Two Minute Warning for the week of August 12-16th

Once again, this week's "Two Minute Warning" has to be on Thursday instead of Friday because work, which I'm loving every minute of, is going to be crazy busy. But it's now time for this week's "Two Minute Warning."

So what all have we learned this week in sports? Hmmm...let's see:

*The Texas Rangers have regained the AL West division lead over the Oakland A's and the A's just continue to go on a downward spiral. The Rangers swept the Houston Astros in a 4-game series and then split a 2-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers. The A's won 2 of 3 games against the Toronto Blue Jays last weekend and as of today (8-15-13) have lost 2 straight to the Astros. The Rangers keep doing it with timely hitting and excellent pitching. The Rangers have not hit a home run in 5 of their last 8 games...they've won all 5 of those games. The pitching staff has gone at least 5 innings and the bullpen seems to be rested as they have shut down anyone they face. Joe Nathan got his 36th save of the season last night. The team seems to keep rolling along despite not having Neftali Feliz, Colby Lewis, and Matt Harrison. Ohh yeah...they also haven't had the big bats of Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, and Michael Young all season. Hamilton is enjoying a horrible season with the Angels (who are 53-66 and are 16 games behind the Rangers in the AL West). Michael Young is also experiencing some baseball lows with the Philadelphia Phillies (who are 53-67 and 20.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East). Mike Napoli is the only former Ranger who is playing well on a good team. His Boston Red Sox are 72-50 and 3 games up on the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.

*Dez Bryant says that if the NCAA doesn't suspend Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel for his being paid to sign autographs, he will be very upset. I agree he has a right to be upset. Bryant was suspended for the 2009 season from Oklahoma State for lying about having dinner with Deion Sanders. Manziel is currently being investigated for potentially being paid for signing autographs.



*The Dallas Stars have been accused of trying to negotiate with Evgeni Malkin, one of the superstar players of the Pittsburgh Penguins, while Malkin is under contract with another team. Malkin's father, Vladimir, told a Russia Sports Outlet that the Stars offered a larger contract to his son than the contract extension he signed with Pittsburgh in June (which was an 8-year, $76 million contract extension). The NHL has extreme rules concerning this, but the NHL isn't investigating this case due to the Pittsburgh Penguins saying they don't believe the Stars actually talked to Malkin at all. Here's my opinion: Vladimir Malkin needs to shut up. Your son got a big time contract and the Stars haven't done anything wrong. So just shut up.

Not much else going on in sports this week. Check out my blog on www.sports1460espn.com.