New York Yankees 2016 Season Preview

It's about that time everyone. Baseball season is right around the corner and the Yankees Opening Day is just 6 days away. As has been the case for the last four years or so, I have no idea what to expect from the Yankees this year other than the fact that they'll probably make me angrier than I've ever been and that they'll win the World Series. 

KEY OFFSEASON MOVES

• Not re-signing 2B Stephen Drew: It was astounding that this mother fucker was the Yankees starting second baseman for the majority of last season. The dude - simply put- sucks. At life. At baseball. At not looking like a down syndromed piece of shit. He sucks. The Yankees gained a win or two just by not re-signing this douchebag.
• Traded for Cubs SS/2B Starlin Castro: Sure, the Yankees gave up a valuable piece of their team in Adam Warren to get Castro, but Castro is a huge upgrade at a position that severely diminished the Yankees line-up last season. I always like Castro when he was with the Cubs, and I can already tell I'm gonna love him in pinstripes. Obviously he still hasn't played a lot of second base but there's no doubt he's an upgrade in the line-up over Stephen Drew, and he should be fine in the field. 
• Traded for Reds Closer Aroldis Chapman: The Yankees gave up basically nothing to get one of the best closers in the game and add to an already FILTHY back end of the bullpen. Sure, he's suspended for 30 games, but the 2015 AL Reliever of the Year is the back up closer sooooo we should be good while he's out. Betances, Miller, and Chapman is SCARY. 

PROJECTED LINE-UP

Jacoby Ellsbury, CF

Brett Gardner, LF

Alex Rodriguez, DH

Mark Teixeira, 1B

Brian McCann, C

Carlos Beltran, RF

Starlin Castro, 2B

Chase Headley, 3B

Didi Gregorious, SS

Key Bench Players:

• Rob Refsnyder (for when Girardi gives him a real chance and realizes that he gives the Yanks a better chance to win than Chase Headley does)
• Aaron Hicks (acquired from Twins for John Ryan Murphy; for when Jacoby Ellsbury inevitably gets injured)
• Dustin Ackley (for when Mark Teixeira inevitably gets injured, or when Girardi has his head up his asshole)
• Mason Williams/Slade Heathcott (I don't know which extra outfielder the Yankees will keep but I don't think they'll keep both of these guys. Whoever it is will be used when Carlos Beltran inevitably dies.)
• Austin Romine (back up catcher, will end up playing an unnecessary amount of games because Girardi thinks a 31 year old catcher needs two days off every week)

If all goes well, this isn't a bad line-up, and it could end up being a very good one. Last year's offense somehow scored the second most runs in the league, and on paper this line-up is much better than last year's. Now I know all the old guys that had pretty solid seasons last year are just that much older this year, but they're still good players. There's a very real chance that A-Rod and Tex both put up 30 homers again, and that Beltran doesn't die. But there's also a very real chance that all three, along with Ellsbury miss significant time due to injuries. Ellsbury and Gardner will probably have solid first halves (first month in Ellsbury's case) and get our hopes up. Then Ellsbury will get injured and won't be the same when he returns. Gardner will fall apart after the all star break. And the Yankees offense will die. Castro, Headley and Didi actually make a pretty solid 7-8-9, but would be even better if Refsnyder was starting at third. Didi made huge strides towards the end of last year, Headley is the most average hitter one could be, sucks at fielding, and Castro is a 26 year old three time all star. not a bad bottom third of the line-up if you ask me.

PROJECTED ROTATION

Masahiro Tanaka
Luis Severino
Michael Pineda
Nathan Eovaldi
CC Sabathia

I think those top 3 can go toe to toe with the top 3 of any rotation in the MLB. Whether they will or not is a whole other ordeal. Tanaka and Pineda can look like Cy Young candidates for a good stretch and then look like complete morons a good amount of starts. Luis Severino showed that he can pitch in the big leagues last year when he was brought up and I think he'll be a god damn stud this year. The Yankees got more out of Nathan Eovaldi last year than anyone else has been able to. He had a long stretch before getting injured in September where he was pretty much dominant. Hopefully he can pitch like that more often than not in 2016. And as far as that fifth spot goes, I'm giving it to CC just because Ivan Nova has pitched out of the bullpen in the past and I don't think the Yanks are okay with paying a long reliever $23 million. Might as well see if CC is back or not.

KEY BULLPEN PITCHERS

Aroldis Chapman (when he's done beating the shit out of his girlfriend)
Andrew Miller
Dellin Betances
Ivan Nova
Bryan Mitchell
Chasen Shreve

Best bullpen in the majors. Period. Try hitting Betances, Miller and Chapman. Can't do it. I'll be surprised if any of them allow a base runner this season.

SEASON PREDICTIONS

94-68 1st Place in AL East
Masahiro Tanaka AL Cy Young
This is where I'd usually pick one of the Yankees to win the AL MVP just because fuck every other team, but Mike Trout is winning the AL MVP every year until the Yankees sign Bryce Harper after the 2018 season, AND there is no player on the Yankees that has the ability to win an MVP award right now. Maybe Tanaka will be dominant enough to win the MVP too, who knows.

Yanks win #28. Duh.




Be on the lookout for a full MLB preview and predictions blog later in the week.

ESPN Continues to Prove They're the Dumbest People on Planet Earth

Can I ask a serious question? What dumb motherfucker hits send on this tweet and thinks it's a good tweet? Like I feel like even some social media intern who GOES to Syracuse isn't dumb enough to hit send on this tweet. Syracuse has one national championship between their men's and women's teams. Wanna know who has more or just as many? Fuckin everyone pretty much. Capital of college basketball my ass. Sick, Cuse has their teams in the Final Four. Guess what school had both teams win it all two years ago? And have 14 (almost a guaranteed 15) championships combined between their two teams in just the last 21 years? Fuckin UConn, that's who.

Aaaaaaand there is UConn's social media team actually being on top of their shit and putting ESPN and Syracuse in a fucking body bag. Hey Cuse, good luck beating Brice Johnson and UNC and good luck against UConn in the women's finals (assuming you can beat 7 seed Washington). Syracuse and ESPN, just so lame. Cuse thinks they're UConn, always wanted to be UConn, but never quite good enough. And ESPN just being the network of eternal douchebaggery and stupidity. What tools.

Fire Jam Friday

Alright folks, another week is in the books. Got some pretty solid new stuff this week. ZAYN's new album finally dropped and it straight up drips sex. Nick Jonas and Tove Lo collaborated on a new jam. Kenny Chesney came outta nowhere with a new single that's awesome. And then per usual I threw in a few dynamite classics. Enjoy.

#FireJamFriday

RIP Rob Ford

Real sad stuff out of Toronto this morning. The sweetest of all princes, Mr. Rob Ford passed away this morning after battling cancer. Cancer sucks a ton, I hate that shit. Real unfortunate that it took a young buck like Robby F. Dude was such a stud. Rob will always be remembered as one of the real ones. I don't know anything about his political career but I do know I loved him for what he was and IMO that's all that really matters. Feels like I lost a best friend. Gone but not forgotten, Robert. You were always the light of the room and could dance like a flickering candle wick. You will always be remembered as eloquent and stoic.  Below I have compiled some of my all time favorite Rob Ford moments. Robby F has given me some of the best entertainment in my life. I absolutely LOVED following his campaign a few years ago, electric stuff. I'll definitely miss this old boy. In all seriousness, our hearts go out to the Ford family. 

Rest In Power, Robert. 

“I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine.” 
Yeah and I don't crush Budlights, Rob.

“Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine. Probably in one of my drunken stupors.”
Alright, listen we've ALL been there before and if you haven't then you don't drink but c'mon we have all made mistakes when we drunk, Rob's was just smoking crack cocaine, 'tevs.

“I have no reason to resign.”
I absolutely LOVE this, right after he is publicly revealed smoking crack cocaine he's just like mmm nope no reason to quit my job as mayor. sorry not sorry betches.

“Women love money. You give them a couple thousand bucks and they’re happy.”
Just another look inside the absolutely BEAUTIFUL brain of Robby. There's probably no truer statement. Every dude that needs to get out of trouble with his boo piece buys her something, it's part of the game. 

Goodbye one last time my sweet prince <3

Fire Jam Friday

Good weekend for rockin out to some Fire Jam Friday. I'm in Nashville for the weekend, and March Madness kicked off yesterday. Sit down, watch some basketball, drink beer, and listen to a brand new FJF. We got some new ZAYN again this week (anyone hotter than him right now? So hot right now), some new Kygo, and some classics in all sorts of genres including some Mariah and Fergie. It's all deadly. Enjoy.

#FireJamFriday

March Madness Bracket

So here's my official bracket incase any of you care what some random University of Rhode Island student thinks is going to happen in March. As I've been truthful about leading up to selection sunday, I had to take Nova all the way. I honestly think this is their year. I personally think what happens to Nova in March is A LOT like 'clemsoning' and look at what Clemson did about clemsoning, they squashed it. Now it's Nova's time to shut up all the haters and cut down some nets in Houston. Nova hasn't made it past the second round since 2009 when they lost to UNC in the final four. They haven't won it all since 1985. This is the year for the Wildcats, mark my words. Official disclaimer, I don't watch a ton of college basketball since I retired from gambling (till march madness) so I haven't seen a ton of these teams play besides Villanova. 

South:

In my opinion the South is pretty stacked. Nova, Uconn, Miami, Kansas, Cal and Maryland are all pretty good teams. I think Iowa will beat Temple because they're absolutely awful, i've watched a few of their games and absolutely no bueno. I think Miami is a really good team but I don't think they'll make it past my Wildcats. Of course everyone knows what happened with Uconn last week but they have been playing pretty inconsistently this season so I dont think that will bode well for them in March. Kansas is obviously an incredible team and probably the team to beat coming out of the south. That Nova vs. Kansas game is going to be incredible. I also have SDSU upsetting Maryland because the Terps have been absolutely awful lately, also ya know the whole 12 over 5 upset thing cause apparently that's something to watch for, i don't know anymore. Maryland has absolutely no cohesiveness on the court and I'm pretty sure all the players hate each other, that doesn't lead a squad deep into March. 

West:

I'm going to be honest with you, I know basically nothing about these teams in the West. I know a lot of people had Oregon as their sleeper going into this whole thing but then they were announced as a #1 seed so that sort of takes away from them being a sleeper. I think Texas will surprise everyone and make it to the final four. 

East: 

I think anyone that has watched any college basketball this year knows that UNC is the team to beat coming out of the East. They have had a great season and I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Wisconsin make another good run deep into March but I think the Tar Heels will be too much for the Badgers to handle. 

Midwest:

Who cares about any of these teams??? UVA has also been a great team all year and have had some fantastic battles with UVA where we have seen each team pull off wins. I think we will see the last duel between these two teams in the Final Four. A lot of people out there think that Michigan State will make a run at being the champions but not this guy. I don't think they'll get by UVA. I also have Gonzaga upsetting Seton Hall because I hate Seton Hall. 

Championship:

I think it will be a battle between Nova and UVA with Nova winning it. As I said before, it's time for Nova to stop choking and March and show how great of a team they are. They have an incredible coach in Jay Wright and he deserves to win a natty ship. 

2016 March Madness Picks

That time of year again ladies and gents. March Madness is upon us and as I finally write this blog, the first play in game is out of the way. I'm already 0 for 1 as I had Farleigh Dickinson to beat Florida Gulf Coast, but they lost by 31 so that was sick. I didn't watch a lot of regular season college basketball this season so I'll by no means be providing any kinda expertise on these games. I'll probably be a little more biased towards the teams I've seen play more often, but that's about it. A general thing I don't get about this year's bracket is how they lined up the regions with the one seeds. Kansas is dead in the middle of the Midwest, and the Midwest region sweet 16 and elite eight are played in Chicago. Kansas, the number one overall seed of the tournament, is in the South region. The South region sweet 16 and elite eight are played in Louisville. If anyone could explain that to me, that would be great. Because it thoroughly makes zero sense to me why Kansas would be set up in the Louisville region when there's a Chicago region. In fact, the only one seed and region pairing that makes sense is Oregon and the West region. It should be Kansas in the Midwest, Oregon in the West, UNC in the South, Virginia in the East (since Virginia is idiotically a one seed). 

Here are my picks that I submitted to my family's bracket pool:

SOUTH REGION: 

Now with Clemson (outside of Jaron Blossomgame) being a bunch of incompetent dickbags when it comes to basketball, I'm rooting for the home state UConn once again in the NCAA tournament. With that being said, I have no clue how they are going to beat Kansas so I can't realistically pick them past the second round. 

A couple upsets I would look out for are 13)Hawaii over 4)Cal which I actually picked in this bracket and many of my others. Do I know anything about Hawaii? No. But do I know anything about Cal either? No. But, there's no way Cal can be that good, I just don't see it. Meanwhile, Hawaii has been murdering everyone in the Big West and could be a tough out. Maryland and Iowa have both been limping into the tourney but I expect them to play to their abilities come tournament time. They still could be on upset alert however. Villanova has always choked in the postseason, and I expect nothing else from them this year. Iowa or Temple will take them out in the second round. Another first round upset to look out for is Arizona vs the winner of Vanderbilt and Wichita State. Either team will be no easy task for the sixth seed Arizona. 

Bottomline: Kansas has no team to take lightly (assuming no major upsets advance to sweet 16 or elite eight) and will likely face the Kings of March, UConn, in the second round and for that reason, I don't see them slipping up. I think Kansas will be focused from the first tip against Austin Peay until the national championship. They'll emerge from the South region. 

WEST REGION:

Oregon might have the easiest region of all the one seeds, but then again I don't know too much about Oregon. I've seen them play a couple times but not much. I don't trust Oklahoma even with stud Buddy Heild on their side. No clue how Texas A&M is a three seed. And Duke has their worst team in recent memory, they're a four seed based on their name. 

Some teams in the West Region on upset alert are A&M, Duke, Baylor and Texas. 14 seed Green Bay is a great team that I've watched for a number of years get screwed out of the Horizon League championship and they finally pulled through this year. A&M isn't that great and I'm picking Green Bay to beat them. I picked Duke and Texas to win, but they should definitely not take their opponents lightly. Northern Iowa is a force to be reckoned with and Duke, well they just suck. My most confident upset pick in the entire tournament is Yale over Baylor. Baylor sucks. Yale doesn't. Yale hasn't made the tourney since 1962. The NCAA welcomed them back with the worst five seed in the whole damn thing. Yale will return the favor with a W. 

Bottomline: Even though I don't know a ton about Oregon, I think they prevail in the West just because the other high seeded teams in the region aren't that special. 

EAST REGION:

UNC is the other one seed that could make a case for easiest region, but I think it's just a bit tougher than the West. Kentucky and Indiana are scary 4 and 5 seeds. Notre Dame can (and clearly I think they will) make a run, as well as whoever wins the Wisconsin vs Pitt 7/10 matchup. I haven't had a chance to watch much of Xavier this year, but apparently they're pretty good. 

Some upsets to look out for are Pitt over Wisconsin in that 7/10 matchup, and if Michigan wins the play in game, they could be a tough team for Notre Dame to beat. Moving into the later rounds, I think Notre Dame gets hot, beats West Virginia and makes a run to the elite eight just because the bottom half of that region isn't too strong. I think Pitt/Wisconsin beats Xavier and that will open it up for Notre Dame to the elite eight. 

Bottomline: Regardless of how scary some teams may be, as I stated above, it won't matter because UNC is so clearly the best team in this region, and I think Roy Williams will have his boys ready to go. Brice Johnson will be the best player in this tournament.

MIDWEST REGION:

Virginia definitely has the toughest region in the bracket, just because there's a second one seed in the region. Michigan State so clearly should have been a one seed it's laughable they aren't. Other than that, it's not a frightening region. But I also don't think Virginia is that good. 

Some teams on upset alert are Iowa State, Seton Hall, and Utah. I don't really consider Syracuse over Dayton an upset. If Cuse isn't favored in that game then I'll chop my nuts off (just checked the line and its Dayton -1, that will change and the nuts will stay on). But anyway, Iona is a team I don't think anyone wants to play so Iowa State better watch out. Plus, Iowa State is susceptible to big upsets come tournament time (see: last year. Fuck you Iowa State for ruining my bracket on the first day of the tournament). I think Seton Hall is a good basketball team and will win not only their first round game, but also their second round game against Utah, but Gonzaga is tournament experienced so they need to play well. And for Utah, I don't know if they should actually be on upset alert or not, but I can't remember the last time Utah was good at basketball so watch out for those pesky bulldogs from Fresno State. And in the later rounds, Purdue will so clearly beat Virginia. 

Bottomline: Michigan State should have no problem making their way to the elite eight. I think they'll face Purdue there which will be a tough game since it's a conference opponent but I think ultimately Tom Izzo and the Spartans emerge from the Midwest. 

FINAL FOUR: 

Kansas will just be too good for Oregon. UNC vs Michigan State will be an epic game, but not as epic as UNC vs Kansas for the championship. UNC wins a couple close ones in the final four and will take down the nets in Houston. 

Fire Jam Friday

Alright folks, spring break at Clemson and many other schools is upon us so let's goooo. Got a substantial amount of new hot fire music this week, and some solid classics as well. Get fired up for break if you have it, and if not well get fired up anyway. 

#FireJamFriday

Fire Jam Friday

Alright folks, we're into March and it's starting to be nice af out every day. Time to go outside and enjoy the weather and crush some FJF. Got some new Jake Owen highlighting this week's playlist and there's some other good new ones in there along with some classics. 

#FireJamFriday

Just Another Example of Why Clemson is Awesome

#ClemsonFamily isn't just a saying here. This place is different. Happy birthday to student manager, David Saville.https://t.co/YbI7ENzVl6

— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) March 2, 2016

Clemson is truly an awesome place, and while yes football is a huge part of why it's so great, it's things like this that make you realize that the Clemson Family isn't just about football. Dabo has made a habit of welcoming in kids with disabilities and making them feel like part of the team, and it's truly awesome. I mean, just look at the way David Saville hugs Dabo. Just spectacular. Can't really say much else about it besides that it's one of the wonderful things about Clemson, and that I'm proud to be a Tiger.

Check out this video from the fall that'll probably make you cry. Dabo has created an amazing program. #ClemsonFamily