THE PUTTDOWN

The Weekly Puttdown Welcome to the weekly Puttdown. A weekly run-through of the major news from the major sports around the globe. Short and to the point, cutting through the drivel and not to be taken too seriously. NBA: Not long until the playoffs start now, Lakers and the Bucks still hold the top spot in the west and east respectively. Zion is showing that if he had started playing at the start of the season he would have been Rookie of the year by a country mile, and the way he is going, he still may win it!  Football (Premier League unless otherwise stated): 99% of the football world rejoiced this weekend as Liverpool finally lost a game, getting their asses handed to them by relegation fodder Watford. Man City won the league cup in a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa. The biggest news is that everyone still Hates VAR . MLB: Spring Training is in full flow now. The main subject of interest at the moment is how many HBP the Astros are going to...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you will know that the Houston Astros have been under investigation for stealing signs illegally during the 2017 season. The baseball world has been waiting eagerly to find out what their punishment would be and it has finally come down. ·       One year suspension for GM Jeff Luhnow and Manager AJ Hinch (both have been subsequently fired) ·       The loss of 1 st and 2 nd round draft picks in both 2020 and 2021 ·       A fine of $5m On the surface these look like very harsh penalties and it does look like baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is coming down hard on the organisation, but is it enough? We can talk about how they won the World Series that year, but first, the players. 2017 AL MVP was Jose Altuve, would he have won this title if not for the sign stealing. Players on the Astros have also gone on to sign big,...