What are the Tampa Bay Rays Doing?

As the Miami Marlins are getting all the press for blowing up their team, the Rays quietly are doing the same.

Today, the Rays traded All-Star outfielder Corey Dickerson to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Daniel Hudson, a low-tier prospect and around $1 million to off-set the contracts. This is on top of all the moves they’ve made since the Winter Meetings.

The Rays made a huge splash this offseason by trading franchise star Evan Longoria to the San Francisco Giants for young infielder Christian Arroyo, veteran outfielder Denard Span, and two young pitchers with upside. It looks like an ‘okay’ deal on paper, but then you add in the $14.5 million that is spread out over a few seasons and also some deferred payments. Also, they are on the hook for the entire contract of Span, which is an additional $13 million.

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Sports You Can Take Up On The Weekend

Sports are a lot of fun and have a load of benefits to them, and that makes them one of the most popular hobbies out there for people to blow off steam with. However, investing your time in something heavy duty can mean a huge disruption to the rest of your life, and ultimately little energy by the end of the week! If you’re the kind of person worried about this, but you’re determined not to let this exhaust drive hold you back from living life, it’s time to search up some gentler sports. If you’re looking for a new hobby that you can devote your own time towards whilst still competing at the business game, maybe it’s time to try out a few of these activities.

Try Out Indoor Rock Climbing

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2018 NBA Second-Half Dark Horse Betting Picks

We went a perfect 3-0 with our betting picks for the NBA Saturday Night skills competition. We didn’t go with a favorite in any event and made out like a bandit. Our only regret is that we didn’t put them in a parlay.

The second-half of the NBA season is set to start later this week. There are still plenty of regular season and postseason NBA future bets that still have some value.

There are a few bets that are now only two-man races, like Ben Simmons and Donovan Mitchell are by far the favorites to win Rookie of the Year. It would take a miracle for a guy like Dennis Smith Jr. or Jayson Tatum to surpass those guys. There isn’t a single dark horse worth throwing some jellybeans towards.

Can a surprise team come out of the Western or Eastern Conferences and make it to the NBA Finals?

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 57

I’m a self-confessed vintage toy nerd. I collect vintage wrestling action figures from the 80’s & 90’s. I started purchasing some vintage toys out of nostalgia. Well, WWE and Mattel sucked me into their new stuff. I now buy a few figures a month. You can view photos of my collection on my Instagram account.

The lineup for WWE Elite series 57 has been announced for awhile and early shipments have already been received (I already own this entire set). This set isn’t expected to hit retail until March.

The WWE Superstars included in Elite 57 are Jeff Hardy, Seth Rollins, Tye Dillenger, Scotty 2 Hotty, Shinsuke Nakamura & Baron Corbin.

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2018 NBA All-Star Weekend Betting Odds & Picks

There aren’t any regular season NBA games to bet on this weekend, but there are plenty of opportunities to lay down some jellybeans on the NBA.

NBA’s All-Star Weekend has some favorable betting odds for their three big skills competitions: Slam Dunk Contest, Three-Point Contest and the Skills Competition.

Some of the better rising stars are in the events and even some All-Stars decided to participate.

Will a young, hungry guy make a name for themselves and win one of the competitions, or will an All-Star show why they are one of the best in the league?

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Three Awesome Sports Holidays to Try at Least Once

Are you somebody that likes to do a fair bit of travelling? Are you also somebody that loves watching sports? Well, why don’t you combine the two passions in your life and head out on a sports holiday? And, let me tell you, when you do, you won’t be disappointed!

To see some of the most awesome sports holidays that our big, wide world has to offer, make sure to read on.

Witnessing a Super Bowl is a must

Does the Super Bowl need any introduction or description? No, it most certainly does not, and neither do we need to try and convince you to want to go and watch it! Yes, whether you’re a fan of American Football or sports in general or not, you will almost certainly know about the Super Bowl and the spectacle that it is, and that should be enough to interest you in witnessing it at least once in your lifetime.

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The 50 Best Hip-Hop Songs of All-Time

I don’t know why I decided to tackle such a huge music genre by doing a ‘best hip-hop songs of all-time’ post.

I planned on doing a top twenty, but it would cut off way too many records. Making the list was a lot of fun, but it took quite awhile to complete. I’m also opening myself up to comments critiquing my picks.

Please critique away, friends.

I didn’t know what exactly to name this post because ‘best’ doesn’t necessarily fit the parameters of this list. I would say this list is more of a ‘most influential’ or even ‘most iconic’ hip-hop songs of all-time. There are a few exclusions to the rule since there are some tracks on here that aren’t really influential or iconic, but are just damn great. I just went with ‘best’ to make it easy.

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 56

The lineup for WWE Elite series 56 has been known for awhile (and I actually own a few of these figures right now). I fell behind on some of my toy reviews during football season. My betting picks and other gambling-related topics took over the site, so I didn’t have time to write up a couple posts about a hobby I enjoy.

Elite 56 has a couple first-ever elites and includes a couple top stars like AJ Styles and Roman Reigns. It’s a solid set, especially since we finally have The Club elites.

The WWE Superstars included in Elite 56 are AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Jack Gallagher, Roman Reigns & Samoa Joe.

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2018 NBA Trade Deadline Recap

The 2018 NBA Trade Deadline really kicked off when the Los Angeles Clippers traded superstar power forward Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons late in the night. The Clippers got a king’s random in return. Many thought DeAndre Jordan would be next to leave the Clippers, but he stayed put.

Other big trades that happened in-between the Griffin deal and today were Nikola Mirotic going to New Orleans for a mess of veteran and picks. I also think Charlotte’s acquisition of center Willy Hernangomez could be huge. He’s a talented guy, but was stuck behind some talented bigs on the Knicks.

Today’s trades didn’t disappoint as much as previous years’ trade deadlines. There were a couple really nice trades and a ton of depth trades.

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Sweetbob’s Hipster Music Playlist: February 2018

I usually watch ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ at least once every February. It’s one of my favorite movies. It blew my mind when I first saw it in the theater in February 2004. It still holds up and I recommend everyone give it a watch, or two.

This month’s playlist is pretty damn great. It didn’t take me very long to compile since new music has been finding ME lately. I could have expanded this month’s list by five or ten tracks, but I’m holding a few back in case I’m not so lucky next month.

I always keep an ear out for new music. I love discovering new bands/songs, it’s a habit from my days as a music journalist. Even though this is mostly a sports blog, I still add quite a bit of music and pop culture content. Keep sending me tracks via email or Twitter.

If you want to listen to songs that appeared on past playlists, you can listen to our playlist on Spotify or go here to view our past hipster playlists.

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Super Bowl 52 – Betting Picks Against Spread & Prop Bets

I LOVE prop bets. I actually get more joy out of betting Super Bowl prop bets than betting against the spread. Yes, most are a crap shoot, but with the right research, you can end up winning bets with very favorable odds.

I’m not saying you can research who will win the coin toss, but there are many other player and team prop bets out there that have nice odds.

Some prop bets aren’t worth the money (the vig isn’t worth the slight risk), but sometimes you just have to lay a few bucks down, cross your fingers and wish for the best.

I picked out some of the most popular (and the most absurd) prop bets for Super Bowl 52 (or Super Bowl LII for Roman numeral fans)…and we also pick the game against the spread.

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Review: NXT Takeover: Philadelphia

NXT always starts out the weekend the right way for the ‘Big 4’ WWE pay-per-views. There hasn’t been a bad one yet, so NXT Takeover: Philadelphia had a huge task of living up to all the past Takeover events…and it exceeded expectations.

WWE keeps raiding NXT for talent and Triple H keeps finding great indie wrestling talent to mix with the young guys they have down there starting from scratch. Many thought the entire brand would go down a few pegs after wrestlers like Shunsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode and Asuka were promoted the main roster, but this Takeover event was up there with the best all-around NXT shows of all-time.

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