AAA Championships

The El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres) won the Pacific Coast League title against the Oklahoma City Dodgers last week, thus sending them to a one game, winner take all contest in Memphis against Scranton/Wilkes Barre (Yankees) on Tuesday. Turns out that it was a pitching duel. Walker Lockett yielded three runs in the first inning to the Railriders but held the team scoreless the rest of the way. The Chihuahuas could not muster any offense and only scored once in a 3-1 defeat. It was sad to see them lose, but exciting to see them make it all the way to the title game.

The big-league club is still struggling, but hey they are fun to watch. With just about a week left in the regular season, we ought to just sit back and watch the prospects that we have been heralding the past few weeks do their stuff. Meanwhile, A.J,. Preller began his suspension before the homestand began against the Diamondbacks. I'm not so sure that I feel the way I felt last week anymore. Sure, he deserved to be suspended because he did something wrong, but Andy Green defends him, saying that the Padres were in a transition phase back in spring training where certain things fell through the cracks. Who knew it would come back to bite us. Feel free to read that article and comment on your thoughts. It is my opinion that it would be unfair to judge A.J. Preller and thus not make a trade with him. He can be trusted. It's not like he's some thief trying to take advantage of every general manager in the league. He just neglected one small detail. I look forward to his return next month and know he will do all he can to fix this issue.

In college football, it's time for some upsets. North Dakota State, an FCS team, defeated Big 10 powerhouse Iowa on Saturday. North Dakota State is no small task, might I add. They have won five straight FCS national titles and defeated 7 FBS opponents since 2007, the largest of which came in Iowa City. Former North Dakota State QB Carson Wentz was selected second overall by the Philadelphia Eagles and has started his career 3-0 in the NFL, so it looks like there is some skill there in Fargo. Look out for the Bison. Here are your games for the week:

- #12 Georgia at #23 Ole Miss, Noon ET, ESPN
- #11 Wisconsin at #8 Michigan State, Noon ET, Big 10 Network
- #19 Florida at #14 Tennessee, 3:30 ET, CBS
- #18 LSU at Auburn, 6 ET, ESPN
- Oklahoma State at #16 Baylor, 7:30 ET, FOX
- #7 Stanford at UCLA, 8 ET, ABC
- #17 Arkansas at #10 Texas A&M, 9 ET, ESPN

Preller's Reputation

The trade deadline this summer saw many moves across the league. The Padres were very active in these trades as well, moving players such as James Shields, Andrew Cashner, Fernando Rodney, Matt Kemp, Drew Pomeranz and many more. In return, the Padres received some high-end prospects, giving them one of the top farm systems in the entire league. But (and that's a big but) major league baseball has been investigating this situation since the deals went down because they have received complaints from several teams across major league baseball, namely the Red Sox, White Sox and Marlins - teams the Padres have dealt players to this summer. What the league has found has resulted in a suspension of A.J. Preller for 30 days without pay and a undisclosed fine to the organization. Apparently the complaints given by the aforementioned were those regarding health. The records of the players being dealt was not fully disclosed and thus the teams receiving the players feel like they have been cheated in case a player develops an injury. This causes a problem because now the new club of the player cannot be treated properly because the club doesn't have the proper medical information. Not only that, but Preller lied in trade discussions. For example, the Padres sent Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea to Miami for four minor league prospects. During Rea's first start with the Marlins, he pitched 3 1/3 perfect innings before complaining of elbow discomfort. He later was diagnosed with a strained UCL in his elbow, a sign of needing Tommy John surgery. Outraged, the Marlins asked for the Padres to send back one of the prospects in exchange for Rea. The issue here wasn't the injury. It was the dealing of paperwork. Back in Spring Training, the head athletic trainer for the Padres was told to input data into two databases, one for the eyes of Padres employees only, and the other for the rest of the league to view. The trainers were told to put all of the information into the one visible only to the Padres and only put some into the one visible to the rest of the league. This would show the team that there are not many injury reports to be worried about. Now that Preller has been caught, this will hinder the franchise for a while until Preller builds up his reputation once more. If he wants to make a trade with another team in the future, and that team asks A.J. Preller about potential off-field issues regarding that player (which is not placed into a database anywhere across the league) and he says that nothing is wrong with the player, then how is the GM of that team supposed to believe him? If Preller wants to make a trade, he will have to work twice as hard as another general manager to prove that he is telling the truth.

In the world of college football, we have some good games this weekend. Last week showed some big upsets and controversial calls, especially within the game between Central Michigan and Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Oklahoma. LSU replaced Brandon Harris at QB for a backup (who didn't do much better). So we will see who comes out of the other side of an upset this week. Here are your big games for the weekend:
- #2 Florida State vs #10 Lousville, 12 ET, ABC
- North Dakota State vs. #13 Iowa, 12 ET, ESPN2
- #22 Oregon vs. Nebraska, 3:30 ET, ABC
- #1 Alabama vs. #19 Ole Miss, 3:30 ET, CBS
- #12 Michigan State vs. #18 Notre Dame, 7:30 ET, NBC
- #3 Ohio State vs. #14 Oklahoma, 7:30 ET, FOX
- USC vs. #7 Stanford, 8 ET, ABC

The End of Summer

This summer has seen many thrills and none larger than the spotlight on Rio at the Olympic games. The United States Olympic team stole the show, winning 121 medals. The second most winning country was China at 70 followed by Great Britain at 67. Of course, many of you may have had favorite events such as track and field or swimming. But my favorite event was men's basketball. You may argue that it was the United States gold medal to lose, which it was, but the dominance that they showed at times was so entertaining that I was not able to leave the couch. Critics argue that that is why it is so boring. They know that the US team will win gold. But why not enjoy the show as they do so? During the tournament, they were given some difficult tests against teams such as Serbia and France (who was playing without their best player, Tony Parker). Eventually they wound up winning gold anyways. Many other historic and memorable moments occurred during the games, and I don't have time to mention them all, but how about Michael Phelps winning his 26th gold medal? That was amazing. The men's 1500m final in track and field was also incredible as we saw an American win gold for the first time since 1908 in the form of Matthew Centrowitz. Usain Bolt won three gold medals at his final games, which gives him nine altogether in his career, the most decorated track and field star ever. Leave a comment below as to which event was your favorite and which moment was most memorable.

Meanwhile, the Padres have slipped to the third worst record in the majors thanks to inconsistent pitching and offense, and seeing a tee-ball team compete against a high school varsity team. I love my Padres. It just hurts to see them not doing so well. Edwin Jackson shut down the Red Sox over seven shutout innings yesterday, however and Adam Rosales delivered a two-run shot to provide the only offense for the Padres as we won 2-1. The Red Sox are looking to take the AL East, so a win of this magnitude means a lot. We'll see if that happens again tonight. Tons of Red Sox fans will fill the stands at Petco park to support a team they haven't seen in San Diego since 2007. I remember that series, especially the last game of the series where aces dueled with Jake Peavy facing off against Josh Beckett. The Red Sox won that day, and had we won that day, we would have won the wild card over the Rockies instead of witnessing Trevor Hoffman's collapse in the eleventh inning against the Rockies on October 1, 2007. In the end, however, the future looks bright for the 2016 Padres. Plenty of prospects are slowly rising up the ranks and we will start seeing some of them here in a couple of weeks.

College football has also begun! Unfortunately, this is sad news. LSU, the fifth ranked team in the country, lost to unranked Wisconsin on Saturday 16-14. Total collapse from QB Brandon Harris led to the loss. Leonard Fournette was not able to get into any rhythm and Les Miles is back on the hot seat. In order to make the playoff this year, they will have to win every game the rest of the year, including taking on Alabama. Possible? Yes. Doable? Doubt it. Here are your games for the week:
-BYU vs Utah, 7:30 ET, FOX
-Virginia Tech vs. #17 Tennessee, 8 ET, ABC (From Bristol motor speedway)
Those are really the only good games for the week. There will be many others but fans will most likely witness some landslide victories or boring games.

Thanks for reading! Have a great week and tune in next week! I'm not sure which day I will consistently post this semester, so tune in to find out!

Let the Games Begin

The Olympic games begin this Friday in Rio amidst much controversy. The government is nearly imploding in Brazil, the infrastructure of the buildings aren't even done yet, the water is contaminated and teams will inevitably get sick and criminal acts are going unnoticed by law enforcement, assuming that even exists in Rio. Pushing all that aside, however, stands an olympic games that should be pretty exciting as it always is. Tune in to the opening ceremonies on Friday at 7:30 ET and watch the games over the next three weeks on any of NBC's family of networks.

In major league baseball, we have been greeted with the trade deadline. The Padres, as we know, have traded all of their important pieces. Matt Kemp was traded to the Braves, Melvin Upton Jr. was traded to the Blue Jays and Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea have been traded to the Marlins (although Rea has since returned upon receiving an elbow injury). The team is still looking to move Derek Norris, which is a move that I would like to see done because Austin Hedges is waiting to take his place and is tearing up the PCL. What other deals will get done? Check in next week to find out.