Your “We Can Only Go Up From Here” Thursday Evening Open Thread

NFL News:

• Los Titancanos’ DE Jurrell Casey will continue to take a knee and protest during the national anthem, in spite of the greed lords owners latest rule change.
  
  • “I’m going to take my fine… It is what it is, I ain’t going to let them stop me from doing what I want to do. If they want to have these battles between players and organizations, this is the way it’s going to be.”
    • I highly recommend that you avoid the comment section on this subject altogether, which included someone accusing Casey of being racist himself because of his stance (or rather lack there of.)
  • In the same vein, the Dolphins doubled down on the NFL’s ruling by adding team rules in a 9 page document, which could include suspensions for players that do not show “Proper Anthem Conduct” while on the field.
    • The document has not been released to the public, so it remains to be seen if slipping and nearly falling to your knee will be considered an incomplete disgrace or not.
• Terrell Owens said the most obvious thing that everybody already knows on Tuesday, giving him some rare actual props from me at the time.
  • “You sound like the Patriots. You know what I mean? Hey, I don’t care about the Patriots — Belichick, Brady — they cheaters. They cheated. They cheated,”
    • Unfortunately, he decided to backtrack this statement fully today with the old “Gosh, I was only JOKING YOU GUYS, GEEZE!”
      • I really don’t see how this does him any good, considering he’s already pissed off the Masshole fanbase, and now just pissed the rest of everyone off by taking it back, but I guess it gives him one more headline and the attention he desperately craves.
• Arthur Blank’s pockets are closed up tighter than Megatron’s butthole – The Falcons will apparently not renegotiate the contract of Julio Jones, despite his demands and sitting out offseason workouts so far because of it.
  • Julio has 3 years left on his current deal, so this threat seems kinda thin to me, but I can understand why arguably the best receiver in the game would want more.
    • This could all change things if it spills over into training camp, which begins for Atlanta a week from today on July 26th.

TRADES TRADES TRADES:

• Manny Machado ended up with the Doyers after all late yesterday, in a move that sends 5 minor league prospects to the Orioles
  • The only real notable player acquired by Baltimore is Cuban import Yusniel Diaz, the 84th coverall ranked prospect in the MLB, and 4th in the Dodgers system.
    • The Dodgers spent $31 million in bonus and taxes to sign him out of Cuba, so I look at this as another way LA is trying to spend spend spend to stay competitive after a slow start to the year, albeit now division leaders.
  • Machado, of course, only has the rest of this year on his contract and is due to be a free agent in October.
    • Everyone in the NL West (and the broader National League even) hope that happens and he ends up elsewhere, without a title brought to Chavez Ravine, and the Dirt Rams gave up a quality prospect for a 2 month rental.

      

• My own San Diego Padres ended up finally dealing closer Tom Toe, Jack Elbow, Frank Spleen, Bill Wang  Brad Hand and relief pitcher Adam Cimber to Cleveland for AAA prospect Francisco Mejia.
  • Mejia is at least the #15th overall ranked prospect in the MLB (depending on who you ask,) and mainly plays catcher, but also has experience in the outfield as well.
    • Mejia is currently on a 50-game active hitting streak in the minors, which is the longest since 1963.
  • This trade made me nearly speechless with joy when the news broke before 9am Pacific, as I have a long standing dislike of Mike Wrist, Phil Knee, Eric Butt Brad Hand as the Padres closer.
    • While Hand has rather stellar looking numbers over the last two seasons, anyone that actually spends time watching him pitch consistently knows that is either on or OFF, and can be rattled into making big mistakes; most recently last Friday against the Cubs in San Diego.
    • In my opinion, Hand makes a good relief pitcher, but by no means should be a closer, which I understand that Cleveland will not use him as in 2018. This also allows the Padres to put current 8th inning pitcher Kirby Yates into that role, which I think he is much more suited for.
• The Seattle Super Sonics OKC Thunder have agreed to trade Carmelo Anthony to the Atlanta Hawks for Dennis Schroder
  • Per SB Nation: “As part of a three-team trade, Mike Muscala has also been traded to the Sixers, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot will go to the Thunder and Justin Anderson will go to the Hawks.”
  • ‘Melo is expected to be released by the Hawks immediately to become a free agent and is eyeing Houston as the front runners to sign him.

What the hell is on tonight?

• The MLB gets back underway with just one game tonight as the #BFIB go to Wrigley to take on the Dirt Bears: 4pm Pacific on ESPN.
• That’s about it for sports, unless you are interested in the WNBA or whatever “The Open” is for golf.
• FXX has a Simpsons block starting at 8pm Pacific, but there look to be a couple later season episodes in there, so be sure to click away quickly if you see sharp, HD animation.

As for me, I will be spending most of my time tonight continuing to play South Park’s Fractured But Whole, and likely work in the start of Atlanta Season 2 and last night’s Colbert.

Don’t be like Sober Towelie and have some damn fun tonight!