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By Anthony De Franco  February 3, 2010, at 9:00 am  Kimbo Slice is a ratings juggernaut. There is simply no other way to describe it. He’s fought twice on Spike TV and he’s been over 5 million viewers each time. That is just insane.
While Slice as a fighter is still developing at the advanced age of 35, he is a brand all to his own, and the UFC is giving him an avenue to make even more cash.
Kimbo’s newest TapouT shirt uses the area code of his Miami digs. When did repping your area code become cool? Was it when Reggie Bush started wearing “619″ on his eye black? Dethrone also has an area code shirt. I gotta get me a “516″ shirt.
MMA Warehouse can help you rep yo’ hood for 27.99. Slice’s shirt’s are always a litter cheaper than average.
For more Kimbo gear, check out The 3rd String Store.
By Anthony De Franco November 29, 2009, at 2:28 pm Jose Aldo wasn’t a name that everyone knew until his flying knee nearly decapitated Cub Swanson. Now, he’s the WEC featherweight champ and Zuffa is going out of their way to make him a marketable name, and may even put Faber v. Aldo on pay-per-view.
Here’s the Dethrone Royalty shirt that he wore to the cage when he won the belt from Mike Brown:
It’s not fighter specific, but really none of Dethrone’s shirts that aren’t Cain Velasquez’s are. There’s a lot of silver foil on the shirt, which looks really cool. There’s a graphic of a dude getting punched in the face, so that’s always cool.
MMA Warehouse has it for 38.99
For more Dethrone Royalty shirts, check out The 3rd String Store.
By Jason Comack July 29, 2009, at 3:32 pm Mariners acquired SS Jack Wilson and RHP Ian Snell from the Pirates for SS Ronny Cedeno, C Jeff Clement and RHPs Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin and Nathan Adcock.
Interesting trade here for both sides. For the Mariners I can’t imagine this is an indication that they are shoving all the chips into the middle. At 7.5 games out of the division and 6.5 out of the wild card I can’t imagine the Mariners suddenly becoming buyers. The benefit of this trade for the M’s comes as much next year as this year.
Jack Wilson is one of the best defensive shortstops in the bigs and since the M’s are building the team around pitching and defense it’s a logical acquisition. However his contract isn’t very pretty. Wilson makes 7.25 million this year and 8.4 million next year. Snell, 27, is a pitcher who scouts still think has upside. He’s had a very average MLB career but has been lights out since the Pirates demoted him to triple A. Like Wilson, Snell is under contract for next year (4.25 millilon) the M’s also have two player options on him for 2011 and 2012. If Snell rebound that contract could look like a bargain.
It’s also being reported that the Pirates are giving the Mariners significant financial relief. Kovacevic reports that the Pirates will pay nearly all of the money owed to Wilson and Snell this year. The Mariners will pay each player $400k. The Pirates will send a total of $3,308,702.19 to Seattle along with Snell and Wilson. So all in all the M’s get two players who will help them this year for only 800k. They also get Snell for next year and possibly Wilson.
In exchange the Pirates receive a pretty decent haul. The key player is Clement. Clement was once considered a top prospect but fell out of favor in Seattle. Clement doesn’t project to catcher long term but Pirates do have a need at first base. Ronny Cedeno is probably nothing more than a utility player but he comes cheap. Pribanic, Lorin and Adcock are all young right handers. Lorin might be the most intriugining of the bunch. He’s big, 6′7, young, 22, and has 2.44 ERA while striking out 87 batter in 88 innings at A ball.
Seems to be a solid deal for both teams. The Mariners get players who can help them both short and long term without taking on extra salary and not trading their top prospects. The Pirates continue to clean house and add solid prospects to an already deep farm system. They also clear money for 2010 in the process.
By Anthony De Franco July 5, 2009, at 11:57 pm Not the most exciting trade, but I think that we once again need to mention that Billy Beane is a genius. Here’s the news clip from Rotoworld:
Athletics acquired outfielder Scott Hairston from the Padres for RHP Craig Italiano, RHP Ryan Webb and a player to be named.
The A’s aren’t waiving the white flag just yet, but this isn’t a trade just for 2009. Hairston is under control through 2011 and should remain pretty affordable. The 29-year-old was hitting .299/.358/.533 for the Padres. The A’s could use him in center or right, depending on whether they’d prefer to bench Ryan Sweeney or send down Travis Buck. We’re guessing he’ll start in right. AL-only leagues shouldn’t be afraid to use a high waiver claim on him.
Don’t think that this is a move for Depth. Hairston is a guy who plays 2nd, and both corner outfield spots and has slash stats of .307/.364/.547. That’s pretty decent productions. Throw that along with the fact that he has ten homeruns in a park that roughly the size of yellowstone and Hairston can be a very productive hitter in a normal sized home stadium.
Jason and I were talking earlier today about how Billy Beane’s plan to compete this year was foiled by the fact that his young pitching blew up in his face. Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill were both not nearly ready to be the pitchers that Beane thought they would. Meanwhile, he had used the bad economy to sign guys like Jason Giambi, and Orlando Cabrera to small deals. He only has Matt Holliday until the end of the season. He’ll receive two first round draft picks for him when he signs elsewhere, but with all those names, Beane still sees a chance to compete in the AL West.
While they are 11 games back, The A’s have been known to make second half charges before. With improved pitching from their young starters, they could find themselves in the mix by the start of September.
[Jason's Take: Like the move for the A's. It's sad to say but saving $1.25 million is a big deal for the Padres. Neither are great prospects but PETCO is such a pitchers park that it almost makes them better by default. Webb is likely to join the Padres MLB club while Italiano will join the Padres Single A affiliate. The key to the deal might be the player to be named later. Corey Brock of MLB.com says that Padres GM Kevin Towers "sounded excited" about the player to be named later, who will be one of two pitchers in the A's organization. One of these unnamed players reportedly has Major League service time. My guess Dana Eveland.]
By Anthony De Franco July 1, 2009, at 12:00 pm I’m a little bit late on this, but I can’t help but think that it’s absolute bullshit. Here’s the actual news piece from FiveOuncesofPain.com that ran on June 24th:
A UFC fighter’s ability to obtain sponsorship from clothing apparel sponsors could take on a new degree of difficulty for upcoming fight cards, FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com was contacted by a manager on Wednesday night who spoke on the condition of anonymity and stated that he recently received an e-mail indicating that additional clothing sponsors have been added to the UFC’s list of banned companies.
Five Ounces of Pain was able to obtain an e-mail distributed by the UFC’s legal department that now lists Dethrone, One More Round, and Rolling Stone as a list of sponsors that will not be approved for UFC 100 on July 11. Unacceptable sponsors for UFC 100 also online Poker sponsors Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, and Party Poker.
I’ve defended Dana White quite a bit in the past as far as wanting his fighters to get paid in the past, but this is a little absurd. The thing people probably won’t get when they read this is that fighters are really the ones that are losing in this scenario. They are often paid by these companies just to wear these shirts to the ring, or to put their logo on their fight banner. Now, there will be fewer dollars to go around because fewer companies are allowed to advertise.
Going one step further, it seems that the UFC wants $100,000 dollars per company that wants to sponsor fighters. This is crap. A lot of these companies are internet companies(Screw Rolling Stone, they aren’t the problem here) that found a way to beat the system and gets some cheap advertising. Want to show just how screwed up this is? Dethrone has a relationship with the American Kickboxing Academy, which is a camp that houses such top fighters as Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch. This deal is going to rob that camp of income that they could have used to better prepare their fighters by reinvesting in their business.
Here’s another guy that gets royally screwed in all of this: Jacob “Stitch” Duran. That’s right; the UFC’s iconic cut man was sponsored by One More Round. That’s money that is now gone from his pocket. I hope that Dana and the Fertitta’s are planning on making that one up to him.
If you are an MMA Fan, or just like cool T-Shirts, go buy one from these companies. I’m gonna post some links below to all their websites. Help keep both their entrepreneurial spirit and their love for the sport of MMA alive.
Dethrone (A personal favorite) : http://www.dethroneroyalty.com
One More Round: http://www.onemoreroundclothing.com/
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