Busy Busy

Monday and Tuesday can be busy days for me and sometimes working around real life (Especially on Tuesday) and the everyday errands that we all have hit my time here hard.

However, enjoy this note about the upcoming week to come:

The Browns hit free agency as I write this, Cleveland has an agreement for a major defensive contributor in case.
That's an agreement because teams cannot sign anyone officially until tomorrow, but it is extremely rare to renege on these agreements.

No Hotshots review this week.
Why? Well, I was exhausted after a long Sunday of work and family events and was watching something else when the game began.
I finished that and was going to go to bed when Fred Landucci called me and said the game against San Antonio was 26-0 Commanders near the half.
Judging that, I went to bed- the Hotshots rallied strongly in the second half but lost 29-25.
Arizona falls to 2-3 on the year and visits what appears to be the league's top team next week in the undefeated Orlando Apollos.

I'll be appearing on a podcast (remember when I did one of those before controversy and dollars came into play?) on Wednesday, so once I can post and give the host show some pub, I'll link to it so anyone out there can give it a listen.
Please make sure you give the guys at Rouge White and Blue some comments or even ratings on your podcasting tool of choice.
I'm sure they'll appreciate it and mentioning me wouldn't hurt getting my name out there as I (Shh) tenderly begin the process of "other projects".

Since I'm picking at the bottom of my fantasy draft in each round, it has taken longer to make my picks so the posts on those players will be worked on.
I've picked three more "Rubber Ducks", one of them just a few minutes ago and there will be two more before I'm finished.
I'm fairly pleased so far considering where I'm picking, but I gambled twice in the draft on players I really liked and once it paid off well and the other it didn't so I'll have those stories as well.

I also have the boxing challenge starting early this week with a Friday night card on DAZN
More passings to note and an inbox that needs dumping along with a possible feature as well

Hang in there until tonight/slash tomorrow morning as Jim Ross used to scream- Business is about to pick up!

Boxing Challenge: Porter squeaks by Ugas

The Boxing Challenge weekend saw three champions successfully defend their titles, albeit with various controversies from two states and platforms.

From Carson, California at the don't call it StubHub Center, Shawn Porter squeezed by mandatory contender Yordenis Ugas by split decision to keep his WBC welterweight championship and hopes of bigger fights to come in the future alive.
Porter is known for his hard-driving, punishing style that wears fighters down as a strong fullback does in football and yet against Ugas, a taller, lankier fighter that uses range well, Porter decided to box from the outside, gave Ugas the best chance for the former Olympic bronze medalist to win and as noted, barely won on the scorecards.
I scored the fight even at 114-114, but sometimes a fight can be even on the cards and have the "feel" of one guy "winning" such as when I scored Usyk-Breidis last year even at 114 but noted that the same "feel" going the way of Usyk.
Using that "feel", I can see where observers can look at Ugas as the "winner", but in no way was this a robbery (hence the no Hamburglar picture) and their styles didn't really mesh together to make this a fight that was filled with exchanges that made a rematch palatable for anyone, at least right away.
The biggest question to me was this one-Did Porter fight differently because that was the gameplan or did he feel weaker with the near-miss on the scales and felt physically weaker?

In the other bout from Carson, undefeated heavyweight hitter Efe Ajagba ripped through aging Amir Mansour when the corner stopped the fight for Mansour after two rounds.
Ajagba scored two knockdowns in the first and pounded Mansour in the second causing the early ending.
Mansour tried to fight back, but Ajagba was too young and too big as he impressively passed his first test.

Moving to DAZN from Verona New York, the title bouts were very one-sided with the challengers combining to win two rounds on my cards with almost identical scores.
Dmitri Bivol won eleven out of twelve rounds and with the exception of appearing to be somewhat stung at the end of the eleventh round by Joe Smith, won about everything you could win in a fight to retain his WBA light heavyweight championship.
Bivol didn't knock down the rugged Smith but used his impressive boxing skills to dominate and control him otherwise in winning 119-109 on my scorecard.

My scorecard read 119-108 for Maurice Hooker in a unanimous decision win over Mikkel LesPierre, who took a licking in lasting the distance.
LesPierre showed grit in making the count after being crunched to the liver in a ninth-round knockdown but was not very competitive in the loss.
Hooker took four attempts to make the weight and by that could be well suited to consider a move to welterweight, but almost the top talent in that division resides with either PBC or Top Rank and Hooker should stay where he is to stay at 140 pounds.

Light heavyweight Callum Johnson might not have the skills of the top light heavyweights as he showed in being knocked out in his challenge to IBF champion Artur Beterbiev last year.
Johnson also showed in knocking Beterbiev down that he has serious power and if he lands, he can hurt even the top fighters in the division.
Seanie Monaghan is a limited fighter that is overmatched at the world-class level that can be very entertaining when matched properly.
Johnson is clearly a full step above Monaghan as he busted up Monaghan's face in the first round, dropped him twice in the second round with the bell saving from a likely stoppage and then finished him with booming punches seconds into the third.
Johnson has a punchers chance against anyone in the division, while Monaghan's level seems to be at the clubfighter watermark.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 9-7 with the two point difference being the decision wins by Dmitri Bivol and Maurice Hooker.
I regain the lead in the challengeat 50-49

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge stakes its claim to Saturday evening with two cards from two sources and three championship fights.

Fox brings their best fight to date to their PBC program as Shawn Porter defends his WBC welterweight title against the mandatory challenger in Yordenis Ugas in Carson, California.
Porter barely made weight for this fight and I've thought all along that Ugas could be a "trap fight" for Porter if he was underprepared or lacked motivation for the former Olympic bronze medalist, who is on an eight-fight winning streak since moving up to the welterweight division.
Style-wise, Ugas could give Porter some problems, but the biggest issue for the Cuban is that although several of his wins of later have been against good competition, none of them have been against top ten level opponents with the arguable exception of Jamal James.
Porter's preparation will come into play, but I think he gets through some rounds and eventually grinds Ugas down, but the variables make Ugas a very interesting underdog.

The other challenge fight from PBC is a rare eight round bout as Eje Ajagba of Nigeria, who has looked so impressive in his eight wins on PBC undercards in blasting out preliminary opponents, takes a planetary leap in competition against veteran Amir Mansour.
Mansour, who is 46, yet has a record of 23-3, usually makes fun fights with his last five outings being wild and wooly.
Mansour's last five fights (in no particular order) have seen him draw with then-undefeated and future title challenger Gerald Washington, handed then-undefeated Travis Kaufman his first loss, knocked down the current mandatory contender in the WBC, Dominic Breazeale in the third round before surrendering in his corner after five rounds with a broken jaw in a fight he was winning, failed a drug test after a technical draw against undefeated (and fighting on DAZN Saturday) Sergei Kuzmin and in his last fight,looked like he basically took a ten count and walked back to his corner against touted prospect Filip Hrgovic.
I have no idea what we'll get from Mansour, but if he has anything to offer at all, Ajagba will at least have someone that can punch firing back at him.

The remaining fights move to DAZN in Verona New York with two world title fights and what could be a fight that should see plenty of punches landed by both fighters.

The main event will place the WBA light heavyweight title held by Dmitri Bivol on the line as Joe Smith will challenge Bivol for that championship.
Bivol has looked more workmanlike than dynamite in his last two title defenses over veterans Issac Chilemba and Jean Pascal and despite both wins coming via wide decisions, Bivol has not scored a knockdown in either win and looks to be a champion without a big fight with the other three champion all making their title defenses for ESPN/Top Rank.
Joe Smith looked terrific in driving Bernard Hopkins from the game in 2016 after his eighth-round knockout that saw Hopkins dazed outside the ring, but looked dazed himself in his following fight, where he lost a lopsided decision to Sullivan Barrera and broke his jaw to boot.
The straight forward moving Smith might be just the foe to make Bivol look like a power puncher again and if Bivol doesn't look strong in this one, I'm not sure where he will be able to look strong.

Maurice Hooker, who did look very good in his last fight in a pounding of undefeated Alex Saucedo, defends his WBO junior welterweight title against undefeated, but lightly regarded Mikkel LesPierre.
Hooker did take all four of his allowed visits to the scale to finally make the 140-pound weight limit and despite wanting to make a title defense in his hometown of Dallas in his next fight, may not be long for the division, so if LesPierre is talented enough, this could be interesting with the weight problems.

The final bout is placed mainly for its entertainment value as Callum Johnson battles Seanie Monaghan in what should be a brawl in a ten round light heavyweight fight between two fringe contenders.
Britain's Johnson scored a flash knockdown of IBF champion Artur Beterbiev in his last fight before being taken out in four rounds, while Monaghan was dominated by Sullivan Barrera in a decision loss last time out.
Both fighters appear to be a cut below world class, but are matched well here, so this should be a guilty pleasure to watch.
The winner will likely see more fights and perhaps a chance to move forward, the loser is likely to cement themselves in trialhorse status.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica leads me at 42-41

WBC Welterweight Title. 12 Rds
Shawn Porter vs Yordenis Ugas
Both: Porter Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights 8 Rds
Efe Ajagba vs Amir Mansour
R.L: Ajagba KO 5
TRS: Ajagba KO 3

WBA Light Heavyweight Title. 12 Rds
Dmitri Bivol vs Joe Smith
R.L.: Bivol KO 9
TRS: Bivol Unanimous Decision

WBO Jr.Welterweight Title. 12 Rds
Maurice Hooker vs Mikkel LesPierre
R.L: Hooker KO 11
TRS: Hooker Unanimous Decision

Lt. Heavyweights,10 Rds
Callum Johnson vs Seanie Monaghan
R.L: Johnson KO 10
TRS: Johnson KO 7

Browns trade with Giants-Olivier Vernon coming to Cleveland

There are only five days before the free agency gold rush starts for the National Football League, but the Cleveland Browns and John Dorsey decided to make a move before the rolling out of the wagons began by trading with the New York Giants, but not for the player that so many are unrealistically lusting for.

The Browns sent starting guard Kevin Zeitler and a fifth-round draft pick to the Gothamites and added defensive end/linebacker Olivier Vernon and a fourth rounder in return.
Kevin Zeitler was signed to a large contract during the 2017 free agency period from the Cincinnati Bengals and played well in his two years in Cleveland but with 2018 second rounder Austin Corbett needing a place in the lineup, Zeitler began to look expendable and with the chance to add a solid rusher off the edge, Dorsey's decision to move now looks even better when you look closer.

Olivier Vernon turns 29 during the 2019 season and made the Pro Bowl last season (not quite the achievement that it used to be, so don't allow yourself to be too excited) after a seven-sack season for the Giants.
Those seven sacks came in eleven games after a high ankle sprain caused Vernon to miss the first five games of the season and high ankle sprains are the type of injury that can be difficult to return to full health from in-season, so Vernon's numbers, which weren't bad at all, look even better through that scope..
Vernon was signed from Miami after the 2015 season and in his three seasons in New York, sacked the quarterback twenty-two times, but for the eighty-five million (over five years) contract, Giants fans were mildly disappointed with his play considering his cost.
While I can understand that somewhat, most free agents do wind up being somewhat overpaid, it's the cost of doing business and bringing players to your town.
After all, Kevin Zeitler was very solid for the Browns in his two seasons, but you could make a decent argument that he was overpaid (48 million for five years) for a right guard, so rarely does a signee perform the feat of playing well enough that the paycheck is fair value.

Olivier Vernon is a versatile player that will likely line up as a defensive end opposite Myles Garrett for the Browns, but is more than capable of playing as a stand up outside linebacker for a 3-4 team (which the Giants put into place for the 2018 season) or in specific alignments in the 4-3 and can even drop back a bit in pass coverage without being a liability as so many end rushers are when asked to do that task.
The arrival of Vernon allows Emmanuel Ogbah to move into a backup after he's been a little disappointing as a rusher in the two seasons after the drafting of Myles Garrett or perhaps even see some time inside at defensive tackle, where the Browns are a little light (C'mon Ed Oliver!) other than Larry Ogunjobi.

Don't sleep on the flipping of the Browns fifth rounder for the Giants fourth either as the Browns move up twenty-three picks with that portion of the trade.
The Browns now possess these picks in next month's draft: 1st. 2nd, 3rd, 3rd (Patriots for Danny Shelton), 4th, 4th (Giants for Kevin Zeitler), 5th (Jaguars for Carlos Hyde),5th (Patriots for Josh Gordon), 6th and 7th (Jaguars for Cody Kessler).

I like the trade for both teams as they addressed need areas, but I like it for the Browns a little better with the slightly better player (although more expensive) and the higher draft pick, but the Giants did well here too adding a strong starting lineman for three years and move an expensive player that wasn't going to play in the defense that he signed to play in.
Good work by both teams.

I've generally been very positive on John Dorsey's moves, however, I do wonder about the decision to tender Rashard Higgins only a fifth-round compensation contract.
Higgins played well in the second half and seemed to have a connection with Baker Mayfield, so I expected the Browns to at least offer a second-round tender and with plenty of cap space, I didn't think that would be a big deal to Dorsey.
The fifth round tender comes as a surprise to me, but the Browns can match any offer, so they have a chance of retaining Higgins.
Higgins caught 39 passes (4 touchdowns) for 572 yards in 2018 and should the Browns choose not to match a contract offered to Higgins, they would receive that teams fifth-round draft pick.
Unless the contract offer would be ridiculously high, the Browns are expected to match any offer.
The Browns also tendered contracts to defensive tackle Trevon Coley and special teamer/defensive back Jermaine Whitehead.

Back later with the boxing challenge for the weekend in the fight game/

Cleaning out the inbox-Passings

It's been a bad few days for passings and we have enough from the sports world to fill a post with two from pro wrestling and one each from baseball, football, and hockey.

The biggest name comes from pro wrestling with the passing of
King Kong Bundy at the age of 61.
Bundy's time is best remembered for his angle with Hulk Hogan where Bundy "injured" the ribs of Hogan (as pictured above) and built to a steel cage match as the main event of Wrestlemania II.
Bundy was a headliner in several territories before his biggest success in the WWF, where part of his gimmick was demanding a five-count because a "three count wasn't enough" to demoralize his opponents.
I seem to remember some promotion doing this, but I'm not sure about this, but I've always thought that a way to really build Bundy as a star/title contender, etc, would have been for him to receive a three count from the referee against the champion, but have the champion "kick out" at four and due to Bundy's demand for a five count, the title would not change hands, yet Bundy could claim a three count over the champion.
Bundy also wrestled a series of matches against Andre the Giant after Bundy "injured" his ribs in what was Andre's last big feud before his heel turn against Hulk Hogan, replaced the jailed Ken Patera as John Studd's tag team partner and then there was the Wrestlemania 3 match with Bundy crushing "little person" Little Beaver with an elbow drop after a body slam, which to Beaver must have felt like he was thrown off a roof.

Bundy to me is best remembered for two personal stories.
The first of which is his LJN toy figure, where that line was made of these molded rubber figures that did nothing in moves but they were somewhat flexible-Not Bundy's.
The Bundy figure felt like it weighed five pounds, had zero movements and the damn thing felt like a brick!
In all seriousness, if you threw the King Kong Bundy figure at someone or something, it would have done some damage!

The other memory came in the mid-'90s when Cherie was working with a lady that was a few years younger than us that went to the same high school, which put her in the perfect age group to have attended high school with me and my brother.
We were eating dinner and somehow Shane's name came up and she said that they called him "King Kong Bundy" because he wore this Bundy t-shirt all the time.
I don't even remember the shirt, let alone how often he wore it, but when Bundy's name comes up, I often smile thinking of that story and wondering why I don't remember that shirt- haha!


Goodbye to "The Destroyer" Dick Beyer at the age of 88.
Beyer might not have had the same name recognition if you are under 60 as King Kong Bundy, but Beyer made his name known as well during a career that saw him as one of the American stars that helped to establish pro wrestling in Japan.
Known as the Destroyer in most places, but as "Doctor X" in the Midwestern-based AWA, won the company's world championship, which considering that the main star was also the promoter in Verne Gagne, was not something given to just anyone.
The Destroyer was a much bigger star in Japan, where in the early 60s, 70 million people watched him battle with the original Japanese wrestling star Rikidozan on television.
Beyer was beloved in his home area of Buffalo, as the glowing article above in the Buffalo News shows for his charity work and time coaching various sports in high school and children,


Goodbye to "Terrible Ted" Lindsay at the age of 93- Thanks to Jeff Heimberger for the note.
Lindsay scored over 800 points in his career, mainly spent with Detroit, and was known for his toughness and "rule stretching" play.
The league created rules against kneeing and elbowing mainly due to the aggressive play of Lindsay and Gordie Howe with the Wings.
Detroit won four cups with Lindsay, who entered the hockey hall of fame in 1966 and Lindsay would both coach and hold the general manager position for Detroit in the 1970s as well as the NBC color commentator on their Game of the Week series before rejoining the Wings management team.


Goodbye to Jack Gregory at the age of 74.
Gregory played for the Browns before being traded to the Giants and returned to the Browns for his final season to finish his career, which ran from 1967 thru 1979.
Even though Gregory spent his share of time in Cleveland, I remember him best as a Giant, who acquired him from Cleveland with Freddie Summers (a name that will pop up in regular inbox cleaning next time out) before the 1972 season for the Giants first and second-round draft picks.
Gregory was the best defender on the terrible Giants teams of the seventies and was unofficially credited with 65 sacks with the Giants, 18.5 of those coming in his first season of 1972 in New York.
Sacks were not an official statistic in the NFL during Gregory's career, which is why his numbers will be unofficial.

Goodbye to John Romano at the age of 84. Thanks to Lefty Koch for the note.
Romano spent all but the final 24 games of his career (Cardinals) with the White Sox and Indians before his career ended at 32.
Romano hit 124 homers from 1960-66 with those two teams and might have had a case as the top power-hitting catcher in the American League in those seasons.
Romano's best seasons were as an Indian before being the main asset given up by Cleveland in the three-way trade with Chicago and Kansas City that returned Rocky Colavito to the Indians in 1965.

Browns release Jamie Collins

With the free agency signing period nearing, the Cleveland Browns already owned plenty of salary cap space and they created more with the release of veteran linebacker Jamie Collins.

The 29-year-old Collins was traded for in the middle of the 2016 season and given a four-year contract worth over ten million dollars a season after the 2016 campaign by then head of football operations Sashi Brown.

Collins played every game last season posting over 70 solo tackles, thirteen of those for loss, four sacks, and an interception- solid numbers, but nothing spectacular from a player receiving over ten million dollars for those statistics.
Collins had also shown questionable effort at times and on a team on the upswing, John Dorsey simply will not tolerate those types of problems.
The Browns will save nine million dollars on the cap by releasing Collins as the major part of his contract was frontloaded against the cap.
Collins would have counted as eleven and a half million against the cap for the Browns, had he started the season.

The Browns can't be criticized for not wanting to pay Collins such a large amount of money all things considered, but the team certainly has to add help at linebacker now with only Joe Schobert returning as a starter and one not coming off an injury as Christian Kirksey will continue to recover from his season-ending hamstring injury.
Cleveland and their abundant cap space have been connected to both of the standout free agent linebackers available in rumors as both Baltimore's C.J. Mosley and Minnesota's Anthony Barr could be objects of the Browns interest.
Both Mosley and Barr would bring an aspect of their game that the Browns could use as Barr is the superior pass rusher and slightly better in pass coverage, while Mosley is far better against the run, has been the most consistent performer and has the advantage of weakening a division rival as well as experience in the division.
Barr could bring the pass rushing ability off the rush that the Browns paid for yet never received from Jamie Collins opposite Myles Garrett, but Mosley brings the capability of covering the entire field in the run game and is the type of player that brings respect both in the locker room and from the opposition.
I'd be fine with either, but if forced to choose between the two and assuming the price is similar, I'd slightly lean towards Mosley.
The Browns have also been rumored to have shown interest in the draft's top linebacker in LSU's Devin White, although White may have taken himself out of availability for Cleveland at pick number 17 after a tremendous combine workout series.

The Browns have been flying all over Twitter last night with unnamed rumors from established NFL writers so there could be something in the works- If that's the case, I'll be here with some thoughts, of course.

Minor League Fantasy Draft- Round One- Joey Bart

(Jared Ravich/MiLB.com)

Last year, I wrote about my various draft selections in my minor league fantasy draft and followed them throughout the season.
Now, I know that someone's fantasy sports team are as interesting to others as other people's little league teams or pictures of their kids or pets (General rule of thumb- those are all things to be passionate about when you are involved and no problems with that, but unless you are in that league, no one else really cares) and I won't bore you with my team in the season, etc ,but since I write about minor league baseball throughout the season, I do make an exception for my minor players because I think it's just fun to follow.

Last season, I lost a heartbreaking championship series that that literally came down to the final at-bat of the week on Sunday Night Baseball before I was defeated.
That loss meant I was picking 11th in the draft and I released six players to possess six picks in this year's draft.
There were a few players that I really liked, but I doubted that they would be available to me at 11.
I noted last year, with my 5th round pick of Atlanta's William Contreras, that the hardest positions to draft and develop players at are catcher and shortstop as young players often start at those positions and are moved to other spots for various reasons.

I was interested in one player more than most though for not only the above reason but because my catching position on my team could use an upgrade and this player would likely be fast-tracked to the big leagues faster than usual.
I talked to a team (Memphis Redbirds) picking at the top of the round to see the cost and the response was to flip first rounders would be a major league pitcher off my roster.
Given the choice of two, I chose Cleveland's Shane Bieber to trade and the deal was finished.

I quickly tabbed Joey Bart of the Giants to address the catching position.
Bart was the second overall choice last year in the draft out of Georgia Tech, where he hit .361 and 16 homers for the Yellow Jackets in 56 games, but was also named the ACC player of the year and the ACC defensive player of the year.
The latter is important because it means that Bart is skilled enough behind the plate that he'll stay there, where his bat is so much more valuable to the Giants and fantasy owners.
The 6'3 Bart played his 2018 minor season at short-season Salem-Keizer, where Bart hit .298 with 13 homers in 45 games with the Volcanoes.
Bart is noted to have 30 homer power potential and should stay behind the plate.
The main worry is this- Making contact and Bart could strike out a lot.
For my purposes, a strikeout is no different than any other type of out, so that's not an issue.
Bart's ceiling- He could develop into the best hitting catcher in the game, hitting .280 with 30 homers.
Bart's floor- He hits .230 with 15 homers with strong defense, which doesn't help me but would keep him in the lineup as the Giants everyday backstop,


Shane Bieber is a promising young pitcher, but I added him as a waiver claim, so as a result I had little invested in him and even though I think Bieber is going to have a nice season, the chance to add what could be an elite catcher should things work out perfectly made the cost reasonable and gamble worth taking.
It's a while before my second rounder comes up, but I'll offer some thoughts on him after the selection.