It’s lame that Bynum put off his surgery opting to go to the World Cup instead. Even if he thought it was going to be a less serious surgery, he knew he was going to have surgery. I don’t buy his story that he didn’t know what the recovery time would be, anytime you know you are going under the knife, you get all the details from the doctor on the major points like say, recovery time. It was a bonehead move to say the least. Maybe he just thought, if Favre can do it, why not me?!? In the end, Bynum has never played a full season (35, 50, and 65 games), so why start now?!? It really won’t matter if he’s in the lineup for the first month or two. The Lakers are going to be in the playoffs regardless of what Bynum does to start the year, which makes me question how meaningful the regular season is. The Sports Chump brought up a good point that it comes down to three teams that truly have a shot at winning the title (Lakers, Heat, and Celtics), so why all the fuss. There’s always hope of OKC, Orlando, and Chicago pulling out some miracles, but would you really bet on them? In basketball missing a month or two isn’t the worst thing in the world for a team. It hurts, but when we already know who the title contenders are before the season nearly every year, it’s really a non-story. Maybe it matters if you’re a small team, and want to see LA early in the season while Bynum is still out, but that’s beyond a team’s control.
Baseball’s dated playoff system
The MLB has seen an attendance dip for yet another season. Not too surprising in a season with very little drama, and we ended up hearing about Strasburg for four straight months. Alas, we really only have one interesting race to get in the playoffs in the NL West, and that race is all but over, unless the Padres pull out a miracle in SF. Baseball is in a down year because of its lack of star power, but with all the good looking rookies that broke onto the scene this year, I’d say the future is very bright. It’s been brought up in hundreds of articles that the MLB playoffs should be changed to make it more interesting at the end of the year. I agree with most of them. We have a great race between Tampa and New York, but since home field really doesn’t mean crap in baseball this isn’t, and shouldn’t be getting much attention. Baseball is by far the slowest evolving sport, and has batted around the idea of instant replay for what seems like a decade. We already debated about instant replay, and unless you hate Armando Gallaraga you’d agree that getting the calls right are more important than anything, but the MLB continues to stay behind on the technology curve, and has chosen to stay in the simpler times of cassette tapes and VHS’s. We could upgrade to at least DVD’s and CD’s if we aren’t ready for IPod’s and Blue Rays, but I don’t think Selig’s great grandkids have told him what those are yet. I’d like to see more teams in the playoffs like two more in each league with a total of three wild card teams. Does that diminish the regular season? A little, but there’s ways around that to reward the division winners with some perks. Have the wild card winners play each of the division winners, but start a best of seven series at 2-0 in the division champs favor. Maybe even make the all the games at the division winners home stadium, so they only have to win two of five games to advance. Would that give the Yankees and Rays some incentive to play out this final week? I would certainly think so…
Lost in the Sunday sports shuffle I forgot fall was upon us. I was as excited about seeing the new “Eastbound and Down” series premiere as I was about the football games. There were a lot of shows just getting started, but this one was like watching the Raiders game for me. It didn’t disappoint, opening up with a messy cock fight, and ending with Kenny being left by his new Mexican homies, and returning to the mound. I’d recommend Eastbound and Down to any sportsfan, especially the ones that liked the movie Major League. Kenny Powers is basically a washed up Ricky Vaughn trying to remake himself into a star again. His mission is to convince himself, and everyone around him that he is still the best. There are classic lines every 2 minutes. Before we get to the real reason for the post, I’m wondering why didn’t I bet against every team that clinched a playoff spot yesterday, sans the Twins. They all lost, and hopefully typing this out will be a mental note to bet on those games after a team clinches a playoff spot in baseball. On to football, last week neither of us did well. I can’t get to .500, and By is going to have to have a helluva week to make up for this past one. Our results have me questioning if we can right the ship faster than the Raiders and 49ers!?! Hopefully so, or we could be in for a loooong season.
Well, I was absolutely destroyed last week. I know I hit on 1/3 of my picks, but I don’t even want to look back at the two teams that came through for me. Metaphorically speaking, last week was like eating a bad burrito that gave me the runs, now that it’s out of my system, I just want to forget about it. I know it isn’t poetic, but it describes exactly how I feel. But, as Jay-Z would say, “On To The Next One.”
Results for week 3 (Chap 3-3-0, By 2-4-0) Overall (Chap 8-9-1, By 5-8-2)
Denver @ Tennessee (-7)
By picks Tennessee (-7) Josh McDaniels was looking like a genius around this time last season, as his Broncos were undefeated and all the buzz. Unfortunately they haven’t replicated the fast start in 2010, and heading into Week 4, things just got worse with the announcement of Knowshon Moreno missing his second straight game with a hamstring injury. Kyle Orton has done a great job as the interim QB, but it hasn’t translated to wins. Ultimately, Denver doesn’t have enough threats to compete with Tennessee. For the Titans, Chris Johnson is a beast, we don’t have to get into it about him, what it all comes down to Vince Young. If you throw away the Pittsburgh game, he’s done a good job directing the ship, and after dismantling the Giants in New York last week, I’ve seen enough from the Titans to feel confident in having them cover.
I must really be fired up about this AL Cy Young race, because it’s the second post I’ve done on it, and I rarely go back to any subject I previously poured out my views on a post, but hearing people argue that CC should win it aggravated me enough to write a post on it again. It’s obviously a two man race for the AL Cy Young Award, and both Felix and CC made their final starts of the year last night. Like I said back in August, it was Felix’s award to lose. If anything Felix has strengthened his case over the last month and a half. Since I wrote in the original post (end of August) that it was Felix’s Cy Young to lose, they both have the same record (3-2), are within a few innings pitched of each other, have about the same K’s as each other, but CC’s ERA is two full points higher over that span. CC just happened to win his 21st game during that time span, which made more people jump on his bandwagon. Does that make him a better choice for the award? I don’t think so, because I don’t value wins and losses all that much. The award is supposed to be given to the best pitcher period, not the best pitcher on the best team. Greinke winning the award should show us that you don’t have to be on a good team, same with Cliff Lee on the Indians. Over the whole year it’s easy to see who should win the award. They both had the same amount of starts (34), but Felix threw 12 more innings, had nearly one less run on his ERA (0.91 lower), struck out 35 more hitters, and threw four more complete games (6 total) than CC. I will argue for King Felix on the points that I keep seeing light on why CC should be the winner. One last stat, 12 of 13 pitchers that held the lead in strikeouts and ERA won the award, so I’m hoping that it doesn’t go to 12 out of 14 this year.
Argument: CC won 21 games on the best team.
I know CC has won 21 games, but he’s on a team that scored the most runs in the league by nearly 50. Conversely, Felix is on a team that scored 70 less runs than anyone else in the league. You tell me which guy you’d put money on to win more games. Hell, I’d probably would’ve put money on AJ Burnett or Javier Vasquez to have more wins than Felix. If wins are so important, why aren’t Lester, Pavano, and Verlander in those Cy Young talks? They still could get 20 wins, and are comparable to CC in ERA and K’s.
I’m not usually big on gushing about every new site I run across, but the NBAplaybook.com is the exception to that rule. I spent numerous hours on the site reading most of the myths that they busted. It might not be the site for you if you aren’t into basketball, but yesterday they broke down a subject near and dear to me on whether Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis can play together, which made me want to write a post to recognize this site. Obviously this matchup is a nightmare for any team when they are on offense, but can be exposed when they are on defense. Monta has backed off his original statement from last year which is refreshing, so hopefully the mythbusters are right and they can play well together. If you love analysis and overanalyzing things like free throws, footwork, and Dwight Howards post game, then you will love this site. Just be sure you have some time to read for a bit!
I found myself saddened by the Bills decision to cut Trent Edwards today. It’s strangely the second pro athlete my mom has met since I left NorCal, and I was more excited to hear about her encounter with Ricky Williams, but Trent Edwards wasn’t a terrible silver medal. Edwards happens to be my mom’s neighbor’s wife’s cousin, so she has seen him a few times here and there. Anyways, the reason for this post wasn’t to be sad about Edwards getting the axe in Buffalo, but more to be happy that the Raiders couldn’t have selected a solid quarterback out of that 2007 draft when they gave their fate to arguably the biggest draft bust in the history of busts selecting Jamarcus. It might have been one of the ugliest classes in decades, unless Kolb somehow grabs the job from Vick (don’t hold your breathe for that one) it was a horrible draft for QB’s. It’s always fun to see where the top QB’s for the first 100 picks of that magical 2007 draft are today.
#1 Overall – Jamarcus Russell
I’ve said all I can say about this guy, but right now he’s probably pounding some sizznurup hoping the UFL will give him a call.
#22 Overall – Brady Quinn
He’s now hanging out in Denver behind Tim Tebow(another over drafted QB) of all people. I guess if Orton got hurt, he might see the field, but if his resume isn’t bust material I don’t know your definition of a bust is.
#32 Overall – Kevin Kolb
Can’t call him a bust yet, but can’t call him much of a success when Vick has already supplanted him as the starter in Philly after 6 quarters against bad teams. I’m not a beliver yet, but I guess there’s a chance he could be good…
#40 Overall – John Beck
Who? Took me a minute to remember who he was too. Miami didn’t like him all that much, now he’s a third stringer in Washington, not exactly a successful 2nd round pick.
#43 Overall – Drew Stanton
Another who? Is there an owl nearby or something?!? He is holding down the backup spot on Detroit right now, but when Stafford gets back on the field he’ll move down the depth chart.
#92 Overall – Trent Edwards
Just got cut, so the way I see it, if Kolb sucks the Raiders didn’t make a terrible choice in drafting Jamarcus, there was simply nothing to work with out of this QB class, so we were doomed no matter who ended up coming to Oakland.
The NBA has decided to expand what rules they will use in handing out Techincal Fouls for the upcoming season. Are they kidding?!? They tried to do something similar last year, but didn’t really stick to it thankfully. It will be grinding my gears all season if they actually stick to these god awful rules that are solely based on a refs opinion! Some of the refs already head hunt for certain players they don’t like, and now they can T them up for looking at them the wrong way! Simply ridiculous! Here’s what officials have been instructed to call Technicals for this coming season;
Players making aggressive gestures, such as air punches, anywhere on the court.
Demonstrative disagreement, such as when a player incredulously raises his hands, or smacks his own arm to demonstrate how he was fouled.
Running directly at an official to complain about a call.
Excessive inquiries about a call, even in a civilized tone.
Players who use body language to question or demonstrate displeasure, or say things like, “Come on!”
They can also consider technicals for players who “take the long path to the official”, walking across the court to make their case.
So are they going to turn the players into a bunch of stiffs and mimes? Would yelling at your own teammate like Kobe constantly does a lot get you a T? I’ve always despised the NBA for changing the rules from its heydays where the Detroit bad boys and those mean Knicks teams ruled the 80’s and 90’s with their overly tough play. Those teams were exciting and fun to watch even if I was only 10 years old. I was young, and their style of play didn’t ever offend, scare, or influence me as a boy, it really just showed me what true competitors look like. The NBA took steps to make it tougher on defenders, and I get that, it made sense since some of those games were slightly too physical for a basketball game, and you were constantly wondering when the two tangled up guys were going to fight. Now though, I feel like the league is giving waay too much power to the officials that weren’t all that good to begin with. Shouldn’t the officials be an afterthought rather than the deciding factor? Of course they should, that’s why these rules don’t make sense.
I know Stern is protecting his BFF’s (the refs), so that they can get him the matchups he wants in the playoffs, but stepping up the technicals rules is above and beyond bad. It’s taking the fun out of the game. I don’t want to watch a bunch of robots on the court, unless that’s their style, I’m looking at you Tim Duncan. I like it when guys get fired up and argue calls showing you that they care about winning. If you don’t like any confrontation, maybe you shouldn’t be watching sports, because it’s a big part of every game. I know I get heated when I play pickup games, so I’m sure if a player is getting shafted at their job/on the court they will get pissed too, and rightfully so! I understand rules that protect players from getting injured like how the NFL babies quarterbacks, but what is this supposed to do? Clean up the NBA’s image? I didn’t know that they wanted their image to be as soft as a Justin Bieber song. Sure a lot of the players are “thugs” or trashy people, but who cares, that’s not why we are watching them. We are watching them because of their amazing talents on the court, and if they happen to get pissed off they shouldn’t be penalized in the heat of a battle, unless it’s warranted. I’m not against the technical foul in general, because you need some order, but the new way of handing them out is going to make guys too passive. They already added suspensions for excess technicals during the season. Now for players that probably didn’t deserve a T to begin with are going to be suspended, because they had too many technicals… They will regret implementing these rules in the playoffs when five or six key guys are suspended for games when their tempers are flaring on the ultimate stage.
This week’s lines are brought to you by the legend Kenny Powers!
I can’t quite get to .500 on the season, and By fell just below .500 for the year. It’s always funny to see the games that you weren’t worried about go completely wrong, and the ones that you questioned picking, coming through without a hitch. I guess it just shows you how good those damn odds makers are, and just how much parody there is in the NFL, but they can be beat, and that shouldn’t be an excuse! Even if I’m more indecisive than all these head coaches are with picking a starting QB, it doesn’t mean that I can’t pick a winner, right?!? Now that I’ve completely lost you, I’m going to try to make this week’s picks without bias, ie. I’m not going to pick teams that I want to win! Rule number two for the week; if you see both of us pick the same team in the same game immediately pick the opposite way. We are 0-2 in games we both picked the same team; hopefully the odds will even us out soon.
Like Vernon Davis, I fell flat on my face on the guarantee to win ’em all. I finished a dismal 1-2-2 last week, but honestly, I thought I came out better than that. Philly was up big, and Oakland had St. Louis at home. Those two should have been a lock to cover, but I check the final scores, and both teams let me down. So this week I’m stepping my game up, not only more focused on spotting the winning lines, but I’m picking a career high six games! So I’m giving you the quantity for sure, and perhaps … the … quality? I guess we’ll find out come Sunday. On to the picks!
Week 2 Results (Chap 3-3, By 1-2-2) Overall Results (Chap 5-6-1, By 4-4-1) Continue reading
It was announced all over today that our new Warriors regime (Lacob and Gruber) would like a fresh start this training camp without Don Nelson holding the keys to their new investment. They can’t officially make moves for the team, but they made it clear to Cohan and Co. that they’d like Keith Smart at the helm to start this season. As By said, the Smart era is upon us! As much bashing as Nellie took over the last two seasons it’s hard to remember why they wanted him in the first place, but looking back he was easily my favorite Warriors coach of my lifetime, and for that I thank him for bringing me some joy in the postseason which is more than I can say about any of the other coaches they had.
Growing up people always wondered why I liked the Warriors. It was hard to justify, but in the late 80’s Nellie made me a huge fan throwing together the Run TMC package of Mullin, Hardaway, and Richmond. Sarunas Marcuilloneus is still my favorite international player of all time. From that moment on, I was going to be a Warriors fan for life, and going to their games every time I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa probably added to it as well. He retooled the dubs with Spreewell and Chris Webber after the Run TMC days were over. Nellie’s teams made the playoffs in four out of his seven years as the Warriors coach. Little did I know then that they wouldn’t make the playoffs for a loooong time after he left, because the beginning of the Cohan Era started in 1995.
His second stint with the Warriors was highlighted by his inability to get along with players, and that shouldn’t have come to a surprise to the fans, since he was behind selling Chris Webber away for a poo poo platter after just getting ROY honors. Alas, he did give us a magical season in 2007. It was probably one of the most exciting teams to watch in the league, unless you’re a big fan of defense for some reason. The year after they won the most games of anyone to miss the playoffs, so he still hadn’t lost the team yet, but that offseason he broke everyone up starting with Baron. Even in this day in age where we only remember what was said last, I still love the guy, even though he was the main catalyst behind breaking up two good teams. He gave me the best basketball for my team during my lifetime, and I’m grateful for that no matter whatever other stuff happened. I wish him the best, and hope that the Smart Era isn’t like the Montgomery, Carlesimo, Musselman, and St. Jean Eras. It can’t be worse than them, and it looks like our new owners actually want to acquire talent that fits together. I’m cracking a Bud Light right now just for you Nellie!
It’s no secret, during any sports off season I wish that sport was starting it’s season already. Basketball is no different, and with the World Championships over there’s not a lot of entertaining hoops going on, so instead of heading into the past like MCeezy did, I’ll have to make due with amateur’s playing in a one on one tourney at Alcatraz. The venue makes it more entertaining than it actually might be!
With the win over the Pats yesterday, the Jets celebrated like they won the Super Bowl IN week 2. WTF!?!
Now that we have two weeks in the books, there are some undefeated teams that look for real, and some that seem lucky to have two wins two weeks into the season. Surprisingly we are already down to only 8 teams that haven’t lost, and if the shocker of the weekend doesn’t happen with the 49ers taking down the Saints, it should stay that way. KC, Tampa, and Chicago are all shockers in my book, considering most people didn’t have them penciled in for their 2nd win before their respective bye weeks. Here’s my rankings for the top 8, with New Orleans in last, because the MNF game is still in progress, and they aren’t undefeated yet.
#1 Green Bay – The pack didn’t do anything to make me think that they aren’t a contender to make the Super Bowl this past weekend. By far the best all around team on the list. I think I’ll be picking them all year long no matter what the spread is. Remember that epic Patriots team that put up huge numbers every week like a video game in 2007? This team is looking like them, good all over the field.
#2 Pittsburgh – I’m not sure how they beat Tennessee and Atlanta, oh wait no, I do know why, their defense! They are 100-0 with Polamalu, and his $1M hair in the lineup. He is the X-factor much more than Big Ben is. The Steelers never have more than one down year, so this success is no fluke.
#3 Houston – Their win over the Colts was HUGE for their mentality going into the rest of the year. I picked them the last two years to make the playoffs, and now that I didn’t pick them, they are tearing it up, go figure…
#4 Chicago – There’s noway I thought the Bears would be good this year. Cutler hadn’t shown much of anything since the trade, but it looks like he finally found a couple of guys to throw to, and actually has the best passer rating in the league, no, that stat is not a typo. Enjoy the undefeated season while it last Bears fans, your next opponent is the Packers.
#5 Miami – Brandon Marshall is exactly what they needed. A receiver that teams will have to double team, and maybe open up a couple more running lanes! Their defense is actually better than I expected it to be too. Maybe all those young players are better than advertised. We will see exactly how good this Dolphins team is when they line up against the Jets this weekend.
#6 Tampa Bay – What!?! Freeman is leading the Bucs to a 2-0 start!?! I still can’t believe they curb stomped the Panthers this weekend, but low and behold this is a new Bucs team, and Freeman is much better than I thought well, his non-five interception game against Carolina made him look good. They need to beat a good team before I buy anything they are selling.
#7 Kansas City – Anyone can beat the Browns, but they beat the Chargers, and made them look bad for good portions of that game. They’ve been lacking a direction for years, and it looks like they might have found one on defense and special teams. Does that win you the AFC West? Maybe, but they will need something from the passing game…
#8 New Orleans – They are up 9-0 in the first quarter, but I can’t call that a win, because there’s a ton of time left. The Saints look like they should win if it keeps going the way it has so far though. A win would probably launch them into the top three knocking Houston down a spot, but we will see what kind of fight the Niners have in them for the final three quarters.
I know, I know, this video is a few months old. I seem to find myself going back to it every few weeks though, and the reason I brought it back out, is because this weekend I’m heading to a wedding for one of my college buddies. I’m going to see two of my good college friends there that just became fathers. I figured it was only right to post this video of how gangster dad’s are these days, and use it as a dedication to my homies and their new seeds. Hopefully this music video takes you into the weekend with a good laugh if you haven’t already seen it.
No, I’m not talking about my favorite EA basketball video game, NBA Street. I’m talking about skateboarding! I work for Quiksilver at their headquarters in Huntington Beach California if you didn’t know. Naturally I’m plugged into the action sports industry happenings. This year, Rob Dyrdek’s dream came to fruition with the new Street League, and I really wasn’t sure how it would play out when I first heard about it. He pulled together DC Shoes (a company owned by Quiksilver) and Monster to sponsor his skateboarding Street League. Growing up I was much more into snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding, and eventually surfing to a lesser extent over the ball and stick sports, but the appeal went away when my free time dwindled. I was never a huge fan of how you couldn’t really declare a winner or call someone “the best” for any of these sports since it’s subjective to whose style you like, but Rob created a league that comes very close to finding a true winner. I do watch some of the X-games, but only for the good events, like the street skate, and find myself more into the contests they show on FuelTV than the X-games ones. To this day, I have so much respect for the pounding that these guys take just to get this good. In my opinion skateboarding is by far the hardest of the action sports to learn, and is probably why I love watching the street skating contests. This contest series really does embody all that is street skating. Last night the first leg of the Street League competition was aired on ESPN, and after watching it, I knew I had to write why you should be watching it too. Skateboarding is probably the most popular non ball and stick sport, and Rob Dyrdek is taking it to a whole new level showcasing the best of the best.
Even if you don't like skateboarding, you had to love Rob & Big when they were on MTV!
Rob’s vision was like nothing we’ve seen from the skateboarding world. He threw out the old style/formats for contests where you can go where ever you want on the street course to make a run that suits your abilities, and instead he made it so the skaters would have seven trick attempts for a specified obstacle in the skate park. Dyrdek basically threw out the whole timed run type of contest, which already made it a better platform for a skating event, since nobody is timed when they are street skating, unless a security guard calls the cops. Last night they had four obstacles set up where each skater was given seven tries to do tricks on that obstacle. This brings out some strategy within the contest. If you go for a big trick and don’t land it, you get zero points. If you do an “easy” trick, you don’t get that many points, but it’s much better than bailing. Nyjah Huston ended up winning the event, and I was happy for the 15 year old. He has a silky smooth style that makes everything look effortless. Plus being from Norcal (Davis), always made me root for him a little more or maybe I just get mesmerized by the flowing dreadlocks. If you don’t know who I’m talking about you can check out clips of him ripping hard here and here. Anyways, this contest came down to the wire, and Nyjah laid it on the line throwing down HUGE tricks that the judges rewarded him with high scores to take over first place, and ultimately winning the contest for him. He had a habit of finishing second in nearly every contest I’ve watched him in, so it was great to see him get his first win, and the $150K check to go along with it.
Nyjah throwing down a switch noseslide.
The genius part of this whole league is how Rob made it have the feel of ball and stick sports game. Each trick is scored live before the next guy goes, so you can see the names jumping up and down the leader board with the real time scoring after each contestant goes, so the scoring looks kinda like a basketball game where you can’t win on the first couple obstacles, but you can definitely lose if you fall too much. What makes it feel like a sporting event? The simple fact that all these contest are going to be held in arenas in front of a crowd oohing and ahhhing over the tricks. Supposedly nearly all of them have been sold out. It’s a big step up from the X-games in terms of declaring a true winner, and I think it will help the sport grow/conform for the viewers. It might not ever be as big as the major sports, but it could give the NHL a run for their money!
How can we be sure that these are really the best 24 skaters there? Well, it’s by invite only, and there’s no way any of the top skaters would turn down the invitation to compete. There’s $1.2M in prize money, and $150K up for grabs at each venue. They also throw $5K to the skater with the best trick (highest scored trick of the night), so even if someone isn’t doing all that well, they can go for huge tricks that have a high failure rate to win that backup prize. If you missed the contest last night, don’t worry, they are going to show all three of the contests on ESPN. As an added bonus Rob and Steve Berra are doing the commentating which is much better than listening to Tony Hawk during the play by play during the X-games.
Week one didn’t go bad, but it didn’t go all that well either. I went a less than impressive (2-3-1), while By kept it mediocre with a 2-2 start. Now that we’ve seen a whole week of football action, we are experts and shouldn’t miss another pick for the rest of the year, right!?! I’m still shocked that By called that Texans game. I actually could see the Colts winning the next nine games without anyone noticing. I don’t buy TMQ’s argument that this is Armageddon because the Texans won, but do agree it would be hilarious if Houston ended up playing in the Super Bowl in Jerry Jones billion dollar stadium. Anyways, this should be another fun week, and I’m excited to win the money back that I lost in week one, so here are our picks for week 2!
What a roller coaster opening week for me. I hit the ground running like a Chris Johnson breakaway, after my prediction of the Texans upsetting the Colts came true. I began imagining myself hoisting up the “I Told You So” trophy after that one. Unfortunately that image shattered immediately, as the Houston/Indy game didn’t equate to the biggest upset of the day. The biggest upset of the day went to me. Because I was so damn upset at my 49ers! What a waste of one and a half hours of a beautiful Sunday afternoon. As you can guess, I stopped watching midway through. Anyway, to brighten up my mediocre week, let me just say, “How about ‘dem Cowboys, huh!?” I wanted to stay away from the Jets/Ravens game, but ultimately couldn’t resist. I originally wanted to take KC over SD, but couldn’t pull the trigger on another significant upset. Lesson learned, always go with the gut. But like Chappy said, we learned everything I needed to know about all the teams after the first week, and ala Vernon Davis, I predict we win on all of our picks the rest of the way! Continue reading
With about three weeks left there are a TON of good looking rookies in the NL. For awhile I thought it was Jaime Garcia, then Buster Posey took a slight lead, then Gaby Sanchez, and now Jason Heyward is remaking his case for the ROY award with a hot streak. What I’ve found most interesting about the NL ROY race is that guys like Mike Stanton have 20 homers, Tyler Colvin has 19 homers, Ike Davis has 18 homers, Neil Walker has a .306 average, John Axeford has 21 saves, Stephen Strasberg was insanely good for a bit, and none of these guys are going to be considered for the award. It’s has been an insane year for the youth in the NL, and will probably be just like the NL West race coming down to who has the best final weeks of the season. I’m going to take a look at the top five candidates, and try to figure out which one is the best choice. I’m already leaning towards Heyward during his resurgence, and being in the big leagues all year helps his case. Gaby Sanchez is so underrated that I feel like I should almost just pick him for shock value, but I just can’t do it. Here’s my thoughts on the top five candidates in no particular order. I heavily weighted one thing in my list, and that was the word YEAR, as in playing a complete season. Continue reading
The Rangers have gotten a ton of play on the MLB network over the past month or so. I can’t remember seeing more of their games on TV at any point in my life. They’ve earned those televised games, as they are the clearly the class of the AL West, and playing as good as any team in the league right now. They usually fade during July and August when their home field turns into a launching pad, but not this year. I was hoping for an implosion from them, so maybe the A’s would be able to sneak into the playoffs, but that’s like hoping for the Raiders to show up in back to back games. Once again, I’m starting to wonder if the A’s are cursed. Not because of the numerous injuries they suffered for a third straight year, but because we let Ron Washington go. I’d much rather have Washington as the manger over Geren, but Beane was very pro Geren, so we’re stuck with the schlep. Until A’s fortunes change, I think we are still under The Curse of the Wash. Normally I’d root against the AL West winner if it wasn’t the A’s, but I found myself pulling for the Rangers to succeed this postseason.
The Rangers sweep over the Yankees showed us exactly what they’ve been doing well all year long. Come from behind to win. They came back to win two of the three games, and even made one of those comebacks while Rivera was on the mound. That kind of win can’t be understated when it comes playoff time, and just knowing that they have already beaten up the most dominant closer of all time is a feather in the cap. They also had their ace (Cliff Lee) back on the hill to close out the sweep. It was his first start in two weeks. He showed how healthy he was shutting the Yankees down for 8 innings giving up only one run. It’s only the second time all season the Yankees got swept! What made this even more impressive was that they didn’t need their MVP candidate Josh Hamilton, who is still out with a bruised up ribcage. There’s no rush to get Hamilton back, since they do have a commanding lead in the West (8 ½ games). Now that the Yankees and Rays starting to come back to earth a little, does this give the Twins and Rangers an edge? I’d probably put both of them above the TB and NY on power rankings if I made them right this moment. I’m already envisioning an ALCS matchup between Minnesota and Texas. Maybe that’s a little presumptuous, but if Morneau and Hamilton come back healthy, who’s to say that these two teams are the favorites to make it to the ALCS?
Another thing I’ve noticed about this Rangers team is their swagger factor. It’s crazy how together these guys are. Early in the season after they took out the Angels in the opener of a series in June, right after the final out of the game was recorded Ian Kinsler was out there yelling for them to “get off our field”, as the Angels were heading to the showers. At the time I thought Kinsler was just being the dickhead he is, but now months later I think it was a statement of things to come. It was like they finally believed in themselves before anyone else did, and knew they weren’t going to have a collapse when the weather got hot. They were no longer going to be a pushover and would play every game hard, just the way Wash would’ve played. They were paying attention to more details than they used to, even doing the small ball stuff that wins games utilizing their speed in Bobon and Andrus. We will see if they can continue their good play through the last 19 games. I don’t see any reason for them to slow down since they don’t have the division locked up yet, but they are in as good of a position possible for a solid postseason run, and can let guys like Josh Hamilton and Cliff Lee take some extra rest if it’s needed. I’m glad my prediction of who would win the AL West is working out thus far!
Bynum’s surgery
The MLB has seen an attendance dip for yet another season. Not too surprising in a season with very little drama, and we ended up hearing about Strasburg for four straight months. Alas, we really only have one interesting race to get in the playoffs in the NL West, and that race is all but over, unless the Padres pull out a miracle in SF. Baseball is in a down year because of its lack of star power, but with all the good looking rookies that broke onto the scene this year, I’d say the future is very bright. It’s been brought up in hundreds of articles that the MLB playoffs should be changed to make it more interesting at the end of the year. I agree with most of them. We have a great race between Tampa and New York, but since home field really doesn’t mean crap in baseball this isn’t, and shouldn’t be getting much attention. Baseball is by far the slowest evolving sport, and has batted around the idea of instant replay for what seems like a decade. We already debated about instant replay, and unless you hate Armando Gallaraga you’d agree that getting the calls right are more important than anything, but the MLB continues to stay behind on the technology curve, and has chosen to stay in the simpler times of cassette tapes and VHS’s. We could upgrade to at least DVD’s and CD’s if we aren’t ready for IPod’s and Blue Rays, but I don’t think Selig’s great grandkids have told him what those are yet. I’d like to see more teams in the playoffs like two more in each league with a total of three wild card teams. Does that diminish the regular season? A little, but there’s ways around that to reward the division winners with some perks. Have the wild card winners play each of the division winners, but start a best of seven series at 2-0 in the division champs favor. Maybe even make the all the games at the division winners home stadium, so they only have to win two of five games to advance. Would that give the Yankees and Rays some incentive to play out this final week? I would certainly think so…
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cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 