Jesus what a completely pathetic defensive effort. You name it, the Gophers did or didn't do it. They didn't close out on shooters. They got confused on their defensive scheme which led to not switching when they were supposed to and open lay-ups for Northwestern. The continually went under screens instead of over the top and then made no real strong effort to get in a shooters face. They got lost on back cuts. They allowed offensive rebounds like candy, including on missed free throws which should be grounds for a lawsuit in some way I don't know I'm not a lawyer. A five foot nothin' lesbian ball boy was able to get to the rim at will. Just a completely putrid effort. Combine that with an offense that seemed confused in the second half and completely went away from what worked in the first game and the half (can anyone actually tell me why they completely quit going inside when it's the whole reason they won the first game?). Credit Northwestern with playing better defense and knocking down all those wide open shots, but this was a truly terrible game by the Gophers. Now they need to win 2 of the next three (Michigan State, Indiana, @Wisconsin). LOL. Can't wait for baseball!
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Murray State Racers. I've gone on record here as saying I'm not remotely a believer in Murray State, but after they waxed St. Mary's with ease in their Bracket Busters game on Saturday I've definitely seen a bit of a tick in the "I believe" direction on my "Do I believe in Murray State"-inator which I always wear on my wrist. They just completely dominated the game from beginning to end, and St. Mary's is a very good team. They did turn it over 15 times, but overcame that by shooting the lights out and winning by 14. I can't quite throw my support behind them yet as being for real and I'd love to see them play one more good team to get a real sense of how good they are, but sadly they won't play another good team until the tournament. The tournament which, by the way, they are an absolute lock for now no matter what else happens.
2. Other Bracket Buster winners. Besides Murray State some other teams picked up very big wins this weekend. Wichita State moves into lock territory after knocking off Davidson, while VCU (beat Northern Iowa), Drexel (crushed Cleveland State on the road), George Mason (over Lamar), Weber State (over UT-Arlington) and Iona (beat Nevada) all jump up from "probably not" to "we better take a look" status thanks to their wins. Their were some huge wins outside of Bracket Busters as well, and probably none bigger than Kansas State's win over Baylor which is absolutely a monster for their profile. Middle Tennessee State continued to roll through the the Sun Belt (they can afford zero losses prior to the Sun Belt Championship game), while South Florida has now moved to 10-4 in the Big East after an easy win at Pitt. The overall profile is still a bit lacking but you can't ignore them anymore. And finally, although they're not in consideration for an at-large, Loyola Marymount had a huge week, beating St. Mary's and then winning their Bracket Buster match-up against Valpo and that now gives them three wins over RPI Top 50 teams. Which is pretty much their entire resume, so yeah. Oh, and Harvard beat Yale, so that was good too.
3. Oakland A's. When I first saw the news that the A's had signed Yoenis Cespedes, the cuban defecting outfielder and supposed superstar, I was just stunned and was wondering what the hell Billy Beane was doing. I mean, a team that basically just gutted it's entire roster outbidding everyone else to get a Cuban dude who has never faced major league quality pitching? Bizarre. But when I really stopped to think, it actually makes a lot of sense and is a worthwhile gamble. They got him for 4 years/$36 million which is far less than it was originally thought he'd sign for ($50 mill+), and because of their situation they don't need him to come in a play right away and he can take some time in the minors to assimilate himself. The A's suck now, but are primed to be a contender in a couple of years thanks to a farm system Keith Law ranked as the 9th best in baseball (and that was before this signing) with five guys in Law's Top 100 including three pitchers who project as top of the rotation type guys. Add some hitters, like Cespedes, and Oakland becomes a contender. And seriously, would you rather have Cespedes and his potential at $9 million per year, or Cuddyer at $10+? Cespedes is basically a bargain - a gamble, but a bargain.
4. New Mexico. I'm not entirely certain if a team has EVER had as good a week as the Lobos just did. There are two teams considered as "elite" in the MWC - San Diego State and UNLV. New Mexico, due to a couple of shitty early season losses (to New Mex State and Santa Clara) and losses to both those teams, was considered a step below. Well no more, because this week alone the Lobos beat SDSU at their place by 10 and then stomped UNLV at home by 20 to lock up a bid to the NCAA Tournament and assure the Mountain West will be sending three teams (at least) once again. They're awfully good, and have a great point guard who can control the game in Kendall Williams, plus a star in Drew Gordon (finally) who put up 27 & 20 against the Rebels. Hopefully they don't run the table and then win the MWC Tournament, because I want them to have a lower seed for sleeper potential.
5. Tyus Jones. Jones scored 45 points in a game against some team earlier this week to go along with 7 assists, 7 steals, and 7 rebounds. He also received a scholarship offer from Duke. That now means the Gophers are competing against not only Ohio State and Michigan State but now the freakin' Blue Devils, and Jones has zero interest in staying home and the Gophers' continual mediocrity isn't going to win him over any time soon. If you still believe Jones may end up a Gopher, just remember Naadir Tharpe who looked like he was all set to join the Gophers before Kansas suddenly swooped in out of nowhere with an offer which Tharpe accepted within the week. The Gophers, at present, simply cannot compete for that type of player, and when that player is from here and they still can't get him it just reinforces how big of a wasteland the program is right now. Man do I miss Clem. Sure he cheated, but at least he made the team relevant. I'd kill for relevancy. I'm going to light matches and see how long I can hold my finger in the flame, just so I can feel something.
WHO SUCKED
1. Ralph Sampson. I truly believe this is the last time I'll ever write about Sampson because I think we're pretty much done here. Whether it's his fault or Tubby's (well, probably both) nothing has changed since Day 1 and I think even his most ardent supporters, yours truly, have realized that he's going to go down with Rick Rickert as the biggest disappointment in team history. His numbers are virtually unchanged from his freshman year. He wasn't progressing as much as anybody had hoped, but there was a bit of a progression so you could still hold out hope he would have a monster senior year, and when Mbakwe went down the door was wide open. Rather than going through, however, Ralph timidly shut it and, with a shrug of the shoulders, said "No thank you."
He's never shown any drive or any aggressiveness, and never improved in any way (in fact he's regressed in every possible way other than shooting percentage). He never refined his hook shot, nor added a second move in four years. Seriously he never added another move. And, for all his outside shot promise, he never delivered on that either. I suspect Ralph had the talent, but spent his off seasons not in the gym, but playing nintendo or dominoes or dungeons and dragons or whatever kids do these days. His downside should have been Sam Perkins, but he never even got there. This pretty much sums it up. I'm just pissed I didn't think of it first.
2. Illinois Fighting Illini. As disappointing as the Tubby era has been, at least he's not Bruce Weber. After a pretty rough home loss to Purdue on Wednesday that made four straight defeats and a record of 1-7 in their last 8, Weber gave interviews where he sounded alternately confused (bad look for a coach) and defeated (even worse) and his boss gave an interview where he pretty much went out of his way to say Weber was still his guy. So, naturally, rather than rallying around their coach and coming out all fired up against Nebraska the Illini did what you'd expect them to do and rolled over like a bunch of two-bit hookers. I mean they lost to Nebraska by 23 and it wasn't even that close. The Huskers had walk-ons in with like 3 minutes left in the game. Brandon Paul shot 1-7 and scored 2 points. Terrible game, and it's basically guaranteed that Weber is gone after this year. Illinois has a continual pipeline of talent in Chicago so they'll always be dangerous, so as a Gopher fan I'm very sorry to see Weber go, because with him at the helm you always knew you never had to worry about the Illini.
3. Conference USA. When I did my bubble watch I counted both Southern Miss and Memphis as IN along with a group of other teams with the caveat that none of those teams could handle more than 1 more loss. Well, C-USA, poised to possibly get more than one team in the dance for the first time since 1998*, just kicked itself square in the balls because both Southern Miss and Memphis - the only two teams in the conference with at-large chances - both lost to bad teams this weekend. So Miss lost to Houston and their RPI of 220, while Memphis got dropped by UTEP (RPI 149). If both teams manage to get to the C-USA championship game without another loss I'd expect both to still get in. But if either picks up another loss things are going to be very dicey. I was feel bad for C-USA. It was formed to compete with the big boys and was competitive for a bit, but then was completely raided, is now losing Memphis, and will dissolve and form with the leftovers from the Mountain West and is going to be just completely brutal. Don't forget, Cincinnati, Marquette, and Louisville all used to be C-USA schools, and now the jewel will be what, Marshall? UTEP? Gross. This is like being the black sheep of your family and then quitting your shitty job to join a cult. And not one of the good ones either, more like one that forbids group sex (which I assume is the only reason anyone joins a cult).
4. Mississippi State Tigers. Remember like, not all that long ago when Mississippi State was 6-3 in SEC play and had a non-conference win over West Virginia (RPI 37) and no bad (RPI sub-100) losses and everything was hunky dorey? Well a three game losing streak has included losses to Auburn (RPI 123) and Georgia (RPI 107) and they're now 6-3 and in a wee spot of trouble. They have four games left before the SEC Tournament and one is home against Kentucky and another is on the road at Alabama (which is a very tough game if their dudes are reinstated). And it's sad because any team with Dee Bost, Arnett Moultrie, Rodney Hood, and Renardo Sidney should coast to a bid - I mean there's a reason this team was ranked 15th at one point this year. Although Sidney is still way fat and his game has taken a pretty significant step backwards this year, so that doesn't help. Of course, beating Kentucky this week will solve all ills.
5. NC State Wolfpack. This week was a monster of the Wolfpack who were right on the cusp of the bubble and just needed a marquee win or two to push them towards the top, and the opportunities were there with a game at Duke and then a home contest against Florida State. Everything was looking good as NC State raced out to a 16-point lead at the half and were up 19 with 11 minutes left to play, but then they remembered they aren't supposed to win at Cameron and the refs also must have gotten a little jolt in their brain implanted microchips because Duke ended up winning thanks in part to 16 free throw attempts in the final 10 minutes compared to just seven for NC State and three NC Staters fouled out. So that sucked, but even worse they let that hangover drift into Saturday's game against FSU and got their doors blown off. They still have UNC at home this week, but that's their last chance to get a real good win prior to the ACC Tournament. They're looking like they're a year away, and I say that because their recruiting class next year contains Rivals recruits #6, #23, and #55 and ranks as the fourth best in the country for 2012. And yet Tubby's class for that year contains two 3-star guys. It's like impossible to follow college basketball as closely as I do and not get depressed at least three times about the Gophers.
Two additional quick points and then I'll shut-up:
1. The Gophers weren't the only team who took their NCAA bid hopes and pissed all over them this week. Other than Illinois, Miss State, NC State, and the C-USA teams mentioned above, you also had Davidson (loss to Wichita) who is now done along with Akron (loss to Oral Roberts), and Nevada (loss to Iona). Long Beach is still in pretty solid shape as long as there aren't any major slip-ups, but if they had won at Creighton (lost at the buzzer) they would have punched their ticket. And a few major conference teams, although not killing their chances, hurt them badly including Texas (got smoked by a shitty Oklahoma Stat team) and Arizona (lost to Washington). That win for Washington moves them to12-3 in the Pac-10, but the conference is so incredibly shitty that doesn't guarantee them a bid, not even a little. I read somewhere that the Pac-10 overall was something like 2-25 against the RPI Top 50 outside of conference. That's ridiculous. So bad it's like Tubby Smith's record against them since coming to the Gophers. lol.
2. I really like the A.J. Burnett trade for both sides. The Pirates add a veteran arm who undeniably has some talent to a rotation where almost nobody can name a single starter while not giving up any prospects of particular note while the Yankees pay for most of the contract. The Yankees get rid of a guy who clearly struggled with both the AL East and the NY spotlight and saved enough in the process to turn around and sign Raul Ibanez - a RH DH they desperately needed. And Burnett gets out of New York into a non-pressure and no lose situation, not to mention he gets out to the AL (and specifically the AL East) which can only help. win-win-win.
* = I completely made this up because I didn't feel like actually looking it up
Showing posts with label A.J. Burnett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A.J. Burnett. Show all posts
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Doc Gooden is insane
Real quick:
I loved Dwight Gooden growing up. He was easily the most talented pitcher I had ever seen. He then ruined his career with coke (seriously Damon Wayans character in The Last Boy Scout - which is an awesome awesome movie and if you disagree I will find you and kick you in your balls - was the football version of this guy) and has had some well-publicized battles with drugs. Now he's battled back to be on twitter. Naturally I follow him. He is a Yankee fan. Based on his tweets last night he has a fool proof, 3-point plan to restore the Yankees to glory:
1. Sign Jose Reyes.
2. Trade A.J. Burnett for Jason Bay.
3. Trade the team's top 4 prospects for Felix Hernandez.
Everything about this made me laugh. Just, very quickly:
1. Reyes would actually be perfect for this team - except they signed Jeter to that extension and are still on the hook for $33 million the next two seasons. Reyes isn't going to play 2b with Cano there, and you can't give up on A-Rod after one sub-par season when he's still owed $133 million through 2017 (note: Holy fucking shit! I'm giggling over here.). They only way they're signing Reyes is if they can move Jeter or A-Rod, and they have about as much a chance of that as trading A.J. Burnett.
2. Oh. Right. Trading Burnett was leg 2. It actually makes sense to bring up Bay here, since the Mets are one of the few teams who would at least consider trading for Burnett if it meant they could shed Bay. Both are owed in the low $30 million range for 2 years left each, but Burnett has been awful for 2 years and will be 35 next season, while Bay is two years younger and has more battled injuries than been terrible, and his last full season, although coming two seasons ago, was an awfully good one. In short, this is the kind of trade that I totally get why a Yankee fan would try to sell as realistic, but it really isn't.
3. I don't even care who the other three guys are, you don't trade Jesus. Judas tried that shit and he's now Hitler's love slave, but there's a whole lot of dumb in this idea. The Yankees are getting old. Cano and Brett Gardner were the only regulars under the age of 30 this season, and I'm not sure I'd count on Gardner as a fixture in the outfield. Hughesy and Nova are their only starters under 30. They're old, and right on cue they've actually started developing some young talent - Montero and Cano are studs. There's some good pitching prospects in the pipeline, and they've got a lot of positions covered. They're in good shape. But Gooden's plan is to abandon that and gut the system for one guy - a great pitcher, yes, but yeah no.
In short, I freaking love crazy Dwight Gooden. That is all.
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| Where the hell has this picture been all my life? |
I loved Dwight Gooden growing up. He was easily the most talented pitcher I had ever seen. He then ruined his career with coke (seriously Damon Wayans character in The Last Boy Scout - which is an awesome awesome movie and if you disagree I will find you and kick you in your balls - was the football version of this guy) and has had some well-publicized battles with drugs. Now he's battled back to be on twitter. Naturally I follow him. He is a Yankee fan. Based on his tweets last night he has a fool proof, 3-point plan to restore the Yankees to glory:
1. Sign Jose Reyes.
2. Trade A.J. Burnett for Jason Bay.
3. Trade the team's top 4 prospects for Felix Hernandez.
Everything about this made me laugh. Just, very quickly:
1. Reyes would actually be perfect for this team - except they signed Jeter to that extension and are still on the hook for $33 million the next two seasons. Reyes isn't going to play 2b with Cano there, and you can't give up on A-Rod after one sub-par season when he's still owed $133 million through 2017 (note: Holy fucking shit! I'm giggling over here.). They only way they're signing Reyes is if they can move Jeter or A-Rod, and they have about as much a chance of that as trading A.J. Burnett.
2. Oh. Right. Trading Burnett was leg 2. It actually makes sense to bring up Bay here, since the Mets are one of the few teams who would at least consider trading for Burnett if it meant they could shed Bay. Both are owed in the low $30 million range for 2 years left each, but Burnett has been awful for 2 years and will be 35 next season, while Bay is two years younger and has more battled injuries than been terrible, and his last full season, although coming two seasons ago, was an awfully good one. In short, this is the kind of trade that I totally get why a Yankee fan would try to sell as realistic, but it really isn't.
3. I don't even care who the other three guys are, you don't trade Jesus. Judas tried that shit and he's now Hitler's love slave, but there's a whole lot of dumb in this idea. The Yankees are getting old. Cano and Brett Gardner were the only regulars under the age of 30 this season, and I'm not sure I'd count on Gardner as a fixture in the outfield. Hughesy and Nova are their only starters under 30. They're old, and right on cue they've actually started developing some young talent - Montero and Cano are studs. There's some good pitching prospects in the pipeline, and they've got a lot of positions covered. They're in good shape. But Gooden's plan is to abandon that and gut the system for one guy - a great pitcher, yes, but yeah no.
In short, I freaking love crazy Dwight Gooden. That is all.
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| Trade me again and I'll kill you (NOTE: that doesn't really make sense but I really wanted to use this picture) |
Monday, June 28, 2010
Week in Review - 6/28/2010
You know what's awesome? Scottie Reynolds. Undrafted. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sweet.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. The World Cup. I'm not a soccer fan, not really at all, but I really, truly dig the World Cup. All these countries, battling to be the king of the most popular sport in the world, and the more I watch, the more I understand. I now know the difference between a good, legal tackle and a foul. I now know a lot of the strategies involved, including the cross and various versions of the give and go, and I knew enough to know that once Ghana scored it would be very difficult for the U.S. to tie it up, so when they did on Landon Donovan's penalty kick I knew enough to know it was pretty incredible (and on a related note, I also now know why a commenter on this blog who posted a lot about soccer used the handle "L. Cakes.")
Will I continue to be interested in soccer after the World Cup is over? Almost certainly not. Will I keep watching even though the U.S. has been eliminated? You bet. I'm even at the point where I understand all that passing around the mid-field area. Seriously, if you can't enjoy the World Cup, you might want to re-evaluate yourself as a sports fan. And probably as a person, too.
2. Carl Pavano. At the time when the rest of the Twins' starters are pitching as if they've gone retarded, creepy mustachioed man Carl Pavano is coming to the rescue, much as Super Mario comes to the rescue of the Princess whether she has been kidnapped by a giant, barrel throwing, mechanically inclined monkey or a giant, fire-breathing, axe-wielding turtle dragon. A nice little complete game shut-out on Saturday to stop the season death-spiral of doom was just what Dr. Mario ordered, and is the second complete game he's spun in a row. Pavano actually has shockingly good numbers this year. His ERA of 3.33 is 16th in the AL, and his WHIP of 1.03 is second behind just future Twin Cliff Lee. I'll do a more thorough breakdown of why Pavano is so frickin' good and if I think it will continue or is just fluky in a future post, but for now I suspect he either ate a mushroom or some kind of fireball flower.
3. Edwin Jackson. It doesn't really matter that he walked 8 guys, and it doesn't matter that it took 149 pitches, a no-hitter is a no-hitter. And a no-hitter against the Rays is an awfully nice feather to place in one's cap, if one was so inclined. I've featured Jackson on here before for being awesome, and he's just been out of this world lately. After running up a record of 3-6 with a 6.03 ERA during the first two months of the season and causing people such as myself to wonder if he was a lost cause. Well, now in June he's , all topped off by this no-hitter.
Of course, 149 pitches is ridiculous, and now he'll probably get lit up like a Blackburn the next couple of times out. Then he'll be put on the 15-day DL with "arm soreness" or "dead arm." He'll come back and get lit up again, and then will be shut down for the year. Then it will come out that he needs offseason surgery on his arm and he'll miss a full year. Then when he comes back his fastball will have lost about 5 mph and he won't be an effective starter. He'll reinvent himself as a mediocre middle reliever and hang on for a couple years before ending up in the Northern League for a couple years. But hey, at least got the no-hitter. Sweet.
4. R.A. Dickey. What the hell? I mean seriously, what is going on? Dickey, after tossing eight shut-out innings on Wednesday against the Tigers, is now 6-0 with an ERA of 2.33 and a WHIP of 1.29 since joining the Mets rotation in mid-May. Carlos Silva is 8-0 for the Cubs with an ERA of 3.01 and a WHIP of 1.05. Livan Hernandez is 6-4 with an ERA of 3.10 and a WHIP of 1.28. What do these three have in common, other than their ex-Twinness? Well, for one, they are all three putting up better numbers that Matt Garza so far (8-5, 4.10, 1.31), the only ex-Twin starter I thought I would miss. For two, they'd make a better 3-4-5 than Baker, Slowey, and Blackburn right now, and it's not even close. I still believe these guys are going to regress, and regress hard, but I've been believing that for two months. For now, I'll just say this is a bunch of crap, but it doesn't change the fact that Baker/Slowey/Blackburn suck. We need some kind of nickname for these dickfors. Like, the Sucktastic Three or something.
5. White Sox. I know I mentioned them in this space last week, but the run continues and they are suddenly just X.X games out of first place. Last week you could chalk up to a scheduling fluke since they swept the Pirates and Nationals, but this week included a sweep over the Braves, and that's no joke. A joke would be "A woman goes to check out at the Super Market, and puts a carton of eggs, a package of bacon, a gallon of milk, and some butter on the conveyor. The checkout guy looks at her groceries, looks at her, and says with conviction, 'You're definitely single.' She looks at the guy and says, 'Wow, you could tell that just from four items I bought at the grocery store?' He replies, "No, it's because you're f*cking ugly."
Anyway the Sox pitching is suddenly really awesome (particularly Peavy) and they're probably going to win the division after they end up trading for Prince Fielder.
WHO SUCKED
1. Twins. Really no other way to say it, these guys sucked balls this week. A 1-5 road trip against a couple of middling National League teams? Ugh. And with the Tigers still playing well and the Sox nearly as hot as Alice Eve, we've got yet another three team barn burner in the central. I really wish you could point to just one issue, but suddenly it's everything. The pitching is completely mediocre, but giving up an average of 5.5 runs per game should lead to more than one win if you have a good offense - but suddenly they don't, scoring an average of just 2.5 runs per game themselves.
Getting shutdown by Yovani Gallardo is one thing - it sucks, but it's acceptable - and I guess Pelphrey has somehow become decent, but Manny Parra? Jon frickin' Niese? Special shout-out to Cuddy Bear for hitting .167 this week with no power and 3x as many strikeouts as hits. Although to be fair, that might not be Cuddy's fault, since there was apparently a mandate that came down from high against hitting with any kind of power, since nobody bothered to this week unless they were going against Johan. Apparently unless Carl Pavano comes to the rescue (see above comparison), this team is screwed. Might as well not even bother trading for Lee. Just becoming sellers and pick up some prospects.
2. Timberwolves. Seriously, what the hell? The more I think about this draft the more upset I get. Wes Johnson is fine and was the obvious and necessary pick at #4, but after that they end up with another wing who has been in the league for five years and proved himself to be pretty mediocre, an undersized power forward, and two Euros? Euros never work out, everybody knows this. The success rate is like 4%. How would this have sounded instead: Johnson, James Anderson, Jordan Crawford, Soloman Alabi, and Derrick Caracter? Or Johnson, Anderson, Hassan Whiteside, Terrico White, and Gani Lawal? Either of those scenarios could have happened last night, with the trade of pick #23 or not. Instead they got the ball rolling with the insane trade of Luke Babbitt and Ryan Gomes for Martell Webster, and just kept doing baffling things all night. Gomes' contract is a valuable asset because it isn't guaranteed, why thrown him in on a deal that's probably already slanted against you? Why I expected anything more, I have no idea.
3. Tommy Hanson. There are bad games, and then there are epic bad games (hi Nick Blackburn). Hanson's outing on Tuesday was essentially the quintessential definition of "getting the shit ripped out of him." Three and two-thirds innings pitched, 13 hits allowed, 9 runs allowed. 13 hits. An average of more than three per inning. Nick Blackburn's worst outing was nowhere near this bad. "But wait!", you say, "Blackburn had back-to-back crappy outings, surely he is worse than Hanson." Not so fast my uninformed friends. Hanson pitched again on Sunday, and again lasted just three and two-thirds innings, this time surrendering six runs on eight hits. An improvement. At this rate he might last past the fifth inning by sometime in August. It's a deadheat betwixt him and Blackburn for the Livan Hernandez award for worst starter who keeps getting the ball (a fluky Livan year does not change the name of the award.)
4. Italy (and France). Defending champions? Ousted. Dirty frenchies? Heading home in complete disarray. No, I'm not an expert or even a novice when it comes to soccer analysis so I can't and won't really try to break down any of this, but these teams were both expected to, at the very least, advance to the knockout stage. But they didn't, with France losing to both South Africa and Mexico and Italy losing to Slovakia and tying Paraguay (ok) and New Zealand (mind-boggling) to finish last in their group. Seeing how soccer is the #1 sport over there, and the World Cup is the by far biggest event, I'm guessing there are a lot of wine drinkers not very happy right now. Seriously, in Italy they have taps for wine right next to the beer taps. Crazy.
[UPDATE: I'm going to go ahead and throw England in here too, since I'm watching them get destroyed by Germany in the first knockout round. Good god, they play defense like the Golden State Warriors.]
5. A.J. Burnett. At this point we almost have to assume he's actively trying to sabotage the Yankees, right? In his two starts this week, Burnett lasted just seven combined innings, giving up 15 hits and 13 earned runs with an 8-to-9 walk-to-strikeout ratio. And he certainly didn't waste any time setting the tone for the week, giving up three home runs in the first inning of his first start (against Arizona). He's striking out about a third less batters this year than in previous years, giving up about 25% more home runs, and allowing batters to hit about .030 higher. Oh, and he's lost a full mile per hour off his fastball, and it's by far his worst pitch, but since he's lost confidence in his curve for some reason he's throwing it far more often. Which would explain why he continues to get hammered. That's four out of five starts where he's given up at least six runs, three straight where he's pitched four innings or less, and a season ERA of 5.25, which ranks 51st out of 56 pitchers in the A.L. who qualify (Nick Blackburn is last), and a WHIP of 1.54, which is 49th. Oh, and he's still owed $66 million over the next four seasons. And THAT my friends, is really a joke.
Lastly, I need to make a very, very strong movie review and I'm telling you to go rent She's Out of My League. Funny throughout with several laugh out loud moments ("I'm sorry, are you a plane doctor?") and really hilarious scenes (bowling), to go along with a super hot chick. Very strongly recommended. The anti-Scottie Reynolds of movies, if you will.
Plus, this:
Sweet.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. The World Cup. I'm not a soccer fan, not really at all, but I really, truly dig the World Cup. All these countries, battling to be the king of the most popular sport in the world, and the more I watch, the more I understand. I now know the difference between a good, legal tackle and a foul. I now know a lot of the strategies involved, including the cross and various versions of the give and go, and I knew enough to know that once Ghana scored it would be very difficult for the U.S. to tie it up, so when they did on Landon Donovan's penalty kick I knew enough to know it was pretty incredible (and on a related note, I also now know why a commenter on this blog who posted a lot about soccer used the handle "L. Cakes.")
Will I continue to be interested in soccer after the World Cup is over? Almost certainly not. Will I keep watching even though the U.S. has been eliminated? You bet. I'm even at the point where I understand all that passing around the mid-field area. Seriously, if you can't enjoy the World Cup, you might want to re-evaluate yourself as a sports fan. And probably as a person, too.
2. Carl Pavano. At the time when the rest of the Twins' starters are pitching as if they've gone retarded, creepy mustachioed man Carl Pavano is coming to the rescue, much as Super Mario comes to the rescue of the Princess whether she has been kidnapped by a giant, barrel throwing, mechanically inclined monkey or a giant, fire-breathing, axe-wielding turtle dragon. A nice little complete game shut-out on Saturday to stop the season death-spiral of doom was just what Dr. Mario ordered, and is the second complete game he's spun in a row. Pavano actually has shockingly good numbers this year. His ERA of 3.33 is 16th in the AL, and his WHIP of 1.03 is second behind just future Twin Cliff Lee. I'll do a more thorough breakdown of why Pavano is so frickin' good and if I think it will continue or is just fluky in a future post, but for now I suspect he either ate a mushroom or some kind of fireball flower.
3. Edwin Jackson. It doesn't really matter that he walked 8 guys, and it doesn't matter that it took 149 pitches, a no-hitter is a no-hitter. And a no-hitter against the Rays is an awfully nice feather to place in one's cap, if one was so inclined. I've featured Jackson on here before for being awesome, and he's just been out of this world lately. After running up a record of 3-6 with a 6.03 ERA during the first two months of the season and causing people such as myself to wonder if he was a lost cause. Well, now in June he's , all topped off by this no-hitter.
Of course, 149 pitches is ridiculous, and now he'll probably get lit up like a Blackburn the next couple of times out. Then he'll be put on the 15-day DL with "arm soreness" or "dead arm." He'll come back and get lit up again, and then will be shut down for the year. Then it will come out that he needs offseason surgery on his arm and he'll miss a full year. Then when he comes back his fastball will have lost about 5 mph and he won't be an effective starter. He'll reinvent himself as a mediocre middle reliever and hang on for a couple years before ending up in the Northern League for a couple years. But hey, at least got the no-hitter. Sweet.
4. R.A. Dickey. What the hell? I mean seriously, what is going on? Dickey, after tossing eight shut-out innings on Wednesday against the Tigers, is now 6-0 with an ERA of 2.33 and a WHIP of 1.29 since joining the Mets rotation in mid-May. Carlos Silva is 8-0 for the Cubs with an ERA of 3.01 and a WHIP of 1.05. Livan Hernandez is 6-4 with an ERA of 3.10 and a WHIP of 1.28. What do these three have in common, other than their ex-Twinness? Well, for one, they are all three putting up better numbers that Matt Garza so far (8-5, 4.10, 1.31), the only ex-Twin starter I thought I would miss. For two, they'd make a better 3-4-5 than Baker, Slowey, and Blackburn right now, and it's not even close. I still believe these guys are going to regress, and regress hard, but I've been believing that for two months. For now, I'll just say this is a bunch of crap, but it doesn't change the fact that Baker/Slowey/Blackburn suck. We need some kind of nickname for these dickfors. Like, the Sucktastic Three or something.
5. White Sox. I know I mentioned them in this space last week, but the run continues and they are suddenly just X.X games out of first place. Last week you could chalk up to a scheduling fluke since they swept the Pirates and Nationals, but this week included a sweep over the Braves, and that's no joke. A joke would be "A woman goes to check out at the Super Market, and puts a carton of eggs, a package of bacon, a gallon of milk, and some butter on the conveyor. The checkout guy looks at her groceries, looks at her, and says with conviction, 'You're definitely single.' She looks at the guy and says, 'Wow, you could tell that just from four items I bought at the grocery store?' He replies, "No, it's because you're f*cking ugly."
Anyway the Sox pitching is suddenly really awesome (particularly Peavy) and they're probably going to win the division after they end up trading for Prince Fielder.
WHO SUCKED
1. Twins. Really no other way to say it, these guys sucked balls this week. A 1-5 road trip against a couple of middling National League teams? Ugh. And with the Tigers still playing well and the Sox nearly as hot as Alice Eve, we've got yet another three team barn burner in the central. I really wish you could point to just one issue, but suddenly it's everything. The pitching is completely mediocre, but giving up an average of 5.5 runs per game should lead to more than one win if you have a good offense - but suddenly they don't, scoring an average of just 2.5 runs per game themselves.
Getting shutdown by Yovani Gallardo is one thing - it sucks, but it's acceptable - and I guess Pelphrey has somehow become decent, but Manny Parra? Jon frickin' Niese? Special shout-out to Cuddy Bear for hitting .167 this week with no power and 3x as many strikeouts as hits. Although to be fair, that might not be Cuddy's fault, since there was apparently a mandate that came down from high against hitting with any kind of power, since nobody bothered to this week unless they were going against Johan. Apparently unless Carl Pavano comes to the rescue (see above comparison), this team is screwed. Might as well not even bother trading for Lee. Just becoming sellers and pick up some prospects.
2. Timberwolves. Seriously, what the hell? The more I think about this draft the more upset I get. Wes Johnson is fine and was the obvious and necessary pick at #4, but after that they end up with another wing who has been in the league for five years and proved himself to be pretty mediocre, an undersized power forward, and two Euros? Euros never work out, everybody knows this. The success rate is like 4%. How would this have sounded instead: Johnson, James Anderson, Jordan Crawford, Soloman Alabi, and Derrick Caracter? Or Johnson, Anderson, Hassan Whiteside, Terrico White, and Gani Lawal? Either of those scenarios could have happened last night, with the trade of pick #23 or not. Instead they got the ball rolling with the insane trade of Luke Babbitt and Ryan Gomes for Martell Webster, and just kept doing baffling things all night. Gomes' contract is a valuable asset because it isn't guaranteed, why thrown him in on a deal that's probably already slanted against you? Why I expected anything more, I have no idea.
3. Tommy Hanson. There are bad games, and then there are epic bad games (hi Nick Blackburn). Hanson's outing on Tuesday was essentially the quintessential definition of "getting the shit ripped out of him." Three and two-thirds innings pitched, 13 hits allowed, 9 runs allowed. 13 hits. An average of more than three per inning. Nick Blackburn's worst outing was nowhere near this bad. "But wait!", you say, "Blackburn had back-to-back crappy outings, surely he is worse than Hanson." Not so fast my uninformed friends. Hanson pitched again on Sunday, and again lasted just three and two-thirds innings, this time surrendering six runs on eight hits. An improvement. At this rate he might last past the fifth inning by sometime in August. It's a deadheat betwixt him and Blackburn for the Livan Hernandez award for worst starter who keeps getting the ball (a fluky Livan year does not change the name of the award.)
4. Italy (and France). Defending champions? Ousted. Dirty frenchies? Heading home in complete disarray. No, I'm not an expert or even a novice when it comes to soccer analysis so I can't and won't really try to break down any of this, but these teams were both expected to, at the very least, advance to the knockout stage. But they didn't, with France losing to both South Africa and Mexico and Italy losing to Slovakia and tying Paraguay (ok) and New Zealand (mind-boggling) to finish last in their group. Seeing how soccer is the #1 sport over there, and the World Cup is the by far biggest event, I'm guessing there are a lot of wine drinkers not very happy right now. Seriously, in Italy they have taps for wine right next to the beer taps. Crazy.
[UPDATE: I'm going to go ahead and throw England in here too, since I'm watching them get destroyed by Germany in the first knockout round. Good god, they play defense like the Golden State Warriors.]
5. A.J. Burnett. At this point we almost have to assume he's actively trying to sabotage the Yankees, right? In his two starts this week, Burnett lasted just seven combined innings, giving up 15 hits and 13 earned runs with an 8-to-9 walk-to-strikeout ratio. And he certainly didn't waste any time setting the tone for the week, giving up three home runs in the first inning of his first start (against Arizona). He's striking out about a third less batters this year than in previous years, giving up about 25% more home runs, and allowing batters to hit about .030 higher. Oh, and he's lost a full mile per hour off his fastball, and it's by far his worst pitch, but since he's lost confidence in his curve for some reason he's throwing it far more often. Which would explain why he continues to get hammered. That's four out of five starts where he's given up at least six runs, three straight where he's pitched four innings or less, and a season ERA of 5.25, which ranks 51st out of 56 pitchers in the A.L. who qualify (Nick Blackburn is last), and a WHIP of 1.54, which is 49th. Oh, and he's still owed $66 million over the next four seasons. And THAT my friends, is really a joke.
Lastly, I need to make a very, very strong movie review and I'm telling you to go rent She's Out of My League. Funny throughout with several laugh out loud moments ("I'm sorry, are you a plane doctor?") and really hilarious scenes (bowling), to go along with a super hot chick. Very strongly recommended. The anti-Scottie Reynolds of movies, if you will.
Plus, this:
Monday, November 2, 2009
World Series Game 5 Live Blog
It could be the last game of the baseball season, so I might as well Live Blog this crap, right? Plus we'll see if my man-crush on Cliff Lee grows, or just disappears like a john, with nothing more than a crisp new fifty on the night stand and a slight burning sensation during urination. We're picking this game up in the top of the second after finally getting WonderbabyTM ready for bed. She's a bit wound up after her first day of pre-pre-school today, and I'm a bit concerned because the majority of her classmates look like Sloth from the Goonies. On to the show.....
- It's 3-1 Phillies thanks to Chase Utley continuing to be a P.I.M.P. And I turned it on just in time to hear McCarver say, "American League batters are used to Mariano Rivera breaking bats, but not many of them know about Cliff Lee........even though he was with the Indianas............Lee's a different pitcher with Philadelphia." Dude. Just stop. It makes me glad I've been watching most of this with no sound - which I'll be doing again shortly once Mrs. W gets back from putting the baby down.
- Speaking of Lee and pitching game five, I think he should have been moved up and pitched last night, but this yahoo article is quite harsh and mostly retarded (like Dawger). I hardly think that decision "blew the world series" or that Charlie Manuel is like Forrest Gump and "stupid is as stupid does." He also calls Cliff Lee "not an ace" because he didn't demand the ball for game 4. I'm seriously stumped. I didn't like it at the time, but I'm thinking that it was actually a good decision by Manuel. Think about it - Blanton pitched well enough for the Phillies to win, Lidge blew the game. If they can steal a win with Blanton going against Sabathia, suddenly the Phillies are in the driver's seat, and they damn near did it, again, if it wasn't for Lidge - not Blanton and not Manuel. I'm willing to bet Passan had this article typed up before even the first pitch of Sunday night's game, and when the Phils lost he just hit send on his little mac-book. It's not even surprising, that seems to be the standard for journalism these days. Except me. I'm really good.
- Boy has Texeira been brutal. Another weak grounder with a runner on base, and he's now at .062 for the series. And yet since the Yankees will win, nobody will say a word. This is so unfair to A-Rod.
- There is way too much being made of Damon stealing third after stealing second on the same play. Yes, it was totally heads up and a great, smart, alert play - no doubt. But also let's try to remember that A-Rod doubled two batters later - Damon is scoring from any base. I'm just thankful Jeter isn't the one who made that play, can you imagine? It would make the Madden/Favre love fest look like Twilight. Because it's a chastity parable. Shut up. No, you're gay.
- Utley walks and steals second - any chance we can get a losing player winning the World Series MVP? I don't think it's ever happened, right? I know some defensive guy from the Cowboys won the Super Bowl MVP even though the Cowboys lost back in the 70s, but I don't think it's happened in baseball. Of course, seeing as how Jeter is on the Yankees and everyone loves him more than life itself, he'll get it for hitting .360 with no runs batted in and just two extra-base hits. What a joke. God I hate you Derek Jeter. You know that scene is Se7en, where Kevin Spacey ties that guy to the bed and like cuts his hand off and somehow tortures him but keeps him alive for like a year? What? I'm just asking if you remember that scene, I ain't sayin' nothin'.
- The NL's Jason Kubel knocks in Utley. Burnett getting rocked. And trust me, A.J. Burnett doens't have the mental capacity to recover when he's getting smoked. Might as well pack up and head to New York, folks, this one's over.
- Ibanez knocks in another one, and that'll do it for fragile little A.J. We're going to David Robertson here folks, although if I'm Girardi I call this one over and go to Mitre or Gaudin.
- Wow, base hit for Cliff Lee. We're at 6-1 here, and Rollins can break this baby wide open. Well, wide opener.
- Strikes out like a jerk.
- Link to Blue Ribbon's preview of Gopher basketball. It points out something I had either forgotten or never knew: The Gophers had more turnovers than assists last year. Ouch. Damian Johnson, Al Nolen, and Kevin Payton were the only ones with more assists than TOs, and Westbrook (1/1.5), Iverson (1/2.2), and Busch (1/2.l) were absolute killers. Let's go ahead and put that as priority #1 for next season, shall we? Also note that with rounding, future Big Ten P.O.Y. Ralph Sampson was one of only four players with a 1-to-1 ratio or better (and, of course, the preview doesn't fail to compare him to his "Heroin Satan" father - god that must get old).
- FYI, Colbie Smulders recently had a baby, and she has lost the baby weight, but she hasn't lost it from everywhere, if you know what I'm saying. (NOTE: I'm talking about her boobs.) This is her, if you are unaware:
- Derek Jeter got a hit. MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP!
- Don't worry, nothing came of it. And a great catch in left-center by Brett Gardner. He's 10 times the fielder Melky is, too bad he can't hit for shit. Sounds an awful lot like Carlos Gomez, no?
- Iowa is ranked #4 in the latest BCS. Serious question, how many other top 10 teams do you think Iowa would beat more often than not? Florida? Texas? Alabama? Boise? Georgia Tech? Cincy? TCU? I'm not sure there's a single team here they are bettre than..
- Ok, actually they got a run somewhere back there, and it's now 6-2. I would have known that, but I have become a bit distracted by facebook, and everybody trying to sound cool and ignore the fact that I was part of a group interview of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird today. You are all jerks.
- Oh, yeah. So I was part of a conference call of a bunch of writers who got to do a group interview of Magic and Larry today. Of course, it was only an hour and there were people from like, ESPN and The Sporting News and USA Today, etc., so I didn't get a chance to actually ask a question since I'm pretty sure I'd be the Pittsburgh Pirates of the invitees, but it was still cool.
- Cliffy keeps rolling along, now through seven with just the two runs allowed. It certainly wouldn't hurt for the Phillies to pick up a couple of more runs here.
- This probably deserves it's own post, but here is a report on Corey Joseph's reaction to his official visit on Saturday. Sounds good, folks, sounds really good. In particular pay attention to the first two comments below the article - very insightful.
- Utley just destroys a pitch down the line, but foul. Dude, that guy is so dialed in right now it's ridiculous.
- And the very next pitch he goes yard. Again. This guy is a second basemen, it just isn't right. That's five in this series, which I think is some kind of record. And we could have two more games. I'm actually kind of starting to believe the Phillies can come back and win this - delirious, I know.
- Ibanez goes yard. This Phil Coke guy sucks. Let me remind you all that Pedro's career postseason WHIP = 1.07. Bring it Yanks, because I feel a career defining Pedro performance on Wednesday. Yes, another one.
- Cliffy gives up three straight hits, including a double that probably should have been caught but Ibanez is 100 years old to A-Rod and it's 8-4, and we get Chan Ho Park for like the 10th time this series. Confidence = ug.
- Park gets three straight guys out, but another run comes in when Ben Francisco - in at CF for the Flyin' Hawaiian who may or may not have injured his hand after taking a Burnett fastball off it - totally lolligags the throw to home and A-Rod tags up from third. Really a very good, smart play. He did the bluff-type thing, saw Francisco kind of wasn't really trying, and then just kept going and beat the throw. Good play. 8-5 Phils, but the Yanks will get one more crack at it.
- T-Wolves down 25-23 in the first. I benched Kaman on my fantasy basketball team tonight and put in Ryan Anderson because I need more three-pointers. Kaman has 8 points and 6 boards already. Why the hell would I bench a center against the Wolves? Dumb. And speaking of fantasy, I now have the details on my fantasy college basketball league. I'll be posting those sometime this week.
- Oh yeah, my fantasy basketball (NBA) team includes LeBron, Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Joe Johnson, and Derrick Rose. Yeah, I'm dominant. Also when I just looked up my roster right there I realized that Kaman is still starting until tomorrow, so disregard all that "I'm dumb" talk. Plus, you should have tried to make me feel better and you didn't. Why are your feelings the only ones that matter?
- 8-5 still, but Madson gives up a lead-off double to Posada. Seeing as how you not only can't trust Lidge, but he's probably not available anyway, I'd assume this is Madson's show. If he sucks and they end up bringing in Brett Myers at any point, we might as well just engrave the trophy for the Yanks right then and there.
- I just saw Danielle Harris's boobs. God bless you free Showtime preview.
- Base hit for Matsui. If I used swear words on this blog, this would be the part where I would type fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
- Jeter grounds into a double play. Ha ha, way to be a True Yankee, Jeter. Awesome.
- Damon base hit. A Tex home run here ties the game. Awesome. Nice bullpen Philadelphia.
- Nevermind, he strikes him out proving that there is at least one person on this planet with the last name Madson who you can trust, and we're going back to New York where the Yankees will almost certainly win it. But I really hope not.
- It's 3-1 Phillies thanks to Chase Utley continuing to be a P.I.M.P. And I turned it on just in time to hear McCarver say, "American League batters are used to Mariano Rivera breaking bats, but not many of them know about Cliff Lee........even though he was with the Indianas............Lee's a different pitcher with Philadelphia." Dude. Just stop. It makes me glad I've been watching most of this with no sound - which I'll be doing again shortly once Mrs. W gets back from putting the baby down.
- Speaking of Lee and pitching game five, I think he should have been moved up and pitched last night, but this yahoo article is quite harsh and mostly retarded (like Dawger). I hardly think that decision "blew the world series" or that Charlie Manuel is like Forrest Gump and "stupid is as stupid does." He also calls Cliff Lee "not an ace" because he didn't demand the ball for game 4. I'm seriously stumped. I didn't like it at the time, but I'm thinking that it was actually a good decision by Manuel. Think about it - Blanton pitched well enough for the Phillies to win, Lidge blew the game. If they can steal a win with Blanton going against Sabathia, suddenly the Phillies are in the driver's seat, and they damn near did it, again, if it wasn't for Lidge - not Blanton and not Manuel. I'm willing to bet Passan had this article typed up before even the first pitch of Sunday night's game, and when the Phils lost he just hit send on his little mac-book. It's not even surprising, that seems to be the standard for journalism these days. Except me. I'm really good.
- Boy has Texeira been brutal. Another weak grounder with a runner on base, and he's now at .062 for the series. And yet since the Yankees will win, nobody will say a word. This is so unfair to A-Rod.
- There is way too much being made of Damon stealing third after stealing second on the same play. Yes, it was totally heads up and a great, smart, alert play - no doubt. But also let's try to remember that A-Rod doubled two batters later - Damon is scoring from any base. I'm just thankful Jeter isn't the one who made that play, can you imagine? It would make the Madden/Favre love fest look like Twilight. Because it's a chastity parable. Shut up. No, you're gay.
- Utley walks and steals second - any chance we can get a losing player winning the World Series MVP? I don't think it's ever happened, right? I know some defensive guy from the Cowboys won the Super Bowl MVP even though the Cowboys lost back in the 70s, but I don't think it's happened in baseball. Of course, seeing as how Jeter is on the Yankees and everyone loves him more than life itself, he'll get it for hitting .360 with no runs batted in and just two extra-base hits. What a joke. God I hate you Derek Jeter. You know that scene is Se7en, where Kevin Spacey ties that guy to the bed and like cuts his hand off and somehow tortures him but keeps him alive for like a year? What? I'm just asking if you remember that scene, I ain't sayin' nothin'.
- The NL's Jason Kubel knocks in Utley. Burnett getting rocked. And trust me, A.J. Burnett doens't have the mental capacity to recover when he's getting smoked. Might as well pack up and head to New York, folks, this one's over.
- Ibanez knocks in another one, and that'll do it for fragile little A.J. We're going to David Robertson here folks, although if I'm Girardi I call this one over and go to Mitre or Gaudin.
- Wow, base hit for Cliff Lee. We're at 6-1 here, and Rollins can break this baby wide open. Well, wide opener.
- Strikes out like a jerk.
- Link to Blue Ribbon's preview of Gopher basketball. It points out something I had either forgotten or never knew: The Gophers had more turnovers than assists last year. Ouch. Damian Johnson, Al Nolen, and Kevin Payton were the only ones with more assists than TOs, and Westbrook (1/1.5), Iverson (1/2.2), and Busch (1/2.l) were absolute killers. Let's go ahead and put that as priority #1 for next season, shall we? Also note that with rounding, future Big Ten P.O.Y. Ralph Sampson was one of only four players with a 1-to-1 ratio or better (and, of course, the preview doesn't fail to compare him to his "Heroin Satan" father - god that must get old).
- FYI, Colbie Smulders recently had a baby, and she has lost the baby weight, but she hasn't lost it from everywhere, if you know what I'm saying. (NOTE: I'm talking about her boobs.) This is her, if you are unaware:
Now imagine that with some C+ cups.
- Derek Jeter got a hit. MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP!
- Don't worry, nothing came of it. And a great catch in left-center by Brett Gardner. He's 10 times the fielder Melky is, too bad he can't hit for shit. Sounds an awful lot like Carlos Gomez, no?
- Iowa is ranked #4 in the latest BCS. Serious question, how many other top 10 teams do you think Iowa would beat more often than not? Florida? Texas? Alabama? Boise? Georgia Tech? Cincy? TCU? I'm not sure there's a single team here they are bettre than..
- Ok, actually they got a run somewhere back there, and it's now 6-2. I would have known that, but I have become a bit distracted by facebook, and everybody trying to sound cool and ignore the fact that I was part of a group interview of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird today. You are all jerks.
- Oh, yeah. So I was part of a conference call of a bunch of writers who got to do a group interview of Magic and Larry today. Of course, it was only an hour and there were people from like, ESPN and The Sporting News and USA Today, etc., so I didn't get a chance to actually ask a question since I'm pretty sure I'd be the Pittsburgh Pirates of the invitees, but it was still cool.
- Cliffy keeps rolling along, now through seven with just the two runs allowed. It certainly wouldn't hurt for the Phillies to pick up a couple of more runs here.
- This probably deserves it's own post, but here is a report on Corey Joseph's reaction to his official visit on Saturday. Sounds good, folks, sounds really good. In particular pay attention to the first two comments below the article - very insightful.
- Utley just destroys a pitch down the line, but foul. Dude, that guy is so dialed in right now it's ridiculous.
- And the very next pitch he goes yard. Again. This guy is a second basemen, it just isn't right. That's five in this series, which I think is some kind of record. And we could have two more games. I'm actually kind of starting to believe the Phillies can come back and win this - delirious, I know.
- Ibanez goes yard. This Phil Coke guy sucks. Let me remind you all that Pedro's career postseason WHIP = 1.07. Bring it Yanks, because I feel a career defining Pedro performance on Wednesday. Yes, another one.
- Cliffy gives up three straight hits, including a double that probably should have been caught but Ibanez is 100 years old to A-Rod and it's 8-4, and we get Chan Ho Park for like the 10th time this series. Confidence = ug.
- Park gets three straight guys out, but another run comes in when Ben Francisco - in at CF for the Flyin' Hawaiian who may or may not have injured his hand after taking a Burnett fastball off it - totally lolligags the throw to home and A-Rod tags up from third. Really a very good, smart play. He did the bluff-type thing, saw Francisco kind of wasn't really trying, and then just kept going and beat the throw. Good play. 8-5 Phils, but the Yanks will get one more crack at it.
- T-Wolves down 25-23 in the first. I benched Kaman on my fantasy basketball team tonight and put in Ryan Anderson because I need more three-pointers. Kaman has 8 points and 6 boards already. Why the hell would I bench a center against the Wolves? Dumb. And speaking of fantasy, I now have the details on my fantasy college basketball league. I'll be posting those sometime this week.
- Oh yeah, my fantasy basketball (NBA) team includes LeBron, Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Joe Johnson, and Derrick Rose. Yeah, I'm dominant. Also when I just looked up my roster right there I realized that Kaman is still starting until tomorrow, so disregard all that "I'm dumb" talk. Plus, you should have tried to make me feel better and you didn't. Why are your feelings the only ones that matter?
- 8-5 still, but Madson gives up a lead-off double to Posada. Seeing as how you not only can't trust Lidge, but he's probably not available anyway, I'd assume this is Madson's show. If he sucks and they end up bringing in Brett Myers at any point, we might as well just engrave the trophy for the Yanks right then and there.
- I just saw Danielle Harris's boobs. God bless you free Showtime preview.
- Base hit for Matsui. If I used swear words on this blog, this would be the part where I would type fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
- Jeter grounds into a double play. Ha ha, way to be a True Yankee, Jeter. Awesome.
- Damon base hit. A Tex home run here ties the game. Awesome. Nice bullpen Philadelphia.
- Nevermind, he strikes him out proving that there is at least one person on this planet with the last name Madson who you can trust, and we're going back to New York where the Yankees will almost certainly win it. But I really hope not.
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