MLB rankings and expectations going into the 2023 season

April 11, 2023 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Abby Altman

It has been 146 days since the last pitch of the 2022 MLB season was thrown. Nick Castellanos of the Phillies flew out to right fielder Kyle Tucker of the Astros to give Houston the 2022 World Series title.

A lot has happened in the off season since the last game was played, with teams gaining and losing star players left and right. The offseason was chaos for many teams and athletes, and that will most likely show in the start of the 2023 season.

One of the best examples for the chaos seen this offseason is through Carlos Correa.

After the 2022 season, Correa announced he would be opting out of his 3-year contract with the Minnesota Twins. On December 14th, Correa reached an agreement with the San Francisco Giants, for 13 years/$350 million.

This appeared to be a done deal, and Correa was going to be a Giant. On December 20th, however, San Francisco canceled Correas introductory press conference, mere hours before it was scheduled to begin. Fans were given no explanation.

On December 21st, while most fans were asleep, Correa reached an agreement with the New York Mets, for 12 years/ $315 million. Again, this seemed like a done deal, and Correa was going to become a Met.

On December 24th, Correa’s introductory press conference was postponed, due to reported concerns with his physical. Correa showed few issues physically last season.

When the Giants and the Mets both passed on Correa, Minnesota took this time to step up, and bring him back home.

On January 10th, Correa and the Minnesota Twins reached an agreement for 6 years/ $200 million.

If that timeline of a star shortstop essentially joining 3 different teams all to end up with the same team as last season doesn’t give you a good idea of what this season will look like, I’m not sure what will.

At the end of last years regular season, the top 10 teams in the power rankings were:

Dodgers
Astros
Braves
Yankees
Mets
Cardinals
Blue Jays
Guardians
Mariners
Padres

The Philadelphia Phillies were ranked 12th, and still managed to play in the World Series, beating the Cardinals, Padres, and Braves to get there.

Since then, more than 150 free agents have signed new contracts, nearly 70 trades have been made, and 5 teams have hired new managers.

Opening day for the 2023 season took place on March 30th, and was an excellent look into what the upcoming season has in store for fans.

Here are my predictions for the top 10 teams this season, and the World Series matchup to end the season:

Toronto Blue Jays

2022 record: 92-70

2023 predicted record: 103-59

New York Yankees

2022 record: 99-63

2023 predicted record: 100-62

Houston Astros

2022 record: 106-56

2023 predicted record: 100-62

Los Angeles Dodgers

2022 record: 111-51

2023 predicted record: 98-64

New York Mets

2022 record: 101-61

2023 predicted record: 96-66

Atlanta Braves

2022 record: 101-61

2023 predicted record: 95-67

San Diego Padres

2022 record: 89-73

2023 predicted record: 92-70

Philadelphia Phillies

2022 record: 87-75

2023 predicted record: 90-72

Cleveland Guardians

2022 record: 92-70

2023 predicted record: 90-72

Baltimore Orioles

2022 record: 83-79

2023 predicted record: 88-74

The Houston Astros will come very close to back-to-back World Series titles. Uncomfortably close for many fans, who have had a strong disliking for the team since 2019, when the cheating scandal was uncovered.

However, I believe the New York Mets will make it through the playoffs, and beat the Astros in 6 for the 2023 World Series title.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Cocaine Bear’ movie review

April 11, 2023 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Greta Johnson

The 2023 movie ‘Cocaine Bear’ is a 90 minute film based loosely on a true story. It’s about an American black bear in Georgia who ingested some cocaine that had been dropped from a plane into the Georgia wilderness. The bear then goes on a wild killing rampage and its only goal is to ingest more cocaine. Most of the characters in this movie are satire tropes who make bad decisions to move the plot along.

There’s a 13-year-old girl and her best friend (who go into the woods to see the falls), a park ranger, a group of teenage boys, 2 police officers, a mom and a man who works with animals. All these characters have encounters with the bear that are actually pretty funny.

Even though parts of the movie are honestly pretty gory and suspenseful, there’s a comedic feeling to the plot and dialect. I really liked this, I thought it made the movie worth watching and super enjoyable. I really like how all the actors portray their characters. Their reactions and how they handle all the situations feel real, not like some horror movies where they make the worst choice possible every time.

Overall, I really liked this movie. I thought it was comedic and did a great job making fun of a crazy situation. The whole storyline was honestly really crazy. There were many points in the movie that had me so surprised, I was laughing. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants a good laugh but you should be ready for some really bloody and gory scenes that will probably gross you out a little too.

I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

You can see ‘Cocaine Bear’ in theaters.

Science/Nature

A planet that shouldn’t exist

April 11, 2023 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Jasmine Williams

There is a glowing crimson, red, and small planet called TOI-5205b. The planet is 285 light years away. The planet is named after TOI-5205 because it’s right next to it. These red planets are only half as hot as the sun. According to ‘CNET’, this is a dwarf planet located in the Milky Way. These dwarf planets are ordinary stars, and have a very long life span. The heat of TOI-5205 is measured to be around 3,227 degrees Celsius, and the sun, 5,526 degrees Celsius.

It is strange that TOI-5205b hosts gas giant planets because normally dwarf planets do not do that. In general, people had thought that sunlike stars host tinier planets that are not their size. “The host star, TOI-5205, is just about four times the size of Jupiter, yet it has somehow managed to form a Jupiter-sized planet, which is quite surprising!” Kanodia, an astronomer, had stated.

In order to create a gas giant planet, the original core had to have enough rocky material. Also, the disk cannot evaporate before a massive center is made, according to Kanodia. Afterwards, a rocky planetary core is made, and gas from the disk has a large amount of gas. Around the core a large amount of gas from the disk is collected, and it soon creates a luminous planet. For gas giants such as Jupiter and TOI-5205b, a known model of planet formation says that in order to create a rocky planetary core, it requires about 10 disk’s of material that Earth masses have. TOI-5205’s original disk had the ingredients to form a Jupiter-like planet, but it’s odd that TOI-5205’s disk had enough ingredients that gas giants used to make a big planet.

TOI-5205b had bypassed all the guardrails. To conclude, Kanodia had stated, “TOI-5205b — while definitely an outlier — isn’t the only one. If so, how frequently do these forbidden planets form?”

For more information, please visit:

● https://scitechdaily.com/astronomers-discover-bizarre-forbidden-planet-that-should-not-e xist/

Editorials/Student Voice

Religion isn’t an excuse

April 11, 2023 HPSH Plaid Line

By: Julia Yang

Before I continue with this article, I would like to say that this article is written for my opinion on this matter, nothing is factual and you don’t have to agree. This article is not meant to offend anyone, I respect all religions and believe everyone has their own rights to believe in what they want to. But everyone has different opinions on this, and this article is mine.

This article is on how I don’t believe that religion should be an excuse for bad or rude behavior.

Let’s talk sexual orientation. There are a ton of religious people that heavily dislike people who aren’t straight. They believe that it’s wrong and isn’t humanly right. I think that’s dumb. Why should your religion be a good reason for you being homophobic? Things like sending children to institutions to try and convert them into being straight, is that religion too? You can’t convert someone’s sexual orientation. They love who they love, and no one can change that.

People that practice religions with God(s) might say they can hear the God(s) talking to them, I personally don’t mind that. You can believe what you want to believe, but you cross my line when you say God(s) told you to do something horrible. I’ve seen people kill their own children just because their God(s) told them to. That’s murder and there’s no excuse for that.

I have also seen that peoples’ excuse for racism is religion as well. Honestly, I can’t believe we live in a world where racism, homophobia, abilism, and murder is excused for religion. So basically, in someone’s world, that’s all okay. When is any of that ever or okay in any circumstance?

There are loads of religious people who aren’t like this, in fact, the majority aren’t like this. But the few people who are like this are giving religious people a bad rap.