been able to post in a few days because I still have no power and I have to do my posting from school. Don't even get me started on the National Grid. Anyways, here's what I wanted to post over the weekend but was unable to all in one post.

First, the Bruins:

• The Bruins look friggin' horrible right now. It's way past ridiculous at this point. Peter Chiarelli needs to get his hands out from under his ass and swing a deal to give these guys a kick in the ass.
• PK Subban looks like he trained with the Canadian National Dive Team over the summer. Lucic gave him a little lovetap in the second game of the series (which I do believe was extremely stupid by the way) and PK falls to his knees like someone took a fucking sledgehammer to his calf and draws a slashing call.
• Ference and Horton need to have more discipline. Ference is a vet who wears the "A" part time, he shouldn't be getting sucked in by that bitch Subban. Giving a guy a sucker punch after the whistle, no mater how much he deserves it, is going to get you called every time. And did Horton really think he was going to move the turnstile the Scabs call Hal Gill? Seriously, the guy's like 6'6 or something and as big as Horton is, he looks like a midget compared to him. Stupid move on his part.
• Tuukka Rask did his best Gerry Cheevers impression. I loved it. He comes out of the crease, slides on his ass and trips up Montreal's favorite little bitch Pacioretty and sends him flying, all while pushing the puck up ice. Fucking awesome.
• The refs really don't like the Bruins this year. They always get called for total bullshit, as proven by the Seidenberg holding call in which Seidenberg placed his free hand on the shoulder of the Scab on a breakaway and poked the puck off of his stick. He didn't even grab him. And I'm definitely not the only one who thinks this. Just ask Joe Haggerty of CSNNE.com. Even Haggs says the refs are out to get the Bruins after they won the Cup by beating the shit out of the Sedin Sisters and Co.
• I think it's about time Chiarelli fires Geoff Ward. The guy runs a brutal powerplay and he's the one who comes up with the late game schemes that never work out. I mean hell, firing the Assistant Coach seems to have worked for the Scabs, so why not show this team that nobody's job is safe, including the coaches.

The Red Sox:

• Ben Cherington's first official transaction as GM of the Red Sox was to pick up the club option on shortstop Marco Scutaro. Smart move, keeps the revolving door at shortstop at rest for at least another year while Jose Iglesias continues to develop his hitting skills.
• The Sox and Cubs were unable to reach an agreement on compensation for former Sox GM and now Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein. And that means that the case has landed on Commissioner Bud Selig's desk today. Wonderful, now we can expect almost nothing in return because Selig highly undervalues a good executive.
• Yesterday the Sox declined the club options on relievers Dan Wheeler and Scott Atchison. Chances are they'll re-sign Atchison to a minor league deal to save the 40-man roster spot. Don't know about Wheeler though, he could be gone. He had a pretty bad April and a horrible second half, so they may just look internally (Bowden, Tazawa, Doubront, Weiland) to find his replacement or find someone capable of pitching the 6th and 7th or whatever is needed on the open market.
• The team also interviewed Philadelphia bench coach Pete Mackanin for the vacant managerial position. Today they're interviewing Brewers' hitting coach Dale Sveum (Please God, not Dale Sveum). GM Ben Cherington said that the team has not requested permission to interview anyone else yet, but there are several more candidates working for other teams that the team will probably interview, with Tampa Bay bench coach Dave Martinez being the only name on that list that I can remember. Philadelphia's AAA Affiliate Manager Ryne Sandberg is also likely to be interviewed.

The Patriots:

• It's got to be emabrassing when the other team is passing on your defense in obvious running situations. The defense really needs to get into shape fast if they want to a legitimate playoff contender. They can't keep relying on Brady and the offense to win games for them.
• The Patriots cut Cornerback Leigh Bodden over the weekend. I didn't even know he was still on the team. That's how bad he's been.
• Maybe it's time that Bellichick hires a new Defensive Coordinator, because the current defense is either tuning him out or just isn't getting the message.

Also last week, I attended a Boston Globe Insider Event at the Cask'n Flag'n where I was able to speak with Globe Sports/Red Sox Reporters Dan Shaughnessy, Peter Abraham, and Bob Hohler. Shaughnessy made it clear at the beginning that Terry Francona did not quit and it was not a mutual "parting of ways". He was in fact fired. I also asked the three of them publicly if the Red Sox have a team psychologist on the medical staff to evaluate the mental makeup of current players as well as prospective players such as potential draftees and free agent signings. They said that the team employs Dr. Bob Tewksbury who holds a Ph.D in Sports Psychology who works with all the players on the team, but does not do anything in the way of scouting potential draftees or free agent signings. I personally believe the team should employ another psychologist, one who holds a Ph.D in Cognitive Psychology as a scout to secretly evaluate potential free agent signings and go over files and paperwork of players the team is interested in trading for and give a solid description of their mental makeup, all in an effort to avoid disasters such as Erik Bedard and John Lackey. Privately, I asked Bob Hohler, the reporter who broke the story on the Francona smearing, if he could confirm or deny whether all three/any combination of the Ownership trio (John Henry, Larry Lucchino, Tom Werner) was his source for the story, and he said that he could neither confirm or deny. A lack of words has never told me so much about the sources. I also asked Peter Abraham about the rumors of Kevin Youkilis being a clubhouse cancer. His answer was something along the lines of "He's a generally grumpy guy so he's not going to be the most popular dude on the team, but he works his ass off." Abraham did agree with me when I suggested they could trade Youkilis for some pitching. Both of them were given my card and for all I know, they could be reading this story right now, which would be pretty friggin' sweet. Anyways, other than the unsurprising news that the NBA and the NBAPA failed to come to a labor agreement and more games were cancelled, that's all I have for you. So hopefully I get power back soon and can dish out updates as I get them.