The Pittsburgh Pirates aren’t done wheeling and dealing. It is being reported that they have agreed on a deal that will send 5 X All Star Center fielder Andrew McCutchen to the San Fran Cisco Giants. The deal is pending a review of medical records and the Pirates return has not been released.
#SFGiants have agreed to acquire Andrew McCutchen from the #Pirates, pending a review of medical records, sources tell The Athletic.
Adding McCutchen to a lineup that that has Evan Longoria and Buster Posey makes the Giants serious contenders in the NL West Division.
Last year, McCutchen batted .279 with 28 HR’s and 88 RBI’s. Throughout his career he has been a offensive and defensive monster, he is a 4 X Silver Slugger Award winner, Gold Glove Winner in 2012 and NL MVP in 2013.
The California QBs that were touted as top picks before the season have both officially made their statements and declared for the draft within 1 hour of each other. Rosen, the UCLA product, made his statement on twitter first — followed up by USC’s QB Darnold doing the same but on Instagram.
There obviously was talk of both of them not wanting to go to the Browns because of the state of the franchise and I’m not going to get in depth in their abilities because Danny did so here. However, these two were selected as pre-season favorites to go early in the draft for a reason. Both slumped a little during their seasons and the records aren’t exactly eye-opening, but they both managed to have solid seasons.
If I had to choose one? And I’m sure Cleveland or the Giants will select a QB, if not both — I’m going Rosen. USC QBs never really pan out well in the NFL(see: Leinart, Barkley, Sanchez, Kessler). I’d be shocked if the Browns went Darnold here as I feel even Josh Allen is a better prospect than him.
Either way, it is now official and the Browns are on the clock — let’s see if Rosen can be the game-changer to turn a franchise around.
Penn State’s superstar running back Saquon Barkley is officially forgoing his senior year and has declared for the 2018 NFL Draft. He announced it through a post on his instagram
The pre-season favorite for the Heisman trophy started off the season in fire and helped lead Penn State make it all the way up to #2 before they ended up hitting a slight slump. Though they hung around, they were never in the playoff hunt and teams started to zero in on Barkley. He did have one of the better bowl performances of the year in Penn State’s 35-28 Fiesta Bowl win over Washington in which he had 137 yards and 2 TDs including a real casual 91 yard TD — ending his season total at 1,271 yards and 18 TDs.
He ended his Penn State career with 3,843 rushing yards which was just 90 yards shy of the Penn State record. He won’t care though as this was absolutely the right decision.
Barkley is a game-changer and an electric player who can run and catch. He’s top 2 on both Mel Kiper and Todd McShay’s board and I have to imagine he doesn’t make it out of the top 5.
Here's another Saquon Barkley stat worth noting: He did not fumble in his last 21 games, a span of 377 carries.
The Colts pick third and GM Jim Irsay said that they might look to take a running back early — which makes sense with Frank Gore being as old as dirt. I think they like Mack but it’s hard to pass up on Barkley. It’d be interesting to see him paired up with a healthy Luck and a competent coach (if they get one). The Giants, who haven’t had a solid running back in forever, would also be an intriguing landing spot at #2 if they don’t decide to take a QB. Lots of intrigue this draft but this kid is absolutely going to be a stud.
The NFL season is coming to a close and if you take a quick glance at the NFC — you’ll notice there are much stronger teams than the AFC.
Of course, there’s years that the AFC is like this too and some of the strongest contenders (Patriots, Steelers) are waiting in the opposite conference — but take a look at this stat.
NFC teams went 41-23 vs. AFC teams in 2017, the most lopsided split the NFL has seen since 2004. Does that have any bearing on the Super Bowl? https://t.co/T6O2fGGQWY
41-23! That’s wild, the most lopsided in 13 years — even with arguably the best QB in the NFC hurt for the majority of the season. Granted there’s not many inter-conference games as in conference but even the bad teams in the NFC did well. The Bears — yes the 5-10 Bears? Well they went 4-0 against the AFC North, usually one of the tougher conferences in the AFC. That means the Chicago Bears managed to beat both the Steelers and the Ravens while going 1-10 in the NFC
The Giants’ 2 wins? The Chiefs and the Broncos, both AFC teams. That means the catastrophe that has been the 2017 NY Giants even went .500 against the AFC. The AFC is certainly top heavy but that is not a good look.
The NFC however is 0-3 in the last three Super Bowls. At the end of the day, the NFC is going to end up beating up on each other and then the Patriots are going to get the battered remains in the Super Bowl. Business as usual.
Breaking news: The Tampa Bay Rays and the San Francisco Giants have agreed on a trade that will send 3B Evan Longoria and cash to the Giants for 3B Christian Arroyo and OF Denard Span along with prospects LHP Matt Krook & Stephen Woods.
Bad news for Pablo Sandoval, looks like hes out of a job again. This now gives the Giants another big bat in their lineup to go along with Buster Posey.
For the Rays, they get a young player who has great upside and a veteran CF that they can plug in for a year. The Rays also shed Longoria’s contract and even though its a bargain it will still help lower their payroll.
In the end, it looks like both sides win. I would give a slight edge to the Giants because Longoria is a stud and will help them immediately.
Well good riddance — how it took this long for the Giants organization to realize that McAdoo needs to be fired was ridiculous. The Giants organization deserves every bit of the storm that is going to come to them. Granted, the Giants have not fired a coach mid-season in over 40 years — so kudos to them for breaking that streak with the worst possible hire that they could replace Coughlin with. Geno Smith, of course, fell flat on his face and Eli’s streak was ruined for absolutely no reason.
McAdoo was hailed as a good hire and did make the playoffs at 11-5 last year but this year has been a complete trainwreck, with the Giants sitting at 2-10. The Giants made the right decision here, albeit a bit too late. The only thing McAdoo will be remembered for is benching Manning.
UPDATE:
Jerry Reese has been relieved of his duties as well, I was just told by someone w/ knowledge of #Giants moves.
Looks like the Giants are cleaning house — can’t blame them. Reese has done a horrendous job at the helm of this team. The Giants haven’t had a running back worth notice since Brandon Jacobs — and that’s saying something.
Expect the Giants to be bad for quite some time now. Wouldn’t surprise me if Eli left next year and if Odell leaves as soon as he can as well.
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