After Luka Doncic, the 19 year old Slovenian soon-to-be star, made it past the Sacramento Kings with the 2nd pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks traded picks with the Atlanta Hawks. This allowed the Mavs to pickup who many believe is the 2nd best talent in this year’s draft. The Mavs will also have to give up next year’s first round pick (protected) to the Hawks, in addition to Trae Young who was selected with Dallas’ original 5th pick.
Luka Doncic is a 6’7″ wing player who was the youngest Euroleague MVP & Euroleague Final Four MVP ever at 19 years old.
This is a breaking story. More information will follow.
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ALDS Game 1 Preview: Blue Jays @ Rangers
Well folks, that’s it… The 2016 MLB regular season is officially in the books, and for the second straight year the Texas Rangers will face off against the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Division Series (ALDS). For those of you that somehow aren’t aware of the hostile, often violent relationship between the two clubs, you have a lot of catching up to do.
The Blue Jays advanced by defeating the Baltimore Orioles in the AL Wildcard game on Tuesday night, and if the rowdy crowd in attendance at the Rogers Centre was any indication of the type of theatrics to expect in the ALDS – get your popcorn ready. But before you bust out the Orville Redenbacher, let’s examine the pitching matchups and the keys to a Rangers’ victory in Game 1.
BLUE JAYS @ RANGERS
Thursday, 10/6, 3:38 PM – Globe Life Park, Arlington, TX – Television: TBS
STARTING PITCHERS
TEX: LH COLE HAMELS (15-5, 3.32 ERA)
Cole Hamels gets the nod for the Rangers on Thursday afternoon, facing off against the Jays for the first time in 2016. Hamels has been shaky over his last 6 appearances, going 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA – Not exactly the kind of momentum you’d like your ace to have heading into the post-season. However, Hamels touts a .267 opponent batting average when facing the Blue Jays current lineup and was strong against the Jays last year in the ALDS, with a 2.70 ERA. In the 2015 ALDS, Hamels led the Rangers to a game 1 victory, allowing only 2 earned runs. He would’ve also won game 5, but a string of errors by Elvis Andrus botched the game for the Rangers and ended the 2015 campaign.TOR: RH MARCO ESTRADA (9-9, 3.48 ERA)
For the Jays, the right-handed Marco Estrada will take the mound. Estrada had two no-decisions against the Rangers back in May, allowing 5 earned runs over 12 total innings pitched, but the Jays did pull out the win in each of his appearances. Similar to Hamels, Estrada didn’t exactly close out the 2016 regular season strong, going 1-3 with a 3.98 ERA over his last 6 appearences. However, in the 2015 ALDS, Estrada did pitch well against the Rangers, winning Game 3 by allowing only 1 earned run and 5 hits over 6.1 innings of work.RANGERS KEYS TO SUCCESS
- Hamels must overcome the control issues that have plagued his last few starts. The Blue Jays led the American League in Walks Taken with 3.92 per game, so they are disciplined enough to make Hamels work if they see him struggle with location early on. The Jays’ lineup doesn’t have a history of piling up the base-hits versus Hamels. If he can hit the corners and avoid allowing free base runners, the Rangers should be able to keep the Jays’ in check offensively.
- The bats need to get going early and often. Estrada is a momentum pitcher and will get hot or cold, depending on how the Rangers get going. Estrada did very well against the Rangers back in May, but the Rangers’ lineup looks significantly different today with several new bats thrown into the mix. If the new bats (Beltran, Lucroy, Gomez) can help spark the offense early and rattle Estrada, the Jays may be forced to look to a flawed bullpen with a 4.60 ERA over the last month of baseball.
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The Rangers need to focus on the ultimate goal, and not get caught up with in-game dramatics . With the media hype surrounding this ALDS matchup, game one will surely bring heightened emotions for both teams. There may be some bat flips or other old-world-baseball faux pas, but Odor has already granted vindication for the entire organization with one right hook that Jose Bautista will certainly never forget. The Rangers need to focus on the game, or even doing some bat flips themselves… Let the fans focus on the drama.
And on that note, I’ll leave you with this gem… GO RANGERS!
- Hamels must overcome the control issues that have plagued his last few starts. The Blue Jays led the American League in Walks Taken with 3.92 per game, so they are disciplined enough to make Hamels work if they see him struggle with location early on. The Jays’ lineup doesn’t have a history of piling up the base-hits versus Hamels. If he can hit the corners and avoid allowing free base runners, the Rangers should be able to keep the Jays’ in check offensively.
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GAME RECAP: Cowboys 31, Redskins 26
When you lose the battles of yardage, time of possession and collect 0 turnovers, you are supposed to lose. That is exactly what happened on Thanksgiving Day. Kirk Cousins threw for 449 yards (almost 100 yards more than the entire Cowboys offense) and 3 TDs for a passer rating of over 120, DeSean Jackson burnt the secondary worse than my turkey (thanks broken meat thermometer), the Redskins held on to the ball for 7 minutes longer than the Cowboys. Yet somehow, the Cowboys won that game and it wasn’t really as close as the score would lead you to believe. The Cowboys won this game thanks to the kickers, the one area of the game that the Cowboys won. Dan Bailey didn’t miss anything and Dustin Hopkins did. Two missed field goals (43 and 55 yards) in the first half which left the Redskins chasing those points the remainder of the game. They also failed to convert a 2 point conversion in the 4th quarter thanks to Sean Lee’s interception. I don’t know about the rest of you, but its games like this that remind me just how good Dan Bailey is and how bad our kicking game was before Mr. Bailey graced us with his presence.
Offensively, the Cowboys could do pretty much whatever they wanted. The Cowboys punted on 2 their 9 drives converting 4 into touchdowns and 1 into a Field Goal (46 yards). Dak Prescott ended his day completing 17 of 24 passes for 195 yards with 1 TD and a Passer Rating of 108.9. Dak completed 2 passes over 20 yards, the longest pass went to Dez in the 4th quarter for 26 yards. Ezekiel Elliott ran for only 97 yards, the second straight game he has been held to under 100. I say ‘only’ due to the fact that on the first drive alone he ran for 47. Going into this game I expected Zeke to eat to his fill but somehow, the team only rushed for 163 yards. The Cowboys were able to play nearly error free football on offense the entire game and as a result walked away with their 10th straight win.
Redskins’ rookie running back, Robert Kelley, was asked this week about the Redskins/Cowboys rivalry and he said, ‘Nobody here likes the Dallas Cowgirls’. Kelley was beat up by said ‘Cowgirls’ the entire day finishing the day with 37 yards on 14 carries for an average of 2.6 ypc and a long run of 8 yards. Kelley was obviously feeling pretty good about himself at the time of his comments as he had averaged over 100 yards over the previous 3 weeks. The Cowboys defensive line continued to hold the opponent’s run game in check while failing to get anything resembling a pass rush. Kirk Cousins was able to drop back 53 times without being sacked even once. Cousins completed 41 of those 53 passes for 449 yards, 3 TDs and no ‘official’ interceptions (Sean Lee intercepted a pass on a 2 pt conversion attempt). DeSean Jackson finished the day with 118 yards and Jordan Reed had 95 yards. The Cowboys secondary was exposed yet again allowing over 400 yards through the air for the second time in 3 weeks. Good news is, safety Barry Church is set to return to practice on Sunday ahead of Thursday’s matchup with the Minnesota Vikings.
Keys to the Game Scorecard:
- RUN! The Cowboys ran for 163 yards as a team, far less than they could have. The Redskins were burnt on the first drive but quickly got things together, holding Zeke to 50 yards over the remainder of the game.
- Don’t let DeSean Jackson get behind you. DeSean Jackson finished for 118 yards, 67 of them coming on 1 catch when he got rookie CB Anthony Brown to bite on a small hitch in which he turned into 10 yards of separation.
- Dominate time of Possession. 35:00-25:00. Well, I was close on the split, just in the wrong direction. The Redskins held the ball for over 33 minutes vs the Cowboys 26.
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Tavon Austin Traded to Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys have added to their receiver arsenal by getting Tavon Austin from the Los Angeles Rams for a 6th round pick (192 overall).
Tavon had promising beginnings in his first four years with the Rams, but had a down year last year with only 13 catches for 47 yards. He did, however, have his best rushing season with 59 carries for 270 yards and a touchdown.
At 5’9″ it is doubtful that Austin will be able to replace the hole in the Cowboys’ receiving core, caused by the loss of Dez Bryant. Austin has a 1 year contract that will count $7 million against the cap.
This is a peculiar addition, to say the least, considering the Cowboys already have two slot receivers in Cole Beasley and Ryan Switzer.
