I recently purchased my first copy of Baseball America's, Prospect Handbook. The book is the ultimate guide to minor league players and goes rates the top 30 prospects in every organization. It shows what each teams lineup could look like in 2010 if current prospects develop as expected. It's real fun to take a look at. I think this can give hope to any fan following any team, no matter how bad their team is. It basically helps you look at the teams you follow in a whole new way. I won't go on any more about the book, just know that it's pretty terrific.
When looking at a team like say the NY Mets, they get an "A" for impact but only a "C" in depth. This means that they have a few potential stars in their system but little else. You could also flip to the Washington Nationals and see that all of their minor league affiliates went 305-388 combined, good for 28th in all of baseball. This is especially troubling when you remember that the big league club was only 71-91 and lost their best player in the offseason. The book also rates each teams system as a whole. The top spot this year goes to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays while last place goes to the poor Washington Nationals. The book includes these ratings for the past five seasons so the reader can see the trends of certain teams and their minor league systems. The St. Louis Cardinals are ranked 23rd for 2007. Twenty-third is nothing to write home about especially when you look back at their past five ratings (21,30,28,28,30). Now think about it, when is the last time you can remember the Cardinals having a really good young player on their team? Conversely you can look at a team like the Twins who ranked 8th this year and over the past five seasons have gone, 6,4,5,4,6. Now, think back on the last time the Twins had a really good young player...Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Francisco Liriano, etc.
Anyway, that's my pitch for the good people over there at Baseball America. They also have website but you have to pay a yearly membership. You can buy the book on Amazon for $20.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
NBA at Midseason
All over the internet and sports shows, people are doing their midseason assessments. I got a little bit sick of watching/reading them. They were all pretty much the same. So I'm going to do what they did and add a little bit at the end. Enjoy.
MVP: Steve Nash: I really don't think he can be denied if he keeps up his play for the entire season. I really wasn't a fan of him winning the past two years, but he's just been on all season. Nash averaging 19.6 pts per game and an astonishing, 12 assists per game. The last player to average 12 assists a game for an entire season was John Stockton 12 years ago. The fact that Phoenix is 36-9 doesn't hurt him. A strong second half my Dallas and Dirk Nowitzki could win the award, but as of right now, I'm going with Nash.
Rookie of the Year: Brandon Roy(pictured): This years rookie class is pretty bad. Not on
ly is the class not very deep, there are several guys not getting any minutes at all. Roy is averaging 14.5 points per game to lead the way for rookies this season. Roy is fortunate to play for Portland where it seems like ownership is finally committed to rebuilding the team with good young players instead of good criminals. The rookies are getting plenty of run in Portland, this will probably continue the rest of the season meaning the award is Roy's to lose. The only other rookie getting 30 minutes per game other than Roy is diabetic Adam Morrison, who is shooting 37% so far this season, that won't get it done.
Defensive Player: Emeka Okafor: Okafor had a good rookie season and really fell off last year. He has rebounded very well this year on both ends of the floor. Okafor currently ranks 5th in rebounds and is 3rd in blocks per game. His over 11 boards per and 3 blocks per look a lot like Ben Wallace's number in 03-04. The difference is on the offensive end where Okafor is averaging 15 points per game. He'll probably never average 20 pts per game, but he keeps defenses more than honest.
Most Surprising Team(in a good way): Toronto Raptors: At 22-23 the Raptors aren't threatening for the championship this year, but they could very well find themselves in the playoffs. Toronto has some very good young players in Bosh, Bargnani, and TJ Ford but most people saw them as being a few years off yet from making in real dents in the league. Ford was obtained from Milwaukee in the offseason for hairless Charlie Villanueva but has proven his worth so far. Ford currently has per game career highs in, points, assists, and field goal percentage. If he can keep up his play and stay healthy, Toronto should be in the playoffs.
Worst Player in the League: ESPNs John Hollinger created the "Player Efficiency Rating" which is too complicated to explain here in a short manner. Anyway, it values a player on his per minute value. So a guy can only play 15 minutes per game and be rated right up there with the LeBron's of the world. Right now the lowest rated player in the NBA is Jason Collins of the Nets. I wanted
to come up with someone different than his rating, but when looking all over the league, scouring the stat sheets, there really isn't a player getting significant minutes playing worse than Collins(left). First of all, Collins was a first round pick back in 2001, which is sad. The thing that makes Collins so bad is that he plays so much. Collins has appeared in 43 games this year and started 42 of them, getting 23.5 minutes per game for the disappointing Nets. Collins, a center, is shooting 35% from the field. To put that in perspective, Ben Wallace is shooting 45% from the field and Flip Murray is shooting 38%. Yikes. He also shoots 49% from the free throw line all while averaging 2 pts per game and 4 rebounds per game. He also blocks a shot every other game and is seven feet tall. In closing, he is really bad.
Most Disappointing Rookie: Hate to pick on the guy but it has to be Adam Morrison of the Bobcats. Morrison didn't play defense in college, not at all, but scouts didn't care because he could score at will and his shot was amazing. Now he's in the pros and his defensive ineptitude is even more glaring and he's not making up for it with his shot. To the Bobcat's credit, the let him play and let him shoot. Morrison is averaging 13 pts per game on almost 14 shots per game, not a good ratio. Morrison will probably be a decent pro, but he needs to learn to become a more efficient scorer. Rajon Rondo gets honorable mention here because he got so much hype before the season and has been pretty bad.
Most Disappointing Team: Miami Heat. The defending champs are 19-25 and if the season ended today they would be out of the playoffs. Not only is their record bad, but they are doing it all in a bad division and an even worse conference. If is often said that great teams just do not get blown out. There may be one here and there for the great ones, but not at the rate the Heat are getting blown out. They lost by 42 to the Bulls on opening night, 22 to Houston, 24 to the Isiah Thomas "led" Knicks, 20 to the Spurs, 26 to the Bucks, 29 to the Magic, 28 to the Suns, 20 to the Knicks. That is awful. Sure Shaq was out almost all of those games, but would it really have mattered that much? No matter who they had, would they have won any of those games and countless others? I say no. They are in serious trouble. Perhaps the most telling statistic: Jason Kapono has led them in scoring 4 times this season.
MVP: Steve Nash: I really don't think he can be denied if he keeps up his play for the entire season. I really wasn't a fan of him winning the past two years, but he's just been on all season. Nash averaging 19.6 pts per game and an astonishing, 12 assists per game. The last player to average 12 assists a game for an entire season was John Stockton 12 years ago. The fact that Phoenix is 36-9 doesn't hurt him. A strong second half my Dallas and Dirk Nowitzki could win the award, but as of right now, I'm going with Nash.
Rookie of the Year: Brandon Roy(pictured): This years rookie class is pretty bad. Not on
Defensive Player: Emeka Okafor: Okafor had a good rookie season and really fell off last year. He has rebounded very well this year on both ends of the floor. Okafor currently ranks 5th in rebounds and is 3rd in blocks per game. His over 11 boards per and 3 blocks per look a lot like Ben Wallace's number in 03-04. The difference is on the offensive end where Okafor is averaging 15 points per game. He'll probably never average 20 pts per game, but he keeps defenses more than honest.
Most Surprising Team(in a good way): Toronto Raptors: At 22-23 the Raptors aren't threatening for the championship this year, but they could very well find themselves in the playoffs. Toronto has some very good young players in Bosh, Bargnani, and TJ Ford but most people saw them as being a few years off yet from making in real dents in the league. Ford was obtained from Milwaukee in the offseason for hairless Charlie Villanueva but has proven his worth so far. Ford currently has per game career highs in, points, assists, and field goal percentage. If he can keep up his play and stay healthy, Toronto should be in the playoffs.
Worst Player in the League: ESPNs John Hollinger created the "Player Efficiency Rating" which is too complicated to explain here in a short manner. Anyway, it values a player on his per minute value. So a guy can only play 15 minutes per game and be rated right up there with the LeBron's of the world. Right now the lowest rated player in the NBA is Jason Collins of the Nets. I wanted
to come up with someone different than his rating, but when looking all over the league, scouring the stat sheets, there really isn't a player getting significant minutes playing worse than Collins(left). First of all, Collins was a first round pick back in 2001, which is sad. The thing that makes Collins so bad is that he plays so much. Collins has appeared in 43 games this year and started 42 of them, getting 23.5 minutes per game for the disappointing Nets. Collins, a center, is shooting 35% from the field. To put that in perspective, Ben Wallace is shooting 45% from the field and Flip Murray is shooting 38%. Yikes. He also shoots 49% from the free throw line all while averaging 2 pts per game and 4 rebounds per game. He also blocks a shot every other game and is seven feet tall. In closing, he is really bad.Most Disappointing Rookie: Hate to pick on the guy but it has to be Adam Morrison of the Bobcats. Morrison didn't play defense in college, not at all, but scouts didn't care because he could score at will and his shot was amazing. Now he's in the pros and his defensive ineptitude is even more glaring and he's not making up for it with his shot. To the Bobcat's credit, the let him play and let him shoot. Morrison is averaging 13 pts per game on almost 14 shots per game, not a good ratio. Morrison will probably be a decent pro, but he needs to learn to become a more efficient scorer. Rajon Rondo gets honorable mention here because he got so much hype before the season and has been pretty bad.
Most Disappointing Team: Miami Heat. The defending champs are 19-25 and if the season ended today they would be out of the playoffs. Not only is their record bad, but they are doing it all in a bad division and an even worse conference. If is often said that great teams just do not get blown out. There may be one here and there for the great ones, but not at the rate the Heat are getting blown out. They lost by 42 to the Bulls on opening night, 22 to Houston, 24 to the Isiah Thomas "led" Knicks, 20 to the Spurs, 26 to the Bucks, 29 to the Magic, 28 to the Suns, 20 to the Knicks. That is awful. Sure Shaq was out almost all of those games, but would it really have mattered that much? No matter who they had, would they have won any of those games and countless others? I say no. They are in serious trouble. Perhaps the most telling statistic: Jason Kapono has led them in scoring 4 times this season.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
My Strange Infatuation
After checking my email every morning my next stop is Buster Olney's blog on ESPN.com. The blog is usually a short article about something baseball related. The highlight however are the links that follow. During the season there are often 50 links or so listed from various newspapers around the league. In the offseason there are fewer links but there are still usually at least 20. For some reason this offseason I have find that I have been clicking on the links that involve the Kansas City Royals. I have never considered myself a Royal fan. As a matter of fact, there was a period about five years ago when I hated them. I remember the Tiger's had a huge fight with them and that jerk 
Mike Sweeney. They are also in the same division as the Tiger's so I have to root for them to lose at least 18 times per season.
My theory for starting to follow them is that they are a lot like the "old" Tigers. Up until last year the Tiger's were, of course, awful. The only thing that kept us out of last place a few times were the Royals and the Tiger's often returned the favor to the Royals. Take a look at a few similarities (taking away last season):
The point is, these teams have not only been bad, they've been terribly mismanaged. That turned around for the Tiger's when they brought Dave Dombrowski on board. Dombrowski got ride of the old overpaid guys, completely eating Higginson's (left) contract just to get him away from the team and to let the young guys play. He did the same thing last year with Dmitri Young. He stocked up on young guys, rule 5 guys and hard throwing young pitchers. Didn't work out so well the first year, losing 119 games, but some young guys played. Dombrowski spent wisely and drafted well. Once he had a bunch of young guys around he spent some big money on some big names, the price to be taken seriously.
The same plan is going into motion in Kansas City. Count me as one of a handful who like the Gil Meche deal. Is Gil Meche worth $11 million per year, nope. Will he ever be, no way. What Meche did was make it okay for a guy with some talent to head to Kansas City. Kansas City will probably still be awful this year. They will lose at least 90 games, there's no way around that. However, some young guys will get some playing time. Guy's will get used to big league hitting and pitching. Meche could win 12 games, not an easy thing to do in Kansas City and they could bring in another proven guy next year in free agency. All of this inches them closer to respectability.
So when the Royals are playing this next year I'll probably check their box scores from time to time. I'll make sure to watch the young guys when I see them on TV against the Tigers and Joel Zumaya. The truth is, the Royals are the the 2005 Tigers. You knew they weren't going to win much but you could at least tell they were headed in some direction. Should be fun.
Mike Sweeney. They are also in the same division as the Tiger's so I have to root for them to lose at least 18 times per season.My theory for starting to follow them is that they are a lot like the "old" Tigers. Up until last year the Tiger's were, of course, awful. The only thing that kept us out of last place a few times were the Royals and the Tiger's often returned the favor to the Royals. Take a look at a few similarities (taking away last season):
- Last time in 2nd place or better in the division: Tigers 1991 (AL East), Royals 1995 (AL Central)
- Last time in the playoffs: Tigers 1987, Royals 1985.
- 90 loss seasons since 1988: Tigers 9, Royals 8.
- Awful Contracts: Tigers paid Bobby Higginson 52 million over his career, Royals paid the now immobile Mike Sweeney 60 million and counting.
- Bad Trades, Tigers traded Frank Catalanatto, Francisco Cordero and other for Juan Gonzalez then tried to give Juan $140 million. Royals traded Carlos Beltran to the Astros for John Buck, Mike Wood, and Mark Teahan. Beltran nearly won the MVP last year with the Mets while Teahan is the only player showing progress with the Royals. John Buck also got into a fist fight in the dugout with a teammate last season.
- And for good measure, awful 1st round picks, Tigers take Kyle Sleeth, Eric Munson, Matt Anderson, Kenny Baugh, and Matt Wheatland. Royals take Kyle Snyder, Jeff Austin, Colt Griffin, and Mike Stodolka.
The point is, these teams have not only been bad, they've been terribly mismanaged. That turned around for the Tiger's when they brought Dave Dombrowski on board. Dombrowski got ride of the old overpaid guys, completely eating Higginson's (left) contract just to get him away from the team and to let the young guys play. He did the same thing last year with Dmitri Young. He stocked up on young guys, rule 5 guys and hard throwing young pitchers. Didn't work out so well the first year, losing 119 games, but some young guys played. Dombrowski spent wisely and drafted well. Once he had a bunch of young guys around he spent some big money on some big names, the price to be taken seriously.The same plan is going into motion in Kansas City. Count me as one of a handful who like the Gil Meche deal. Is Gil Meche worth $11 million per year, nope. Will he ever be, no way. What Meche did was make it okay for a guy with some talent to head to Kansas City. Kansas City will probably still be awful this year. They will lose at least 90 games, there's no way around that. However, some young guys will get some playing time. Guy's will get used to big league hitting and pitching. Meche could win 12 games, not an easy thing to do in Kansas City and they could bring in another proven guy next year in free agency. All of this inches them closer to respectability.
So when the Royals are playing this next year I'll probably check their box scores from time to time. I'll make sure to watch the young guys when I see them on TV against the Tigers and Joel Zumaya. The truth is, the Royals are the the 2005 Tigers. You knew they weren't going to win much but you could at least tell they were headed in some direction. Should be fun.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Spring Training
Even though it's only January Major Leaguer's are getting ready to go as some of the first Spring Training games start at the end of February. It seems like only yesterday I was standing in some strange bar in Chicago watching my former favorite Tiger, Jeff Weaver completely shut down the Tigers and put to an end my favorite season of Tiger baseball since 1991. Anyway, I'm excited for Spring Training for all of the obvious reasons. I want to see how the team looks as soon as possible, I want to see who makes the opening day roster, I'm interested to see how some young guys fare, and I want to see if any washed up veterans can crack the opening day roster. That last part is about as entertaining as it gets with me. In MLB teams often sign aging veterans to minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. 99% of the team, these guys are cut by April 1st, but sometimes, sometimes they make their way back to the big leagues. Last year Ramon Santiago was just a Spring Training invite for the Tigers and he ended up making the team and played in 5 playoff games. So I'm going to scour the big leagues to see if any surprising (ie: funny) names show up. Here we go...
-Curtis Pride (Angels): Pride, may be the only (I'm not sure on this) deaf player to ever make it to the majors. Not only is Pride deaf, but he is 38 years old. I remember when Pride made it to the majors with Montreal in 1993, it was a pretty big deal, he even spent some time with the Tigers, hitting .300 in 1996. He could make some team as a pinch hitter.
-Richard Hidalgo(Astros): Back in 2000, Hidalgo hit .314 with 44 HRs and 122 RBIs, that was at the age of 25. Looking at this from a 2000 perspective one would assume that Hidalgo is still in his prime years, but no, he's a spring training invitee. Hidalgo didn't appear in a Major League game last year after hitting .221 in 2005.
-Chad Mottola (Blue Jays): I remember this guy from my baseball card days, that's how long he's been around. Mottola was the #5 overall pick in 1992, he's appeared in 59 big league games over the past 15 years with four home runs.
-Sal Fasano (Blue Jays): Coolest look in the league. I'd take him as my backup catcher any day. According to Wikipedia, his favorite song is "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by P
oison.
-Rick Ankiel (Cardinals): You might remember this guy as a dominating rookie pitcher in 2000 and then fell apart in the playoffs, only to come back and try it as an outfielder. Well, he's going to be in Spring Training with the Cardinals trying to make the team as a back up outfielder. (right)
-Ken Huckaby (Dodgers): Remember by me as the guy who slid into Derek Jeter and injured him in 2003.
-Aaron Small (Mariners): The guy who has been awful his entire career and then went 10-0 out of NOWHERE for the Yankees in 2005. Followed up that 2005 year by going 0-3 with an 8.46 ERA last year.
-Alex Sanchez (Marlins): The first player suspended for steroid use in baseball. Received a 10 game ban when playing for the Tigers. People always trashed him because he never walks, but aside from Luis Polonia, I never saw anyone bunt like Alex Sanchez.
-Jose Macias, Rob Fick, George Lombard, Colby Lewis (Nationals): All players who used to start for the Tigers, this can not be good news for the Nationals in 2007.
-Shawn Estes (Padres): This 34 year old lefty could be the worst 19 game winner of all time.
-Randall Simon (Phillies): Famously slandered by John Rocker. Also hit that sausage that one time and in 2002 walked only 13 times while starting for the Tigers almost all season.
-Jose Hernandez (Pirates): He and I share a birthday, except he's 39 years old. He also struck out 188 times in one season.
-Franklyn German (Rangers): Was once considered a top prospect in baseball. Not anymore, obviously. He walked the bases loaded so many times for the Tigers, but he was the best we had at the time.
-Victor Santos (Reds): His rookie season in Detroit ended up being his best season, 3.30 ERA. I recall very vividly that he started out his career by throwing like 10 shutout innings. My friend Andy Jackson(left) liked to say he was the next Pedro Martinez.
Odds are all of these guys will be cut and spend their season on a minor league team near you.
-Curtis Pride (Angels): Pride, may be the only (I'm not sure on this) deaf player to ever make it to the majors. Not only is Pride deaf, but he is 38 years old. I remember when Pride made it to the majors with Montreal in 1993, it was a pretty big deal, he even spent some time with the Tigers, hitting .300 in 1996. He could make some team as a pinch hitter.
-Richard Hidalgo(Astros): Back in 2000, Hidalgo hit .314 with 44 HRs and 122 RBIs, that was at the age of 25. Looking at this from a 2000 perspective one would assume that Hidalgo is still in his prime years, but no, he's a spring training invitee. Hidalgo didn't appear in a Major League game last year after hitting .221 in 2005.
-Chad Mottola (Blue Jays): I remember this guy from my baseball card days, that's how long he's been around. Mottola was the #5 overall pick in 1992, he's appeared in 59 big league games over the past 15 years with four home runs.
-Sal Fasano (Blue Jays): Coolest look in the league. I'd take him as my backup catcher any day. According to Wikipedia, his favorite song is "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by P
oison.-Rick Ankiel (Cardinals): You might remember this guy as a dominating rookie pitcher in 2000 and then fell apart in the playoffs, only to come back and try it as an outfielder. Well, he's going to be in Spring Training with the Cardinals trying to make the team as a back up outfielder. (right)
-Ken Huckaby (Dodgers): Remember by me as the guy who slid into Derek Jeter and injured him in 2003.
-Aaron Small (Mariners): The guy who has been awful his entire career and then went 10-0 out of NOWHERE for the Yankees in 2005. Followed up that 2005 year by going 0-3 with an 8.46 ERA last year.
-Alex Sanchez (Marlins): The first player suspended for steroid use in baseball. Received a 10 game ban when playing for the Tigers. People always trashed him because he never walks, but aside from Luis Polonia, I never saw anyone bunt like Alex Sanchez.
-Jose Macias, Rob Fick, George Lombard, Colby Lewis (Nationals): All players who used to start for the Tigers, this can not be good news for the Nationals in 2007.
-Shawn Estes (Padres): This 34 year old lefty could be the worst 19 game winner of all time.
-Randall Simon (Phillies): Famously slandered by John Rocker. Also hit that sausage that one time and in 2002 walked only 13 times while starting for the Tigers almost all season.
-Jose Hernandez (Pirates): He and I share a birthday, except he's 39 years old. He also struck out 188 times in one season.
-Franklyn German (Rangers): Was once considered a top prospect in baseball. Not anymore, obviously. He walked the bases loaded so many times for the Tigers, but he was the best we had at the time.
-Victor Santos (Reds): His rookie season in Detroit ended up being his best season, 3.30 ERA. I recall very vividly that he started out his career by throwing like 10 shutout innings. My friend Andy Jackson(left) liked to say he was the next Pedro Martinez.Odds are all of these guys will be cut and spend their season on a minor league team near you.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
A Reason to Root Against...
I'm more into the NFL this year than I have in the past, I thank Madden 07. Right now I am watching the Saints and Bears in the NFC Championship and I find myself rooting for the Bears even though I don't really like them. The fact is, I'm not a huge fan of any of the remaining teams. The main thing is that there are teams I like a little bit more than the team they are facing, the main thing is, I just want to see some good games. Here is what I dislike about each team:
New Orleans Saints: I am so sick of the "America's Team" crap. Is this their consolation prize for living in poverty and thousands more still living in other states? I'll ignore the political angle of this whole thing because this is a sports page. The key to my dislike here is in the media. If the Saints win today then there will be two weeks straight of "heart-warming" stories on Sports Center and every sports website, radio show, TV show, etc. about how much the city of New Orleans has overcome to get to this point. These will include stories about a 90 year old man who has been a Saints fan since the team started and this year is very special to him. Or a puff piece on how Reggie Bush gave "x" amount of dollars in an attempt to help the city rebuild, I guarantee you it would be awful. Plus, I really don't think they are all that good.
Chicago Bears: Their quarterback sucks. Their defensive tackle is a danger to society. Their defense actually wasn't that great the second half of the season. They have lots of guys out with injuries. The only plus here would be a possible "Super Bowl Shuffle" part 2.
New England Patriots: Bill Belichick (left) is jerk, a real huge jerk. Tom Brady, though a Michigan guy is way over-hyped. Lack of star power on the team. There would be lots of dynasty talk if they win. That'd be four Super Bowls for them since 2001. Pretty serious stuff, any team that wins that much is no fun to root for.
Indianapolis Colts: If you think you've seen too much of Peyton Manning of TV this year (he's in at least 259 commercials right now) then it would be killer for the next two weeks. I guess the bottom line is that every story line gets completely overblown for the two weeks prior to every Super Bowl, it's the nature of the beast.
Finally, my number one complaint about the playoffs in the NFL is that the Super Bowl is always in a dome or outside in Florida. I think the home field advantage should just carry over to the Super Bowl. I'd love to see the game played in Chicago or Foxboro in February. But hey, that's not where the advertising dollars are.
Picks:
Chicago 27 New Orleans 24
New England 23 Indianapolis 17
New Orleans Saints: I am so sick of the "America's Team" crap. Is this their consolation prize for living in poverty and thousands more still living in other states? I'll ignore the political angle of this whole thing because this is a sports page. The key to my dislike here is in the media. If the Saints win today then there will be two weeks straight of "heart-warming" stories on Sports Center and every sports website, radio show, TV show, etc. about how much the city of New Orleans has overcome to get to this point. These will include stories about a 90 year old man who has been a Saints fan since the team started and this year is very special to him. Or a puff piece on how Reggie Bush gave "x" amount of dollars in an attempt to help the city rebuild, I guarantee you it would be awful. Plus, I really don't think they are all that good.
Chicago Bears: Their quarterback sucks. Their defensive tackle is a danger to society. Their defense actually wasn't that great the second half of the season. They have lots of guys out with injuries. The only plus here would be a possible "Super Bowl Shuffle" part 2.
New England Patriots: Bill Belichick (left) is jerk, a real huge jerk. Tom Brady, though a Michigan guy is way over-hyped. Lack of star power on the team. There would be lots of dynasty talk if they win. That'd be four Super Bowls for them since 2001. Pretty serious stuff, any team that wins that much is no fun to root for.Indianapolis Colts: If you think you've seen too much of Peyton Manning of TV this year (he's in at least 259 commercials right now) then it would be killer for the next two weeks. I guess the bottom line is that every story line gets completely overblown for the two weeks prior to every Super Bowl, it's the nature of the beast.
Finally, my number one complaint about the playoffs in the NFL is that the Super Bowl is always in a dome or outside in Florida. I think the home field advantage should just carry over to the Super Bowl. I'd love to see the game played in Chicago or Foxboro in February. But hey, that's not where the advertising dollars are.
Picks:
Chicago 27 New Orleans 24
New England 23 Indianapolis 17
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Soccer will succeed.
*****
I don’t feel like writing a long treatise on why you are wrong about soccer. Instead, I am going to just make a list of reasons why soccer will succeed.
*****
- Are there three full-time television channels dedicated to football? No! Are there three full-time television channels dedicated to basketball? No! How about baseball? Nope! Hockey? Yeah, right! But you know what?... There are three full-time channels dedicated to soccer. Think about that; the sport of soccer is popular enough to generate sufficient advertisement revenue to support three full-time soccer channels, whereas the sports of football, basketball, hockey, and baseball can only support two channels combined. Lame.
- If soccer isn’t gaining in popularity, why did ESPN – our nation’s largest sports network – just shell out millions of dollars to secure the rights to a second tier soccer league? I don’t see them pulling out their wallet to get the NBDL or minor league baseball.
- MLS is not the only outlet for Americans to see soccer. Americans have access to the English Premiership, German Bundesliga, Ligue 1 in France, Scottish Premier League, Mexican Football League, the Spanish La Liga, the Dutch Eredevise, the Italian Serie A, English Championship, UEFA Champions League, and the UEFA Cup. What you fail to understand is that most soccer fan’s in the
- Soccer haters are dying off. One of the things that have hurt soccer is that people in positions of power have not been very kind to my sport. Not anymore. These loser executives and sportswriters who have to put down soccer to make themselves feel better are retiring and dying. They are being replaced by smart individuals who can see the potential of the world’s game.
- The
*****
Alright, I have gone on long enough. If you think that soccer cannot be popular, and that football, basketball, and baseball will always be king, just go ahead, because the world is just going to pass you by. Boxing was once the king of sports in our country. Now it's biggest star hasn't boxed in years and spends most of his time taking medication and threatening to eat people's children. NASCAR was once a backwoods, hillbilly sideshow. Now the spectacle can put 400k in the stands for a single event. Face it, people's preferences change over time.
*****
For some reason the format of this post looks really funny. I apologize.
~Travis~Soccer In the US
I disagree with Travis. The arrival of Beckham will not do much for the popularity of soccer in the United States. I understand that soccer is huge in South America/Central A
merica/Europe and even Asia and Africa. Great. It's just not that big here and one guy isn't going to change that. I also don't see this as a "getting the ball rolling" situation that will send Major League Soccer into something we care about. Anyway, here are some attendance statistics from the past few years for the "major" sports in America. I think attendance is a pretty fair way to look at how popular a sport really is. If people are willing to pay to get into a game and watch it, that says something. The fact that there are 30 teams in a league says something about it's demand and it's popularity. That being said here are the numbers:
Five Year Averages:
MLB: 70,385,904
NBA: 20,356,598
NFL: 16,931,143
NHL: 20,097,506
MLS: 2,532,042
Average Attendance Per Game Last Five Years:
MLB: 29,166
NBA: 17,003
NFL: 66,544
NHL: 16,563
MLS: 15,377
A few notes:
-Games in each season:
MLB: 162
NBA: 82
NFL: 16
NHL: 82
MLS: 32
Obviously the total attendance number's aren't going to be there for the MLS. However, given their short season you'd expect them to be able to keep up in average attendance numbers if one is to think they can rival any of the other four major sports in popularity. The fact that they only average 15,000 a game while only playing 32 games has to be seen as troubling.
Also, there are only 13 MLS teams, this obviously hurts them in terms of overall attendance. However, it is also a good indicator on the popularity of the league. There is only the demand for 13 teams? There are 30 MLB teams, 30 NBA teams, 30 NHL teams, and 32 NFL teams. 13 MLS teams.
I just don't see the numbers as being in their favor.
merica/Europe and even Asia and Africa. Great. It's just not that big here and one guy isn't going to change that. I also don't see this as a "getting the ball rolling" situation that will send Major League Soccer into something we care about. Anyway, here are some attendance statistics from the past few years for the "major" sports in America. I think attendance is a pretty fair way to look at how popular a sport really is. If people are willing to pay to get into a game and watch it, that says something. The fact that there are 30 teams in a league says something about it's demand and it's popularity. That being said here are the numbers:Five Year Averages:
MLB: 70,385,904
NBA: 20,356,598
NFL: 16,931,143
NHL: 20,097,506
MLS: 2,532,042
Average Attendance Per Game Last Five Years:
MLB: 29,166
NBA: 17,003
NFL: 66,544
NHL: 16,563
MLS: 15,377
A few notes:
-Games in each season:
MLB: 162
NBA: 82
NFL: 16
NHL: 82
MLS: 32
Obviously the total attendance number's aren't going to be there for the MLS. However, given their short season you'd expect them to be able to keep up in average attendance numbers if one is to think they can rival any of the other four major sports in popularity. The fact that they only average 15,000 a game while only playing 32 games has to be seen as troubling.
Also, there are only 13 MLS teams, this obviously hurts them in terms of overall attendance. However, it is also a good indicator on the popularity of the league. There is only the demand for 13 teams? There are 30 MLB teams, 30 NBA teams, 30 NHL teams, and 32 NFL teams. 13 MLS teams.
I just don't see the numbers as being in their favor.
Friday, January 12, 2007
$250 million well spent
Words cannot fully capture the pleasure I now take in the fact that David Beckham has decided to spend the next five years playing soccer in the US. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking this is just some fiscally irresponsible grasp by Major League Soccer to lure the casual sports fan into watching there pre-teen league. This was a sound decision made by people a lot smarter than me, or any person who may end up reading this blog. Let me run through some of the common complaints and criticisms that have been thrown at this deal and address why they are wrong:
(1) $250 million... for a soccer player? I call this the Jim Rome criticism. It is what you hear from middle-aged, (mostly) white men who completely lack a general understanding of the world beyond America's borders. These people think that if you like soccer you are a wimp; a sissy; a "queer." These people are idiots.
What these people (by the way, I totally realize that the phase, "these people" make me sound like a jerk) fail to understand is that there are some 300 million people in America, and they aren't all, as Jim Rome calls them, "clones." The United States has millions of immigrants from soccer-mad nations that are just dying to see top-flight soccer played in this country. On top of that, there are millions more non-immigrants, such as myself, who love the sport. Think about this: Football is supposedly the most popular sport in the US, yet there is only one all-football available on cable or satellite (the NFL Network). On the other hand, there are three (yes, three) all-soccer channels available on cable or satellite (Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV, and Setanta). Needless to say, there is a market for soccer.
(2) The MLS can't possibly afford that contract. To be fair, the $250 million figure is a bit misleading. Much of the money comes from sources other than MLS, and AEG (the owner of the Los Angeles Galaxy). Most of the money comes from endorsement deals signed with Adidas, Creative Artists Agency, and 19 Entertainment (the people that brought you American Idol) who ponied up the cash contingent on Beckham coming to America. According to SI.com, MLS in only on the hook for an amount in the single-figure millions, thought the league would not disclose the full details of the contract. The final thing to consider is, according to wikipedia, the fact that the team owner has an estimated net-worth of around $7.8 billion. I don't think money will be hard to come by.
(3) It is big contracts like this that sunk the NASL. The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the American pro soccer league that existed during the 70's and early 80's which came to collapse when owners far outspent revenues in an effort to keep up with their other free-spending owner brethren. The NASL was a nothing league until the New York Cosmos signed a then retired Pele to extraordinary sum of money, followed by signings of other world greats such as Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia. It may be hard to believe, but this team routinely filled Giants Stadium. Unfortunately, the rest of the league spent money, hand over fist, just to keep up with the Cosmos. The massive debt incurred by these teams was too much to bear and ultimately led to the league demise.
Nowadays, the premier league in the United States is Major League Soccer. MLS differs from the NASL -- and most sports leagues -- in that it is a single entity. Team owners do not own their teams, so-to-speak, but rather own stock in the league, and own operating rights to a team. All players are paid for by the league, rather than the team. This prevents teams from engaging in the type of arms race that killed its predecessor. Furthermore, MLS has a loose salary cap to provide another check against free-spending.
This season the MLS introduced what has become known as, "The Beckham Rule", which allows a team to spend as much money as they want on a single player for which the team is responsible for the player's salary over $400k. In addition, this Beckham Rule slot can be traded. I could go much further into the economics of Major League Soccer, but that would be long an boring. Suffice it to say that MLS has developed a business model which focuses on incremental change and conservative financial management. The MLS may not be a top league globally, but it will surely avoid the fate that befell the NASL.
*****
It should also be mentioned that the Beckham family is a virtual publicity machine. Everytime someone goes through a grocery store checkout they will be staring straight at a picture of Posh or Becks. As they say any publicity is good publicity.
*****
I would like to make one last point: MLS has recently signed a tv rights deal with ESPN. ESPN now has financial incentive to promote the hell out of the MLS as it must maximize ad revenue. This increased exposer for the league, and David Beckham particularly, will elevate the sport of soccer within the American sports culture. Soccer will replace Hockey as America's 4th major sport (I don't count NASCAR since a bunch of rednecks making left turns for 3 hours is not a sport). For all you soccer haters out there... be prepared to see lots of annoying MLS promos -- with Beck's face all over them -- on ESPN starting this April.
~Travis~
(1) $250 million... for a soccer player? I call this the Jim Rome criticism. It is what you hear from middle-aged, (mostly) white men who completely lack a general understanding of the world beyond America's borders. These people think that if you like soccer you are a wimp; a sissy; a "queer." These people are idiots.
What these people (by the way, I totally realize that the phase, "these people" make me sound like a jerk) fail to understand is that there are some 300 million people in America, and they aren't all, as Jim Rome calls them, "clones." The United States has millions of immigrants from soccer-mad nations that are just dying to see top-flight soccer played in this country. On top of that, there are millions more non-immigrants, such as myself, who love the sport. Think about this: Football is supposedly the most popular sport in the US, yet there is only one all-football available on cable or satellite (the NFL Network). On the other hand, there are three (yes, three) all-soccer channels available on cable or satellite (Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV, and Setanta). Needless to say, there is a market for soccer.
(2) The MLS can't possibly afford that contract. To be fair, the $250 million figure is a bit misleading. Much of the money comes from sources other than MLS, and AEG (the owner of the Los Angeles Galaxy). Most of the money comes from endorsement deals signed with Adidas, Creative Artists Agency, and 19 Entertainment (the people that brought you American Idol) who ponied up the cash contingent on Beckham coming to America. According to SI.com, MLS in only on the hook for an amount in the single-figure millions, thought the league would not disclose the full details of the contract. The final thing to consider is, according to wikipedia, the fact that the team owner has an estimated net-worth of around $7.8 billion. I don't think money will be hard to come by.(3) It is big contracts like this that sunk the NASL. The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the American pro soccer league that existed during the 70's and early 80's which came to collapse when owners far outspent revenues in an effort to keep up with their other free-spending owner brethren. The NASL was a nothing league until the New York Cosmos signed a then retired Pele to extraordinary sum of money, followed by signings of other world greats such as Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia. It may be hard to believe, but this team routinely filled Giants Stadium. Unfortunately, the rest of the league spent money, hand over fist, just to keep up with the Cosmos. The massive debt incurred by these teams was too much to bear and ultimately led to the league demise.
Nowadays, the premier league in the United States is Major League Soccer. MLS differs from the NASL -- and most sports leagues -- in that it is a single entity. Team owners do not own their teams, so-to-speak, but rather own stock in the league, and own operating rights to a team. All players are paid for by the league, rather than the team. This prevents teams from engaging in the type of arms race that killed its predecessor. Furthermore, MLS has a loose salary cap to provide another check against free-spending.
This season the MLS introduced what has become known as, "The Beckham Rule", which allows a team to spend as much money as they want on a single player for which the team is responsible for the player's salary over $400k. In addition, this Beckham Rule slot can be traded. I could go much further into the economics of Major League Soccer, but that would be long an boring. Suffice it to say that MLS has developed a business model which focuses on incremental change and conservative financial management. The MLS may not be a top league globally, but it will surely avoid the fate that befell the NASL.
*****
It should also be mentioned that the Beckham family is a virtual publicity machine. Everytime someone goes through a grocery store checkout they will be staring straight at a picture of Posh or Becks. As they say any publicity is good publicity.
*****
I would like to make one last point: MLS has recently signed a tv rights deal with ESPN. ESPN now has financial incentive to promote the hell out of the MLS as it must maximize ad revenue. This increased exposer for the league, and David Beckham particularly, will elevate the sport of soccer within the American sports culture. Soccer will replace Hockey as America's 4th major sport (I don't count NASCAR since a bunch of rednecks making left turns for 3 hours is not a sport). For all you soccer haters out there... be prepared to see lots of annoying MLS promos -- with Beck's face all over them -- on ESPN starting this April.
~Travis~
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Steroid Issue
I hate this topic. I hate how it dominates every single sports media outlet, it'
s old. The worst part i
s that there is no end in sight. People will be debating for decades who was on, who is on, who wasn't, it's madness. The subject came back to the forefront of sports media the past few weeks because of Mark McGuire appearing on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time.
A day after that the New York Daily News reported that Barry Bonds failed a test last year for amphetamines. A one time amphetamine best doesn't get you suspended but it certainly won't help Bonds' already shady reputation.
The problem is that there is no way to know for sure who was on steroids unless it's a guy like Rafael Palmeiro who actually failed a steroid test. Palmeiro, a sure fire hall of famer, is probably going to be left out in the cold. McGuire and Bonds have never been busted for a thing. Even though it sure looks they are both guilty, there's absolutely no way to prove a thing. I can't decide where I stand on this issue. I wouldn't be surprised if only a few dozen guys have abused steroids or if 95% of guys have, it's just a bizarre situation. I think you either need to exclude every guy from this era from the Hall or just vote for the people who excelled whether they did steroids or not. Personally, I think I'd have to vote for McGuire, I wouldn't want to, I couldn't even stand him when he did play. However, I think there's just as much proof on someone like Bonds or McGuire as there could be on someone like Roger Clemens or Curt Schilling. I think if the public didn't love Clemens and Schilling so much there could be some dirt dug up on them.
Here's what really gets me though: why is there such a massive double stand
ard on the steroid issue. NFL star, Shawne Merriman (right) was suspended for four games for violating the steroid rule in the NFL, as was Detroit star Shawn Rogers. These guys both got pretty substantial suspensions but weren't nearly as chastised and their baseball counterparts. Merriman was even voted to the Pro Bowl and made the NFL All Pro team. It seems like the guys on ESPN talk about how there is this double standard and just leave it at that, like it's no big deal. They still praise them for doing amazing things on the field. Merriman still makes all the highlights on the clip shows. I hate it.
Instead of acting like these things don't happen and don't matter, I'm going to make a conscious effort to talk about NFL offenders in the same way I talk about MLB offenders. Look out Shawne Merriman, I'm attacking you as a cheater and as someone who spells his own name incorrectly.
s old. The worst part is that there is no end in sight. People will be debating for decades who was on, who is on, who wasn't, it's madness. The subject came back to the forefront of sports media the past few weeks because of Mark McGuire appearing on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time.A day after that the New York Daily News reported that Barry Bonds failed a test last year for amphetamines. A one time amphetamine best doesn't get you suspended but it certainly won't help Bonds' already shady reputation.
The problem is that there is no way to know for sure who was on steroids unless it's a guy like Rafael Palmeiro who actually failed a steroid test. Palmeiro, a sure fire hall of famer, is probably going to be left out in the cold. McGuire and Bonds have never been busted for a thing. Even though it sure looks they are both guilty, there's absolutely no way to prove a thing. I can't decide where I stand on this issue. I wouldn't be surprised if only a few dozen guys have abused steroids or if 95% of guys have, it's just a bizarre situation. I think you either need to exclude every guy from this era from the Hall or just vote for the people who excelled whether they did steroids or not. Personally, I think I'd have to vote for McGuire, I wouldn't want to, I couldn't even stand him when he did play. However, I think there's just as much proof on someone like Bonds or McGuire as there could be on someone like Roger Clemens or Curt Schilling. I think if the public didn't love Clemens and Schilling so much there could be some dirt dug up on them.
Here's what really gets me though: why is there such a massive double stand
ard on the steroid issue. NFL star, Shawne Merriman (right) was suspended for four games for violating the steroid rule in the NFL, as was Detroit star Shawn Rogers. These guys both got pretty substantial suspensions but weren't nearly as chastised and their baseball counterparts. Merriman was even voted to the Pro Bowl and made the NFL All Pro team. It seems like the guys on ESPN talk about how there is this double standard and just leave it at that, like it's no big deal. They still praise them for doing amazing things on the field. Merriman still makes all the highlights on the clip shows. I hate it.Instead of acting like these things don't happen and don't matter, I'm going to make a conscious effort to talk about NFL offenders in the same way I talk about MLB offenders. Look out Shawne Merriman, I'm attacking you as a cheater and as someone who spells his own name incorrectly.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Top Draft Picks
My parents can back this up, I love drafts. I have always watched them, been obsessed by them. I remember in my elementary days reading about Ben McDonald and how his baseball cards were a prime card to get because he was a can't miss guy. What happened to him? He was average at best for a few years. That's why the draft is so great. It's kind of like the band Audioslave.
Audioslave is made up of the instrument section of Rage Against the Machine (my favorite band in HS) and the lead singer from Soundgarden (another adolescent favorite). When I was in college this all came together and I was excited. Looking at the "statistics" this band could not miss. Boy was I wrong. Audioslave sucks. That's why sports drafts are so much fun. One could argue that Pervis Ellison is the Audioslave of NBA top picks. Anyway you look at it, it's entertaining. Some busts you can see coming a mile away. I mean, who didn't see Ki-Jana Carter being a bust in the NFL? I called that one and I was only 13 at the time.
Anyway, in this post I'll go over the #1 picks in the NBA, NFL, and MLB drafts dating back to 1980. I guarantee you forgot some of these guys ever even existed. There will also be several very funny pictures. Here we go...
1980
MLB: Darryl Strawberry (Did lots of cocaine, hit 335 HRs)
NBA: Joe Barry Carroll (Nicknamed "Joe Barely Cares", picked before Kevin McHale)
NFL: Billy Sims (Played in 60 career games, picked before Anthony Munoz)
Verdict: Pretty lame top picks. They all fell far short of potential, some would say they squandered great gifts. 5/10
1981
MLB: Mike Moore (Won 161 games, solid career, picked before Tony Gwynn)
NBA: Mark Aguirre (Career average of 20ppg, 3-time all star, picked before Isiah Thomas)
NFL: George Rogers (Heisman trophy winner lasted 7 seasons, picked before Lawrence Taylor)
Verdict: Better than 1980, but not amazing. 6/10
1982
MLB: Shawon Dunston (Solid, 2 time allstar, played until he was 39, picked before David Wells)
NBA: James Worthy (7-time allstar, in the Hall of Fame)
NFL: Kenneth Sims (8 seasons, 17 career sacks, lousy, drafted before Marcus Allen)
Verdict: Worthy classes up this year. 7.2/10
1983
MLB: Tim Belcher (He sucked for the Tigers, 146 wins, picked before Roger Clemens)
NBA: Ralph Sampson (Bust. Had three good year, injuries ruined him, picked before Clyde Drexler)
NFL: John Elway (Hall of Famer, two time Super Bowl Winner)
Verdict: Doesn't get much better than Elway. 7.3/10
1984
MLB: Shawn Abner (Lifetime #s: 11HR, .227 avg, done by age 26, picked before Greg Maddux)
NBA : Hakeem Olajuwon (Hall of Fame, 2 titles, picked before Michael Jordan)
NFL: Irving Fryar (10th all time in catches, 5 Pro Bowls, picked before Boomer Esiason)
Verdict: Not bad at all, except for Abner. 8.3/10
1985
MLB: BJ Surhoff (Solid career, 2,300 hits, picked before Barry Bonds, Will Clark, etc.)
NBA: Patrick Ewing (9-time allstar, never won a title, picked before Uwe Blab)
NFL: Bruce Smith (NFL record 200 sacks, 11 pro bowls, picked before Jerry Rice)
Verdict: Best draft so far, 2 certain Hall of Famers. 9/10.
1986
MLB: Jeff King (I liked him on the Pirate, 154 HR, picked before Gary Sheffield)
NBA: Brad Daugherty (Came in with high hopes, lots of injuries, only 8 seasons, picked ahead of Dennis Rodman and Len Bias)
NFL: Bo Jackson (Amazing for his short time before the injuries, picked ahead of Pat Swilling)
Verdict: Meh, injuries really hurt this class. 6.5/10
1987
MLB: Ken Griffy Jr. (Great career despite the injuries, 563 HR, picked ahead of Craig Biggio)
NBA: David Robinson (The ultimate pro, Hall of Famer, picked ahead of Scottie Pippen)
NFL: Vinny Testaverde (Pretty good career, he's still playing actually, picked ahead of Rod Woodson)
Verdict: This is up there with the 1985 class, two hall of famers, 9.1/10
1988
MLB: Andy Benes (Solid, 155 wins, never an ace, picked ahead of Tino Martinez)
NBA: Danny Manning (Too many injuries, just a solid career, picked ahead of Mitch Richmond)
NFL: Aundray Bruce (Total bust, picked ahead of Tim Brown)
Verdict: Wow, pretty bad, worst so far. 4/10
1989
MLB: Ben McDonald (Major hype, responded with 78 wins, picked ahead of Frank Thomas)
NBA: Pervis Ellison (Not a very good player, 9.5ppg, picked ahead of Glen Rice)
NFL: Troy Aikman (A legend, multiple Super Bowls, picked ahead of Barry Sanders)
Verdict: Aikman saved them from being the worst so far. 6.3/10
1990
MLB: Chipper Jones (Has had a great career in ATL, won an MVP, picked ahead of Mike Mussina)
NBA: Derrick Coleman (Some say he could have been an alltime great, picked ahead of Gary Payton)
NFL: Jeff George (Another guy with lots of talent who let his attitude get in the way, picked ahead of Emmitt Smith)
Verdict: George and Coleman take away from Jones. 7.2/10
1991
MLB: Brien Taylor (Total Bust, never made it to the Majors, picked ahead of Manny Ramirez)
NBA: Larry Johnson (16ppg, career cut short by injuries, picked ahead of Mutombo)
NFL: Russell Maryland (Average career, nothing spectacular, picked ahead of Brett Favre)
Verdict: Pretty weak class here, gotta be towards the bottom. 4.2/10
1992
MLB: Phil Nevin (Late bloomer hit 208 HR, one all star game, picked ahead of Derek Jeter the best player of all time)
NBA: Shaquille O'Neal (One of the best of all time, picked ahead of Adam Keefe and Matt Steigenga)
NFL: Steven Emtman (Retired at the ripe age of 27, picked ahead of Terrell Buckley)
Verdict: Shaq saves them some. (7/10)
1993
MLB: Alex Rodriguez (He's good, 31 yrs old and 464 HR, picked ahead of Darren Dreifort)
NBA: Chris Webber (One of the best PF of alltime, kind of lame now, picked ahead of Mike Peplowski)
NFL: Drew Bledsoe (Pretty good career, 4 ProBowls, picked before Willie Roaf)
Verdict: One of the best classes. 8.9/10
1994
MLB: Paul Wilson (Lots of hype, lots of injuries, 40-58 in 7 seasons, picked ahead of Paul Konerko)
NBA: Glenn Robinson (Big Dog has been okay, 2 all star games, picked ahead of Jason Kidd)
NFL: Dan Wilkinson (Flop. Big Daddy has 54 career sacks and played yet this season, picked ahead of Marshall Faulk)
Verdict: Pretty disappointing all the way around. 5.7/10
1995
MLB: Darin Erstad (Had a few good years, still playing but not very well, picked ahead of Roy Halladay)
NBA: Joe Smith (The Darin Erstad of the NBA, picked ahead of Kevin Garnett)
NFL: Ki-Jana Carter (Yuck, 1,127 career yards says it all, picked ahead of Steve McNair)
Verdict: Erstad and Smith have been solid, keeping the from being the worst. 4.1/10
1996
MLB: Kris Benson (68-73 career record. Married to a model, picked ahead of Eric Chavez)
NBA: Allen Iverson (28ppg for his career, 7 time allstar, picked ahead of Jamie Feick)
NFL: Keyshawn Johnson (814 career receptions, a notorious jerk, picked ahead of Marvin Harrison)
Verdict: Pretty good class actually, full of characters. 8.4/10
1997
MLB: Matt Anderson (Threw really hard but hurt his arm throwing an octopus, picked ahead of Vernon Wells)
NBA: Tim Duncan (No complaints, 2 time champ, multiple allstar, picked ahead of Adonal Foyle)
NFL: Orlando Pace (Multiple AllPro, Super Bowl Champ, picked ahead of Tiki Barber)
Verdict: Anderson hurts this group a lot. 8/10
1998
MLB: Pat Burrell (Decent player who makes way too much money, picked ahead of Barry Zito and Nate Cornejo)
NBA: Michael Olowokandi (8.6ppg and 7 rpg for his career, picked ahead of Dirk Nowitzki)
NFL: Peyton Manning (One of the best of all time, picked ahead of Ryan Leaf and Curtis Enis)
Verdict: Manning bumps them way up, 7.7/10
1999
MLB: Josh Hamilton (Heroin addict has never played in the big leagues, picked ahead of Carl Crawford)
NBA: Elton Brand (Allstar has been stuck on lousy teams for most of his career, picked ahead of Trajan Langdon)
NFL: Tim Couch (Lasted five seasons in the NFL, his career is over, picked ahead of Champ Bailey)
Verdict: Pretty lousy, Brand saves them from being the worst. 6.1/10
2000
MLB: Adrian Gonzalez (Hit 24 HR in his first full season last year, picked ahead of Chase Utley)
NBA: Kenyon Martin (Injury plagued career, one all star game, picked ahead of Michael Redd)
NFL: Courtney Brown (19 sacks in 7 seasons, safe to say he's a bust, picked ahead of Brian Urlacher)
Verdict: Martin's draft as whole was lousy so it's not his fault he was #1. 5.9/10
2001
MLB: Joe Mauer (Won the batting title last year, great player, picked ahead of Jeremy Bonderman)
NBA: Kwame Brown (Michael Jordan ruined his life, picked ahead of Gilbert Arenas)
NFL: Michael Vick (One of the most overrated athletes of all time, picked ahead of LaDainian Tomlinson)
Verdict: Still a fare amount of talent here. 7.9/10
2002
MLB: Bryan Bullington ( Has thrown one inning so far, not a great start, picked ahead of Prince Fielder)
NBA: Yao Ming (Best center in the NBA, gets better each season, picked ahead of Marcus Taylor)
NFL: David Carr (Time's running out for him to prove himself, picked ahead of Julius Peppers)
Verdict: Ming helps, the other two are fast running out of time. 7/10
2003
MLB: Delmon Young (Can hit like crazy, but he is crazy, picked ahead of Lastings Milledge)
NBA: LeBron James (No complaints. Picked ahead of Steve Blake)
NFL: Carson Palmer (Great player, rebounded from injury, picked ahead of Charles Rogers)
Verdict: Yeesh, this could be three hall of famers. 9.3/10
2004
MLB: Matthew Bush (Lousy numbers in the minors so far, .220, picked ahead of Justin Verlander)
NBA: Dwight Howard (Getting better each season, rebounding machine, picked ahead of Robert Swift)
NFL: Eli Manning (Rating has gone up all three years, but people are losing patience, picked ahead of Philip Rivers)
Verdict: Bush hurts this draft, Manning makes or breaks it for the future. 6.8/10
2005
MLB: Justin Upton (Hit .263 at South Bend (A), better be good, he's on my fantasy team, picked ahead of Alex Gordon)
NBA: Andrew Bogut (Already can tell he'll be solid, but not great, picked ahead of Chris Paul)
NFL: Alex Smith (Played a lot better this year in his 2nd season, picked ahead of Shawne Merriman)
Verdict: Seems like each team could have picked someone who's much better already. 6.3/10
2006
MLB: Luke Hochevar (Was picked first because he was affordable to the Royals, picked ahead of Andrew Miller)
NBA: Andrea Bargnani (Picking up his game, already better than Darko, picked ahead of Brandon Roy)
NFL: Mario Williams (Up and down rookie season, mostly down, picked ahead of Reggie Bush)
Verdict: 7/10 give or take 3.
That took a long time. I learned a lot, hope you enjoy it. It was taking too long to get all the pictures, sorry.
Audioslave is made up of the instrument section of Rage Against the Machine (my favorite band in HS) and the lead singer from Soundgarden (another adolescent favorite). When I was in college this all came together and I was excited. Looking at the "statistics" this band could not miss. Boy was I wrong. Audioslave sucks. That's why sports drafts are so much fun. One could argue that Pervis Ellison is the Audioslave of NBA top picks. Anyway you look at it, it's entertaining. Some busts you can see coming a mile away. I mean, who didn't see Ki-Jana Carter being a bust in the NFL? I called that one and I was only 13 at the time.
Anyway, in this post I'll go over the #1 picks in the NBA, NFL, and MLB drafts dating back to 1980. I guarantee you forgot some of these guys ever even existed. There will also be several very funny pictures. Here we go...
1980
MLB: Darryl Strawberry (Did lots of cocaine, hit 335 HRs)
NBA: Joe Barry Carroll (Nicknamed "Joe Barely Cares", picked before Kevin McHale)
NFL: Billy Sims (Played in 60 career games, picked before Anthony Munoz)
Verdict: Pretty lame top picks. They all fell far short of potential, some would say they squandered great gifts. 5/10
1981
MLB: Mike Moore (Won 161 games, solid career, picked before Tony Gwynn)
NBA: Mark Aguirre (Career average of 20ppg, 3-time all star, picked before Isiah Thomas)
NFL: George Rogers (Heisman trophy winner lasted 7 seasons, picked before Lawrence Taylor)
Verdict: Better than 1980, but not amazing. 6/10
1982
MLB: Shawon Dunston (Solid, 2 time allstar, played until he was 39, picked before David Wells)
NBA: James Worthy (7-time allstar, in the Hall of Fame)
NFL: Kenneth Sims (8 seasons, 17 career sacks, lousy, drafted before Marcus Allen)
Verdict: Worthy classes up this year. 7.2/10
1983
MLB: Tim Belcher (He sucked for the Tigers, 146 wins, picked before Roger Clemens)
NBA: Ralph Sampson (Bust. Had three good year, injuries ruined him, picked before Clyde Drexler)
NFL: John Elway (Hall of Famer, two time Super Bowl Winner)
Verdict: Doesn't get much better than Elway. 7.3/10
1984
MLB: Shawn Abner (Lifetime #s: 11HR, .227 avg, done by age 26, picked before Greg Maddux)
NBA : Hakeem Olajuwon (Hall of Fame, 2 titles, picked before Michael Jordan)
NFL: Irving Fryar (10th all time in catches, 5 Pro Bowls, picked before Boomer Esiason)
Verdict: Not bad at all, except for Abner. 8.3/10
1985
MLB: BJ Surhoff (Solid career, 2,300 hits, picked before Barry Bonds, Will Clark, etc.)
NBA: Patrick Ewing (9-time allstar, never won a title, picked before Uwe Blab)
NFL: Bruce Smith (NFL record 200 sacks, 11 pro bowls, picked before Jerry Rice)
Verdict: Best draft so far, 2 certain Hall of Famers. 9/10.
1986
MLB: Jeff King (I liked him on the Pirate, 154 HR, picked before Gary Sheffield)
NBA: Brad Daugherty (Came in with high hopes, lots of injuries, only 8 seasons, picked ahead of Dennis Rodman and Len Bias)
NFL: Bo Jackson (Amazing for his short time before the injuries, picked ahead of Pat Swilling)
Verdict: Meh, injuries really hurt this class. 6.5/10
1987
MLB: Ken Griffy Jr. (Great career despite the injuries, 563 HR, picked ahead of Craig Biggio)
NBA: David Robinson (The ultimate pro, Hall of Famer, picked ahead of Scottie Pippen)
NFL: Vinny Testaverde (Pretty good career, he's still playing actually, picked ahead of Rod Woodson)
Verdict: This is up there with the 1985 class, two hall of famers, 9.1/10
1988
MLB: Andy Benes (Solid, 155 wins, never an ace, picked ahead of Tino Martinez)
NBA: Danny Manning (Too many injuries, just a solid career, picked ahead of Mitch Richmond)
NFL: Aundray Bruce (Total bust, picked ahead of Tim Brown)
Verdict: Wow, pretty bad, worst so far. 4/10
1989
MLB: Ben McDonald (Major hype, responded with 78 wins, picked ahead of Frank Thomas)
NBA: Pervis Ellison (Not a very good player, 9.5ppg, picked ahead of Glen Rice)
NFL: Troy Aikman (A legend, multiple Super Bowls, picked ahead of Barry Sanders)
Verdict: Aikman saved them from being the worst so far. 6.3/10
1990
MLB: Chipper Jones (Has had a great career in ATL, won an MVP, picked ahead of Mike Mussina)
NBA: Derrick Coleman (Some say he could have been an alltime great, picked ahead of Gary Payton)
NFL: Jeff George (Another guy with lots of talent who let his attitude get in the way, picked ahead of Emmitt Smith)
Verdict: George and Coleman take away from Jones. 7.2/10
1991
MLB: Brien Taylor (Total Bust, never made it to the Majors, picked ahead of Manny Ramirez)
NBA: Larry Johnson (16ppg, career cut short by injuries, picked ahead of Mutombo)
NFL: Russell Maryland (Average career, nothing spectacular, picked ahead of Brett Favre)
Verdict: Pretty weak class here, gotta be towards the bottom. 4.2/10
1992
MLB: Phil Nevin (Late bloomer hit 208 HR, one all star game, picked ahead of Derek Jeter the best player of all time)
NBA: Shaquille O'Neal (One of the best of all time, picked ahead of Adam Keefe and Matt Steigenga)
NFL: Steven Emtman (Retired at the ripe age of 27, picked ahead of Terrell Buckley)
Verdict: Shaq saves them some. (7/10)
1993
MLB: Alex Rodriguez (He's good, 31 yrs old and 464 HR, picked ahead of Darren Dreifort)
NBA: Chris Webber (One of the best PF of alltime, kind of lame now, picked ahead of Mike Peplowski)
NFL: Drew Bledsoe (Pretty good career, 4 ProBowls, picked before Willie Roaf)
Verdict: One of the best classes. 8.9/10
1994
MLB: Paul Wilson (Lots of hype, lots of injuries, 40-58 in 7 seasons, picked ahead of Paul Konerko)
NBA: Glenn Robinson (Big Dog has been okay, 2 all star games, picked ahead of Jason Kidd)
NFL: Dan Wilkinson (Flop. Big Daddy has 54 career sacks and played yet this season, picked ahead of Marshall Faulk)
Verdict: Pretty disappointing all the way around. 5.7/10
1995
MLB: Darin Erstad (Had a few good years, still playing but not very well, picked ahead of Roy Halladay)
NBA: Joe Smith (The Darin Erstad of the NBA, picked ahead of Kevin Garnett)
NFL: Ki-Jana Carter (Yuck, 1,127 career yards says it all, picked ahead of Steve McNair)
Verdict: Erstad and Smith have been solid, keeping the from being the worst. 4.1/10
1996
MLB: Kris Benson (68-73 career record. Married to a model, picked ahead of Eric Chavez)
NBA: Allen Iverson (28ppg for his career, 7 time allstar, picked ahead of Jamie Feick)
NFL: Keyshawn Johnson (814 career receptions, a notorious jerk, picked ahead of Marvin Harrison)
Verdict: Pretty good class actually, full of characters. 8.4/10
1997
MLB: Matt Anderson (Threw really hard but hurt his arm throwing an octopus, picked ahead of Vernon Wells)
NBA: Tim Duncan (No complaints, 2 time champ, multiple allstar, picked ahead of Adonal Foyle)
NFL: Orlando Pace (Multiple AllPro, Super Bowl Champ, picked ahead of Tiki Barber)
Verdict: Anderson hurts this group a lot. 8/10
1998
MLB: Pat Burrell (Decent player who makes way too much money, picked ahead of Barry Zito and Nate Cornejo)
NBA: Michael Olowokandi (8.6ppg and 7 rpg for his career, picked ahead of Dirk Nowitzki)
NFL: Peyton Manning (One of the best of all time, picked ahead of Ryan Leaf and Curtis Enis)
Verdict: Manning bumps them way up, 7.7/10
1999
MLB: Josh Hamilton (Heroin addict has never played in the big leagues, picked ahead of Carl Crawford)
NBA: Elton Brand (Allstar has been stuck on lousy teams for most of his career, picked ahead of Trajan Langdon)
NFL: Tim Couch (Lasted five seasons in the NFL, his career is over, picked ahead of Champ Bailey)
Verdict: Pretty lousy, Brand saves them from being the worst. 6.1/10
2000
MLB: Adrian Gonzalez (Hit 24 HR in his first full season last year, picked ahead of Chase Utley)
NBA: Kenyon Martin (Injury plagued career, one all star game, picked ahead of Michael Redd)
NFL: Courtney Brown (19 sacks in 7 seasons, safe to say he's a bust, picked ahead of Brian Urlacher)
Verdict: Martin's draft as whole was lousy so it's not his fault he was #1. 5.9/10
2001
MLB: Joe Mauer (Won the batting title last year, great player, picked ahead of Jeremy Bonderman)
NBA: Kwame Brown (Michael Jordan ruined his life, picked ahead of Gilbert Arenas)
NFL: Michael Vick (One of the most overrated athletes of all time, picked ahead of LaDainian Tomlinson)
Verdict: Still a fare amount of talent here. 7.9/10
2002
MLB: Bryan Bullington ( Has thrown one inning so far, not a great start, picked ahead of Prince Fielder)
NBA: Yao Ming (Best center in the NBA, gets better each season, picked ahead of Marcus Taylor)
NFL: David Carr (Time's running out for him to prove himself, picked ahead of Julius Peppers)
Verdict: Ming helps, the other two are fast running out of time. 7/10
2003
MLB: Delmon Young (Can hit like crazy, but he is crazy, picked ahead of Lastings Milledge)
NBA: LeBron James (No complaints. Picked ahead of Steve Blake)
NFL: Carson Palmer (Great player, rebounded from injury, picked ahead of Charles Rogers)
Verdict: Yeesh, this could be three hall of famers. 9.3/10
2004
MLB: Matthew Bush (Lousy numbers in the minors so far, .220, picked ahead of Justin Verlander)
NBA: Dwight Howard (Getting better each season, rebounding machine, picked ahead of Robert Swift)
NFL: Eli Manning (Rating has gone up all three years, but people are losing patience, picked ahead of Philip Rivers)
Verdict: Bush hurts this draft, Manning makes or breaks it for the future. 6.8/10
2005
MLB: Justin Upton (Hit .263 at South Bend (A), better be good, he's on my fantasy team, picked ahead of Alex Gordon)
NBA: Andrew Bogut (Already can tell he'll be solid, but not great, picked ahead of Chris Paul)
NFL: Alex Smith (Played a lot better this year in his 2nd season, picked ahead of Shawne Merriman)
Verdict: Seems like each team could have picked someone who's much better already. 6.3/10
2006
MLB: Luke Hochevar (Was picked first because he was affordable to the Royals, picked ahead of Andrew Miller)
NBA: Andrea Bargnani (Picking up his game, already better than Darko, picked ahead of Brandon Roy)
NFL: Mario Williams (Up and down rookie season, mostly down, picked ahead of Reggie Bush)
Verdict: 7/10 give or take 3.
That took a long time. I learned a lot, hope you enjoy it. It was taking too long to get all the pictures, sorry.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Erie Report
I'm on a roll now. A day after posting Lakeland, I'm getting right to Erie and Toledo. This should contain some of the best prospects. In A ball it's usually too early to tell for most guys, AA/AAA is where the action is. So, here we go...
-Jair Jurrjens (SP)- Jurrjens is probably the Tiger's top pitching prospect now that Humberto Sanchez is with the Yankees. Jurjens is turning 21 later this month so he is still very young. He split 2006, starting in Lakeland and finishing in Erie. Jair went 5-0 with a 2.08 ERA in Lakeland and 4-3 with 3.36 ERA after moving up to Erie. Jurrjens will probably play with the Tigers during spring training before heading back to Erie.
-Kelly Hunt (1B)- Hunt spent all of 06 with Erie. Another slugger with a low batting average in the minors. Hunt slugged 22 home runs but hit only .228 for the season. Hunt will be 26 by the time the season starts.
-Vincent Blue (LF)- Blue turns 24 so he is still quite young, and is a base stealing threat. He hit .232 last season but was hurt dearly by hitting only .158 off of lefties. He managed to steal 24 bases last season for Erie.
-Ryan Raburn (2B)- Raburn spent all of 2006 with Toledo. He has some pop in his bat as he hit 20 HR last season while batting a respectable .275. He struck out a little too much but did draw some walks. However, Raburn is behind Infante/Polonco/Perez/Guillen/Santiago for a spot on the Tigers.
Next post I'll head back and check out lower A Oneonta and Rookie League GCL.
-Jair Jurrjens (SP)- Jurrjens is probably the Tiger's top pitching prospect now that Humberto Sanchez is with the Yankees. Jurjens is turning 21 later this month so he is still very young. He split 2006, starting in Lakeland and finishing in Erie. Jair went 5-0 with a 2.08 ERA in Lakeland and 4-3 with 3.36 ERA after moving up to Erie. Jurrjens will probably play with the Tigers during spring training before heading back to Erie.
-Kelly Hunt (1B)- Hunt spent all of 06 with Erie. Another slugger with a low batting average in the minors. Hunt slugged 22 home runs but hit only .228 for the season. Hunt will be 26 by the time the season starts.
-Vincent Blue (LF)- Blue turns 24 so he is still quite young, and is a base stealing threat. He hit .232 last season but was hurt dearly by hitting only .158 off of lefties. He managed to steal 24 bases last season for Erie.
-Ryan Raburn (2B)- Raburn spent all of 2006 with Toledo. He has some pop in his bat as he hit 20 HR last season while batting a respectable .275. He struck out a little too much but did draw some walks. However, Raburn is behind Infante/Polonco/Perez/Guillen/Santiago for a spot on the Tigers.
Next post I'll head back and check out lower A Oneonta and Rookie League GCL.
Sportsman of the Year: Part II
I intended to write up a more detailed account of why I feel that Vince Young should be regarded as the best athlete of the year; then the holidays came... and went... and still I had not done a follow up. However, while checking out ESPN.com's Page2 I came across an article by Bomani Jones which does a better job than I could ever do to explain why it is Vince Young who should be exalted at the Sportsman of the Year. So, if you are at all interested in reading more about the greatness that is Vince Young just click on the link below.
"Athlete of the year? Vince Young" by Bomani Jones, ESPN.com
~Travis~
"Athlete of the year? Vince Young" by Bomani Jones, ESPN.com
~Travis~
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Lakeland Report
Okay, so this maybe a little late, but at least I'm getting to it. Lakeland is the Tiger's other "A" affiliate. Lakeland is the stop often made between West Michigan and Erie. I'll start with the pitchers and work my way on through the position players.
Anthony Tomey (RP): Tomey appeared in 23 games for Lakeland in 2006. He allowed only 17 hits in 32.1 innings, a remarkable ratio. Batters hit only .155 against him and he averaged better than a strikeout per inning. Should pitch in Erie next year. The righty is 25 years old.
Jeffery Larish (1B): Larish bats from the left side and showed some pretty serious power for Lakeland last season. Despite hitting only .258 he did hit 18 HRs and drew 81 walks. The fact that he showed such plate discipline in the minors is telling. 24 years old.
Clete Thomas (OF): Thomas' main weapon is his speed, swiping 34 bases last year in Lakeland. He hit only .257 for Lakeland after hitting .284 for West Michigan in 2005. He strikes out far too often, hopefully he'll turn out better than Nook Logan and Milt Cuyler.
*Interesting note. When I was young I loved the fast players, Harold Reynolds, Rickey Henderson, etc. When Milt Cuyler made his debut with the Tiger's I was so excited that we may finally have a fast player. Cuyler stole 41 bases in 1991 good for fifth in the league behind Luis Polonia, and finished his career with only 77. Needless to say I was disappointed).
Okay, so that was brief, a lot of low batting averages down there in Lakeland. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that if you succeed in West Michigan you jump right to Erie and skip the stop in Lakeland. Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of talent there. I'll get to Erie ASAP and then on to Toledo as I wrap up my look at the Tiger's minor league clubs.
Anthony Tomey (RP): Tomey appeared in 23 games for Lakeland in 2006. He allowed only 17 hits in 32.1 innings, a remarkable ratio. Batters hit only .155 against him and he averaged better than a strikeout per inning. Should pitch in Erie next year. The righty is 25 years old.
Jeffery Larish (1B): Larish bats from the left side and showed some pretty serious power for Lakeland last season. Despite hitting only .258 he did hit 18 HRs and drew 81 walks. The fact that he showed such plate discipline in the minors is telling. 24 years old.
Clete Thomas (OF): Thomas' main weapon is his speed, swiping 34 bases last year in Lakeland. He hit only .257 for Lakeland after hitting .284 for West Michigan in 2005. He strikes out far too often, hopefully he'll turn out better than Nook Logan and Milt Cuyler.
*Interesting note. When I was young I loved the fast players, Harold Reynolds, Rickey Henderson, etc. When Milt Cuyler made his debut with the Tiger's I was so excited that we may finally have a fast player. Cuyler stole 41 bases in 1991 good for fifth in the league behind Luis Polonia, and finished his career with only 77. Needless to say I was disappointed).
Okay, so that was brief, a lot of low batting averages down there in Lakeland. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that if you succeed in West Michigan you jump right to Erie and skip the stop in Lakeland. Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of talent there. I'll get to Erie ASAP and then on to Toledo as I wrap up my look at the Tiger's minor league clubs.
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