SU has been quiet of late but that doesn’t mean we are not thinking.  A few random thoughts for you:

• The Hot Stove must start to heat up now.  The biggest names are off the board but surely others are going to fall shortly.  SU saw that the signing of Brett Gardner triggered the “Designated for Assignment” of the rookie pitcher Tarpeley.  That was too bad as he showed some promise.  Todd Frazier signed with the Texas Rangers (good for him – an d Yankee fans).  SU says watch what happens with Lindor as that will trigger some moves in Yankeeland.
• SU has been following the signs cheating scandal of the 2017 Astros and the 2018 Red Sox.  The common denominator there?  Boston manager Alex Cora.  He was a coach with the Astros in 2017.  SU says look for him to get a hefty fine and suspension for 2020.  I must admit that in the beginning, I didn’t really care about this as teams have always tried to steal signs.  But the use now of special cameras focused on the catchers’ signs that are then fed to a special monitor next to the dugout is not a good look.  Clearly, the Red Sox have seen how the Patriots cheat in various ways over the years and wanted to get their share of that up in Boston.  On the other hand, if you use binoculars in center field and then relay the sign via walkie-talkie to someone in the dugout is that any different?  For SU, the paranoia of sign stealing just slows down the game and MLB needs to find a way to use technology to relay catcher signs to the pitcher going forward.  Pace of play is key.
• SU was listening to a Big Ten basketball broadcast over the weekend and the announcers made the comment that in the Big Ten, it’s so hard to win a road game.  They said you have to be 10 points better than the other team and expect that you won’t get any calls.  SU watched the Michigan – Minnesota game yesterday in Minneapolis and you can see the fouls disparity.   19 fouls for Michigan to 7 for Minnesota.  27 fouls shot to 6.   It’s true that Minnesota pounds the ball down low while Michigan takes more 3-pointers but when you have two 7-footers banging on each other down low, it’s not always a foul.  And when Teske on Michigan looked to shoot, he didn’t get any calls.  This ultimately likely did not influence the final result but surely the Big Ten, which has the worst referees for both football and basketball, can look at the foul call disparity (using analytics) and figure this out?  At some point, it’s just stupid and obvious.
• It was funny that in the Kansas City – Houston game yesterday, a college football game broke out.  I mean, in the NFL, you never see a team rally from 24 points down – in one quarter!  True, trying a fake punt in your own territory is not the best move but this was wild.  SU says it’s actually a good thing for the NFL.
• SU, along with 7 other people, was watching the ATP Cup on the Tennis Channel for the last 10 days.  It was a mini- Davis Cup event – 2 singles matches and one doubles, 2 out of 3 sets.  SU enjoyed watching my man, Djokovic, as his Serbia team ended up winning with him beating Nadal in the finals.  What was interesting for Djokovic is that apparently there are a lot of Serbs living in Australia and they really turned out.  He had so much crowd support which he never, ever gets.  Playing in the era of Federer and Nadal, he is always up against the home field advantage for the opponent.  What was obvious is that the Next Gen players – Shapovalev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas – are on the cusp of winning a grand slam and SU expects we will see that happen in 2020.  Men’s tennis is in good shape for the foreseeable future.  Unfortunately, no American men in the mix.
• Finally, we get to see the college football championship game tonight.  SU says they made a mistake delaying this game an extra week.  It’s a great match up and on a Monday night, they should get a big TV audience but a 2-week break did not make sense.

SU was remiss on not asking for Super Bowl predictions.  Based on the results of the first 2 rounds, at least I avoided being wrong again for this year.  A San Francisco – KC game would be fun and feels fairly even.  You have to give the Chiefs credit for finding a way to replace Karim Hunt quickly and get back to the AFC championship game again.