#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -3). I still don't know what to make of this Lynx squad after a 2-1 screening week. A big early deficit to Phoenix was too much to overcome, and even though they rallied big-time with a furious Fourth Quarter, they fell on Sunday to the Mercury. However, that loss was bookended by wins over Atlanta and Los Angeles. Even better, it appears as though the Indiana Fever's loss last/Tuesday night to Atlanta clinched the Lynx a playoff spot.
The victory Monday over the Sparks seems typical of this Lynx season in the "Wubble." After one they were down, 26-19. But then came a monster Second Quarter where they outscored L.A. 30-14. Somehow the Lynx have pulled out monster quarters to other put Games away or get back into them.
Sylvia Fowles still seems to the key to a darkhorse title run of this team. But with her lingering calf injury and advanced age, the time to completely turn the page on the franchise is at hand. Luckily, the pieces now seem to be in place for Lynx fans to follow the next generation of great players, for there seems to be a pecking order. Napheesa Collier, who scored 25 in Monday's win, has become The Man (or Woman, so to speak) on this club. However, rookie Crystal Dangerfield has struck up instant chemistry with her fellow UConn Huskie alum and become a solid wingman. She should get serious consideration for Rookie Of The Year. Add the pivot play of Damiris Dantas, who has been a decent facsimile with Fowles out, and you have a Big 3 that's essential to a contender.
They have a busy schedule this week: Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and Washington, D.C., on alternating days beginning tonight/Wednesday night.
#-2: Vikings (Re-Entry!). It's nonstop drama with The Purple, I tell you what. Running Back Dalvin Cook reported to Training Camp, but talks of an extension have broken off for the year. And the team asked Offensive Tackle Riley Reiff to restructure his contract, after which he told teammates he expected to get cut and his agent began asking around the NFL if anyone wanted to trade for him. Yesterday/Tuesday, Reiff actually did take a paycut in order to stay with the Vikes.
But the big story, at least to me, is the franchise trading two picks to the Jacksonville Jaguars (where EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!) to bring in Defensive End Yannick Ngakoue. Getting a 25-year-old up-and-comer to bookend Danielle Hunter is fantastic. Unfortunately, word coming out of Eagan is that they remain extremely porous in the interior of both lines. Add to that a completely revamped Cornerback corps where hopefully some Rookie can immediately make an impact, and it feels as though this team can be in some serious trouble in 2020 ... assuming there will be a 2020.
But at least they haven't begun their season yet. The two teams below are in the middle of their seasons, and things have gone pear-shaped on them.
#-3: United FC (Last Week: -4). The promising start to the coronavirus-interrupted season is long gone now. The XI are in the middle of a three-Match losing streak after Saturday's 3-1 loss at Dallas. FC Dallas scored in the 11th and 12th Minutes, and despite another fucking rocket from Hassani Dotson, they Loons are gently free-falling through the standings.
At Halftime Manager Head Coach Adrian Heath did something I have never seen him do before: Make mass substitutions at once. Because of the pandemic, FIFA has allowed teams in all sanctioned leagues up to five subs per Match. Heath, absolutely pissed off at the shitshow that many observers thought was the worst offensive performance by MNUFC in a long time, took out all four attacking starters (Kevin Molino, Ethan Finlay, Robin Lod and Luis Amarilla). In their places were Dotson, Mason Toye, Thomas Chacon and Raheem Edwards. By all accounts the offense in the Second Half looked competent. Many fans don't like the way Heath seems to have "his guys"; if this fit of pique is reminiscent of Inchy going off on former Captain Francisco Calvo for getting sent off after a Match -- shortly after which he traded Calvo to Chicago -- maybe this youth movement is going to stick.
I just wonder if the explanation to the team's recent run of shitty form is due to the ongoing absence of reigning Defender Of The Year, Ike Opara. I thought he would be back by now, but he's still out because of something nobody is talking about. Fuckin' A.
They're at Houston tonight/Wednesday night, where Christian Ramirez and Darwin Quintero both are licking their lips, hoping for some revenge against the club that traded them. On Sunday the Loons are home to Real Salt Lake, whose owner is a bigot and is now in the middle of selling this team. This losing streak could get longer.
#-4: Twins (Last Week: -1). Thank God the Twinks finally scratched out a win last/Tuesday night, 3-2 over the White Sox at Target Field. But that was a come-from-behind affair and it appears as though they had to scratch and claw their way across home plate. Looking at the big picture, that victory ended a six-Game losing streak. The damage has been done; they finished the screening week 1-5 (with three postponements over two days in Detroit, first because of a wildcat strike over the shooting of Jacob Blake Tuesday and then an all-day rainout canceling a Doubleheader Friday) to stuff Minnesota in third place in the American League Central Division behind both Chicago and Cleveland, both of whom are currently tied for the top spot.
Right now fuck all the talk about them still making the playoffs and shit, and you should also forget about the anomaly of this season, how it's only 60 Games long and it's being played in front of nobody because of the pandemic and blah-blah-blah. After a very promising start, the club's recent mediocre form has exposed a lot of holes, and it's also made many a fan nostalgic of the Bomba Squad of last year. That lineup hit Home Runs and scored. This year's version has not; you see way too many instances of run-scratching contests like last night's, or tilts where the pitching has been decent enough but they just couldn't give the starters enough run support. All the big boppers who were crushing the horsehide last year has regressed to the mean and then some -- Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Polanco, Gonzalez, etc. With the exceptions of Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano, the lineup is a far cry from the pseudo-Murderers' Row they were in 2019.
(This also raises the common lament that the organization should have been all-in last year and mortgaged their farm system for an ace. You must strike while the iron is hot, and if you have a lineup that broke the Major League Baseball record for most Homers in a season, you better fucking believe you have lightning in a bottle. But the franchise let that lightning go, thinking "long-term" and keeping their best prospects to bring up at a time when the Home Runs when the team might not be so prolific.)
In the meantime, the Twinks did absolutely nothing before Monday's Trade Deadline. They could have used a right-handed bat. They also could have used a Reliever or two, because the bullpen that was so shutdown earlier in the season is springing holes like a motherfucker. Taylor Rodgers blew another Save while the rest of the 'Pen has been allowing Hits and Runs all over the place.
The lack of action for the Trade Deadline is an infuriating echo to their relatively busy offseason where, on brand, they (mostly) took cheap fliers on players (mostly Pitchers) coming off injuries or off-years in the hopes they could, well, catch lightning in a bottle again. Well, Kenta Maeda (coming here via trade) has held up well. But Rich Hill is a profane grinder who's arm is being grounded down to a nub and Homer Bailey is still on the Injured List. The only big Free Agent acquisition, Josh Donaldson, is also on the IL.
So the chances this squad took over the winter have mostly not panned out, their Offense has gone to shit in this shortened season, and they have done nothing to improve their team before September 1. A team with such high expectations for 2020 are in a tailspin right now, and I don't know how they pull themselves out of it. Does anyone now think they have the means and the ability to capture a World Series this year, especially when facing a Cleveland Rotation that has sprouted green shoots again and a Pale Hose team that is getting good at light speed? These fuckers are going to get fucking swept by the Yankees again.
Rubber match vs. the White Sox tonight/Wednesday night, then they're going to stuff five Games over four days of Labor Weekend at home against the Tigers (I think they still have to make up a Game, and since they were in Detroit over the weekend, one of those Games will have Detroit as the Home Team). They will then play a DH at St. Louis on Tuesday ... then not play until Friday???
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