NFL Power Rankings, 12/30

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment
Kevin Patullo modeled his offense after this.

There’s not much left to decide. With one game to go, we know six of the seven playoff participants in both conferences. We know that Denver, Seattle, and San Francisco control their destinies, in terms of winning home field. The order behind those teams could move a bit, but for the most part, it’s done.

The truth is that there are some teams who don’t care, and haven’t cared for weeks, and then there are some teams trying. So what is there to learn at this point? Not a ton. Just enough to hold your interest though, and that’s why you’ll watch this week. You still won’t really know who is the favorite in the NFC though, because you just won’t. The same could be said of the AFC, which none of you would trust anyway.

So basically you have a couple of meaningful games left. They are:

  • Ravens-Steelers- the winner wins the AFC North. If the Steelers win, most people will make them the underdog now, no matter who they play in round one. If the Ravens win, people will start calling them the sleeper, and blah, blah, blah. Lamar has been hurt and inconsistent all year, but I guess that will all change when the calendar changes, according to some.
  • Panthers-Buccaneers- If you still believe there are football gods, the Bucs should disprove that for you. They have been one of the worst football teams in the league for about two months, and yet they’re a home win against an 8-8 team away from the playoffs. They’ll probably be favored at kickoff. Meanwhile the Panthers grew from a hideous football team early to become really no worse than some of the NFC’s “contenders” after the first month. And yet, they both have a chance.
  • Seahawks-Niners- Winner gets home field, a bye, and wins the best division in football this year. Loser gets either five (Seahawks, where they will still be favored) or six (possible for the Niners, but the reward is a trip to Philadelphia in January). This is literally a difference of having the easiest or one of the hardest roads to the Super Bowl. The Niners might never leave home again this season, a streak that would encompass the last two games of the season, two rounds of the playoffs, and the Super Bowl, or they could travel 3,000 miles to a hostile environment. Completely insane.
  • There are other games that sort of matter for seeding, or could matter if Denver were to lose, but those are remote possibilities.

Ok, so on to the rankings.

12/24 rankings. 12/16 rankings. 12/9 rankings. 12/3 rankings. 11/26 rankings. 11/18 rankings. 11/11 rankings. 11/4 rankings. 10/28 rankings. 10/21 rankings. 10/15 rankings. 10/8 rankings. 9/30 rankings. 9/24 rankings. 9/16 rankings. 9/9 rankings.

  1. Seattle Seahawks
  2. Denver Broncos
  3. New England Patriots
  4. San Francisco 49’ers
  5. Jacksonville Jaguars
  6. Houston Texans
  7. Chicago Bears
  8. Philadelphia Eagles
  9. Los Angeles Rams
  10. Buffalo Bills
  11. Los Angeles Chargers
  12. Baltimore Ravens
  13. Green Bay Packers
  14. Pittsburgh Steelers
  15. Carolina Panthers
  16. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  17. Minnesota Vikings
  18. Atlanta Falcons
  19. Detroit Lions
  20. Dallas Cowboys
  21. Miami Dolphins
  22. Indianapolis Colts
  23. New Orleans Saints
  24. Cincinnati Bengals
  25. Kansas City Chiefs
  26. Cleveland Browns
  27. Washington Commanders
  28. Tennessee Titans
  29. New York Jets
  30. Arizona Cardinals
  31. New York Giants
  32. Las Vegas Raiders

Socialism Failed. Why Do Some Keep Bringing It Up?

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

We just passed the 34th anniversary of one of the greatest days in the post-World War II world- the death of the Soviet Union. A bunch of hyper-ambitious morons decided to create a government on a theory and a myth, and ended up creating a failed shit hole of a state, an authoritarian, corrupt, awful nightmare of a state. As with most Socialist nations in our world, it turned into a cult of personality towards it’s leaders, complete with rampant corruption and “black markets,” poverty, and all kinds of human rights violations. The world is better off for not having the Soviet Union around today, whatever you think of the governments in the republics that replaced it.

Sure, there are Russians and others from the old empire that miss the power they had at that time. Even so, they’re not desperate to return to the system of government they had. Meanwhile, socialism has failed pretty much everywhere else- North Korea is a hellhole, China basically abandoned the system, Cuba is on the verge of collapse, Venezuela has literal pirates off their coast, Yugoslavia collapsed into a state of war and ethnic cleansing, the rest of Eastern Europe threw out their dictators, East Germany had to build a wall to keep people from leaving, and Bolivia’s economy is now in ruins. Socialism just doesn’t work anywhere. Even countries that didn’t end up in violent chaos ended up turning away from the failed system.

So why do progressives in the Western World, who are actually just old European Social Democrats (a very generous government “safety net.”) want to brand themselves as far leftist nuts? To be clear, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Graham Platner, Bob Brooks, and others are not calling for the government to “seize the means of production.” They don’t want a “First National Energy Company,” and even their “Medicare for All” is just covering everyone under Medicare- which is generally administered by private companies. Why are they associating the policies of a full social safety net with a failed economic and political system that allowed Joseph Stalin to kill millions and millions of his own people? How is this good politics?

Americans are generally smart enough to know that these people are idiots, which is why they don’t win elections outside of comfortably Democratic jurisdictions where primaries decide the winners. It’s one thing to want a generous Social Security program or a higher minimum wage, it’s another altogether to brand yourself a part of a murderous, failed political system. Somehow, a lot of Democrats want to turn to these people to turn their 2024 fate around. It’s a foolish strategy.

The Latest on the Phillies Off-Season

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Well, the Phillies were busy last week. Not busy, as in signing a major bat, or trading away someone from last year’s lineup, or even signing a starting pitcher. No, they were busy beginning to save some money and re-making the bullpen. Gone is Matt Strahm. In are Jonathan Bowlan, Kyle Backhus, and Zach Pop. The Phillies will have a very lively battle for spots in the bullpen.

There’s been a lot of talk about why Strahm is gone, but most of it is stupid talk. Strahm will make $7,500,000 this coming season. Strahm was set to be between the 4th and 6th option out of the bullpen. This means he wasn’t going to pitch in all high leverage situations. It also means paying him made little to no sense when they lack a starting catcher and anyone who could provide viable protection for their first three hitters from the cleanup spot. In short, it was an obvious need for a team that needs more, and is in the third level of the luxury tax.

Here’s a look at the roster now, as opposed to last week:

Catcher- Rafael Marchan ($1,000,000) and Garrett Stubbs ($925,000). $1,925,000

Infield- Bryce Harper- 1B ($25,384,615), Bryson Stott- 2B ($5,800,000), Trea Turner- SS ($27,272,727), Alec Bohm- 3B ($10,300,000), Edmundo Sosa- Utility Man ($3,900,000), and Otto Kemp ($820,000). $73,477,342

Outfield- Adolis Garcia- RF ($10,000,000), Justin Crawford- CF ($820,000, not yet on the roster), Brandon Marsh- LF ($4,500,000), and Johan Rojas ($820,000). $16,140,000

Designated Hitter- Kyle Schwarber ($30,000,000). $30,000,000

Starting Rotation– Cristopher Sanchez- LHP ($5,625,000), Zack Wheeler- RHP ($42,000,000), Jesus Luzardo- LHP ($10,400,000), Aaron Nola- RHP ($24,571,429), and Taijuan Walker- RHP ($18,000,000). $100,596,429

Bullpen– Jhoan Duran- RRP ($7,600,000), Jose Alvarado- LRP ($9,000,000), Brad Keller- RRP ($11,000,000), Orion Kerkering- RRP ($820,000), Tanner Banks- LRP ($1,200,000), Jonathan Bowlan- RRP ($820,000), Zach McCambley– RRP ($820,000), and Zach Pop- RRP ($820,000). $40,260,000

Untraded Contract- Nick Castellanos ($20,000,000). $20,000,000

Additional 40 man roster players (All are pro-rated $820,000 deals)– Kyle Backhus- LRP, Jean Cabrera- RSP, Moises Chase- RSP, Yoniel Curet– RSP, Nolan Hoffman- RRP, Seth Johnson- RRP, Max Lazar- RRP, Alex McFarlane- RSP, Andrew Painter- RSP, Alan Rangel- RSP, Pedro Leon- OF, Gabriel Rincones- OF, Weston Wilson- OF

This leaves the Phillies with 39 players on the roster at a cost of $282,398,771. Weston Wilson, Zach Pop, Jonathan Bowlan, Rafael Marchan, Garrett Stubbs, and of course Zach McCambley are bubble players with no options to go to the minors right now, so they would lose their 40 man spot if they don’t make the team. Moises Chase will go immediately on the 60 day IL, while recovering from Tommy John, so a spot will open at the end of Spring Training on the roster. Zack Wheeler will begin the season on the IL, but it’s questionable which list. By my count, that means the Phillies only have one 40 man spot to hand out right now, but can sign more players on minor league deals to come to camp and compete, as they will probably have one or two spots available.

The obvious issues are there right now- they don’t have a starting catcher, their rotation has a serious lack of depth, and they still don’t have a cleanup hitter. I probably would not have given Pop a guaranteed deal and roster spot given all of that, but you almost certainly need more relievers than you think. I don’t see many ways the Phillies can re-sign JT Realmuto AND add a middle of the order bat right now, let alone go sign Imai or Ranger Suarez to join this rotation. Yes, you’re going to get rid of Castellanos and at least $820,000 of salary almost assuredly, but that doesn’t change much. You need someone to take on Castellanos and something like $5 million of his salary to really free up much room, but the spot alone would be nice. It would be nice to trade Taijuan Walker and free up $8-10 million of his $18 million salary, but given the depth issues in the rotation, that’s not feasible. Unless there is payroll flexibility for a specific player (Probably Imai or Okamoto, given the Phillies stated desire to get into the Japanese player market), you really only have flexibility to make one big splash signing. If you want Bichette or Bregman, you probably can’t have JT or another starter, and you almost certainly need to move at least one of Bohm and Stott, if not both. There may be a world where you can do Okamoto and Realmuto both, given what Murakami ended up getting in the end, but even there you will need sign off from John Middleton to take the payroll up a bit, and you still have to move Bohm to do it.

What would I do? I’d go all in on one of Bichette/Bregman/Okamoto/Eugenio Suarez, try to dump Bohm, Stott, Castellanos, and maybe even Walker to free up the money, and pivot off of Realmuto to a cheaper catching option. I’d rather have Realmuto back, but if a guy with a .700 OPS, who gets most of his current value from his defense, is going to hold you hostage for a third year that you know won’t be ideal, just sign the best defensive catcher on the market (or trade for one), and bite the bullet that you’ll pick up the offense elsewhere. Hopefully they can still work a deal out with Realmuto and find a few bucks of savings somewhere else to pick up one more bat. I just am less and less hopeful for that.