There’s been a whole hubbub over John Ross and who will draft him, but here’s why Cincinnati shouldn’t: well, there are a few reasons. Number one, a lot of draft picks who look like they’re going to be the G.O.A.T., turn out to be terrible. Number 2, there’s no guarantee that they’d be able to resign him if he does turn out to be good. Number 3, they’ve got enough receivers.
Teams need to be cautious about drafting Ross because often times, these first rounders turn out to be terrible. You remember Tom Cousineau, Blaine Gabbert, and Russell Erxleben, right? Neither do I. Ross rocked the Combine, but so have many players throughout history and they’ve merely been duds. Granted, Cam Newton has been great for the Panthers, his previous season was not anywhere near toptier. Everyone has their slumps, but he didn’t even make the playoffs. Look at Jameis Winston: he sucks, enough said. Ross could have all this hype, yet merely turn out to be another page in the book of “Nobodies In The NFL Who Were Stars In College.” We may have to shorten the name, but the point still stands. If Ross does turn out to be a star, there’s always the chance that he might be too good. Let’s face it, we all love the Bengals, but they’re not going to win a Super Bowl anytime soon. With that in mind, Ross might leave after this coming season. They might not have enough cap room to be able to pay Ross an adequate amount. You saw what happened in New England with the Patriots and Martellus Bennett: he was absolutely incredible in his rookie season; he helped lead New England to their fifth Super Bowl win, but the Pats couldn’t afford to pay him as much as he wanted in the next season, so they had to let him go and pack for Green Bay. Cincinnati would like to keep a great player, considering that they are not as well managed under Marvin Lewis as New England is under Bill Belichick. If Cincy does manage to draft a great athlete in John Ross, they may not be able to hold onto him. Lastly, the Jungle is fairly well equipped on the receiver end: they’ve got Brandon LaFell, Tyler Boyd, Cody Core, Alex Erickson, Chris Brown, Jake Kumerov, Alonzo Russell, and, of course, A.J. Green. Sure, Core, Erickson, Brown, Kumerov, and Russell are not exactly stars, but Ross still would not get a whole lot of playing time with the three other receivers of LaFell, Boyd, and Green. Ross can run and catch, but no one can deny that Green isn’t one of, if not the best, wide receivers in the game. While Green is somewhat injury prone, Cincinnati does have a lot in the tank for Andy Dalton to toss to. The Bengals simply are too over equipped at the wide receiver position. John Ross was great in college and at the combines, but would it be such a great idea for the Bengals to draft him? He could turn out to be terrible, the Bengals might not be able to resign him, or they may not have a spot for him in the lineup. Whatever happens, it is likely that John Ross would be the wrong man to pick in the 2017 NFL Draft in Philadelphia this April 27-29. Jesse A. Cook “John Ross: Not The Bengals’ Boss” March 28, 2017
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With a final score of 8-3, Team Japan knocked Team Israel out of the World Baseball Classic. Now, the Jewish holiday of Passover, or Pesach, as it’s pronounced in Hebrew, is almost upon us; during Pesach, all yeast products, including pasta, rice, and of course, bread, must be dropped and replaced with the hard cracker, matzah. While we’re talking baseball, it’s true that everybody wants to come home with the most “bread,” but Israel, being primarily made of Jewish ballplayers had to take home the flavorless, crunchy, and disgusting sheet of drywall, matzah, instead.
The seder started with relief pitcher Josh Zeid asking the four questions, one per inning, with no response, only to be matched by Japan’s Kodai Senga. Everything was calm until the sixth inning when the Japanese lineup unleashed the plagues on Israel’s Zack Thornton, Alex Katz, and Brad Goldberg. Pharaoh let my people go for three runs in the top of the ninth, but Japan still split the sea and crossed all the way to the Finals in Los Angeles alongside the Netherlands. Israel lost their last two games, yet they were the only games they lost. If they had repeated their first bout with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Israel would be off to Hollywood to compete for the World Title. What went wrong, and led to the death of their first Classic birth? To begin with, while a great deal of the Israeli ballclub has major league experience, none of them are currently in the Big Leagues. Secondly, it’s a miracle that they even beat the Netherlands once! The Dutch lineup boasts several major leaguers including Jurickson Profar, Jonathan Schoop, Kenley Jansen, Didi Gregorius, and Xander Bogaerts. That makes it a tad difficult for a minor league lineup, doesn’t it? Israel actually did remarkably against them: granted, the country formerly known as Holland did crush them 12-2 in their last matchup, it was 4-2 Israel in their only other game back in the first round in Seoul, South Korea. If you switch the two games, Israel still makes it to the round in Tokyo, but they also move on to LA with 2-1 record in each round, in place of 3-0 in Seoul and 1-2 in Tokyo. Israel will be back to play in 2021, but they might have to play in late 2020 for the Qualifiers. There’s a whole system of who does or does not get a bye for the Qualifying Round. Anyhow, while Israel is out throwing away all their food that is not kosher for Passover, the Mensch on the Bench is riding the waves in LA as Japan and the US prepare to fight it out, tonight. Jesse A. Cook March 21, 2017 “As Passover Approaches, Israel Drops Bread” Team Israel has made it past the Qualification Round and into the World Baseball Classic. They have a 2-0 start after beating Korea 2-1 in the 10th inning and Chinese Taipei 15-7 later that day on last Monday, March 6. The Kingdom of the Netherlands are also 2-0 and they play Israel tonight at 10 pm Eastern Standard Time.
While the Netherlands have such stars as Loek Van Mil, Shawn Zarraga, Jurickson Profar, Jonathan Schoop, Kenley Jansen, Didi Gregorius, and Xander Bogaerts, and have Bert Blyleven as their pitching coach, Israel has been on an unstoppable roll ever since the qualifiers. They also have Jason Marquis, Ryan Lavarnway, Cody Decker, Nate Freiman, Sam Fuld, Craig Breslow, Scott Feldman, and Ike Davis. Clearly, tonight will prove to be a great game, however the loser will have to play one more game against the winner of tomorrow’s 4:30 am Eastern Standard Time Korea vs. Chinese Taipei game. Even if the loser of tonight’s game lost to the winner of tomorrow’s game, they still would have the tiebreaker over them, for both Israel and the Netherlands have beaten both Chinese Taipei and Korea. Team Israel made its first appearance in the tournament 4 years ago in 2013 when Spain knocked them out in the final Qualifying game with a 9-7 win in 10 innings. They had previously beaten Spain and South Africa, but just couldn’t hold on. This time around, they swept their Qualifying round, beating Great Britain and Brazil, then winning with a 9-1 over Britain in the final game. Can they translate this streak into a week in Tokyo, and then maybe winning it in Los Angeles? In Tokyo, they’d most likely play the Netherlands again, Cuba, and Japan. If Israel can defeat the Netherlands tonight, they’ll be likely to defeat them once more, and Cuba has been on a decline ever since all their best players defected to the US. That merely leaves the always strong Team Japan. Japan has one major leaguer on their squad, Nori Aoki, but plenty of the other names on their team that I can’t pronounce are the top players in Japan’s league. Cuba is an interesting program to think about: here in the United States, we’ve never heard of these players, yet once some of them defect, they’re likely to become some of the biggest names in baseball. Aroldis Chapman, Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, Raisel Iglesias, Jose Iglesias, Yoan Moncada, Jose Fernandez, Yasmani Grandal, Aledmys Diaz, Yonder Alonso, Rusney Castillo, Jorge Soler, Kendrys Morales, Brayan Pena, Hector Olivera, and Alexei Ramirez are all players who played last year who were unknown when they played in Cuba, but are now very recognizable to the average baseball fan. We don’t know who on this current Team Cuba will become a Major League All-Star, but we can be fairly sure that there are a few great prospects. Many teams in the Classic, like Japan, Cuba, and the Netherlands have players who are hoping to be discovered by MLB scouts. Teams like Israel, who are primarily made up of major leaguers, their players are rather wishing to get adequately prepared for the upcoming MLB season. Israel of course, is an underdog compared to teams like USA, Canada, Columbia, and the Dominican Republic, but if the 1990 and 1991 seasons taught us anything, then we all should know that even the worst teams can swiftly turn into the best. (If you’re wondering, the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves were last place in their respective leagues in 1990, then faced each other in the World Series the next year in ‘91. The Twins won in 7 games) While it seemed quite unlikely a couple months ago, it is becoming more and more of a possibility that the Stars of David may end up as the Stars of the World. If Israel does end up on top, we can all shout the treasured Hebrew expression “נס גדול היה שם” (pronounced “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham”) which means “A great miracle happened there.” We Jews have had many miracles, and that phrase, which the letters on the dreidel stand for, may apply to this Classic tournament. Jesse A. Cook March 8, 2017 “The Yiddish Are Coming!” Under the new management of Bruce Cassidy, the Boston Bruins have an astonishing 7-1 record. Longtime head coach, Claude Julien was fired and then went off to the B’s rival, the Montréal Canadiens a week later, yet he only has had a 3-3 record. Why has Cassidy worked so well and why is Julien on what looks like what might be the tail end of his career?
Cassidy spent years at the helm of the Providence Bruins, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Boston Bruins, so he’s worked with a good amount of the current NHL roster for Boston and they’re familiar with him. Star David Pastrnak, despite having only one year of minor league experience, has been with Bruce Cassidy longer than Claude Julien. Ryan Spooner, Brandon Carlo, and Frank Vatrano have better chemistry with their new head coach because they spent a year or more of their careers with Cassidy, and a couple months under Julien. Julien has led a team to the playoffs since the 2013-14 season when Boston lost a 7 game bout with the Canadiens in the second round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Now, his former team is primarily made up of new faces, players like the minor leaguers or players like David Backes, who were signed or traded for. It is tough to try to appeal to the new guys while keeping your veterans happy, but Claude just simply had too much trouble with it, so Montréal made him the new guys that the team had to acclimate themselves to. As an added bonus, he has to impress everyone in the Habs’ organization. That’s some odds against him, but if he’s really only hit a slump, southern Québec will have another Stanley Cup contender team. Familiarity is tremendously important to the success of an organization, but that moral boost really contributes to a boost in play level and skill. Tuukka Rask and Anton Khudobin have really stepped up their play in net and the offensive attack has really been far more powerful. Brad Marchand, Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron, and David Krejci have all been incredible of late; scoring off the charts and having masterful passing abilities. Nevertheless, there is always the possibility of Cassidy being a mere flavor of the month. He is only the interim leader, so there is always the possibility that his coaching could decrease in value and Boston will ultimately fail in their Stanley Cup goal. Is the Cassidy Craze nothing more than Lin-Sanity, the Tebow-Pocalypse, or Boston’s own Morgan Magic? Who can say, but currently, the Killer B’s are on on what looks like the fast track to their seventh championship victory. Jesse A. Cook March 1, 2017 “Bruce Cassidy And The Stanley Cup Bid” |
AuthorJesse Cook: High school junior. Does play-by-play for the Sharon Varsity Eagles softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and football teams. Fanatic of the Boston and Cincinnati teams in the Big Four sports. Designs graphics of athletes, politicians, and musicians at Picsart.com. Archives
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