Thor Hits Hollywood

Thor is heading for Hollywood. After only two starts for the New York Mets in 2021, Noah Syndergaard is trying his luck on the free agent market. He turned down his qualifying offer from the team to test the waters. He got what he wanted in a big payday. The former Mets fan favorite is heading out west, signing a one year deal worth $21 million to pitch for the Los Angeles Angels next season.

Thor was the big surprise pickup by the Mets when they traded R.A. Dickey. He joined the big club in 2015. In the five years Noah has been in the Majors, he's won double digits in games in three of the five years. He missed all of 2020 and almost all (save for just two innings) last year after having Tommy John Surgery.

There's no denying that Noah has the stuff to be one of the best pitchers in the game and he's joining one of the weaker staffs in the sport in the Angels. Noah's got decent career numbers. He's 47-31 lifetime with a 3.32 ERA. And over 718 career innings, Noah has managed to fan 777 hitters, while walking 166 and allowed just 64 home runs. Again those are good numbers.

But here's the thing that's making me question the deal. He's pitched just two innings in the last two seasons after coming off the arm injury. Some pitchers, when coming back from Tommy John, don't pitch the same way they did prior to the operation. I mean, this is a small sample size, but look at a guy like Matt Harvey. He was one of the bright pitching stars the Mets had, he had the procedure, and some other problems as well, and his career hasn't been the same. I'm not saying that's going to happen with Noah by any stretch. It's just something to look at and be mindful of that's all. Plus, with what the Angels paid him on a one year deal, it seems to be a bit steep.

Looking at this from the Mets point of view, it hurts them too by taking away more of their pitching depth. They had a great young staff in 2016 with Harvey, Thor, Jake, Matz and Wheeler (Bart was there too). Now Jake is the only one left of that core young bunch. This is speaking volumes about what this team is doing. If it wants to get back into contention again it needs to keep some of its young talented arms, not get rid of them. And who knows, maybe after this one year (if there even is baseball this upcoming season but more on that at another time) Thor could find his way back to New York and wear the Blue and Orange once again. Just need to see what happens as the season rolls along.

If this was the last go around for Thor in the Big Apple, thanks for the memories and five good seasons Noah!

Best & Worst NFL Week Nine

Week nine in the NFL has come and gone and we got plenty to talk about. The NFC was looking like the better of the two conferences, but lost seven of the eight interconference matchups this week. Buffalo got taken down a peg by Jacksonville. We had quite a few running backs go off this week as well. There were upsets all over the place, as well as great performances. So lets not waste anymore time. Here's the best, and worst, of week nine in the NFL.

Best: Josh Allen, Defensive End, Jacksonville Jaguars
In the battle of Josh Allen's, its the defensive one who won the day. Jacksonville pulled off an upset, in a 9-6 drubbing of the Bills. For the first time in history, a player was able to sack, intercept and recover a fumble against the quarterback of the same name. Josh Allen of the Jaguars also lead his team with eight tackles. This is huge on so many levels. It rare to see players of the same name play each other and one dominate the other. IT also huge in the fact that it was the Jaguars of all teams to take down the Bills. Buffalo was favored by 14.5 points going into the game. The Jags Josh Allen was better than the Bills one on this day.

Worst: Robbie Anderson, Wide Receiver Carolina Panthers
Talk about a team starting to slip. The Panthers are now standing at 4-5, following a 24-6 drubbing by the Patriots. This was a Panthers team that had started the year at 3-0. IN this case, Robbie Anderson wasn't having a good day. He had started to show signs of life with Sam Darnold again, but Sunday against New England he's magic wasn't there. Anderson had one catch for two years. Quite day for sure. But to make matters worse, after Darnold threw his third pick of the day, Anderson was seen ripping into his quarterback on the sideline. He had showed signs last year that he was becoming a number one wide out again in Carolina. Now he started slipping back and this isn't good for a struggling Panthers team.

Best: Jonathan Taylor, Running Back Indianapolis Colts
Indy rolled over the Jets on Thursday night, to the tune of a 45-30 win. The score was made closer thanks to Josh Jonson performance for the Jets later in the game. That's not the real story here. The real story is the Colts offense. They had a balanced attack, gaining 272 yards on the ground and 250 more in the air. The biggest beneficiary of the day was Jonathan Taylor. He ran wild against the Jets defense, with 19 carries for a league leading 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Jets defense had no way of stopping Taylor, who had himself a career day. This guy was good, scary good on prime time.

Worst: Jordan Love, Quarterback Green Bay Packers
Sitting behind a future hall of famer is a very tough thing to do. But that's what Jordan Love has had to endure, sitting behind Aaron Rogers. Love's first career start came against the defending AFC champions in Kansas City. KC walked away with a 13-7 win and Love wasn't great. He was 19 of 34 for 190 yards, a touchdown a pick and was sacked once. Those pass yard totals are the lowest against Kansas City the entire season. Kansas City has been struggling pretty badly this year, but they managed to keep it together enough to shut down the Rogers-less Packers. Love had a chance to make a name for himself and show the Packers organization that he could be ready to step up and take over when Aaron leaves. Now it seems Green Bay could have a big problem down the road.

Best: Xavier McKinney, Safety New York Giants
We look at a team like the Giants, they are a good example of an enigma. With all the talent that this team has, you'd like to think that they'd be better than they are. But the Giants are now sitting at 3-6 following a 23-16 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Xavier McKinney is a big reason for that. He was the 36th overall pick in the draft and he was out there like he had something to prove. He picked Derek Carr off twice. The 2nd pick would be a pick six that put the Giants into the lead for good late in the game, giving the Giants a four point lead. He now has four picks on the year, good enough for fourth in the NFL on the year and 2nd amongst safety's. Yeah, this guy's kind of good.

Worst: Philadelphia Eagles Defense
Its turned into a rough going for the Eagles, who now fall to 0-4 on home field after falling 27-24 to the Chargers. Justin Herbert was able to complete 80% of his passes against this defense. That's the 5th time this season alone that an opposing QB has done that against them. Oh, and that vaunted defensive line the Eagles have barely got any pressure on Herbert, allowing him to make his throws, allowing him to throw for 356 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Philly is a second place team in the division and fading fast. Maybe this defense is an area that the Eagles really need to start looking into come this offseason.

Best: Mike Vrabel, Head Coach Tennessee Titans
The last month, on paper was going to be tough for the Titans. Over that time, they've had to face the Bills, Chiefs, Colts and Rams. All really good teams. Some would think that the Titans, who are without there best offensive player, would either go 1-3 or at best case 2-2. But the Titans have won all four of those games, following the 28-16 win over the Rams. They now sit at 7-2 and have the best record in the AFC South. It shows how well Mike Vrabel is able to gameplan. He knows how to get his guys ready. Oh they can be good, like scary good.

Worst: Dallas Cowboys
Dallas had a six game winning streak coming into this week. Then it came to an abrupt end, thanks to the Denver Broncos. Denver walked away with a 30-16 win in Dallas, and this coming with the Broncos having a 30-0 lead by the time the fourth quarter got underway. Dallas got two scores late, but it was all in garbage time. Dallas gave up over 400 yards of offense to the Broncos, something which looked an awful lot like they would have done last year. And the Dallas offense couldn't muster much of anything. 60 yards receiving between Cooper and Lamb combined, while Elliott had just 51 yards on the ground. All in all a day in which Dallas wants to forget

Gold Gloves Go To.......

It's that time of the year. Major League Baseball is honoring the best of the best. They are handing out the awards for the best defensive players in the game for the 2021 season. It is one of the highest honors in all of the baseball world to be able to get a gold glove. We will not only tell you who won the awards but break it down if they got it right or not. So lets not waste any more time. Here's the gold glove winners for this year.

American League: 
1st Base: Yuli Gurriel (Astross)
2md Base: Marcus Semien (Blue Jays)
3rd Base: Matt Chapman (Athletics)
Shortstop: Carlos Correa (Astros)
Left Field: Andrew Benintendi (Royals)
Center Field: Michael A. Tayloy (Royals)
Right Field: Joey Gallo (Rangers/Yankees)
Catcher: Sean Murphy (Athletics)
Pitcher: Dallas Keuchel (White Sox)

National League: 
1st Base: Paul Goldschmidt (Cardinals)
2nd Base: Tommy Edman (Cardinals)
3rd Base: Nolan Arenado (Cardinals)
Shortstop: Brandon Crawford (Giants)
Left Field: Tyler O'Neill (Cardinals)
Center Field: Harrison Bader (Cardinals)
Right Field: Adam Duval (Braves)
Catcher: Jacob Stallings (Pirates)
Pitcher: Max Fried (Braves)

We saw a record set with five guys from the same team winning gold gloves this year. 3./4 of the infield and 2/3 of the outfield come from St Louis. A BIG reason why the Cardinals made it to the playoffs as a wild card team in the National League. Nolan is keeping a hold on the award at 3rd for the NL, a title he has won every year since 2013, his first title. Chase Headly was the last 3rd baseman not named Arenado to win it at 3rd for the NL. It also worth noting that the gold glove at first base has been traded back and forth in some way, shape or form in the NL between Anthony Rizzo and Freddy Freeman the last seven years. Last time neither of those guys won the award was 2014 (Adrian Gonzalez).

In the AL, its three times in the last four years at third base for Matt Chapman winning. This marks the first time in the last four years that Alex Gordon didn't win it for left field, as Benintendi took the honors for the first time in his career.

It was a season filled with great defensive plays, and players.

Best & Worst NFL Week Eight

Week eight has come and gone in the NFL and there plenty to go off of. There are no more unbeaten teams left in the league, with Arizona having fallen to the Packers. We had a guy making his first ever start under center have a monster day, while a team in the same state came close to doing the impossible in Aarowhead. Injuries also really taking hold this week as well, with Derrick Henry looking like he could be done for the year. There's so much more to get into, so lets not waste any more time. Here's the best, and worst, from the week that was in the NFL.

Best: Mike White, Quarterback New York Jets
When the game started, most of the fans reactions were along the lines of WHO? By the time the day was over Sunday, the reaction went to WOW. The Jets walked away with a 34-31 win over the Bengals and it was on a BIG day from rookie Mike White. White went 37 of 45 for 405 yards, three touchdowns, and two picks. The picks looked bad but White was the first Jets QB since Vinny Testaverde in 2000 to throw for over 400 yards in a game. White's day was the best day, at least yards wise, of any QB in the league this week. And it was done against a Bengals team that looked like they might be in a place to possibly make a playoff run. But that was snuffed out but a rookie who looked really good and was playing for his job and more playing time.

Worst: Kirk Cousins, Quarterback Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota needed that game on Sunday against Dallas. Didn't happen, as the Cowboys walked away with a 20-16 win over Minnesota. And Cousins was supposed to be the one to really carry the Vikings, which at times he has shown he could do that. Didn't happen Sunday, as Kirk laid a total egg against the Boys. No touchdown passes and only 184 yards through the air on just 21 completions. Cousins just couldn't get the job done when he needed to the most for the Vikings, who still had a chance to win the game, had it not been for a blunder from Mike Zimmer with his time outs, which is a story all in itself.

Best: Stephon Gilmore, Cornerback Carolina Panthers
From the point of view of Stephon Gilmore, this was a statement game. When the New England Patriots traded him to Carolina, it looked like he might have been washed up. In the Carolina 19-13 win over Atlanta, Gilmore had a pretty good impact on the game. He had two tackles on the day, which isn't exactly show stealing I know, but it was his big play at the end of the game that was. He made the game sealing interception with 1:58 left in the ballgame to lock the win for the Panthers. He still got something left in the tank.

Worst: Tua Tagovalia, Quarterback Miami Dolphins
A part of me really feels bad for Tua. It was supposed to be Tua Time in Miami, but now, a year and a half later, it doesn't look that way. Miami lost 24-11 to Buffalo, which is nothing to be ashamed of, because the Bills are a good team. Tua threw for 205 yards, but was only 21 of 39, no touchdowns, picked once and sacked twice. His passer rating was only 58.1. His backup is Jacoby Brissett. Miami only win of the year was against New England the first game of the year. Tua hasn't lived up to the hype as much and it could be a very short run in this league if his play doesn't start to show signs of improvement before the end of this season.

Best: Philadelphia Eagles Run Game
Yes, the NFL has become a pass happy league, there's no denying that. But the Philadelphia Eagles showed that there is still very much a positive and promising use of a solid run game in this league. First off the Eagles picked up a big 44-y6 win over Detroit. Yes I know its against the winless Lions, but still that's an impressive performance never the less. It was the Eagles run game that did the trick against Detroit, and it was a balance attack from the Eagles to boot. Jalen Hurts: 7 carries for 71 yards. Boston Scott: 12 carries, 60 yards and a pair touchdowns. Jordan Howard: 12 carries, 57 yards and also a pair of touchdowns. That's giving everybody a slice of the pie to run with.

Worst: Jacksonville Jaguars
I know this kicking a good team when its down but come on man. First off, they got beat 31-7 by Seattle, dropping their record on the year to 1-6. That's pretty bad. It was made worse when you see that they got called for 12 men on the field, not once but twice. Oh, and it was on back to back plays. And its in the middle of the season coming off a bye week. Whatever good vibes this team had coming off their win two weeks ago. Urban Meyer might not be around the league much longer with the way his team is playing and its some of these bad decisions that fall right on the head coach.

Best: Deebo Samuel Wide Receiver, San Francisco 49ers
There is still some fight left in the 49ers. After the Niners 33-22 win over the Bears, they are back to a game under .500. Deebo Samuel had himself a day on Sunday in that win. He wasn't able to find the endzone, but he had six catches for an eye popping 171 yards. The yards were the most by any receiver in the game this week and is a huge reason the 49ers got themselves a win this week.

Worst: Steelers Trickery
The what the hell moment of the week has to go to the Steelers. Yes, the Steelers did manage to pull out a 15-10 win over the Browns in a tough game, but it cost them there kicker. Chris Boswell, the kicker, was asked to run a fake kick. As he did he was totally destroyed on the sideline, causing a concussion. Jordan Elliott made the hit that caused the 185 pound kicker to get hurt. To make it worse, the refs didn't make a ruling on roughing the passer, which they should have. Yes the Steelers got the win, but it was a bad idea that cost them a decent kicker

Title To Atlanta

Twenty Six years is a long time to wait. The last time the Atlanta Braves won the World Series was 1995, the year they beat the Indians in six. This year, despite all the injuries and having a losing record near the all star break, the Braves find themselves once again on top of the mountain. For the 4th time in their history, Atlanta is the world champions, beating the Houston Astros in six games.

Lets go back a little bit. Atlanta was under .500 most of the year. They didn't get back to even until they hit 44-44 on July 10th, then on July 31st, they were still under .500 at 52-53. In August they took off, going 18-8, then 16-11 in September to pull on to the lead in the NL East. Atlanta finally passed .500 mark on August 6th, which is the latest in a season that a team has gotten over .500 to win the series.

They lost there best player in Ronald Acuna JR to an ACL injury in July, which just added to the problems in Atlanta. They add Joc Pederson to the lineup to replace Acuna. Once the playoffs started, the bats got hot. They beat the Brewers in four games in the Division series, then beat the Dodgers in a hard fought series in six games.

A lot of the hitting, aside from Freddy Freeman, was led by the young guys as the playoffs went along. Dansby Swanson and Austin Riley took off. The big story was Jorge Solar, who went on to win World Series MVP. Solar hit .300 for the series with 3 homers and 6 RBI. joining Tom Glavine as the only Braves to win Series MVP, which wasn't awarded until 1955.

The true mark of a great team is being able to overcome whatever thrown there way, and the Braves did that this year. They battled injuries and had an under .500 record most of the summer. Yet here we sit in early November and the Braves are celebrating their 4th world title in franchise history. Everybody had a hand in the Braves win over the Astros in this series and it showed the heart and determination of a champion. Atlanta was so good they only lost once on home field all playoffs long, that was the loss in game five to send the series back to Houston. The Braves got hot and started clicking at the right time, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Congratulations to the Atlanta Braves, your 2021 World Series Champions!

Big Things On Broadway

There is a lot to be building off of at Madison Square Garden these days. The New York Knicks have seemed to be turning the corner. After a 41 win last season and a surprise playoff appearance, there is plenty to be excited about in New York City. And they off to a hot start again on Broadway. The reaction of the fan base after the3 home opener win should have been explanation of that enough.

The win over the Celtics in the opener brought something out of Knicks fans. It sparked a new rallying cry for the club. BING BONG. It has been floating around like hot cakes. New York only has two losses on the year (at the time of this writing), losing on October 24th at home to Orlando and November 1st at home to Toronto. Julius Randel is still playing at the level he was a season ago. RJ Barrett's level of play has started to increase in the offensive side of things. And that's not all.

They getting balance production from Evan Fournier, Kemba Walker and Derrick Rose (who's production is coming off the bench). They all average double digits in points on the year early on. They getting good. Like scary good. They are stepping their play with some big tests the rest of this week. They have to take on the Pacers and the Bucks, both on the road. Its still early in the season, sure, but the signs are there that the Knicks could be good, and be really taking that next step as a team

BING BONG

Best & Worst NFL Week Seven

Week seven has come and gone in the National Football League, with Arizona still being the only perfect team left. Meanwhile the Lions are the only team in the league without a win. Tom Brady had a record setting weekend and it cost the Bucs at the end of the day. This whole weekend was kind of nuts. We had a running back throw for a touchdown, a quarterback make an amazing catch and wide receivers dropping 150 or more yards in a game in three different cities. And that's just scratching the surface. Here's some of the best and worst from week seven in the NFL.

Best: Alvin Kamara, Running Back New Orleans Saints
This was a big win and a big weekend for the Saints. New Orleans came away with a 13-10 win over Seattle, which is big enough. But the story of the day coming out of this game was Alvin Kamara. This man can pretty much do it all for the Saints. He had 20 carries for 51 yards, which is a decent day on the ground. But what also needs to be talked about is the 10 catches for 128 yards. Kamara had 30 touches for 179 total yards. With that performance, he became the fastest player in NFL history to have 3,00 receiving yards and 3,000 rushing yards in his career. Kamara has been one of the best all around offensive players in the league the last number of years, and his statistics really reflect that. The guy is good, scary good.

Worst: Sam Darnold, Quarterback Carolina Panthers
Things had looked so promising for the Panthers early this year. They started off 3-0 and looked like they could be really good. But the Panthers have lost four straight, including getting trounced 25-3 by the Giants in New York on Sunday. Sam Darnold, who had showed some promise at the beginning of the year, was downright bad against the Giants. 16 of 27 for 112 yards and a pick. He was also sacked three times and had a passer rating of 57.4, the worst of any starter in the NFL this week. That kind of performance is making it hard for the Panthers to want to keep him around for longer then this year.

Best: Kyle Pitts, Tight End Atlanta Falcons
Talked about it a couple of weeks ago when he had the big weekend over in London against the Jets. Well the Falcons tight end was back at it again on Sunday in Miami. Atlanta walked away with a 30-28 win over the Dolphins, and Pitts was a big reason for that. He wasn't able to find the endzone, but he did help the Falcons offense push forward. Pitts finished with seven catches for 163 yards. That's now back to back weeks of over 100 receiving yards for Pitts, who's now up to 470 yards on the year. He's proving that he can be worth his weight in gold for Matt Ryan in the pass catching department, as well as his blocking ability.

Worst: Dan Campbell, Head Coach Detroit Lions
A small part of me almost feels bad for the Lions. They fell to the Rams 28-19. You can't even put the blame on Campbell. He tried EVERYTHING to lead his Lions to their first win of the year. Trick plays, two fake punts. Scoring on their first drive and racing out to a 10-0 lead. It didn't matter as former starter Matthew Stafford still came in and pulled off the comeback. Campbell's gambles worked, but it didn't in a sense as the Lions still lost. I feel bad for the coach, he is trying to come up with ways to get a win. He doesn't have the talent around him. I had to put something here in the loss department so here we sit.

Best: Ja'Marr Chase, Wide Receiver Cincinnati Bengals
If your a Bengals fan, you have to be over the moon at this moment. Following a 41-17 crushing of the Ravens over the weekend, the Bengals now have the best record in the AFC. A big reason for that was the play of receiver Ja'Marr Chase. He went off like a man possessed against the Ravens. Eight catches, one for a touchdown, for an eye popping 201 yards. He had almost as many receiving yards by himself as the ravens did as a team (Baltimore finished with 296 yards passing). That's saying a lot. Shows not only how much the Bengals and Chase were feeling it on Sunday, it shows how bad the Ravens have been. Bengals fans rejoice your on top of the mountain in the AFC.

Worst: New York Jets
It was tough enough going into New England to play the Patriots, as the Jets had lost 12 straight games to their division rivals. Now that is up to lucky number thirteen, as the Patriots blasted (and that's being nice) the Jets to the tune of a 54-13 win. New England had 551 yards of total offense and scored seven touchdowns. This game wasn't even close and that is so sad. New York thought things were going to be better with a new coach, but it hasn't gotten any better. They are still the butt of a lot of jokes and the performance in New England on Sunday just added more fuel to that fire.

Best: Derrick Henry, Running Back Tennessee Titans
This guy can do a little bit of everything for the Titans. Tennessee pulled off a huge weekend, to the tune of a 27-3 win over Kansas City. Derrick Henry had himself a pretty good day. He caught two passes for 16 yards, carried the ball 20 times for 86 yards. The big moment of the day was Henry threw a five yard touchdown pass to MyCole Pruitt. It was pretty cool to see a direct snap to the running back to throw for the touchdown. It made it even cooler to see it happen against a team like Kansas City. Henry, like we mentioned with Kamara before, is the Mr. Do It All on offense for the Titans.

Worst: Chicago Bears
It not looking good in the Windy City right now. The bears are back under .500 at 3-4 following a 38-3 thrashing by the Bucs. Here's where it really gets bad. We're seven weeks into the regular season, and the Bears are the ONLY team in the NFL that doesn't have a passer throw for more than 200 yards in a game. Case in point, Fields only had 184 passing yards against the Bucs. Yes the Bucs are a good defensive team, but still that's a surprisingly low number. Chicago needs to start figuring this thing out if they want to have any shot of making noise in the NFC playoff picture.