THE LEFT TURN
NASCAR takes its talents to South Beach: Dixie Vodka 400 preview, picks
Oct 21, 2022, 3:34 pm
William Byron looks like a good bet this weekend. Photo via: Wiki Commons.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to South Beach this week for race two of the Round of 8. As we get closer and closer to the end of the season, the urgency is beginning to ramp up as a chance to race for a championship is on the line. This track is a high-banked mile and a half with plenty of places to pass. The preferred line has to be the outside. We will see many drivers running around the wall trying to find grip. It will also be the first time these cars race at Homestead.
Last week at Vegas, Joey Logano went on to score his fourth win of 2022 and clinch his spot in the championship race at Phoenix. Throughout the weekend, Logano was consistently the fastest car. In the closing laps, he would track down Ross Chastain and make the race-winning pass with 3 laps to go. Going into these final three races, Logano has to be the favorite to win the championship. In the past 15 races, he has scored seven top-10s, and five top-5s and has led 416 laps. He’ll be the car to beat over the next three weeks.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the biggest story in motor racing this week, Bubba Wallace has been suspended for this week after crashing Kyle Larson. He will be replaced by John Hunter Nemechek. Early in the race, Kyle Larson charged the corner in turn 3 and collided with Bubba Wallace. After this, Wallace would go postal and decide to hit the right rear of Larson turning him into the 20. After the wreck, Bubba would then go and practically attack Larson on the front stretch. When asked why he did what he did, he would say “that the car was broken, so he couldn’t turn,” which was clearly a lie. As I watched this happen live, I was extremely disappointed in Wallace for this. Over the course of his career, I have defended him through thick and thin and admittedly have become a fan of the driver. What he did was absolutely despicable. With all of these drivers including his teammate getting injured this year, for him to do this puts a black eye on all the improvements he’s made. Luckily, he was only suspended for one race, as he could have been suspended for much more. A day later, he apologized via social media. Let’s hope he will be able to learn from this and continue to improve. This suspension sets a precedent for anyone else who thinks about wrecking someone in that fashion.
On the other end of the spectrum, one driver who has been really on a roll has been Ross Chastain. It has been a career year for the former watermelon farmer, but he’s had some bumps in the road. He’s had run-ins with Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, and even Kimi Raikkonen. Since then, though, he has turned it around as his driving style has become much cleaner. I look for him to be a contender at Homestead
The driver I have winning this weekend is William Byron. Over the last six races, Byron has scored an average finish of 9.5 with three top-10s and 52 laps led. While he hasn’t been in contention to win races this year like we all would have expected, he has kept his nose clean and has proven himself as a championship contender. This week, the 24 team is going back to the track where they won at last year. I look for Byron to punch his ticket to the championship race come Sunday.
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How latest Astros comments point to mixed signals, communication breakdown
Feb 17, 2025, 4:38 pm
Alex Bregman couldn’t hold back the smile when he was asked who might have had the biggest impact on his decision to sign with the Boston Red Sox.
“My favorite player Dustin Pedroia,” Bregman said of the club's former second baseman and two-time World Series champion.
“He reached out a few times this offseason and talked about how special it was to be a part of the Boston Red Sox,” Bregman said Sunday. “It was really cool to be able to talk to him as well as so many other former players here in Boston and current players on the team as well.”
A day after Bregman's $120 million, three-year contract was announced, he sat at a 25-minute news conference between his agent, Scott Boras, and Boston Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow. Manager Alex Cora, who gave Bregman a hug after he handed the infielder his No. 2 jersey, also was at the table along with team president Sam Kennedy.
Breslow and Cora wouldn't say whether Bregman would move to play second base, Pedroia's position, or remain at third — a position manned by Rafael Devers since July 2017.
A few players, Jarren Duran and Rob Refsnyder among them, and coaches stood behind the seated reporters to listen.
Bregman gets a $5 million signing bonus, a $35 million salary this season and $40 million in each of the following two years, with some of the money deferred, and he can opt out after the 2025 and 2026 seasons to become a free agent again.
Asked why he agreed to the shorter contract with opt outs, he leaned forward to the microphone in front of him and replied: “I just think I believe in my abilities.”
Originally selected by Boston in the 29th round of the 2012 amateur draft, Bregman attended LSU before the Houston Astros picked him second overall in 2015. His family history with the Red Sox goes back further.
“My dad grew up sitting on Ted Williams’ lap,” he said.
MLB.com said Stan Bregman, the player's grandfather, was a lawyer who represented the Washington Senators and negotiated Williams' deal to become manager.
Boston has missed the playoffs in five of the last six seasons and had avoided signing the highest-profile free agents. Boras said a conversation with Red Sox controlling owner John Henry showed ownership’s desire to get back to winning.
“I think it was after Soto signed,’’ Boras said, citing the record contract he negotiated for Juan Soto with the Mets. “We had a discussion. I could tell knowing John back with the Marlins and such, he had a real onus about ‘we need to do things differently than what we’ve done before.’
“This is a point and time where I believe Red Sox ownership was hungry for championship play and exhausted with what had happened the last five, six years.”
Called the “perfect fit” by Breslow, the 30-year-old Bregman joined the Red Sox after winning two World Series titles and reaching the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons with Houston.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the playoffs the first eight years of my career, and I plan on continuing to do that here,” he said in his opening remarks. “I’m a winning player and this is a winning organization.”
Coming off an 81-81 season, the Red Sox acquired left-hander Garrett Crochet from the White Sox and signed fellow pitchers Walker Buehler, Patrick Sandoval, Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson during the offseason.
After the pitching moves, they found a right-handed bat, too.
“As the offseason progressed it just became clearer and clearer that Alex was the perfect fit for what we were trying to accomplish,” Breslow said.
Bregman ranks first among players with at least 75 career plate appearances in Fenway Park with an OPS of 1.240.
“He fits like a glove for our organization,” Kennedy said.