Maximo's Take

Chelsea just signed Hakim Ziyech for 40 million Euros and there are a few topics I'd like to discuss regarding this signing. 1. Ziyech's age: It's easy to look at his age and say: Why is he still playing at Ajax, most players at 26 years of age with the aspiration of playing at a club like Chelsea should already be there otherwise something went wrong. But it's easy to forget that the anomaly is guys like Mbappé, Sancho, De Ligt, João Félix being superstars before their 21rst birthday. It is completely normal for a player to ascend in his career like Ziyech did. I don't put much stock into the argument that if he's still there is because of a reason and a Giant like Chelsea shouldn't pursue him. 2. Ziyech's fee: The 40 million Euros figure might seem a bit odd based on what he did since the beginning of last season and the current market teams operate in, but based on his age and the lack of a bidding war it seems to me like a fair amount,

Mookie Betts is a top 5 position player in baseball right now. That's a fact. He is joining another top 5 hitter in all of baseball in Cody Bellinger and they should form the scariest duo in all of Major League Baseball but looking at the caterer of the now Dodger OF something caught my eye. Betts is probably the most inconsistent great player in the league. The key here is that even with big fluctuations in his hitting statistics due to his overall play he has always been a very productive player just at different levels. Here is a look at Betts' wRC+ in the last three seasons and where he ranks in the majors during each year(wRC+ is a park adjusted statistic in which 100 is about league average): 2017: 107  75th 2018: 185  2nd 2019: 135  23rd That's insane. Even in the biggest breakout seasons when players change their careers like what Ketel Marre and DJ LeMahieu did in 2019 or Christian Yelich once he went to Milwaukee they improved their wRC+ by around

Here is a link to an article I wrote about the Arizona Cardinals today on a Brazilian website No Flags Brasil http://noflags.com.br/2020/02/10/o-arizona-cardinals-esta-enterrado-na-nfc-west/ The article is in Portuguese. As always feel free to comment and subscribe at the top in order to receive daily notifications Everytime a new post is out. Let me know what you think of the article and for any suggestions, business inquiries and if you are just looking for a place to chat: My email: estevaomaximo_23@hotmail.com My Twitter @estevao_maximo

Finally the Mookie Betts trade has been officialized and with the new developments I'd like to point out four things some people might be missing about this deal. 1: The Dodgers got a lot of heat last off-season for not signing Manny Machado nor Bryce Harper, but the fact they didn't, allowed them to trade for Mookie Betts. There is no way they do that with a 30+ Harper or Machado salary in their payroll and to me that is great business. Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are very good players but not at the level of Betts and even if he doesn't resign his acquisition was probably the single most impactful move the Dodgers could do. 2: Here are the 2019 stats of two players involved in the trade: Player X : 153.1 IP.   27.1 K%.   8.2 BB%.   4 04 ERA.   3.95 FIP.    2.5 WAR Player Y : 107.1 IP.   28.0 K%.   7.0 BB%.   4.28 ERA.   3.68 FIP    2.3 WAR Player X is Kenta Maeda and Player Y is David Price. Kenta Maeda's contract is differen

AJ Hinch, former manager of the Astros gave an interview to Tom Verducci on the 7th of February, talking about the sign stealing scandal and all the ramifications of it. The part that jumped out to me and a lot of people was when he basically avoided a straight answer after being asked if he could assure us that no player used a buzzer to know what pitch was coming, saying that Rob Manfred and the Commissioner's office did a meticulous investigation and nothing of that nature was found. Considering all of the answers he could've given this one just adds more fuel to the speculation that they indeed went up to bat with buzzers on them. If anybody wants to claim that what can be said to argue against them. With all of this fresh in my mind I decided to look back at the 2017 postseason and more specifically at the performance of the best pitchers that the Astros faced. Their champion's run went through the Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers. Which means the Astros went up