#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Happy MLB Trade Deadline day everyone! July 31 is the annual mark for all non-waiver trades between major league baseball teams. After that day, trades may still be completed, but it is much more difficult for them to process because a player must “clear waivers” before they are traded. Clearing waivers is a rather complicated process, but in essence it gives teams the ability to strategically block a team with a better record from making a trade. This means that there is almost no way for a big name player to switch teams after today.

This part of the season is always incredibly exciting because it is the time when a team, more specifically a general manager, can make trades and attempt to strategically improve your ball club. Some teams are interested in getting younger and building for the future, while other teams are focused on getting players that can make a difference for them right now. There is a common misconception among fans that the manager is the person who makes the trades for the team, but they are wrong. It is actually the general manager who works in tandem with the owner (and his/her money) to make the trades happen.

We have seen many compelling trades from some serious contenders this season. The most shocking, but not really when you think about it, was Ichiro Suzuki being trades from the Mariners to the Yankees. He was tired of losing and anybody could understand that, but sometimes the business of baseball can be very hard on the fans. On the flip side, sometimes the business can make the game unbearably exciting when your club trades for a big name pitcher that you have always coveted on another team. This happened in the form of the biggest trade so far this season when the stacked Angels traded for Zack Greinke from the Brew Crew of Milwaukee. Greinke is a 28 year old ace who has the ability to compete for a CY Young award annually; in fact he won that award in 2009. The Angels are clearly a team that is in a “win-now” mind set, and because of that their GM Jerry Dipoto has gone out and got the best pitcher on the trade market. This sets the table for a great finish to the division race as we approach the playoffs.

Other big arms such as Cliff Lee, Matt Garza and James Shields are all rumored to be available so keep an eye out on ESPN.com or mlbtraderumors.com for the latest news. Most of these trades happen very last minute.

Here is a message for all the fantasy baseball players out there. Don't forget that the trade deadline for fantasy is on August 10. Some players that I am currently trying to trade for in my league are Uggla, Cuddyer and Longoria. I consider all of these players great value picks and you can probably find a way not to give up too much in any acquisition. Longoria is obviously a 2^nd round quality pick, but he has been hurt all season. This gives many owners a reason to trade him, because you just never know how a player is going to play off an injury. I consider this an opportunity! You will never be able to trade for Longo when he is healthy, so strike while the iron is hot. Tweet me if you make any awesome trades!

Thanks for reading again guys! Tweet me @DerekJ_AllDay. Have a good week!

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Howdy folks! Well at least this week there is more than one sport for me to talk about. Last week was one hell of a dead period, but this week I actually found some stories to talk about!

My posts are typically put up on Tuesdays so that means that I didn’t have a chance to talk about the MLB All Star game last week. Well, I can certainly live with that. I am an American League fan because I support the Angels, and to be honest the game was basically over after the first inning. The starting pitcher for the AL and reigning Cy Young and MVP winner, Justin Verlander, was flat out shellacked after giving up five earned runs in his only inning of work.

This was unexpected, but the reason for it was obvious in my opinion. Verlander was throwing his fastball in the high 90’s for the entire inning, and even though he can do that it if he chooses, it isn’t part of his normal repertoire. The fans love to watch the 100 MPH fastball, but Verlander makes his money with his 90-92 MPH 2-seam fastball. It’s the less appreciated cousin of the fastball, but the two-seam heater adds a lot of movement for only a small loss of velocity. A casual spectator may think that a pitcher is more effective based on how fast he throws. Ironically, this isn’t true at all. The key to getting a hitter out is changing speeds and directions of movement to keep the batter off balance and out of his comfort zone. I believe that Verlander was so “amped” up to start the All Star game, that he literally forgot how to pitch effectively. The reason this happened? He is human!

I don’t mean to dwell on JV’s poor All Star performance. The guy is a great pitcher (tied for Jered Weaver as best in baseball in my opinion), a great teammate and as far as anyone can tell he is a good person. I guess I was just trying to write about the All Star game, and honestly the entire game began and ended with Justin Verlander’s first inning. In the end the National League ended up winning by the score of 8-0. Melky Cabrera had a hell of a performance and won MVP of the game, but the real significance comes from the fact that the National League now holds home field advantage in the World Series because of their victory in the All Star game.

Now, we are left to watch the second half of a marathon known as the baseball season, and once again the parity of the league stands out most of all. At this point, there are no guarantees and even the Yankees are vulnerable to being eliminated from playoff contention. The Pirates (perennial last place finishers) ended their first half as first in their division and the Phillies (perennial first place finishers) are currently last and 14 games back in their division. Who knows what will happen next?

In other sports news…the NFL season is just about to start up again! Pre-season is right around the corner, and sports fans everywhere get to be frustrated by their favorite players “holding out” on their teams and not playing in order to get more money. Well, at least that is normally what happens. As I was deciding to write about the NFL contract disputes earlier this morning, I realized that the two biggest disputes in Matt Forte and Ray Rice ended up signing contracts yesterday and today. While I am sure there is an endless list of players preparing their bitch ass hold outs, I have a lot of respect for the organizations and players who agreed to sign these contracts rather than deal with a seemingly endless hold out that will only hurt the team in the long run.

Fantasy football fans need to remember these contract signings most of all. Matt Forte and Ray Rice signing with their teams means that they are once again the primary backs on the field for every down and odds are they will provide you with the fantasy points you need to win a championship.

In future weeks I will be writing about the upcoming football season, including fantasy, and I will also be breaking down the current MLB season and the Olympics. I can’t wait! I hope all of you have a great week and don’t forget to tweet me @DerekJ_AllDay to talk to me!

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Hello everyone! I hope you are all surviving the impending zombie apocalypse and stocking up your bomb shelters effectively. (Is it too late for a zombie man reference? What about bath salts?) REMEMBER! You survive three weeks without food, only three days without water. In the mean time, let me take you away from the bullshit for a few minutes and lets talk sports.

There has been a lot of drama across the sports world lately. Not a ton of action on the field neccesarily, but super star drama queens like Dwight Howard, center for the Magic, have taken the diva image of athletes to a whole new level.

 Just last year, Dwight Howard had an option in his contract to either stay with the Magic for one more year or forego his final year and enter free agency to presumably go to a much more serious contender than the Magic. Dwight has had a lot of public issues with his team about how they are not competing for a championship, and he has also gone as far as to request a trade to a contender.

For whatever his reasons may be, amongst years of Howard complaining and requesting trades, he decided to stay with Orlando for one more year. Now, in the most recent twist in the story, Howard came out and complained once again about his team with some reports going as far as saying he claimed he was "blackmailed" into agreeing to take his one year option. I don't doubt he said this, but I also don't think he knows what he is saying. I especially don't think he realizes the legal reprocussions of accusing an NBA team of blackmailing you. Anyways, that's not the point. I suppose the point is, it's just one more dramatic event you can add to Dwight's long list.

I guess I forgot, Dwight also bitched and moaned his way to getting his coach Steve Van Gundy fired last year.

We all know how frustrating it is to see an athlete complain so much while theyre making millions every month, but lets take a step back for a moment. Yes, Howard is immature, but he is also 26 and had a city's worth of pressure put on his shoulders at the age of 19. He was drafted into the NBA straight out of high school and never really got the normal chance to mature that most people get. I am not saying that he is doing anything correctly or the right way (other than playing basketball), but I am saying that I can understand how a person could end up like that after enough pressure was put on him. Here is a story I cannot understand...

One of the greatest managers of all time and a no doubt hall of famer, Tony LaRussa, has recently proven that 67 year old men can often times act just as immature as 26 year old super star centers. Even though LaRussa retired last year after he managed the Cardinals to a World Series Championship, he still has the right to manage the NL All-Star team because of last years WS win. The NL manager has the right to choose 9 All-Stars to represent their league, and after the dust settled and LaRussa made his decisions some people started to notice something; he didn't choose any of the Reds who seemed to deserve it.

The most glaring "snub" in my opinion was Reds starting pitcher Johnny Cueto who is currently fourth in his league in ERA and is tied for sixth with nine wins. Considering 13 pitchers made the NL roster, none is this seems to add up. Until...you remember all of the drama that occured between LaRussa's Cardinals and their division rival Cincinatti Reds. It truly is a scene words can't really explain, so that's why there is YouTube...!

That was....AWESOME! My favorite part is the old umpire sitting back adjusting his hat while the brawl was occuring. Can't say that I blame him.

The instigator of that fight was Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips, who couldn't shut up about how much he hated the Cardinals the day before that brawl happened. Phillips, was the second worst snub by LaRussa this year. So it seems fair to deduce that LaRussa is clearly not choosing these players based on merit, but rather he is doing this to fulfill some grudge from a year ago. I get it, baseball players never forget, but if you retire you aren't allowed to directly affect the game like this anymore. Cueto and Phillips are hard working athletes who deserve to be All-Stars, but because a retired old man can't get over a baseball grudge they are stuck at home missing something that truly is an honor for these players.

There are two ways to look at it, yes it's unfortunate that Vueto and Phillips got screwed, but this also opens doors for a lot more controversy and good baseball from these two teams. I just hope that they can keep it all on the field this time.

Thanks for reading again guys! You all rock and I'll talk to you next week!

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!