The Boys of Summer

It’s July, and my last blog was about basketball. Sorry about that, guys, I know July and August are dedicated to baseball. So here’s some baseball.

Let’s talk about Juan Soto.

If you don’t know, Juan Soto just declined to sign a 15-year, $440 million with the Washington Nationals. Who could blame him? It’s the Nationals. The Nationals are, by average age, the oldest team in baseball. Unfortunately for the District of Columbia, the Nationals are also one of the worst teams in baseball.

Well, the Juan Soto sweepstakes can begin. It’s clear Washington wants to get younger, and what better way to do that than to trade a generational talent for teenagers that are good at baseball. Every team’s fan base is begging management for this superstar. The big guns, such as the Yankees, Dodgers, and Mets look like the front runners.

The Dodgers can throw their farm system at the Nationals (which, somehow is really good) and not give up a single player in the majors. The one must for the Dodgers to give up is Bobby Miller and Andy Pages. Sorry for going on a little tangent here but I have to. The Dodgers have a really good farm system, but most of their prospects are 22 years old or older, which is not suitable for any farm system. The reason for this is that the MLB team is so good that the prospects are being blocked from going up in every position. This is perfect for the Dodgers because they can trade their good prospects for even more good MLB players and build a super team. It might be wishful thinking but it could definitely happen. The Yankees would need to give up quite a lot, this would mean Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez, easily, plus more.

My only concern as a Mets fan is giving up Francisco Alvarez. He’s the best prospect in baseball (officially, he’s #2, but Riley Greene of the Detroit Tigers is about to graduate), and it looks all but certain the Nationals would want Alvarez in a deal for Soto. So, that’s where I draw the line if I was the GM. Take the farm, but don’t take Alvarez. Some other teams in the mix are the Padres and the Cardinals. For these two teams, getting Soto and giving up the farm shifts their perspective from “on the come-up” to “win immediately or we failed.”

Some teams that I haven’t seen are the bad ones. Like Baltimore, Arizona, Pittsburgh or Cleveland. These teams have the best farm systems because they’re the worst teams. So, to start going on the uphill slope, they should use their massive farm system and trade for Juan Soto. Shell out your best prospect and whatever else the Nationals ask for. A few stipulations for Baltimore and Pittsburgh: similar to the Mets and Alvarez, Baltimore and Pittsburgh shouldn’t trade Adley Rutschman or Oneil Cruz respectively.

Lastly, if the Tampa Bay Rays go out and acquire Juan Soto, the AL East would simply be unfair. The Tampa Bay Rays have an insane farm system, and they don’t have a right fielder. They could give up a lot of prospects for him, and now make the AL East even scarier.

I’m going to end this blog with a story. All-Star and Home Run Derby participant Juan Soto declined the massive proposed contract a few days before he needs to fly to Los Angeles for the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby. The Nationals forgot (or didn’t want to) charter a plane for Juan Soto, so he had to fly commercial and got to Los Angeles at 1:30 AM, five hours earlier than the Atlanta Braves players, as paraphrased from Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein.

Guess the Nationals took the rejection to heart. What did Soto do? Throw a chair before he left the room.

“How dare you not offer me $1 billion for 28 years, I’m Juan Soto!”

Nonetheless, a really, really classy move from a professional sports team in the United States. 

Watching the Offseason Jockeying in Basketball

In this blog, I’m writing about basketball – the sport that they aren’t playing right now but it might be the most exciting one in the country. In my opinion, each offseason in every sport is an enjoyable time. I like seeing how rosters get shaken up and where the star players will end up. But as I get older, I also like seeing where the role players end up, because they might not be role players by the end of the season, like Jordan Poole showed us in the playoffs or how Draymond Green has been showing us his whole career.

There have already been a few trade bangers, such as the Timberwolves trading for Rudy Gobert. Now they have to pay a supermax to two big men. They also have to keep some money for Anthony Edwards and, you know, the other players on their roster. I believe 100% that the Jazz won this deal. Yeah, they traded away their DPOY center but look at the return they got: 5 players and 5 draft picks. Now, if they trade away Donovan Mitchell as well, they could have an even better future, but I’ll get to that later. The Hawks traded for Dejounte Murray and after that, some people were saying that the Hawks have no future. Saying that John Collins isn’t going to grow anymore and trading away all of the draft picks was a very futile move isn’t true at all. Even though the Hawks may not have such great draft capital now, they have Trae Young and Dejounte Murray in the backcourt. People underestimate how good this duo could become.

Now to the potential trades…

Donovan Mitchell loves New York. His dad is an executive for the Mets, and he loves them. He’s even hinted at going to New York in the past. Now, the opportunity presents itself. The Knicks are making a massive push to get Donovan Mitchell and they look like the clear front runners. The Jazz want draft picks, and that’s what the Knicks have. The Knicks want to keep RJ Barrett, and they insist on keeping him. From the proposed trades I have seen, it doesn’t look like the Jazz are adamant about getting RJ. If the Knicks could get Donovan Mitchell, then they would turn into an immediate threat in the East, although they won’t have much of a front court, they’ll have more than enough with Jalen Brunson, Mitchell and Barrett to at the least make a play-in spot.

I doubt a really big move like Kyrie Irving to the Lakers is going to happen. That’s just speculation. Even if the Nets were entertaining offers for Irving, what would the Lakers have to offer? Staying with the Nets, it’s obvious Kevin Durant will be traded to a big city, if he gets traded at all. Whether it be Philly, Miami, or somewhere in California, it doesn’t matter too much. Durant has a pretty big say in where he goes, I believe. Do you know who’s got a lot of tradeable assets? The Jazz. But Durant probably doesn’t want to play in Utah to end his career.

The Trailblazers need to shift their focus into win-now mode. No one knows how long Lillard is going to be playable as a superstar, so they need to try to win as many games as soon as possible. Another option for Kevin Durant that I didn’t list was Portland. He can team up with Damian Lillard, who Portland still expects to be really good. If he is good, this is his last year. The Blazers would need to sign Bradley Beal and use all of their young players to trade for KD. Then they would have Lillard and Bradley Beal in the backcourt and Kevin Durant as the PF. Then Jusuf Nurkic would be the center and they could acquire any above-average forward to be the last of the starting lineup.

According to this link, the first eight and nine out of the first ten free agents have re-signed (I don’t know about the situation regarding Miles Bridges and where he stands as a free agent, but I’ll assume the Charlotte Hornets would not care what happened or happens in Bridges’ personal life and would want to resign a player like him, but then again, the Hornets' PR Team might have something against that). The free agent class of 2022 is not exceptional, apart from the top, Bradley Beal and Jalen Brunson. Unfortunately, it was mostly filled with role players or aging players.

This is a great time to be a basketball fan, and even if someone is just starting out in basketball, the league is being owned by exciting young players, and more are coming in each year. 

Happy spectating, sports fans.