Team-By-Team Review || Zach LaVine's audio leaked about his current situation. || Bills say, 'Officials aren’t being held accountable' || NHL reinstalls player draft to upcoming All-Star Weekend.

Edition #26

Intro

Welcome back to another edition of Sports Square. The 49ers fans around the country were so angry that they asked me to troll Gabe Davis. I said… no… That was on him. Yes, I very much agree, but that’s just miscommunication. The problem is that it happened at the wrong time. Sure, the world would have still killed him if it was on 2nd down, but not as much as this, as the Eagles got a TD to win the game only because they had to settle for a field goal. Davis shouldn’t get all the blame. So should Allen. Anyway, the Chicago Bears, won… a… game… Not that it matters. As long as the Panthers continue losing, the better happens for Chicago as they get the first overall pick.

We ain’t gonna go in order, just saying. Let’s get this thing started.

Bills say, ‘Officials aren’t being held accountable’

Let’s get right to the bills, shall we? The worst call in this game was the missed horseshoe call. That was crazy. Reddick ripped his JERSEY!

(The link doesn’t work on the newsletter or on Substack. Wait until it says video unavailable and then press the YouTube link.)

By halftime, the Bills already had been penalized 10 times (one fewer than their worst game all season and three away from matching their worst game in eight years) for 75 yards. Miraculously, they were docked only once for 5 yards in the second half and overtime.

The Eagles’ second penalty, meanwhile, came on their final possession of the fourth quarter. They finished with four penalties for 30 yards.

For only the sixth time in Bills history, they amassed at least 170 yards rushing and 330 yards passing. They had been undefeated in such games, as one would expect.

An interview with Jordan Poyer from the Bills is next.

“A lot. A lot. A lot,” said Poyer, a longtime Bills captain. “It seems like it’s been like that all season. Nothing’s being done about it. Officials aren’t being held accountable for their calls or no-calls. Players are getting fined during the week for silly stuff. It doesn’t seem like, I don’t know … It’s not an excuse, but it’s just the way the game is being played this year. Doesn’t seem like a whole lot of accountability for the officials.”

The Bills’ season remains viable, but barely. They enter their bye week at 6-6, three spots out of the playoff picture and holding precious few tiebreakers because of their lousy conference record. Their next game is against the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium.

I completely agree with what Jordan Poyer says. The refs have been making awful calls this year. Personally, I’m an Eagles fan. I would love the fact that they didn’t call the horseshoe violation, and I guess I was, but to add on the intentional grounding after that? I was like oh my god…

Zach LaVine's audio leaked. It’s about his current situation…

The Chicago Bulls and Zach LaVine recently faced the Toronto Raptors in an NBA Eastern Conference match-up that left the shooting guard light-heartedly pondering a trade to the Canadian outfit during the game.

In the contest, he headed over to OG Anunoby to crack a joke about switching his talents to north of the border, but he had one condition that the team had to deliver on in order to acquire him.

"Yo," LaVine said, running with the Raptors' small forward. "If you guys beat us by 20 tonight, I'll request a trade to Toronto."

During the game, which the Raptors won 121-108, failing to meet the required margin, LaVine posted 36 points, four rebounds, and three assists but could not prevent the Bulls from slipping to a 5-12 record in the standings.

The Raptors, meanwhile, improved their own record to 8-8 for the campaign and moved up to ninth in the Eastern Conference, four places ahead of the Bulls.

LaVine's 2023/24 stats

In the current NBA season, LaVine is posting solid numbers with an average of 22.3 points per game, five rebounds per game, and 3.3 assists per game with a field goal percentage of 45.4%.

His form is consistent with his career, in which he averages 20.6 points per game, four rebounds per game, and 3.9 assists per game with a field goal percentage of 46.4%.

He's higher than usual with free throws, proving to be 3.8% more lethal than elsewhere in his career, but he is also averaging an extra 3.3 minutes per game, giving him more time to improve his stats.

NHL reinstalls player draft to upcoming All-Star Weekend.

The NHL All-Star Weekend is returning to its roots -- and bringing back an old favorite.

When the showcase lands in Toronto this February, it'll be as an expanded three-day event with NHL All-Star Thursday added ahead of the usual Friday skills competition and Saturday All-Star Game. The highlight of its Thursday festivities will be the league's first All-Star player draft in nearly a decade, with four All-Star captains -- and their celebrity captain partners -- drafting teams for Saturday's contest live in front of fans at Scotiabank Arena.

Following the draft, which begins at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 1, the NHL will hold a tribute ceremony honoring members of the 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs and then stage a 3-on-3 event with the Professional Women's Hockey League.

There is also a completely revamped skills format for Friday to come.

The NHL had been thinking about refreshing its All-Star Weekend for years. It has held three previous player drafts between 2011 and 2015 but in recent years has iced more traditional division-based tournaments.

This time around, the league's host city of Toronto provided the perfect backdrop to finally roll out a few changes.

"It's a hockey-crazed crowd up there that just wants more and more," said Steve Mayer, the NHL's Chief Content Officer. "We'd bantered around other ideas and just decided, 'Let's see whether we can add an extra day.' We held the player draft years ago and it was good, but we drifted away from it. And over the course of the last few years, we've talked about it returning just as an added piece to the weekend. And we have also heard from our players and our fans that, 'Hey, wouldn't it be interesting if we brought it back?' We think it just adds to the overall week of activities for All-Star, and it's something that if it works out, it'll be here to stay."

Mayer said the league will determine its four All-Star captains based on their celebrity pairing. The NHL is targeting "passionate hockey fans" for those roles, some of whom may already have existing relationships with certain players or ties to a particular club. Together, the captains will pick from the pool of available All-Stars until there are four left; a special guest will then assign those players to their respective teams.

There will still be a fan vote element as well beginning in early January, where fans can select 12 players to compete in the All-Star Game. The league will announce its player and celebrity captains in January, too. The hope is to enliven the whole event with some unpredictable and amusing partnerships.

"That dynamic [of player and celebrity] this time around is going to be really fun, very unique," Mayer said. "We're looking for humor in these events, we're looking to bring out the player personality, we're looking at something that is going to be memorable. We've learned from doing it in the past."

"The player personality comes out in an event like this," Mayer said. "They're talking, they're either raising their hand to be picked or putting their hand down so they wouldn't get picked by certain teams. You've got all these great dynamics of a draft with former teammates, current teammates, and friends from growing up. It's a pretty cool opportunity for players to draft people that they know and build their own team."

"It was originally thought of as bringing hockey back to its roots and letting the players pick the teams," Shanahan said. "We all remember playing road hockey and standing in a big group and having a couple of guys starting to pick teams and how that created fun and anxiety for people doing the picking and people being picked. The motivation behind it was just having a little bit of fun and asking the players to sort of go back to their roots. Sometimes, [All-Star Weekend] is in a warm-weather place [which guys like], but I also think when you have an opportunity to go to an Original Six city and celebrate the game's history, that's important too."

The NHL skills competition is also going through a revamp, with details still being firmed up. The events themselves will veer closer to hockey skills rather than some recent competitions like the dunk tank at last year's NHL All-Star Game in South Florida. There's also expected to be a greater emphasis on superstar players during the evening.

"Part of the skills changes are after conversations with our players. We don't want to just assume that we're good," Mayer said. "We always feel like we can be better. So, we talked to the players, we talked to the fans, we're talking to our broadcasters, we get a lot of input. We don't need to make changes for the sake of changing, but sometimes it just feels right, especially when you've done something for [so many] years in a row. And this year it just felt right. They're not dramatic changes; they're subtle changes that, at the end of the day, we think will improve the event."

(Courtesy of ESPN for the statements made by Steven Mayer.)

Team-By-Team Review: Brewers

How are we at the Brewers? I thought they might have fallen in like 8 or 7 but no, no, no. They are the 5th team in this series. So what do they need? Let’s check it all out!

Who they should target?

Offense.

But they should mainly focus on retaining the players first. Willy Adames and Corbin Burnes. There are many rumors going around the MLB world that these two guys are picking up steam for trades. If you don’t want to be first rounded by the Arizona Diamondbacks, you need to keep your core guys and add some new star players with TRADES and free agency, although I don’t see a position player depth this season.

Get Matt Chapman

They need a better 3B. I don’t exactly have anything against Andruw Monasterio, but 3 HR on the season? Not quite where you want to be. Stop those struggles and get Matt Chapman, who not only could field the ball like a champ but hit like on too.

Who should they trade for?

Paul Blackburn

As a team aiming to contend in 2024 and beyond, the Brewers don’t appear primed to trade significant young talent for an upper-echelon starter. They’re more likely to deal Corbin Burnes to infuse the upper minors and MLB roster with even more controllable talent.

Blackburn could be a realistic target. A soon-to-be 30-year-old who posted a 4.43 ERA in 2023 does not look enticing at first glance. However, Blackburn was one of baseball’s unluckier pitchers by a few measures. He posted strong barrel and hard-hit rates but suffered from a .351 BABIP, the fourth-highest among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched. The Oakland Athletics defense combined for -8 Outs Above Average when Blackburn was on the mound, one of the worst marks for any pitcher in baseball.

Blackburn is controlled through 2025 via arbitration. The rebuilding A’s likely have little interest in paying his arbitration salaries over the next two years, but his $3.2 million projection would fit comfortably into Milwaukee’s budget. It could be an opportunity for the Brewers to acquire a controllable middle-of-the-rotation arm for a few middle-tier prospects from their deep farm system.

Dylan Cease

This one is a long shot. Cease makes this list because his ceiling and two remaining years of control might be enough for the Brewers to at least consider parting with a hefty prospect package. He had a down year in 2023, but the soon-to-be 28-year-old posted a 2.20 ERA in 2022 en route to a second-place Cy Young Award finish. Cease has excellent stuff headlined by a riding upper-90s fastball and hammer curveball. The Brewers are unlikely to pay the steep acquisition price, but they might consider it.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it. We (or I) love your feedback and comments about each topic so don’t hesitate. Alright, that’s it.