We annually publish a May Madness edition of the Bondi Bulletin that is headlined May Madness because you get all of our selections for the entire month in the NBA Playoffs, baseball, Triple Crown horse racing and golf for one low price. It’s a tremendous value and has been a huge money maker for “Steam Team” members over the years.
This edition of the Bondi Blog is titled May Madness because the world has been turned upside down because of Covid-19. All of the above mentioned sports, other than horse racing, are on the sidelines but we are still hard at work making money at the track and preparing for when major sports return. If you would like to purchase our horse racing picks, give us a call at 1-877-332-0077. And stay tuned for details on our upcoming PGA TOUR packages.
We like to look back on the NFL draft and analyze what it says about college football programs. The NFL drafts the best players so if a school consistently has a lot of players drafted and excels on the field with those players, their coaching staff will have done an excellent job of both recruiting and coaching. For example, LSU and Alabama had 14 and 9 players drafted in this year’s draft and have both gone 25-3 over the last two years with those players. The Tigers won the National Championship last year and the Tide played in the title game the year before. Overall, the SEC had 40 players selected in the first three rounds. That’s even more impressive when you consider the Big 10 was next with 17, while the other four Power 5 conferences had a total of 49 players selected in the first three rounds On the other end of the spectrum is Southern California and Texas who are in two talent rich football states and used to annually get their state’s best players. But not anymore. The Trojans annually sent eight or nine players per year to the pros but have only sent six over the last two years while 11 of the top 40 picks in this year’s draft played high school football in the state of Texas and none were Longhorns!
The lure of NFL money again sucked in too many players who went undrafted and can’t return to college because they hired agents. There were 44 underclassmen who declared for the draft and went undrafted, essentially ending their football careers. Blame them, blame the agents that lied to them about their draft prospects or blame the coaches who didn’t have a close enough relationship to the player to convince them to stay in school. We blame all three and as we have said for years, if you’re not a 1st or second day draft pick, 1st through 3rd rounds, don’t come out early!
Many pundits ripped Green Bay for trading up to get Jordan Love. We had no problem with that. Sourball Aaron Rodgers is 36 and finding his replacement now is smart. Rogers signed a mammoth contract two years ago that the Packers absolutely can’t get out of until after the 2021 season. That gives him two years to take Green Bay to the Super Bowl and gives the talented but super raw Love two years to learn how to read defenses and work on his accuracy. Also, don’t forget, Rodgers has been on a slow decline, seeing QB rate drop from 104.2 in 2016 to 95.4 last year. But after that pick, the Pack draft was horrible because,for the second straight year, GM Brian Gutekunst did not get Rodgers any receivers in free agency or in what was the deepest draft of wide receivers in NFL history! Teams have been able to key on Davante Adams the last two years because he is the Pack’s only explosive option. Not getting any of the 37 receivers that were taken, and drafting a running back in the second round that doesn’t catch the ball, was inexcusable.
Our staff is taking full advantage of the “down time” the COVID-19 pandemic has caused by putting more hours of preparation than ever for the potential return of the NBA, as well as the start of Major League Baseball and, of course, football in the fall.
Chief Baseball Handicapper Frank Drake, who had yet another winning year on his season win totals in 2019, will be ready to jet out to one of his patented FAST STARTS when Opening Day finally arrives in June or July.
While the oddsmakers won’t be hanging season win totals until it is determined how many games the teams will actually play, Frank has already zeroed in on a half dozen best bets he will unload on as soon as the numbers are posted. One of those best bets will be “under” on the Seattle Mariners. Before the beginning of the MLB season was postponed, Frankie had unloaded on Seattle under 68.5 wins. You may remember last year, the Mariners, fresh off an 89-win season in 2018, were the surprise early season team in MLB when they started 13-2, but went on to lose 18 of their next 25. GM Jerry Dipoto orchestrated a fire sale and traded a ton of proven talent for prospects and the team finished 68-94. Frank expects things to be even worse this season.
For the first time since 2002, Felix Hernandez is not with the club, leaving the team with one legitimate starting pitcher (Marco Gonzales), but the 29-year-old just signed a four-year contract extension with $30 million guaranteed so don’t be surprised by a “fat and happy” letdown year. Dipoto admitted back in February that his roster “is unlikely to compete for a postseason spot in 2020,” and will instead “focus on developing its young players.” Problem is that he traded away the majority of his young, big league talent and this year’s 40-man roster has 17 players 25 years old or younger. Yikes! As soon as the new season win total for the Mariners is posted, jump in with both hands on the under.
We have been calling for Mr. Bullshit — Jim Harbaugh — to be fired as Michigan head coach for years and, as if we needed any more proof as to how overrated he is, look no further than last month’s NFL Draft. Michigan had four offensive linemen taken, tying a record for the most at that position to be drafted, and overall the Wolverines saw 10 players selected, tying the second-highest total for the program. Back in 2017, also a Harbaugh-coached team, 11 Michigan players were drafted meaning that Michigan has had talent as good as Alabama and LSU. However, under Harbaugh, Michigan is 1-12 against Top 10 opponents, 0-5 in the Big Game against Ohio State, 1-6 on the road against ranked opponents and 0-10 as an underdog. He’s also seen his team suffer six losses by 21 points or more, including embarrassing losses last year to Wisconsin (35-14) and Ohio State (56-27). Harbaugh signed a seven-year contract when he returned to his alma mater in 2014 and if the school fires him before it is up they would be on the hook for $10 million. The good news, from a financial standpoint, not for the good of the team, is that he typically fails to hit his bonus incentives of Big Ten Coach of the Year ($50,000), National Coach of the Year ($75,000), Big Ten Championship appearance ($125,000), Big Ten Championship ($250,000), NCAA Playoff appearance ($300,000), National championship ($500,000).
We wrote about the horrid turnover problems that plagued Jameis Winston at Tampa Bay in a previous blog, including last year when he threw a record 30 interceptions. But a closer look shows that part of the blame should lie at the feet of Bucs head coach Bruce Arians. Since 2006, the most turnover prone players per season — Winston (2019), Carson Palmer (2013) and Andrew Luck (2012) — all were playing for an offense led by Arians. It will be interesting to see how Tom Brady fares in the Arians offense since TB12 has been one of the better QBs in the NFL in taking care of the ball over the years, throwing just 8 INTS last season. Winston, by the way, signed with New Orleans for a one-year deal worth $1.1 million (with incentives), after leading the league in passing yards last season. That means Seattle’s Russell Wilson, the highest paid QB in the NFL, will make twice as much in one regular season game, as “Famous Jameis” will earn all season. In five seasons with Tampa Bay, Winston took home a whopping $46 million.
Speaking of the GOAT, WagerWeb sportsbook has posted Brady’s over/under for passing yards this season at 4,399.5 yards. Brady has thrown for at least 4,000 yards in nine of the last 11 seasons. The two years he didn’t hit 4k, he tossed for 3,554 in 2016 (when he was suspended for the first four games of the season due to Deflate-gate) and in 2010 when he threw for 3,900. But before you go pouring it in on the over, keep in mind that Brady will be 43 this season and no QB that old has thrown for more than 981 yards in a single season
Stay healthy and positive!