Ranking the Classic Pink Floyd & Van Halen Albums, Pt. 1

My favorite two bands have been Van Halen and Pink Floyd. It is hard to say when I discovered each. Pink Floyd probably mostly through my Dad and VH on my own. Their classic lineups have produced such brilliant albums that I just had to rank them. What I term as classic was the Waters-Gilmour led era of Floyd (from Meddle through The Wall, discounting A Saucerful of Secrets as that album was not that great) and the Roth era of Van Halen. Anyway, here we go with #11-6


Tier 1 - The Just Barely Classics

11.) 1984

Someone has to be last. Let's start by saying this album is better than like 90% of the hard rock/hair metal/heavy metal stuff released in the 80's, but it was Van Halen starting to turn a new direction. The Sammy Era was first seen here, with a bevy of synth-heavy tracks in Jump, Top Jimmy, and I'll Wait. The album as a whole just felt a bit emptier than the others, showing the candle running empty on the Dave and Eddie era. It did have its fair share of classics with Hot For Teacher, featuring perfect symbiosis with the Brothers, and Panama, which is about as perfectly made a rock song as possible. But that doesn't make up for just a slew of good but not great tracks. Eddie is still great, but Alex was starting to experiment with drum kits, and the band was starting to experiment with minimalizing Michael Anthony's bass.

In the end, I don't really blame Van Halen for going in this direction - and it was a direction in all honesty much better suited for Sammy Hagar. Eddie Van Halen probably, in an honest moment, considers himself a musician more than just a guitarist. He was an accomplished, award-winning pianist, and this was an opportunity to let his musical creativity loose. Of course, I don't think he realized what blowback his turn to the ivories would create, but given Eddie's character, I don't think he cared too much. 1984 was a key moment for the band. Had they not had to go up against Thriller, this would have been their first #1 album. It ended up being their 2nd Diamond (10MM copies sold) album, but it was a true bridge between the Dave and Sammy eras - for better and for worse.


10.) Animals

There are people that swear by this album, but I am definitely not one of them. This was Floyd at its most self-pleasuring. This was them swollen up with largesse and an inflated sense of what made them great. They took their legacy strengths and turned the dial up a bit too far. The three keynote songs of Sheep, Pigs and Dogs are all just, simply, way too long. They all had similar structures, with a good first 3-4 minutes and an even better last 2-3 minutes when the main theme hits back again. It is that overstuffed middle that ultimately hurts the album in my eyes. As always, the melodies and the musicality of the pieces are great, but just a bit too long and, at times, prodding.

This was the first album created where there were significant splinters present within the band. Roger Waters, as was normal, wrote most of it, but David Gilmour took center stage for the truly plodding Dogs, which was 17 minutes, 13 of which mostly filler in between verses. This was a common recipe for so many of Floyd's classic songs (Echoes, Shine On, etc.), but this time they mostly struck out. Still, what helps the album still be a classic is how vibrant and pointed those beginning and ending verses were, even if the 6-10 minutes inbetween filled with vamping and strumming get a tad too laborious.


Tier 2 - The Unrankable Classic

9.) Meddle

It is so hard to rank Meddle. On the one hand, it included maybe the best epic song Floyd (and maybe any rock band) ever created, in the 23:32 long epic Echoes. It also had a really nice instrumental in One of These Days to lead it off. The rest of the album? Purely take it or leave it for me. But it is hard to deny just how good Echoes was. The song is longer than an episode of Seinfield. It is twice as long as the longest Metallica song. It was a true epic, and it was perfect. Again, One of These Days was a great opener. The rest of the songs were mostly forgettable (save for the brief appearance of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' as the coda for Fearless). But Echoes is where this album starts, ends and makes it mark.

Ironically, Echoes is a longer version of the songs in Animals, with verses at the start and end with a long, extended, instrumental in the middle. But this one was just done better. It is supposedly a tale of the creation of the world, but even if you don't see what they did, the song works so well. Starting off with sonar pings, then sounds of a cave, expanding quickly to that rhapsodic, windy melody. Echoes had a truly perfect hook - so perfect that Roger Waters will claim, to this day, that Andrew Lloyd Webber stole it for The Phantom of the Opera (admittedly, a stretch). The middle is so haunting, so beautiful. It flies by, and then slowly builds to the final 3-4 minute climax. The song itself took up the entire Side B of the album, and it was as perfect a half-album can be.


Tier 3 - The Start of the True Classics

8.) Diver Down

It's easy to mock Diver Down, as many have. It was a rushed album that was created when the creative juices were running way empty in the Van Halen brain trust after years of touring, recording and partying. Yes, they put four covers on the album among their 8 normal tracks. They added in four instrumentals as well, which were mostly just cases of the Van Halen bros fucking around. But let's not beat around the bush - part of the reason Van Halen was so great was that they were the best cover band ever. They may be the only band (save for ones that ripped off constantly without creditation like Zep) that had cover songs that in many ways become more popular and recognizable than the original. This album had one of those in Pretty Woman, plus a brilliant cover of Dancing in the Street, a song so musically packed it is hard to believe it is just four people. Finally, the best cover may have been Big Bad Bill. Firstly, it is hard to count this as a true cover since it is a fairly unknown song from the 20's. Secondly, it allowed VH to record a song with Jan Van Halen (the Dad) to play clarinet so, so beautifully. But what really makes this album be great, is the original songs.

What defined Van Halen was a perfect intersection between brilliant musicality and fun. There was no more fun band than Van Halen, and no record more fun than Diver Down, and the four original songs all oozed fun. Little Guitars is probably the most famous, an ebullient Eddie rocking a mini-guitar as Dave sings about Senoritas. But don't sleep on Hang 'Em High or The Full Bug, both quick, rampant songs. The four instrumentals may have been overkill, but they did include one classic Eddie solo in Cathedral, a perfectly played ditty with Eddie seamlessly turning his guitar into an organ by simply rotating the volume knob up and down. That was pure Eddie magic. Simple, effective, and ingenious. Diver Down will always be slammed as a rushed job, but hidden behind covers and instrumentals was a band that was as fun as ever.



7.) Van Halen II

Van Halen's second album wasn't as brilliant as their debut (deservedly way up this list), but mostly because these were all old songs and they used their best stuff the first time around. Van Halen used mostly old demo tapes for these songs and while they picked their best stuff for their premier, the prodigious talent of the band still left a lot for the second album. However, a quick shout-out to one of the few songs that was not from an old demo, Dance the Night Away. This is probably not my favorite Van Halen song, but it is the most perfect one. It is such a great, perfect rock song. It was their first true radio hit, and it launched Van Halen as a band that could appeal to the musicians and the general population. I played that song way too many times on loop when I was young. I learned how to play it on the guitar (spoiler alert: it's pretty easy, specifically because Eddie, for once, decided not to include a solo). The rest of the album only adds to its strength.

You can say Van Halen left their demo-day B sides for VHII, but those were some damn good B sides. Somebody Get Me a Doctor, Bottoms Up, Light Up the Sky and DOA are prefect, classic, VH rockers, with strong melodies, great harmonies, and brilliance from Eddie. My favorite underrated VH song may just be Women in Love with starts out with Eddie making sounds on the guitar that only Eddie could really make in those days. The album showcased each member of the band, with Alex getting to show his stuff on the intro to Outta Love Again. Of course Eddie got in a perfect solo, acoustic-ing it up for Spanish Fly, which, in a way, was a more surprising display of brilliance than was Eruption. The songs weren't as perfect as those on VH1, but for a follow-up album it was special. Dance the Night Away cemented them as a great bad. Spanish Fly cemented Eddie as a God. The album itself cemented VH as a band for the history books.


6.) The Wall

This was the album where Pink Floyd took the 'Concept Album' idea a bit too far, as a handful of truly brilliant songs were a bit muddled by a dozen or so unneccessary ones. Up until this point Floyd was defined by their haste in adding tracks to their albums. For once they went the other way and I'm not at all sure it worked. The album included my favorite Floyd song ever in Comfortably Numb, but also my least favorite of their marketable songs in the three-part overly-simplistic Another Brick in the Wall. Contrast Another Brick in the Wall to Have A Cigar, and you can see a band that went from brilliantly complex lyrics to simple metaphors. The album has so much filler, but the gems hidden within more than make up for it. The 2nd half of the album, when all the Brick in the Wall simplistic-ness is over, is truly special.

It starts off with Hey You, adding in Nobody Home, a haunting short song, Comfortably Numb, a true classic in rock, to Run Like Hell, a live favorite, to Waiting for the Worms. All of the songs on that second half had such singular brilliance in their climaxes, perfect moments etching them in my mind. If they cut out so much of the filler (The Thin Ice, Young Lust, Don't Leave Me Now, Vera, Stop, etc.) this would be well higher up the list. In a way, it was such a marked departure from Animals, with the longest song checking in at 6:23, and most being under 3:00. But it also was the beginning of the end of the band, being a creation mostly from Roger Waters mind. He was a brilliant songwriter and artist, but this was working a bit too hard. That all said, let's shout out Comfortably Numb, the best song Floyd ever released. I would still argue that Echoes is a better musical piece, but Comfortably Numb is more digestible and more well crafted. The guitar solo was just so well done. It isn't particularly tough, but so well placed and so well portrayed. Floyd was always a complex mesh of instruments and minds and they took it a step further with making keyboards a central part of their ouvre, but for once they relaxed all that stuff and just released a pure guitar rock classic, and Gilmour knocked it out of the park. Comfortably Numb and the handful of other great songs locks in The Walls place as a true classic - and ironically I may be underrating it by putting it here.

Nostalgia Diaries, Pt. 7: 2012 NHL Eastern Conference FInals - Devils Top Rangers

I've rarely done a game on these that actually had a real impact on me - rarely did one that had one of my teams playing. But there's a first time for everything. If I had to name my four favorite teams, it would be the Astros, Raiders, Colts and Devils in some order. The first three all had been the worst team in their respective league at least once, all getting the top pick. The Devils were the exception for much of my youth. They were great. They were dominant. They won Cups when I was a kid. They made the playoffs every year in my school life (1996-2009) except for the year when the season didn't happen. This year, while they weren't the worst team in the NHL, they got the first pick. It was a sad time, the one team that never really hit rock bottom did so. More than anything, it made me long for the days of respectability, the days when they mattered.

The Devils won the Stanley Cup in 1995, when I was 4 and didn't know what hockey was. They won again in 2000, clinching the Cup in double overtime, with a 9-year old watching near at 1AM in his parents bedroom. They won again in 2003, when I was 12 and followed them throughout their season and postseason. They remained good through my age 13-19 years, my whole middle and high school life and first year of college, but never made it back beyond the second round of the playoffs. The Devils peaked. The Marty era, while still great, would never be great enough again. The most successful team I ever rooted for would never give me that feeling of satisfaction again after I was 13. It was sad to think the height of joy of rooting for my hockey team would occur when I was barely a teenager.

In 2011, all those slightly negative feelings I admitted to were hardened by their first season without making the playoffs in basically my lifetime. It was supposed to end there. The long road to becoming the team with the #1 pick in 2017 started then and there. But luckily we had 2012 - our one last moment of glory.

The Devils in 2012 were actually talented. They should have been good. They were good. They had the best offensive season the Devils had since about 2000-2001 (a year where they, wait for it, led the NHL in goals scored). They had a healthy Kovalchuk joining Parise, Elias, Zajac, Zubrus, Clarkson, and others on the most talented offensive lineup the Devils had in ages. The defense was a mess, and Brodeur was old. It was a weird reverse of so many other Devils seasons. They got the #6 seed, and struggled through a 7-game series against the Florida Panthers, by far the East's worst team that year. The Devils struggles there should have been a harbinger; instead it was just them getting over the jitters.

The second round saw the Devils fly past Philadelphia, a team that had hilariously undressed the Penguins in teh 1st round. The Devils won in 5 quick games, getting offensive explosions coupled by great Brodeur games. For the first time in 9 years, the Devils were in the Conference Finals. And they got the Rangers. I was too young for 1994. I did remember 2006, when the Devils swept the Rangers in the 1st round, and 2008, when the Rangers paid back the favor, but the analogue here was 1994. A series I knew from mythology more than memory, with Matteau, Matteau, Matteau etched into the hardened soul of me, like it was for every Devils fan.

The Rangers long, storied failure to win the Stanley Cup ended because the Devils blew a Game 6 at home, and then lost in triple OT. The Devils will never be the #1 team in the New York area, but performance-wise they were on the ice. Of course, in their biggest moment against a local rival, they lost in heart-breaking fashion. They had a chance to collect on that debt, 18 years later, against the best Rangers team since 1994. And man they did make good.

The first five games were all close and well played. The teams were so even, with the Devils having more top-flight talent (Parise, Kovalchuk, Elias), the Rangers more depth, and equal talent and performance in net, with the reborn Marty Brodeur scorpion-saving his way to a draw with Henrik Lundvist. The Devils entered Game 6 in a familiar position, a chance to clinch the East over their rivals at home, with the specter of a Game 7 in New York staring them in the face. This time, they came through.

The game started auspiciously in the 1st period. The Devils dominated the opening, and scored the opening goal from a quick rush by their great 4th line that dominated the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The line was created right before the playoffs started, with Ryan Carter centering Stephen Gionta and Steve Bernier. None were big, none looked like the old 'crash' line that dominated the playoffs in teh Devils 1995 run, but they had the same energy and frenetic pace of play.

The second goal was more exacting, a perfectly executed power play possession, with four quick-fire passes. It was Peter Harrold to Adam Henrique to David Clarkson to Dainus Zubrus, and finally across goal to Ilya Kovalchuk, who one-timed it right by Lundqvist. It was tic-tac-toe passing, a type of play the Devils could have never made back when I loved watching them from 2000-2007. It was such a surreal moment to see the Devils to score that type of goal. The rout was on... so I hoped.

Instead the Rangers showed their resilience, showed why they were the top team in the East that regular season. They carried long stretches of the 2nd period, tying the game, setting the stage for an epic, harrowing ending. Playoff hockey is like no other experience on earth. Even worse when it is your team involved, even more worse when it is against their biggest rival, a team you have to pay back for previous ills.

The third period was breathtaking, end to end, with an openness that was unnerving and unnatural. Only once before had the Devils played a similar third period in a key playoff game. It was one of my favorite games ever - one I may detail in this series as well. It was the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 against Ottawa. If anything, this time it was a Game 6. But no Devils fan wanted any part of Game 7 at MSG. They needed that game, but they couldn't beat Hank, and the Rangers couldn't beat Marty.

Devils games against the Rangers have historically been infiltrated by hordes of Rangers fans. Playoff games were generally no different. Their fanbase is that much larger, on the whole more wealthy, and while no New Yorker would admit it, Newark is fairly easy to get to. This game was different. There were relatively few Rangers fans. The Devils chants drowned the Rangers out easily. There was an energy running through that building, even in a nerve-wracking 3rd period of an elimination game. But to get the 1994 allegory perfectly accurate, the game couldn't end in the 3rd period. It needed overtime.

As a Devils fan, I have always feared overtime. I would think any hockey fan would fear overtime. Any play could spell the end. Any flip into the zone could end in disaster. Any blue line slap towards the net could get deflected ten times and find its way to the twine. Hockey is the fastest game, and within a blink of an eye, a game could end. For most of my memory, I've seen the Devils lose OT playoff games. During the last two rounds of that 2003 Cup run, the Devils went 0-4 in OT, losing twice each to Ottawa and Anaheim. They lost key OT games to Carolina in 2006 and 2009. That all seemed to change in 2012. The Devils entered that game 3-1 in OT games, including back-to-back wins to finish off Florida in the 1st round. The stage was well set.

Luckily for my heart and sanity, the Devils ended it quickly. It was an innoucuous rush, but a mad one. Lexi Ponikarovsky flipped it on goal, players mauled Lundqvist, including Kovalchuk. The puck slipped through Hank's legs, and Adam Henrique smacked it into an open net. The OT lasted all of 1:15, and the Devils broke 18 years of demons in one moment. In that moment, the way that series ended, with the Rangers hopes dashed in OT when they had their best team since their Cup, and having my Devils do it to them, I honestly did not care if they won the Cup or not.

Being a fan of a clearly inferior team, from a fanbase and support level, is an interesting position to be in. Putting aside the Yankees, the Devils were clearly the best franchise in New York sports from 1995-2012. They won 3 Cups, made the Finals two more times, and made the playoffs all but one season. They were, in many senses, a dynasty. But they still had to play second fiddle to the Rangers. That will never change, but at least now they had one back on them. 1994 will never die. It was a seminal moment in the league's history, allowing Mark Messier to make and make good on his guarantee, and have his shaking, gleaming face holding the Cup be a moment splashed across all Cup montages from then until forever. But now we could answer 1994 with 2012, and that was all I could ask for.

Nostalgia Diaries, Pt. 6: 2006 World Cup Quarterfinal - France vs. Brazil

The image of so many hagiography driven World Cup ads are those with the groups of people (kids, generally, for maximum effect) huddled around a TV in some slum, inner city or favela, watching the World Cup at some ungodly hour of the night. This image was seared into my mind, especially during the ads in the lead-up to the 2006 World Cup. Those ads themselves were such a part of my youth-built interest into this great game. They featured U2's 'City of Blinding Lights' a most U2-ish song to promote peace and understanding and commonality across nations - all the same garbage the World Cup tries to stand for.

One year, I got to live that advertisement, be that kid huddled in a dark room on a dark street, millions of miles away, watching the illuminating glow of a non-flat-screen TV, with the sound on low as to not wake the residents. One time I was in that position, having to get up (or stay up, can't remember which) late into the night to watch two countries square off. I wasn't poor, the location wasn't a favela, but the setting was similar, and the appeal was the same: pure magic and enchantment, led by the best player of his generation putting on one last great show for teh world to see.

I went to India over the Summer of 2006, leaving the US in the brief window between the Round of 16 and the Quarterfinal. I wasn't a huge fan of soccer - at least in a relative sense compared to where I am now. I knew somewhat what was going on. I loved Zidane, an attachment I still don't know the origins of.that love. I have reasons why I started supporting Peyton, or Oswalt, or Marty. For Zidane, I have no idea why it started, or where, and for one thing I only started really following him in the last month of his career, but follow him I did. But the 2006 World Cup wasn't fully about the player that would define it, for both good and bad.

I was in 9th Grade at the time, and for some unknown reason, our High School actually showed a lot of day-time games in the Study Hall quarters. The tournament started more or less in the last couple weeks of the year. The better (see: cooler) teachers even showed the games in their classrooms. Being in high school the other students actually seemed to care. People wore jerseys of their home countries. There was a buzz around the school. In reality, there was a buzz around the country.

The 2006 World Cup was the first one I remember that was marketed and shown in the US as the premier tournament it is. ESPN pulled out all the stops. The setting was great, with the German crowds and stadiums supporting the tournament well. It was an interesting time in the sport, with a number of countries that were trying to hold onto the last pieces of Golden Generations (France, Brazil, Italy, Portugal), with two future dynasties being born (Germany, Spain). France had won the 1998 World Cup, but entered the '06 show as something of an underdog. They struggled in their group, before drawing Spain in the Round of 16. In an incredibly open, compelling game, France beat Spain 3-1, with Zidane scoring the 3rd goal in stoppage time. This would be the last time Spain would lose a knock-out stage game for 10 years.

Next up they got pre-tournament favorite Brazil. Brazil had the world's best player at that moment in Ronaldinho. That was a fleeting title in 2006, a period where Ronaldo and Zidane stopped dominating (so we thought), and Ronaldinho, Kaka, Shevcenko were names winning the Ballon D'Or. Brazil was the favorite. France had the history. It was a special night in Frankfurt. And a little 15-year old boy in Bangalore was ready to take it all in.

The game started at 12:30 AM in India. I was in India purely for Holiday, so I had no qualms staying up for this match - a historic Quarterfinal affair between two of the blue-blood countries in soccer. The people hosting me, however? They might not have liked it. To assuage any concerns, I agreed to put the game on softly. I put the brightness of the TV down. There were enough electric personalities and talents of the field to illuminate the game as it was.

2006 was an interesting time in soccer. The preceding years were very defensive in general, with Italian sides and those coached by Jose Mourinho doing extremely well. Barcelona won the Champions League the month before the World Cup, but at this point they were nothing like they would be three years later when Guardiola took over. Tiki-Taka was not a thing. Spain barely out-possessed France in the Round of 16. The game was not more open, but more even. One of my worst complaints of the Barca-heavy era of Soccer (2008-2014) was how each game turned into a version of one team getting 70%+ possession and the other parking the bus. That just didn't happen in 2006. And with the great crowds, singing and chanting to their hearts content, the stage of the 2006 World Cup was special.

The game itself was fairly evenly played - if you removed Zidane from the field. Less than 30 seconds in, he got the ball near the mid circle., held off two Brazilian defenders, did a quick turn, and tried to spring Henry through. It was a quick, complex attack made so simple (as is everything Zidane did). Within the first minute, Zidane made it known this was going to be his night.

Zidane was spellbinding, brilliantly controlling the game as only he could. He made the sublime look simple. Whether it was one of his patented pirouettes, a self-volley to clear the ball in a dangerous position, a quick one-two to spring an overlapping fullback, to a simple flick and header to advance an attack. Zidane was magnetic, was dominating in a simple, mundane sense that defined his career. Nothing seemed out of flow. Zidane wasn't about doing things that seemed impossible. His brilliance was making the impossible seem easy, and rarely did he do it better than this game.

Zidane's flick and header to advance the ball was what led to the foul that allowed him to take a free-kick in an advanced dangerous position. His free kick was looping, arced perfectly into the far corner, where Thierry Henry met it and roofed it right past Dida. France's goal was quick, but perfectly executed (Brazil's defending on the free kick was summarily the opposite of perfectly executed). The rest of the game was without much drama (the closest Brazil really came was an 85+ minute free kick opportunity to Ronaldinho). But if anything, Zidane's control on the game only grew.

My favorite moment of the match came about the point I was ready to turn it off and retire for the night, as we approached 2AM (future me would be shocked at any inability to stay up to 2AM). Zidane found himself on the ball ahead of the mid-circle, but ahead of most of his teammates. He dribbled around, pulled back, and then released a perfectly weighted touch, looping through ball to Willy Sagnol. It was audacious in its microscopic exactness. It looked so simple in its execution. The master was playing around, in control of everything around him.

For a young kid, this was a performance seared into my mind. I was those kids in the ads, spellbound by the magic emanating from the TV screen. I was hooked into this brilliant player playing this great game. Zidane's performance is one of legend, covered and honored by sportswriters, fans and historians, but for me it was a personal moment. I stayed up way past my conventional bedtime to watch my favorite player. I wasn't sure why he was my favorite player, but I knew he was, and since that game that has never wavered. Zidane's magic was on full display, his grace oozed through the screen, a glittering example to a small kid stuck in a dark Bangalore apartment of how beautiful the beautiful game could be.

Building the Monster in Madrid

The rumors flew in the end of the season fast and furious. It went from Kylian M'Bappe, to N'Golo Kante, to Antoine Griezmann, to many others. Which high priced transfer would defending Spanish and European Champions Real Madrid scoop up. One? Two? All Three? In a way, it made perfect sense. Florentino Perez is never one to let transfer windows pass quietly, and he had to make up for a muted 2016-17 Transfer Season when a banned Real Madrid could only bring back Alvaro Morata and Marco Asensio (a relative unknown at that point) back from loan. No, now Florentino Perez was unshackled and ready to wheel and deal cash.

Instead, whether by some combination of past high-priced failures and Zinedine Zidane's impact on the team's mindset, Florentino Perez and Real Madrid seem content to not go luxury shopping. Instead, they went bargain hunting, fortifying the deepest team in Europe with an infusion of young talent that make them an even deeper, better team, ready to rule Europe again. In the span of three years, Real Madrid turned over its manager and now its mindset, and the future could not be brighter.

Theo Hernandez and Dani Ceballos. That is essentially the extent of Madrid's transfer dealings (admittedly, for now). The rest were the ending of loans, with Jesus Vallejo, Marcus Llorente and Borja Mayoral. You might now know these players. Few should. But they, along with current Madridista rising supernova Marco Asensio (and Atleti's Saul Niguez) formed the core of Spain's U-21 team that flexed serioous might in the UEFA U-21's. Real Madrid has made a concerted effort to go younger, go faster, go deeper, and it may pay off grandly.

The players that Real Madrid let walk are as much of the story as those who came in. Pepe left, a bit acrimoniously which is sad given his success with the club, a clear sign Real wanted to get younger, get faster, and not be too attached by the recent success. James leaving for Bayern, despite being a way below-market deal, was another sign that Real wanted to go further in pushing cohesion, in meritocracy, in team.

Zidane's rotation policy has now reached cult status, and it should. He rotated his players more than any manager in a club in Europe's top leagues. 20 players played at least 1,000 minutes. Guys on the bench like Nacho, Mateo Kovacic, Lucas Vasquez, may not have found any time on a previous version of Real, but they flourished in this one. For some of the more high-priced bench talent, this may have sown some discord - particularly in Alvaro Morata who was a consistent starter at Juventus the two years prior - but had Zidane rotated like a normal coach, Morata would have played even less.

A key result of this rotation policy seems that young players have no issue going to Madrid knowing they might not be starters. The squad is so deep right now you have to be a true talent to be a starter. Out of the three starlets mentioned at the beginning, none would be guaranteed starters at Real. Kante might displace Casemiro, and Griezmann is so good he may force himself in, but there's no guarantee. For younger players, it is even more of a risk, but given the allure of Madrid, the rotation equanimity that Zidane employs, it is a risk so worth taking.

The consistent throughline across all the signing/loan returnees is their age. Theo Hernandez is 18, a future star at left back, the potential eventual replacement for Marcelo. Dani Ceballos is 20, the potential replacement for Kroos and/or Modric. Marcos Llorente is 22, the third man at defensive midfield along with Casemiro and Kovacic. Mayoral is 23, and he may be lost at forward, but then the least is expected of him as well. Jesus Vallejo is 20, a potential utility defender who may just step into Sergio Ramos's shoes one day. All of these players are potentially key cogs of Real Madrid's medium-to-long term future, but to get them all to mortgage some of their short-term playing time shows the renewed, unmatched allure of Zidane's Madrid.

To be fair, there is still a logjam everywhere, and if injury strikes having 18-22 year olds may not work out too well, but Perez seems to be committed to longer-term thinking than he usually does. The chances of them three-peating as European Champions is of course small. They are probably favorites to retain La Liga, but even that is never a sure bet. A trophyless season may be a disappointment, but you get the sense that Perez, and Zidane (who Perez called his coach for life) are seeing 3-4 years down the road.

Madrid has almost never had this level of young talent on hand in their 23. Certainly not in the last 10+ years since Ronaldo came on board. Madrid's recent run has already cemented their place as one of the great teams ever. Three Champions League crowns in Four years is impossible to argue against. But in a way, this is more of a beginning, a rebirth, the start of something great rather than the end. Madrid is well on their way to a modern dynasty. They can thank their brilliant president who zigged again, straight into a wealth of young talent. They can thank their equally brilliant manager who seems to have no obvious flaw for that job. But the combination of the two is truly deadly.

MLB at the Half, Pt. 2 - 15 Thoughts on the 2nd Half

** Quick note about the derby. Sure, Stanton didn't make it out of the first round, but that was still an incredible derby. The move to a timed clock was such a game-changer, moving away from the madenning taking of pitches and turning the derby into something special. Plus, no Chris Berman!**


* The return of Mike Trout

Mike Trout will be back on Friday. He's coming back on schedule, seemingly healthy, and while he's surrendered the WAR lead to Judge/Correa/Altuve/Betts group in the AL, he has a whole 70 games to catch up. The weird part is that the Angels themselves played more or less as good without Trout as they did when he played. Eric Young Jr. was a reasonable facsimile of Trout. The pitching staff, particularly bullpen, played well. Given everyone in the AL is alive for the Wild Card, the Angels have a significant, if still minority, shot at a playoff spot. Incredibly, I could easily foresee the Angels nabbing a Wild Card spot, Trout having a monster second half, and ending up stealing an MVP in a year where he doesn't lead the AL in WAR.


* Will any AL Club Sell?

As mentioned above, literally every team is in shouting distance of a Wild Card spot. Currently, it is the Yankees and Rays, who all things considered probably are the two best teams in that maw. But everyone is within 7.5 games, and more realistically, the Twins, Royals, Angels, Rangers, Mariners, Orioles and Jays are close enough they may be deterred from dealing. Given that, does anyone sell? That group contains Chris Archer, a prime candidate for a deal in another year, plus a host of Rangers, Mariners and Jays that could be good targets for teams wanting to make a push. The best bets to sell in that group are probably the Rangers and Jays, who have the most forward-thinking front offices in that set. It would be a sad change for two teams that have done so well the last 3 years (more like 7 in case of Texas), but they've peaked and probably should start re-loading./re-tooling.


* Can Aaron Judge keep this up?

Aaron Judge can not take another at bat and still get the AL ROTY, but he's playing for a loftier goal right now. As long as the Yankees are playoff-bound (and even if they aren't), Judge is your AL MVP favorite. He leads baseball in all the advanced metrics (grading out surprisingly well on defense), with monster normal numbers. Best OBP in the AL. Best SLG in MLB. Best OPS and OPS+. He's on pace for a ridiculous year. The one knock on him coming in was his issues with strikeouts, and while he started striking out more in June, he also had his best month of the year. There's no real stopping him at this point. As he showed in the Home Run Derby, he is just a giant, powerful, adonis - who also seems to be a really cool dude as well. The last rookie to win the MVP was Ichiro. Judge has the inside track of being next. He'll have to hold off the story that could be Trout, and a trio of Astros that may end up stealing votes from each other, but he's the good bet to do so.


* What random 2nd half experiment will be next?

This is an annual favorite of mine. Some team will do something really bizarre in the second half. My go-to example was when the 2014 Reds decided to start all rookie pitchers in the second half of a lost season. It didn't really work. Only few of the pitchers ended up doing anything long-term. But still, for a team with nothing really to do, it worked. In some ways, the Rockies kind of did this last year changing their pitching staff and starting a lot of people that would end up being big contributors this year. Maybe it's the Padres. Maybe it is the Giants who have to deal with irrelevance all second half for the first time in a while. Maybe it is the Braves calling up some of their trove of prospects. Hell, maybe it will be the Marlins. There's not really any AL team that stands to be so far out of it soon they may turn to something aggressive and new, but it will be fun to look out for.


* The Re-birth and/or downgrade of the 2018 FA Class

The impending 2018 Free Agent class is expected to break the bank, with guys entering their year 26 season coming up as UFAs with all intentions of seriously testing the market. Bryce Harper is expected to get some contract we may not be able to conceive of ($400MM or something). Manny Machado may do the same. Strange thing, though, with a year-and-a-half to go, they remain a bit underwhelming. Harper started off by putting up a better version of his ridiculous 2015 season (when he was 22), but since May he's been a 300/400/500 player, a good but not otherworldly hitter with average defense. Machado's struggled all year, with an OPS+ of 96, and just 1.5 WAR even accounting for his great defense. Both will still get big contracts, but neither guy is Mike Trout. Harper himself has shown at his best he can be, but that best is surrounded by a bunch of 2-5 win seasons. Both have a lot to play for in the second half, particularly Machado who some thought could challenge Harper's contract value.


* Which teams decide to tank

So, which team is most likely to tear it down fully next. The Phillies were the last one, and seem right on track for a second straight worst record. There's not much left for them to sell-off, unless they want to pull the trigger on trading a peak-value Aaron Nola. What is more interesting is if any of the other bad teams join them in tear-down mode. The Giants are the only other team with a truly dreadful record, but their best assets are such fan favorites that it is hard to imagine them getting rid of Posey and Bumgarner. But there's a lot else (Belt, Crawford, Cueto). Then you get Toronto, which has some older players and cost-controlled pitchers that could be interesting. The sleeping giant in the tank world is the Tigers. Are they ready to call it quits on their run of success. Verlander could command quite a bit. Miggy too. Same with Avila. There is a lot of potential assets, but much like the Giants, it is hard to imagine them pulling the trigger.


* Pitchers on the block

We entered the year with Sonny Gray, Chris Archer and Jose Quintana as high-profile movable assets. Those three are still high-profile movable assets. None are having a great season. But none bad enough to really hurt their trade value. There's a lot of interesting players who could join them. A couple we've covered before, like Johnny Cueto, but there's so many more that could be trade bait. I'm interested to see if Mets give up and trade the only workable, healthy pitching asset they have left in Jacob DeGram (would love him on the Stros). The Mariners could deal one of their guys. There's a lot of teams that could do with another starter that still have serious playoff concerns, like the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs and Astros.


* Will HR numbers fall back to earth?

By now, basically anyone connected to baseball has realized that HRs have gone way up to levels that exceed the height of the steroid era. We are pace for around 6,200 HRs; the old record was 5,700 in 2000. By now enough studies have been done to suggest at least a plurality of the reason for the spike is due to changes to the ball. Some of it is a concerted effort by hitters to counter the (still) increasing rate of strikeouts by going for more power. It was two years ago when the spike first started (2nd half of 2015), and it took a while for it to get real prominence but it sure has now. I could see the MLB to take serious steps in investigating changes to the ball - assuming they weren't aware from the start.


* The Great Pitcher Race (Kershaw should win)

Three pitchers have utterly dominated this year of the hitter (putting aside a still-injured Dallas Keuchel for now). One is the best pitcher of his generation who is continuing to work towards removing the need for that 'of his generation' qualifier. The second is the guy who quietly is putting together a HOF resume, winning the Cy Young last year in the NL three years after doing so in the AL. The third is a gumby-like figure who has been so good since going to Boston. Kershaw, Scherzer, Sale. They are playing a so amazingly entertaining game of can you top that. Their pitching lines are staggering. Sale's may look the worst on paper, but he's in the worst ballpark and has been so dominant, with a .901 WHIP and 12.5K/9. Of course, Scherzer's WHIP is at .779. Both Scherzer and Sale have a shot at 300Ks. Kershaw has had brief periods where he was just a great pitcher instead of the best pitcher any of us have ever seen, but his recent form has been so ridiculous. Seeing each of them try to get the title of best pitcher in 2017 will be fabulous to watch down the stretch.


* Will we get a good pennant race?

Every year there is generally at least one great race, but that hasn't really been the case recently. Last year, the closest final gap was 4 games. This year, the closest right now is 2.5 (Indians over Twins) and then 3.5 (Red Sox over Yankees). While each of those could be great down the stretch, what we have largely is two teams in Cleveland and Boston projected to be really good that took a while to get going. There's a trio of races that seem over (AL & NL West and NL East). I am holding out hope the Yankees course correct and push Boston down the stretch. Partially because, as always, eff Boston, but also because the Yankees revival was such a fun part of the first half. Aaron Judge is still awesome, but the team itself struggled the last six weeks. By run differential, they should be 54-32. Instead, they are 45-41. The Yankees have played up to Boston. The only other race really worth watching will be the one I'll be talking about now...


* The Cubs inevitable push (?)

... Will the Cubs be able to catch the Brewers. The Cubs have been so stagnant all year, never really having a sustained stretch of even good play. Sure, they are a bet to run off a 10-0 run at any point, but their flaws are very real. Their starting pitching was a risk coming into the year, and it has been incredibly average. Their hitting is probably doing worse than anyone could have imagined, but the players that are struggling (namely, Russell and Schwarber) aren't great bets to turn things around. At the end, the Cubs are 43-45, without deserving to be any better. And guess what, the Brewers may just pull this off. Their offense mashes home runs like no other team in the NL. Eric Thames got all the press early on, but Travis Shaw is riding a 170 OPS+. The Cubs may play well and still not catch Milwaukee. Teams don't blow 5.5 game leads at the break too often. For Cubs fans, they better not complain after the gifts of God they were bestowed last year, but this uninspired season is just so shocking.


* Which Astro is Best?

The Astros are not only the AL's best team, they also have, as of now, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th best position players in the league (not counting Trout), and the race between those three to see who will have the best season should be great to watch. Altuve, in reality, is just continuing off what he did last year, when he finished the season with 7.6 bWAR, improving in OBP (walking more) and SLG. His stealing has even become more efficient. The other two are the real surprised. First, Springer, who's gotten a lot of notoriety for hitting all the lead off home runs. He's up to 27 total for the year, and at 4.1 bWAR. He's cut his strikeout rate, and is walking more, and is, at least for now, over .300 for the first time in his career. Finally, there's the future superstar who is becoming a current superstar. Correa actually started the season pretty slowly, then got hit on the wrist and missed a handful of games in late April. Since he's come back he's hit .341/.417/.646. For the year he's at .325/.402/577. He too has cut his k-rate and upped his walk-rate, and is again just 22. Correa will likely lead the pack at the end of the year, and if he can make a run at Judge, could easily win the AL MVP as well. By the way, given how he started the year before leaving with a pinched nerve in early June, the answer to this might actually be Dallas Keuchel.


* Clayton Kershaw The God

I spoke about him earlier but felt that Kershaw needed his own section. His continuing brilliance is so taken for granted. I realize most people consider him the best pitcher in baseball, but I think we are all still slow to accept him as one of the greatest pitchers ever. He's certainly put up numbers that put him there. Now, one can argue Randy Johnson at his peak was more dominant, or Roger Clemens, or Greg Maddux, or Pedro Martinez (damn, the period from 1990-2005 had some ridiculous pitching), but Kershaw is right there. He is on pace to continue one of the most ridiculous streaks in baseball - lowering his career ERA for a 9th successive season. He entered with a career ERA of 2.37, and he's at 2.18 this year. He had a brief spell early in the season when he wasn't THAT dominant - to where people were putting up Max Scherzer or Chris Sale - but Kershaw seemingly fixed whatever was wrong the last month. Dating back to 2011, when he first broke out and won the Cy Young at 23, he's put up 6+1/2 year of 2.08 ERA, 179 ERA+, and a K/BB ratio of 5.75. This isn't normal, people. I really want to see him put up a dominant 2nd half and win his 4th Cy Young. It's been too long since he won a Cy Young last (all the way back in 2014). We need GOAT Kershaw back.


* Can the Rockies & D'Backs keep it up?

The best story of the 1st half was the Rockies and D'Backs rise from nothing into playoff contenders. For the D'Backs, the collapse would have to be really something truly outlandish for them to miss the playoffs at this point. For the Rockies, the prospect of them falling back to the pack (ie: the runner-up in the NL Central) seems more scarily likely. Both teams, beyond being so much better than anticipated, have been so fun. There's a bunch of random things I like about them, like the Rockies seemingly figuring out how to pitch in Coors Field with these no-name guys, or the D'Backs parade of ex-2011 Top Prospects doing so well. Then there's the D'Backs propensity to start games at 7:40 MST (these are the only two teams in the Mountain Time Zone). I really want them both to continue to play great. Hopefully with the return of Jon Gray the Rockies will get back on track. Either team could make a trade to bolster them further as well. The NL was set up to be so predictable this year, and while in a way there still may not be much drama down the stretch, it is predictable in the best way, with seemingly bad teams doing well.


* Can the Astros & Dodgers be historic?

MLB Season at the Half, Pt. 1 - First Half Retrospective

As each team enters its final series before The Greatest Home Run Derby of our Time happens next Monday, I wanted to recap where we are in one of the most enjoyable baseball seasons in a while - not only due to the Astros so far being a juggernaut.

** Quick aside on the Home Run Derby. Not only do we get Giancarlo Stanton (in his home park) and the monster that is Aaron Judge, we get a night WITHOUT CHRIS BERMAN!!! **

Again, I promise this won't be strictly about the Astros being a juggernaut. Sure, it is fun that they are. It is fun that they are on pace for 109. They have three of the top players in the AL by WAR in Springer, Altuve and Correa (who is still just twenty-fucking-two). Sure, maybe they need another arm as a starter, and having a third dependable pitcher to throw along with Keuchel anad McCullers, but I am not going to quibble. 

At the end of the day, the Astros were supposed to be good. Maybe not this good (no one is supposed to be 108-54 good), but they were supposed to be the best team in the AL West. This was supposed to be the start of great things for them, ideally for a long, long time. Let's remember Sports Illustrated famously ran a cover story in 2014 title "Houston Astros, your 2017 World Series Champions." In that way, we are right on schedule.

So beyond the Astros brilliance, what else do we have going for us in this here 2017 MLB season - well, just about everything, from two NL West teams rising from teh ashes, to the continuing incredible run the Brewers are on, to the equally dominant run of the Dodgers, to magical pitching performances, to the rise of Home Runs which at this point seem fully due to slight changes in the ball.

My favorite (non-Astros) story is really the simultaneous rise of the Rockies and Diamondbacks. Sure, teh Rockies have come on some relative hard times, but they've also banked enough wins to still be solid postseason bets. The Diamondbacks are further along to where it will take quite a collapse (and a rise of a team languishing around .500) to push them out. The NL West has been the league's most consistently boring division for a while now. The Dodgers would win it. The Giants would get a wild card - and every other year win the World Series. The Rockies and Padres were mired in never-ending rebuilds, and the D'Backs, sick of going around .500 every year, made some dubiously stupid trades and became a laughingstock.

Well, a year later, all hail the D'Backs and Rockies. For Arizona, this is the team they imagined building last year when Tony LaRussa and Dave Stewart went all in. That didn't work. They both got fired. A year later their dream is coming true. Paul Goldschmidt, after years of quietly being great, seems like a good lock for NL MVP. Zack Greinke is pitching like an ace. AJ Pollock is back. Robbie Ray is back healthy. Their whole approach of assemble a bunch of 2012 great pitching prospects has been largely hit or miss with Patrick Corbin struggling and Shelby Miller requiring Tommy John, but with Archie Bradley reborn in the pen.

The Rockies approach seems to be more luck based, as they've already fallen off but having Nolan Arenado finally playing for a good team has been a joy. The Rockies should be good. Denver is a great market, Coors Field is a beautiful ballpark. If we can get a repeat of Rocktober this year it would be fantastic for baseball. The Rockies have succeeding largely on the back of finding ground-ball heavy pitchers to try to supress offense in that ballpark. It's worked more than it should have given these still aren't great pitchers, but at the very least the Rockies have a workable strategy.

I'm concentrating more on the NL because this year the two leagues have been very distinct. The AL has a jumbled mess where pretty much every team is still somewhat in the wild card race, and there are only two teams that seem close to playoff locks in the Astros and Red Sox. In the NL you can really pencil in the Dodgers, Nationals and D'Backs at this point, and there is a whole host of teams that are basically already out, but it is two of those teams that are 'out' that gave another example of baseball's beauty.

Going into the season, the NL seemed boring, with three clear best teams in the divisions (Dodgers, Nationals, Cubs - two for three ain't bad), and the leading Wild Card contenders seemed to be the Giants and Mets. Well, that's where the 'That's Baseball, Susan' of it all comes into play. The Giants have struggled so badly, with bad years from their starting pitching, worst of all being Madison Bumgarner getting hurt in an ATV accident. The Mets had the Bumgarner situation times ten, with injuries and scandals with basically all of their supposed-to-be great pitchers.

Finally, the Cubs, whose struggles are so weird, so unthinkable, and, given my still flaming hatred of my old NL Central rival, so enjoyable. They looked untouchable last year, setting sail on a multi-year long dynasty. And a year later they are playing jump-rope with .500. Whats weirder is that they haven't been unlucky. By all accounts on how they've played, they should be about .500. The starting pitching has struggled (who knew, Kyle Hendricks, wasn't going to continue to be Greg Maddux!). The record-breaking defense has regressed to just average. The offense that looked so deep and powerful last year has cratered, with Kyle Schwarber doing so bad he was sent to the minors to clear his head. Even Kris Bryant has gone from being MVP-level to merely very good. The Cubs probably will overtake the Brewers at some point (if only to avoid having to figure out how exactly the Brewers are doing what they are), but for now it is fun to watch them struggle.

And in a way, it is a good example of why I shouldn't get too excited about the Astros - we could very well be the Cubs 12 months from now. Admittedly, if in the intervening 12 months we win the World Series, I definitely won't complain.