Big Ben Tuesday: Youth Movement to Sign Soto, Giants Get a Dub, Seattle Storm’s Two Point Quarter

Stamford, CT: It sure is nice having this Soto guy around. The Yankees might have to roll with several youngsters next year if they hope to bring him back. The Giants looked okay in notching their first dub, but I’m chalking it up to a bad and battered opponent, not impressive play by the G-Men. Apart from this Nabers kid, that is, he is legitimate. And lastly, the WNBA, it’s bricktastic!

Youth Gone Wild

Juan Soto has been a perfect fit in the Bronx, with a unique blend of patience, power, and clutch. Experts think he could get something like a 12-14 year deal worth close to $600 million. The Yanks have big money commitments to Judge, Cole, and Rodon. And they still have three more seasons of Big G Stanton and two more of DJ LeMahieu for way too much money. They’re not exactly flush with cash and gone are the reckless spending days of Big George. It’s not going to be easy to bring back Soto, who is determined to test the market.

If it’s going to happen, they need to say goodbye to the rest of their free agents, including Gleyber, Verdugo, Rizzo (with a buyout), Holmes, and Kahnle. They’ll have to go cheap on their replacements with youngsters. If they do that route, the Yanks could have a lineup that looks something like:

2B: Peraza
RF: Soto
CF: Judge
C: Wells
LF: Dominguez
DH: Stanton
3B: Chisholm
1B: Rice
SS: Volpe

Still a good lineup, but there’s a lot of yutes in there. Might be fun.

Not Dead Yet

The Giants kept their season alive, temporarily, but I wouldn’t get too excited. It looked how it was supposed to look in the first half against the Browns on Sunday, with Nabers making plays and the pass rush getting after Watson.

But the Browns offensive line was a mess and Watson is terrible.  The Giants’ offense was much less effective in the second half once the Browns put star CB Ward on Nabers. I’m not sure why they didn’t do that from the start.

Anyway, if the Giants can somehow pull one out on Thursday against the reeling ‘Boys, maybe I’ll get a little excited.

Brick City

After the Chiefs game ended on Sunday night (another win on a call that went their way), I flipped over to ESPN. Instead of Sportscenter, the fourth quarter of the Las Vegas Aces vs the Seattle Storm was starting. The Storm had 65-64 lead going into the final quarter. I left it on, since it’s getting so much attention.

Well, I was treated to a “storm” of bricks. Both teams couldn’t hit the ocean from a boat. If you like watching players pad their rebounding stats, this was the game for you. I couldn’t look away.

Read in the voice of Bubba Gump. There was running bricks, catch and shoot bricks, step back bricks, scoop shot bricks, put back bricks, hook shot bricks, brick sandwiches, boiled bricks, brick kabobs, fried bricks. About ev’ry kind a’ brick you can imagine.

When all was said and done, the Aces won 78-67. So, if my math is correct, that means the Storm put up a whopping TWO points in an entire quarter, while the Aces lit up the scoreboard for 14. Did I mention this was a playoff game? And the two points were on free throws, so not one made shot from the field for the Storm. Ouch.

I’m sure the league has improved a lot and of course not every game is like this, but damn, this was not fun to watch. Sorry, but I’ll be going back to ignoring this league for now. P

Swing by tomorrow for Angry Ward, who once singlehandedly put up two points in a quarter.

 

Share Button
About Ben Whitney 427 Articles
Ben Whitney comes from journalistic stock. Aside from his brothers, rumor has that his great-great grandfather was the youngest brother of Eli Whitney and covered the earliest "rounders" games. Big Ben is also another New York Rugby Club player/pal of Different Matt, Short Matt and Junoir Blaber. He likes film noir discussions, has twin girls and took up ice hockey after retiring from rugby.