Random Rant - Ray Rice, Penn State

Monday was a big news day in sports.  Unfortunately, the two biggest stories came off the field.  The first story broke while most of America was asleep when TMZ released video footage from inside the casino elevator in Atlantic City, where Ray Rice knocked out his then fiancée, now wife, Janay.  That led to media backlash and outrage and eventually, the termination of Rice’s contract with the Baltimore Ravens.  The other major story was the removal of all remaining sanctions handed down by the NCAA over Penn State University and their football program stemming from the Jerry Sandusky Scandal.

Both are very high profile stories; both reach far outside the sports world and into the social spectrum of our society.

First, let’s start with the Ray Rice incident and the fallout from it.  To summarize, Ray Rice is a coward who assaulted a woman.  He was suspended for just two games by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, which in itself was an absolute joke, as well as being completely disrespectful to every female football fan out there.  Now, we see what actually happened on the casino elevator that night, and Ray Rice is out of a job as his former team, the Baltimore Ravens, released him.

There are so many different things that are wrong stemming from this incident and so many questions that need to be asked that haven’t been to this point, so that is where we begin.

To the NFL Owners:
How is Roger Goodell still the commissioner of your league after how poorly he handled this incident?

Please don’t let this be simply about money.  Yes, Goodell has made the league a ton of money since taking over in 2006, as the league revenues have nearly doubled over the eight years under his watch, but please don’t let that be the reason.  He has also pushed away a large portion of the female audience, which the league has worked so hard to build up, with the way he has handled this situation.  The NFL is now the punchline of jokes because of all the player personal issues that are going on league wide, and you have this guy representing you and divvying out these soft punishments.  How can you still think he is the man you want representing the shield and your league?

To the state of New Jersey and Atlantic City:
How was Ray Rice not charged with anything stemming from this incident?

Yes, you read that correctly.  Ray Rice was never charged for any wrongdoing for knocking out a woman in an elevator, then dragging her unconscious body through a hotel casino.  Atlantic City prosecutor, James McClain, decided to not file charges against Rice after he entered himself in a pre-trial counseling program.  You cannot tell me that the state Attorney General’s office didn’t have access to the hotel security videos.

To the fans of football who had the sudden outrage over seeing the video today:
What did you think happened on the elevator?  Did you really need to see the video of Rice punching his fiancée in the head and seeing her head bounce off the railing in the elevator to be upset about it?

Everyone saw the video of Rice and Palmer entering the elevator and then leaving the elevator.  What did people think happened to her when she walked perfectly fine into the elevator, but need to be dragged out of it just seconds later?  I understand that people were upset with Rice all along, but I can’t figure out the uproar Monday simply because people saw the video from inside the elevator.

To the Baltimore Ravens:
What took so long?

Somehow, people are praising the Ravens organization for releasing Rice on Monday, less than 10 hours after the video was made public.  But what about the previous 206 days since the incident actually occurred?  This is the same organization that came out publicly to support Rice and placed blame on Palmer for her role in the incident.  In fact, during a May press conference with Rice and his wife, the team even tweeted out, “Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the incident.” REALLY?!  That tweet remained up until after the team released Rice Monday afternoon.  It was then deleted from the team account.

Let’s face it, the only reason that the Ravens released Rice on Monday was to save face.  If they really felt that what Rice did in that elevator was deserving of being cut, they would have done it in February.  Or, if they didn’t think that he was punished hard enough from the NFL, they would have done it after Goodell announced that joke of a suspension.  The only reason they did it now was because the public saw the same video that the organization saw 2 months ago (according to reports).  So after all that, after everyone saw what we all pretty much could have assumed happened in that elevator, they cut him?  It was nothing more than giving into public and media pressure.  They don’t deserve any praise or credit for doing something that they should have done 5 months ago.

Now on to Penn State. 

It was announced Monday afternoon that the NCAA has removed the bowl ban for the Penn State football team effective immediately.  They also will reinstate a full roster of scholarships beginning with the 2015-16 season.

I have two lines of thinking about this decision by the NCAA.  First, the NCAA has screwed up how they have handled the sanctions from the very beginning so I’m not surprised they continue to screw it up.  And secondly, why now?

When the Freeh Report came out in 2012, the president of the NCAA announced a number of punishments for the university, the school’s athletic department, and the football program.  These punishments included forfeiting wins, sacrificing scholarships, forgoing bowl games and paying a large fine.  From day 1, I never really understood the reasoning behind these penalties.  They seemed poorly thought out and they penalized the wrong people.  I think we can all agree the events that took place leading to these sanctions were horrible and disgusting crimes and certainly, the people involved should be punished.  However, it was not something that current players at Penn State should have been penalized for.

To me, taking scholarships away and banning bowl games were two of the punishments that made zero sense.  Taking away scholarships creates safety issues.  You are demanding young kids to play more than what they are capable of because they don’t have adequate back-ups.  You are also getting undersized players, who are now playing at a level that probably exceeds their athletic abilities, because of the need of more walk-ons, just to fill out the roster.  As for banning bowl games, you are taking away a reward for the current players for something that happened when these kids were in elementary school.

As for forfeiting the wins by Joe Paterno, I understand the idea behind it, but those games happened, whether you want to acknowledge them or not.  You can’t just suddenly say games didn’t occur.  They did.  I realize that from the NCAA’s point of view, they went back to the earliest date of the scandal and wanted to erase everything that happened to Penn State football from that point on.  Unfortunately, what we all wish was erased from the scandal will never be forgotten by those victims.

So how do you punish a multi-million dollar business known as college football for a program as large as Penn State’s?  You hit them in the pocket book.  Considering Penn State spent over $20M for their football program alone last year, asking them to pay $60M over 4 years isn’t much of a penalty either.

I have said all along that Penn State should have gotten the Death Penalty from the NCAA for a two-year span.  Remember, one of the big problems according to the Freeh Report and the NCAA was the “Football Culture” at Penn State.  What is the easiest way to change a bad culture? Eliminate it. 

Had Penn State had a 2-year ban from football, they would already be back to a full roster with the ability to go to a bowl this season.  It would not have affected any current players or created safety issues for them.  Players were given the ability to transfer when the sanctions came down, and would have been able to do so had they received the Death Penalty.  Players that didn’t want to transfer and play elsewhere would have been able to stay at Penn State and get a degree from a highly regarded university.

The only other option for a penalty would have been a TV ban.  It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you take away the revenue stream that is the TV contracts in major college football, the athletic department and football team feel it.  It also makes the team basically non-existent to the fan base that created the negative “Football Culture” the NCAA talked about.  If a 2-year Death Penalty seemed too much, I would have given Penn State a 10-year TV ban.

As for the timing of this announcement, I don’t get it. 

Penn State scheduled a game in Ireland this year to get around not being eligible for a bowl game at the end of the season.  So instead of a bowl game, the team went to Ireland.  Now, after manipulating the system, the NCAA declares that the “Football Culture” is no longer a problem at the university.  It seems to me that not much has changed if, while on punishment, the school figured out a loophole in that punishment so as to still go away on a trip for their team and their fans to take part in.  Not sure that makes much sense.

As I mentioned before, I don’t like banning teams from bowl games, but when you go above and beyond to work around the rules so they fall in your favor, you lose me a bit.  If the scholarships are coming back for the 2015-16 football season and you already know that the team has been to Ireland this year, why wouldn’t the NCAA just remove the bowl ban next year when they give the scholarships back?

Then again, why am I even trying to make sense of something the NCAA does?

To Trade or Not To Trade, That Is Neal Huntington's Question

We are less than one week away from the most important trade deadline of the Neal Huntington Era for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Since taking over as the team’s general manager in 2007, Huntington has completely gutted and rebuilt the organization from top to bottom.  Over his tenure, Huntington has made hundreds of transactions, but none will be as important as the moves he may or may not make in the upcoming days.

Huntington’s 2014 edition of the Pirates had a dreadful start, in which the team went 10-18 out of the gate.  Since that point, entering this weekend’s series in Colorado, the Pirates are playing at a .603 clip (44-29), which is among the best in baseball.  Once again, Huntington finds himself right in the thick of a playoff race as the trade deadline approaches.

The Pirates are in a good position to make a push in a wide open National League.  Add a bat off the bench, some bullpen depth, and maybe an upgrade at first base, along with a healthy starting rotation, and the Pirates could put themselves in a very good spot come October.  However, even without those additions, the Pirates have already proven this season that they can hold their own against the rest of the National League.

Although most feel that teams need to make splashy trades before the deadline to get them over the top, that is not necessarily the case with this year’s Pirate team.  The trade market this season is not deep, and it is very much a seller’s market.  A.J. Burnett is an intriguing player who is rumored to be connected to the Pirates, but he has an absurd contract that still owes him $6.5M in signing bonuses, plus a player option that could cost upwards of $12.5M in 2015.  Is that the type of move the Pirates should be making this season?

Is it really worth the risk of giving up the future to get questionable returns?  Last season the Pirates went out and acquired Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau.  In 30 games with the Pirates, Byrd added some much needed offense to the corner outfield position, but Morneau, in 25 games in black and gold, did next to nothing in the team’s attempt to upgrade the first base position.  The team did make the playoffs for the first time in 21 seasons, but was eliminated in the divisional series.

The Pirates currently have a deeper and more talented overall team than last season.  Therefore, the need for adding before the trade deadline, although tempting, is not as necessary as it was 12 months ago.  Plus, does anyone think that the Pirates are just one or two players away from being serious World Series contenders?  They are not.  That is why the right move for Neal Huntington is to do nothing over the next week and focus on continuing to move the franchise forward, starting with a very busy and productive offseason.

Over the offseason, Huntington will have three major items on his “To-Do” list as he prepares for the 2015 season.  A 2015 season which will be Gregory Polanco’s 1^st full season in the majors.  A season in which the Pirates could see the major league debuts of highly touted pitching prospects Jameson Taillon and Nick Kingham.  A 2015 season that very well may have been a target date for Huntington as he took over the Pirates organization.

2015 is the season for the Pirates, not 2014.

Going into the 2015 season, the Pirates have just 3 regulars not on their rookie contracts: Andrew McCutchen’s team friendly deal, Charlie Morton’s 3-year deal signed last offseason, and Starling Marte’s 6-year deal, also inked over the past offseason.  They also have the rights to all but 4 players on their current roster with Clint Barmes, Francisco Liriano, Edinson Volquez and Russell Martin all unrestricted free agents after the 2014 season.

Thanks to Huntington’s success at building the farm system - one that is considered one of the best in baseball - Barmes, Liriano, Volquez and Martin could all be replaced by players already within the organization.  The question is will Huntington let all four of those players go.  Alen Henson has been a top shortstop prospect for a few years now, and he certainly is deserving of a shot at making the roster out of spring training.  The same can be said of Brandon Cumpton, Nick Kingham and Vance Worley filling roles in the Pirates’ starting rotation next season.  The Pirates have Tony Sanchez, a former first round pick in AAA who they feel can step in as the team’s everyday catcher next season, but can they afford to not bring back Russell Martin?  Martin has been arguably the most valuable player on the team the past two seasons, outside of league MVP Andrew McCutchen.  With a young pitching staff, can the Pirates afford to let Martin walk away?  Or maybe a better question:  can they afford to keep him?

Re-signing Russell Martin should be the #1 offseason priority of Huntington’s.  Martin will be 32 years old next season and is probably looking for 1 final big contract.  A 3 or 4 year deal worth about $9-10M a year should be in the ball park of what Martin is looking for in that contract.  There is no reason that the Pirates can’t offer him this type of deal with the financial flexibility Huntington will have with so many other players on the roster still on their rookie deals.

The next item on Huntington’s priority list should be signing second baseman Neil Walker to a long term deal.  Walker is making $5.75M this season, his first of three arbitration years.  The way he has played this season that number figures to go up dramatically.  One could make the argument that on the open market he could make upwards of $15M a year.  However, luckily for the Pirates, he is not on the open market and for the time being they have exclusive negotiating rights with Walker.  The Pirates cannot afford to pay Walker $15M a year and really probably shouldn’t go much over $10M annually, but they can offer him guaranteed money.  A 6 year deal worth between $60-70M seems like something that could work for both parties.  It buys out Walker’s final two years of arbitration and keeps him in a Pirates uniform until the age of 35.  It also gives him guaranteed money as opposed to playing under 2 more 1-year deals under arbitration and becoming a free agent at the age of 31.

The final item on Huntington’s 2015 offseason “To-Do” list is to trade Pedro Alvarez.  Like Walker, Alvarez is into his arbitration years and can become a free agent after the 2016 season.  Unlike Walker, Alvarez, who is a Scott Boras client, will likely not sign an extension before becoming a free agent.  Due to that and the fact that the he has probably priced himself out of Pittsburgh, this would be the ideal time to trade the former second overall pick.  Alvarez is a power-hitting third baseman, who could become a DH in the American League, which could pull in a king’s ransom on the trading block.  Trading Alvarez would likely bring in the type of prospects that could both replenish the farm system as others make it to the Majors and that are major league ready and could contribute immediately. 

By making these moves in the upcoming offseason and not in the upcoming week, the Pirates become contenders for years to come, not just for one season.  So as unpopular as it may be for their fan base, the Pirates should stand pat at the trade deadline next week and trust the plan of their general manager. 

As successful as the Pirates have been in their recent resurgence, they are set-up to be even better in the very near future. Starting in 2015.