Greetings from New York! Shohei Ohtani is unbelievable, please tell him to sign with the Yankees. I was a big fan of Hideki Matsui, Yankee fans loved Godzilla. The Yankees could use his bat and Masahiro Tanaka right about now. I know you're all probably caught up in the Nippon Professional Baseball season, but here are some Week to Week Notes on American sports in case you may be interested!
Cheers,
Tom Davis
Week to Week Notes CEO
(PS… Dice-K was very overrated.)
Alright @YouTheReader,
We’re trying a new experiment on this fine Some Football Friday. I didn’t catch a flight to Tokyo so I’m a bit of a fraud with the location being set in Japan’s capital city, but I’m giving Mark Zuckerburg a whole $5 so that this Reel gets marketed in the city that was originally called Edo. I think social media for the most part stinks, but the fact there’s a decent chance somebody from the completely other side of the globe might’ve read the intro is pretty cool.
Tokyo Nights by Digital Farm Animals is a song I heard a few years ago from the funny Instagram account called @FridayBeers, so shout out to them. This song is a duet by Shaun Frank and Matina Sorbara aka Dragonette. It’s an upbeat song where the two singers are reminiscing about a special time they had trying new things in Tokyo.
Great tune, underrated, and always puts me in a good Friday mood!
On to the sports…
Olympia Fields, IL | Olympia Fields Country Club - North Course | $20 Million Purse | GOLF/CBS
The BMW Championship is the penultimate FedEx Cup playoff event. BMW started sponsoring the elevated PGA Tour tournament in ‘07. This spot in the PGA calendar was previously known as the Western Open, which was first played in 1899. Olympia Fields Country Club will host the BMW Championship for the 2nd time in the course’s 108-year history (‘20 BMW Championship). That said, Olympia Fields has hosted a ton of Western Opens (1920, 1927, 1933, 1968, 1971). The course is a half-hour south of Chicago and also previously was home to 4 Men’s Majors (1925, 1928, 1961, & ‘03) & 1 Women’s Major in ‘17. Patrick Cantlay has won the past 2 BMW Championships.
Rory McIlroy
Rory’s daring approach right in between trees was bonkers. If I tried this I’d shoot my eye out. Not only did it whiz past multiple trees but it hopped over a bloody bunker. He then followed it up by chipping in for a birdie. This is the 5th time Rory McIlroy has held a lead or co-lead after 18 holes of a FedEx Cup Playoffs event, which passes Tiger Woods for most all-time. The most impressive part of Rory’s day might be that he did all this while only hitting 3 of 14 fairways.
Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth won the FedEx Championship in ‘15. His 2-under par is his 9th straight under-par opening round at the event. (Source: @PGATOURComms) The backspin on that approach shot was a thing of beauty.
Patrick Cantlay
Golf analyst, Brandel Chamblee, took a shot at Patrick Cantlay out of left field by comparing him to Phil Mickelson in a recent sitdown with Golf Magazine. “You know Phil reminds me a lot of Patrick Cantlay. They both think they’re the smartest people in any room they walk into. They’re both smart. I have no doubt that Phil is smart. I have no doubt that Patrick Cantlay is smart. But you’re likely not the smartest person in the room, otherwise, you’re likely in the wrong room.” Man, I had no idea how much drama was involved in the game of golf. Here I am telling Patrick Cantlay he can’t take 45 minutes in between shots and he’s out here catching strays about his intellect. Sheesh.
Hideki Matsuyama
Hideki Matsuyama started Thursday 4 under par through 7 holes. The Japanese star golfer had a rough go of it the rest of his day. He shot a double bogey on 9 and ended his day 1 over par, shooting 38 on the back 9. Matsuyama is actually from Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan (7 hours south of Tokyo), and will look to be a bit more consistent this weekend. He has qualified for the TOUR Championship in each of the last 9 seasons, the longest active streak of any golfer on tour, and will need to place in the Top 30 by the BMW Championship’s conclusion on Sunday to keep the streak going.
Séamus Power
Séamus Power got off to a nice start on Hole #1 where he birdied. He then processed to have a rough rest of his day at Olympia Fields with 5 bogeys and a double bogey on 17. While Power is tied for last at +6 after day 1, he will not have to worry about making a cut because of the FedEx Playoff Cup format. Only the top 50 golfers that qualified for this tournament are playing, there is no cut day after Friday and while Power may have shot himself out of contention on Thursday, his new goal for the weekend is to finish in the Top 30 so that he qualifies for the Tour Championship at East Lake next weekend.
This is the most pathetic Yankees vs Red Sox series of my lifetime. I’m not even exaggerating. The Yankees have not been under .500 this deep into a season since September of 1995. The Red Sox that year finished in 1st in the AL East. Even though it is a 4th Place vs Last Place showdown, whenever New York and Boston face off you can throw the records out the window.
The Yankees haven’t announced who they will start tonight’s Game 1 matchup. My guess is the nerds behind the scenes are overthinking this and weighing their options for bullpen openers. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel, just give the ball to Jhnoy Brito to start the game, and if your $281 million payroll can’t hit Bello, take the L. This game is on Apple TV so 99% of bars won’t be showing it and the MLB is just handing viewership over to the NFL preseason.
According to Baseball Savant, Kutter Crawford throws a cutter fastball 29.8% of the time. Gerrit Cole is currently the favorite to win the AL CY Young. What makes the Yankee Ace’s 2.76 ERA impressive is that he has thrown the 3rd most innings in baseball this year. Not that I’m a big believer in WAR (Wins Above Replacement), but his 5.1 WAR is a full 1.1 wins more than the next closest pitcher of Logan Webb for the Giants. The last Yankee to win a CY Young was Roger Clemens in ‘01 so it is quite remarkable that they would waste Cole’s brilliant year.
The Sox will likely start an opener and have Nick Pivetta be the bulk pitcher on Sunday. Boston’s 1st Baseman, Triston Casas, just hit his 20th home run this season as a rookie. I’ll try to end this with a bit of optimism about the Yankees for a change, wouldn’t it be nice if the team called leftfielder Everson Pereira and catcher Austin Wells to make their MLB Debuts this weekend? Injecting some youth in a last-place team playing their archrival would make sense, but here’s the real catch, since August 18th means 44 days until the end of the regular season, prospects like Pereira and Wells can still maintain rookie eligibility for ‘24. This means Hal doesn’t have to pay them for an additional year. Letting the kids play and the billionaire owner saves money, gee everybody wins!
100% of the @YouTheReaders that were polled took the Eagles to come in 1st place.
1. Philadelphia Eagles
The ‘22 Philadelphia Eagles won 14 regular season games, the most in franchise history. They were one of the most overall dominant teams in NFL history as they gave up the 3rd least amount of yards while also producing the 2nd most amount of yards on offense. Their 70-team sacks were the most in the NFL by a wide margin of 15. (Sidenote on the 70 sacks, it was the 3rd most in NFL history behind da legendary 1984 Bears who had 72 in 16 games, end of sidenote.) QB Jalen Hurts developed into one of the most efficient quarterbacks with 22 passing TDs to 6 INTs, which doesn’t even factor in his 13 TDs scored with his own legs. The Eagles brought in WR A.J. Brown who immediately had an impact with 88 catches for 1,496 yards and 11 TDs. By bringing in Brown, WR DeVonta Smith was now matching up against #2 corners on the other team and feasted on them for 95 catches for 1,196 yards and 7 TDs. Defensively, I already mentioned the 70-team sacks, but the main guys were Hasson Reddick (16), Javon Hargrave (11), Josh Sweat (11), and Brandon Graham (11). Eagles fans could not have dreamt of a better scenario last season all the way up until their heartbreaking Super Bowl defeat.
By far the biggest obstacle for Philadelphia this upcoming season will be how to attempt to match up with their ‘22 season. When a team is as good as the Eagles were last year, it becomes almost impossible to keep everybody together the following year. The Eagles lost both their offensive and defensive coordinators to head coaching jobs so they will have new replacements in OC Brian Johnson and DC Sean Desai. They also lost some key free agents in DT Javon Hargrave, LB TJ Edwards, RB Miles Sanders, and S CJ Gardner-Johnson. Their plan to replace them was through the draft, player development such as 2nd-year LB Nakobe Dean filling in for Edwards, and the signings such as S Terrell Edmunds. They also made a very savvy move trading for RB D’Andre Swift, who might even be an upgrade over Sanders. The draft though is where the Eagles’ defense has been built and they’ve been built by simply drafting Georgia Bulldogs. After drafting Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean last year, the Eagles selected DT Jalen Carter (GIF’d above), EDGE Nolan Smith, and CB Kelee Ringo. Odds are the Eagles will face a bit of a Super Bowl hangover and it’d be outrageous to expect them to have as dominant of a regular season as they did last year, but they don’t have to necessarily be better in order to win the Super Bowl, which speaks volumes about their ‘22.
2. Dallas Cowboys
Have people already forgotten the ‘22 Cooper Rush phenomenon? Last year’s Dallas Cowboys went 12-5 after starting their season with QB1 Dak Prescott fracturing his thumb in Week 1. Prescott had a plate inserted into his thumb to stabilize the joint and he avoided being placed on IR, only missing 5 starts. This would make sense as to why Prescott’s regular season play wasn’t like what we’ve seen. RB Ezekiel Elliot in ‘22 was the team’s starter but he struggled with only 3.8 yards per carry and was much less effective than RB Tony Pollard who rushed for 1,007 yards on 5.2 yards per attempt. WR CeeDee Lamb took over as the team’s #1 WR and although he didn’t roughshot out of the gate, Lamb produced quality numbers with 107 catches for 1,359 yards and 9 TDs. Defensively the Cowboys were led by Edge Micah Parsons who had 13.5 sacks and their feast-or-famine CB Trevon Diggs who had 3 INTs to go with 14 pass deflections.
This offseason Dallas said goodbye to Zeke Elliot and TE Dalton Schultz. The Zeke part kind of stinks as a football fan but that is kind of just what happens with the nature of the RB position in modern football. They gave the money that would have gone to Zeke over to Tony Pollard who will now be in line for RB1 touches. The Cowboys also drafted a speedy 5’5” RB out of Kansas State, Deuce Vaughn, who should see some touches as well. Schultz will be replaced at TE with Luke Schoonmaker from Michigan. The other off-season moves that the Cowboys made were trading for veterans in WR Brandin Cooks and CB Stephon Gilmore. Both vets in ‘22 proved they could still play at a high level and they will have secondary roles with the Cowboys so they should work out. The other noteworthy rookies the Cowboys selected were DT Mazi Smith also out of Michigan and Texas LB DeMarvion Overshown (GIF), a player with high upside thanks to his freakish athleticism for a linebacker. The Cowboys can duplicate last year’s 2nd place performance with a bit more stable play out of a healthier Dak, a more dynamic ground game, and another imposing year out of Parsons.
3. New York Giants
*Oh shrimp, I picked the Giants to come in 3rd place, I better market this to Tokyo instead of New York.*
The ‘22 New York Football Giants were an underdog team. Nothing was really expected of the Giants last season after John Mara cleaned house and brought in GM Joe Schoen from the Chiefs organization along with head coach Brian Daboll. Both of the hires were by far their best off-season moves last year, as Daboll coached his team up to a 9-7-1 record and was awarded the ‘22 NFL Head Coach of the Year. Daboll was able to get the most out of his QB Daniel Jones, who threw for a career-high in passing yards (3,205 yards), ran for a career-high on the ground (708 yards), only turned the ball over 11 times (5 INTs, 6 fumbles) and scored 22 TDs (15 passing, 7 rushing). As great as Jones was, RB Saquon Barkley was the real engine of the offense and he finally topped his rookie season high for rushing yards with 1,312 in ‘22. Down the stretch, they found a reliable pass catcher in WR Isaiah Hodgins after letting go of Kadarius Toney. Defensively they were pretty much bend-don’t-break with DT Dexter Lawrence (7.5 sacks) leading a group of relatively unknowns.
This offseason, the Giants stayed out of the free-agent headlines by signing the likes of DT A’Shawn Robinson, LB Bobby Okereke, and WR Parris Campbell. Robinson with Lawrence and Leonard Williams gives the Giants some real size up front. Okereke and Campbell are both coming from the Indianapolis Colts with some starting experience. The biggest acquisition made was trading for TE Darren Waller, who may still have a handful of years of good years in the tank. On defense, the big move in the secondary for Big Blue is they let S Julian Love walk in free agency and will give S Jason Pinnock his role. The Jets drafted Pinnock, I think the GMen found a gem there. The other somewhat risky play that the Giants will enter the season with is that they will likely enter the season with 2 rookie CBs in Deonte Banks and Tre Hawkins III. I really like the idea of Banks, Hawkins, Pinnock, and Xavier McKinney holding down a young-and-upcoming secondary that will grow together. You’d probably like to hear some better things coming out of camp about Kayvon Thibodeaux but if Azeez Ojulari could just stay healthy, you might get enough out of your pass rushers with him alone. The draft additions of C John Michael Schmitz and WR Jalin Hyatt seem promising…So why are they staying status quo below the Eagles and Cowboys? Last year’s Giants were for sure a year or two ahead of their rebuild schedule. Expect the GMen to be very well-coached, fundamentally sound, and well-disciplined, but this might be another foundational year where they compete for a Wild Card.
4. Washington Commanders
The ‘22 Washington Commanders were at one point in the season 7-5. They fell just short of a playoff berth in large part to the 3-game losing streak after their Week 14 bye. Defensively, Ron Rivera’s Commies were led by their pass rushers in DT Daron Payne (11.5 sacks), DE Montez Sweat (8 sacks), and DT Jonathan Allen (7.5 sacks). Offensively they were limited by QB Carson Wentz, who lost his job midway through the season to Taylor Heinicke. On the ground, RBs Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson combined for 1,343 rushing yards. Scary Terry McLaurin had another 77-catch season (his 2nd in a row of exactly 77 receptions) with 1,191 yards and 5 TDs. It’s tough to win games in the NFL with unstable QB play so the fact that the Commies won 8 games shows they have some real talent with good coaching.
Washington’s offseason may not have been filled with any blockbuster trade or signing but their former owner, Dan Snyder, did sell them for $6 billion so kind of a big deal. They also let go of Carson Wentz (still a free agent) and brought in long-time Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy to run the offense. Bieniemy will be tasked with developing the Commies’ new QB1 Sam Howell who is entering his 2nd year in pros. Howell was the type of college football QB who dominated as a sophomore at UNC and if he had been able to enter the NFL Draft after just 2 years had draft buzz that he would be a 1st Rounder. Instead, Howell as a junior showed some more flaws and thus fell to the 5th Round. The Commies must think they have something in Howell because they chose to sign Jacoby Brissett and give Howell a lane at the starting role. Although Rivera has yet to announce the Opening Day QB, Howell’s upside in Bieniemy’s offense should be an upgrade over the QB play they had last year. In the NFL Draft, the Washington Commies surprised some by taking CB Emmanuel Forbes at 16. I’m not saying Forbes is the next Sauce Gardner but Washington got a ballhawk. Washington should be an interesting team this year considering that Sam Howell has only thrown 19 career NFL passes and only got 1 start last year. I better end this here because the more I think about the Washington Commies the more I’m starting to believe they might be a surprise team that overtakes the Giants and I’m too lazy to switch up the ranking.