Bye Bye JP…

So, Alex Rios is now a member of the Chicago White Sox. In return the Toronto Blue Jays end up with absolutely nothing aside from ‘financial stability’ for a player than only a year and a half ago was billed as the franchise player. The same guy who was almost traded for Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum.

This marks a season in which the Jays have let high priced talent Rios, along with former closer BJ Ryan go and got zero in return. The ironic twist is that I am not mad whatsoever that nothing came back our way because frankly these players were worthless. I’m upset that Jays General Manager JP Ricciardi continues to make horrible contractual agreements with players AND coaches and retains his job.

Lets review:

JOHN FUCKING GIBBONS!! This dude was the Jays coach starting in 2004 and wasn’t fired until midway through 2008. Trust me, this guy lasted about 3 years too long because he played minor league ball with JP and they were friends. Once he was fired and Cito Gaston came back, the Jays had one of the best records in baseball for nearly 100 games including this season. Proof that Gibbons cant coach shit? After almost a four year tenure as a major league manager, he caught on as a bench coach for the Kansas City Royals – one of the worst teams of the past 15 years.

Next up, lets sign Frank fucking Thomas to 2 years and 22 million when hes like 49 years old shall we? Yes, he had a solid season the year before with the Oakland A’s, but did anybody really think this guy could maintain that for one, if not TWO more seasons?

AJ Burnett. Okay, actually this deal wasn’t too bad for the money. However, giving the guy a player option when he should be entering his prime is just plain dumb. Everybody could see for an entire season this guy would not be sticking around. Was he dealt at the deadline for some draft picks? Of course not, because JP is an idiot. Burnett did walk, to the division rivals. Great!

There is also of course the ludicrous contract of Vernon Wells who has been a bust ever since Carlos Delgado left about a decade ago. Oh yeah, he is set to be one of the top 5 highest paid players in the MLB starting next season. And finally, BJ Ryan who was decent enough until he threw his arm out a couple years ago.

I understand that Toronto is not the baseball market it was in the late 80’s and early 90’s and players aren’t exactly chomping at the bit to come north of the border and play in the toughest division in baseball. However, that doesn’t mean you have a license to spend money left right and center at the cost of the teams future. I have no problem with overspending on players who are WORTH the money. If you gave a guy like Chase Utley 100 million over 3 seasons, I wouldn’t care because he’s going to play. If you are throwing the moon at potential, or one season wonders this is exactly what happens.

JP has signed 3 contracts in the past 3 years totalling over 100 million over their duration, and each player has been released or waived with nothing in return. Sorry, but that doesn’t cut it in professional sports.

Nice knowin ya JP…

Gearing up for Fantasy Football…

So I haven’t blogged in like a month, but with the football season entering preseason, there is no better time than to begin filling my blog with fantasy football crapola. This is pretty much my obsession. I mean, most fantasy sports is, but football especially is what wakes me up on Sunday morning no matter how bad the hangover might be. I’m always in a few leagues every year, but the one with me and 7 close friends is really what it’s all about. Let me give you a quick run down of my league so you understand my points of view. Entering the second year of an 8 team head-to-head keeper league with mostly standard settings regarding roster size and scoring. Each year we keep 10 players. As such, I am facing a dilemma this offseason for my 10th and final roster spot. Here’s a quick run down of the players I will for sure be keeping.

QB – Jay Cutler, QB – Drew Brees, WR – Anquan Boldin, WR – Braylon Edwards, RB – Chris Johnson, RB – Ronnie Brown, RB – Reggie Bush, WR – Santonio Holmes, RB – Kevin Smith.. and now the dilemma is to either keep QB – Matt Hasselbeck or RB – Lawrence Maroney. I’m already pretty stacked at the RB position, but with 2 flex spots in addition to the 2 RB position every week it seems Maroney is going to have to be the choice. Cutler and Brees will be must starts every week, and I’ll be able to draft somebody like Brady Quinn late to fill in on bye weeks. Also, I was wheeling and dealing big time last year when I realized I wouldn’t make the playoffs and have a solid draft lineup. I’ll be picking 3rd, 9th, 11th, 20th, 24th overall just in the first 3 rounds. Then I have one pick in each of the next 5 rounds. My goal is to add a solid WR or possible package some of the picks to grab a better WR.

You can trust that I’ll be posting a shitload of fantasy football info on this blog in the coming weeks and months as I gear up for my favourite time of the year.

By the way, team name – Swamp Repomen. Always has been, always will be

New Vlog, finally…

Sorry I haven’t checked in as much folks, been a hectic week or so.

Michael Jackson was an icon to me…

Vlog – June 23rd

Hello everybodyyyyyyyy!! New Vlog because I’m lazy as shit

Gran Torino…

So I just finished watching Gran Torino and WOW. I was going to write a blog about it but simply couldnt find the words. So just watch this instead

Awesome day of tournaments.. FML

So Sunday on Pokerstars is always the big day of tournaments. Tons of guarantees, tons of games, tons of variety. I bought into 3 that all started around the same time and guess what? Busted in all of them pretty quickly, lasting an hour for my best result.

Nobody hates hearing about bad beats more than I do but this one really made me sick, just because of the horrible move on the other players part. This took part in the 250k guarantee, which by the time I busted the price pool was closer to 300k. Blinds are 75/150 and I have 2800 chips. I raise to 400 in the cutoff with AK suited, and the loosest idiot at the table calls on the button. I’ve already seen him make horrible plays so he could have any 2 cards. Flop comes out 4-8-10 with 2 diamonds. Not a great flop for me but I decided to bet out anyways and just hope for the fold. I bet 450 and get insta-called. Then the A peels off on the turn, but its the A of diamonds putting a possible flush on the board. Based on the way he was playing if he flopped a flush draw, he would have raised me on the flop, so I bet 900, leaving myself with 850 back meaning I’m pot committed and snap calling if he raises. So he thinks and finally puts me in. I call and flips over…….. 2-3 of clubs!!! Guess what he river was.. a 5.. he makes his straight and I bust.

Now, this is the part that set me the fuck off. Right after the hand he types in the chat “Bye bye sucker.” Now in the poker world, when you put a disgusting beat on somebody, the most ignorant unclassy thing you can do is mock them for it. The guy has 4 possible outs MAXIMUM after making one of the worst plays of all time and then berates me for it. So of course I retort with some colourful language. And he explains to me that he was trying to represent the flush and that I was stupid for calling. I don’t know how many people reading this understand some game theory, but if I bet more than half my stack, I’M NOT FOLDING REGARDLESS! If you made the flush, congrats, you outplayed the shit out of me. When there’s a pot of 4000 sitting in front of me, and I have top pair top kicker against a maniac I’m 100% NOT folding to less than a minimum reraise. the frustrating part was me trying to explain this to him and him not understanding. It’s utterly horrible trying to talk poker strategy with a moron.

Anyways.. FML

Tired…

I don’t pretend that I have a tough job. I don’t pretend I make a difference in the world. I don’t pretend that I am in the military or any other job worth of envy. Hell, I play a frickin game. Poker. But wow I am exhausted mentally from the game, and anybody who plays consistently knows that it’s not as easy as you think.

Since last Saturday, I have played at least 6 hours a day playing 6 tables at once through that entire span. When one game ends, another one opens. It ends up working out to between 75-100 games every single day. In that week span, I hadn’t touched alcohol or stayed up late to make sure I stayed on it. Waking up yesterday however I just felt so groggy and blurry despite a full nights sleep. Although I still played for the 6 hours, and still won money, my brain was on autopilot the entire time. To consistently win in poker you have to be sharp at all times. One mistake can cost you the entire tournament.

With this in mind, I went to a buddy’s house last night had a few beers and enjoyed myself. Nothing too crazy, but when I woke up this morning I just knew I couldn’t grind it out all day. No hangover whatsoever, but just spent. I did feel bad about it, so instead of playing 6 games for 6 hours, I’m going to play 2 games at a time for maybe 2-3 hours just to keep my game in line and hopefully make money at the same time.

I’m going downtown tonight to watch game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and have some drinks. Tomorrow, I’m not even going to look at a poker game and it will be nice to finally get away. Even if it’s just for a day.

On that note… GO PENGUINS!!!!!

I’m Baaaaaack!

So I havent blogged in forever, and I’m lazy, so just watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dLQ23PpjF8&feature=channel_page#mce_temp_url#

This might be my favourite music video

The other day I was on Kanye West’s blog and he had posted the music video for Two Words off his debut album The College Dropout. That track was always one of my favourite, but I had never seen the video. After watching, it might actually be my favourite music video of all time. Click the picture below to go to my VodPod page. Or click the video thumbnail on the right to play it right on the page