Review: Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals & The MLB All-Star Break, 2 Updated NL/AL Predictions
Junk Food Nation, if you’re a baseball fan, you know that the MLB All-Star Break is happening right now. Last night was the Home Run Derby which, thanks to a rain delay, didn’t get over until like midnight. I admit that I didn’t make it, didn’t get to see Cespedes put on a show. It got to be like 11:15 and they STILL weren’t at the finals yet, and I was fighting to keep my eyes open. It was one of those moments where, yes, maybe my eyes were taking in images, but my brain was already sailing in the clouds fighting marshamllow aliens with my cartoon viking sidekicks and my lightning bolt Nerf gun.
Tonight is the MLB All-Star Game, which I generally enjoy. I’ve written about it plenty of this blog; but there are some things I’d do to tweak the All-Star game. (1) Go back to when it DIDN’T count, and (2) go back to when you didn’t need a rep from each team. While you’re at it, go back and eliminate interleague play too, so the All-Star game again feels like a unique exhibition of stars vs. stars that doesn’t happen during the regular season. Oh yeah, and turn down that music and get off my lawn too! God, I feel old.
Anyways, I was reviewing my 2014 season predictions, and my AL East choices are just laughable right now. The one year I picked the Red Sox to be in 1st Place, they of course have to give me the finger and be in the gutter. Blue Jays last? Nope, they’re in first. The rest of my picks aren’t too bad. Here’s two predictions I see for the second half of the season:
1) NL PREDICTION – ANTHONY RENDON FINISHES AS SECOND HALF MVP – Originally the prediction was going to be that the Nats would claim sole possession of first place, but that’s not really a prediction since they are IN first place. But just wanted to put it on record since DAMN those pesky Braves just won’t go away! I thought for sure when half of their rotation went down, the Nationals would have a clear path to 1st, but noooo – the damn Braves are NECK AND NECK with the Nats. Whatever. Eventually, that run differential is going to mean something, and the Nats will have a firm grasp of 1st. And that great Nats run differential is, in large part, thanks to Rendon, a guy who fell in the MLB draft due to injury concerns. Before this season, only stat heads knew who he was. Now, everyone does.
2) AL PREDICTION – MANNY MACHADO FINISHES AS SECOND HALF MVP – I actually think that, up and down, the Orioles are probably the best team in the AL East, and I believe they will get there on Machado’s back. The Blue Jays never had the all-around pitching the O’s had, and now their bats have gone cold. Meanwhile the O’s have contributors everywhere – Markakis looks rejuvenated, Steve Pearce is a revelation, and this is all WITH Crush Davis stuck batting .199. But the real star here is Machado – ever since his suspension, his OBP has increased steadily, and he looks to be living up to his potential finally. League leader in doubles last year? Monster this year. Mark it.
Today’s junk food: Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals!
Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals: The Money Shot
Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals are the last of the Chester’s Poppers that have been released recently. Pizza Waffles, Cheddar Fries, and now these. My take on the other two have been just so-so…we’ll see if these BBQ Spirals move me.
Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals: What the
Frito-Lay just loves making Chester Cheetah look insane, don’t they? I mean, he’s crazy for Cheetos, so let’s just make him do stupid things all the time? *Shakes head* This picture with the spirals is just ridiculous.
Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals: 150 cal per serving
Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals: BBQ seasoning
Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals: FUNKY
I opened up these Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals and whoa…these were funky looking. Light in weight, however – being made of potato starch, these weren’t super thick or crunchy. When I chomped on these, the texture was light and sort of airy. Good crisp, but not crunch. The potato starch curl didn’t give off a ton of potato flavor, honestly. Just a neutral plate for the BBQ flavor.
Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals: Well seasoned
Chester’s Poppers BBQ Spirals had a decent amount of seasoning, and it’s clear the BBQ flavor they decided to go with was the SWEET BBQ type – these curls were immediately tangy, tasting a lot like the BBQ flavoring used on regular Lay’s BBQ potato chips. Nice onion-y and garlicky notes; only a tiny hint of smoke. A pretty basic BBQ flavor.
All in all, these didn’t wow me. Nothing particularly wrong with them, but I’d take normal BBQ chips of any kind over these simply because I wasn’t a huge fan of the potato starch curl base. Meh. I’ll pass on these in the future.
PURCHASED AT: Walmart
COST: $1.98
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Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 11 Comments
so, they are just plain bbq puffs, then? no cheddar in sight? aw.. i love the bbq cheese puffs and i was hoping these were similar, lol. i still might try these because i love sweet bbq chips!
@Kaitlyn: Yep no cheese. These were very odd
I attended an All-Star game a couple of years ago. First one, and probably my last, but it was worth going to. Pretty cool to see all of those players in one place. It was the one that was Chipper Jones’ last one and they totally gave him a hit on his only at bat.
@Steve: How was the fan experience? Was it just a circus outside? Or were there cool things to see/do?
All Star Game is a joke now. The players with the biggest fan bases almost always win the Final Vote, many fans vote on sentimentality & familiarity, too many players go – 81 at my last count! Plus the starters only play 2 or 3 innings so it’s a game of benches, way too many commercials & pitching changes (enough of the relief pitcher – batter match-ups!), the team representative rule is stupid, as is the Sunday pitching rule (move the game to Wednesday) & deciding home field World Series – that should go to the team with the best season record.
My solution? Take the fan, player & manager vote away. Go to a fair point system so the best get in & start. The starters should play at least 7 innings, if not the whole game. 25 is enough – don’t burn through your bullpen. Move the Astros back to the National League so we can get rid of Interleague Play and the unbalanced schedule for that matter – I don’t want to see division opponents 19 times each & others only 3 to 6 times. It’s just too much & favors/disfavors weak/strong divisions.
But nothing will ever change because the Networks pay for the games & want things done THEIR way. Look at this, ratings keep declining: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/asgbox/asgtv.shtml
Obviously what’s going on isn’t working.
@MP: I know where your head is at (since I agree with many of your points), but I don’t know what you mean by a fair point system. Which metric would be used to measure All-Stars?
@JFG: I knew you were going to ask me that, and I bookmarked this a year ago in an article for such ASG discussion: something called Automated Insights. Personally I found the ratings to be pretty accurate IMO http://sports.yahoo.com/news/perez-rangers-kickoff-series-against-121326827–mlb.html
But basically, award points for innings (adjusted for relievers) and subtract for hits/earned runs; for hitters at-bats & stats achieved. Maybe even include the 2nd half from the previous season as well. I don’t know how AI does it, but it at least exists for an example. I would count BB as good as a single & SB to 2nd like a 2B, ignore K’s for hitters & ignore RBI because that’s a team stat. Just going off the top of my head. A system that is somehow fair to starting pitchers, relievers, closers, lead-off hitters, #2 hitters, singles hitters, power hitters, etc.
To me, it just seems pretty ridiculous to define an All Star based on half a season & start voting in early May. And Jeter just singled to right field.
For some reason, the thought of these grosses me out. I have no idea why though – I like Cheetos and I like BBQ chips.
@Katrina: It’s because even though these are made with potato starch, they seem more like the corn puffs…and then just adding BBQ on top of corn puffs is a little weird.
@junkfoodguy
It was the game in KC. We got there relatively early, but just went to our seats and didn’t walk around the stadium much. It was packed, which the K is not really used to, but we were close enough to the field that we could see the MLB Network stage and they handed out different colored shirts for everyone to put on before the game started so the inside of the park looked like a flag. It was neat. The best part was when the teams lined up and they announced the starting lineups. Well, that and we were about five seats (across the aisle) from Charlie Sheen. He stayed in his seat for about half of the first inning and then went who knows where. I restrained myself from yelling “Forget the fastball, Ricky, give ’em the heater.”
@Steve: Ah Kaufmann Stadium is beautiful. I’ve been there a few times in my life. Sounds like a great experience.