Fresh Baked Takes - Week 2

Following last week's entry, I had a few good suggestions from people on Facebook, which I have decided to provide my takes on this week. Hopefully that will happen more as the weeks go on because a lot of the topics were those that I hadn't considered writing. Anyway, let's get on with the show.

Refereeing at the World Cup

I think we can all agree (even me, as someone with a 'longstanding and admirable disdain' for the England team) that England didn't exactly get the rub of the green with penalty decisions in their first group game against Tunisia, but generally speaking the refereeing at the World Cup, and the introduction of VAR for the first time, has overall been a success. The issue with VAR as a system is not the fact that it stops the game, but the decision making process in and of itself. If we assume that a referee misses a decision, it is then sent immediately to the VAR truck for referral. Should the officials in the truck decide that the decision needs looking at, they then tell the referee, who has the final say on whether he reviews it. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but letting a man who gets one viewing, in real time, at full speed, have the final decision as to whether to bruise his ego on an international stage is a bit of a daft choice. The four officials in the truck, with the multiple replays and angles, should be able to be insistent upon a review, even if it turns out to be wrong. Serbia would have salvaged a draw from the Switzerland game if that had been the case, and if it had been the process during the England game, then maybe the media and Twitter wouldn't have gone into total meltdown as well.

The Plight of the Colorado Rockies



I think it goes without saying that it takes more than two superstars to create a contender in baseball, and although Colorado has those in Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon, their roster pales in comparison to the best in the game. I don't think I could name you a single starter from the Rockies (I just checked, I couldn't), and the bullpen isn't strong enough to be able to carry a team to the offseason. As much as the infield has quality at each position, with Story and Desmond in particular playing above themselves this year, there isn't enough there to justify a playoff push. But if they're to do it any time, they'll have to do it soon. Arenado is a free agent at the end of next season, and he will have plenty of interest in his services as a Gold Glove winner at 3B and a demon at the plate, the likes of which are coveted by just about every team in the big leagues, and I'm not sure the Rockies will have the capital to be able to re-sign him after spending big on Charlie Blackmon this year. The blend of youth and experience that the Rockies have isn't quite right yet, which is why their push for a playoff place this year will ultimately be fruitless, although it doesn't help that the National League is looking like a pretty even playing field this year, with a number of contenders for the two Wildcard spots.

LeBron to LA?

Now, my basketball knowledge isn't massively up to snuff, and it never has been, but I've been picking up knowledge in the office, and I reckon I can give this one a good crack. If LeBron goes to the Lakers, he will have as good a shot to make it to the NBA Finals as he did this year with Cleveland. Maybe they'll even win a game. The Lakers have spent the past couple of years jettisoning big contracts and bringing in young players through the draft and trades. Lonzo Ball, despite his absolutely mental father, managed to put up strong numbers in his first season in the league, and will only get better, especially if LA surround him with a talent like LeBron. We've already seen what LBJ can do almost single-handedly (and no thanks to JR Smith), but in LA, James would be able to take the reigns and let loose with a much more talented team at his disposal. For much of the back end of the regular season, he was without Kevin Love, and even when Love came back from injury, he didn't quite look like he had fully healed. Consider also that LeBron was the best player for the Cavs despite having a broken hand after Game 1 of the Finals and you start to see just how talented this man is. In LA, I have no doubt he would be able to take the Lakers to the Playoffs, but in the Western Conference, would he want to play the Warriors before the Finals? My head says no. Golden State at the moment are like watching Space Jam, and they're the Monstars. Ultimately, as long as that team is together, and even 70% healthy, I don't think there's anything that LeBron and whatever Tune Squad he decides to sign with can do to stop GSW winning yet another title.

Fresh Baked Takes - Week 1

Welcome to the first instalment of what I hope will be a weekly blog where I give my takes on some topics which may or may not be burning at that moment in the world of sport. Some you will probably have an opinion on, some you might not, but either way I'd love to hear what you think, as well as any suggestions for future takes you want to hear about.

Without further ado, let's get on to the first week:

Minnows at the World Cup
I understand that the World Cup only comes around once every 4 years, but there are people out there complaining about the inclusion of teams like Panama and Saudi Arabia, especially after the pasting handed out to the latter by the hosts Russia, who themselves aren't even that good. But to suggest that those teams don't deserve to be there completely disregards the qualification process that all teams have to go through, which is already weighted heavily in favour of the confederations where the vast
majority of the main contenders lie (UEFA and CONMEBOL). It is absolutely not the fault of the likes of Saudi Arabia, Panama and Peru that they managed to beat the teams in front of them, while Italy couldn't force their way past an Ibrahimovic-less Sweden, or the Netherlands couldn't beat Bulgaria to even reach the playoffs. The David v Goliath matchups at the major tournaments are some of the most fun to watch (Iceland v England, anyone?), and in a similar vein to the FA Cup, I love watching a minnow outkick their coverage, although by the time we get to the quarters or semis, I'm always wanting the best teams to come out on top. But during the group stage and early knockout rounds, let's give it up for the smaller teams and celebrate football throughout the world. And anyway, even if the Saudi Arabians do end up getting battered every game, they might not make it to another World Cup for ages.

Unwritten Rules in Baseball
If you watch baseball, then you will know that there are a number of unwritten rules that the sport seems to abide by. I'm going to cover different unwritten rules each time I write about baseball in this column, but this week I'm going to talk about 'not bunting away from the shift'. To quickly explain 'shifting', if a right-handed batter tends to pull the ball to the left side of the ballpark, the opposition will set up as such, leaving a gaping hole to the right side of second base, and vice-versa for lefties. For some reason, there is an unspoken bond between most players, managers, pitchers etc. that dictates that players don't use the vast expanses of land available to them. Were I a major league manager, I would tell every single player of mine 'if they show shift, bunt and get to first base'. There are many reasons for this, chief among which is that the more baserunners you have, the more chance you have of winning the game. But equally, if you bunt away from the shift, the opposition are less likely to set up in the shift the next time up and you can go back to hitting to your preferred part of the field, with less chance of finding a shifted fielder. In an era of baseball where power is becoming the most important element of the batting game, and pitchers and fielders are becoming more savvy with their positioning and ability to work around the strengths of a hitter, why not fight fire with fire and expose their shortcomings in exactly the same way?

There are only two things wrong at West Ham (for now)
Obviously this won't last, I'm not daft. But for the moment, there only seem to be two things holding West Ham back, and they are the two members of the board not named David Gold. His co-chairman/woman seem to be the two barriers standing between the club and progress. For Karren Brady, a lot of the obstacles she seems to put up are off-the-pitch issues regarding the fan experience, and making it accessible for all. Of course, with the price of season tickets at the London Stadium being relatively low, single game tickets will fetch more on account of not wanting to price out 'loyal fans' and make it more cost-effective to just buy tickets on a weekly basis, but there were times last season when a Tier 5 Junior ticket was something extortionate like £60. How many under-16s do you know that have that kind of money to spend going to watch their football team play Manchester United or Chelsea. Similarly, a lot of the on-field issues seem to be sparked by David Sullivan. His insistence on being the head of recruitment (until the appointment of Mario Husillos last week) has led to a well-documented lack of improvement in the playing squad, and I daresay that had Manuel Pellegrini not come out and vocalised the struggles he was having with Sullivan in just his first week in the job, that process would have continued long into the summer. West Ham need reinforcements and they need them soon, especially with the transfer window closing early this year, so Sullivan needs to pull his chequebook out and start actually paying for players rather than subsisting on loans with options to buy and free transfers.

I think that's quite enough for week one, but I'll be back with more hot takes on hopefully developing/new topics next week.