One Month After: Do we like the Perk trade?

Since the last entry I wrote a whole lot has happened in the worlds of sports.  The Red Sox have opened the season, the NFL is in lockout mode, (FINALLY) the Rock has come back to the WWE, but most importantly Danny Ainge BLEW UP the Celtics as they start making their run for another title.

It was one of those nights that had Celtics fans yelling at their TV and wondering what Danny Ainge was smoking.  It kind of reminded me of when Ainge shipped Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, and newly drafted Jeff Green to the Seattle Supersonics for Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Ray Allen.

Needless to say, the trade worked out for the better for our beloved team in green.

This time around the result still remains to be seen, but thus far I am not loving the move.  At the trade deadline Ainge traded often injured, but still fan favorite Kendrick Perkins along with Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Jeff Green and Nenad Kristic.

Green in his own right is a good player.  Although he is undersized for the power forward position, his shooting will make you forget about that.

Kristic was playing pretty good when he started playing for the Celtics.  Then the center began to show his true colors.  Celtics fans soon found out that Nenad is no more than a backup center at best.  Nenad isn't exactly the most stellar defensive player. This is where my frustration with this trade begins.

Ainge decided to trade away his teams starting center in hopes that the washed up O'Neal's could carry the load at the center position.  To find my issue with this look no further than the statistics.

Jermaine has never been one of my favorite players.  In his prime, the best part about him was the fact he could make the jumper outside of the paint, something he does not excel in anymore.  Another qualm I have with Jermaine is the fact that he has not proven anything to anyone this season.  He has spent the majority of the season sidelined with a knee injury that he only recently returned from.

Remember when we were all wondering why Shaquille O'Neal chose to wear number 36 this season?  It has all become so clear now.  36 is the amount of regular season games he has played up to this point.  It might potentially stay that way if O'Neal decides to sit out the rest of the season.  The Big Diesel was actually playing pretty well for the green team.  If Shaq can return from his injury to become a productive center.

So loyal readers (if I have any), I have expressed my displeasure with the Perkins deal.  Now that we are a little over a month removed from the trade deadline.  How do you feel about it?

The NBA 2K11 Cover Everyone Wants

Well, since I was away on vacation for pretty much two weeks.  I decided to play around with photoshop to see if I could get myself back on track with what I was doing before.  This is what I came up with...

The Cutler Controversy

After an eventful day of NFL football we have two important news stories coming out of the day.  In my personal opinion it is the Steelers and Packers meeting in the Super Bowl.

I awoke this morning to ESPN on my TV (as I usually do) and the top story was about Jay Cutler and the outrage over his injury.  After having an MRI, it was released that Cutler has a torn MCL in his knee.  Its proven he was legitimately hurt, but everyone is still sticking to their guns.  Seriously?

There is a considerable amount of controversy about this injury coming from fans and players.

First, to the fans.  Have you ever suffered a torn MCL and then played a high impact game?  95% of people probably have not done this.

Let me put it this way tearing your MCL and trying to walk on it (forget run) is like trying to ride a bicycle with 1 training wheel.  If you turn to the right you stay up.  If you turn to the left you suffer an agonizing pain as your leg moves in a way it was never intended to.

Another thing to keep in mind is, if Cutler stayed in this game and the Bears won, we would more than likely see backup Roberto Garza play on Superbowl Sunday anyway.

If I was a fan of the Bears, I wouldn't be mad that he left the game.  What I would be mad at is the fact that Cutler didn't look like he cared about the remainder of the game while sitting on the bench.  Cutler spent the remainder of the game pacing around (on a torn MCL!) and staring blankly toward the field.

Just because you are inactive for the remainder of the game doesn't mean the game is over.  I remember when Tom Brady took over for Drew Bledsoe.  Although Drew ended up being the one carrying the clipboard, he still appeared to be engaged in each and every game, and genuinely excited for his team when something good happened.

This was not Cutler on Sunday night... 

Another interesting thing about this whole thing is the outcry by current and former NFL players via Twitter during the game about the injury.

Tweets from such players as Maurice Jones-Drew:  All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee... I played the whole season on one...

and Derek Brooks: FOX HAVENT SHOWED ANY TRAINERS LOOKING AT CUTLER, UMMM

and Ross Tucker: I've hurt my knee playing football 4 times. Never once did I then stand up on sidelines afterwards.

and Kirk Morrison: If my knee was hurt or acl/mcl/pcl sprain, I would not be standing up on the sideline. #jaycutler

Good points on all fronts by those former NFL players.  I think the two most interesting were the ones talking about Cutler STANDING on the sidelines.

As the Cutler Controversy unfolds, maybe we will get to find out what really happened.

I do have good news for Jay Cutler...

20 days till pitchers and catchers!  Chicago has two baseball teams, how can they possibly remember what happened in football?

What the hell happened to Craig Hansen?

Does anyone remember Craig Hansen?  Every now and then I think about him and what could have been.

Hansen was once the "closer of the future" for the Red Sox organization when they drafted him with the 26th overall pick.  That draft the team also took Jacoby Ellsbury (23rd) and Clay Buchholz, (42) neither of which were ready for the Major Leagues.

Hansen on the other hand, the team decided he was ready as a late call-up later in the season.  The club hoped that Hansen would supply the same bullpen boost that Fransisco Rodriguez provided for the Angels in their 2002 World Series run.

Hansen had a scoreless debut striking out Toby Hall and Julio Lugo.

The rest of his Red Sox career didnt work out so well as Hansen struggled throughout the remainder of his tenure with the Red Sox.

The 24-year-old got a fresh start in 2008 when he was shipped along with Brandon Moss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the deal that sent Manny Ramirez to Los Angeles and Jason Bay to Boston.

The fresh start didn't help the relievers career.  He struggled in 21 games for the Pirates.  He had a ginormous 6.95 ERA in 22 innings.

Last seen in the baseball world, Hansen pitched in one game for Pittsburgh's Double-A affiliate Altoona in 2010.

Little is known about the location of Hansen how or why his 2010 season abruptly ended.  There is only speculation as to what he is doing.

One person has speculated to me that Hansen owned and worked on a cheese farm in Altoona Pennsylvania.  His farm was shut down after a short while.  Rumor has it his new career had potential until his farm turned out to have nasty cheese.  **Note**:  Nasty cheese is only good in the realm of baseball.

 Another rumor has Hansen working as a clerk at a local Hannaford Supermarket in the New York area.  He has to take a little pay cut from the one he was getting in Boston and Pittsburgh, but the pressure can't get to him like it did in the Major Leagues.  Hopefully he remembers to not put the twelve-pack of caffeine free pepsi on top of the bread.  I hear elderly women are worse than Red Sox fans if you mess with their bread. 

There was also a lot of muttering at a Chili's just outside of Boston that they just fired Hansen.  He apparently was a cook at the chain for an undetermined amount of time.  The owner apparently got sick and tired of the former Major Leaguer complaining.  He said that Hansen could not handle the heat... so he told him to stay out of the kitchen.

Another person reported they saw Hansen driving a truck late in 2010.  Its a really honest living full of quality individuals I hear.  Lets all hope his control of an 18-wheeler is better than his atrocious control from the mound.  If it isn't we all need to steer clear.

Well, if without further ado I would like to welcome Craig Hansen to the "Where the hell are they! hall of fame."  He will join other former promising Red Sox players Paxton Crawford, Wilton Veras, Brian Rose, Donnie Sadler, Vaughn Eshelman and Morgan Burkhart.

Seriously, what happened to all those guys!

Its a Texas toss-up

Various outlets are saying that Adrian Beltre has signed a six-year $100 million contract from the Texas Rangers.  I hate love to be that guy that says, "Why would you go and do that?"

The Red Sox signed Beltre to a one-year deal last off-season.  He had a really nice year with the Red Sox batting .321with 102 RBI and 28 dingers.  The Sox passed up on Beltre this offseason, opting to shift Kevin Youklis to third base and acquire Adrian Gonzalez from the San Diego Padres.

In swoops the Texas Rangers... but why?

Beltre makes the situation in Texas pretty interesting.  The Rangers will hand the third base reigns over to Beltre, taking them out of the hands of Michael Young.  Young has agreed to play DH, but does he deserve to be delegated to DH duty?

My question to the Rangers is what is wrong with Michael Young?  He is still a good fielder.  He made the same amount of errors as Beltre (19).  He also hit .284 with 21 home runs and 91 RBI.  Not that far off what Beltre did for the Sox last season.  So the two are pretty comparable in my book.

Another interesting factoid is the simple fact that Beltre has seems to be unable to produce outside of contract years. Beltre went (im going to use my favorite word) bezerker for the Los Angeles Dodgers in is final year in LA hitting an obscene 48 home runs and a ridiculous 121 RBI in the pitcher friendly Dodger stadium.

He signed a monster deal with the Seattle Mariners that offseason.  For the M's his power numbers... average (103 in 5 seasons).  His average numbers were just that, average (.266 in 5 years).  He was labeled as a bust by many.

He was signed by Boston in the next offseason, and had probably his second best season in the majors.  One we all enjoyed watching.

Texas is investing  a lot of money in a guy who has not proved he can hit outside a contract year.  There are many variables that will make this deal interesting. Were his numbers inflated by playing in the friendly confines of Fenway? Will Michael Young be content being a DH all season and beyond?

Only time will tell how this deal will work out for the club in Arlington.

At very least the Rangers should know they will be getting a productive hitter in the 2016 season when his contract is ready to end.

To fight... or not to fight

The game of hockey is an interesting one.  They play with that weird puck shaped thingy... but thats a different story. 

The most intriguing part of hockey is the idea of fighting.  Players are given the ability to police their own game with their fists. 

The other night Milan Lucic ended a game by sucker punching Atlanta Thrasher Freddy Meyer in the face then giving a less than friendly gesture to the opposing team's bench.  The crowd went wild in the Garden.  I put my hand to my face and shook my head. 

Sure, as a hockey fan, of course I enjoy a good fight or two in a game.  The thing is, you really have to think when it comes to fighting.  Its a great philosophical question, to fight... or not to fight.

All season I have listened to people wearing Lucic jerseys or fight club shirts talking about about how they think Lucic and Chara should drop the gloves more often.  I completely disagree with all of these people.  Before you leave, hear me out...

Every team has their enforcer.  These guys aren't exactly the best players in the whole world. Their job isn't to put the puck in the net, it is to piss everybody off and protect their best player. 


Milan Lucic is arguably the best Bruin this season, racking up 16 goals and 12 assists. If Lucic was to fight every game (like many fans would love) the other team would be gaining an advantage over the Bruins by taking their best player off the ice, while the opposing team would probably only lose an average player if not the enforcer.

Lets think about it this way.  Who would you most like to see Lucic kick the crap out of?  I'll go with Dan Carcillo.  Even if Lucic destroys Carcillo, they both have to go off the ice for five minutes.  For those five minutes the Bruins lose Lucic and his 28 points will be sitting in the sin bin.  In the box next to him Carcillo will be smiling his lovely toothless smile as his three points this season will be thinking about the 25 point swing going in the Flyers direction.

When I put it that way, it makes a little more sense doesn't it?

Now, when you see Milan Lucic pass up a fight, nod your head and thank Milan for his patience and hope he puts the puck in the net.

The Inaugural Blog

A new day has dawned.  Today the Beantown Bruiser blog has begun.  This blog is my opportunity to write about what I love the most, Boston sports.

I'll start by saying a little bit about myself.  My name is Danny Quin.  I grew up in a little town outside of Boston, Massachusetts.  My dad raised me loving the game of baseball, and that further progressed into a love of all sports.  My friends get a kick out of my sports knowledge... sometimes.

Before enrolling at Fitchburg State College (now University) I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in sports writing.  I spent my four years at FSC doing various academic projects. To finish my degree I was required to complete an internship. I took part in an editorial internship at Comcast SportsNet located in Burlington, MA.  My responsibilities were to keep tabs on the top stories box, and publish any incoming breaking news.

Throughout my four months there I learned a great deal from editor Art Martone, and writers Mary Paoletti, and Rich Levine the three people I spent the most time with.

Every morning I got to help Mary brainstorm for her Wicked Good Sports blog posts.  After finding out that I had moderate Photoshop skills, we started making "photoshop Friday" posts.  Some examples are here, here, and here.  I then started illustrating for virtually every post during the week.  I had so much fun doing this, but then the inevitable happened... my internship ended.

As an aspiring writer, Art Martone challenged me to start my own blog to try and adapt my craft and find my writing style.  So, here we are.  That challenge has manifested itself into the Beantown Bruiser blog.

Enjoy.

Dan