Thursday, November 29, 2007
Pitt Baskeball
It's always nice to go to one of the major sports sites and find an interesting article about something you haven't heard too much about. I recently found an article about the Pitt Basketball team. I know the college hoops season is just beginning but I hadn't heard or read a word about Pitt since the season began. This is probably Pitt's star player graduated and that automatically makes them worse than last year. This isn't always true sometimes a team could be as good better even without it's star player. According to the article this could be true for Pitt because the team is off to a very good start and will probably get better as the season goes along. I will post the article for those of you who would like to give it a look.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Johan Santana, Small market baseball
It would be nice to see Johan Santana pitch for someone other than the Yankees or Red sox next season. The Twins will trade him to the team that gives them the most talent in return and that could very well be the Yankees. If they are going to trade Santana they almost have to get one of the Yankees young pitchers in return or the deal would not be worth it. The same thing is true if they were to trade him to the Red Sox and I think the Twins organization is smart enough to realize that. They are very few teams that are better at scouting and developing young talent. It will be crushing for Twins fans to see Santana go but they shouldn't become totally hopeless. They have Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau two of the best young hitters in baseball and when you combine that with a healthy Fransisco Liriano and their other up and coming young pitchers you have the makings of a team that could once again contend if they avoid injuries. The worst thing about this situation is the fact that the Twins are like a lot of other teams in baseball they scout and develop great young talent who go on to star for big market teams when they can no longer afford them. I would like to see more of a balance of power in baseball because it makes the game more exciting. Sometimes these "Small market" teams will develop so much talent that they will win the World Series before their players become too expensive to keep around. The 2003 Florida Marlins are my favorite example of this, they had a lot more talent on that team than most people realized and they really shocked the baseball world. I happened to live in Miami at the time and I can tell you that they took the city by storm. It was a fun thing to watch. The one thing about that team that set it apart was Ivan Rodriguez and the Marlins had to spend some money to get him. The Twins don't look like a team that is ever willing to spend extra money to get that type of a player the kind of player that can put a young team over the top.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Wes Welker!
When you live in Miami it's hard not to watch the Dolphins play and for the last few years they have been a train wreck. Before this season one of the few bright spots on the team was Wes Welker an undersized receiver from Texas Tech who played hard nosed all out, all the time football and did whatever the coaches asked of him. Kind of like another undersized player from Texas Tech who played linebacker you know Zach Thomas. The Dolphins always appreciated Thomas but they sure didn't appreciate Wes Welker because they basically gave him to the Patriots and look whats happening now. Wes Welker is finally getting the respect and attention he deserves while playing on of the best teams in decades. I love the way the Patriots have used him this season and I would love to see him in the Pro bowl even though he probably won't make it. I'm sure a Super Bowl trophy will do just fine instead...
Invincible?
The New England Patriots finally looked human last night. The Eagles played probably their best game of the season and it would have been even sweeter for them to get the victory but they should take pride in the fact that they gave them one hell of a football game. Not many teams have been able to do that this season. It would be stupid of me to diss the Patriots when everyone who's watched them knows that there playing better than any team has in years but it was getting to the point where people were predicting how many points they would score in the dismantiling of their opponets. This brings the noise about them down a decibel or two at least for this week anyway. They are a great team but this game showed people that anything can happen. In the playoffs who knows who will get hot just at the right time. It could be the Patriots or it could be anyone else that happens to survive the harsh regular season.
Friday, November 23, 2007
It's just keeps getting better
For as long as I've been a fan of college football I've wished that there was a playoff system. It's always seemed screwy to me for a sport to pick certain teams to play for a title while leaving others out of the equation. I'm not changing my mind about that but this year in college football is different for a lot of reasons. Its fun to see the best teams get upset by the underdogs and this year that has happened more than any other year I can remember. It just happened again tonight when LSU was defeated by Arkansas 50-48 in triple overtime. It was one of the best college football games of the season and the top ranked team lost again. I love this kind of unpredictability in sports it's what makes it fun to watch. Even after all the upsets this year most of the analysts that cover the game were plugging LSU into the national title game. Some people just never learn, how long will it take for these guys to realize that any team can lose at anytime this season. That's what makes this year great, I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Kobe Bryant and the Lakers
When the season started it wasn't a matter of If Kobe was going to get traded it was when but to every one's surprise that's definitely changed. The Lakers are playing well and Kobe is playing team basketball by distributing the ball to his teammates and taking about 20 shots a game. Lamar Odom is back and Jordan Farmar is playing much better than he did last year. This looks like a much better Laker's squad than people we've seen in a few years. Maybe Kobe is vetoing all those trades because he's decided he doesn't want to go anywhere after all. I think the Lakers have always had more talent than people have given them credit for, they're young and they just need to be given a chance to play. Another reason they are playing better is the lack of injuries. They were never healthy last year and hopefully they can stay healthy this year. I'm not getting ahead of myself I know it's a long season but it's just exciting to see them playing well after almost everyone wrote them off.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Congratulations Jimmy Rollins
It was very nice to see that Jimmy Rollins won the National League MVP today he is absolutely one of my favorite players in the game. He isn't flashy he just does everything well including the occasional burst of power. But Rollins is at his best when he's setting the table for his teammates like Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. It's nice to see the MVP award given to a lead off hitter because in most cases I believe that lead off hitters are underapprciated in the game today. Everyone wants to hit the long ball and while homeruns are fun to watch they are really just an exciting bonus. Manufacturing runs has become a lost art in a lot of places in the game but I think that's the way the game should be played it just feels right that way. Baseball doesn't have to boring if it's played that way either, speed is a very exciting part of the game and Jimmy Rollins is fun to watch because he could steal a base at any time. If that wasn't enough he's also a great defensive short stop who just happened to win the gold glove this year.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Kevin Durant is still in school
Kevin Durant may have thought he left school for good when he went to the NBA but no my friend that was not the case, Mr. Durant is now in the NBA school of hard knocks. He's going to get knocked around a lot before he becomes the player that everyone around him knows he can be. He is very young very slim and new to the game but instead of learning by watching Durant is learning by being out there every night and doing his best to get better. He is the number one guy on the Sonics right now and that's a lot of pressure to put on a kid. Things have come easy for him up to this point but now he's learning how tough it is night in and night out to play in the NBA. I think this experience will only benefit him in the long run and he will become a better player because of it. What you can expect out of Mr. Durant right now is inconsistency, in some games we will get to see flashes of brilliance and in other games he will seem like a kid playing on a court with a bunch of men. As long as he keeps his head up and doesn't get weighed down by the pressure Kevin Durant will get better every game and every season that he's out on that court.
LSU should not be number 1 Kansas Should
College Football is the only sport in the world that discriminates against Teams that haven't lost a game. Kansas is 10-0 and they should absolutely be the No. 1 team in the country. Their two biggest tests of the season are coming up when they play Missouri and Oklahoma two teams that are in the top ten. Then they have to win the Big 12 championship, if they can win all of those games there is no question they should be and hopefully will be playing in New Orleans. The way this college football season has gone the chances of them winning all those games is very slim. However, I'm not talking about that yet this is about who should be no. 1 right now and it should absolutely be the Jayhawks, because get this ? They haven't lost a game.
Don't get too carried away it's a long season
Its fun to see the Celtics getting off to such a good start this season it's good for the fans and it's good for the NBA but people shouldn't take too seriously what's happening this early in the season. The Celtics are proving that they are good but what really counts is what happens in April, May and June not what happens in November. If they can continue to play this well and beat teams like San Antonio and Dallas during the regular season then that will give us an even better indication of how they will do in the post season. There's just something that seems right about seeing the Celtics be a dominant team again. It seems like old times... But don't get carried away just yet.
Good for C.C.
I'm really glad that C.C. Sabathia won the Cy Young. I really think he deserved it, because he was the best pitcher in the American League during the regular season and that's what the award should be about. I'm sure he would give the award back in a second if doing so would give the Indians a spot in the World Series. Of course that can't happen and I think the entire team is still reeling from that collapse against the Red Sox but this should take a little bit of the sting out of it at least it for C.C anyway. For the last few years the postseason awards have become more and more about Post Season achievements and less about what is done in the regular season. I know that the bottom line in sports is to win championships but the MVP and the Cy Young should be about what that player did during the regular season not what that player did or didn't do during the post season. We shouldn't give the awards to the best players on the Red Sox or Rockies just because they made it to the World Series. The fact that Sabathia won the award today is a sign that I'm not the only one that feels this way.
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