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Five Things – 5 May 2016

1.

O’s won the series with the Yankees, but I was really hoping for the sweep. The further under .500 the Yankees are, the more comical their fans are when they call in on the radio.

Plus, with the back of their bullpen being what it is, the more losses they take early, the better. Seasons are never decided in April or early May, but if they do hit that hot streak in June or July, it’s better the further they have to go to catch up.

Especially with that back of the bullpen. It’s like that 2014 Royals bullpen.

2.

What is up with Matt Harvey? I’m sure he’ll snap out of it, but he doesn’t seem to be all there in some way.

What is up with the Mets hitting all these home runs? Certainly a pleasant surprise.

What is up with the Royals? I thought they’d do us a solid by at least taking 2/3 from the Nats. Guess not. They can redeem themselves in my eyes by putting it down on the Yankees next week.

3.

To answer the popular question from the beginning of the week: yes, I was pleased with the Ravens’ draft. Oz is usually right more often than not, it seems, so I never sweat it. Some folks like to go back and look at picks like Matt Elam and Courtney Upshaw (I enjoyed his tenure in Baltimore, but he ended up not being enough of a pass rusher I guess), but look at the last few drafts and who’s contributed along the defensive line and who stepped up last season on offense with all the injuries. At this point, I’m expecting nothing less than the same, especially on defense.

4.

I wasn’t surprised the Ravens pulled Laremy Tunsil off their board immediately after the video and pictures hit social media. This is the same team that cut Bernard Pierce mere hours after a DUI arrest in Baltimore County. Arrest. Not conviction. They cut Terrence Cody after his animal cruelty charges (but in their defense, he had one foot out the door based on performance as it was) came out, too.

Since the fallout from the Ray Rice situation, the Castle has been highly sensitive to the team’s public image. If they were willing to cut one of their own as quickly as they did Pierce, there was no way they were going to take Tunsil, since they were about to pick and had no time to dig deeper into the story and find out the video was old and someone was releasing all of this on draft day, seemingly to destroy the kid.

They say they had Stanley rated higher than Tunsil and only they know for sure. But I’m pretty sure that if there had been a chance they would take him while they were on the clock, as soon as the picture came out of him in the gas mask bong, that chance evaporated.

However, NFL Network had the time to let the story unfold before allowing their talking heads like Mike Mayock pass judgment on the kid without knowing the whole story. At least Mayock backtracked on his comments later in the night.

The rest of them sure didn’t. I wonder if they’ll all be cheering for the more famous and local Baltimore weed connoisseur, Michael Phelps, as he represents the whole country in the Olympics in a few weeks, though.

Oh, and according to Kevin Byrne, Ozzie reads tweets from college players. Kids, if you think you have a shot at playing pro football, watch what you say on the Tweeter, okay?

5.

What a mess.